by Kevin J. Anderson

Fall of the Sith Empire is the conclusion to The Golden Age of the Sith (read my review here), and tells the tale of the Great Hyperspace War when the Sith, led by Naga Sadow, launched a 2-prong attack on the Republic. Gav Daragon, now Sadow’s student of Sith arts, commands the flagship on its way to attack the Koros system while another fleet attacks Coruscant.

I would have liked this story better if Gav wasn’t such an idiot. Sadow didn’t need to seduce Gav to the dark side; all he had to do was trick him because Gav was too stupid to figure out what was going on. Even when he realizes he’s been tricked one too many times and is determined not to let it happen again, he falls for yet another trick. He’s as dumb as Billy Budd — more so. Billy Budd, at least, brought destruction only upon himself and Claggert, not the entire galaxy. (Interestingly, Terrence Stamp played Billy Budd in the 1962 movie; he also played Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum in Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace.)

The only cool thing about Fall of the Sith Empire is that the cover of each issue, when placed side by side, form a mural. I don’t know if the TPB contains the cover art, however.

although we agreed not to exchange gifts (because we get each other stuff all the time and because we have each other–go ahead, roll your eyes), Brian cheated and got me 3 Star Wars LEGO sets: 2 that i didn’t have and one that i already had, but not really one that i’d want a duplicate set of. of course, i’m not complaining.

i was really excited about that. then, when i went on LEGO.com i found that they’ve re-released some of the “classic” sets, such as the A-wing, B-wing, and dan, if you’re reading this–the Slave I, which now includes a Dengar minifig–how cool is that?

the original A-wing set is $30 used/$33 minimum new; the B-wing is about $50 used/$80 minimum new. the re-released sets are $16 and $35 respectively and are nicer in terms of brick color and design. the only one more expensive is the new Slave I; the original has 162 pieces, whereas the new one has 537.

one day, the Barb Natividad Museum of LEGO Star Wars Vehicles will be complete!

we were supposed to visit Brian’s family in Iowa for Christmas on the 23rd, but we weren’t feeling good enough to make the road trip. besides that, we couldn’t get a catsitter. i suppose we could have left the kitties alone overnight, but not really–not these 4. plus with Angelo on a special diet we wouldn’t have been able to just leave dry food out for them. anyway, we wanted to stay more than just one night. i’m hoping we’ll be able to get out there or that they can come visit us soon, especially since the weather is really nice right now (30s, snow melted).

my mom and a group of her friends take turns doing Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s, but we didn’t make it for that, either. it was out in the ‘burbs, but there would have been a lot of kids there and we didn’t want to pass on whatever we have. her condo will be ready for her to move into on the 28th, so she’ll have Brian and me and my sister and her fiance over for a late tayo tayo lang (“just us”, as in, just the immediate family) Christmas.

we did talk to all of our relatives in Iowa, here, Texas, and Las Vegas, so that was nice. as usual, my extended family in Vegas asked when we would be out there next, but Brian doesn’t have much vacation time yet and anyway, we just don’t have the cash. but we’ll be out there in June for my sister’s wedding.

though we couldn’t be with our families, Brian and i still had a great day. we–ok, he–made green bean casserole with fresh green beans. we had that with ham, stuffing (which he can’t seem to go without even when there’s no turkey!), corn, and apple pie for dessert. we fell asleep, woke up in time to watch the Bears game, played some video games, and just hung out.

instead of actually getting the cats anything, since they never seem to use/play with furniture/toys we get them (see here), i put one of their old balls inside an empty tissue box. it was a hit!!! it’s still driving them mad a day later, and Basil even got his head stuck inside the box. fortunately, he was able to remove it on his own a few seconds later. unfortunately, we were unable to take a picture.

i hope all of you had a great holiday, no matter which one you celebrated!

Hopper’s about to open a present that it turns out she would never play with. Like last week’s picture, this one is from Christmas 2000.

this particular depressive episode as i’ve mentioned, isn’t one where i’m weepy, feel despondent, suicidal, hopeless, etc., so i thought that it was affecting me only physically (lack of energy) and not emotionally. i also mentioned, however, that things i normally find interesting or fun, aren’t interesting or fun even when i do them. when i told the pdoc this today, he said that the depression is affecting me emotionally, then.

oh, ok. well, i’m still not good at identifying emotions except for the extreme ones. anyway, on the way home, i remembered there was a word that described this state: anhedonia.

the pdoc doesn’t thing ECT will help. in the two weeks before i see him again, he wants me to come up with activities that will get me outside the house, in order to help structure my day and keep me busy. “it doesn’t have to be ambitious,” he said.

i would be lying if i said i wasn’t disappointed that we weren’t going to do ECT–i want this to be over with. i want to feel interested in things again and have fun again. instead, i’ve been given an assignment i don’t completely understand. oh, and a 5mg increase in Ritalin.

i think he’s hoping that the increase in energy that the Ritalin is giving me will get me out and about and doing things more, and by actually doing things, become interested in stuff again. but it isn’t that i’m not interested in things; the things that i am interested in, don’t hold that much interest right now. if that makes any sense.

by the way, i’ve added a plugin that allows readers to be notified by e-mail when someone replies to their comments. i tried testing it out to see if it works, and i think it does, but i’d really appreciate it if you guys would let me know.