Yesterday was raining in the morning, but clear and beautiful later in the day. It was a light and occasional drizzle that kept us nicely cool, with overcast hiding the sun. Mid afternoon was brutal when the sun poked through, but that was rarely and only for a short while. By sunset, it was cooler and clear. I would like some more cool and overcast please.
Did Hollywood Studios in the morning. Rode the Star Wars stuff, and pretty much everything else we wanted with a mix of Lightning Lane and standby. Did a couple of attractions that were new to me at Epcot after dinner- Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ratatouille. Guardians is a roller coaster with projections and a twist. It looked like a ‘proof of concept’ rather than a fully executed ride. Minimal theming in the pre- and post- ride areas. Cool ride though.
Ratatouille was a moving motion base with 3d projection and live effects. Very cool, very innovative. Similar in tech to the Star Wars “Rise of the Resistance” with added 3d. The new rides are VERY smooth with the physics and engineering worked out to an incredible level.
Today we’ll start in Animal Kingdom with the Avatar attractions, then my sibling and mom will head home. Dunno what we’ll do in the afternoon and evening. It will probably not involve a lot of walking as we are all having varying foot issues (which is unusual for us as we are seasoned park goers.)
I’ve had several more searches by security. I’m the type I guess.
That isn’t very ‘grey man’ and is probably something I should work on. And stacking. That too.
nick
How about giving a presentation on giving a good presentation? Is that something you can do? Or at least suggest?
It’s annoying to get up, take care of a number of chores, get cleaned up, get on the computer, goof around a bit, read a site, post a comment, go and take care of some other things, come back to the computer with the comment displayed, and see that the post time 0533. This getting up early is for the birds. Literally, in my case.
@steve, Good morning! I’m in Eastern time this week so that gives me earlier mornings than even the school year. Joy.
@alan, good points yesterday. I carry as little as possible in the Parks because of the scanners and the constant in and out of rides. I do carry my altoids everyday survival kit in a pocket. If we use a car to get to the park, I put my normal travel bag in the trunk. If we use disney transport, it stays at the hotel. This is a calculated risk, but D isney has very good disaster mgmt plans and preps.
Temperate and clear so far, hope it holds.
Breakfast then off to the park.
n
It took The Mouse longer to build the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster than Epcot itself.
The new owners will have to address Imgaineering’s drift into mediocrity.
Ratatouille is a copy of the Paris Disneyland ride.
“Can we go see Donkey Kong now?”
Twenty years. 15 seasons. This is how it ends?
Chav Doctor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgLpmL9p3Go
The credits only read “Introducing Billie Piper”.
Good lord. Dude wearing a dress? That clip was the only footage I’ve seen of the latest (last) Doctor. Seems I didn’t miss much. Good riddance.
I walked about 6 hours/day for three days at DW in my Vibram Five Fingers V-Train with no problem. I had already been wearing “barefoot” shoes for years. I’m not a light weight either. My feet were already conditioned, but I tried to avoid just standing for long times which is the worse. My carrys were a hoodie and paracord (for making a bottle carrier etc). I use a Dr Scholls spray to de-stinkify shoes since I don’t wear socks.
My favorite travel barefoot are Peluva shoes which have a thicker sole. Naked feet around the house.
Classic Marvel in theme parks east of the Mississippi still belongs to Universal.
The roller coaster cost so much time and money that The Mouse has to consider the possibility of Marvel being sold.
Ncuti. He’s quickly become the most reviled Doctor mostly because of his offscreen antics.
Ncuti called the longtime fans pigs and told us to “go touch grass”. We obliged.
At least Murray Gold seemed to have a good time the last couple of years. The callback to Cilla Black at Abbey Road has to be his influence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zG7g1goMz0
The visit to Abbey Road was wasted. “The Boat That Rocked” did it better.
Set in the exact same time period. With a deleted scene.
Of course, it is Philip Seymour Hoffman and a Richard Curtis (“Blackadder”) script.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he5-p3DAV3Y
“Pirate Radio” was the US release with another ~ 45 minutes of material cut out of the movie beyond the 40 minutes cut from the British release.
