Archived News

Charles Schulz - (1922 - 2000)�

Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, the most successful comic strip in newspaper history, died February 12 of complications from colon cancer in Santa Rosa, CA. He was 77 years old. The following is a letter I recently submitted to the University newspaper:

Charles Schulz' story has greatly affected me emotionally. I am not quite sure what it is about this man that has touched me so, but every time I hear about his final days, I get teary-eyed.

When I first heard of his death, I could not believe it. I immediately thought that the story was like something taken from a movie or novel. Charles Schulz dying on the eve of his final strip? No way. Can't be. But, alas, it is true. The legendary cartoonist once said, "Why do musicians compose symphonies and poets write poems? They do it because life wouldn't have any meaning for them if they didn't. That's why I draw cartoons. It's my life." Peanuts truly was his life; and as that road ended, so did his life's.�

In the final lines of his last strip, Schulz writes, "Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy . . . how can I ever forget them . . .." Charles Schulz, how can we ever forget you? I almost feel contempt for the media for introducing me to such touching people. Because when they leave this world, I am disheartened as I am now. [02.19.2000]

New Site Design! Oh yea! I finally got the new frame-less site up and running. Yea, I know I said that I was having problems preventing me from finishing up the new design. Well, I got my programs back, and I just couldn't wait to get back to working on the site. And, as a result, I give you the "new but not necessarily improved" Ash's Domain! Voila!

Nevertheless, I shall continue working to fill in some of these empty areas and to fix up other pages of the site. I put in temporary text menus on the bottoms of most of the pages of the site so that navigation won't be hindered too much. ;-)

Btw, my anger towards Fortunecity has lessened somewhat. With their new ad banners, the pages seem to load faster than before. Also, they upped their maximum file size limit, though that doesn't really affect me. At least, I see some positives coming out of FC. [12.22.99]

"You will discover in the next film why he doesn't disappear. The key line that serves as a clue is from Ben Kenobi to Darth Vader in the original: 'If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.'"

Read into that as much as you want, but I (hopefully) won't find out till 2002.

I have these huge Episode I cardboard posters that K-Mart had on display. One is a giant cutout of Anakin, and the other has Darth Maul on one side and Qui-Gon on the other. My cousin worx at K-Mart, so we went over there one day when they were planning on taking them down, and we got them. My cousin had asked the manager for them when they first got them.

Ok, with that said, I was looking at my huge Darth Maul cardboard poster one day, and I thought of something. "If Darth Maul's face is tattooed, then they had to make sure that every detail on his face looked the same throughout the movie." I looked at my Darth Maul Taco Bell game piece, and I noticed something: a variation! And, it wasn't a minor detail, it was pretty apparent that the markings on his face were different on the game piece and on the poster. I told my friend about it, but I just figured it was an error, and that they probably didn't care too much about keeping the details consistent among the different forms of advertisement. Well, today I read something interesting at Episode-X. The following may be a spoiler for Episode II so you'll have to highlight the text to read it. Some people think that there is at least one clone of Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace. They note specific face tattoo differences among the Darth Maul we see on Tatooine and the one on Naboo.

I think it's an interesting theory. Definitely check out Episode-X if you wanna find out more about this. They have a picture that clearly illustrates the major differences in the facial patterns. I don't usually like to know spoilers, but this is one that I personally (almost) stumbled upon.

Somehow my June 5 article about Darth Maul got messed up and an important section was deleted. I'm not sure how long ago this happened, but I have a copy of this page from the 18th, and it was still messed up then! Well, I fixed it as best I could to the original version. Also, I added some updates cuz I got some more complete information after watching the movie for the 3rd time. Darth Maul's first line is somewhere around 10 - 13 words (I still can't remember all of it). That means Darth Maul has around 30 words in the movie (give or take 3), which means still, the 2 hour 13 minute movie has around the same number of words as the 4 minute 16 second music video!!

