‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – OVERVIEW

It’s Sunday and it’s the end of the week and Heather and I had decided last night that it was probably best if the kids slept in this morning.  I feel this way because I truly believe that they needed the sleep after being as upset as they have been this week.  Heather and I got up early and were at Wal Mart by eight o’clock this morning so we could beat the crowd.  We shopped around for all the things on my list.  We got everything from power strips to brown paint for the costume.  It took us about an hour to get it all together and then left Wal Mart and tried to stop at Radio Shack for something on the way home.  But, Radio Shack did not have what I was looking for.  So, Heather is going to go to another Radio Shack tomorrow to try and get the part for me.  But, I did manage to find a battery tester there, which I needed.

We then finished up our shopping and came home.  We decided to take a nap because we were really still tired.  The kids slowly had woken up while we were gone.  They watched some TV and then Heather and I woke up from our naps and ate some lunch and then went on with our days.  I went back downstairs and continued to work on my “Makili” costume and again that took most of my afternoon and into the evenings.  I also worked on downloading some things I wanted to put together and started working on compilation CDs for the car ride to Atlanta, Georgia.  It was a busy day even though it didn’t seem like it.  While I did all of this, I also watched the movie “Max Payne” and then watched a whole mess-load of episodes of “Star Trek:  The Next Generation”.  I joined the family for dinner and went back to work on the costumes and getting ready for Dragon Con.

At night, I watched my usual TV shows as I continued to work on the costumes which included watching “Big Brother”, “Family Guy”, “American Dad”, and the show “Hung” on HBO.

Okay, so let’s do an overview of the book “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes…..

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 82

BEFORE I BEGIN.  WE WILL BE FINISHING UP THIS STAR WARS BOOK TOMORROW.  AFTER THAT WE WILL REVIEW “THE HIVE” BY STEVEN BARNES (THE E-NOVELLA THAT WAS ASSOCIATED WITH THE NOVEL).  AFTER THAT, WE WILL CONTINUE ON IN THE TIME LINE TO “MEDSTAR I:  THE BATTLE SURGEONS, A CLONE WARS NOVEL” BY MICHAEL REAVES AND STEVE PERRY

Well, it’s Saturday and it was a day that Heather insisted that we stay home.  I wanted to go to Wal Mart today, but Heather did not.  We slept in a little bit this morning and got up and watched some TV together.  After eating some breakfast, I started to work on my “Makili” costume for Dragon Con.  I decided that I better get that costume done this weekend if I want to have it ready in time for the con.  So, most of my day was spent working on that costume and refining the concept of the costume.  I went downstairs around eleven o’clock and started to pull out everything I had for the costume and started to work on concepts of things that I needed to do.  I pulled apart the arm bands and put together a new concept for them (which included using some elastic to make it easier).  It got to lunch time and I took a break.

I went upstairs and ate some lunch with the family and went back downstairs and continued to work on the costume, which I did for the rest of the day and managed to watch “Star Trek:  The Next Generation” while I did it.  I even managed to start getting into Season 3 by the end of the day.  I created quite the mess in the basement and I’m not even relatively done with all the things I need to do.  But I did get to a point where I couldn’t go any further without some trips to Wal Mart.  I talked to Heather again, and she agreed to go to Wal Mart first thing tomorrow morning, so we could hit them while they weren’t busy.  I made a list to shop with while we watched “Kung Fu Panda” (which I’ve been dying to watch all the way through!) and then went to bed.

Okay, so let’s talk about Chapter 82 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes…..

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 81 (Part 3)

Friday.  This is the end of one of the longest weeks of my life.  I can’t believe how long this week has seemed.  I will admit that Wednesday seemed like four days.  Today I woke up to a house that was a little livelier than it was yesterday.  Austin actually beat me getting up and I got all the kids up early because I called my school and found out that I can get into my room today. Heather had to go to work, so I was going to take the kids to my school and get my classroom ready for the school year because I wasn’t sure when I would be able to do that again or would have enough time to set everything up.  So, the kids got up and got dressed.  We all ate some breakfast and they picked out some movies to take with them to watch while we worked on the room for school.  We went over to Wendy’s and picked up a paycheck and then headed to East Middle School.

