The last time I started lobbying for a Christmas present in February I was seven years old.

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In my post-Star Wars bliss, I spent some time in Logic today creating a set of BB8 Ringtones from various BB8 audio snippets I found on the web. These are formatted for iTunes and ready to go. Enjoy.

Download BB8 Ringtones ZIP

So here I am in line for a movie that’s not going to start for another 6 hours and I’m giddy like a schoolboy. Tonight I’m going to see a new Star Wars movie. I get to hear a new John Williams score. I get watch the snap-hiss of a lightsaber igniting. 

After the prequels, I swore I’d never let myself get all jacked up about Star Wars again but I’ll be damned if I’m not sitting here wearing Star Wars shoes. That’s right. Shoes.

There was something special about being nine years old in 1977 and walking into that theater. It was an inflection point in my life and here I am at 47, middle aged on the outside and still nine years old on the inside.

If you are also in line or thinking about a galaxy far, far away right now, why not check out this sweet, sweet Star Wars Playlist I made in Apple Music. It’s got some choice Williams but also Star Wars music in several different genres, including disco. Yup. I just wrote “disco” on this blog. That’ll probably never happen again.

Disneyland just did a bang-up job of turning Tomorrowland into Star Wars-land, at least temporarily. My wife posted some great photos and video. Also, I guested on a recent episode of Rebel Force Radio to give my report from the field. If you just want to hear the Disneyland part with me, it starts at 1:25:20.

This week I appeared on the most recent episode of Star Wars Rebel Force radio where we talked about the most recent episode of Star Wars Rebels. There’s a great disturbance in the force right now that results from a bunch of nerds’ giddiness at getting a new movie. I’m so in.

One of the advantages of having a Disney blogger wife is that I get the inside scoop on goings-ons with the company that owns Star Wars, Marvel, and a few successful theme parks. This past weekend I attended the D23 convention in Anaheim and woke up way too early to get in line for the big keynote on live action films over the next few years. It was a lot of fun. I got to see J.J. Abrams, the Star Wars episode VII cast (including Harrison Ford), Ben Kingsley, Lupita Nyong’o, and more.

They didn’t have much to add about Star Wars and weren’t ready to give us another trailer so instead, they gave us a cool movie poster and unveiled the fact that Disney is going to build 14-Acre Star Wars themed lands in Disneyland in California and Hollywood Studios in Florida. All we saw was concept art and a short video but it looks to be really fun. At several points during the presentation Bob Iger (Disney CEO) mentioned how the experience will be immersive. Not only will you go into a cantina, you’ll interact with the wretched hive of scum and villainy while you are there.

Having visited Universal’s Harry Potter World last year, I can’t help but feel that this immersive Star Wars experience is a direct response. Universal did such a great job with Harry Potter. It was the first time I was truly impressed with a non-Disney theme park and I’m sure Disney took notice. After the presentation I spoke with some Disney Imagineers and when I raised the issue of Universal’s Harry Potter you could see that they were more than a little “motiviated” to exceed it with Star Wars. Let’s hope that Disney corporate gives the Imagineers the budget and support they need to deliver.

I’ve received several emails complaining about the gallery of Star Wars: The Force Awakens props and concept art I posted last week. I don’t understand why people are complaining since I explained in the post there’d be spoilers. Nevertheless, I do feel a little bad so this week I’m posting this spoiler free trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakes created by fellow Mac geek, Taz Goldstien. Enjoy.

Obi-Wan has always been my favorite Star Wars character. I love that he always tries to do what’s right and to this day, as a 45-year-old nerd, I still ask myself on occasion, “What would Obi-Wan do?” 

One problem that has never sat right with me though was the way he lied to Luke about his father. It turns out, he really didn’t want to do that but instead did it at Yoda’s request. There is some cutting room floor footage from Episode VI where Yoda states, on his death bed, “Obi-Wan would have told you [about the true fate of Anakin Skywalker] long ago, had I let him.” This didn’t make the film but gives my beloved Obi-Wan some (but not all) redemption on this point. 

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I just spent way too much time looking at paper based spacecraft. You can too.