[06.29.99]

Weird Al's new album "Running with Scissors" has a song called "The Saga Begins." The lyrics are about The Phantom Menace, and it's set to the tune of "American Pie." This video is hilarious and also very well-made. I'm a fan of the old song and of course TPM, so I liked this song a lot! The video is available online at the Saga Begins site in Real Player, QuickTime, and Media Player formats. Also, the site is based on the official Star Wars site. [06.28.99]

Hasbro recalls Episode I lightsabers - Hasbro is voluntarily recalling about 618,000 Star Wars Lightsaber toys for repair. The recall comes after reports that the batteries in the toys can overheat and, in some cases, rupture. This recall affects Episode I lightsabers only: the Darth Maul Double-Bladed Lightsaber and the Qui-Gon Jinn Lightsaber. I heard about this problem on some news magazine ("Dateline" I think) several weeks ago. Ah well. (...click for full article) [06.26.99]

Even one of Jar Jar's creators found him annoying - "How annoying is Jar Jar Binks? The comical, animated Gungan is so off-putting that even one of his creators says he found him hard to stomach at first." Rob Coleman, effects supervisor for The Phantom Menace had this to say: "When I read the script the first time, I had a reaction similar to what many of you had when you saw the movie." He also stated that he "only had one audience member to please and that was George Lucas. If he was happy with what we were doing with Jar Jar, then I was happy." (Source: Los Angeles Times)

The Phantom Menace is now the #5 highest grossing movie domestically, passing Forrest Gump! And, the weirdest thing just happened as I was typing this up. While listening to my mp3 collection, the Forrest Gump main theme started playing! I just thought I'd share. Well, anyway, it should be several weeks before TPM breaks into the top 3 of all-time since #3 E.T. has $399.8 million.

I forgot to mention that I saw TPM for the third time a while back! Again it was in THX sound, and I loved it! I was a bit more tolerant of Jar Jar, but I still don't like him. He just didn't bother me as much. I did catch a few new things, most notably that I saw the people of E.T.'s race! If you haven't heard, they can be seen in the Senate scene after Queen Amidala calls for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum's leadership. They're on the bottom of the screen and are only on the screen for a second or two, so they are easy to miss. Well, my goal was to see TPM 3 times cuz the most I'd seen a movie in the theater is twice. I wouldn't mind and will probably end up seeing it a few more times in the theater. A weird thing I noticed is that my ticket stub for the second time I saw the movie says "Phantom 2." The stub for the third time I saw it says "Phantom 3." Maybe if I see it again, it'll say "Phantom 4!" (My first stub said "Stars Wars." Yea, that's right ... Stars Wars.)

In other news, there's an effort going on to make another Star Wars Fan Day in July. I'm not sure how well this will go over, but ah well. I don't know if anyone still cares (or ever did), but I still haven't made my review for TPM! I know, I know, it's kinda late now, but I probably will make one eventually. I just can't set up my Star Wars page to my liking.

Now I'd like to proclaim that my second favorite song on the TPM soundtrack (next to "Duel of the Fates" of course) is "The Droid Battle & The Appearance of Darth Maul." It was so cool watching the droid battle scene in the movie and hearing this song! O and another thing I just remembered. I noticed after hearing "Duel of the Fates" that it reminded me of Carmina Burana. A while back, I heard a man on NPR (National Public Radio) talking about TPM's music. He mentioned "Duel of the Fates," and they played a section of it. Then another person asked if that reminded him of Carmina Burana, and they played a section of the first movement, "O Fortuna." Personally, I thought it sounded more like the second movement, "Fortune Plange Vulnera." Anyway, I'm by no means an expert, but it was cool hearing someone on NPR make the same comparison that I did! Anywho, he went on and mentioned that John Williams is often criticized for "borrowing" other's works. I don't think "Duel of the Fates" and Carmina Burana are that similar, but it does sound as if he was inspired by it. NPR went on to play "Anakin's Theme" in its entirety cuz the man thought that it was the most orchestrally well-done piece. [06.23.99]

I sadly must report that The Phantom Menace wasn't #1 this weekend. Actually, it was #4, being beaten out by the newcomers Tarzan (#1) and The General's Daughter (#3). Austin Powers was #2, remaining strong its second weekend.

