Eddie was…struggling to say the least. And by the end of the first week of sticking around this city, he was completely out of ways to rationalize what the fuck he was still doing here. 

Indianapolis was just supposed to be a pitstop after visiting Wayne. Then, he was supposed to see Chrissy in a few days, spend some time in San Francisco before jet setting around the world for his year-long vacation. But instead here he was, avoiding Chrissy’s calls, opting instead to take the coward’s route of sending cryptic texts and reassurances that he was fine. Despite the fact that he’d canceled his flight a few days ago. 

And for what? Some hot guy he had only seen twice? That he couldn’t even get past first base with?

And while technically it was the best date of his life, that didn’t exactly warrant whatever the fuck he was doing here. And that wasn’t even mentioning all of the fucking lies. 

It was safe to say that he was floundering over here. Which was so fucking stupid. He was Eddie fucking Munson for God’s sake, not some lovesick highschooler. And he was sure that there were many easier flings to be had in his immediate future if he just left. This was when it was time to abort the mission right? He hadn’t gotten what he wanted, and that was that. 

So why was that so hard to accept? Why was he so fucking obsessed with this dude? Eddie had no fucking clue. Well…maybe he had some clue. Because Steve was funny. And he was smart, adventurous, and interesting enough for Eddie to want to know everything about him. Not to mention painfully attractive. And then add in being a complete sweetheart on top of everything else. 

All Eddie knew was that he wanted to see him again. And leaving now felt…wrong. Because Steve liked him. He obviously liked him, or at least Eddie really hoped he liked him. He at least liked him enough to give him his number. And answer his calls.

They had been talking a lot in the past few days. Historically, Eddie had always hated phone calls, especially when a single text could usually save you a half an hour of awkward small talk. But with Steve…it was different. Everything with Steve was different. They didn’t even have to be talking about anything important. They spent an hour and a half the other night debating over plot holes in the Lord of the Rings franchise. 

He had been calling him from the hotel’s room phone, adding in yet another lie about forgetting his cell in his non-existent fumigated apartment. But he didn’t feel too guilty about that one. Especially since he went through the extra effort to buy a new real (fake?) cellphone. One that he had purchased specifically for talking to Steve with. Because no matter how much he liked the guy, he wasn’t breaking the cardinal rule of keeping his real number a secret. Not after the insane shit fans sent him the last time it accidently went public.

No, he did the much saner thing of dropping eight hundred dollars on a smartphone and an extra phone plan that he’d only use to talk to the dude he’d been dating for less than a week. 

He really was killing it with the circular logic these days. And it was getting harder and harder to ignore. This whole…thing had gotten away from him. And it was becoming a touch too insane for Eddie to keep rationalizing the lies. And it wasn’t even his usual brand of insanity, this felt almost clinical. 

But that didn’t stop him from dialing Steve’s number the second his new account was officially activated. 

It rang twice before Steve answered, “Hello?”

God, even the sound of his voice was enough to make Eddie shiver. 

“Hey it’s me,” Eddie said like a moron. Like Steve would recognize his voice after one date and a handful of calls-

“Oh Eddie, hi!” Steve said, and Eddie could hear the smile in his voice, “That’s so weird. I was literally just thinking about you. I’m guessing you got your phone back?”

It was the smallest bit disconcerting, that just the sound of his voice was enough to make Eddie’s heart beat like crazy. He was kind of used to being the guy who made people nervous, not the other way around. Though he had to admit, it was a little exhilarating to be on the other side of it.

“I did. And you were huh? What were you thinking about?” Eddie purred, more than a bit proud that his voice didn’t sound as shaky as he felt.  But if he was ever going to fuck this guy he needed to amp up the charm.

But unfortunately for him, Steve was very good at throwing him for a loop, “You know those Afghan Hounds with the really long hair? Well I just saw a black one that I swear looked exactly like you.”

Eddie barked out a laugh, loud and unbidden, “God, you really know the way into a man’s heart don’t you? Who doesn’t like being compared to a dog?”

“It was a very pretty dog,” Steve tried, “Extremely cute.”

Eddie laid back on his bed, smiling at the ceiling like an idiot, "You think I'm pretty?"

He couldn’t see him, but Eddie could swear that Steve was rolling his eyes before saying, "I think you know you're pretty. You’ve seen a mirror before right? Y’know, the shiny things that show your reflection?”

God, he could be such a little bitch. Eddie freaking loved it.  

“Well now you’re just making me blush,” Eddie laughed, hoping that it came off as a little sarcastic instead of painfully honest. 

“And I bet that’s pretty too. So what's up?"

Oh y’know, just obsessively thinking about you near constantly, “I was just wondering when I would get to see you again.” 

"Well, my sister's going to be at her girlfriend's place tonight. How do you feel about coming over? I know it’s late but-”

“I’d love to,” Eddie interrupted, already excited. If that wasn’t a green light for them going further Eddie didn’t know what was. In a few hours it would be nearly midnight. And Eddie was more than down for a booty call, “When?”

“Maybe a few hours? I can text you the address. I’m sorry that my schedule is so fucked, but y’know. Night shift.”

“No worries. Guess I’ll see you soon?”

“Looking forward to it.”

