The Chronicle of Anthony K. Valley

Order Sixty-Six

What is Order Sixty-Six?

Order Sixty-Six is the climax of the Clone Wars.

Not the end — the Clone Wars will end some few hours from now, when a coded signal, sent by Nute Gunray from the secret Separatist bunker on Mustafar, deactivates every combat droid in the galaxy at once — but the climax.

It’s not a thrilling climax; it’s not the culmination of an epic struggle. Just the opposite, in fact. The Clone Wars were never an epic struggle. They were never intended to be.

What is happening right now is why the Clone Wars were fought in the first place. It is their reason for existence. The Clone Wars have always been, in and of themselves, from their very inception, the revenge of the Sith.

They were irresistable bait. They took place in remote locations, on planets that belonged, primarily, to “somebody else.” They were fought by expendable proxies. And they were constructed as as win-win situation.

The Clone Wars were the perfect Jedi trap.

By fighting at all, the Jedi lost.

With the Jedi Order overextended, spread thin across the galaxy, each Jedi is alone, surrounded only by whatever clone troops he, she, or it commands. War itself pours darkness into the Force, deepening the cloud that limits Jedi perception. And the clones have no malice, no hatred, not the slightest ill intent that might give warning. They are only following orders.

In this case, Order Sixty-Six.

Hold-out blasters appear in clone hands. ARC-170s drop back onto the tails of Jedi starfighters. AT-STs swivel their guns. Turrets on hovertanks swung silently.

Clones open fire, and Jedi die.

All across the galaxy. All at once.

Jedi die.

— Matthew Stover, “Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith” pages 348-349

Technorati Tags:
Star Wars, Episode III, Revenge of the Sith, Order Sixty-Six, Order 66, Jedi, Clone Wars

Outrageous Gas Prices in North Little Rock, Arkansas

On my way to work this morning, I saw this sign at a local gas station and had to take a picture to capture the moment.

The local EXXON station offers these fine choices:
Regular $21.90 per gallon
Plus $2.29 per gallon
Super $239.90 per gallon

I bought 4.5 gallons of the regular. It’s a good thing that the pumps have the decimals in the right places.

Corner of West Main Street and North Pershing (map)

Full size image

Technorati: Gas+Prices Exxon North Little Rock, AR Arkansas

Using phpBB as your MovableType comment engine

In the near future, I will be moving the In The Faith blogs to this commenting system. I hate filtering through comment spam, although Jay’s MT-Blacklist, does an excellent job, the comment management is TOO tedious.

Here’s a writeup which should at least help other people get MovableType (or anything else which is based on or can otherwise embed PHP) and phpBB working together, if they so desire. It’s not difficult (especially if you already have phpBB set up and working), but it’s time-consuming.

[ Full Story @ my life in plaid ]

Source: my life in plaid © 2005 My Life In Plaid

Keywords: Movable Type phpBB Comments Blacklist