I guess Fan Day didn't boost TPM as much as people had expected. I must say that with more new releases coming out in the coming weeks (Southpark and Wild Wild West to name a few), I don't think TPM will be coming back into the #1 spot ... at least not for a while. :-( On a brighter note, TPM should pass Forrest Gump ($329.7 million) in a few days and move into the #5 spot! [06.21.99]

It seems The Phantom Menace has broken a lot of records lately! It raked in $300 million in just 28 days and became the fastest movie to reach that mark!! The record was previously held by Ti***ic at 44 days. Also The Phantom Menace has moved up considerably in the domestic gross ranking. On Sunday, June 13, it passed The Empire Strikes Back to move into the #9 position. Thursday, June 17, it passed Independence Day (#8) and Return of the Jedi (#7). The next day, it surpassed The Lion King and moved into the #6 spot--all of which was done in a month!!

It's a shame to see Return of the Jedi and The Empire Strikes Back be bumped down to number 8 and 10, respectively. But hey! Who better to do it than The Phantom Menace, another Star Wars movie! The next victims to Episode I will be Forrest Gump (#5), Jurassic Park (#4), and E.T. (#3). Then comes Star Wars at #2, and of course--the soon to be dethroned--Ti***ic. [06.20.99]

I love how all the movie companies have avoided releasing movies any time near Episode I. With that said, Episode I will soon face its first real competition since its release almost a month ago. The sequel to Austin Powers opens this weekend and is sure to take some of audience from Episode I.

Meanwhile, last weekend Episode I: The Phantom Menace grossed another $32.2 million. Tho not the one Star Wars fans want, Episode I destroyed one of Ti***ic's records as it amassed $250 million in 19 days, nearly half the 36 days Ti***ic took!! Also, in a mere 3 weeks, Episode I: The Phantom Menace has become the 12th highest grossing film of all time! (domestic) (Source: Cinescape)

Bad news for all of you Jar Jar haters (I dislike him; I don't hate him): I'm not sure how reliable their source was, but Prequelnet says that he'll be back.

"Jar Jar will be back for Episodes II and III. WJZ news (a Baltimore, Maryland station) has confirmed this when they talked to George Lucas and Terry Brooks. Lucas said, 'Get use[d] to it, get over it.' Terry Brooks said that Jar Jar will take on stronger roles in the upcoming movies and that the audience will admire him more for what he does in Episodes II and III. There you have it folks. You heard it here first." (Source: Prequelnet)

Personally, I don't necessarily believe this, but it does seem legit. I recently read an article saying that it wouldn't be practical to have him in the later episodes, as he is just someone who they ran into on Naboo (I have to agree). The article went on to say that later episodes may present Jar Jar in minor parts if the story should bring the action into Naboo (which of course it will). Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

I'll be gone for a few days, so there'll prob be few (if any) updates for a while. Expect lots when I get back. A reminder: Star Wars Fan Day is 10 days away. Ya know you're gonna watch Episode I at least once more anyway. . . so watch it on the 19th of June. [06.09.99]

The Mystery of Maul - After I saw Episode I the second time, I thought about something. There's been a lot of talk about how Darth Maul is only on the screen for 5 to 7 minutes in the whole movie (granted that those are great minutes!). But, how many lines does he actually say? Here's where it gets interesting:

1) His first line is when he's talking to Darth Sidious. I don't remember exactly what he says, so let's say he says 7 words.
[Updated 06.29.99: I underestimated how many words he says here. Once again, I don't remember the line, but he says something to the effect of: "If they are on Tatooine, I will find them." While watching the movie, I counted 10 - 13 words in this line (so obviously the above line is incomplete)].

2) Next is the now-famous, "At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge." 15 words

3) Then there's the line reminiscent of Darth Vader: "Yes, my master." 3 more words

And as far as I remember . . . that's about it in the movie! Oh, but there's more . . .

4) In the commercial, "One Truth," Darth Maul has the wicked line, "Fear! Fear attracts the fearful . . . the strong . . . the weak . . . the innocent . . . the corrupt . . . Fear! Fear is my ally!" 18 words

5) Episode I Trailer "B" and the music video for "Duel of the Fates" have the 15 word line mentioned above in line 2. The video also has a shorter version of line 4: "Fear! Fear attracts the fearful . . . the strong . . . the weak . . . the innocent. Fear is my ally!" Another 15 words.

