I meant to post this about three weeks ago, so here it is at long last, my Coralskipper from the New Jedi Order series (for those of you who I didn't force to look at this at my birthday tea):



First, it doesn't look at all like the "official" version, because I think that one looks like a zombie's bruised nut-sack. Secondly, it's about half the size it should be to be minifig scale, but I always envisioned coralskippers as being smaller than x-wings and swarming all over the place, even though the books say the two fighters are about the same size. Aside from that I've got the volcano-like guns and mica-like canopy. The ship is supposed to be grown out of "yorik coral", so I used red and orange to give it a coral colour. I tried to make it a little organic by mottling the colours and making it slightly asymmetrical. When reading the books I pictured the dovin basal* as being at the front of the ship instead of the back, because it works on attraction instead of propulsion. When I was reading the books I imagined the dovin basal as being shaped like a big blue heart with red veins, but that was too hard to build, so here I've made it into a translucent, vein-coloured mushroom held onto the front of the craft by pincers. Click on the picture for a link to the brickshelf gallery, where I've also got a shot of two Yuzhan Vong warriors and Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin Solo.

*An organism that can manipulate gravity. It moves the ship by latching on to distant gravity wells, and can create miniature black holes to shield the ship.

I should build more robots.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=85282

I laughed untill I had a pain all up and down my left diodes.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=85286

No package today, it's just as well that I worked. My sister says that she didn't borrow my DVD, so I probably misplaced it. Silly me for jumping to conclusions. I wanted to get some more containers for my Lego, but I don't feel like bussing or biking to Scottsdale, and the van is out, so it will have to wait untill tomorrow. So now I'm just munching some nachos.

On a lighter note, I finally finished the New Jedi Order series today. It's kind of funny to think that when I started reading it I was still working at the gas station, trying to save up for my diving course. Not to mention that I read it through my diving job. That's about two years to read all 19 books, although in my own defence I had to wait for most of them to be published. I can read more than ten books a year you know. I find it kind of strange the way that if you watch a lot of TV or play a lot of computer games people might say that you're wasting your life, but if you spend twice as much time reading fiction no one says anything except that you read a lot and that you must be some kind of smart person. On the other hand, reading seems like the answer to having minutes of your life whittled away by waiting for stuff. Like that monologue in Fight Club about layovers subtracting from the amount of time you have left. Books are easy to carry, require no power, and allow you to steal the wasted minutes of your life back. But does the nature of the book matter? Are you succesfully Robin Hooding from bureaucrats, busses and breaks when you read fiction? Can the imaginary improve the value of your lifetime? If so, can't you get the same result from TV and computer games? I guess it depends on the depth to which you absorb and consider the plot, and if it gives you any revelations or insights to the meaning of existance.

And then there's Star Wars. The Unifying Force made several prequel references, which was kind of cool. Kyle Katarn was mentioned about six times, which makes me hope that Jedi Knight 3 will be produced and allow gamers to fight the Yuzhan Vong. There was an Arthurian reference that also left a plot hook for future novels, which was kind of cheesy, much like the last line of the book which made me want to hit my head against something. All told, There seems to be about 3 plot hooks left for more novels, not to mention the crap load of "those guys you thought you defeated are back and are worse than ever in a totally non-epic way that is kind of getting old" novels that Star Wars authors feel compelled to write. I was kind of hoping that this would be a series to end Star Wars, and say that an era of peace would settle in the galaxy and the Solos and Skywalkers lived out the rest of their days in peace. But that would go against capitalism, not to mention piss off the fan boys that can never get enough. I also had several guesses as to "what's the deal with Onimi?", all of which were wrong, but the answer was kind of cool. I was also wondering who, if anyone, else would die, and again I was satisfied with the answer. All in all, I'm glad I read the series, it was neat to see something truly epic happen, rather than "the continuing adventures of". Also, even though I just commented on fan boys who can't get enough, I want to read about the adventures of Ben Skywalker when they come out. Also, I think it would be cool to have a series about the Yuzhan Vong that takes place before they left their home galaxy. I also think that after the series is over makes a good setting for Star Wars D20. Anyways, now all I have to do is check out the CD-ROM that came with The Unifying Force, and then I'll be all done and can take it back to the library tomorrow when I see Jenn.