We got to my school and finished moving out the last of the equipment into my room and I started organizing and setting things up in my room.  I worked hard and a good thing is that the kids worked hard too which really helped me out.  I was impressed with what they helped me get accomplished and I’m proud to say that other than a few posters that can go up on the day before school, my room is ready to go.  That put my mind at ease a LOT before having to go on this vacation to Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia.  While we were working, I ran into a fellow teacher and was able to talk to her about our summer and it was nice to see a friend again before the year started.  We got done and Heather stopped by with some cash for me to take the kids out to lunch.  So, we went over to Taco Bell and I treated the kids to lunch.  We then decided to go cash my paycheck after lunch and we went to M&T on Front Street and cashed my check.  While we were there, Heather was practicing driving bus in the plaza, so we stopped and waved at her as she was driving.  I have to say, it’s weird to see Heather driving a bus.  We finished there and went home and waited for Heather.

Once Heather came home, we went shopping for school supplies.  We  went to Staples and had coupons and all sorts of things that we could use to save some money.  Even with all of that, we ended up spending around $100 on school supplies for the school year (including getting things for my classroom).  We finished shopping at Staples and went home and had some dinner.  It was raining (again!) and we were unable to take down the tent, so we ate dinner and the kids watched some TV on the Disney Channel and Heather and I watched an episode of “Star Trek:  The Next Generation” (I’m almost done with Season 2 already) and then watched a movie on HBO.  At about nine o’clock, we left the house and went to get some free Frosty’s from Wendy’s and brought them home for a treat for the family.  We finished the movie and then went to bed.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 3 of Chapter 81 of “Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes……

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 81 (Part 2)

Well, it’s Thursday and after the events of yesterday, this house is still reeling from the emotions and the sadness of having to put down their best friend.  Even this morning, I still think that the kids are sad and are not feeling completely up to themselves.  Heck, who am I kidding?  I’m not up to being 100% myself.  I got up this morning to an eerily quiet house.  I’ve never had the house this quiet.  Even Austin was not up yet, which was unlike Austin to not be up around six o’clock this morning.  I know for a fact that last night, many of the kids cried themselves to sleep.  It hurts me as a father to see the hurt in their eyes and in their hearts.  All I can do right now is be there for them and to pray that God will help them heal after all of this.  I got myself ready for the day and took my shower and had breakfast in complete silence.  I haven’t done that in years!  Just before I left for my workshop, I woke Ruth up so someone was up before I left.

I got to school for my workshop and found out that the Internet was STILL not up. Which was okay because our workshop today was about a program that didn’t require Internet.  I learned about a program that allows us to use “clickers” in the classroom to get feedback from students.  I talked to the custodial staff today and found out that I would not have access to my room today because they were going to be waxing the floors outside my room.  I was told that tomorrow I may be able to access my room.  So, after the workshop, I went home.

I got home and the house was still in a sullen mood.  I tried to cheer them up, but it wasn’t working, so I let the kids be.  I went downstairs and watched some “Star Trek:  The Next Generation” until Heather came home.  We all took a nap this afternoon and then got up and made dinner.  We ate dinner together and then sat around and talked for a little bit.  I then went downstairs and played some “Call of Duty 4″ on the PS3 and then switched to watching “Big Brother” followed by “The Colony” and then went to bed.  It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is Friday already!

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 2 of Chapter 81 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes……

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 81 (Part 1)

Well, it’s Tuesday and my summer job is officially over.  You would think that means that I get to relax for a while and hopefully get back to a “normal” life.  Well, as normal as my life can be.  In reality, my life is not as normal as everyone makes it out to be!  No, not me, I had to get up earlier than I have been all summer long today.  For good reasons, however.  I got up at around seven o’clock this morning, but in reality, I didn’t sleep well last night at all.  Clifford (the family dog) did not sleep well again last night.  He’s constantly busy and constantly whining and slinking around the house.  I’m really starting to feel sad for the dog.  I’m geting the impression that he’s in a lot of pain and Clifford normally doesn’t complain about ANYTHING, so for him to be whining and in pain, it has to be pretty bad.  Anyway, I got up (as awake as I could be) and got myself going for the day.  I had a workshop at nine o’clock this morning about hosting a school website.  So, I ate some breakfast and got in the car and headed to my workshop.

I got to school a little early and checked out my classroom.  It’s still in one piece (which is a nice change of pace).  I did a few things there and then went back to the computer room for the workshop.  It was an interesting workshop, although it was tough because we had no Internet access at the school, so some of the things we wanted to be able to do we could not.  We were able to work out some basic concepts and some people weren’t able to work on their pages at all.  I felt bad for them because they learned a skill they were unable to utilize.

