I didn't sleep at all last night. I'd try... but then found myself grabbing my phone to see what havoc Hurricane Milton was unleashing on friends I have in Western and Central Florida (where I have many friends, because I used to have work in Orlando).

But what was once a Category 5 Hurricane was downgraded to a Category 4 Hurricane then was downgraded yet again to a Category 3 Hurricane once it made landfall. Apparently it plummeted to a Category 1 by the time it made it to Orlando. Which is not to say that everything is peachy, it's just that it's a lot less worse than it could have been. Definitely less worse than it was projected to be.

So today I got up texting with friends. Those who left Florida are returning. Those who stayed are picking up the pieces. Some were okay but without power. Some were without power and had flooded streets. Others were relatively untouched, and just had to gather up debris.

Florida was very, very lucky.

But not entirely.

Because the entire time after Milton was first announced as having been formed, I had to read the most inane fucking bullshit on social media sites from the tinfoil hat brigade that I've ever seen. Most of it having to do with "The Gubermint" using "Weather Control" to "Create Hurricanes to Attack Red States Ahead of the Election just like they did in North Carolina!"

Jesus Christ.

It's like... come on. These same people don't think Climate Change is real because "man isn't enough of a force to affect the weather" and yet they think President Biden has a weather control device in The White House basement? Or is it the Jews? It's on the same satellite as their giant space laser maybe.

And of course logic goes right out the fucking window.

If this technology existed and presidents have access to it... you just fucking know that President Trump would have used it. He masturbates to the idea of taking revenge on his enemies and couldn't help but use that tech if it existed. And if it was only just now developed (while at the same time having existing for decades... DO YOUR RESURCH!) and Biden is the first president in history to have control of it... why the fuck would he aim a hurricane at the biggest Democrat-held regions of Florida? Tampa, Orlando, and even WOKE DISNEY WORLD were his targets? That's huge Democrat territory! Huge!

And it's always these dipshits throwing out stuff that they don't even understand like CLOUD SEEDING! and HAARP! and 5G! and RADIO WAVES!

Cloud seeding is my favorite conspiracy theory, because it's a "technology" that we're not even sure actually works and, even if it did work, it's just not possible to use it at the scale that would be required. As explained in this post...

From Meteorologist Nick Lilja — October 8 @ 8:25am
   
Building on my previous post, it's important to recognize the difference between cloud seeding and full-scale climate manipulation.
   
In my last post, I discussed the manipulation of air parcels and the atmosphere as a whole. It simply can't be done because the energy and work (the physics version of "work," not human effort) required to manipulate the air over something as small as a pot of boiling water is already quite large. Scaling that up to the entire atmosphere is, frankly, not possible, especially when considering other energy factors like solar and oceanic energy, which far exceed anything humans could contribute.
   
So, attempting to steer or manipulate a storm or hurricane in any particular direction is impossible.
   
For those suggesting I "Google" cloud seeding, I want to assure you that no one gets through an Earth Science degree or a 15-year career as a meteorologist without encountering such topics. I've read scientific papers and scholarly articles on the subject—no need for Google.
   
Does cloud seeding happen? Yes.
   
Does it work? We can't know.
   
Here's an example to explain why:
   
A typical cloud might be 2 miles wide and 25,000 feet tall. Some quick math shows that it contains about 2,189,564,415,845.94 cubic feet of air. That’s two trillion, one hundred eighty-nine billion, five hundred sixty-four million, four hundred fifteen thousand, eight hundred forty-five point nine four cubic feet.
   
Most cloud seeding is done by small airplanes. But let’s think big and use a C-130 cargo plane. A C-130 has about 5,000 cubic feet of potential payload space. That payload is only 0.00000025% of the volume of that cumulus cloud.
   
Could the C-130’s payload help a single cloud grow slightly taller for a brief period? Perhaps. But we can’t measure the difference it makes because there is no "control" cloud to compare it against.
   
Sure, it has rained from cloud-seeded clouds before. So let’s assume the cloud only rained because it was seeded. Great, you've nucleated some water vapor around the seeded material. Now you have raindrops forming around those particles.
   
Once the raindrops fall out of the cloud, they take all the seeding material with them. Then what? Do you seed again? And again? And again? Given the size and scope of this process, you can see how entropy (as discussed in my previous post) becomes a massive factor. It takes a lot of work to bring order to this chaos.
   
And even with all that effort, we still can't effectively measure the impact.
   