From the latest chapter of this fic, inspired by this post

I think one unintended effect of the WAG/SAG-AFTRA strikes (the SAG-AFTRA are still striking, btw) is that indie projects are finally getting all the hype and attention they deserve. Lackadaisy and now The Amazing Digital Circus exploded with popularity and hype, and other indie projects and movies are garnering more attention and praise than the big blockbusters that are out now. Not just that, but tons of indie projects and creators have and are blowing up in popularity specifically because they've finally achieved mainstream success after years of hard work (Smiling Friends, Cuphead, and now Hazbin Hotel).

Hollywood's insistence of turning everything into franchises and focusing more on brands and IPs and endless sequels have finally worn everyone out. We want fresh and new stories now, and everyone's found out finally that you can't find that in Hollywood anymore. Sure, there's a good mainstream movie occasionally, but if you want to see truly original, unique, and inclusive stories, they can be found on YouTube, Kickstarter, A24, etc. If you look deep enough, you can find a diamond in the rough and support a future mainstream success story.

Also, make sure to put some money in their tip jars, too, if you can. That's the most effective way to help these indies out.

Colby always gets new programming for the rookies. Not, like, full-on, complete wipe and reinstall, but tweaks. Patches. Each rookie has distinct needs that require different responses and impulses. He’s used to it by now. It’s not like it hurts, anyway - his pain sensors only register physical damage.

With Sid coming in, though, the process of adjusting his programming is more extensive than usual. This rookie’s in the NHL, for one. Different pressure there versus Wilkes-Barre, or juniors.

He’s in the lab for weeks prior to the start of training camp, though. They don’t power him down while they’re talking about the process, so he knows why he’s been there for so long. Generational talent, they say. Face of the franchise. Other things, too, like. People-pleaser and sensitive kid.

Bots don’t ever get that kind of recognition, of course. It makes sense. The league tightly controls what bots can do on the ice, how well they can perform. Colby doesn’t have feelings about it. They’re a few years away from being able to program feelings. But he can turn data-points over, can prod at them with an approximation of curiosity, of empathy. Assess his own array of reactions to a sensitive kid.

He meets Sid at training camp, and the kid seems about as normal as a rookie can be, at least with the amount of attention he’s getting, which must mean the adjustments they made to Colby’s programming were successful. It’s not difficult to anticipate Sid’s responses or reactions. That comes later.

“There’s no way.” Sid is sprawled on his bed, laughing. Laughter means he’s relaxed and comfortable, which will equate to better rest. Better rest tonight will equate to better performance tomorrow.

Colby tosses the empty water bottle in his hand and catches it. “Sure it is. I’m going to bank this off the corner,” he points to the doorway corner of their cramped hotel room, “then the TV, and into the garbage can.” He’ll have to be very precise with the velocity and spin on the bottle, but there’s a more than sixty-percent probability he can make the shot.

Sid laughs again, getting pink in the face. “Okay, hot shot. Do your worst.”

Colby lingers on Sid’s face for a moment. There’s something there that catches him, makes it hard for him to select the right reaction. He winks, though, and turns around. He makes the shot.

“No fucking way.” Sid gets off the bed, bodies Colby out of the way for his own turn.

Colby leans against the wall and watches Sid evaluate his options. Competitive index. Strong driver of motivations. “You gonna pick something, there? Or are we going to stand here all night?” Friendship index. Strong driver of self-worth.

Sid points to the far corner. “Off the ceiling, off the desk, into the can,” he says. Statistically, the odds are very favorable for making the shot. Ninety-percent or more, as long as Sid doesn’t flub.

“Okay, hot shot.” Colby elbows him, which typically elicits a favorable response. “Do your worst.”

Sid’s focused now. Eyes tracing the path the bottle will take, hand tilting the bottle back and forth. Each brand of water is different, bottles having varying shapes and weights. He throws the bottle. It bounces off the ceiling, off the desk, and into the garbage can. A five degree angle change could have made it all go differently, but as it is, Sid whoops and throws his arms in the air, right in Colby’s face. “Eat that, buddy.”

Colby doesn’t need to eat. He must make a face, because Sid’s laughing at him, now. Sid’s face is very close, and the pink in his cheeks has turned into two deep spots over his cheek bones that would likely be hot to the touch, if Colby put his fingers there.

Sid blinks and starts to lean closer. Colby doesn’t have a reaction, models colliding and breaking. His culture and media database tells him him that there’s a high probability that Sid is going to kiss him, now, the way his eyelids have slipped shut again and he’s leaning up with his face angled at the right way to touch their mouths together.

The kiss is brief. There’s pressure against his mouth, and then the pressure is gone. Sid pulls back and looks at him. “Was that okay?” he asks.

Colby stands there, whirring through possible responses. He wasn’t programmed for this possibility, all of his code flexing to find a solution. “I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t—”

Sid’s backing away, though, hands pressed to his mouth. “I’m so sorry, Army. I forgot - I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. That’s stupid.” Colby knows how to react to this, how to pull Sid out of distress and back into comfortable territory. “Your breath wasn’t that bad.”

“It won’t happen again, I promise.”

It doesn’t need to not happen again. It was just pressure on his mouth. It didn’t hurt. It didn’t cause damage to his body or his software. “It could, if you wanted to,” Colby says.

Sid stares at him. Colby can’t identify the emotion in his face. “I think we probably shouldn’t.”