I got done with my workshop and decided that now was as good of a time as any to start working on my classroom.  So, I started tearing things out of the storage closet on stage and got to taking things into my classroom and setting things up.  The good news is that my room looks extremely clean and I had some ideas on how to change the set up and try to garner more space out of my classroom.  I worked on my room until about two o’clock and then Heather joined me for about an hour and a half with the kids and we finished working on my room.  I got to a point where I could stop, so we left the school around three-thirty and came home.

I got home and went downstairs and played “Call of Duty 4″ on the PS3 while Heather started to cook dinner.  I played for about an hour and a half before Heather called me upstairs to have dinner with the family.  We all sat down and ate dinner together before I went back downstairs and played a little more of my game.  While I was playing, I noted that the dog was moving all over the house again and barking and whining a lot again.  I know it was going to be a long night.  At eight o’clock, I then switched over and watched “Big Brother”, “Dog:  The Bounty Hunter” and then decided to try and go to bed early.  I walked the dog tonight and he can barely move his back legs and I had to cut our encounter short when he decided to start barking outside.  I have a feeling it’s going to be a LONG night!

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 1 of Chapter 81 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes……

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 80 (Part 2)

Well, it’s Monday and I’m back from a much needed vacation!   The break could have been longer, but it wasn’t bad overall.  I took a weekend this weekend and joined some family in fishing/camping/swimming at Gilbert Lake, NY.  It’s a nice park and I have to say that we had fun camping over the weekend.  I had the joy of fishing with my kids and my son caught his first fish.  Too bad it was only about an eight inch Rainbow Trout and it wasn’t big enough for the NYS Wildlife and Game to let him keep.   Heck, it wouldn’t have even made a fish stick.  But, he caught a fish!   That’s better than me!  I’ve been fishing for years and never caught a thing!  It wasn’t a great weekend, but it wasn’t a horrible weekend either.  It did rain quite a bit on our second night there and we did strike our tent with we clothes and wet equipment.  We still have it all packed up because even today at home, it’s still raining!  I really wish I could see some sunshine here in New York State!  But then again, I do live in the gloomiest city in New York.

So, with my weekend gone, let’s talk about my Monday.  I got up fairly late today because of our dog, Clifford.  Heather and I have been talking for a while now about our dog.  He’s not doing good and his condition is getting worse as the days go on.  He’s so bad now, he can barely walk, barks constantly and seems to be up all hours of the night now.   Heather and I talked and I think we’re going to have to put the dog down sometime in September.  Anyway, he decided to get up at four-thirty this morning and continually bark.  So, I got up and took him to the living room and slept with him for a while.  I noted he had some flea problems, but nothing to cause him to act the way he was.  I slept with him for a little bit until he went to sleep and then put him on Tara’s bed and went back to sleep.

I woke up around quarter after nine and watched a little bit of “Dr. Phil” while sleeping in and out because I was so tired from last night.  Of course, it doesn’t help that I didn’t sleep much over the weekend because there was a guy near the camp that snored LOUD!  So, I was exhausted still.  I really got up around ten o’clock or so and watched “Frasier” while I took my shower.  That’s when I realized that our cable and out Internet was out.  I tried calling Heather, but she was out training on her bus driving skills, so she was busy and could not answer the phone.  I ate some breakfast/lunch as I watched another episode of “Star Trek:  The Next Generation” and then Heather showed up at home.  She decided to head out to Time Warner to find out what was going on.

I went to work at Wendy’s.  Today was my last day.  I walked in and everyone was excited to see me and they had cookies for the whole crew for my last day.  My last day at Wendy’s went off with a bang!  The lunch rush was unbelievable and it was non-stop go from the minute I walked in the door.  To make our day even more interesting, there were three buses that pulled in around two o’clock and even the end of my shift was insanely busy.  Then we had a bus driver that had enough balls to open up the side door to the kitchen area and to tell Corey (my boss) and myself to hurry up because they had a schedule to keep.  Corey and I both thought it was extremely rude!  I was on the go till the minute I finished my day, but it made my shift go by fast.  I actually ended up working fifteen minutes later than I was scheduled.

