Diary of a Network Geek

The creatures are the best part.

Okay, maybe you disagree there, but one of the things I’ve always loved best about any science-fiction is the creatures. That’s true whether it’s the sandworms of Frank Herbert’s Dune novels, the low-rent costumed animals in the original Star Trek TV series, or the vast array of alien creatures in the Star Wars films. Now, I’m not a huge fan of all of the CGI revisions that Geore Lucas made to the original trilogy (ie Han shot first! And the original Death Star explosion was fine, thanks.), but I absolutely love the combination of practical effects and computer graphics that made all the creatures on all the planets come to life. Whether it was bantha or the rancor, the original trilogy had great and setting appropriate animals that made the Star Wars universe seem a little more real. And, whatever your feeling about Episodes I, II, and III, Industrial Light and Magic really earned their name with the beasties on Naboo, not to mention the other creatures that show up in the least likely places.
So, when I saw this video from the Star Wars Kids channel titled Every Creature in the Star Wars Movies, I had to share it with you. It’s literally less than five minutes and still manages to cover all 90 named alien animals in all the movies so far. Definitely worth a quick look on a Friday when you’re trying to avoid a bit of work.
Enjoy!

This post originally appeared on Use Your Words!

The new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, opens today, and, in honor of that, I thought I’d share some Star Wars related links.

The first, which I hope is fun for everyone with a website, and who remembers the original Star Wars, Episode IV, A New Hope, is the Star Wars Crawl Creator. Do you remember the giant, yellow text “crawling” through space at the start of that movie?  Well, it was the first time we’d seen anything quite like…
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It’s been said that every writer creates the world in their fiction, even if it’s not science-fiction, for their characters to explore.
Photographers can do the same thing.

I’ve always been a fan of science-fiction and fantasy in all its forms.  I remember as a kid seeing Star Wars in the movie theater and being completely captivated.  And, of course, like most geeks of my generation, I played Dungeons and Dragons and other table-top role-playing games.  Games that were born from the…
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If  you read my blog, you love Star Wars.

Well, if you don’t *love * it, you at least know it and appreciate it on its technical merits.
But, you should love it.
And, it’s Friday, so you know I’m going to link to something pretty cool, right?
So, yeah, go look at these insanely detailed Star Wars dioramas at Kotaku.

No, seriously, it’s been a long week and that’s all I’ve got.
Also?  It’s Friday and you have nothing better to do anyway, so go look.
Seriously.

I love science-fiction and I love travel!

Okay, not really.  I actually kind of hate traveling now, thanks to Bin Laden and the TSA, but it would be the only way to see the locations of famous sci-fi films.  I tend to forget that Tatooine was filmed on location.  No, seriously!  All the Tatooine shots were filmed in Tunisia!  For real!
And you can check out a slideshow of a lucky thirteen well-known science fiction movie locations over at Salon.  They’ve got everything from [amazon_link id=”B001G7PX80″ target=”_blank” ]Planet of the Apes[/amazon_link] to [amazon_link id=”B000K15VSA” target=”_blank” ]Blade Runner[/amazon_link] to, yes, [amazon_link id=”B001EN71DG” target=”_blank” ]Star Wars[/amazon_link].

Oh, go ahead and look at the slideshow!  It’s Friday, what else were you doing?