The force is a little too strong with this one

The summer of 1977 was memorable for many reasons. I fondly recall spending my first week away from home at the Ben Delatour Scout Ranch during Webelos camp.
I had the time of my life and never even came close to being homesick. I fell in love with the camp, Boy Scouts and the mountains of Colorado. I was also totally absorbed by this new movie that I had seen just the week before called “Star Wars.”
Every gun-shaped twig became a blaster and every stick a lightsaber. Up to that point my world revolved around “Star Trek,” Spider-Man and The Lone Ranger. Now all I wanted to be was Luke Skywalker flying around in my X-wing starfighter and shooting down TIE fighters.
My Hawthorne bike and an overactive imagination made for some great space battles as I tooled around my hometown of Niwot, Colo. I didn’t know it then, but that movie changed my life. I obsessed with collecting every Star Wars thing I could. I saw the movie several times in the theater. I was certain I was the movie’s biggest fan.
I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed when “The Empire Strikes Back” came out because of the ending. Han Solo was captured and frozen in carbonite. Darth Vader revealed himself to be Luke’s father and basically the bad guys won. Still, it was Star Wars and I was enamored with it. By the time “Return of the Jedi” came out, I was working on staff at Ben Delatour Scout Ranch with a bunch of like-minded geeks. We got to have a private screening of the movie one weekend because one of my friend’s dad owned a movie theater in town.
With the trilogy complete, I grew up and moved on to bigger and better things. As a mark of my maturity, I sold off my collection of original Star Wars action figures as a garage sale for 50 cents each. That painful memory still haunts me to this day.
I always remained a fan and watched the movies on tape every now and then. I figured Star Wars was over until about 15 years later when it was announced that George Lucas wanted to make a prequel trilogy. All of a sudden there was new life in the force. Better yet, to help kick off the new movie, the first Star Wars Celebration was held nearby in Denver.
Not only did I start obsessing again with all things Star Wars, I took my girlfriend to the celebration and there, standing in line in the rain and the mud to see one of the actors in the new film, I asked Sandy to marry me. I think she was still a little star struck and overwhelmed by the experience, but my little Jedi mind trick worked and she said yes. (Naturally, I was looking for love in Alderaan places!)
We went to the midnight showing of “The Phantom Menace” and I took the next day off of work to watch it back-to-back all day. Naturally, I had to buy my kids all the new action figures and such. I still have those, uh, er, I mean they still have those…
“The Clone Wars” and “Revenge of the Sith” came and went with pretty much the same fanaticism, though slightly toned down. George Lucas swore he was finished making Star Wars movies. Once again I was resigned to this being the end of the Star Wars universe and I allowed the force to loosen its grip on me. I tried but couldn’t get into the animated TV show “Star Wars: Clone Wars” and felt at peace with it.
More recently, Lucas sold Star Wars to Disney and it was announced new movies would be made. I think Mark Hamill (aka Luke Skywalker) spoke for all of fandom when he said, “I was gobsmacked!”
Now the original trilogy family is reunited and fighting to save the nursing home from Geritol shortages and imperial activity directors. Seriously though, they lured J.J. Abrams – the guy who resurrected “Star Trek” – to the Dark Side and he is now filming “Star Wars: Episode XII” in England. Pictures of a half-built Millennium Falcon and other tidbits have leaked out. Poor Harrison Ford even broke his leg on the Falcon’s ramp, causing a slight delay in filming.
I’m excited to see the new movies, but I’m not allowing myself to get all worked up again like I did when the first six came out. I tell myself that, but I am not that strong with the force. It has a strong influence over the geek mind…

ALS Associaton never saw ice bucket challenge coming

Anyone regularly on Facebook or even remotely in touch with any social media or television news outlets has probably seen videos of people dumping buckets of ice water on their heads.
If you read the front page of our paper last week you saw a picture of the Sealy ISD school board taking the plunge following the football game at home against Royal.
It’s all part of the ALS ice bucket challenge. It’s an ingenious marketing plan for the ALS Association (ALSA), except there is no marketing or genius behind it. It’s a social media phenomenon that caught the ALSA by complete surprise.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often called Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Patients with the disease often become paralyzed in later stages and ultimately die. The ALSA is a nonprofit organization that raises funds for research to help fight the disease.
In the challenge, people make a video of themselves accepting the challenge and then calling out or challenging others to do the same within 24 hours. They then dump ice water on their head. There are many variations to the challenge, but in general the idea is to do the icy deed and then make a donation to the ALSA.
According to reports online, primarily from Time Magazine, the phenomenon began in mid July when a golfer named Chris Kennedy of Sarasota, Fla., accepted an ice bucket challenge that was apparently related to the cold water challenge that began a year or two ago and not attached to any specific charity. Kennedy made a video of himself taking the challenge and in return call out his wife’s cousin, Jeanette Senerchia of Pelham, N.Y., whose husband Anthony has ALS.
Kennedy then posted the video, which is reportedly the first time the ice bucket challenge was linked to the ALS charity.  It took a life of its own from there. Within weeks millions of people were accepting the dare and then calling out others. What is truly incredible is that by no act of its own, the ALSA has received, at the time of this writing, nearly $110 million in donations.
What you can’t put a price on, however, is the publicity the organization has received. It is probably the most attention given to any effort to fight ALS since Lou Gehrig himself famously stepped up to a microphone at Yankee Stadium 75 years ago and gave his “luckiest man” farewell speech.
It is also a product of the times thanks to the simplicity of shooting videos on smart phones and the ability to quickly post them on Facebook. I have enjoyed watching friends, relatives and celebrities participate in the challenge. I’ve also chuckled at the “ice bucket challenge fails” videos, which are compilations of people slipping up in some way.
Eventually my brother Chip took the challenge and tagged me. I accepted and my video is posted on The Sealy News’ Facebook page. Unfortunately the memory filled on my phone mid-dump, so half my reaction is missing. The Sealy school board was challenged by Asst. Supt. Nicole Poenitzsch and they in turn challenged all the other school boards in Region 6.
One reason this went viral so fast is that the challenge requests a response within 24 hours. A dare and a deadline for a good cause make for lots of fun. If you have taken the challenge, please share your photos and videos with us. We will do our best to post them on our Facebook page and on our website at www.sealynews.com. Feel free to email them to me at editor@sealynews.com.
Oh, and please consider yourself challenged – so get to it!