From the Star Wars fan page on Facebook
Happy Star Wars Day! Yes, it really is, at least according to both Wikipedia and Wookieepedia. To celebrate, here's a linkspam.

Denver Post: Photos: Star Wars Day – “May the fourth be with you”

Google News results for Star Wars Day.

I Can Haz Cheezeburger's Happy Star Wars Day site.

Posts with the Star Wars tag on I Can Haz Cheeseburger's Set Phasers to LOL

Watch out tomorrow, for then it will be The Revenge of the 5ith!

BEST WEBCOMIC POLL: The finalists are in! Vote for your favorite

Comic Riffs spent weeks bobbing through the deluge of titles (picture ”Fantasia,” only with awesome hyperlinks) after we put out a call for nominations for your favorite webcomics.

In high volume came forth the hard-boiled shamen and the girls with slingshots. And flooding in swam the treacherous Oatmeal-lapping dolphins. And hark — sometimes leading the swell was a Vagrant with a Napoleonic complex.

Today, having waded through the waist-high “Black Snow”-banks, Comic Riffs presents the Top-20 finalists as picked by you.

As Super Tuesday subsides, Webcomic Wednesday begins and ‘Riffs opens the ballot box — you can pick your single favorite webcomic. (The voting booth will stay open till March 30 at midnight.)

Let the polling begin.

Right now, Homestuck is well ahead of Girl Genius for first place. Krosp is not amused.

The university even issued a press release about it.

Michigan State University: Student video goes viral
Published: Feb. 15, 2012

The lives of twins Justin and John Grosjean changed when they released a video - "Skyrim: 2012" to their channel on YouTube.

Justin, a media arts and technology senior at Michigan State University, and his brother John, a student at Oakland University, have always loved the games produced by the company Bethesda Softworks. They began making videos about six months ago and it was only natural that they wanted to make a video out of one of the games they love - Skyrim.

But they didn't expect it to be such a big hit.
...
The number of subscribers to their YouTube channel also went through the roof, from 66 to almost 15,000 in a week. The video currently has almost 2 million views, and their channel has more than 23,000 subscribers.
...
The Grosjean brothers have officially made GrosBrosPros a limited liability corporation and are also now partners with YouTube, meaning they will continue to produce content on a regular basis. The film event coordinator for the Phoenix Comic Con reached out to the brothers and asked if he could show their films at the event. They produced a follow up video to their original success called "Skyrim 2012: Part Two," which has almost 290,000 views. The Grosjeans hope to eventually grow from making web episodes to feature-length films.

In case you can't see Michigan State University's video at the link in the headline, the YouTube version is here.

Yes, really.


Return of the Jedi

So how are we feeling about Star Wars: The Old Republic? I just finished installing and patching this morning. I played around with some character creation, but haven't a chance to do much else. But even in doing that little bit, I realized how dated WoW's graphics really are. I suppose that's a good thing in some ways--WoW can run on almost game PC, at this point.

Either way, I'd love to have a new game on my list. I'm a little pissed about WoW actually adding the panderan. It just feels like more comic relief.

If I weren't a fan of Coates before, I am now. SQUEE Awesome!

Athhilezar? Watch Your Fantasy World Language

“The days of aliens spouting gibberish with no grammatical structure are over,” said Paul R. Frommer, professor emeritus of clinical management communication at the University of Southern California who created Na’vi, the language spoken by the giant blue inhabitants of Pandora in “Avatar.” Disney recently hired Mr. Frommer to develop a Martian language called Barsoomian for “John Carter,” a science-fiction movie to arrive in March.

The shift is slowly transforming the obscure hobby of language construction into a viable, albeit rare, career and engaging followers of fantasies like “Lord of the Rings,” “Game of Thrones” and “Avatar” on a more fanatical level.

At “Game of Thrones” viewing parties in San Francisco, fans rewatched Dothraki scenes to study the language in a workshop-like setting. Last October, a group of Na’vi speakers from half a dozen countries convened in Sonoma County, Calif., for a gathering known as “Teach the Teachers.” Mr. Frommer gave attendants tips on grammar and vocabulary and fielded any questions they had about the language. The rural, wooded setting felt “almost like being on Pandora,” he said. At a question-and-answer session in July that he participated in, at least a dozen attendants rattled off their questions in fluent Na’vi.