See where I'm going with this? Darth Maul says:

... 15 words in the 2.5 minute trailer.
... 18 words in the 30 second television commercial.
... 30 words in the 4 minute 16 second music video.
... only around 25 words in the 2 hour 13 minute movie!
[Updated 06.29.99: The word count for the movie is closer to 30, but still you can get my point. The video has around the same number of words by Darth Maul.]

Sam Davatchi's site reports that George Lucas confirmed that Anakin is "the one who will bring balance to the Force." He explicitly disclaims the popular belief that Qui-Gon mistakenly said that Anakin is the one who will bring balance instead of Luke. (...click for full article)

Well, it's "official."

McCallum talks Sidious
"Just in case you have any doubts about the nature of the title The Phantom Menace, talkative Rick McCallum sets the record as straight and clear as possible in an interview in the recent issue of Britain's Starburst magazine. According to Starburst, McCallum reveals, 'Ian [McDiarmid] is the Phantom Menace. He's not the Emperor yet [in The Phantom Menace], but he is a Sith Lord. He's also Darth Sidious. That's Ian in the robe.' Let there be no confusion, McCallum said it." (Source: Cinescape)

Damn. And I really thought that that was too obvious. O well. One thing I did notice is that McCallum doesn't say that Palpatine is Sidious; he says Ian McDiarmid plays both of them. This leaves open the possibility that Palpatine is a clone of Sidious. (Yea, I know. The whole clone thing makes for too many possibilities.) How bout that for a twist? [06.05.99]

Here's a novel idea. If you haven't heard, June 19th is Star Wars Fan Day! Translation: Go watch The Phantom Menace again! Check out this website for the complete article.

Kinda old news, but I never mentioned this. The Phantom Menace grossed an estimated $66.9 million over the 4-day Memorial Day weekend! This brings the two-week total to $207.1 million. Breaking the $200 million mark in just 13 days, TPM smashed the previous record held by Independence Day which took 21 days to reach this milestone! [06.04.99]

There won't be updates for a while, cuz I'll be out of town. So, I thought I'd get in a few things b4 I leave. Still not ready w/ my review of Episode I, but it'll be soon. I'm gonna go ahead and make a Star Wars page ... some time. I'm very happy to learn that Episode I is doing well in the box-office. I'm also glad to have contributed to the setting of a new one-day record by Episode I at an estimated $28,542,349! This beat the old record which was set by The Lost World at around $26.1 million. What particularly impressed me was that Episode I's record breaking performance was on a Wednesday, while The Lost World's was on a Sunday (the third day it was out). Obviously, movies do better during the weekend than on a weekday. Go Star Wars!! Here are some more estimates:

Very rough estimates claim that Episode I pulled in $7.5 million in its first six hours! (12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m.)

On opening day, Wednesday May 19, it earned $28,542,349, shattering the one-day record previously held by The Lost World.

On Thursday, Episode I brought in $13,221,656. This brought the 2-day total to $41,764,005!

It brought in $18.4 million more on Friday, the start of TPM's (The Phantom Menace) first weekend. The 3-day total is estimated to be around $59,250,000!

TPM grossed another $25,070,000 on Saturday, breaking the record for the biggest Saturday gross ever!

Episode I will probably go on to grab the record for the biggest 5-day total, currently held by The Lost World. Unfortunately, bc of its early release, it will most likely not surpass The Lost World's weekend record (Friday - Sunday) of $72 million.