Furthermore, seeding a single cloud is vastly different from trying to seed an entire hurricane. As I mentioned previously, a typical hurricane contains around 78,824,318,970,453,922.64 cubic feet of air. That’s seventy-eight quadrillion, eight hundred twenty-four trillion, three hundred eighteen billion, nine hundred seventy million, four hundred fifty-three thousand, nine hundred twenty-two point six four cubic feet.
   
Now, the payload of that same C-130 represents about 0.0000000000025% of the volume of the hurricane.
   
For context, salt makes up about 3.5% of seawater, sodium about 0.2% of soft water, and chlorine about 0.003% of pool water.
   
A C-130’s cloud-seeding payload represents 0.0000000000025% of the water vapor in a hurricane.
   
Even if cloud seeding were attempted, given the raindrop formation processes in a hurricane (have you ever noticed how much smaller raindrops are in tropical systems?), the effort would be washed out almost immediately.
   
And I'm left asking, "then what?", again.
   
None of this is a feasible solution to an end goal of some sort of control and manipulation of our atmosphere. It simply can't be done with any sort of measurable outcome - good, bad, or otherwise.

But don't go trying to foolishly explain any of this shit to the people throwing out all this stupid bullshit (like infinitely dim Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene who, yet again, has me wondering how she has enough brain power to keep breathing, let alone compose a tweet).

The simple fact is that simple people don't give a shit about truth or facts. All they want is to bite into absolutely anything which fits their ignorant narrative. And then repeat it without any proof or evidence so they can look "smart" (if that's what you want to call it). And if something challenges their views strongly enough they will never concede the point... they'll just move on to the next idiotic talking point they can find (or dream up).

I never take anything off the table. It's always possible that some technology or some new science has been developed that is so incredibly complex and unfathomable that it might as well be magic (because ALIENS!). So could there be some magical technology out there that can control the weather? Sure. But is this weather control drama some massive enterprise with hundreds of people involved who are all able to keep it a secret? That really is nuts. Two people can only truly keep a secret if one of them is dead. But hundreds?!?

And let's be real, if Biden did have access to weather control tech that could create massive hurricanes, and he was willing to use it against American citizens... Mar-A-Lago would be the first target. And needless to say the droughts in The Great Liberal State of California would be a thing of the past.

Come on comspiracy theorists... at least put a little thought into the crazy shit you're peddling.

It's gotten to the point that I don't want to look at my news feed because it's all political bullshit and I'm just too tired to engage with any of it. After skipping past a bunch of stuff that was only guaranteed to enrage me, I stopped at a story headline I didn't understand at first... Keller ISD students with lunch debt of $25 or more to be served alternative meals, district says.

Now, I'm sure that a lot of people would read this story and say "Oh... well it's not like they're letting kids starve, so that's okay! If the freeloader kids don't like what they're being served and can't pay for a full meal like everybody else, they can just starve then!"

But, yeah, I am definitely not one of those people.

Some kid who was born into poverty is going to be even more stigmatized by his peers because he's getting a fucking sandwich instead of a proper meal. And, as God is my witness, I will NEVER understand how Good "Christian" People™ can claim to give a shit about children when they are thrilled to abandon them the minute they leave the womb.

This is fucking disgusting.

Instead of having my taxes go to fucking billionaires who get all the breaks and have all the loopholes to avoid paying a fucking dollar into the infrastructure that they directly benefit from, give my contribution to hungry kids.

Fuck EVERYBODY involved in this reprehensible system who thinks that this is okay.

I'd advocate for a Go-Fund-Me to pick up the slack that this community isn't willing to subsidize... but it's just like these kind of assholes to spend it on a new football field or some such stupid shit instead of writing off children's lunch debt as the money was intended for.

Crap like this makes me as mad as I have ever been. These are KIDS! Do you think they are in any way responsible for their situation? At least try to help them have a fucking childhood before they get beat down by a society who happily vilifies and attacks the poor.

It amazes me that people can be made aware of something atrocious like this in the Year of Our Lord 2024 and say "Fuck those hungry kids!" Because this is precisely what that is.

Didn't my weekend just get started a minute ago? How is it that it's almost over? Again? Oh well, it's not like this blog is suffering along with me... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Potential! I wasn't going to tune into the new ABC show High Potential because it's a remake of a French series I've seen (called HIP: High Intellectual Potential). But then I saw Kaitlin Olson was starring, and decided it would certainly be unique enough to merit a watch, even if the stories were the same...