“There’s been a sea change in Hollywood. They realize there’s a fan base out there that wants constructed languages,” said Matt Pearson, a linguistics professor at Reed College in Portland, Ore. He created Thhtmaa (pronounced tukhh-t’-mah), the language of termite-like aliens in the short-lived NBC series “Dark Skies"

In case you're wondering, Klingon is mentioned on the second page of the article

HuffPo: 7 Life Lessons You Can Learn From 'Star Trek'

Thanks to George Takei on Facebook for this link.

Literary Matchmaking: Characters Who Would Date in Real Life

Tuesday marked the release of Jeffrey Eugenides’s third novel, "The Marriage Plot", a modern take on Victorian matchmaking novels and the women who love them.

We adored the book, and all its protagonist’s Jane Austen talk, coupled with her own love triangle, got us to thinking about pulling an Emma and trying a little literary matchmaking of our own. We’ve already taken a stab at guessing which literary characters would be best friends in real life, but of course, when love is involved, the stakes are a little higher.

Click through to check out the literary characters we think would totally fall for each other if they met in real life, and let us know your own ideas for star-crossed lovers in the comments.

Among the pairings are Arya Stark and Ender Wiggin, Hermione Granger and Artemis Fowl, and Willy Wonka and Mary Poppins. Bonus pairings (and surprisingly little wank) in comments.

The Daily Telegraph: Chile superheroes dance for education reform
Hundreds of caped avengers dance in downtown Santiago, as part of a demonstration for education changes.

NBC 9 News in Colorado: Superheroes fight for Chilean education reform.
Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman demonstrated for education reform in Chile Monday night.

BBC: Student 'Superheroes' protest in Chile

Commentary on ontd_political and Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

In addition to the big three from DC Comics, I also recognized Huntress, Poison Ivy, Sailor Moon, the Mad Hatter, and Mario and Luigi. It was a true geek riot.

The Huffington Post: Butterbeer: How the Harry Potter Beverage Was Made Real

By now, even the dimmest of Muggles knows that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a smashing success. Ever since this theme-park-within-a-theme-park opened at Islands of Adventure at the Universal Orlando Resort, people have been raving about the "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" attraction as well as Hogsmeade's highly-themed shops and restaurants.

But when you get right down to it, what's the most successful aspect of The Wizarding World? 'Forbidden Journey''s state-of-the-art ride system? The dazzling effects that theme park visitors experience whenever they visit Ollivander's wand shop? Or -- for that matter -- the overall look of Hogwarts Castle and Hogsmeade Village? Which make you feel as though you've stepped inside one of the "Harry Potter" movie?

And the answer is... none of the above. Based on surveys that UOR employees have done, the greatest Guest Satisfier in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, that piece-of-the-magic that people most wish that they could take home and share with friends and family... is a beverage. Butterbeer, to be precise.

The story of how butterbeer became reality at the link in the headline.

This is kinda old (circa 2007), but in light of the recent release of On Stranger Tides, I thought it would be fun to mention. What follows is an excerpt from Pirates of the Caribbean screenwriter Terry Rossio, as part of his disjointed notes during the shooting of At World's End:

In the midst of filming, we all become more and more aware of the fan base. People are talking about something called 'shipping' which, if you're working on a pirate film, can be a bit confusing, as we do have a lot of ships, and they do have personalities. Eventually it becomes clear that 'shippers' and 'shipping' is derived from the word, 'relationship' and is shorthand for fans who are promoting different romantic entanglements among the characters. So if you were in favor of the Jack Sparrow/Elizabeth Swann pairing, that would make you a Sparrabether, or Sparrabeth shipper. As opposed to the Willabethers, who were in favor of Will and Elizabeth romance. I explain it to Gore [Verbinski, the director] in between shots and he responds with a bemused, pained look and goes back to work...

Yahoo! News has image and story.

Never has this icon been more appropriate.

