National Geographic presents an amazing interactive on what alien life on other worlds will look like prior to the launch of their new groundbreaking programme Extraterrestrial. A must-see.

Yep, the jury is in. Revenge of the Sith rawks. SPOILER ALERT!

The Pluses: A gorgeous, beautiful, brooding Anakin Skywalker, his body parts getting chopped off (nothing R-rated), great fighting scenes, a delish Obiwan and his Brit accent, an ingenious and rather admirably executed plot by Darth Sidious, cute Wookies, a cute Hippogriff-komodo-peacock thing, closed loops.

The Minuses: The most painful-to-watch love scenes, a terrible-looking Padme, too little screen time for Count Dooku, the awful General Grievous (must he slouch and do robots cough??), Jedis killed off without much fanfare.

This is a space opera above all and as space operas go, battle scenes are the way to kick off the movie. I cringed at the sound effects - in space, there is no sound - and wondered why in the 21st century, filmmakers are still getting such basic science wrong. Anakin and Obiwan were rescuing Palpatine from the clutches of Dooku, with a very clever R2 in tow.

There were hints of Anakin's dark side as he obeyed Palpatine's order to kill Dooku (Dooku glanced at Palpatine in horror, a rather obvious feint) although it was against the Jedi way.

Cheesy scenes of Anakin and Padme as she told him she was pregnant, and some of the worst lines followed on a rooftop scene. Even worse were the dream sequences of Padme dying in childbirth. They looked like something out of a 1970s B movie. I visibly cringed...

It got better as the plot thickened. Yoda travelled to help the Wookies in Wookie Land, and Anakin got slowly seduced to the dark side. The Jedi Council asked him to spy on Palpatine, the Sith Lord read him like a book, and told a tale about a Sith who could prevent people from dying (hint hint, Padme).

It gets better from here...

Of course, Anakin folded. Between worrying about Padme, the Council mistrusting him and not making him Master, and generally being rather confused and having lots of emotional issues, when push came to shove (namely Mace Windu going to slice up a crumpled - literally - Palpatine), he shoved his light sabre through Mace's hand and the latter fell into oblivion.

This part and the scene between Palpatine and Anakin bothered me. Rewind. Initially Palpatine confessed to Anakin that he was the Sith Lord and tried to convince him to go to the dark side. Anakin refused and told Mace about it. Mace said yeah, we'll take care of him but you stay here cos you're confused. But after thinking of Padme dying in childbirth, he couldn't let the only guy who could teach him how to save her die.

So the next scene, he chose. Never mind he chose, but he also went off right away to kill all his Jedi buddies, including the little Jedi kids. That does not seem conceivable no matter how evil he was. It came across too sudden. He grew up with these people. For him to turn on them in an instant was illogical and which also meant, he was perhaps less conscionable than we all thought.

Okay, so the Jedi all get cut down after Palpatine issues a directive 66. It was pretty heart wrenching watching them almost literally shot in the back by the storm troopers they trusted.

Anyhow, Yoda and Obiwan escaped and met up through Bail Organa. Yoda goes to confront Palpatine and Obiwan went to look for Padme to find Anakin.

Padme refused to believe Anakin had joined the dark side (as had Obiwan until he saw video footage of it) and took off on her beaut silver shiny plane to Mustafar to find him. Anakin had been sent there to kill Nute Gunray and pals, and after he was done, he kind of hung around to cast a nice silhouette on a long shot. Naturally, Obiwan hid on Padme's plane.

Yoda got whacked around a lot (and gave some back too) and lost, and climbed through a shaft into Organa's plane and escaped.

Padme confronted Anakin about his alleged alliance with the dark side and was horrified to find out it was all true! It didn't help that Obiwan appeared in the plane door at that moment, and Anakin concluded they were together. A furious Anakin then started strangling Padme with the Force until Obiwan made him stop.

They began a long drawn out fight that ended on the shore of the lava sea. Anakin took a leap and Obiwan cut off his light sabre arm and his two legs, after which, he shouted, "You were the chosen one. You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them." Anakin went up in flames and burned nastily.