I like it. Same but different. And Kaitlin Olson continues to impress.

   
• Murder Bear! This year's Fat Bear Week has been a real drama-fest this year. Fat Bear 469 murdered Fat Bear 402 on camera. And apparently murder is disqualifying behavior, because Fat Bear 469 is nowhere to be found on the bracket...

On the discussion board somebody wrote "Rest in Power, Fat Bear 402," and so that's where we're at now.

   
• Talent! The number of actors passing lately has been really disheartening. Now John Amos (of SO many amazing roles in TV and movies) and Ken Page (whose iconic voice gave life to Oogie Boogie in The Nightmare Before Christmas) are gone. John Amos hit with Good Times, but my favorite roles were from Coming to America and The West Wing (where his talent was really allowed to shine)...

And Ken Page? Oh man...

Disney may have disavowed The Nightmare Before Christmas when it debuted, but they have sure been leaning into the characters hard in recent years. Not only does Oogie Boogie dominate Halloween at Disneyland with his Oogie Boogie Bash, but he was just added as a racer in Disney Speedstorm...

Rest in Peace, sirs. The characters you created will live on.

   
• So Not Weird! They need to get Haley Joel Osment on Saturday Night Live stat...

I don't know how it's possible, but he captures J.D. Vance better than J.D. Vance does.

   
• UNSUBSCRIBE!!! I love adidas footwear. Their Terrex Swift R2 Mid Gtx boots are the best pair of shoes I've ever owned. They're the only shoes that I spent money to have repaired when they wore out (twice) because I just didn't want to let them go. Eventually I purchased replacements for my beloved shoes. But instead of going through Zappos.com as I usually do, I made the huge mistake of buying them direct from Adidas. And now I get fucking emails from them EVERY DAMN DAY. How many fucking pairs of shoes do you think i need? My pair of Terrex Swift R2 Mid Gtx lasted five years (with repairs). And here's the deal... YOU CANNOT UNSUBSCRIBE BECAUSE THEIR UNSUBSCRIBE LINK DOESN'T WORK!

I abhor shit like this. I think this is actually illegal in Washington State? But here's where it gets worse. There is NO option on their website... none that I could find anyway... where you can tell them not to email you. All you can do is subscribe to more lists...

If I got an email once a month... even every-other-week, I wouldn't be phased. BUT EVERY FUCKING DAY?!? How is this anything less than harassment? Who the fuck could possibly want this?

   
• And speaking of WA! For the record? Johnny Cash was talking about Mattawa, WASHINGTON STATE IN 'MURICA... not Mattawa, Ontario in Canada... when he said he's been "everywhere."

Bet on it.

   
• THE AD LITERALLY WENT TO A PORN SITE YOU ASSHOLES!! Facebook doesn't give a single fuck about anything but money. You can report ads for linking to porn sites, but Facebook never looks at where their ads go when you click, so it doesn't matter. So long as the ad itself isn't pornographic, they don't care who sees it.

Well, I give up. Facebook closes their eyes to absolutely everything... porn, scams, abuse... they don't care so long as the money keeps rolling in.

   
And now back to the rest of my rapidly diminishing Sunday. Or what's left of it, anyways.

I had a very long post written for today... woke up to read through it before posting... then deleted it. I'm trying not to go on political rants because once I start, I tend to not be able to stop myself. Suffice to say that I am sick and tired of of political parties making up lies about their opponents when there are plenty of truths that they should be calling out.

What started my rant is the never-ending claim by Republicans that women are having post-birth abortions... WHICH AREN'T EVEN A THING. And claiming otherwise vilifies and endangers women's lives. And I simply do not understand why this country hates women so much that this is where we're at.

But rather than continue down that road and end up with yet another post I'll have to delete, here's a video by a doctor I found which breaks it all down better than I ever could. Stop vilifying women for seeking care and endangering their lives with this shit (here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick).

When you lie like this, this is what it leads to (here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick)...

There's a lot of things that we can "agree to disagree" on. This isn't fucking one of them.

Last night I was constantly checking the news for word on what Hurricane Helene is up to. I have more than a few friends in her path, and seeing it escalate to a Category 4 storm was more than a little worrisome. Heavy rains, flash flooding, surges, strong winds, and evacuation orders are bad enough. But hearing how a rural sheriff's office is telling people to “Please write your name, birthday, and important information on your arm or leg in a PERMANENT MARKER so that you can be identified and family notified” is mortifying.

