Week 28: Why I'm starting to dislike Disney

I grew up loving Disney.  When I was a kid, my parents even took me to Disneyland quite a bit.  We had wonderful times there!  I’ve been there so far back that I can remember when we had to use tickets.  Tickets as in A, B, C, D, and E.  You only got 2 E tickets and so you would have to plan out what E rides you wanted to go on for that trip.  Oh those days were so fun!

Disney parks are still fun, but things are changing.  They’re changing and not for the better.  At least that’s my opinion.  There are good changes and bad changes, but I think the bad changes are becoming more prevalent than the good ones.

One good change is the Magic Band.  At Walt Disney World in Florida you can now get a Magic Band to wear around your wrist that will be your park entrance ticket as well as your room key if you’re staying at a Disney hotel.  You can attach a credit card to the band and even use it to charge things in the parks.  So basically you don’t even have to take a wallet or anything with you to any of the parks, you can just wear your Magic Band and you’re all set!  These things are even water proof so no more trying to keep track of your room key while you’re at the pool swimming.  You just wear the fantastic Magic Band, grab a towel, and head out!  This whole system sounds fantastic to me!

The bad changes, though…ugh.  They hit pretty hard.  Disney is deciding to take things away.  They’re deciding to make things more “PC” in the parks.  One of the first changes I was unhappy about was years and years ago.  Someone decided that in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride it was “sexist” for pirates to chase women.  The ride was changed around so that pirates no longer chased after women, but now the women chase the pirates around.  It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.  There is a whole scene in the ride where the pirates are auctioning off women, but they’re now supposed to be afraid of women? 

This one isn’t so bad, the old pirate running away from the “large” woman.  It does seem to make fun of large women, though. Then we have the iconic women auction in the ride.  There is a line of women being sold and a very large woman on the selling block.  Nearby stands a redheaded woman as the pirates all around yell “We wants the redhead!”  They’re clearly waiting for her to hit the action block and it’s a funny, iconic scene in the ride.

I LOVE this scene!  And now they’re going to take it away.  I’ve heard it’s been decided to make the redhead a pirate.  Maybe she’ll be running the auction selling off the other women?  I don’t know, but I don’t like it! Why would you change that scene?  What will be next to go?  Will they take away the burning of the town part?  Maybe that promotes riots and someone doesn’t like it?  Eventually Pirates of the Caribbean is going to become just another Small World ride where everyone is happy and singing and dancing!  I won’t even go into the Johnny Depp changes!  Oh, why can’t they just leave good things alone?

They took away the iconic hat at the Disney MGM Studios…or Hollywood Studios…or whatever the hell it’s called now.  They can’t even decide on a name for the park!

I loved the hat and the pin shop that was underneath it.  Too bad, because it’s been torn down.  People didn’t like that it obstructed the view of the Chinese Theater.  Did people like the Chinese Theater?  TOO BAD, that’s going to be refurbished now and the Great Movie Ride inside of it is going away, too!  Did you really like that ride?  TOUGH!  Better hope you have some video of it like I do!

New parks are being built for Disneyland and Walt Disney World.  Walt Disney World already has Pandora in the Animal Kingdom park.  That is based on a movie about a company trying to destroy a native people and steal their resources.  And now it’s featured at Disney!  HOORAY!  Did I like the movie, yes.  Do I think it should be in a Disney park?  No, not really.  Who the hell thought this would be a good idea?  Apparently it’s a success because the park is now jammed with people waiting hours to get on the two new rides.  I’m personally just not thrilled about it.

Did you like the Tower of Terror at Disneyland?  Too bad, that’s gone.  It was turned into a Marvel Comics Guardians of the Galaxy ride.  You can still ride Tower of Terror in Florida, but for how long? 

The next big thing will be Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land.  A Star Wars Resort hotel is supposed to be built.  They’re getting away from Disney things and moving on to things like Star Wars and Marvel Comics.  I wonder what the parks will look like in another 50 years?  Will there be any Disney stuff left?  So much of it seems to be going away now.

People sometimes ask what time period you would go to if you had a time machine.  I think I would go back to maybe 1980 or so and visit Disneyland.  Maybe go back to 1987 and visit Walt Disney World.  Am I sounding really old not liking these changes? 

So why am I disliking these changes to a theme park I can’t afford to go to more than once every few years now?  I don’t know.  Until next week, keep asking why.

Week 27: Why is vacation ending?

