I really don't know how to feel about the idea of World War III.

On one hand, the toll on humanity would be horrific. We've got nukes and high-tech weaponry which will make merely existing on this earth an unpleasant ordeal after a major global conflict. How people can choose to not care about that is beyond my ability to conceptualize. Misery would likely be all we have for generations. Assuming we survive.

On the other hand... no more having to worry about whether I left the stove on.

Or anything else.

I've been lucky enough to travel all around this remarkable plant of ours, and the one thing that's stuck with me more than any other is how remarkably similar we are. Regardless of nationality, race, religion, sexual identity, belief, or any other classification you can name... the vast majority of people on earth just want to live in peace and have the resources they need to help the people they care about. Or, in my case, the cats I care about.

That's it.

And what's so totally wild is that all of humanity could totally have that. Sure it would involve some compromise... a little give-and-take on just about everything... but, other than that, all it would take would be for people to want it bad enough. Want to live in peace so badly that the compromise would be worth it.

And, oh yeah, you'd definitely have to remove any horrific individuals with deep resources and vast influence available who don't want peace to happen. Because those with wealth and power who are only ever interested in wealth and power aren't going to sit idly by and if it means they'll lose even one fucking nickel. History is replete with examples that back this up. They're an unavoidable obstacle, because they'll gladly watch the world burn before they will compromise on anything.

And so here we are.

Hate makes for a great distraction. You can't see what's happening right in front of you when you're too busy hating somebody somewhere else because you've been convinced they're the problem... despite the fact that all they want is to live in peace the same as you. And so long as we let ourselves continue to be manipulated like this, the only possible outcome for this planet is World War III. What else can it be? Ever-escalating hate is unsustainable. It's all got to come to a head sometime.

I'm old. Over half my life is over. If I wake up tomorrow to nukes raining down around me, then I'd go back to bed with my cats and be just fine taking my leave of this universe.

But I'd still be overwhelmingly sad for kids who never got to know the beauty awaiting them in the world. All the wonderful things that nature has to offer. All the cool stuff that humanity has brought forth. Nope. After all too brief a time, all most of them would see on earth is suffering and death. And it's so unfair.

Which is why I hope people come to their senses before it's really too late.

Because that day is nigh, and nobody can stop it but us.

Holy cow is it hot out today. I didn't even stay out as long as I did yesterday morning! But enough of my heatstroke woes... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• SAVE THE BEEEEES! I see bees around my home... sometimes honey bees, but there's been plenty of bumblebees around too (which are my favorite, because they always look so adorable being all fluffy like they are). In an effort to help them, I always let the clover overgrow my lawn where it feels like it. And now that I've got some new plants out that they seem to like, I decided to make some watering stations for them. I bought shallow trays, filled them with water and rocks so they don't drown, then placed them in some shady spaces where they will fill up when the sprinklers run. I made two different heights of rocks to see if it makes a difference...

I've heard that bees can smell water. I might set some cameras outside to see if they come visit. And, if they do, then I'll have to make some more.

   
• AI EVERYWHERE! It is darn-right scary how good AI video generators have gotten recently. I mean just look at this scary-ass nightmare of people who don't exist!

There are a lot of people who are going to be completely fooled... and it's just going to get worse.

   
• Hilarity Ensues! Oh no. Oh no no no no no... BWAH HA HA HAAA! Lying to CONGRESS?!? This is GOLD. GOLLLLLLD!!!

Unfortunately, nobody seems to give a crap when these fucking assholes lie to the American people like this.

   
• ENTERTAINMENT NEWS: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Will End With a Fifth and Final Season. Well fuck. How typical. Strange New Worlds is hands-down my favorite Star Trek and I've been loving every episode in a way that even The Original Series never took me. I guess I should be grateful that we're getting two new seasons after the upcoming one (even though the fifth is "truncated")... but, dammit, I'm still bitter. The writers have proven over and over that they get the franchise and know creative ways to keep it moving forward. — Next Generation got seven seasons. Deep Space Nine got seven seasons. Voyager got seven seasons. Then again, Enterprise only got four. But still... all those shows were getting around 26 episodes each season, and Strange New Worlds only gets TEN?!? Insanity. It's just insanity. Well, unless the Starfleet Academy blows me away, there's no reason for me to keep Paramount+ after the best Trek ever is over.

