Thank you Disney

As you may know I have visited Disney Land and was really amazed about the whole styling, the rides (especially the tower of horror) and the food. I admit that it is a little bit expensive but the feeling you get and the fun is really worth the money. Besides the money I was really annoyed by the waiting lines in front of the rides. The waiting line in Disneyland is like an open-air torture chamber. The sun is burning your skin and you can’t get any water. The torturer do not allow you to go to the toilet or else the torture is starting all over again. The only thing you have hope for is that somehow you will survive that whole procedure to get out alive to have one last ride and then can die happily. But some people can not stand it. 5% of the people who survived the torture longer than 1,23 hours kill themselves because they are just freaking desperate. The scholars of this study invented a word for that. It is called the Disney-waiting-line-syndrom. But there is hope! When I was climbing up the fence to high-five the forthcoming rolercoaster the God of Mice appeared in front of me. He told me to lead his people out of the line. "Yes," I said, "but how should I do that?" and he answered with a high pitched voice. "Lead them into the mighty net! There you should google around till you find myspace." "Oh mighty Mouse. But the service fee we have to pay for that is too high and only the rich can afford such a journey." God then said "Build up a WLAN Network so everyone who believes in my son, the mighty Gadget, can wander the net. Everyone except those who tasted the forbidden apple" So after this encounter with the God of Mice, I contacted the CEO also known as M. Mouse. 2 month later they answered my email. The only thing he told me was that they don’t do business with outsiders and they are going to delete my email. Maybe I should have said that God had send me to do some good and maybe get more detailed about the idea. But nevertheless here it is.

Build up a fucking WLAN Network. Sell Disney Movies over that thing. Build up a page where the waiting time is displayed. Let me read some awesome Disney Comics. Let me Chat with Goofy!! Display the items you can buy at the shops and if you are really really awesome then ad an shopping cart so I can shop online while I am waiting. May I have a peak into the dressing room of Tinkerbell? Or let me at least control a real life WALL-E Robot over the network.

"Mama! Those ideas are really awesome! I want to do all those things because they are fun and they keep me from killing myself!!"

"STFU. Disney want you to die so the waiting line is getting smaller."

Thank you Disney, thank you very much for the awesome time in the waiting line!

Disney Land and Gated Communities PART I

It was about 15 years ago when I first heard about Disney Land. The Land of Dreams and Magic where I can meet my favorite characters from Duckburg and play with them. I wanted to be a part of that beautiful Kingdom of happiness. But that never happened. Disney was too far away and so I had to wait patiently. 15 years later the waiting had ended. I went to Japan as an exchange student and finally one of my childhood dreams was going to become true: spending one day in magic dreamland where everything was possible. I walked trough the Gates of Disney Sea into a parallel Dimension where vomit is being called Protein Spill, and happiness is being fixed in the contract of employment (that was the impression I got when I looked at the faces of the entertainer). It was possible to travel trough Arabia, Italy, Atlantis and South America within 12 hours. But I also climbed up some magic rope, flied into an Tornado and survived an elevator crash in the Tower of Terror. I met my favorite character Goofy and took a picture with Indiana Jones, though he would not let me took his hat. There had been popcorn in 1000 different flavors and Ice with the shape of Mickey Mouse, the first and most important character in the world of Walt Disney. I had a lot of fun and and behaved almost like a child. But it was different than the image inside my head. The reason for that is simple. I, to some extent, overgrew my own naive imagination. I knew that Disney is a hardcore multibillion Entertainment Company and the the Boss of the Company is not a cute talking Mouse, but rather a big fat Rat in a (chief executive) chair. Ok that is maybe a little exaggerated, but after waching the Southpark Episode(The Ring, S13E01) where Mickey Mouse made an appearance the Wonderland Image of Disney got another huge crack. And the Episode of Family Guy called "Road to the Multiverse"(S08E01, Timeline 9:30-11:36) didn't help, to restore it either. Nevertheless some interesting thoughts came to my mind while fooling around in the Dimension of Brute Happiness. One of this idea was that Disney Land theme parks are a new form of Gated Communities.

At this time I had been tired from walking around and had several adrenalin rushes from the roller coaster, so there is the possibility my brain had an fallout. That’s the reason why I want to examine this topic a little bit further. Starting point will be an citation of McMullen. After this base had been set I will give a short definition of the term communities and describe how it can be altered to fit this particularly situation. On top of that the term of Gated Communities will be discussed within the context of Disney’s theme parks.

"A gated community is any residential area which physically restricts the entrance of nonresidents. Every hotel or apartment building with a doorman or a fence controls the flow of residents and nonresidents alike. Homeowners associations, meant to influence the appearance, population, and social character of the community, also have been used to restrict access. Although each gated community and each neighborhood charter differs, most share a few common characteristics: physical barriers to entry and movement, the privatization and communal control of public spaces, and privatization of public services such as trash removal and police forces." (McMullan) This citation describes both the word Gated Community and the parties involved with the term. Above that it gives an general idea of the size of those GCs. It could be a huge residential area or just one building. So generally the term does describe a physical space but the characteristics of it are more important.

There is Origami on the Toilet.

Origami, the art of paper-folding. It’s a realy beautifull and fascinating activity. Also there are intersting but sometimes sad stories which are conected to Origami, like the one of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. Or the fact that the folding technique of solar panels in satellites had been invented by an japanese Origami Master. But it wouldn’t be Japan if there is not a curious thing releated to that fascinating art, that makes you laugh. That thing is called Toilet Paper Origami. Yes! Toilet Paper Origami! They fold the head of the role so the next person can grab the paper more easyly and be entertained at the same time. Personaly I prefer a comedian standing next to me who is telling me jokes while passing me a paper, but that’s a matter of taste. So what kind of shapes do they fold with toilet paper? There are a lot of forms, from simple to extraordinary. The most complicated thing i have seen, which uses nerarly the half of the paperrole, is the phoenix you see in the picture. But my all time favorite is the Valentine Heart. The message behind it: Take my heart and wipe your ass.