Disney buys LucasArts alongside Lucasfilm

The Walt Disney Company purchased the rights to Star Wars with its acquisition today of Lucasfilm, the production company that makes Star Wars, and all of its subsidiaries. That includes video game developer and publisher LucasArts.

“Disney bought all Lucasfilm companies, including LucasArts. For the time being, all projects are business as usual. We are excited about all the possibilities that Disney brings,” Lucasfilm publicist Barbara Gamlen said. The original release notes that all LucasArts employees will remain on staff, but Disney executives did reference plans to focus on social and mobile Star Wars games as opposed to high-end console releases.

Yoda: “Into exile, I must go. Failed, I have.”

Elsewhere:

• What Does Disneys Acquisition of Lucasfilm Mean For the Galactic Empire?
• Star Was

#starwars

Elsewhere

• Slow Motion Chainsaw To A Blood-Filled Pumpkin Video

#photos #halloween

These are some big pumpkins for our Halloween festivities!

#photos #halloween

Deep Cleaning | Melody Beattie

It’s not wrong to feel anger but harboring it can have consequences we may not prefer. I want the peace we find to be the kind that results from deep, not surface, cleaning.

Not a fan of the cancer that spawns from forgiveness. It can be radiated with primal scream therapy, however.

#advancedsoul

The United States of Scary Things

Halloween is creeping up! In honor of the scariest of all holidays, here’s a map that shows you’ve got something to be scared about no matter which state you live in.

I got Zombie Lincoln, w00t!

#horror

Hermit Crabs Socialize to Trade Up for Larger Shells

Hermit crabs use abandon snail shells for homes, which they remodel by hollowing them out to make them bigger. Laidre says these empty snail shells are rare on land, so the best hope a hermit crab has of getting a new, larger shell as it grows is to kick another crab out of its shell. Laidre says that when three or more terrestrial hermit crabs congregate they quickly attract dozens of other crabs eager to trade. The hermit crabs then form a conga line from smallest to largest, with each holding onto the crab in front of it. Once a crab is wrenched from its shell, they all simultaneously move into larger shells. The unfortunate crab yanked out of its shell tends to wind up with the smallest shell.

“Yanking” just doesn’t sound social to me.

#naturerocks

Hurricane Sandy as captured by the International…

Hurricane Sandy as captured by the International Space Station crew earlier today. Looks like you’re in for a doozy, East Coast. Sandy happens to be the same type of storm that inspired the movie The…

Love the photo.

Elsewhere:

• 13 Vintage Photos of Hurricanes and Their Aftermath
• NASA Video Shows Superstorm Sandy From Birth to Landfall

#weather #cosmos

Below is an email exchange that shall interest you.

———— Original Message ————
Subject: Re: i knew but i didn’t know how much
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:38:32 -0500
From: tcr!
To: jimithesaint

Yep, we pay only for high-speed Internet through Comcast, the big cable TV provider. We used to have cable for the TV but dumped it a few years back.

We have two main online services for TV shows and movies:

- http://www.netflix.com/
- http://www.hulu.com/

The former we pay the $8 a month to watch as much as we want as often as we want. They have a good selection of old shows and movies.

The latter we go with the free plan and watch current episodes of shows as they become available. A good selection of “aired yesterday” shows. If you wanna pony up another $8 a month, you’ll get a nice archive of older stuff and full seasons.

Between the two of those, we have plenty to watch and so do the kids. Plus there’s always YouTube for quick comic relief or whatever. It took a little while for me to get used to “not” channel surfing but I think it’s better because when we do watch something, it’s because we want to watch it and just not because it’s on.

You can also buy TV shows and movies from iTunes and on Amazon.com to watch instantly. I never use either of those just because Netflix and Hulu do me just fine.

For radio, I use http://tunein.com/ and they have boatloads of stations. Most radio stations also stream their music, shows, etc. online and TuneIn basically puts them all in one easy to find/listen place. And it’s free. I listen to WBEZ, the local Chicago NPR but then also New York’s NPR and Minnesota’s. :-)

We have a couple of laptops and those are nice for putting on the bed to watch a sitcom or something. For movies, we have a Mac Mini hooked up to the TV in the basement. When we bought our big TV, that was one of the criteria — it must be easily connectable to a computer and most are now-a-days.

JZ has a Roku hooked up to her TV in her room — http://www.roku.com/ — and she can use our Netflix account to watch whatever as well. It can play other stuff, too but I don’t know much about it since it’s her thing.

So nuking the cable TV wasn’t a bad thing. And even better is that since over-the-air TV went digital a couple years back, just get an HD antenna and you’ll probably get 20 or so channels for free, just like the rabbit-ear days, but these channels will be crisp and clear. I’d wager that your ballgames and presidential debates will be on there.

I’d suggest giving Netflix’s free month trial a go and using Hulu’s and TuneIn’s free service and see how it works for ya. Plus, if you can’t find your must-see-it movie, just go rent it for your Blu-Ray.

Any other thoughts?

———— Original Message ————
Subject: i knew but i didn’t know how much
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2012 02:47:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: jimithesaint
To: tcr!

i was watching francis ford coppola’s “dracula” and started reading a comments page about it. it’s obvious that it was on cable this month due to the recent dates on the posts.

i was completely entertained by how serious everyone takes their opinion. all with the safety of anonymity behind them. it was ridiculous. how ambitious and proud they were of their wordcraft. and how sensitive some were to the opinions of others.

i knew this kind of thing went on, IE: chat rooms, but it was such an eye opener. one person would offer an opinion and someone would respond as if it were IMPORTANT to correct the first one. and then it exploded.

i’d like your advice on the whole cable thing. we have our phone and internet bundled, so we have been pretty tied up. we just bought the blu-ray box and are moving toward less cable. we don’t watch too much network programs, and the only sports i watch are baseball. mostly what i watch are old movies or old tv shows. elaine likes old tv shows, ones that are on A&E or USA type networks.

anything you think and how to go about it. i remember you telling me while i was at your house that you get it all or most off the internet. i assume you must pay for an internet connection. are you then able to get network tv and/or radio off the net?

please advise.

#email #tv

elaineorr writes:

Free on Saturday and Sunday — Any Port in a Storm.

You don’t need a Kindle to read it — you can download to your computer. Lots of laughs in this one.

http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Gentil-Mystery-Series-ebook/dp/B0098CF7RC/

Elaine L. Orr
Sept. 17th — Any Port in a Storm
www.elaineorr.com
@elaineorr55 Follow me on Twitter
Links to all books at: www.amazon.com/author/elaineorr, or BN & Smashwords.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968).

#literature

How time flies… 6 years ago this month that I left.

#photos #coffee #microsoft