I had to get a UK DVD (technically illegal) to see anything close to Curtis’ vision.
Astronomy outreach at the park last night. A nice quarter moon, in a clearish quadrant, which was nice given the hazy and turbulent skies. Winds had moderated from the gusts to 40mph earlier in the day but power couldn’t be pushed much past 30X or so.
For the actual event we didn’t actually have all that many visitors, and comprised of about 80% women which is unusual, but it was nice to get together and talk to people.
One member brought an old homemade 10″ reflector, that he had built with John Dobson many years ago (Dobson signed it). Very crisp and sharp, it had just been gifted back to him after its second owner moved into a small senior apartment.
I was running errands yesterday, and after a few weeks away, I stopped at McDonalds for my carnivore snack off their a la carte menu: 2 quarter pound patties, 2 cheese, on lettuce. I got a new cashier, so I was prepared to walk her throudh the process. She looked high-school age, but I’m 70 and college grads look like high schoolers to me.
She figured out the a la carte menu on the terminal right away, which was hopeful, but I got the dazed look when I said “2 quarter pound patties”. She stared at the screen and couldn’t find that item.
Eventually, she said I can’t find quarter pound patties but I see ¼ pound patties. I told her that would do.
Jesus wept.
Well crap. Dad was sick yesterday and Mom is sick today. So I am wondering if I go home today. I have yet to consult my wife but I have a bad feeling what she will tell me.
I’ve had several more searches by security. I’m the type I guess.
Is it the Altoids can in your pocket printing on you ?
Do they not allow backpacks in Disney parks anymore ? If so, how do women carry all their stuff around ?
“’Russian bombers are burning en masse’ — Ukraine’s SBU drones hit ‘more than 40’ aircraft in mass attack, source says”
https://kyivindependent.com/enemy-bombers-are-burning-en-masse-ukraines-sbu-drones-hit-more-than-40-russian-aircraft/
“An operation by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) using first-person-view (FPV) drones smuggled deep inside Russian and hidden inside trucks has hit 41 Russian heavy bombers at four airfields across the country, a source in the agency told the Kyiv Independent on June 1.”
Drones. Apparenty most of the Bear bombers are gone.
How are the trucks carrying the smuggled drones getting into Russia? Poland?
And people think I’m exaggerating when I say that Priority One for the Russians is keeping German missiles out of Kiev because too many people on both sides remember Ze Old Days.
Ja.
How are the trucks carrying the smuggled drones getting into Russia? Poland?
And people think I’m exaggerating when I say that Priority One for the Russians is keeping German missiles out of Kiev because too many people on both sides remember Ze Old Days.
Three letters, CIA.
The CIA downlook satellites are great at spotting road blocks in real time.
Backpacks/purses are allowed but subject to an intense search.
Even Disney Springs (think Pleasure Island) entrance now requires a search of bags and a pass through the metal detector.
Disney wanted to snuff out Downtown Orlando’s nightlife starting 30 years ago to keep the tourists spending on property. They didn’t consider the consequences like gang bangers.
Or GG Allin fans.
Allin had a huge following in Central Florida, and one of his most notorious concerts happened in a club on the outskirts of Downtown Orlando.
If this is true, Putin is either asleep at the wheel or the Russian military is now third nation. I hope this doesn’t escalate to banned sunshine. Putin now has to start escalating or get cashiered.
So on these new 737 sized version 3 Starlink satellites, I wonder if they will have any ultra high resolution gimballed cameras on these new satellites ?