Corrects source of name for Met pitcher's bat. It turns out he's a Tolkien fan. Imgur has the details.

Leftist politics and cosplay? What?

From Mother Jones:

The Anime Within

Inside are ten photos. Those of you who cosplay should pay attention to the comments; some of the commenters display far more of a clue than the photographer. Other commenters, though, are just like the worst anti-weeabo people on 4Chan; they're even posted under "Anonymous."

Also, old feature is old (November 2007), but as far as I could tell, it hadn't been posted here during the past three plus years. ETA: Link fixed.

Raw Story: Felicia Day discusses her web series ‘The Guild’

CNN’s Poppy Harlow interviews actress, script writer and producer Felicia Day about The Guild, an American comedy web series. Day explains how she build her business to what it is today, including how to grow a brand online and attract a large following.

CNN Money video at the link.

Following up on my previous post on university teams playing Quidditch.

UCLA Quidditch

Inspired by the famous "Harry Potter" book and film series, Quidditch is the newest sport to sweep the UCLA campus and the rest of the world. UCLA is actively involved in the International Quidditch Association's Western Regional Division. Learn about this unique sport and its players who made Quidditch a bona fide club sport team at UCLA. "Fantasy becoming a reality does not happen nearly as often as it should."

YouTube Video at the link. Right now, that video has more views than either of the videos UCLA posted about their men's basketball team in the NCAA Tournament within the same 24 hour period.

Eastern Michigan University isn't the only one of my four alma maters that plays organized Quidditch. UCLA does as well. The University of Michigan also has a team Even California State University, Northridge, which has the least school spirit of any of my four alma maters, has a Facebook page for people trying to organize a team.

So, three of my four alma maters have Quidditch teams and the fourth is trying. How about yours? 

Detroit Free Press: Mayor Bing: Detroit won't build RoboCop statue
By STEVE NEAVLING

Sci-fi fans won't take no for an answer: A statue of RoboCop must be erected in Detroit.

What started as a single suggestion for the statue on Mayor Dave Bing's Twitter account Monday ballooned into an international cyberspace debate Tuesday about the merits of immortalizing the 1987 science-fiction classic based on the city with a statue. Local supporters are planning petitions and protests.
"There are not any plans to erect a statue of RoboCop," Bing wrote on his Twitter account. "Thank you for your suggestion."

"There are not any plans to erect a statue of RoboCop," Bing wrote on his Twitter account. "Thank you for your suggestion."

His rejection unleashed a wave of responses from both sci-fi fans and others amused by the debate.

Comments are pretty failtastic, but the earlier version of this article has comments that are actually kinda funny.

And now, something more positive from one of my alma maters.

Eastern Michigan University: Some EMU students find competitive spirit through the magic of quidditch
By Amy E. Whitesall

Anyone who's seen the Harry Potter movies or read any of the wildly popular novels by J.K. Rowling knows a thing or two about quidditch. The official sport of the wizarding world, it's a physical, fast-moving aerial game, played by characters on flying broomsticks.

Well, quidditch has come down to earth. In November, Eastern Michigan's Flying Squirrels Quidditch Team competed against the world's best at the Fourth Annual Quidditch World Cup in New York City. The competition featured about 20 teams playing over the course of two days on four fields in Manhattan's Dewitt Clinton Park.

Middlebury College beat Tufts 100-50 in the championship game.

Much more about muggle quidditch at the link.

Particularly of interest because it links to the Paula Smith fic that originally coined the term.

http://www.salon.com/books/writing/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2010/04/21/mary_sue

ETA: And while we're all here, the distributor of Downfall is pulling the Angry Hitler clips ("I like his music as much as the next Nazi!") from YouTube, so get 'em while you can.
http://www.salon.com/life/youtube/index.html?story=/ent/feature/2010/04/20/hitler_finds_out

Today's Boston Globe has an article about fan fiction: The new adventures of old Skywalker, by Vanessa E. Jones. "As fan fiction gains respect, opportunities expand for the genre's writers." Basically, it's about fan writers who go pro. Naomi Novik is mentioned. FanLib is not.

You might have to register to read it.