   
• Read Your Bible? "This will not be a newsflash for anyone with the capacity for critical thought..." This 16-minute burn is delicious, and just gets better as it goes on. Dan usually doesn't get this fired up.

How is it that the people who profess to live their life by The Bible... love to use The Bible as a tool to persecute people... and act like they know The Bible... actually don't know shit? Cherrypicking?!? Pot meet kettle.

   
• SPACE NEWS: NASA's Voyager Spacecraft Found A 30,000-50,000 Kelvin "Wall" At The Edge Of Our Solar System. Obviously God put this barrier there to contain our nonsense to our own solar system and not allow us to fuck up the entire galaxy with our bullshit. Humanity ain’t it. We never were. And, at this rate, we never will be.

   
• Money Well Spent! Look, I don't give a shit if the President wants to embarrass himself. I'm used to it. But I think it's fucking reprehensible to embarrass our military like what happened with his $45 million dollar vanity birthday parade. Our military isn't trained for pageantry. They're just not. So to force them into a situation they weren't prepared for is embarrassing to the country... and the men and women who serve this nation. They absolutely didn't deserve that. You know what they do deserve? The benefits that come from risking your life to fight and die for their country. You know, the benefits that keep getting cut so we can have a pathetic parade that barely any people attended...

I'm so sick of this shit I could vomit. Give our military the respect they've fucking earned. Give our country the respect it deserves.

   
And now... I'd go back out into the heat so I can work in the yard some more, but that ain't happening. Guess my Sunday is going to be a day of rest after all..

If you've been here at Blogography for any length of time, you know that theme park design is a big obsession of mine. So of course when Disney Parks Blog had an entry this morning about the new expansions to Disneyland, I took note.

To start, the new bridge over S. Harbor Blvd. which goes to a new load/unload zone and 6,000 space parking lot (along with the new entrance on the east-side) is very cool...

But my attention was laser-focused on the information for the new Coco ride...

I loved Coco. The gorgeous art of the film and incredible visuals would make a fantastic idea for an attraction. All we really know about the ride is that you're in a boat...

Now, one would assume that this new ride is going to be at least as big as It's a Small World or else why do it? On the Google Map below, It's a Small World is in the upper-left in pink. Dropping the ride at the location in the press release would put it at the location of the green building I've dropped in the lower-right of the same map below...

Except, a few problems...

• There's this odd road that wraps around the south end of California Adventure (shown to the right on the above map). I have never understood why it's there. I don't think it's a Disney access road, because it's almost completely separated off from any Disney access (the exception being an entry point to the South) and there's another road for Disney inside of it. But the oddest part is that anybody needing this road would just drive on the already-existing S. Harbor Blvd., W. Katella Ave., or Disneyland Drive. Regardless, to put Coco in the above-shown location would require a chunk of this road being ripped out.
• From the artwork we've seen, the Coco ride appears to be a part of a larger Coco "land" expansion that's a part of Pixar Pier. Which means Disney is going to need a big enough area to build that... the ride isn't going to be directly off the walk between Paradise Gardens and Pixar Pier.

And so the actual "Coco Land" will more likely be somewhere within the space I've drawn in green on the map at the lower-right below. It's located behind the IncrediCoaster...

The region I've drawn in yellow is the area available for the Avenger's Campus expansion (which I've already talked about here). The area in Blue is the area available for Avatar Pandora Land West (which seems surprisingly small)...

After these additions, the only real space available for expansion (other than the Disney Forward project areas which I talked about here) is the region to the north of the original Disneyland. That's assuming Disney doesn't buy more property in the area. But in order to use this land (which is fairly substantial, dwarfing even Star Wars Land), Disney would have to level a lot of expensive construction (including the massive Team Disney admin building and the warehouse where I'm guessing the parade floats are built and housed). This seems unlikely, but maybe a portion of this space could be used for park expansion...

At this point all I can really, really, hope for is that Disney doesn't cheap out and give us some crapy boat ride that's undeserving of Coco. It should be more than a bad retread of Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros from Epcot's Mexico Pavilion. Much more. It should be a destination-worthy spectacle that draws people to the park just to see it.

