• Too many alarms can be as bad as none, if people learn to ignore them. Aesop knew it, but modern society keeps forgetting. (NY Times via @NNgroup)
• Then and now: Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov blends World War II photos with images of the same locations today. I’m a member of a Flickr group that does this with more general timeframes, Looking Into the Past, though I’ve only contributed one myself. It blends the 1997 and 2007 views of the UCI Student Center.
• The Internet Storm Center offers tips on protecting computers from lightning.
• CNN asks: Why are food allergies on the rise? Short answer: we still don’t know. (To preserve your sanity, don’t read the comments.)

And not so serious:

• Fantastic image: Firefly crew as the Enterprise crew. Classic Star Trek, of course. One thing that really struck me was the reminder that there’s really only one woman among the regular classic Trek cast: Uhura. Nurse Chapel and Yeoman Rand are there, but neither of them would really have had the kind of focus that Kaylee, Zoe, Inara and River have here.
• Incredible custom action figure maker Sillof collaborated with Glorbes on a Star Wars in World War II series.
• The webcomic SMBC presents: The Logogeneplex! I’m pretty sure I’ve read stuff that this was used on. (Warning: archives are NSFW.)

Stormtrooper Elvis has become such a fixture that I almost didn’t bother taking a picture of him when I saw him this year… but then I noticed his pose, and the Sauron statue in the background.

There were a number of people walking around with “Free Hugs” signs, most of them women, but a few men. I never actually saw someone take one of them up on the offer, though.

On the subject of “Free” signs, I found it amusing that the Bantam Dell booth was trying to attract people with a hand-lettered cardboard sign proclaiming, “FREE!”

At one point I looked upward at the ceiling of Ballroom 20. With The Dark is Rising being made into a movie, I saw this lighting fixture and cross-beams and immediately thought of the Sign of Fire.

This guy had the ultimate cheap costume: A roll of tape. He just took every freebie flyer that was handed to him, and taped it to himself.

There’s apparently a band called CKY. Some of their merchandise manages to work the name into a rather rude saying…

There was a group of women in identical red dresses, with identical hairdos, and identical shoes. I saw a few of them wandering the floor on Saturday, but didn’t realize just how many there were until we left the convention center for dinner, and saw them crossing the street.

Edit: Mystery solved? The Resident Evil panel featured 17 Milla Jovovich doubles wearing her iconic red dress. This looks like more than 17, and the dresses don’t seem to be ripped in the right place, but this could be them.

Continued in Strange Sights of San Diego.

Now, keep in mind that I grew up with Star Wars. It was the key fandom of my childhood. I don’t remember discovering Star Wars because I did so before I could really form long-term memories. I started reading the novels when Heir to the Empire came out, and the Dark Empire and Tales of the Jedi comics. I was thrilled to see the special editions in theaters after nearly 15 years, even though some of the changes, like Greedo firing first and the way that you restored the Jabba scene,* didn’t make sense.

And while I’ve lost some interest over time—the novels and comics have gotten so complex that I wouldn’t have time to keep up with them if I wanted to, and the prequels were less engaging than the original series—I stayed on board for the entire prequel trilogy. Grumbling at times, but enjoying them nonetheless.

When you announced that only the special editions would be available on videotape, I was disappointed, because I liked both versions. When you announced that the films would be changed again for the DVDs, I was disappointed for the same reason. But I bought the DVDs, and (mostly) enjoyed them.

So when you announced that the original versions of the original trilogy would be available on DVD, I was thrilled! At last, I could have a companion set! But I found out it would be an “extra” with the super-special DVD version. And it became clear that you weren’t putting much effort into it, basically transferring them from the laser disc copies… scratches, fuzziness, bad compositions and all.

You probably remember that some of your changes to the Special Edition were substantive—replacing model-based FX shots with CGI, increasing the size and bustle of Mos Eisley—and some were clean-up—removing garbage mattes, re-compositing sequences like the battle on Hoth or the Rancor pit. No one has a problem with the clean-up work (except for historical purposes). What people want back is the original substance of the film. It couldn’t hurt to put a little effort into making sure it looks good.

Let’s get one thing straight, George: I already own a copy of the DVD Edition. I don’t need another one.** Not even to get the original cuts, and especially not for something that’s just kind of thrown on there. If you’d offered them separately, I would have already bought them by now. As it is, I’m passing this round.

