The Sith Have Been Extinct for a Millenia

"Five thousand years before the birth of Luke Skywalker, young Gav and Jori Daragon
accidentally set in motion one of the most
devastating wars the galaxy has ever known. Fleeing trouble in the Koros system, which has been newly unified by the benevolent Empress Teta, Gav and Jori race into unexplored
hyperspace, hoping to make their fortune—but their path lands them right into the heart of the awesome Sith Empire!"

Star Wars - Tales of the Jedi - The Fall of the Sith Empire was a 5 part comic series published by Dark Horse Comics in 1997. In the following year the series appeared as a collection (pictured above). As stated in the pro-log, the story takes place about 5000 years before the Prequels. Mind you, since Disney bought Star Wars, these stories are no longer considered "canon" to the current Star Wars Universe, and Disney may decide to make stories of the Old Republic.                                   

The siblings Gav and Jori accidently discover the long fabled Sith Empire on Korriban, while mapping new hyperspace routes. The Sith are in an internal power struggle since the death of the Dark Lord Marka Ragnos. As Naga Sadow takes the reigns of power, he leads his armies in an invasion of the Republic worlds to expand the stagnant Sith Empire. His primary goal is the capital of the Republic, Coruscant.

After several battles, the Republic with the Jedi forced Sadow into retreat. Upon his arrival, his depleted forces were attached by his Sith rival, Ludo Kressh, who claimed the title of Dark Lord for himself. During the battle one of Sadow's heavily damaged ships was ordered to crash into Kressh's flagship, killing the newly crowned Sith Lord.

Sadow was not able to enjoy his victory for long. The Koros Imperial fleet, led by the Empress Teta, arrived using the Daragon's hyperspace map faster than Sadow was able to anticipate and forcing him to flee once more.

With the Sith Empire in shambles, Sadow was forced into hiding on the fourth moon of Yavin, where he instructed his minions, the Massassi, to build great temples in the jungles of the moon. Sadow himself was eventually killed by his apprentice, the fallen Jedi, Freedon Nadd. (The Massassi temples on Yavin 4 were the same ones where the Rebels hid from the Death Star at the end of Star Wars).

I've abridged the story quite a bit, but you get the gist of it now. If you ever wondered who the Sith are supposed to be, then this is a must read. (Unless you're like Disney, and just want to erase and rewrite history.)

It's not a bad story, and the artwork is reminiscent of The Savage Sword of Conan from the 1970, albeit in color.  

Have you ever read any of the Star Wars comic books (Marvel or Dark Horse)?

Are you familiar with the Star Wars Legends (Formerly known as The Expanded Universe)? 

Do you have any hopes or expectations from Star Wars, or did Disney's Star Wars failures discourage you from having any for the future of the franchise?

Let me know in the comments below. And as always, I politely request that you hit the recommend button :)

Found (Poem)

Found

In an ocean of gold

With the sun on my face

My arms stretched wide

I’ve finally found the place

 

My eyes are closed

But I see clear in my mind

Hear the voice of my soul

“If you seek, then you shall find”

 

And indeed, it is here

At last within my reach

That which can’t be bought

That what men can’t teach

 

Its power builds us strong

In times when we are weak

When we open up our hearts

And give it voice to speak

 

Search deep within yourself

You’re more than you’ve ever known

Alas, I cannot lead you here

For this is yours to find alone

Tales from the Dorkside Episode VI: "Over the River and Through the Woods"

Some of my fondest childhood memories revolve around my grandparent’s house and the woods behind that house. Built in the mid 50’s, my father and his siblings had grown up in that house and they played in those same woods some 30 years before me. The house itself was a modest, single level ranch with a rather large yard and vegetable garden. I remember that my aunts had horses in the barn and there was a large fenced off pasture.

My brother, my cousins, and I would go there nearly every summer for a couple weeks. We would raid the black raspberry bushes, the sweet peas and cucumbers, but it never seemed to make a dent in the fertile garden. We would also help my grandmother with the weeding and mowing work, which never seemed to have an end. But when we were finished our reward was waiting, a nice slice of Grandma’s black raspberry pie. My mouth waters even now just thinking about that.