The Coco ride should be every bit as big and impressive and jaw-dropping as what they did with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.

But will it be?

Only time will tell.

As what happens every year when I wish my gay friends "Happy Pride," people crawl out of the woodwork with their panties in a bunch for absolutely no reason. Or, to be more accurate this year, a person crawled out of the woodwork because there was only one of them.

And for the life of me I just don't get it. Your life isn't being affected by their existence at all. The Gays are out there living their best life at zero cost to you, so why do you give a shit? Focus on making your own miserable life better instead of harshing other people's mellow. But, whatever... comments are easy to delete.

If only everybody could be as well-adjusted as this guy is about it all...

He's not wrong. June is when gay gets sprinkled all over everything by Corporate America who's (mostly) only interested in cashing in... then their "support" evaporates like a fart in the wind. Until next June. But it does get acceptance out in the mainstream for a month, which is better than nothing, I suppose. More and more LGBTQ+ persons are being subject to escalating levels of hate, bigotry, and discrimination just for existing, and seeing even faux-acceptance might be nice for a change.

Even when you're seeing it for what it actually is.

I was working outside, decided it was way too hot, then decided it was a great excuse to come knock out some bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• New Marriott! New James Marriott is here! Weird video, as usual, but the song is one of my favorites he's ever done. It's always a pleasant surprise when musical artists keep pushing forward like this...

His previous release was darn good too...

His new album, Don't Tell the Dog, will be released on June 13th.

   
• Holiday Road! Even if Rogue One sucked (spoiler alert, it most definitely does not suck), we'd still have one of the most terrifying scenes to come out of Star Wars. And it loses none of its impact no matter what you do to it...

That's Darth Vader unleashed as you'd always imagine him. And, hey, isn't Holidy Road a great song? Makes me want to rewatch Christmas Vacation for the hundredth time. But here's an interesting factoid... Holiday Road was played in all the National Lampoon's Vacation movies EXCEPT Christmas Vacation. And, here's another one for you... did you know that Kesha covered the song last year?

I always love it when somebody decides to make a cover song their own by putting some kind of spin on it that's different from the original.

   
• Justice for Luko! Mickey 17 came to HBO Max and it's surprisingly good, which I wasn't expecting given how it failed hard at the box office, not even making back the money it cost before marketing. I didn't know much about it other than I wanted to see it because Bong Jo Hoon is a genius...

It's a great story that's expertly told (which I did expect). It's also got something to say. Worth a look if you're into thoughtful sci-fi.

   
• 5+5=10!
Well this is interesting...
"That'll be five dollars, mate.'
"Do you have change for a tenner?"
"I do not."
"No worries, mate!"
RIIIIIIP!

You really do learn something new every day.

   
• New Fraser? I kinda lost track of Man Can Cook because while it was fun at first, it ended up being always the same thing... a guy cooking while his dog (Fraser!) sat there. But the other day Facebook had this video in my feed...

Dan is likely not planning on trading in Fraser permanently, but it's nice that he realizes he needs to try different things from time to time.

   
• Young Hotness! Nothing quite like running across an old driver's license to make you realize how old you've gotten!

Dang. so hot back then. No idea what happened. I'm talking about my signature, of course. I'm just as hot as I've always been! My signature is a complete mess now.

   
• Feed. Hungry. Kids! I'm going to put this riiiiight here...

The fact that lunch programs in schools aren't free to any child, regardless of money or paperwork, is abhorrent. The fact that there are people who are perfectly happy to let children starve says all you need to know about where humanity is at right now. These kids have absolutely no control over their circumstances, and people need to stop acting as if they've somehow done something wrong just by existing.

   
And now back to our regularly-scheduled nonsense.

Have you ever loathed a company just because they have a horrible logo?

I do it all the time. If you've got a terrible logo, I just assume that the company itself is also terrible, so I avoid it. Unless somebody convinces me otherwise, I'm taking a pass based on aesthetics alone.

One of these companies is Canada's own "The Bay" (AKA "The Hudson's Bay Company"). I'll never forget being in a mall in Canada and coming across this pile of crap...