*The Jabba scene, as restored, suffered from two problems: 1. much of the dialogue duplicated the Greedo confrontation. I assume this is because when you originally dropped the scene for SFX reasons, you shifted the exposition over to a scene you could use. For the special edition, you could have rewritten either Jabba or Greedo to make the scenes less redundant. Only Han’s lines were written in stone, and as you well know, even those could have been edited or rearranged. 2. The tail step. As funny as it was, in the context of Jabba’s portrayal in Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace it doesn’t make sense that Han would have walked out of there alive.

**If anyone at New Line Cinema is listening, this goes for Lord of the Rings, too. I already own copies of both the theatrical and extended editions of each movie. I don’t need to buy another box with the same content until my DVDs become obsolete.

Unfortunately this isn’t particularly near the Hobbit Center in Laguna Beach. It is, however, in Lake Forest, the city known for its Middle-Earth street names.

The pairing with the Plaza Suites sign does make me wonder, though: the last time I checked, accommodations on Dagobah weren’t particularly extravagant!

OK, it may have deflated a bit, but 7-8 months is a bit long to keep an inflatable Darth Vader on your roof.

(10 points to the first person who identifies the reference in the title.)

Though Katie pointed out, it also looks rather like the Omni-Droid.

The Sith are a chaotic organization. They thrive on emotional chaos, they spread chaos to meet their ends… but when they get in charge, they impose order on everyone else.

The Jedi are extremely ordered. They try to purge emotions, they deny attachments. They’re hidebound by tradition. The organization is very structured. And yet they fight not to impose order but to protect it. The Jedi actually strive to preserve the balance of law and chaos.

I’m actually reminded a bit of Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion series, in which the cosmic balance between order and chaos is treated as its own faction. The Eternal Champion, in his various incarnations, always fights for the Balance, bringing order to Chaos worlds and chaos to Order worlds.

So the Sith are chaotic, but impose order, while the Jedi are ordered, but fight for balance. The problem, of course, is that the Jedi are not balanced themselves. Anakin does three things to correct this:

1. He destroys the old Jedi order
2. He destroys the Sith (two decades later)
3. Destroying the Jedi ensures that Luke and Leia, heirs to the Force, will grow up as people first, Jedi later.

Luke and Leia have the opportunity to re-create the Jedi without all the baggage that dragged the old Jedi order down… and they can rebuild it with Jedi who are actually in balance themselves.

And now, Decisions that could have changed everything.

1. Obi-Wan: Certainly, I’ll take down General Grievous. But since he wiped the floor with me last time, I’d like some backup. Anakin, would you care to join me?
2. Mace Windu: Palpatine is the Sith Lord? Great work, Anakin! I’m going to recommend you for full Jedi Masterhood next week for this! Hey, you’ve been working hard, why don’t you go celebrate and unwind. Here, I’ve got a pair of tickets to the Outer Rim… (I can’t take credit for this one.)
3. Anakin: (after delivering the report on Grievous’ location to the Jedi Council) *keeps his mouth shut*
4. Anakin: In my vision, Obi-Wan was trying to help you. You’re right, we should ask him for help.
5. Obi-Wan: You know, Anakin has been spending a whole lot of time with Senator Amidala. And everyone’s wondering who the father of her child is. I wonder if she’s told him, I mean we were on Coruscant around the time that… oh, blast!
6. Ki-Adi-Mundi: Relax, Skywalker, I was on the Council before they made me a master, too. Oh, wait, they wrote that out? Never mind.

Finally, some thoughts on viewing order. For a new viewer, I think watching the original trilogy first, then the prequel trilogy, probably works best dramatically. There’s so much in the prequels that has impact simply because you recognize elements from the original.

The lightsaber duel with Dooku at the beginning of Episode III is a perfect example. If you haven’t seen Return of the Jedi, you just think it’s odd that Palpatine is so calm, and sure you get the WTF moment when he gives Anakin the “kill him” order. But if you have seen it, you recognize the set’s resemblance to the Emperor’s throne room where he has Luke battle Vader, and here he is doing exactly the same thing to Anakin that he tries with Luke, only it isn’t out in the open.

But Slashdot reader DesScorp has another suggestion: 4,1,2,5,3,6. His reasoning is that A New Hope is still the best introduction to the world, and then The Phantom Menace shows what everyone missed about the old days, and, well, Luke’s dad is still a hero, right? You start getting hints in Attack of the Clones, then jump forward to The Empire Strikes Back where you learn that Vader didn’t kill Anakin, he is Anakin. So how did this happen? Watch Revenge of the Sith. How can they get out of this? Return of the Jedi. It preserves most of the spoilers, though it moves which movie Luke and Leia’s relationship is revealed in. (It’s still a surprise.)