Well, that's the story as it is right now. I will update this site on TPM's progress throughout the summer ... and fall ... and winter! ;-). For now, you can check out Watto's Junkyard for Star Wars news, etc. I added the site to my linx page. Watto has a page comparing TPM's income to Ti***ic's. And I'd like to thank Watto for giving me the Episode II countdown script and for linking to this site. [05.23.99]

YES!! I saw it! Actually I saw it over 12 hours ago! It was awesome! Need I say more? Ok, yes I need. I'm not ready to give my full review of it yet. I won't do that until I've seen it at least once more. I will post a preliminary review soon tho. (I just don't feel like it right now) I am giddy!! Yea, that's right, giddy! Damn, the soundtrack rox!! *sigh* Specifically, "Duel of the Fates" rox!! More on this later. [05.20.99]

A lot has happened since I last updated. Most importantly, I got the tickets! O yea!! We left at 5, got there at 6 (remember I live in a suck town), made a bathroom stop, and started waiting around 6:30 a.m. The line wasn't too bad at all. We were in a good position to get tickets for the first showing and definitely the first day. So there we sat on the concrete (we didn't have the foresight to bring chairs!). We brought some stuff to kill time, so we had plenty to do. Gabe (the friend) went to Taco Bell while I kept our spots in line. So, we ate, killed more time, blah blah. Then it got hot, so that sucked. We used our umbrellas to shade ourselves.

It wasn't too much of a freak scene except some guys out there had brought couches! It looked weird, but damn was it a good idea! The people in the front of the line kept having others come over and visit them. This was rather annoying, cuz they pretty much just cut in line if they stayed (most did). Somewhere in this giant block of waiting, they put some signs on the booth stating that there would be a 12:01 am showing on May 19! We decided that that was for us (if we could get em). Some news guy came out there, and there was some radio guys too. Finally, after around 7� hours of waiting, the time came. The b ooth opened at 2:00 pm, and I got my ticket at 2:16 pm! Surprisingly, it only cost $4. I guess cuz it didn't qualify as matinee hours. Anyway, I got a ticket for another friend too. I don't know what better graduation gift one can possibly get someone than a ticket to see Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace at the earliest possible time that they can air it to the general public (in our time-zone anyway). What's cool (among other things) is that my countdown applet is accurate (for me anyway) since it counts down to the first minute of May 19! So now we're set! We got our tickets, and now we just gotta get there early to get decent seats, but with stadium-seating, I guess it doesn't matter too much. I wonder if we shoulda got popcorn that day too? hehe

Well, that's my story. Gabe bought a Darth Maul figure, and we played with it upon getting home. Darth Maul seems to be hard to come by. I've only seen a total of four of em in the four places I've looked. I'll probably get one once I see how bad@$$ he is in the movie. I'll probably get the soundtrack too. "Duel of the Fates" kicks butt! I've heard the first three track s, but I don't think I can appreciate them enuf until I see the movie. Did I mention I hope this movie already set the box-office record? Damn, that'd be cool. Well, enuf ranting for today. [05.15.99]

Tomorrow's the big day! Ok, so it's not the big day, but it is big nonetheless. Yes, that's right. Tickets go on sale tomorrow for Episode I: The Phantom Menace. I'm leaving at 5 am tomorrow to go wait in line. I hope to get a ticket for May 19, the first day. I don't really care what time, though.

I learned that there is actually a May 16th showing in Dallas, but it is for charity. Some radio station was giving away a ticket to it. Yes, the movie hasn't had great reviews, but I kinda figured that they may overdo the special effects. Besides, I'll be the judge of that. And anyway, the whole experience should be great, though I know that the movie will kick @$$.

I did get around to seeing the toys on May 04. Man, do they have a lot of stuff! I mean some of that stuff, I have to say, is just dumb. But hey, if it sells, good for Mr. Lucas. Really tho, it reminds me of all of the Krusty the Clown merchandise there is in The Simpsons. (Star Wars swimming floats?!) I've only seen 2 Darth Maul figures, so it appears that they're pretty popular.

Finals are finally over, and boy am I happy. I had 3 on Friday, May 07. It totally sucked, but they went well. I'm just glad that that semester is over. I have to say that it was not an easy one. Now I have time to do some stuff I've been wanting to do including partitioning my hard drive and installing Linux, redesign this site, and get a new comp!

In other news, the Quake 3 test "demo" was released for the Win32 platform yesterday (May 10). I am currently downloading it, but I'm pretty sure it's not gonna work. I don't think my comp meets the requirements. :-( [05.11.99]

The Episode I toys were officially released yesterday at midnite! I've heard that a lot of stores "leaked" out some toys earlier in the week. I haven't personally seen any, and being in the middle of finals, I'm not sure when I will. I'll make some time. Also, I fixed some problems with the ICQ servers page in the linx section. [05.03.99]

There's less than 20 days till the Episode I: The Phantom Menace comes out, so I added the little java applet above that counts down to May 19! (US Central Standard Time) [04.30.99]

I only have 2 more weeks till the end of this semester (thank god), and I'll probably renovate the site then. I'm thinkin of removing the frames among other things once I have more time. I really need to make that damn Quake page if I'm gonna have one. By the time I make it, Quake 3 will be out! Just a reminder, there's less than a month till the new Star Wars movie is out!! [04.24.99]

I uploaded the mp3 of "O Fortuna" to The Alien Dummy, the webmaster of v3m.com, so now I'm just gonna link it from him. This way, people won't have to download 3 files to get the mp3 bc I had to split it up. The link can be found on the fun page . There, u can also find that I put up the lyrics to Gilligan's Island's main theme. I'm not sure y, but it's a pretty cool song. [04.08.99]

Haven't updated in a while! I'm on Spring Break, and well ... I have better things to do than update! Well, anyway, during this break, I watched "The Puerto Rican Day" episode of Seinfeld. For more info go to the fun page. I also ripped and uploaded the mp3 of "O Fortuna," the first movement of Carmina Burana. I'm sure u've heard parts of it b4 in some movie or commercial. [04.01.99]

Well, let's just continue w/ some older news. Last Saturday (March 13), I went to see the movie Analyze This. It was a pretty good movie, but the best part was during the previews. That's right. I saw the Star Wars: Episode One trailer!! O man, it was so great! My friend had just told me the Friday before that the official trailer was out and that it was rumored to be shown during Wing Commander. That night, I tried to watch it on the internet, but couldn't. I imagine the site was very busy, and that's y I couldn't get through to watch it. Anyway, so there I was, just waiting for the movie to start. I wasn't even thinking that I would see the trailer. Then the room blackened, and the very first word on the screen was "Lucasfilm", shining in green. I knew immediately what I was about to see. I was so excited! In fact, I was so overwhelmed by the event that I couldn't keep track of everything. I was trying to take it all in and cherish the moment. Afterwards, I couldn't even recollect much of it. Nevertheless, it was a great experience, and I've watched the trailer on the internet numerous times since then, so I do have a good feel for it now.

Now, I wonder ... if I was this excited about the trailer, then how am I gonna be when I watch the movie on May 19! It's gonna be the event of the year, and (hopefully) I'll be there at Tinseltown in DDS surround sound opening morning. Which leads to some more older news: the release date for Episode One - The Phantom Menace has been moved up two days to May 19. I heard that the reason for moving it from Friday to Wednesday is so the diehard fans can watch it during the first couple of days, and then the "regular" viewers can watch it that weekend. Hopefully, it'll still beat the weekend box-office record (of Lost World, I think). But, mainly, I hope that it beats Ti***ic (I refuse to put the name of that movie on my webpage) as the highest grossing film ever! [03.21.99]

About a week ago, I went to see Carmina Burana performed. It was awesome! I was so excited to hear it and watch it live! Anyway, Carmina Burana is a choral song written by the contemporary composer, Carl Orff. You've probably heard parts of the song in movies and/or commercials. Damn, that song kicks @$$! I'll try to post the first movement, called "O Fortuna", sometime. I have the vqf of it, but since not too many people have a vqf player, I'll try to find a wav and/or mp3 of it. [03.19.99]

Alright! I'm back ... This site has been down recently bc apparently Fortunecity had some server probs. Then, they got most of the pages back up, except for a few ... and well mine was one of the few. They supposedly brought in the hard drive recovery team and unsuccessfully attempted to restore people's files. Anyway, they lost all of my files, but after @ 8 mins. of uploading, this site is back!

I'm still looking around for minor blemishes, but the site seems to be back up in full force. [02.15.99]