“Okay,” Colby says, easy. He throws himself down on his own bed and turns on the TV. “Think Ellen is on right now?”

Sid laughs, though it’s not quite normal. “Guess I’m about to find out.”

It takes Sid longer than usual to fall asleep that night. Anyone else, a human being, would have believed Sid’s performance. Things are never quite the same after that.

for @ticklefighthockey - just a lil variation on a theme

My thoughts on the upcoming Disney brand sequel movies:

Zootopia 2: Hell yes, this is one of those Disney movies I believed actually DESERVES a sequel, unlike movies like Wreck it Ralph 2, The Incredibles 2, or Toy Story 4, because I actually thought the originals had decent or satisfying conclusions and we didn’t need more. However Zootopia is one of my favorite modern Disney movies, and there’s so much more to explore and expand regarding this world and it’s characters, and since there’s a shitload of issues going on in the world right now, I’m confident this sequel will touch up upon another great lesson and handle it really well because Jared Bush and Bryon Howard are very good directors and writers in my eyes.

Inside Out 2: FUCK yes. This has got to be the one I’m the most excited for. I can see why some people are skeptical because some think it could be another “Turning Red” where they focus on puberty regarding a teenage girl, and yes that seems to be the route Inside Out 2 is making, but I personally have no problem with that, for me it’s all about how good the first one was. I could honestly write a whole essay on how well written this film was and the emotional impact it had on me as a person. The lesson that being sad is okay, not just sad…but embracing your other emotions and allowing yourself to feel those other emotions is SUCH a good moral to teach younger kids, and the way they handled that lesson was just amazing in my opinion. Inside Out has got to be one of my favorite if not THE favorite modern Pixar films I’ve ever seen, and I’m confident that the second film will be just as good. I can’t wait.

Frozen 3: I’m not really passionate about Frozen, I remember being dragged to the theater to see the first movie when it came out, and while the movie was obliviously flawed in many areas, I do think it’s deserves its praise here and there, wether you think it was handled well or not I’ll always applaud the film for at least attempting to write a complicated sister dynamic, and yes…most of the songs are really good. I never saw the sequel but good GOD I heard about the production issues it went through, going through many rewrites and scrapped content (that btw, was better than the end result) and how the team was STILL working on it a mere month or two before the film would release. They made an entire documentary about it and how it was hell for everyone, and I couldn’t help but feel really bad. Despite me not really caring for this franchise, I think Frozen deserves a third movie because with the right amount of time and effort, they can possibly create a better movie.

Toy Story 5: No. Just no. We don’t need any more, while I never saw the 4th movie because even THEN I thought there didn’t need to be any more, in SOME way, from what I’ve seen it did try to pull off a satisfying conclusion, especially for Woody’s character. However I will admit, the audience reactions were always split between saying it was really bad and not needed, to how it was really good and a perfect sendoff. All of that doesn’t matter now however, since they’re making another one and this is a sequel I can clearly tell Disney is just doing for the money. I always hate it when people take a franchise I used to love dearly and then just DRAAG it for way too long, like Despicable Me or Hotel Transylvania. No matter how good the franchise, no movie like these should be going up to 5 freaking sequels and all, that’s just ridiculous. I’d say “wait and see” but I’ve honestly lost passion for this franchise, in my opinion the third movie ended with a really good conclusion for everyone and they should have stopped there.

My Trip to Japan! ⛩️Part 1

LONG post. All of these series will be long AF.

9.12 ➡️ all dates are dd.mm

When we arrived at Tokyo-Haneda, I was down with a terrible cold. I dozed off quite a bit during the flight, but I was still exhausted. We left our luggage at the hotel near Shinbashi station and, after a rather forgettable lunch we strolled around fancy Ginza for a while. I soldiered on, but as we approached the Imperial Palace gardens, my body gave up, and we returned to the hotel. I stayed sleeping all afternoon. Husband, after a nap, went out to continue exploring the area and had dinner around there. Around 9 pm I ate some chocolates I happened to have, only to avoid taking the cold medicine on an empty stomach, but I wasn't hungry and went back to bed almost right away.

10.12

I had a relatively good night, with only a bit of coughing. We had breakfast at a nearby cafe and went to Ueno. We walked around the park a bit and visited the National Museum, as well as a couple of temples on the park grounds. From there, we walked to the Okachimachi area, where we had a very tasty and cheap fish lunch. Then, we took the Yamanote Line to visit the stairs of the Suga Temple: the ones at the end of Kimi no na wa. There were plenty of fans taking pictures, of course—though we were easily the eldest. (The stairs do not belong to the temple; the temple entrance is right there after you climb them)

After that, we headed to Shinjuku, and went up to the (free!) observation deck of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. It was already dark, so we were treated to the beautiful views of the the lit-up city.

On the way back, we passed by a Don Quijote. "Donki," as they call it, is a chain of cheap stores where they sell all kinds of things: snacks, drugstore, stationery, electronics, household items, accessories, even a sex shop section. It's a good place to get items from brands or characters at more economical prices than in the official stores of those franchises. I bought cute Ghibli and Sanrio stuff here, and in fact, the variety of Sanrio items was on par with some official brand stores I visited, and the letter sets I got here were better. Donki is a perdition: ontop pf price and variety, it's absolutely packed, and its labyrinthine structure makes it too easy to get lost inside, so getting out is more complicated than getting in.