I put my laptop away and went to bed after the hurricane made landfall because the stress of it all was hitting hard. And I'm not even there. I can't imagine what it's like for people in the path of the storm. All I could do was hope that people were taking the evacuation orders seriously and staying safe.

And then I woke up this morning and grabbed my phone first thing to see what is happening...

"Hurricane Helene was a dangerous Category 4 storm when it made landfall over Florida's Big Bend area late Thursday night but weakened rapidly as it raced inland early Friday and was downgraded to a tropical storm in mere hours, the National Hurricane Center said. Still, Helene was bringing a "life-threatening" storm surge, strong winds and heavy rain, the center said."

So... good news is that the hurricane is now a tropical storm.

Bad news is that this tropical storm is still going to be dangerous, and 4 million people are without power as I type this.

This is more than likely our lives from here on out. Drastic increases in ocean temperatures causing more and more dangerous weather. I remember when the USA was getting maybe one hurricane making landfall each year. Then it was two. In the Year of Our Lord 2024, we've had four. And hurricane season isn't even over yet.

Climate change is undeniable at this point. There's no denying it because you can see it with your own eyes. People can debate the cause (I, for one, have read the science and believe that we have met the enemy and he is us) but sticking our heads in the sand pretending it doesn't exist is futile. Our climate is changing, and we have to do something to live with that. Spend the money to better our infrastructure for evacuations and build shelters for when that's not possible. Provide more funding to the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration so we can learn more about the dangerous weather that is regularly forming off our Southern Coast and hopefully be able to better predict where storms will arrive so we can save lives.

In other words, we need to do is the opposite of what Project 2025 is mandating. That would be the blueprint for radically restructuring the government with policies to be enacted immediately upon a Trump victory in the presidential election. Among those policies are plans to utterly gut NOAA and NWS by having them no longer be independent to report their findings and do their research, but instead be under the direct control of the executive branch. Which is to say that the president can tell these vital, life-saving agencies what they can do and what they can say. If they'll even get to operate in the first place. Project 2025 wants the National Weather Service to charge for their forecasts or abandon weather forecasting entirely. But since they are reported to already be working with commercial organizations, who knows what that even means. Are they saying that if you want to know if your house is in the path of a hurricane, you have to pay $5 to find out? Isn't this kind of shit why we pay taxes?

Trump himself has disavowed Project 2025 because it's unpopular with just about everybody, but even a cursory look at the facts shows that he's been living it and advocating for it. And most of the people working on it are from his administration or are associated with him in some way. Which is to say that educating yourself on Project 2025 and voting accordingly would be a smart move, because the damage this plan would do is unfathomable.

As are most things to do with politics in this country.

Whoa! Better put those Mouseketeer ears back on! Turns out there's a surprise PART THREE of a very special, all new D23 Edition of Bullet Sunday on Tuesday focusing on the TV and movies stuff starts... now...

Yesterday afternoon when I took a minute for lunch I saw that Disney is confirming that in order to make room for Cars Frontierland, they're plowing over Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island!

I admit to being more than a little shocked. Those are staples of the "Disney park experience" in America, and I really thought that both Cars Frontierland and Villains Land would be dropped in behind Frontierland like this...

But nope! We don't know exactly how the configuation will be, but it's probably something more like this maybe...

Now, when it comes to Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, you can kinda get away with paving under Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island. It's just an abstract of the West Coast original. But if Disney announced that they were paving over Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island AT DISNEYLAND?!? Disney fans would probably burn the place to the ground. That was dug out by Walt Disney Himself, by God, and nobody better touch it!

   
In Disney other news...

I skipped over some important news concerning Disney Cruise Lines. They announced four additional new ships ON TOP OF the four they have being built and the five that are in operation. That's a total of thirteen ships. That's a lot of ships. But DCL is a very popular way to cruise, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised...

My mom loved cruises, and we actually cruised with Disney once. It was a fantastic cruise... and I'm saying that as somebody who is not a big fan of them. There's many, many things that Disney does right which made the experience great by comparison.

