Star Wars, NaNo and The Middle

Last week, I did something that I've been putting off. I finally showed Emily Star Wars.

I had been putting it off because Star Wars was my first real fandom. I was born in 1977 and my dad loved Star Wars. I grew up playing with Star Wars toys and one of my early memories is going to see Return of the Jedi in the theater. I wanted Emily to love it, or at least like it, so I kept putting it off and putting it off.

She really enjoyed it. We've only gotten through A New Hope but hopefully this weekend we will watch Empire and Jedi as well. Her favorite character is R2-D2 and she actually quote Star Wars to me out of the blue yesterday making my geek heart soar.

I do have a confession to make though. As a kid, I never really liked Empire Strikes Back too much. The majority of the movie is either Luke and Yoda training or everyone else running and hiding. To kid Mandy, all of this was boring. The best parts of the movie to kid Mandy were Hoth and Cloud City. I still loved Empire, but I loved A New Hope and Jedi more.

As an adult, I can see why Empire is so great. But childhood preferences still linger. As I was thinking about this, I came to a realization. Middles are hard and I'm not super fond of them.

I'm taking part in National Novel Writing Month for the 8th or 9th year. NaNo is where you try to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. I'm writing the middle book of my trilogy and the words have not been flowing. I came to the realization that the words might not be flowing because it's the middle!

I'm sure all the words will come out and I will continue to watch Empire Strikes Back. But it is funny how childhood preferences can hold over to adulthood.

Classic Geeky Movies

I tweeted the above tweet last night. I was kind of joking about Ghostbusters being a classic when I first tweeted, but the more I thought about it, it really is.

I'm 37 years old and my youth is behind me. I don't feel that much different than I did when I was in my twenties, so it's hard to believe that it's nearly been 20 years since I graduated from high school. I'm firmly in my middle aged years and I want to share my favorite things from my younger days with Emily.

Emily is five now so she's old enough to see some of the classics. We've already watched The Dark Crystal, and she really liked it. Her favorite parts were the ones with Fizzgig. She's not scared by much so it didn't scare her at all.

Today we will watch Ghostbusters, which is one of my all-time favorite movies. Other classics on the list are Star Wars, Labyrinth, Goonies, and The Last Starfighter. All geek staples from the 70's and the 80's.

I hope that she'll like the movies that I love. I've been holding back from showing her Star Wars because I may feel a bit crushed if she doesn't like it. Plus I can't find my DVD of A New Hope. But since it's suppose to be stormy this week, it's a good time to start watching some classics.