My flock of chickens was reduced to three hens – in chrono order, two seemingly just choked on pellets because they’d been running around just fine and then were dead, hawk got one, and one just disappeared. I think I mentioned the hawk incident last Autumn. I came up from where I’d been doing something in the back of the house and saw the wretch eating my hen. By the time I bent down and got a rock, it was out of range. The one which disappeared did just that. My daughter, wife, and I individually scoured the forest, the bushes around the house, and neighbors’ yards and found not a trace. The “not a trace” bit makes me think that she was grabbed; if a hawk or a raccoon had gotten her, there’d be an explosion of feathers. But some of the neighbors had been doing something in their back yard while the hens were out and while I was doing something on the other side of our house. And those neighbors are scumbags. (More accurately, the husband is fine but the wife, older daughter, and granny are scumbags.) Makes you wonder…
I got six chicks a month ago. They’ve eaten almost 35 pounds of “chick crumble” in 30 days, plus the small amounts of cooked rice and fine-torn lettuce leaves that I started giving them a couple days ago. I’ve taken them out for a few minutes to an hour or so when the sun was out and the temperature was 70ish. A couple days ago I made a secure-enough enclosure outside so they could be out for a few hours … and the next day the temperature dropped and then the rain came. Their feather are mostly come in but they’re not fully covered and able to tolerate temps in the 50s plus the wind plus the spatters of rain. Poor little babies, just got a taste of freedom and then they’re back inside. Well, soon enough, I hope, the weather will be less miserable and they can go back to freedom. Then I’ll work on integrating them with the older birds.
On that topic, though, I won’t be able to let the chickens out to wander as they will while I do other things and keep an occasional eye on them. The older birds know where they live and I’d have no qualms about them wandering wherever they wanted all day … if not for hawks and raccoons (and neighbors). The little chicks will be fluffbrains and may follow the older birds as they walk around but then again may not. If I let them out of the run, I’ll have to stay with them and noodge them back where they’re supposed to be when they start to wander toward the bushes or such. However, I can probably let the older hens out and keep the pullets in the 200 sq ft run, and the dumb little babies will still think that they have all the room in the world to wander around and won’t even realize they’re confined. … Except that the hens will get upset if they come home to lay while the run’s gate is shut. Dang it, this plan may not work. I may just have to lock them all up and ignore their complaining.
And speaking of creatures with tiny brains, The Child has one week of school before graduating. Which is at risk because she’s missed a paper and a test. To some extent I’ll blame the one teacher, who is not exactly the most organized person on the planet and didn’t run off enough copies of the test, so she told my daughter that she’d get her the test later, and then forgot. However, I’m mostly blaming The Child, who has been informed repeatedly of what she needs to finish in order to pass all of her classes but has been finding time for everything except finishing the last bits of schoolwork. I’ve told her that I’m cutting her off if she doesn’t graduate on time – won’t kick her out of the house but I won’t help pay for college. She’ll probably ooze across the finish line at the last minute.
On the plus side, assuming she graduates high school, family income was calamitously low last year, mainly because of health issues affecting everyone except me. Wife took a lot of unpaid time off work because she burned up her sick time with her own problems and then had to care for her mother for months. My paying work wasn’t directly impacted but when I was spending 20-30 hours a week, mostly during normal work hours, driving people to appointments and such, I wasn’t able to put in the normal number of billable hours. The plus side is that with our income so low, we won’t need to pay as much for The Child to go to college. Hey, Grandma, can you have another stroke this year to help out with next year’s tuition?
And thanks to our goobermint being lobbied by some anti drone NGO, DJI cant sell their latest drone in the US. They can’t get it through Customs. B&H is getting some from other countries and selling it, but no warranty. And they go fast. Oz and Korea also sells them.
If this is true, Putin is either asleep at the wheel or the Russian military is now third nation. I hope this doesn’t escalate to banned sunshine. Putin now has to start escalating or get cashiered.
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/ukrainian-drone-swarm-attacks-hit-russian-long-range-bombers
“Odds of nuclear weapon detonation in 2025 on Polymarket rise from 13% to as high as 19% in last 4 hours”
I don’t want a drone, but I would occasionally like a cell phone jammer.
My wife wants a V8 Land Cruiser which you can apparently still buy in Australia for ~ $40k new.
The problem in Australia is affording the gas.
Americans are weenies about gas prices so the Land Cruiser here is a hybrid with a four cylinder engine.
For $50k-60k plus dealer add ons.
You don’t know what the will says about rewarding the Good Chinese Children in the extended family.
I assume my mother-in-law’s $1 million piece of real estate in Seattle is already gone, taken by an agreement among the Number One Son cousins who view the house as a family asset.