I’ve been on vacation for the past week.  It was fun, but why does it have to end?  Well for one thing, I think I need to get moving and not just lay around and relax all day.  That’s nice, and I may enjoy this for my “twilight years”, but for right not I’m not retired.  I need to get out and do something besides play video games and watch YouTube.

Now don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed my time off from work.  It was a lot less stress and I didn’t really have to deal with a bunch of stupid people.  But I didn’t really go anywhere and just stayed home and relaxed.  I’ve had vacations that were much harder to go back to work after they were over because I was exhausted after a long trip and needed a vacation from my vacation.  Take this vacation for instance:

Oh yes, that is a helium balloon taking me high up into the sky!  I was a little stressed during that ride as I kept imagining the cable in the middle holding the balloon in place snapping and then the balloon floating away with me in the basket.  Would I end up in Oz?  Maybe dead after the balloon went too high and popped and I plunged to the ground with all the other screaming people in the basket?  It was both quite frightening and quite a thrill at the same time!  You need a rest after things like that!  Here's a good shot of what the balloon I was riding in looked like:

That was during a vacation trip to Walt Disney World in Florida.  Trips there are both very fun and very exhausting!  Yes it was fun going up and seeing everything from high up, but it was also a bit stressful. 

I didn’t do too bad eating while I was on vacation this week.  I had a bit of fast food, but nothing crazy.  While on my trips to Florida and Walt Disney World I would pretty much eat whatever I wanted!  Even crazy stuff like this:

I don’t even remember what that was called, but it was huge and delicious!  I finished every last bite, too!  I was full to the brim!  I didn’t get anything like that this vacation.  I had a bit of chicken and some pork chops, but nothing like a pork shank!  Sadly they no longer serve these at Walt Disney World.  I don’t know why they stopped because they were my absolute favorite meal that I’ve ever had there!

Enough about food.  Yes, I ate a bit more sensibly this vacation than I would have on a fun trip somewhere.  And I relaxed more and wasn’t walking here and there trying to go everywhere and see everything during my week off.  I relaxed and it felt great!

Anyway, to keep this from getting too long, I didn’t really go anywhere for my vacation.  I did take a short trip to an IKEA store and that was fun for the 3 ½ hours I was there with my niece.  Maybe it was just fun because my niece was there?  We always have fun.  But I really only needed to decompress for a week.  It’ll feel good to get back to work, even if I’d rather be lounging around.

So until next week keep asking why, and I’ll try and figure out why vacation had to end.

Week 26: Why am I afraid?

Computers have become our lives now.  There are people out there who don’t have computers and don’t rely on electronic things I know, but I’m not one of them.  My life now runs through the electronic stuff I have.  That doesn’t mean I’m one of those zombies walking around staring at my cell phone all day.  It simply means most everything runs through computers for me now. 

When I go to work I spend all night using a computer.  The cameras I watch are controlled by computers.  I type log entries all night on computers.  And when I come home, I use my personal computer.  Or play with my Playstation 4 which is basically a computer used to play games.  I pay my bills using a computer.  I even order things with a computer.  Everything is electronic! 

So what happens if the electricity goes out?  What happens if one of my major electronic things like my personal computer stops working?  What if *GASP* the hard drive on my PC fails and I lose everything?  I thought that had happened on Friday.

Sometime Friday my power went out.  I know this because the fan in my room was shut off and it only goes off when the power is out.  I woke up hot and bothered.  After turning my *electric* fan back on, I walked out to where my computer is and of course it was also off.  So I tried to start it back up.  It wouldn’t start.  I was frozen with fear about that!  If the hard drive had went out I would lose a lot of stuff!  Photos, writing, all kinds of things I had on there!  I walked into my bathroom and threw up!  How could this be happening?

If my hard drive had went bad, I was not only out of all the saved stuff I had, I was also without a personal computer until I could install a new hard drive!  SHIT!  (I wouldn’t lose the book I had just written because I’m smart enough to back things like that up somewhere else.)  My poor computer just kept trying and trying to start, but nothing was happening!  Finally I wanted to have mercy on it and held in the power button to just shut everything down.  It didn’t shut down and seemed to be doing something else.  My computer was fighting!  Holding the power button down hadn’t shut it down, it had somehow given it the strength to fight on!  And then it flared to life on my monitor! 

So to make this long story short, my hard drive didn’t fail.  Everything is still working.  I’m quite happy about that.  But still, I worry about what will happen one day when my hard drive does actually fail.  It might, it might not.  You never know.  It’s a lifetime crap shoot.  I gamble with the hard drive every day.  Hopefully I’ll keep on winning!

And what if the power goes out someday and doesn’t come back on?  What the hell would we do in life then?  Have you ever even thought about that?  Where would you get your food from?  Grocery stores without power can’t sell food!  It’s insane to think about.  How about reading about it?  How about this:

Like this cover says, “What could you do?”  What happens to our lovely electronic society when there’s no more electronic stuff?  I’m sure British folks on a small British isle would handle it much differently than the crazy people in larger cities.  Take a look for yourself, though.  Read this book and think about what would really happen.  You’d certainly be asking yourself why then, wouldn’t you?

Click here to Buy Playing Havoc

Read this book and then ask yourself what you would do in that situation.  It’s one of my favorite books.  Would you survive, or would you become an animal and die in a few days because you don’t know how to survive?  Ask yourself why.

And keep asking why until next week.

Week 25: Why are these people in my way?

I’m finding more and more people in my way.  They’re everywhere!  And it’s not just crowds of people going places, it’s idiots who just stand there staring off into space or something like that!  I stopped at the store tonight and as I get to the entrance, I can’t go in because there’s two women standing in the doorway yapping away to each other.  They don’t even seem to notice that people are waiting to walk through the door!  Eventually they move, but what the hell?  They can’t find a better place than a doorway to have a conversation?

I get into the store and it seems like every aisle I go down there is someone with a cart parked in the middle of the aisle staring at the shelves.  They don’t even appear to be conscious to me.  I mean if you’re maybe comparing two products, that’s fine.  But to just stand there in the middle of the aisle and stare really freaks me out.

Now let’s move on to the zombies who walk around staring at their cell phone.  They don’t even seem to know or care where they’re going, they just walk along staring unblinkingly at the small electronic thing in their hand.

Wow, so people in New Jersey have a huge problem with texting and walking?  How about instead of handing out fines, they send out a guy with a Wiffle bat who smacks people in the head who are walking around starting at their phones or texting?  Ok, in case you don’t know what a wiffle bat is, it’s a hollow, plastic bat that comes with a plastic ball.  It wouldn’t really injure anyone you smacked, but it would most certainly hurt to get smacked in the head by one!

If you watch the above video one guy almost walks into a bear.  Maybe he deserved to get smacked by the bear?  And the very polite British people padded their street poles so that when the idiots over there walk into them, they won’t get hurt.  How lovely!  Let’s not fix the problem, let’s just try to make it more comfortable.

How about we pass a law that says if someone walks out in the road in front of you and is texting, you can legally run them over.  Or make it legal to hit someone with a Wiffle bat if they’re walking and texting.  Pass that law and guess what I’ll be taking to work!  That’s just the weight loss solution I need because I won’t spend my lunch time eating anymore, I’ll be roaming the hallways with my Wiffle bat getting plenty of exercise smacking the hell out of people!

Now I’m a nice guy.  I try to be nice to just about everyone I meet, but enough is enough.  If you walk into me because you’re staring at your phone, I won’t be nice.  In fact, I may even slap it out of your hand!  What the hell? And while we’re at it, I’m so tired of seeing idiots driving around texting on their phone, too. 

I was going to put up a video showing some texting and driving, but there’s actually nothing funny about that.  People wreck and die doing that.  STOP IT! 

Ok, enough venting for this week.  Until next week, keep asking why and get out of the shop doorway!  Stop staring at your phone while you’re driving and walking and PAY ATTENTION!

Week 24: Why is it so hot?

Why is it so hot?  Today it was 113 degrees outside.  That’s just too hot.  I really hate summer time in Las Vegas.  And I’ve lived her a couple of decades, so it’s not like this heat is some huge surprise to me.  I’m glad the place where I live has air conditioning and thrilled that I also have air conditioning in my car.  The car I drove before this one didn’t have any air conditioning.  I don’t know how I would handle not having air conditioning now!  I don't know how I handled driving that thing with no air conditioning then!  This is insane!  And the worst part is that it’s still going to get hotter!  The weather forecast for the next couple of days says it may get up to 117 degrees.  If you’re in Europe, that’s 47.2 degrees Celsius.  Lovely, huh? 

My electric bill is going to triple now because I’m going to run the hell out of my air conditioner!  I was only outside for a bit today, mostly running from my car to someplace inside, but the small time I was outside it was like walking through an oven!  When the wind blows it’s like having a heater blowing in my face!  GAH!

I’m not sure what else to write about for this week because for the most part this is what’s on my mind.  I hate the heat.  I think I need a vacation until it cools off here again.  That should be around December, maybe.  Or at least that’s how long it feels like it’ll be hot.  Actually it’ll probably cool down a bit by November, but let’s not quibble.

I’m sure there are plenty of people outside who are happy to run to the pool, and you’d damned well be running if you’re barefoot.  The pavement out in the sun will burn the hell out of your feet.  Maybe I should go to one of the local water parks?  That sounds fun, but not when it’s 117 degrees out.  I would go down one slide and then have to stand in line for the next slide in the damned heat!  So a water park sounds fun, but on the other hand, it still seems just so hot!  And then I think about getting sunburned.  Ugh, just not for me this year!

So does the water on the slides at these parks heat up?  I’m not sure I want to be going down a water slide in water that’s 117 degrees.  It’s been a while since I’ve went down a water slide.  It all sounds thoroughly unpleasant just because I don’t like the heat.  I’m more of a snow lodge kind of guy.  Call me in the winter time to go to some ski lodge and build a snowman.

“But Robert, there might be some really cute girls in bikinis at a water park!”  You’d be right to say that.  You might actually call them “hot” girls.  And they’ll certainly be sweating up a storm while they’re at the water park getting sunburned and fried by the sun.  I think I need to just stay inside for this summer.  Yucko heat!  I’m going to keep my air conditioner on and dream about making a snowman.  Maybe I’ll put my head inside my freezer for a few minutes.  Until next week, (when it’ll probably be even hotter!) keep asking why and try to stay cool!

Week 23: Why my niece is fun!

I have a niece named Tiffany.  I really love Tiffany and she’s fun for me to spend time with.  Tiffany is also a genius law school student.  So she’s learning to argue as a profession.  I argue as a hobby and always enjoy having discussions with her.

I’m not always the most cooperative with her, though.  In a way, that’s fun for me.  She doesn’t think it’s as fun as I do.  Right now she’s learning about “negotiation”.  I think she’s even taking a class in this.  She doesn’t have such an easy time negotiating with me.  *chuckle*  This weekend she asked for suggestions if she has to “negotiate” with someone who is like me.  I don’t know what to tell her.  I frustrate her when she asks questions and I only give her limited answers.

Tiffany:  Did you go see a movie earlier?

Me: Yes.

Tiffany:  What movie did you see?

Me:  Yes, I saw a movie.

Tiffany:  What was the title?

Me:  The title of what?

Tiffany:  The movie!  What was the title of the movie you saw earlier?

Me:  It wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.

Sometimes I give a bit of information, but she knows there’s more.  She wants the additional information, but I just don’t give it out!

Tiffany:  Do you know where the nearest gas station is?

Me: Yes.

Tiffany:  Well, where is it?

Me: Down the street nearby.

Now don’t think I just hassle my niece all the time, because it’s not like that.  We actually have quite a bit in common.  We do have chats where I give her all the information she wants occasionally.  And we do laugh at a lot of the same things.  And she does occasionally hassle me back.

As I said earlier, my nice is a law school genius.  She told me her mind is like a file cabinet and she stores and sorts through all the information she learns there.  I like to try and disorganize her files.  *chuckle*  While other 22 year old girls are asking for phone numbers, my niece asks me for my social security number so she can memorize it.  What the hell does she need that for?  Who knows?  She just said she’d like to have it “just in case”.  Right.  So I gave this smart girl my social.  Then while she’s trying to memorize it, I kept repeating other numbers trying to confuse her.  Sadly, that didn’t work at all and as I write this she can probably still spout those numbers off.  (Don’t be posting that number as a comment on facebook or my blog!)  Yes, she reads my blogs.  *chuckle*

On another note, last week I noticed a game was released called Elder Scrolls Online Morrowind.  At first I thought it was a remake of the old Morrowind video game I had played on my original Xbox.  That’s an old game!  A remake?  Meh, why would I want a remake?  But looking into things a bit deeper, I found out that this is an expansion for an online role playing game.  It looked interesting.  So you can run around and play by yourself with other players around you, or you can decide to team up with other characters.  Why not take a chance on this?  I figured I could order and receive the game for my Playstation 4 by last Thursday, and then have it all installed and updated by the weekend so I could play it then.  Sadly, that’s not what happened.

I did get the game Thursday morning (Fantastic delivery time by Amazon.com!) and slid the CD into my Playstation 4.  Checking the back of the case I find out the basic game takes up 85 gigabytes of space.  85 GBS!  Holy cow!  Well hopefully the graphics should be fantastic.  That’s the largest file I’ve ever installed anywhere on any kind of electronic devise!  Damn!  But that’s not the end of it!  Once it was installed on my Playstation, there is now over a 46 GB download to go along with it!  46 GB?  That’s going to take me almost a damn week to get downloaded, and that’s if I stay off the internet!  What the hell?  This had best be the greatest game in the history of games!

So I started the download slog.  Every so often I pause the download so I can watch YouTube, or Netflix, or just surf the web.  I end up watching other people on YouTube playing the Morrowind game!  It actually DOES look pretty good!  Now I can’t wait to play it!  As I write this, I have an approximate 33 hours left of downloading to do to complete the game so I can play it.  Sheesh, talk about anticipation!

Well, back to letting my 33 hour download continue.  I’ll probably pause it a few times to do a few other things so this will probably take me the rest of the week to finish.  Ah well, more time to text vague things to my niece.  *chuckle*

So why is my niece fun?  She just is!  And hopefully Morrowind will be fun too, if I ever get to play it.  So while I’m finishing up my download and annoying Tiffany, keep asking why!

Week 22: Why are lawyers like this?

Why do we need lawyers?  Shakespeare once wrote “Kill all the lawyers”. But in a society of law and order we need people to help uphold the laws besides police, I guess.  Highly paid people.  If you study law, you can become a judge, or maybe even run for political office.  I can run for political office without being a lawyer, but lawyers seem to have a better chance at winning in an election.  Maybe because they study laws?  Who better to make (or break) laws than an attorney?

Apparently “laws” are about arguing.  They aren’t a standard by which a society can be measured, they are points to be argued about.  If laws were simply rules to be followed, why do we need judges?  Why can’t we just program a computer with the laws and then when someone breaks a law, the lawyer they hire can bring the case to the computer.  Laws would be uniform then and you wouldn’t have to worry about rich, poor, famous, unknown, or anything like that.  The computer would state the laws and if you broke them, you received a penalty.

But no, laws are about arguing.  Arguing and sometimes fighting.  Sometimes you just have to bust some attorney’s head!  YOU HAVE TO TAKE THEM OUTSIDE AND… and…wait, that’s not really legal, is it?  That doesn’t really happen, does it?  I mean judges don’t really attack attorneys.  Except for this:

Judge beats up defense attorney

People in the courtroom applaud when the judge walked back into the court room!  Is this how we’re going to handle things now?  In case the full video didn’t play right in the article link I added, feel free to watch the YouTube video:

Actual courtroom video

That happened in Florida, and that place isn’t known for its law abiding citizens.  Many odd things happen in Florida. We don’t have any bad lawyers or judges in Nevada, do we?  Uh…well…

Lawyer's relationship with inmate

What…what the hell is that?  She went to law school and passed the bar exam to get a law license just to throw her career away to have relations with an inmate?  This is Harley Quinn from DC comics, only she’s not a psychiatrist treating the Joker, she’s a lawyer visiting some gang member in jail!

So much corruption!  Actually that’s only an example of two idiots.  So why do people want to be attorneys?  To get rich?  To “help” people?  Maybe they just like the law and detailed, complicated paperwork?  *chuckle*  Maybe a lot of prospective attorneys see the movie A Few Good Men and can imagine themselves in Tom Cruise’s role?

Yes, that was a bit of military law, but still a fantastic courtroom scene!  And I’m certain quite a few attorneys and law students would like to argue about how inaccurate it was.  It was still fun to watch though, wasn’t it?  Sadly, not too many attorneys get to be that guy.  Some law students read To Kill a Mockingbird, other see movies like From the Hip, or My Cousin Vinnie.  I'm sure there are lots of reasons people become attorneys.

So before I end this blog today I'll leave a video for my niece who is attending law school right at this moment.  A bit of inspiration for her for later on when she's asking why in some courtroom, or office, or whatever.

So why are lawyers like this?  I don't know, hopefully because some of them care.  *chuckle*  So until next time, keep asking why.  And argue with a law school student about why, too!