My favorite is that even though you shift to different themed dining rooms from night to night (which is so cool), your wait staff stays the same. And it made a huge difference. I loved the pizza on the ship. One night while mom and I were at dinner, I mentioned that I wish pizza was on the menu. Not only did the wait staff say "We can do that!"... they asked me every other night if I wanted to have some pizza again. Most of the times, I took them up on it, because I'd rather have pizza than bread. By the end of the cruise, I was so spoiled by my service team that I was more than a little depressed at our last dinner together. On other ships, the servers were just there and not much else. Even if their service was fantastic, you were on to other servers next time and it was forgotten.

My second favorite thing about DCL is that they have character meet-and-greets. As a massive Mickey Mouse fan, I absolutely took advantage of the opportunity to have my photo taken with him. One night at dinner I wore my Mickey sweatshirt and Mickey went ape-shit pointing and laughing at it... pantomiming "THAT'S MEEEEE!" and then he wanted a guy at our table to take a photo of us (pay no attention to how drunk I am in this photo)...

Mom made friends with Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale, Goofy, and... PLUTO!

Yeah. It was pretty great. Like when I met him the following day and he once again freaked out that I had him on my shirt...

My mom, on the other hand, loved Donald Duck (because he was also in the Navy) and after she explained that to Donald, he ran and got her when the YMCA started playing so they could do the YMCA dance together...

Now, I'm not saying that mom didn't have fun on the other cruises we took together. She always had fun. It's what made it so fun to take trips with her. But when I say that dancing with Donald Duck was a high that lasted the entire trip... well... it did. She talked about it for years after. It didn't make the entire cruise for her. But it came close.

There are many, many other great things about cruising with Disney. The most surprising being... sure there's kids onboard, but Disney puts a lot of effort into keeping adult guests kinda separate so they're not bothered. Since you rotate with your same table and service staff to every restaurant, mom and I had the same all adult table every night. Which was great. There's also places that adults can escape where children aren't allowed. Which is also great. I don't recall ever being bothered by any kids the whole cruise.

And also the ships are beautifully appointed and unique...

And, yes, that actually is a Dale Chihuly chandelier hanging in the atrium there.

But anyway... my days of cruising are likely over. I only ever did it because mom liked it. But if I ever were to cruise again, it would probably be with Disney.

But anyway... this should be the final part to my D23 commentary. But you never know. Tomorrow Disney could announce that they are blowing up the Matterhorn and you'll have to go find those Mouseketeer ears once again.

Did you take your Mouseketeer ears off? Well put them back on, because PART TWO of a very special, all new D23 Edition of Bullet Sunday on Monday focusing on the TV and movies stuff starts... now...

   
• Agatha! Marvel's marketing for the new Agatha Harkness series has been genius. The kept changing the title, which was worrisome... like they didn't know what they were doing... but then they announce it was Agatha All Along and the joke was too good (IYKYK). And now we have a trailer...

Looks like it could be entertaining. A little sinister. Except it also looks like there's going to be a lot of time of her coven not having powers, which isn't great. One month and some change away, so I guess we'll see.

   
• Maui! I loved Moana. It was beautifully realized, was funny in the right places, had a good story, and featured amazing songs by Lin Manuel Miranda who, sadly, isn't returning for the sequel...

Still looks stunningly beautiful.

   
• IncrediSequel! Pixar's gorgeously stylized world of The Incredibles is a real joy in my life. I've watched, studied, and obsessed the two movies over and over. And now there's a third one coming...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar

Cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to this!

   
• More Video! Here's a run-down on all the stuff that was talked about. Think there was also something about Percy Jackson but I don't know what it is.