My rule about letting her die in our house is that I want my wife’s name on the deed before Grandma walks through the door, regardless of capital gains tax consequences.
I’ll deal with those when the time comes.
A lot of people voted for the Orange Man either consciously or subconsciously contemplating Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #125.
If Trump is no longer interested in solving the Ukraine problem quickly, you might as well start practicing saying “Speaker Hakim Jeffries”.
And 2028 will belong to this guy unless, like a lot of black male politicians, he has feet of clay.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/30/wes-moore-dives-into-2028-race-in-south-carolina-00378647
@greg:
And 2028 will belong to this guy unless, like a lot of
black malepoliticians, he has feet of clay.FIFY.
G.
The teachers are obviously not getting paid enough. /sarc
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/06/01/another-huge-biden-scandal-is-blowing-up-n4940344
Charge and convict every one of the bastards.
Then tell Roberts that the plan is the execute them by having them breathe the same shit, and if he doesn’t like it he can issue an opinion from the new SCOTUS building on some cheap land they picked up in East Palestine.
I’ve decided to replace the carpet in the living room. It was installed early 1993. It has worn well. Perhaps a bit faded over the years. But it crushes. Move furniture? The dents remain, almost all, forever. Buddy the Beagle’s lack of potty training is not helping.
So I got on the web. One called back today. They’re coming out Tuesday morning to show samples and measure and all that stuff.
I looked at Home Depot. The flooring I liked is about $3.59 a sq foot. Installation is about $2.59 a square foot. Oh, whoopie!!!! They will move your furniture!!!! Yah!!!! Punch the price into your calculator 400 square feet and add taxes and baseboards and “stuff” and the price is getting near $3000.
Oh. By the way, Home Depot was in rape territory when I asked for a quote to replace the central air system. They wanted almost $8000 with sales tax. We bought the entire system on-line for about $3500. And I had fun installing it.
I’ll know more on Tuesday.
It looks like our next big trip will be to Greece. Looking tentatively at September 2026. Any tips, suggestions, words of wisdom and warnings appreciated.
I just recently replaced my 4 ton system with a new dual speed system. A proactive replacement of a system that had surpassed the end of its useful life, but was still working. Cost was $10,800. I did it now to avoid Murphy’s law and failure when the temperature is 100+ and the company is backed up two weeks.
With 400 sq ft you could try Flooring Warehouse on Braker to see what they happen to have in stock right now that they’re willing to cut a deal to move.
We moved in to our current house broke so we had to cut corners on the carpet, getting 1800 sq ft installed for $5000 just a little over 10 years ago. Never again.
#1 thing to remember – don’t get the “recycled soda bottle” carpet. My wife insisted because it was “soft” and resisted stains, but the carpet looked like sh*t within a year because it had zero crush resistance.
We’re still living with the carpet because we are undecided about Texas after the inevitable happens at my job.
I did the same with my downstairs system last year. 5 ton for 12.6k
Is the carpet going to match the drapes?
We paid $10k for 2.5 ton Trane installed two years ago. Single stage cooling, but gas furnace.
Austin.
The old unit was 29 years old and still worked well, but getting the Freon was becoming a problem.
My unit is a pack unit. Very common here. Everything in one package outside the house. Trane. Dual stage heating and cooling.
Currently sitting in Epcot World Showcase waiting for the fireworks show with the family. I’m hoping it looks a little better from this direction than it did last night. However I am not sanguine.
Had a lovely meal of a variety of Tapas style dishes at the Moroccan restaurant. Interesting flavors that you don’t normally get in Western food.
We went back to the vacation club at noon to send my sibling and mother on their way. And we all crashed out hard so we got back to the park about 6:00. It was crazy hot in the afternoon but it’s been very nice here in the evening. That is as long as the wind is blowing and you’re not in the Sun.
N
The Maya Grill at the Coronado Springs had surprisingly good Pibil as a house specialty two years ago, but it disappeared from the menu later that Spring.
Almost good enough for Johnny Depp to shoot the cook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFJmaTOW1ic
Pibil is not common in Mexican restaurants, but a local place has it on the menu as a featured family recipe, complete with the traditional white rice.