Meanwhile, Palpatine sensed his young apprentice was in trouble and flew over to rescue him. Bots fitted him with new gear and he was good to go. I think James Earl Jones also took care of the voice at this point.

The bot doc examined Padme and said she wasn't going to make it. She'd lost the will to live. So they decided to induce the birth. Padme named her kids Luke and Leia respectively before breathing her last.

Anakin's first question when he rose was, where is Padme, how is she? Palpatine said she was gone, and it was Anakin who caused it. Anakin's rage and grief made a lot of stuff in the room explode and Palpatine secretly smiled.

After Padme died, Yoda, Obiwan, and Organa decided on the fate of the children. Organa would adopt the girl and Obiwan would take the boy back to his family on Tattooine. A huge funeral for Padme was held with her pregnancy in check (to fool Big Brother).

Last scenes: Bail Organa presenting Leia to his wife on their home planet, and Obiwan passing Luke to Beru and Lars. A suitable and satisfying ending.

As usual I am unable to sleep, feeling oddly unaccomplished for the day. It is this feeling that keeps me up, as well as insidious bugs that persist on biting me. They must have been drawn in from the rain.

Yet I feel like dancing. My writer's block is gone and I am writing feverishly again. 6 submission-worthy poems in a week. Not usual by far, but most certainly an improvement from the last 2 years. The thing I can say about A Cold Day in Hell is that it is very satisfying.

Late at night, I tend to get very pensive and introspective.

Looking back, it has been a rather strange year. Many new experiences and interesting challenges. Problems to solve and problems that don't want to be solved.

I had thought that many around me had changed. But I was wrong. I changed. The core of me hasn't: values, priorities, etc. But a substantial part of me has. I can't pinpoint it now, but many things that happened in the last year - this mad roller coaster - has changed me.

I am happier and more hopeful but also sad at the things I am letting go. Yes, right now it feels like a cold day in hell.

But I *am* looking forward to watching Star Wars III tomorrow. :D I'll find the silver lining, even if it means I have to fly to look for it. I have to, because no one else is going to find it for me.

Sweet Boy keeping me company here by his couch. Kaku coming up to me when I went to get a glass of milk for seratonin. Sam joining her. Kaitlyn saying, 'Bye, Two", and my Dad and Mom laughing.

I think I am ready to go to sleep. The bad dreams are gone.

I wrote another poem while waiting for my Dad. It's a darkly humourous (well, to me at least) poem called A Cold Day in Hell.

Took my Dad for his usual therapeutic massage and then we discovered a nice coffee shop that sold just about every kind of Chinese noodle dish you could find in a hawker centre. We had dinner there and drinks, and then headed over to my brother's place.

His computer was down so I tried to find a solution for it. He downloaded Knoppix to attempt to access his data. It should be a clincher. Meanwhile I played with Kaitlyn, who was rather delighted by the attention. She allowed me to hug her and then spin her around upside down. In between, she was happy to look into the mirror and baby talk to herself. It was really cute to watch.

Finally we had to leave. She followed us down and put on her little blue boots. Her Dad picked her up and said, no, we're home. Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunty Lyn are leaving. Say Bye! And she did. I said, "Bye, Two (my nickname for her)", and she said, "Bye, Two", and waved.

At home, the cats sniffed around the groceries I bought. Had a hot shower, petted Kaku, and fed the kids. And now here I am, still up, typing up my 4 new poems. :D

I received my labels from Story House just the other day. Gorgeous as always. I was delighted they bought Boy I Love You, a poem about Boy. :D Their coffee is the best I've ever sniffed. Try it!

Last night I wrote 3 and 3/4 poems - I fell asleep before I finished the 4th one. 3 submission-worthy poems Resolution, Planet-Hopper (maybe I should retitle this), and Dear Doctor will be out doing the rounds soon after I look at them again.