I got done with Wendy’s and came home.  Heather and I talked about our days.  She took a nap because of being kept up by the dog.  She also told me the kids gave the dog a bath and she started to take the pool apart.  They didn’t put the tents up today because it was still raining today and would just draw more moisture into the tents.  We’ll have to do that tomorrow.  I then changed out of my work clothes and watched some T.V. while Heather finished making a dinner of burgers and homemade rolls.  I then went downstairs and played “Call of Duty 4″ for about an hour and then watched “Family Guy”, “Two and a Half Men”, “How I Met Your Mother”, and “Big Bang Theory” until I went to my DVDs and watched the next episode of “Star Trek:  The Next Generation” and then the “Bill Engvall” show before going to bed.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 2 of Chapter 80 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes……

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 80 (Part 1)

Well, it’s Thursday and it was a day off from my summer job.  I hate to say it, but it was a day where I didn’t even know what to do with myself.  I was slow to wake up, but I still got up at my usual time at nine o’clock.  I watched “Dr. Phil” and ate a little bit of breakfast while watching the show.  I then got into watching “Frasier” while waiting for my wife to finish with her job for the day.  She got done early and came home and was home by eleven o’clock.  We then watched the movie “The Express:  The Ernie Davis Story” on HBO.   I have to say that this movie was pretty cool!  It gave me a bunch of hometown pride considering that Ernie Davis was from Elmira (less than an hour away) and then went to Syracuse University (an hour away) and was the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy.  I think the only thing that could have made this movie any better is if they did a movie on Jim Brown first and then did a movie on Ernie Davis.

Heather and I ate lunch while we watched the movie and after the movie, I headed outside and mowed the lawn for a while (we have a pretty big yard).  I took a break for about a half hour around two o’clock and played a little bit of “Call of Duty 4″ on my PS3 online.  I then went back to mowing the lawn, until I was interupted by a phone call from my department chair at school.  They were looking for a volunteer for a position at school that has a stipend involved and puts me in a position to be instructing/guiding other teachers.  I agreed to the position and will be getting training on in in a few weeks.  I then finished the lawn and came inside and played a little more “Call of Duty 4″ and then helped Heather put together her dinner of french toast and hash browns.  We sat down and ate dinner.  After dinner, I went downstairs and watched “The Simpsons”, “Family Guy”, and an episode of “Star Trek:  The Next Generation” while working on the next two episodes of “Galaxy Cast”.

At eight o’clock, Heather joined me and we watched “Big Brother” and started “Marley and Me” but stopped the movie because I got bored with the first half hour of the movie.  I just can’t seem to watch that movie all the way through.  It starts off WAY too slow even though all my friends insist that I need to see the movie.  We watched a little TV and then went to bed.

NOTE:  I WILL BE ON VACATION FROM FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY.  I WILL CONTINUE THIS BLOG ON MONDAY AS I WILL BE AWAY FROM ANY FORM OF TECHNOLOGY/COMMUNICATION UNTIL THEN.  THANKS FOR READING!

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 1 of Chapter 80 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes……

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 79

Wednesday and this was one more day ticking closer to the end of my summer vacation.  I had to get to work by eleven-thirty, so I had to get up and get going this morning.  So, I got up around nine o’clock and watched “Dr. Phil” while I started to get ready for work.  I then watched “Frasier” while I age my breakfast/lunch and a little bit of “Gillmore Girls” before heading off for work.  I left the house about five minutes before Heather entered the house.

I got to work and was on carry-out sandwiches again today.  That was cool with me.  I ran that position for the entire day and was able to run around and help where I could.  I did everything from coordinating to doing the dining room, to cleaning trays, to running fryers, to doing the PC position.  It kept me busy, but at least it wasn’t as hot in the store today as it was yesterday.  I got done with my job at Wendy’s and drove home.

Not much happened at the house while I was gone.  I got in the door and we talked for a little bit and then Heather made some dinner for the family.  We had a nice dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches, chips, and deviled eggs.  We got done with dinner and I came downstairs and worked on my blog while watching some TV.  Heather left with Tara for soccer practice while I took a half hour and played “Call of Duty 4″ on my PS3.  I then watched some more TV and blogged a little more when she came home.  We met up with the person that is going to take care of our dog while we’re gone this weekend and then we watched our usual shows tonight.  We watched “Dog:  The Bounty Hunter” (two episodes) and then “Mama Mia” (not by choice, it was my only way to keep my wife in the room).  After that, we went to bed.

Okay, so let’s talk about Chapter 79 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes…..

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 78 (Part 4)

Tuesday.  It’s time to get back into my routine.  Well, my summer routine, but it’s not quite time for the usual school year routine, but that will be starting soon!  This is my LAST full week at Wendy’s.  Next week, I’m only available Monday.  And that’s so I can focus on some workshops as well as getting my classroom ready for the school year.  I hope that I’m able to get into my room sometime next week so that that the week after I can focus on Dragon Con on the week after.  I got up this morning just in time to get ready for work.  I watched “Dr. Phil” for an hour and then started getting ready for work while watching “Frasier” and watched the beginning of the second season of “Star Trek:  The Next Generation” while I ate some breakfast/lunch.  I was then off to work at Wendy’s.