The only other restaurant we went to on property two years ago was a splurge at Raglan Road.
Sadly, nothing was noteworthy there except for the bread pudding and the service. Cooke’s next door may have it that night for $10 if Raglan Road is slow.
I wouldn’t recommend Disney Springs on a Friday or Saturday night. It isn’t about the size of the crowd as much as the demographic.
What I installed is a 4 ton 16 Seer Goodman heat pump system. Two stage outside. Variable speed blower inside. VERY quiet. Add $99 for 10 KW of heat which is a bit shy of enough but the transformer on the pole doesn’t sound like the warp core on Star Trek. Add $329 for the cheap t-stat. Somewhere in there was the freon line set. $3777.00 delivered to the front yard.
Add a couple of hundred for random parts and some beer. Another almost $200 for the a/c company to connect the freon lines. Because warranty. Call it all around $4500 because there was lots of beer involved. Hey, it took me a couple of weeks from start to finish.
I built a new air handler plenum box. Now the flexible ducts lay flat and don’t do a 90 degree turn into the top of the old air plenum. Just that little detail made a big difference.
That plenum box is a mind twister. The old plenum was a box about the size of the top of the air handler. Lots of duct tape was used. Say, 2 x 3 feet and even with ceiling in the a/c closet, maybe 16 inches tall? Then the ducts curved 90 degrees and connected into the top.
The output from the blower is from a 2 feet by almost 1 foot hole in the top of air handler.
The new plenum is about 2 feet x 30 inches ( because 12″ ducts take a certain amount of space) and about 4 feet tall from the top of the air handler. I had almost no scraps of that 4×8 foot sheet of duct board left, just saying.
The idea is that the blower doesn’t blow evenly…. hold your hand in front of a squirrel cage fan… so you want to pressurize the plenum and then the air flows out evenly. No ducts are right over the blower’s output. I straightened the ducts out and have good air flow everywhere now.
Dunno. I’m re-reading the above and it’s as clear as mud. The a/c guy offered me a job. 🙂 So, I did it all good.
>>Did a couple of attractions that were new to me at Epcot after dinner- Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ratatouille. Guardians is a roller coaster with projections and a twist. It looked like a ‘proof of concept’ rather than a fully executed ride. Minimal theming in the pre- and post- ride areas. Cool ride though.
Sometimes a ride is just a ride…
https://youtu.be/_wERLPq3S44?si=UkBgZAvLnwu9ITKL
It’s kind of too late to run and hide…
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/technology/trump-palantir-data-americans.html
WRT the Guardians coaster taking a long time to build, it’s a lot more than just a coaster. without spoilers, they needed to do a lot of engineering and the trains are VERY different from a tried and true design, plus all the projection…
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WRT the altoids tin tripping the search, I’ve been holding it and my other stuff in my hands as I walk thru the scanner, then they can see the stuff and not have to look. It doesn’t work as the scanner still shows something at my hip most of the time. They were wanding a female in a sprayed on tight tank top and gauzy running shorts in front of me. You couldn’t secret a business card under her clothing, but they were still wanding her as if she was a drug mule.
AK has always had the most lax security protocols so this is new. The secondary area has a maze taped onto the ground it’s so new.
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Backpacks are allowed but the bag search lines get long, and they are ridiculously thorough.
And there is the hassle of taking it off and stowing it on every ride. A very small pack, like a 1″ x 6″ x 8″ molle accessory pack, worn with a very short strap crossbody, with the bag over the left or right breast was very popular. you didn’t have to remove it to sit in a ride vehicle. I have a small camelbak bag I sometimes bring for a thin, light bag, but I didn’t this time.
Watching my mom with her little string bag have to deal with it every time convinced me I made the right choice.
——————
Wife used some of the blister stuff on her foot today, so I’m glad I brought it.
——————
The new Epcot nightly show looked a lot better from where I was tonight. Still small, soulless, and unimpressive, but had some poignant moments.
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Had nice chats with a couple of people throughout the day.
Now it’s time for bed. Universal’s Epic tomorrow. We don’t have their version of Fastpass, so unless it’s empty, we’ll be standing in lines.
n