• Zootopia 2 - This was a good film with fully-realized world-building that was cool to watch. Apparently they took their time to get the sequel right, so I am anticipating good things.
• Frozen 3 - The sequel to Frozen, however, was a complete mess. Overly-complex and nonsensical, I couldn't believe the direction they took the story. While it was good to see the characters again, I really hated it. Hopefully the threequel will right the ship.
• Dream Productions - A spin-off from the wildly successful Inside Out movies, I'm not a huge fan of the material so this is kinda lost on me. Maybe the concept will make things interesting enough to watch, but it doesn't seem like something I'll want to watch.
• Win or Lose - I have heard nothing about Pixar's first TV series, but it's debuting December 6th, so I guess I'll find out what it's about soon.
• Elio - I love me the sci-fi and the teasers we've gotten for Elio are almost too good to be true. Except... we're not getting anything significant about the movie. At D23 we learned that Zoey Saldaña is joining the cast and a new trailer which looks phenomenal (it's been leaked though not officially released yet). This is near the top of my list of films I'm looking forward to.
• Hoppers - A young girl who can transfer her mind into a beaver? Alan Tudyk? TAKE MY MONEY!
• Toy Story 5 - I honestly thought that the franchise should have ended with Toy Story 3 because it was such a perfect end to the story. But then we got Toy Story 4 and it was fantastic, so now I'm optimistic that Pixar can pull another miracle out of their battered old hat.
• Skeleton Crew - As much as I'm mortified at the thought of a Star Wars series featuring kids... the fact that Jude law is in this kinda has me intrigued to see how it's going to go. The trailer certainly looks interesting.
• Andor: Season 2 - One of the absolute best shows to ever come out of Star Wars (heck it's better than most of the movies too), Andor was shockingly good. And we're promised that the second and final season leading right into Rogue One is even better? Sign me up.
• The Mandalorian & Grogu - I don't like the idea that Disney is milking the franchise by cutting a movie out of it (this should have been the next season of the series) but I am excited to see it. Sure, The Mandalorian has stumbled a bit, but it's still a show I love and look forward to.
• Marvel Studios - I talked about their announcements from Comic Con here.
• Ironheart - A huge part of me wonders why this series seems to keep getting buried. Now it's not debuting until frickin' September 2025?!? At least they brought Ryan Coogler out to assure everybody it's not dead (like I'm assuming Armor Wars is). But where's info about his animated Eyes of Wakanda series? When does that come out? Is it still 2024? It had to be mentioned, but I'm not seeing it talked about?
• Daredevil: Born Again When it comes to television adaptations, the Netflix Daredevil series is top-tier. Marvel Studios knew not to mess with perfection, so they are integrating the show into the MCU. And there are few things in television land that I'm looking forward to more. Especially after watching the leaked trailer, which looks like everything we could want. When the trailer is officially released I'll definitely be breaing that down.
• Avatar: Fire and Ash - =sigh= we keep being told that the third Avatar flick will be a complete departure from what's come before. And Lord, I hope so. Because right now I can appreciate the movies from a technical standpoint because the visuals are mind-blowing, but they are only mildly entertaining from a story viewpoint. The sequel was more of the same, trying to get you to care about giant blue people by injecting tragedy into their story. I'm betting Fire and Ash will be more more of the same. How many blue kids do they have left to kill off? One for each of the planned sequels, I guess.
• Freakier Friday - This was created because of "demand" from fans, but that seems a suspect claim to be making. At least they aged up the characters so they're not pretending the sequel takes place a week after the first film.
• Lilo & Stitch (Live-Action Remake) - Oh gag. The original movie is one of my favorite films of all time. The direct-to-video sequels and television show are something I've watched many times. And what makes it perfect is that the animation was this gorgeous 2D throwback that's incredible to watch. So why make a 3D live-action remake to trash it? I will talk more about this travesty as more info is released, but right now the CGI Stitch character is abhorrent, and they really need to take another pass at it or face a "Sonic the Hedgehog" situation.
• Snow White - And speaking of shitty, unnecessary remakes... this one is highly problematic, even for Disney. Because when you've got people like Peter Dinklage outright trashing the idea, shouldn't you reconsider going there? I couldn't be less interested.
• Tron: Ares - The leaked trailer throws the series into a direction which should have been obvious after the ending of Tron: Legacy, but seemed too wild to entertain. Not too sure how I feel about Jared Leto being in this... or Jeff Bridges, which should be impossible... and it's weird that Sam and Quorra are nowhere to be found given the story, so has Tron: Legacy been removed from continuity? Is this a full-on reboot of the franchise? Very confusing.
• Mufasa: The Lion King - I'm so meh on all these live-action movies of beloved animated films. There's been so few that have been worth my valuable time (I liked The Jungle Book, but that's it) so I honestly don't care about yet another one strip-mining Disney's treasures for cash.

   
And that's a wrap on D23 because I refuse to talk about Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's Monster Truck movie... because didn't somebody already make a monster truck movie that failed miserably?

Put your Mouseketeer ears on... because a very special, all new D23 Edition of Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• D23! I've been fixated on all things Disney since I was a kid, and it's not something that's faded away. As I've gotten older I've just shifted my focus to the work that goes into making Disney happen. The animation that goes into the films and shows. The imagineering that goes into the parks and properties. The drive. The creativity. The planning. It's all so fascinating to me. Which means the D23 Expo which Disney puts on to announce the stuff that's going on is something I look forward to each year. So let's take a look at some of my favorite things that happened, shall we?