There were old logger trails in those woods, which were great for orientation. We always knew how far in we could go and still be back to the house on time for lunch. We would spend the afternoons making bows and arrows, hunting for Indian arrowheads, and building little camouflaged blinds in the brush. The smell of fresh cut sassafras was thick in the air. 

We’d climb the trees and scout forward looking to find a new adventure. Though the woods were thick, we never had much concern about any dangers. We were careful though around rock piles and stacks of tree trunks the loggers left to be picked up later, the rattlesnakes liked to nest in those places. At night we sometimes heard bobcats screaming, but there were no wolves or bear there at the time, but I have heard that there are now.

On one of our grand adventures, my cousin and I discovered an old tree house, it wasn’t really much of a tree house, more of a deer stand. There was a makeshift latter of short planks nailed into the side of a tree. A coupled of the planks were missing so we had to pull ourselves up over the gap. The stand was only about 15 feet from the ground, but at that age I could have sworn it was 50, and I was afraid of heights.

My cousin, who is a couple of years older than me, talked me through it. He started up the latter to show me it was safe, so I reluctantly followed. When I finally reached the floor of the stand where my cousin was waiting, I was relieved and started to feel better about the heights. The deer stand was on the edge of the woods overlooking a large wheat field. From the other side of the tree stand you could see deep into the woods, down to the creek. The stand had apparently been there for a while now, and I was surprised when I found my dad and his cousin’s initials carved in the side of the tree with the year ’64.

After realizing the apparent age of this construct, I got scared and started to complain that I wanted to get out of there. But he tried to assure me, it was stable and safe. To prove his point, he started jumping up and down. Thud, thud, but then it came CRACK! I sprang as fast as I could for the nearest tree and hung on for dear life. My cousin was not so lucky, he and a large portion of the tree stand crashed to the ground. I managed to crane my head around to see where he had landed. He lie there motionless on top of the rubble heap. “Luke? Are you dead??” But he groaned and started moving. “Luke?” I called again. “How the heck am I supposed to get out of this tree?”

Shortly before my grandmother passed, she sold the house to Luke who lives there now with his family. I am glad to see when I drive by the house at the end of the drive way, the mail box still bears our family’s name. I hope that it will continue to do so until Judgement Day and beyond.

I hope you've enjoyed this episode of "Tales from the Dorkside".

Be sure to recommend, if you did.

Thank you

Say my Name. Denny Crane?

Being a fan of both William Shatner and James Spader, I was already sold on the idea of a T.V. show staring both of them. Boston Legal aired in the US in 2004 but it I had to wait for another 2 years for it to show up in Germany, and then it was in German, of course. As I have mentioned before, comedy does not often translate well from English to German. So I was mildly disappointed, until I was able to buy the whole series on DVD. The show had interesting topics and gave me a little insight to what was going on in America politically in the last years of G.W. Bush and the incoming Barack Obama. 

The characters Denny Crane and Alan Shore (portrayed by William Shatner and James Spader, respectively) who, even though they had completely different political ideologies, were the best of friends. Denny was a conservative Republican who supported 2A, while Alan was your typical moderate Democrat. They faced off several times due to their differences, but in the end their friendship was more important. Hard to imagine that happening today, when we seem to be so absolutely polarized.

Over the 5 season that the show ran, some members of the main cast were traded out for new ones including Candice Bergen, Julie Bowen, John Larroquette, and René Auberjonois. And several famous actors had re-occurring guest roles, such as Tom Selleck, Michael J. Fox, Betty White, and Freddie Prinz Jr..  

I always enjoyed the fact that there were several actors besides William Shatner in the series who were also in the Star Trek franchise. Among those were Rene Auberjonois, John Larroquette, Armin Shimerman, Jeri Ryan, Ethan Phillips, Michelle Forbes, Scott Bakula, Lee Duncan, Ellen Bry, David Clennon, Michael Wiseman, Ron Ostrow, Alan Ruck, Derek Magyar, and Lawrence Pressman.

The series touched on several sensitive issues for the time. Some of which when I watch the episodes today, I can see how it has not improved, but in fact has gotten only worse. Though the series now seems too optimistic regarding what an Obama presidency would mean for America. 

Regardless of my own personal political views, I can still watch the show and enjoy a good laugh without getting upset over the views of specific characters which I do not agree with.

What did you think of the series? 

