I was recently involved with shooting a reality TV show for a major network that will air in February.  I was on camera for about 12 hours. I saw some stills from the shoot, and I was horrified.  I knew that I had gained weight over the years, but jeez...I looked like Jabba.

I need to lose weight.  I'm going to start on Monday and wonder if anyone wants to join along.  I am not gong for stunt weight loss, but a healty 2 pounds a week.  I will be working out about 5 times a week and cutting out all crap from my diet.  Recently, I have gone a few weeks at at ime without sweets, but I need to give them up completely.  I've never done drugs, and I've only ever drank socially, but I am addicted to choclate and diet Pepsi.

I've always been big, and know that I look strong and healty around 200 lbs.  When I got married in 2003, I was 210. Between then and now I have completed my masters degree, worked four years as a full time highschool teacher in NYC, had two kids, bought and fixed up a house, written and illustrated nine children's books and ate terribly.

Right now I'm 242.  So, 40 lbs is my first goal.

I've seen weight loss threads out here in the past, and thought it might be a way to do this with a supportive group.  All I'm asking is that we check every day or so, and discuss what were trying to do.

I have to say this...I'm very worried that TVC is going to tank at retail.  In the ROTS wave, I am only going to buying 4 (Palpatine, Magna Guard, Anikin Sith Eyes and Greivous) and skipping the other four, because I have them from other lines (or close enough...)

The thing is, I'm a hardcore collector and I've been buying this stuff since the early bird kit in 1977.  I have one of every individually carded figure they have made.  I'm the sort of loyal, dedicated costumer that every company wants...but even I am only buying 50% of the product.

If Hasbro can't keep someone like me interested and engaged, how does the casual fan feel?

On the other hand, I will buy all of the Jedi wave....

Just wondering if anyone else is graduating from any type of school this month, or next...

I just earmed my Master Degree in Science of Education!  Hooray!  It took 6 years part time, it was 54 credits and a ton of work.  But I'm done.  How about you?

I'm putting this out here because I have come to believe that if you say something aloud, or in print, it is more likely to come true...

I want to work as a writer on the recently announced Star Wars animated show.  Don't laugh.  It seems that the show is going to be aimed at a younger audience than The Clone Wars, and I think I'd be perfect for the job.

Fact #1 I've been a huge life-long fan of Star Wars. Duh.

Fact #2  I used to write and draw for Star Wars Kids, which was published by Scholastic, and I ran children's drawing workshops at the first two Star Wars Celebrations.
 
Fact #3  Profesionally, but I've been writing and illustrating children's books since 1995. I've had over 25 books published, and my last two books have been bestsellers, with "Goodnight Goon" staying on the list for nine weeks, and hitting #1 for two weeks. My newest book. "Furious George Goes Bananas" comes out in May, and will be pushed pretty hard. Currently, I am writing and illustrating three elementary level graphic novels for Penguin, that will start coming out in 2011. I also am six weeks away from getting my Master's Degree in Arts Education.
 
This new Star Wars show seems too perfect for my to pass up, even though I know it's a huge longshot. But then again, who thought a farmboy could blow up a space station on his first shot?

I have three contacts in the industry, so today I start sending out feelers to see if somthing like this is even possible...

UPDATE April 12...My first conact turned up nothing.  But she did think that my credentials looked good.  She was worried, however, that on a show of this status, it might be very hard to get hired without previous tv writing experience.  But it does happen she said...



 

Hey.  I was wondering if anyone out there had a Kindle, and could answer a simple question for me....what is the size of the screen in inches, by height and width?  (not dpi, not diagonaly...)

I've looked all over and I can't seem to find this info.

Thanks---Mike

I've been collecting since 1995 (and had a vinatge collection ) and I have to say, that for distribution, 2009 has been the worst year ever.  Over the years, the only figure that I never found on the pegs was Swimming Jar-Jar.  But this year, I missed the entire AOTC wave.  Not only that, but whole waves of Clone Wars are coming in and dissapearing in hours.  At this point, I honestly don't know what I've even missed, and I'm ususally really fanatic about this stuff.

On top of that, I can no longer make the amount of toy runs that I once did, because I now pick up my son from school.

I'm very happy with the product, but there's just too much and it goes by too fast.  Who knows, maybe Nov/Dec will be like Nov/Dec 2007, where I bought 4 waves in about 2 weeks...

Title says it all.---Mike

Looking for the 2009 packs...Ewoks, X-Wing Pilots and Amanama/Imperial.

PM me.---Mike