A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… Well, not really that long ago, and probably not too far away, but somewhere in this galaxy, thirty years ago, Star Wars was released in theaters for the very first time. May 25th, 1977 to be exact. I wasn’t born until after The Empire Strikes Back came out (1981), though rumor has it, my Uncle Drew took my parents to see it while it was in theaters, so it’s been in my blood.

Star Wars has always played a significant part of my entertainment in practically my entire life. I can’t even recall the first time I saw the original trilogy. If I consider my personal connection to various films, the Star Wars saga is probably the only one that I own merchandise outside of the film. Just sitting here, I realized that my desktop background is an image of A New Hope, I have a number of Star Wars LEGO sets on a shelf above my desk, I’m wearing a “Jedi Training Academy” T-shirt, I have a C3PO and a Clone Trooper Pez dispensers, and a Naboo fighter and Millennium Falcon suction-cup dangler things all within reach of my desk. I even have a photo of Kristen and my faces inserted in to a picture of Han Solo and Leia on a shelf a few feet away.

I’m a Star Wars geek, and I’ve managed to embrace it even further as I’ve gotten older. If you went in to my closet, you’d find a few Star Wars t-shirts; at least four that I can recall offhand. I have the Threadless Darth Vader Shirt that Seth desperately loves. T-Critic has a list of the 10 best Star Wars shirts, most of which I want to own.

If you looked in my iTunes library, you’d find a whole lot of Star Wars related content, including two or three releases of the soundtracks, a number of SW audiobooks, and the famed Star Wars Breakbeats album. The very first CD-ROM game I owned was Rebel Assault. If I were ever to get a tattoo (which I’m not), it would definitely have to be a rebel alliance logo. Maybe I’ll just find a sticker for my car of that.

So to celebrate the 30th anniversary, Kristen and I are going to watch A New Hope tonight. I’m going to turn the THX up to 11, and see how much we can annoy the neighbors. On Sunday, we are also going to Celebration IV to geek out even further.

May the Force be with you, always.