11.12

We took the subway to Asakusa and visited Sensō-Ji, the oldest, they say, Buddhist temple in Tokyo. Plenty of souvenir stalls, amulets, and omikuji (fortunes). I left my omikuji tied to the bars set up for that purpose, as tradition dictates if the oracle is not favorable to the wish made; Husband asked for the same, but he got a good omen; looks like it's set up so that the gods always look good.

Also, I got my first goshuin. Goshuin is not a regular stamp; it consists of one or more stamps plus a calligraphed text bearing the temple name, date, and the deity there enshrined or a fragment of some sacred text. Depending on each location, they write it in front of you in a moment (and it'beautiful to see how they work) or make you leave your notebook while you do the tour, and they return it sealed at the end. I used the blank pages of my travel journal, but there are specific notebooks for collecting goshuin, and some temples only do the stamp on those. In those cases, they already offer the goshuin pre-stamped on loose papers. Prices range from ¥300 to ¥500; some more important temples offer several models and also special goshuin, double both in size and price.

From there I dragged Husband to the Solamachi shopping center for me to raid the Ghibli store. Don’t ask me what other shops are there. The mall itself being quite a maze, I didn’t have time to check for anything else. Since we were already there, we decided to go up to the Sky Tree tower. At ¥2000, it’s the most expensive entrance ticket we bought (save Ghibli Park). Despite the shitty weather, the view from 350 meters high was amazing.

Since the tower was out of schedule, we were a bit tight on time to get to the Ghibli Museum. It's on the outskirts of Tokyo, in a place called Mitaka.

We lunched some overpriced sandwiches and then went to the museum: What a beauty! The building, in the middle of the forest, has a distinct  Hundertwasser vibe. The entrance ticket contains a freaking, actual piece of film! Ours were from Ponyo and Howl’s moving Castle.

Photos are not allowed inside the museum, only in the gardens; while it’s a bummer, I can get it. Everything looks so amazing, circulation would be impossible if everyone was caught up taking pictures. The exhibit about the creative process and the colouring of the animation cells is so full of detail, you could spend the whole day inside. There’s also a room where they explore different animation techniques. if you’ve been to a ciname museum, you’ll likely know about most of them, but the fact that here they’re made with Ghibli cuteness in all its glory makes it absolutely wonderful. The Saturn cinema features shorts made especially for the museum. On the day we went there we got "Pandane to Tamago-hime," a beautiful fairytale whose MC, the supercute Egg Princess of the title, forever stole my heart. I bought a keychain doll of her in the shop (aptly named "Mamma, aiuto!," as one does want to just loot it all) and hung it from my backpack for the rest of the trip. We had tea in the Tuscany-inspired museum's cafe.

We returned to Tokyo and headed to Shibuya. We went up to an ridiculously expensive (¥1500 entrance with a drink – beer or soft nothing fancy) bar on the top floor of the Magnet building. Except for the views, the place had zero vibe, but well, that's what you get if you want to take a picture of the famous crossing from above.

On the sixth floor of the same building there’s was a One Piece store, I got the stamp, but I didn't buy anything. I'm not a fan of the post-time skip aesthetic, tbh. I think it’s worth mentioning that many train stations, businesses, and tourist spots in Japan have commemorative stamps available for visitors. A simple and totally free way to have a souvenir.

I was also floored by the overwhelming commercial density of the city. Any middle-of-the-road, six-metre-wide building hides a mini shopping centre inside, not like, a mall, but one or two businesses on each floor. Some even have businesses on the lower floors and residences above. It's mind-blowing.

We also passed by Daiso. Daiso is a famous ¥100 store chain. Real ¥100, not like pound stores, where half of the items cost more than that. They have everything, and everything costs ¥100. Cute stuff, too. Real licenced merch, not bootlegs. Plus all kinds of nice house and kitchen stuff. It's extremely difficult to resist buying everything.

12.12

The rain frustrated our morning plans; didn’t fancy getting wet when I was just recovering from the cold. At noon we went to Shinjuku, had lunch at inside the station and, 1:15 sharp, we departed by bus to Yamanakako, at the feet of Mt. Fuji. After settling into our Japanese-style room, we went to the private onsen we had reserved during check-in. This was the only bath we were in together, as public onsen and sento are segregated.  

13.12

The next day was cold but sunny. We took the bus to Oshinohakkai, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Oshino is the village, and the hakkai are a series of eight natural springs, hence the name (八海 combines the kanji for "eight" and "sea"), which have been revered since ancient times as sacred places where various gods reside. The place is beautiful, peppered with ponds from which tiny streams emerge, with carp and trout swimming, and Mount Fuji in the background, truly delightful.

We went back, bought some food at the konbini to have lunch in the hotel room, and then we hiked to a Shinto shrine on Ishiwari mountain. It was grueling for a couch potato like yours truly, but the struggle paid off, and the small shrine up there is an almost magical place, next to a sacred rock with a narrow crack through which, they say, if you pass three times, your wish will come true. We went down a different path that took us straight to the village onsen, perfect for relaxing after the physical effort.