I got to work and was delightfully surprised that I was on carry-out sandwiches.  I like being over there because I can slide all over the place and help wherever I need to.  I am able to get shakes and all sorts of cool things.  I was happy to be on that station, but by heavens it was HOT in the store today!  It got all the way up to eighty-eight degrees in the back room.  I swear I lost my weight in sweat at work!  I even was put to the task of teaching someone else how to filter fryers among many other tasks that needed to get taken care of.  It wasn’t a bad day at work and there wasn’t much more to say about that.

I got home and found the kids and Heather in the pool and I was so hot, I decided to join them.  We swam for about an hour in the pool before trying to put dinner together.  Heather had planned on having French Toast for dinner, but the bread wasn’t ready and wouldn’t be for another hour and a half.  So, she decided to go out and get dinner, so she headed to “Taco Bell” for some dinner.  She came home and we sat around and ate.  Just in time for us to watch another episode of “Star Trek:  The Next Generation” on DVD and then straight onto our usual nightly shows including “Hell’s Kitchen”, “Big Brother”, and “The Colony” and then went to bed.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 4 of Chapter 78 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes……

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 78 (Part 3)

Well, it’s Monday and it was NOT a good start to my week this week.  My biggest fear about workshops at my school came true today.  I had a feeling it would happen and it did!  I got up this morning early to get ready for a workshop I was supposed to have on RSS feeds.  I decided that I would get up early and call the school district where the workshop was supposed to take place because according to the program that my school is using, it’s at that particular school district, but it doesn’t say in what building or in what room.  I called the district and found out from the secretary that it is taking place and it’s going on in their technology wing.  So, I took a shower and got ready for my day and even packed up my laptop and headed out to my workshop.

I got the building I was supposed to be at and checked in and then went to the room I was supposed to be at.  I was relieved that one other Binghamton employee was with me so that I was not the only one there.  When I got to the room, there were several adults there, but when I mentioned the workshop, they looked at me with almost crossed eyes and they had no idea what we were talking about.  We showed them our program and what our computer program showed us and they had no idea what was going on.  So, someone made a call over to BOCES to see what was going on and found out it was a workshop that had been cancelled but somehow, wasn’t cancelled through my school district.  But, someone at BOCES was nice enough to offer to teach the class last minute.  I managed to meet someone I knew at BOCES who happened to be at the building, and he was nice enough to lead me and the other teacher from Binghamton over to the BOCES campus.

We got to BOCES and we had a nice workshop about RSS feeds.  I feel like I know more, and I have a tool that I am comfortable with now, Goggle Reader as well as IGoogle which is really cool too.  I didn’t learn how to write feeds (which I was hoping I would learn how to do), but I learned how they work and I think this process is cool.  Now with the RSS feeds, I feel that I have saved myself some serious time in trying to get some information out of the Internet.  Now I won’t have to go out there and find the information as much.  Instead, the information will come to me.  This will save me time which is valuable to me!

I got done with the workshop and tried to call Heather on my way home, but my cell service was disconnected.  So, I got home and we talked about the cell service and Heather called AT&T and found out that they had not pulled the money like they are supposed to.  So, she called the company and we fixed the problem and got our phones working again.  I then decided that I was going to deal with a problem we’ve been having with the car.  A while back, the “Check Engine” light came on in my Mazda.  I’m not sure what the deal was, so I decided to take my car over to “Advanced Auto” to see what the deal was with the car.  We found out that the #1 piston had a misfire.  Well, I just recently replaced the spark plugs, so I drove the car home and looked at the spark plugs and sure enough, the #1 spark plug was loose.  So, I tightened it down and then did a trick a friend told me about.  To reset the computer, you simply disconnect your positive cable to the battery and wait fifteen minutes and then re-attach and BLAM – you’re computer on your car is reset.

I got done with all of that and it was now almost dinner time.  So, I went downstairs and played a little “Call of Duty 4″ on my PS3 and then joined the family for dinner.  We had a nice dinner and watched an episode of “Star Trek:  The Next Generation” while we ate dinner.  After dinner I went downstairs and edited out the next episode of “The Clone Wars In A Galactic Minute” and then watched my usual Monday night shows like “How I Met Your Mother”, “Two and a Half Men”, “Big Bang Theory”, and then I watched another episode of “Star Trek:  The Next Generation” before going to bed.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 3 of Chapter 78 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes……