As I've mentioned an insufferable number of times, I watch more YouTube than any other media source. It's playing 90% of the time on my television while I'm working, and it runs the gamut when it comes to topics.

Here's the previous five videos which are in my watch history for you to enjoy when you can't find anything good on TV.

First is this trailer for an upcoming movie about... SHEEP DETECTIVES?!?...

A 30 second video where The Good Liars ask a very good question...

Sigourney Weaver breaks down some of her most famous roles...

Thomas Flight picked his favorite films of 2025...

And, lastly, this glorious two hour video takedown of a notorious scammer and fraudster...

You're welcome!

LOL.

Yesterday I mentioned that I had watched the latest installment of the Knives Out franchise of films. This morning I forgot who played Father Jud (Josh O'Connor) I got an interesting result returned.

Sit back and enjoy...

What's even better? They got Daniel Craig to watch it...

BEIGNET BLANC! BWAH HA HA HA HAAAAA!

And I'm dead.

I finally got around to watching the third installment of the Knives Out trilogy: Wake Up Dead Man, and really enjoyed it. I know many people are saying that it eclipsed the second film but isn't as good as the first. Probably true. Though, upon rewatching it, I've grown more and more fond of Glass Onion. I think it did a very good job of adding some depth to Benoit Blanc, and the cast was sublime. Especially Janelle Monáe, who I don't know as an actor but a musician. She was phenomenal playing a character playing a character. You wouldn't think that somebody with such little acting experience could have pulled that off so beautifully, but she did.

As with the past movies, Wake Up Dead Man has a stacked cast, all of whom are flawlessly cast and give a great performance. You already know that Daniel Craig, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott, Jeffrey Wright, Jeremy Renner, and GLENN CLOSE are going to kill it... but Mila Kunis holds her own as a police chief and Josh O'Connor in the lead role as Father Jud does not falter scene after scene...

Basically... assistant priest Father Jud is suspected of murdering the charismatic head priest at an upstate New York parish. The local police chief calls in master detective Benoit Blanc to solve the mystery and an interesting case unfolds.

If you liked previous installments of Knives Out then you will probably like this one, which is a bit darker in tone. Writer/director Rian Johnson knows how to craft a good mystery (which makes the cancelation of Poker Face all the harder to take), so I hope Netflix isn't finished with the franchise just yet. This film could have used more backstory for Benoit Blanc, and I am looking forward to that possibility in future installments.

If we're lucky enough to get any.

Not sure if it's in the news where you live, but my home state of Washington is in a bit of a serious pickle. Instead of precipitation taking the form of fluffy snow like we used to always get this time of year, it's instead coming down as rain. Way too much rain.

We've got serious flooding going on, and it's been so bad that sections of a vital East/West roadway via Highway 2 over the mountains has washed away. It's pretty bad, and I don't know if they will be able to reopen it for months. Which is to say that it may not reopen until Spring, at the earliest.

And now we have one route left that's feasible... assuming you don't want to add 5+ hours to your journey by traveling South through the Columbia Basin, then West over to Portland, then North again to Puget Sound. And since I am assuming that's not time you have to waste, it's just the I-90 corridor that's viable. And heaven only knows what happens if that gets shut down.

I guess those of us East of the Cascade Mountains have to do what they did in pioneer times, and just hunker down for Winter and accept that Seattle is not accessible.

Or, you know, hop on a plane.

Something I haven't done in years and years because I was usually only doing that if I was connecting to a flight out of Seattle. But the connections have gone from bad... to worse... to abysmal, and so there's no real incentive given the additional cost.

Somebody really, really needs to invent transporters like they have on Star Trek so I'm not having to come up with worst-case scenarios so close to bedtime.

I got back home Saturday and immediately knew I was in trouble.

I was so exhausted from the preceding ten days that I knew there was no way I could recover in the half day I had before jumping back into work on Sunday. So I didn't. Instead I jumped back into work Saturday afternoon... spent Sunday morning doing nothing... then finished up with the work I had due today on Sunday evening.

What a stupid plan that was.

I felt completely wiped all day today and wish that I had given myself a bit of a break last night. But there's nothing I can do about it now.

Except head to bed early and see if I can make it up to myself.

Your Disney adventure with me is not over just yet... because a very special, all new, all Disney Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Remy 2D! One of the attractions I was sure to ride was Remy's Ratatouille Adventure at the France Pavilion in Epcot. I've always liked it as a clever and fun ride that finally gave World Showcase an E-Ticket ride. Recently they took out the need for 3D glasses, and I wanted to see if it's as good. It isn't. The 3D immersion was very well done. It wasn't a gimmick, it really added to the attraction's experience. Now it's just looking at a flatter, less interesting visual on screens. Not only that, but it's more blurry... especially at the beginning. I wish they hadn't downgraded it, but I can see how it would be better for people who are missing an eye or have very poor eyesight since they won't need to wear 3D glasses over their regular glasses. I just wish that the ride was in 3D most of the time, but had a few 2D showings for people who need that.

   
• Track 3! Another attraction which got downgraded? Test Track. They tore out a lot of the ride to "update" them, but it's just not as fun and doesn't really make much sense now. On top of that, the very end has been completely redone where you drive through a very large domed screen showing the future of automobiles, which feels like an abrupt end to a ride that's been gutted. It's a bizarre choice, and kinda undercuts what made the attraction such a classic.

   
• Together! Not really an upgrade or a downgrade, the new Zootopia: Better Together ride which replaced A Bug's Life: It's Tough to Be a Bug in Animal Kingdom feels like a sidegrade. It seems like they just re-skinned the bugs into Zootopia characters and called it a day. Even though I really like both Zootopia movies, I'd probably give the edge to It's Tough to Be a Bug because it was an original instead of a re-theme and wasn't aging poorly at all. I suppose Disney probably did it do to the popularity of the newer films more than anything else.

   
• RoboLincoln! I haven't been to Disneyland since they installed the Walt Disney animatronic. Which is to say that I haven't seen it in person, only in photos. And every time I'm thinking two things... 1) This does not look like Walt Disney... and 2) I wonder what he looks like with all his skin removed? Because I've seen photos of other animatronics, and they always look so clunky. I was reminded of this when I saw Abe Lincoln while at Disney World...

And it's like... does a modern animatronic look like this underneath? I sure hope not. This is totally giving FemBot vibes...

Remember in The Bionic Woman where they suspected Oscar Goldman was a fembot so they dropped that pencil and Oscar stepped on it and crushed it and you were like "ZOMFG! OSCAR GOLDMAN IS A FEMBOT!!!" and your mind was blown because you thought fembots could only be lady robots and here we are with a man robot?? Yeah. Good times. I don't know why they can't successfully reboot The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. Such a great concept.

   
• Immersive! There's a lot of tossing around of the word "immersive" when it comes to theme parks. Disney used to be the absolute master of this. But that hasn't been true in a minute. Probably since Animal Kingdom opened. That was the last time that there was a coherent vision behind a project that wasn't just shitting out IP everywhere, even when it makes no sense. For example... just look at this sign for bathrooms that Animal Kingdom has...

It's brilliant. Everything from how they say it to how they write it (you can still see the guides they drew before painting the words!) looks like it belongs in an authentic setting. They could have just put up a regular "bathrooms" sign, but they wanted to maintain an illusion, so they did something to make that happen. Now-a-days Disney just slaps one of their characters on a sign and calls it good. No effort to build a narrative or show any imagination... just put Mickey on it and you're done. It's really sad.

   
• Hamm! To end this post, I want to point out that the Toy Story section of Disney Hollywood Studios puts out a giant Hamm frosted sugar cookie for decoration for the holidays...

This is so cute that they really should have many, many more characters as sugar-cookies for the holidays!

   
And, just like that, your Disney adventure is over just like mine!

PLEASE TO EXPLAIN CAT!

Jake and Jenny always know when I'm leaving on a trip. They sense it somehow, I guess.

My travel plans for my recent trip were delayed, so I decided to clean the Litter-Robots before I left to Florida instead of having everything be frozen outside when I got back. I finished hosing out the downstairs robot first, then tackled the upstairs robot. AND WHILE I WAS SCRUBBING IT OUT ON THE FRONT LAWN, Jenny decided to USE THE KITTY LITTER BUCKET as the toilet...

NO idea how she fit into it. No clue. But litter was pitched out from her trying to cover it, so she took the job seriously.

Then I left for my trip.

And while I was gone, I was checking in on Jake and Jenny the whole time via my security cameras. It was wild. But the most wild was this... before I left I put a protective blanket over the dining room table. I've started doing this more and more even when I am home because it's the one thing I can't seem to keep my cats off of. I think it's because it's so close to their food bowls. And the kitchen and the stairs and the living room. It's a central space where they can see the entire first floor when they're on top of it. I got tired of scrubbing it with vinegar constantly, but when I put a covering on it I only have to scrub it when people will be eating on it.

ANYWAY... I kept watching as the blanket was falling further and further off the table. I think they were chasing or fighting each other on it, and once it started falling off the table it just kept going little by little as they climbed up there again.

Then one day I noticed that it was almost all the way off the table AND a chair was rocked back. So I scrolled back to find out what happened. And it was exactly what I thought it would be.

Jenny was on the table while her brother was on the part of the blanket which was on the floor. She looked down and saw him there and decided to pull some Jenny shit. She goes to jump on him, snags the chair, and it falls over... until it locks under the table...

And how did the blanket get all the way off the table? Jake decided he wanted to sleep on the chair that was locked under the table, of course! Never mind that he's at an angle, he was apparently comfortable enough to sleep there multiple times until I got home. Here he is in the chair getting up and turning around so he can go to sleep...

So... yeah. Cats are weird. There's no denying it.

Breakfast on the ship for my group was 6:45. Fortunately I didn't stay up late, so it wasn't a big deal. My suitcase was packed yesterday, so I pretty much just had my small backpack and a bag of souvenir mugs I bought.

And then there was disembarking the ship.

In all the many years of cruising with my mom, I have never experiences a total cluster-fuck like I did this morning on the Disney Wish. It was mind-boggling how there was no organization... no direction... and no crew members knowing what the heck to do. Somebody mentioned that they usually don't experience such a large number of people getting off the ship at the same time and didn't anticipate the mess we were in. And I'm like "shouldn't you though?"

Eventually disembarkation was acheived and I was ready to... GO BACK TO WALT DISNEY WORLD!

Just for a day. Because I never want to risk flying in or out on the same day I'm embarking or disembarking a cruise.

And here's where I am going to rant on Disney a bit.

As I mentioned, I bought some souvenir mugs at some of the Disney restaurants I ate at (including that very cool mug for my $46 drink at Beak and Barrel!). I thought it would be no big deal to go to the gift shop of my hotel, Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, and have them mail the mugs home.

I was told "no."

But why?

Because the mugs were in a food environment.

But no food was ever in them! No drink was ever in them! They give you a freshly-boxed mug that's never been anywhere near food!

Doesn't matter. Open food was in the vicinity, and we can't insure products that come from a place that serves food.

Good Lord what a stupid fucking rule.

This meant I had to take an Über to a UPS Pack-and-Ship in order to send my mugs home (which is cheaper than purchasing an extra suitcase and checking one of my bags). And so... I cushioned the mug boxes the best I could with dirty clothes, handed it over to the UPS employee, and hoped for the best. Guess I'll know if my pricey souvenirs arrive in one piece in a week.

From there I Übered back to my hotel in order to ride the Skyliner to Epcot.

And here's where I am going to praise Disney a bit.

I mentioned to a cast member at guest services how we were rained out the last time it was an Epcot day, and all our Lightning Lanes were canceled. The cast member said "No problem!" then looked up the tickets and gave all three of them back! This was completely unexpected. And a nice surprise.

The only ride where I was standing in a long line was Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, but it's worth it because it's the best ride that Disney has. Something Epcot desperately needs, because the number of great rides there is pretty small. I'll save my attraction thoughts for Bullet Sunday.

But anyway... in-between rides it was mostly time to wander through the shops of World showcase where, oddly enough, I didn't actually end up buying anything. I was sorely tempted by the Sanrio potato chips at the Japan Pavillion...

They had Guedetama chips, which are salted egg yolk flavor (Gudetama being a very popular Sanrio character because he's just a tired egg yolk who is apathetic about the world around him)...

There was also Aggretsuko chips, which are pink salt flavor (Aggretsuko is a combination of "Aggressive Retsuko," another popular Sanrio character which is a red panda that has a normal life... except she can explode with rage when stressed out about the world around her, which is often)...

I swear that I was totally wanting to go all Aggretsuko when Disney wouldn't ship the mugs that they sold me!

Dinner was at the Nine Dragons restaurant in the China Pavillion. It was good food, as expected. What was not expected was the horrific mess that a table near ours left. These photos were taken as the table was being cleaned and don't even show the disaster it was before they started trying to clean up...

Yes, they had some kids at the table... but my God... I would have been mortified to leave such a mess! If this is how your kids eat, maybe feed them directly instead of giving them access to food? Or, at the very least, attempt to clean up the mess you made so that the workers don't have to deal with all this. I hope they tipped an extra $100.

And then it was time to ride the Skyliner back to the hotel. At which time fireworks were going off out the window...

What a lucky break! Quite a nice end to the night, actually.

And now it's time to say good bye to all things Disney, as I have to be up at 4:30am so I can get to the airport in time for my 7:00am flight back home.

When I was going on cruises all the time with my mom, I always picked the itineraries with the least amount of "sea days" because I much preferred to be doing cool stuff at the ports around the world instead of hanging around on a big boat all day with =shudder= loads of people.