   
• Villains Land! While Disney has been teasing this for decades, Universal Studio's Universal Monsters Land at their upcoming Epic Universe park finally made them get off their stupid asses and actually make it happen. For the love of God I don't understand why Disney has been so regressive in their parks given how profitable they are. They limp along, giving us remakes of old rides by slapping new window dressing on them like Tiana's Bayou Adventure... drop new attractions after frustratingly long intervals like Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Mickey's Runaway Railway, and TRON: Lightcycle Run... but the only thing that's really been new-new at the American parks has been Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Land from five years ago. Meanwhile Universal Studios has been eating their lunch by dropping tons of cool stuff at their parks on a regular basis and building an entirely new park. So thank you, Universal, for being the reason that Villains Land is finally happening...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney

Getting new attractions beats having Disney whining about stagnating attendance. BUT WHEN YOU KEEP RAISING PRICES IN A POOR ECONOMY WHILE NOT DOING SOMETHING EPIC TO DRAW IN NEW VISITORS, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU EXPECT?!? It's like Disney management is brain dead. They just want to keep the status quo, not spend any money to do great things people want to see, then expect people will continue to pay for that just because their Disney. It's just so bizarre.

   
• Monsters, Inc. Land! Wow. It's like Disney has been reading my blog or something. I have long said that Disney Parks is missing a massive opportunity by saddling Monsters, Inc. with lackluster attractions. Laugh Floor is boring. And the videos of Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! doesn't look much better with its lackluster animatronic retreads from the disastrous Superstar Limo ride that was a total bomb. But creating Monstropolis at Disney Studios and coming up with an actual attraction that's worthy of the movies? I'm all in...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar

Interesting that Disney doesn't have a suspended coaster attraction and this will be the first one. Looks darn good, if the implementation is anything like the concept art. Reeeeeally going to need to convey massive depth for that to work. Looks like it's not, so I hope that there's an illusion or screen extension or something...

I'm hopeful that Disney doesn't cheap out on this, because it could be such a cool attraction if they put the money into it.

   
• Cars Land... East! California Adventure has had a Cars Land for a while. It features the excellent Radiator Springs Racers attraction, a version of which is coming to... Frontierland in Magic Kingdom? FRONTIERLAND?!? Bonkers. Apparently this will be themed to the American West to "fit in"... albeit in an animated contemporary setting (seriously... this is bonkers). Which is essentially a mountain version of Radiator Springs Racers...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar

There's also a kid-friendly ride coming, which looks like a retread of Autopia. Something I thought would happen to the literal Autopia in Disneyland and Tomorrowland Speedway in Magic Kingdom...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar

Don't know if this means that Tomorrowland Speedway will be paved over for something new, exciting, and completely inappropriate for the space... but we can hope!

   
• Talk About Bruno! It would appear that Walt Disney World is paving over Dinoland U.S.A. in Animal Kingdom to create a Tropical Americas Land. This will involve a new Encanto attraction that's a ride through Casa Madrigal...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar

And they'll also be tearing out the theming in DINOSAUR to make it become a new Indiana Jones attraction. Which is ironic given that DINOSOAUR is a retread of the much, much better Countdown to Extincion attraction that used to be there. The Indy ride will have a bit of a head start because DINOSAUR uses the same vehicles that are used in the Indiana Jones Adventure ride in Disneyland...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Lucasfilm

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Lucasfilm

No idea what in the heck these attractions have to do with animals to belong in Animal Kingdom, but here we are. Remember when Disney was focused on building immersive experiences that created entire worlds? Well that's out the window now, apparently (see: Cars Land above). At least Pandora tried to build attractions that have alien animals in it.

   
• Avengers... Assemble? I haven't been to Disneyland's Avengers Campus because the scathing reviews make it sound like there's just no reason to go. They slapped Guardians of the Galaxy all over Tower of Terror then surrounded it with crap which has impressed nobody. Apparently Disney is finally going to address that by tossing in two new "E-Ticket" attractions. The fist being Stark Flight Lab (featuring Robert Downey Jr.)...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Marvel Studios

The second ride is Infinity Defense which will have you helping the Avengers battle Thanos in New York...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Marvel Studios

The ride vehicles makes it look like this is a rehash of what Universal Studios did for their Spider-Man ride. Regardless, it also looks I finally may have a reason to give a shit about California Adventure again. That's nice.