Now, granted, I'm a graphic designer and have a more critical way of looking at branding... but, yeah, this is atrocious. The "B" that's barely a "B" at all and the mixed typography is just all kinds of nightmare fodder.

Though, to be fair, I think it's leagues better than this shitty Pepsi rebrand from 2008...

What the fuck even is that? Fortunately, Pepsi came to their senses a couple years ago and ditched this abonimation for the classic logo. But the fact that it took them fifteen years to do that is pretty bad.

But anyway, back to The Bay. I found out today that they went bankrupt...

I was about to say "GOOD!" because it meant that I wouldn't have to worry about happening across that truly terrible logo ever again. But then I found out that they did change it to something not shitty in 2012, which I didn't even know.

Oh well.

Guess retail is rough outside the USA too.

Especially when you have a logo which has people actively avoiding your business.

This video is something so powerful, so informational, and so needed, that everybody should watch it. Everybody. I love that it doesn't talk down to you... it just gives you the information you need. And a warning that could save your life...

It does, however, make me want to try heroin... but just once.

And we have a new pope.

Spoiler Alert... I didn't get it...

I pretty much said all I had to say about the papacy and The Church in this entry here.

Until His Holiness comes out and categorically condemns assaults by priests and nuns, refuses to shelter offenders regardless of whom they end up being or their role within The Church, and vows to fully cooperate with authorities as they investigate all claims by survivors, I'm just not interested in any of it.

That being said... I can say that this pope seems to act more like a follower of Christ and Christian principles than I've come to expect. Maybe, despite his pre-pope actions, he will be more aggressive about holding The Church accountable for the atrocities of its clergy and members. If that were to happen, I wouldn't feel so raw about him being a White Sox fan.

And if he won't do something, then maybe the states will.

When I was a kid, I was raised in the Catholic Church and had to make confession. So while I'm not Catholic any more, I do feel I have the right to say this... WAY TO GO WASHINGTON STATE!

New Law Requires Priests to Break Seal of Confession to Report Child Abuse...
"The secrecy of the confessional in the Roman Catholic Church is so sacrosanct that any priest who violates it is automatically excommunicated. — In Washington State, a new law requiring clergy to break the seal when child abuse has been revealed has kindled a heated battle involving the state, the Roman Catholic Church and the Justice Department."

Confession is a way to seek forgiveness for your sins. If your sin is that you're abusing a child, then you can get forgiven from God via a priest, sure. Go right ahead. Seek forgiveness as your faith dictates. BUT YOU ALSO NEED TO BE TAKEN OUT OF A SITUATION WHERE YOU CAN CONTINUE TO ABUSE A CHILD! A few Hail Marys as penance is not going to stop the abuse!

Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church is a pile of garbage if they honestly think that children should continue to be abused under their watch! What the actual fuck? The Catholic Church can't even police themselves when it comes to priests and nuns abusing kids!

This kind of shit makes me insane.

Peddling forgiveness for the eternal soul of your parishioners is one matter. Allowing child abuse to continue is an entirely different matter. That's tantamount to an endorsement of child abuse by The Church. And anybody thinking that's okay needs to beg forgiveness for being a piece of shit. Then should be denied.

I'm in the middle of cleaning my filthy house, but rushing through a few things I saw this week seems inevitable... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• New Old! The Old Guard (on Netflix) is one of the best comic book adaptations of all time. I was thrilled we were getting a sequel. Though I was really hoping to get back-to-back sequels, darnit...

Now if only we could get a sequel to Atomic Blonde.

   
• 97%! Has anybody seen the 2023 Hulu movie BlackBerry? It's insane. It's just insane! I knew quite a bit about the rise and fall of BlackBerry, but seeing it told like this is nuts. This movie has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 97%... NINETY-SEVEN-PERCENT... and I've never even heard of it!

First of all, Glenn Howerton is remarkable. Frickin' DENNIS from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is remarkable. I had no idea he was even capable of this kind of performance. Just watch it and marvel at a good story told exceptionally well.

   
• Shoot the Moon! I recently saw this image of the true distance from earth to the moon, as taken by the OSIRIS-REx probe at around 3,181,420 miles away from Earth...