But sea days are unavoidable, mostly, because port landings are an expensive ordeal for the cruise line. And Disney is no different (even though they owned the two ports this Very Merrytime Christmas cruise landed at). Ideally, you wouldn't have a sea day the last day of the cruise, but here we are.

My plan for the day was to relax and eat, since that was all that's really available that I wanted to do. I must say, I did a pretty good job of meeting my goals. Except I did have one moment of stress when I noticed that the garbage hole and the tea caddy didn't line up. Why wouldn't they split the difference and line them up?

It very nearly made me want to jump overboard, but it wouldn't have worked because the worst that would happen if I leapt from my cabin's veranda was that I'd break a leg...

I did do two things today, however. First of all, I packed my suitcase so it could be picked up and delivered to the cruise terminal (so I wouldn't be dragging it around at breakfast). And second of all, I watched the final live theater show, and adaptation of Aladdin (which was the best show of the cruise, in my humble opinion).

Other than that? Eat and drink mostly...

Disney has my favorite food than any other cruise line because it's geared for families with kids... and I eat like a kid. The Disney Wish has a "Mickey & Friends Festival of Foods" with various staple food stalls like Goofy's Grill for hamburgers and hotdogs, Donald's Cantina for tacos and burritos, Mickey’s Smokestack Barbecue for barbecue, Daisy’s Pizza Pies for pizza, and Sweet Minnie’s Ice Cream for soft serve bowls and cones. All of it great and all of it offering vegetarian options (the grill has vegetarian hamburgers and hotdogs, which was a pleasant surprise!).

The worst part of an all-inclusive cruise like this with unlimited food is that there's an insane amount of food waste. Because it's all included, people will order massive amounts of food, then just pick around all of it and leave the remainder to be cleaned off and thrown away. Incredibly wasteful. Happens at dinner too. People will order multiple entrees to "try them" but not actually eat them all. Drives me crazy.

Dinner in tonight's rotational dining was at 1923, which is the fanciest of the onboard restaurants on The Wish. I asked if I could have a kid's menu so I can frame it because it features Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, one of my most favorite Disney characters...

I had a great meal and even greater dessert...

The towel sculpture creature on my bed tonight was... a crab?? I'm guessing...

And there you have it, my final night onboard. It all blew by way too quickly. Now I'd better get what little sleep I can manage.

Today's port adventure was Disney's second private playground, Lighthouse Cay. I'm guessing they had to build a second one because they are adding a bunch of new ships to their fleet, and didn't have enough days available at Castaway Cay to service them all. Our cruise director told us that this Very Merrytime Christmas Cruise was rare because it stops at both places. Since I'd only ever been to Castaway, I was interested in seeing what Disney had going on at the new port adventure.

What's different about Lighthouse Cay is that there's a long, long walk from the ship to the shore...

They did this to protect the coral and wildlife in the area.

Then once you get to shore, you're immediately greeted by luxury cabanas available to people who want to pay hundreds of dollars to have their own private retreat and beach. For everybody else, you take a tram to the other side of the island.

The design of Lighthouse Cay is very much Caribbean-inspired with bright colors and festive art everywhere...

The weather was very much improved from previous days, which made for a nice time to have drinks on the adults-only beach...

After lunch I realized I had forgot my sunscreen and was getting pretty red. So it was time to head back to the ship...

One thing I had never done at sea was a waterslide, and The Wish has an "AquaMouse" that went around the ship's upper decks. Not as cleverly named as the "AquaDuck" that's on the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy, but it was still pretty clever, with a story you watch as you climb up the tube for the slide down...

Unfortunately they don't allow cameras in the tube, so I wasn't able to video the experience. Instead I went to the adults-only upper deck and grabbed a drink from the Cove Bar so I could air-dry...

Dinner was at Arendelle again, but there wasn't any performances because it was Pirate Night. There also wasn't a show in the theater for some reason (the first day was some kind of Goofy stage show, the second was a weird re-telling of The Little Mermaid stage show which made no sense, and tomorrow is an adaptation of Aladdin). Instead it was movie-time, where everybody could watch Zootopia 2 which is just as entertaining as the first one. I'm fairly certain that this will be another billion-dollar blockbuster for Disney.

After the movie, the ship was eerily lacking in people. I guess most people have kids and are off to bed with them...

Tonights towel sculpture is an octopus? I think?

It's gotta be some kind of sea creature. Or maybe it's the head of one of the cursed pirates from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Anyway... tomorrow is a day at sea as we head back to Florida.