14.12

After breakfast, we said goodbye to Yamanakako to take the bus to Mishima, from where we took the Shinkansen to Nagoya. Nagoya, however, didn't welcome us with open arms. The signage to the Sakuradori metro line was poor and and without a damn elevator or escalator, which is baffling in a station of that magnitude. After carrying the suitcases to the platform, we saw, by the signs for the exit for disabled people, that there was but one (1) elevator. To make matters worse, it was noon, and the restaurants were full, so went to the hotel to leave the suitcases first and then went out for lunch, already starving.

Belly full and content hearts, we walked to Nagoya Castle. The castle consists of two main pavilions, the castle itself (the defense tower, which was closed) and the Honmaru palace. The original was destroyed in World War II. Many paintings, however, were saved, although for preservation reasons, the ones exhibited are identical copies. The current castle was rebuilt in the fifties. The rooms were beautiful, with a minimalist luxury that stands out more when you think the castle is from the 17th century, and Europe was in full-on Baroque mode then. The city is very different from Tokyo. Wide, grid-like streets, downtown more aesthetically cohesive. More breathing room.

After the castle, we paraded through the main shopping streets of the city and briefly passed by Osu Kannon Temple; it was already dark, so we walked back, looking at shop windows, and had dinner at one of those places where you put coins in a machine, hand over the ticket, and they prepare the corresponding dish. Decadent vintage vibe, the food just passed, but it was an interesting experience.

Back at the hotel, we used their onsen, or rather sentō. As washing before entering is a requirement, and they provide soap, shampoo, and conditioner (ofc you may byo), we came out spick and span, and it meant we did not use our room shower at all either here nor later in Nara where we also had a sentō. Sounds like a smart move for the hotel to save water if you ask me.

work is making me feel fucking insane and paranoid. we're being bought out by a different franchise (though the corporate branding will probably stay the same) and over the last few months, the messaging from management went from "of course we'll have space for you at our other properties if you would rather stay with our company ☺️☺️" to "sorry we're all full up, yes everywhere, you're all being sold along with the hotel, pack a bag and meet your new owners One Direction." it's so demoralizing and bizarre, my direct managers are clearly frustrated and acting out of character but are still holding the line. they have very clearly been told this is what they Must Do. nearly all of the job postings have disappeared for every other hotel owned by this franchise in the region - including the generic "part time front desk" ones that are ALWAYS up. like they are trying to box us in. i realize this makes me sound so paranoid but i feel as if the new owners are so desperate to come into a fully staffed hotel that they got the current owners to agree to basically not allow anyone to transfer out. we're getting offers from the new company TWO DAYS before the property changes hands. that's not enough time to make an informed decision. i think they want us to feel trapped. am i insane, or are they?

anyway im applying to other jobs because fuck all of these people lol

It's time for the 5th annual Magical Trash Year-in-Review, where we take a look at trash cans at the Disney theme parks and resorts worldwide. Yes, it's a weird idea, but you are going to keep reading, right? (View previous Year-in-Reviews) Some may note that it's been a somewhat rocky year for the Mouse, but trash can activity has been strong. As we've seen in previous years, this year's additions were primarily driven by attraction openings, including Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway at Disneyland, the opening of the World of Frozen in Hong Kong, and the arrival of the Zootopia in Shanghai. Unfortunately, we also saw the fastest introduction-to-removal can timeline with the closing of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser - which had opened just a year earlier at Walt Disney World. Over the past year, MagicalTrash.com celebrated the 1,000 trash can photo milestone (only took 14 years!), while adding over 100 new entries. This was complimented by 1,600+ posts across social media networks, including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky. Posts were also added to Twitter/X, but frankly it's hard to continue supporting that platform due to its overall decline on many fronts (and I say that as someone who works in corporate social media professionally!). For 2023, Magical Trash tracked 16 substantial trash can design changes, a 14% increase vs. 2022's 14 tracked changes:

Added: 14

Historical Cans Added: 4

Updated: 0

Endangered: 0

Removed: 2

The US-based parks saw the most activity, with Disneyland Resort experiencing 6 changes, while Walt Disney World recorded 4 changes. Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Paris Resort both recorded 2 updates, and Shanghai Disney Resort saw 1 new addition. No notable changes were recorded for Tokyo Disney Resort or Disney Cruise Line.

Here's a detailed breakdown of updates:

ADDED New trash can designs that debuted in Disney theme parks over the past year

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (El CapiTOON Theater) - NEW Disneyland, Mickey’s Toontown With a movie theater setting, iconography is anchored by a popcorn bucket image with large “EC” letters.  

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (M.A.G.I.C.) - NEW Disneyland, Mickey’s Toontown Outside the attraction are cans associated with M.A.G.I.C. - short for the Municipal Agency of Garbage Identification and Collection. Now that's a group we want to join!  

World of Frozen (Arendelle Crest) - NEW - NEW Hong Kong Disneyland, World of Frozen The official crest of Arendelle features a crocus - a multi-color flowering bulb that typically blooms in the spring - and seen throughout the Frozen franchise.  

World of Frozen (Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs) - NEW Hong Kong Disneyland, World of Frozen Furthering the rugged forest theme of the family coaster, decorative Scandinavian folk art patterns are found throughout queue, with geometric shapes highlighted in red, green, and orange hues.  