   
• Coco! And speaking of California Adventure, it's also getting a new boat ride based on Coco, which will hopefully be a wash of color with fantastic animatronics and a good story as promised in the concept art...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar

Anything less would be a complete waste of everybody's time.

   
• Avatar! And yet another new attraction announced for California Adventure is something based on Avatar: Way of Water that's, surprise, another boat ride...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Lightstorm

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Lightstorm

Copyright ©2024 by Disney

I don't know if this will be in California Adventure proper (which seems to be rapidly running out of room) or if it's part of the Disneyland Forward expansion. Either way, it will be nice to get some fresh IP in the park.

   
• Walt Disney: A Magical Life! The idea of having an animatronic Walt Disney talk to people ala the Abraham Lincoln attraction seems like a no-brainer. Apparently the issue was waiting for technology to catch up to the point where Disney was satisfied that Walt could be brought to life, and now we're here...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney

So as not to enrage fans of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Walt Disney: A Magical Life will somehow rotate with the existing Disneyland show. I would be very interested in seeing how that's going to work. Are the show stages on motorized engines which slide them into place? Hoping that they release a behind-the-scenes documentary on Disney+ for that.

   
• Lion King Paris! Apparently Disneyland Paris is bypassing Tiana's Bayou Adventure and getting a Lion King flume ride instead...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney

Remains to be seen if they do something stupid like making the ride be some kind of unwanted sequel to the film like Tiana's Bayou Adventure or actually try to tell the story of the movie which is what everybody wants to see.

   
• Spider-Coaster Shanghai! And Shanghai Disneyland is getting a roller coaster based on Spider-Man...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Marvel Studios

I hope they make it more exciting than the crappy Incredicoaster that they made for California Adventure. Slapping static statues on sticks around the track is just sad.

   
• Spider-Man Hong Kong! Also in Asia? What looks like a Spider-Man drop-tower ride looks like it's coming to Hong Kong Disneyland...

Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Marvel Studios

I can't think of drop rides in Disney Parks with the exception of Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror in Magic Kingdom, the former inferior duplicate in California Adventure (which now has a Guardians of the Galaxy makeover, and another copy in Disneyland Paris. It will be nice to see a fresh take on the concept.

Sorry Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, nothing new for you!

   
And that's a wrap on D23 PART ONE. See you next entry!

I don't watch The Olympics because I find it hard to give a shit. It all seems like exploitation and abuse wrapped in a flag, and it really irks me that there are Olympians who are struggling to afford to eat and pay rent while billions of dollars are being tossed around the event.

But every once in a while a heartwarming story gets through.

I've made no secret of my love of Türkiye. It's a wonderful country with wonderful people, and I obssess over it more than a little bit. I loved my visit and dearly wish I could return one day.

Along with my love of the country, is a love of their entertainment. I love their TV shows and movies (Kardeşim Benim is one of my all-time favorite flicks), and I really love their reality television shows. The Türkiye version of Survivor is the best.

So it comes as no surprise that this story coming out of the Olympcs is just so epic. And also so very Türkiye. I give you Yusuf Dikeç...

   
Now see, if the Olympics was nothing but stuff like this, I would absolutely tune in!

I was at the hospital today, and I have thoughts.

I love how Americans are all brainwashed with stupid shit like "sOcIALiZEd mEdiCiNE is THE WOrSt becaUSE You haVE tO wAIT sO long FOR aN APpoinTMeNt!"

And then the doctor tells me "You need to have this done so we can have an idea what we're dealing with. Here's the number you call for an appointment." And then... "The soonest appointment is the second week of October." So I'm like "Um... pretty sure my doctor is needing this to see what's wrong with me, is there any way to get me in sooner?" And the answer is... "Not unless you're admitted to the ER. October is only available because there's a cancelation. Usually this would be into December."

It's sad that most 'Muricans are such stupid fucks that they believe politicians when they talk shit about Medicare for All, because most of them are too fucking ignorant to understand that the politicians are bought and paid for by the insurance companies to say that.

And all I can do is think "Well... that's how our political system works, and people don't seem to give a shit about fixing it, so... here we are." And it's even true here in Washington State where our politicians are as fucking deep in payola as any of them.

But in a Blue way!

Jesus. I don't know what it's going to take before Americans get sick of paying the highest possible price for our shitty fucking health care, but this is who we are, thanks to the powerful insurance lobby.