Let me know in the comments below. And as always, please recommend!

Zeus? Thor? or Something More?

https://twitter.com/i/status/1268738637333700608

By now, most of you have probably seen the video in the twitter link below the picture. If not, check it out.  This is the strangest flash of lightning I have ever seen and it leads to a lot of questions. 

My first question is, is this real? The things I've seen in films from Hollywood are so impressive that if I had never heard of CGI, I would think the things I saw on the screen could be real. They have come a long way since stop motion photography.

Assuming this is real, then what? Is this an alien technology? Something which our ancestors may have considered weapons of the gods, like Zeus's lightning bolt, or Thor's hammer Mjölnir? 

Is it man-made? Something like a Tesla Coil, or something else that our science has invented?

What is it's purpose then? Is it a weapon? Is it a new power source? Or maybe a transport beam?

My final question, would echo those of the Anon who ask Q, on June 5th: 

To which Q answered: "Have faith."  

Does this imply divine intervention? I have so many questions, but no answers. "Have faith."

Blind faith? Perhaps we will know one day, or perhaps we shall never know. 

What do you think? Please let me know in the comments below.

And please remember to recommend!

Hulk SMASH!

In 2008, Sega released the game "The Incredible Hulk" for the Playstaion 2. Of course, they released it on other platforms but I won't talk about them, as I have never played those. The game was a tie-in to the Marvel movie of the same name starting Edward Norton. 

As in the movie, Bruce Banner is looking for a cure to his... condition, there are confrontations with General Ross and the Army, with Emil, Blonsky, and at the end a showdown with the Abomination. But the video game throws a few other known opponents from the comics, such as Major Glenn Talbot, the U-Foes, the Enclave, and even Stark's Hulkbuster.

The gameplay is relatively straight forward but it is rather challenging at times, especially the time critical missions. Hulk is very strong, but so are his opponents. But one of Hulks greatest powers (Which the MCU completely ignored) is RAGE - the madder Hulk gets, the stronger he is. There are a lot of unlockable powers and the game features a lot of Easter eggs from other Marvel properties that you can discover. (Ever want to visit the Daily Bugle and show J. Jonah Jameson what a real menace looks like :) )

There are collectable comic book covers hidden in the city (Most of the game takes place in Manhattan), and there are unlockable character skins for Hulk, such as Gray Hulk or Professor Hulk. 

Truth be told, it's not a great game, but for any fan of Hulk it is well worth playing. Even if you just want to "visit a virtual Manhattan, meet new and interesting characters, and SMASH them".

What do you think of  games which tie-in to movies?

Do you have a favorite, like "Lego Star Wars" or "Harry Potter"?

Are you a Hulk fan? Comics? MCU?

Let me know below in the comments.

And as always, please be sure to recommend!

Dork of the Rings, Onion, That Is...

For most of you, if you want onion rings you can buy them at a local diner, in some fast food restaurants, or pre-made from the frozen food section. When I arrived in Germany, I found this was not the case here. I asked some friends for a home made recipe for them, but unfortunately most of my friends weren't into onion rings, or cooking as far as that was concerned. While on vacation, I bought some cook books to find recipes for things that I easily found in America but not so much here. I had to try them out and in the end I ended up throwing one or two together to get this recipe. I hope you like it.

As a side note, this works great with button mushrooms too.

Dork of the Rings, Onion, That Is...

Ingredients:

2-3 Large onions (Cut into 1/3 inch slices and split into rings)

3 cups butter milk

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

2/3 cup water

1 tsp lemon or lime juice

1 tbsp. vegetable oil (You'll need more for frying)

1 egg (beaten)

1. In a shallow bowl soak the onions in the butter milk for 30 minutes

2. In a second bowl mix all other ingredients until smooth.

3. Heat oil at a medium-high heat. You can do this on the stove top in a shallow pan if you want to use less oil, in a deep fryer (though I've never tried this in one of those 'low oil' ones), but the best results come from using an electric skillet because it's easier to keep the temperature consistent.  

4. Remove onions from butter milk and dip in the batter one at a time, placing them in the hot oil and fry until golden brown.

5. Dry oil from onion rings on a paper towel.

 Enjoy them best warm!

Please be sure to let me know how they turn out for you.

And as always, please recommend!