Zootopia - NEW Shanghai Disneyland, Zootopia A surprising entry to Shanghai's bland trash can scene, green trash cans with zebra-like stripes on the lower portion combine with a city emblem.  

San Fransokyo Square - NEW Disney California Adventure, San Fransokyo Square The shoehorned Big Hero 6 retheme of DCA's Pacific Wharf gave us new cans that looked a lot like the old cans - but with bonus "SFS" branding. Ho hum.  

Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana - NEW Walt Disney World, Epcot, World Nature You can tell this is a modern Disney attraction because the name is an IP-laden paragraph. Lots of storytelling to explain "scenery."  

Parkside Market - NEW Disneyland Resort, Downtown Disney Probably one of the more visually-stunning additions in 2023, Mickey Mouse + mid-century design. Simple concept, well-executed.  

The Villas at Disneyland Hotel - NEW Disneyland Resort, The Villas at Disneyland Hotel New DVC borrows much of its design from Aulani. Not ugly, but also not magical. Were these picked out of a catalog?  

Pixar Place Hotel - NEW Disneyland Resort, Pixar Place Hotel The retime of Disneyland's Paradise Pier Hotel features trash cans very similar in design to those implemented at The Villas at Disneyland Hotel. Maybe they got a 2-for-1 deal?  

Disneyland Paris Reusable Tableware Cans - NEW Disneyland Paris, Adventureland France's Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Law is focused on phasing out improper disposal of waste. Food service at the French parks has implemented reusable table settings, which has impacted trash can design.  

"Fantasyland 2" Backstage - NEW Disneyland Paris, Fantasyland A backstage can makes an appearance onstage as a support trash can from the “Fantasyland 2” zone, parked where everyone can see.  

Pym Test Kitchen Food Waste - NEW Disney California Adventure, Avengers Campus After debuting combination food waste trash cans in Tomorrowland around 2021, Disneyland expanded the practice to the Avengers Campus at DCA.  

Jollywood Nights Temporary Media Can - NEW Disney's Hollywood Studios, Grand Avenue Throw a sticker on an existing trash can and it's something new! Temporarily rethemed can at Disney's Hollywood Studios during a media event for Jollywood Nights holiday entertainment.  

HISTORICAL CANS ADDED Retro trash can designs that were unearthed by new research this year, but are no longer in use

MK Main Street (1974) - HISTORICAL ADDITION Magic Kingdom, Main Street U.S.A. Early years of the Magic Kingdom featured very detailed trash cans on Main Street U.S.A, often in multiple colors. Quite a contrast from the undecorated brown cans used in the 2000s.  

Farmer's Market (Late-1980s/Early-1990s) - HISTORICAL ADDITION Epcot, Future World, The Land The famed umbrella tables at The Land found their shapes emulated via the trash cans, which were primarily brown with light tan arches represented on all sides.  

River Country (2010) - HISTORICAL ADDITION Walt Disney World, Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground 9 years after the water park closed, remnants of the ‘Ol’ Swimmin’ Hole’ could still be spotted at Fort Wilderness.  

Mulholland Madness (2007) - HISTORICAL ADDITION Disney's California Adventure, Paradise Pier Tacky theme was on-point for DCA 1.0. This green can with road sign decal found a home in Paradise Pier.  

UPDATED Existing trash can designs that have been modified or revised in the past year

None for 2023  

ENDANGERED Trash can designs that still exist, but will most likely disappear in the future

None for 2023  

REMOVED Trash can designs that have been eliminated from use at Disney theme parks

Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser (Interior) - REMOVED Walt Disney World, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser The in-wall trash cans for the 100-cabin Corellian MPO-1400 model Galactic Starcruiser were in use for just 579 days.  

Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser (Terminal) - REMOVED Walt Disney World, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser You won't be needing to dispose of your garbage before boarding the MPO-1400 Star Cruiser Halcyon, as these cans will probably have a longer life than the hotel ever had.  

One massive disappointment in 2023 was Walt Disney World's opening of TRON Lightcycle / Run in the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland. Generic silver cans, thus reinforcing WDW's continual cheapening out on themed trash can design. Paul Pressler called and even he thinks you can do better.

Here at Magical Trash we celebrated our 14-year anniversary covering the world of Disney trash cans, which included keeping up with various salt shaker merchandise releases that showcase the iconic can shape. 6 new designs were released during festivals: The Dude with the Food (DCA Food & Wine 2023), Amazingly Sweet (DCA Food & Wine 2023), Groovy Garden Orange Bird (Epcot Flower & Garden 2023), Stuck on Imagination Figment (Epcot Flower & Garden 2023), Chef Mickey (Epcot Food & Wine 2023), and Spaceship Earth (Epcot Food & Wine 2023).

If you happened to be at Tokyo Disneyland, you could have picked up a mini figure version of a Tomorrowland trash can or a TDS trash can toy. In the U.S. you could pick up a shirt or water bottle with a recycling can image proclaiming that you "Love Our Disney Parks" -- Disneyland or WDW-specific versions. There was plenty of trash can auction action as well.

Thanks to everyone who contributed photos, visited MagicalTrash.com, and interacted with this weird hobby over the past year. You've put a smile on my face as we all follow this goofy passion. As it's impossible to be omnipresent at 12 theme parks and numerous resorts around the world, let us know what we've missed! Thanks for an interesting year, CanFans! - Steve Tanner, your Magical Trash host

[All photos used by permission.]