This is very cool, because most people think that the moon is quite close to the earth. Good thing for us it isn't, or we'd be in a serious gravity-related nightmare.

   
• First Love! Wait. I've watched this video for a song I love by Father Tiger dozens of times. And I am just now noticing... IS THAT NOAH CENTINEO?!? (not in the thumbnail, in the video). Pretty sure it is...

I remain pissed that The Recruit was canceled. Centineo was exceptional in it.

   
• Money! If the government was actually interested in saving American taxpayer dollars instead of padding the wallet of its biggest doner...

We keep being told about all the billions of dollars that's being saved. So where is it? Where has that money gone? Anyone? Anyone?

   
• Science! Just in case, you know, the God-given miracle of mRNA vaccines is not yet understood, here you go.

   
• Renaissance! The only season of The White Lotus that I enjoyed was the first one. Everything since has just been a boring slog that doesn't have a worthwhile payoff. That being said, the opening credits and theme song are pretty great. This rendition of Renaissance is pretty great...

That vocalist just went for it, and it was a joy to watch.

   
Back to cleaning my home. Dangit.

I'm not exactly sure why I'm taking time to fire off some bullets given how much stuff I have to get done today, but here we are... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• The Hawk! I had just finished rewatching Hawkeye, easily my favorite Disney+ Marvel Studios series, and was commenting how I wanted a second season so badly. Then this happened...

Well, shit. The guy was literally a part of billions of dollars in profit for Disney, and they want to pay him half of what he got for the first season? It's beyond shitty that this is how he was treated. Especially given how brilliant his series was.

   
• Unkerned! What is it with all these letter kerning crimes against humanity? This is atrocious. The Catholics couldn't get a designer for a tomb THIS important to them?

Literally "FR A NCISC VS" on that marker.

   
• Use The Force! Oh yeah, before I forget... May The 4th Be With You today!

Every once in a while I wonder what the world would be like if Star Wars never happened. It's honestly impossible to imagine. So much of sci-fi hinges on this one film. Sure there was the Star Trek TV series that came before it, but that was seen as a failure at the time (kept alive only by force of will from Lucille Ball and Desilu Studios). It was Star Wars that redefined what it means to be a blockbuster, and paved the way for so much of the science fiction we ended up getting. Sure, there might have been some other sci-fi movie that filled the void that the absence of Star Wars would have left... but I cannot even fathom what it might have looked like.

   
• Five Year Mission! And speaking of Star Trek... whenever I find an ad that I willingly want to watch, it makes me loathe bad ads even more. This ad is gold, and I love that the actors were game to do it...

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the show that basically sells itself with its genius (and I cannot wait for the upcoming season), but it's nice to know that when they have to sell it they're trying to be interesting about it.

   
• Construction! Oh man. If you like carpentry, watching an American-style house get built by a Japanese carpenter is your new bliss...

I'm not saying that the final result is the design direction I would have taken... but the artistry that was involved in creating this incredible structure can't be denied. What a cool video.

   
• Elevation! Here's what's possible when you don't hand over the bulk of your country's GDP to the industrial complex that supplies your war machine...

It's proposed that the 2026 Military budget will be increased to $1 TRILLION DOLLARS. It's so absurd how modern warfare has changed so radically when it comes to how battles are fought, yet we're still throwing money into building this vast military force like it's the 1980's. I don't get it. I really don't. A trillion dollars?!? And we've got $92 million going to go into a fucking military parade on the president's birthday? What the fuck?

I mean, when you think about it, this is hardly surprising. But we're cutting NPR and PBS funding for this senseless crap? Seriously? We're cutting childhood cancer research for this shit? THIS?!?

   
• NEWS: CDC reports 216 children died this flu season, the most in 15 years — Congratulations anti-vaxers... things are looking up for you! Just think of how successful your campaign will be now that RFK is championing your cause! Maybe you'll go from hundreds of child deaths in 2025 to thousands in 2026! I mean, that's what you want, isn't it? That's the goal?

   
Not exactly sure how to wrap this up after delving into childhood cancer and easily avoidable child deaths. So... see you next week. I guess?