Very very exciting stuff today! :D Here are extracts:

Role Reversal: Planet Controls a Star

Extract:

In a reversal of roles, a planet [tau Bootis ("tau Boo" for short) – a star 50 light years away with a planet in a tight, 3.3-day orbit around it] has gravitationally bullied its star to rotate in step with the planet's orbit. The star's behavior is similar to that of our Moon, which turns just fast enough to keep one face always pointing at the Earth.

Although it is suspected that many of the close-in exoplanets – so-called "hot Jupiters" – are tidally locked to their stars, this is the first detection of a star tidally locked to its planet. Knowing that the star’s rotation is synchronized should reveal much more about this strange system.

According to [Andrew Cameron of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland], the synchronization of the tau Boo system probably took a billion years – the star likely began spinning faster by stealing angular momentum from its companion.

Because of tidal friction, almost all systems eventually become synchronized. "Given long enough, the Earth will face the Moon," noted Cameron. The time for synchronization is faster the closer and heavier the synchronizer is in comparison to the synchronizee. Most stars do not live long enough to become locked to their planets.

In the case of tau Boo, the planet weighs about 0.5% that of its star – compared to Jupiter, which is 0.1% the mass of our Sun. But more importantly, tau Boo b is 100 times closer in than Jupiter is.

Cosmos 1 Solar Sail Spacecraft Heads to Loading Site

Extract:

A private team of space-savvy civilians has hit a major milestone in plans to launch the first spacecraft propelled by sunlight after shipping the small probe to be loaded atop ballistic missile.

The solar sail-propelled Cosmos 1 vehicle, hailed as the world’s first solar sail spacecraft, has left its Moscow testing center and now bound to Severomorsk, Russia, where it will be loaded into a modified intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and readied for a June 21 launch, mission planners announced Monday.

W00t! :D

I've completed 2 poems: Death Comes Too Quickly and A Moonlight Dream and sent them to Wicked Hollow! :D W00t!

This felt like a long weekend, I am pleased to say. Although foremost on my mind were my awful dreams of the week before, a rather long partay Friday night, Buffy Fest all weekend, and nice meals with my folks. I am also very happy to see my niece turning out to be a lot like me when I was her age (her poor mom).

Friday night found me at Raffles City with the girls for dinner and coffee. We chatted for ages and finally dispersed to various locations around the island. I met Lena and Michelle at Bala afterwards for some serious noshing and then headed to Zouk to meet a zillion friends out for the chill over the long weekend.

It was rockin'! :D I found myself ruling on the platform, dancing with a bunch of rad dudes to some pretty awesome music. It felt exhilarating and I was right back to when I was sweet seventeen again. :p This rather intoxicated Aussie guy right beside me even said, wow, you're an amazing dancer. Hehe...

Even after all these years, I have to say, I still feel most at home at Zouk. It was my second home for most of my teens and early 20s... ahem... not too long ago. Everywhere I turned there were memories, most of them fine. And maybe one or two unfine.

I'd been hankering for a swim all week last week. But on Saturday it rained, and Sunday and today I felt rather unmotivated to go for a swim, plus I'd already settled into Buffy Fest 2005 so decided to hole up and get slayin'.

My hair's grown very fast and I meant to work on it this weekend but it never happened.

Hung out with the cats quite a bit. Spent some quality time sitting with Kaku out back, and talking with Boy, who did appreciate my company. The other three stayed in the living room with me during Buffy Fest or else napped on my blanket while I wrote. It was lovely. :)

I stopped playing WoW for a while... and painting. I'd like to work on my poetry.

Speaking of which, the good thing is, in between Buffy and eating, I managed to write about 8 poems, two of which are in the midst of editing to be sent out. The rest, well, aren't quite speculative work so they can wait.

It's going to be a long busy week ahead. I best start winding down now. Have a good week, y'all, gentle readers.

Is your cat OCD?

Introduction:

Repetitive, relatively non-varying behaviour patterns that appear to have no purpose can be described as obsessive-compulsive disorders. In cats, such behaviours include compulsive pacing, repetitive meowing (vocalizing), fabric sucking and chewing, or licking and pulling hair. The exact cause or causes of compulsive behaviour in otherwise normal cats have not been identified.

This too shall pass.