Harry Potter is a Brand

(long post)

So I never understood why Harry Potter was so popular when I was growing up, being honest I always thought about it as a pretty average book it wasn't very original or groundbreaking, my theory was always that harry Potter popularity was tied to the successful movie franchise it created.

But this explanation wasn't great either, yesterday I watched a video (the consumerist dystopia of harry Potter) and it just explained why Harry Potter was so popular but also why we probably won't have a new harry Potter

Harry Potter is a brand, not a book, but a brand.

To explain this I will use Percy Jackson as an example, Both Percy Jackson and Harry Potter were released close to one another with the same public in mind children and teenagers but despite it's similarities between them Harry Potter went down to history as "THE" 2000s children's book series while Percy was it's less popular cousin for weirder kids, the more of the underground option.

And the reason for that it's because Percy Jackson was not a marketable media.

Think about it what can you sell about Percy Jackson, we have the camp half blood tshirts (single design orange shirts with a pegasus print) the camp bead necklace (leather necklace with normal beads) no parent will be that comfortable buying their kids a imitation of a bronze sword,or knifes, or shields, the only other marketable objects are Percy's pen (described as a normal ballpoint pen) Anabeth's invisibility hat(normal Yankee hat) Luke's winged shoes(converses) and That's pretty much it, of course one could sell specific cabins t-shirts but it's both not book accurate and also there's twelve of them.

Percy Jackson doesn't have symbols like harry Potter does

Now compare this to harry Potter where any object has a magical version, a expensive magical version, they aren't just jelly beans they are magical jelly beans with gross flavors so is also a gimmick toy, the chocolate frogs aren't just chocolate they come with collectibles like a kinderegg, they don't use pen they use feathers, harry don't fly in a average broom it's a special broom with golden letters and a fucked up handle, and wands that can be sold as the most unconfortable to use pens, and potions bottles that can be used to sell perfume, and symbols, the deathly hallows, Harry's scar,the death eaters symbol, they can be used in anything, necklaces prints patches.

And of course the biggest cash cow of them all the houses, special little color coded factions that not only are extremely present in the books but also are a way to express how you want to be perceived, red and gold lions if you want to be perceived as brave, light grey and blue crows for the intelligent ones, black and yellow badgers for the friendly ones and silver and green snakes for the bad boys.

You can put those colors in almost anything and sell it, not just book accurate uniforms scarfs and robes, any piece of clothing in general and shoes, backpacks, bags, Sandals, nail polish, special edition of the books, eyeshadow palettes, school books,planners.

I live in a touristic town, we have a railroad and some palace looking hotels and years ago some guy just make a of brand harry Potter experience, basically middle class kids can pay for a weekend in this hotel that looks like any other hotel in town but because they put around colorful flags, you can arrive via the very old normal looking railroad, and they are separated by the colors and you can participate in cringe quidditch roleplay (running around a field with a broom between your legs) he rips those suckers of hundreds just for the vague idea of Hogwarts houses

And this is the real magic of Harry Potter, while in Percy Jackson magic takes the form of average things for plot reasons and therefore aren't really appealing to sell, in harry Potter average things get a magical expensive version that you can buy for your full harry Potter experience.

And this is also why we will not see something like harry Potter again, even the most popular books these days arent as marketable as harry Potter was, you can seel clothes with symbols of your new series, flags and what not, and maybe action figures but you can't monetize every aspect of it like Rowling did

This of course without talking about the toys, toy wands, brooms, collectable dolls etc

Because Harry Potter is also very family friendly for anyone ages 0 to 100 can have harry Potter merch, house themed baby clothes and full nurseries based on the houses, toys plenty of them, uniforms, fake acceptance letters, wands specific wands, a theme park of consumerist nightmare where you can enjoy fake magical beer and buy plushies of real not magical animals or just the houses animals plushies with scarfs, a wedding/sweet sixteen/quincianera all themed around this book.

Game of thrones made a lot of money with the westeros houses merch but it's mostly clothes for adults they can't seel a lot of toys or children merch based on the murder, incest, rape book series and tv show

Bridgerton have special themed balls and that's it

And with many modern fantasy books focusing on being gritty gloomy and adult they can't also sell as well as Harry Potter did

So at the end of the day Harry Potter was never really a book, it's a marketing strategy, a trendy aesthetic and it's a good one, and it was always supposed to be one.

And this makes me think about the concept of "I can't give up harry Potter" people because it makes me wander do people really miss Harry Potter a pretty average book with not a very original concept (hero's journey+Magic school a thing that was already done+British rich kids boarding school) or do they miss the rush of serotonin of buying and consuming more and more merch about this series about having their whole aesthetic based on those books.

And maybe this is why I personally never felt as connected to harry Potter, and when Rowling fucked up I could so easily drop it, as a broke kid in a third world country harry Potter was a tease to me, like any toy brand it was a torture really, I wanted those things I wanted the wands and the robes and the scarfs and the jelly beans, and I was so jealous of this girl on class who had a personalized hogwarts letter and I couldn't avoid feeling like I would be"less of a fan" because I didn't owned anything Slytherin themed and I never even got to buy the books (read them by the library)

So in the end looking back maybe this was the answer why despite how many other bookish people I knew talked so much about this book when I really sat down to read it, it felt lacking, because once you strip away the Hogwarts roleplay the merch the personalized houses the color coding and the magical world you can buy, the magical world brand.

