Disney now owns our childhood

Where were you on that fateful day, October 30, 2012?

You know the one I'm talking about. The day the earth moved, shifting on its axis, when millions of voices weren't silenced, but instead exploded onto Twitter to vent outrage or glee?

Yes, that was the day that news came out of Disney buying Lucasfilm (and all that it owns) for $4 billion.

Believe it or not, I was actually in an office meeting. I had a dead spot in the meeting while the others were looking at things that they needed to talk about and I fired up my phone and checked Twitter. I'm sure my eyes widened when I saw the first thing that popped up.

Twitter became a madhouse for the next two hours at least. The productivity of nerds (hey, that's a great name for a band!) all across the country probably plummeted toward zero at a lightning pace.

All for $4 billion.

Is this a good thing?

Internet Hate and Why It's So Prominent

On my way home from work today, I was listening to one of my favourite podcasts, the Lasertime show put on by a bunch of the guys who used to do Talk Radar. (For those of my fans who don't read my media/pop culture posts, please keep reading. I only use some of those for reference points in order to make a larger point)

The subject of this particular episode isn't important, but as usual they all went off on tangents anyway, and one of them was on the incessant need for some people on the Internet to hate things. Especially popular things. And to hold onto this hate beyond any sense of rationality.

It really is a phenomenon that I have seen from time to time, though thankfully not too much recently. The reason for that is more where I hang out than because it's quieting down. Because it's certainly not doing that.

I feel your pain, Benny

You find this a lot in relation to various pop culture things like movies, games, books, television, and things like that. People have this irrational need to get into long, pointless arguments about things that really don't matter in the grand scheme of things. Who would win in a fight: Galactus or Darkseid? Did Han Solo really shoot first when he killed Greedo, or is Lucas lame for making that change? Which Star Wars movie is the worst one? Just how many women out there would love to date me if I wasn't already taken? (Believe me, those arguments are legion and have gone on for fourteen years or so. It's also been responsible for a catfight or two)

I've graduated beyond these for the most part, and I've never taken part in them. Now I read (mostly) civilized debates on policy and stuff like that. I still occasionally check out game fora and the like, and you've never seen Internet hate until you've seen the comments in a post about Activision's Call of Duty franchise. The anti-Activision rants can reach legendary proportions.

So why do people on the Internet hate so much?

RIP - Elisabeth Sladen: Doctor Who is missing something today

The Doctor Who world, as well as British television, were rocked yesterday by the news that Elisabeth Sladen had passed away.

Sladen played Sarah Jane Smith, one of the most popular Doctor Who companions ever. She was loved by millions of Who fans around the world. For many of us, she was the first companion we were familiar with, much as Tom Baker was our first Doctor.

Sarah was my first companion, and yes, I admired her good looks (I was 12 when I first discovered the show, keep in mind). But I also admired the intelligence she was written with, for the most part. The role of the companion in the old Doctor Who series was mainly to look good and to be the Doctor's sounding board, taking the audience's place by asking "What is that, Doctor?" so he could explain what was going on. Somehow, Sarah rose above that. She had a mind of her own, and she very rarely screamed. When she did, you knew it was something scream-worthy, too. Towards the end of her tenure, the writers got away from this a bit, and I think that might be why she left.

Zombies at the funeral home - looking for family?

Have you ever seen an advertisement that just seemed to be put in a bad place? The advertisement's not bad, but either the timing or the placement in the newspaper just happens to coincide badly with what's around it.

That can happen with billboards, too, as it did in Durham County, Great Britain.

Many of you have heard of the hit series The Walking Dead on AMC, right? I didn't watch it, but I have heard a lot about it. It's a show about a zombie apocalypse, and it's supposed to be really good.

It seems that it has made its way over to the British Isles now. Of course, they have to advertise it, right?

How about right next to a funeral home?

(Photo courtesy of the Daily Mail)

Yeah, that part didn't go over quite as well.

"An advertising firm has been blasted after a billboard for The Walking Dead was put on the wall of a funeral parlour in Consett, County Durham.

An apology has been issued after the ad for The Walking Dead appeared on the side of The Co-operative Funeralcare.

Susan Jones, from the Willow Burn Hospice, in nearby Lanchester, said that while some people may see the funny side, others would not."

Personally, *I* find it hilarious, but I may not have if I'd been headed to dear ol' Grandpa's funeral in there when I saw it.

Thankfully, as soon as the company realized how bad this looked, they quickly removed it.

This was before anybody complained.

"Councillor Owen Temple, who represents the Consett area on Durham County Council, said he was aware of the billboard, but had not received any complaints.

He said: 'Some will be amused, but others may be offended. It left me unmoved.'

Gotta love that British resolve (not to mention gift for understatement).

How about you? Hilarious or distasteful?

Any other hilariously inappropriate ad placements (or any other similar occurrences) you can think of?