Harry Potter it's just a average book.

::ooc:: what a day!!!!

I don't talk about my job a lot but I like to rant from time to time; here's a story tho: I'm a hotelier. I've been in this business for 20 years, always in the Sales Department ( Either management or Direction, although depends of the hotel's size because it's entirely the damn same thing, only the position changes because they like to pretend they're better in bigger more luxurious hotels lol )

And at the beggining of the month you have to present both ytd and month results, right? Well I've worked for american/european hotel brands these past 7 years and everything, /EVERYTHING/ is automatized, right?

However, one decides to return to the place you loved the most... Well, sometimes, and that's why I'm back to work to the brand that helped me build my career, it's a mexican brand, I LOVE IT and I really missed it but LORD!!! They seriously need to find better ways to make reports cause, it's report, of the report, and report and report and.. It's almost 9 pm and I just finished cause I'm rusty LOL

However, since this hotel is a franchise of the brand, hopefully they let me improve a few excel sheets that'd let me make this quicker cause seriously? A production report should be only a matter of downloading the companies production from the system and just to paste it in a damn macro sheet, THAT'S IT

Anyway, just a little rant. I love my job, I realized how much I missed working for this company but I DON'T MISS all the damn reports lol

"Mammon's Magnificent Musical Mid-Season Special featuring Fizzarolli" review

Let’s see Fizz handle Mammon’s BS. SPOILERS and long post warning

Well the video’s image already confirms Mammon is evil and seems to have an odd relationship with Fizz, but that was a given fact.

Teenage Fizz and Blitzo!

ITS KNIFEY!!!! KNIFEY IS MAMMON’S VOICE!

Let’s be honest, Mammon could have treated that Imp kid much worse so its nice to see him not.

I’d brag that I was right about Mammon exploiting Fizz, but that was obvious from the start.

You’d have to admire Mammon for being honest about his feelings.

The moon of the Greed ring is a giant coin, but it looks like a hologram of some kind to me.

So that’s why Fizz was cautious towards that fan on the “Ozzie’s” episode. I also feel like it’s a joke making fun of hardcore fans of a franchise, who think their ideas should become actual canon in said franchise.

Froggie? I get that’s its likely referencing how Fizz jumps around, but what’s wrong with Fizzy? Wait wasn’t Blitzo called that in “Western Energy”, and was insulted by it?

Obviously we all love seeing Ozzie care about Fizz’s happiness and wanting to protect him from his fans and Mammon, but I don’t fully believe Ozzie when he says he doesn’t want to build sex robots that look like him. Maybe he wants the robots for himself XD.

While Ozzie is talking to Blitzo, you can see one of his rooms having gear designs on the wallpaper. I know it’s been confirmed that he is a skilled inventor, but I like seeing that as it shows the writers are showing that he is more than just the embodiment of lust/Fizz’s boyfriend.

IDK about you but Ozzie’s new outfit makes him look like Valentino a bit. There has been a joke about how "Val is copying Ozzie" so maybe it’s a joke about that, just neither are copying each other and its just coincidence?

Just like Stolas can, Ozzie can become a pile/form of something, in this case fire. Could this be enough to confirm that he is part phoenix like I brought up before? I also feel like it’s a joke about the “flames of passion” saying.

Helsa von Eldritch!?!? Oh wait that's not her, just girls named Glitz and Glam. Apparently they are voiced by the VA who voiced Katie Killjoy in the pilot. I wonder if their audio will be used in future fan made Katie Killjoy funny vids?

What’s with the spider webs? Is Mammon supposed to be a spider demon? Could it be a refence to Angel Dust?

I’ve been waiting to talk about that scene of the girl getting her eyes burn ever since it appeared in the 2022 trailer. First off I can strangely see pics of her and that Imp she was on becoming a couple, if you ignore the sign she had. I could see a comic where he took her to a hospital which she finds sweet and then the rest is history. I can also see a comic where Lilith Morningstar forces Mammon to pay for her medical bills due to a combination of not liking Mammon and as revenge for his statement about women not being funny.

Mammon keeps claiming he never had a son, which I feel like is building up to the reveal of Wacky Wally being his son. Fingers crossed :3

Blitzo can still do the Spider-Man upside down hanging. That is going to make a lot of Blitzo X Stolas fans happy XD

The moment with the deaf child has to be the cutest moment in the season so far.

It’s that stalker guy from before, he surprisingly looks good after all that time.

MAMMON IS A SPIDER DEMON! Honestly I don’t really like that as we have enough animal demons as it is, so it would have been nice if he was similar to what Lucifer is, or a few of the fallen angels that still look like angels to some capacity.

Heh flying fishes XD. The song is also really nice too.

Why hasn’t Fizz tried calling Ozzie for emotional support?

You can see a game called Fizzopoly in the background. Knowing the real life Monopoly brand, I can see that becoming a real toy one day, or at least a Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss themed one. Would you buy it if it was a real thing?

There’s Ozzie. Also “character too big to get through door” cliché, but at least he can teleport to solve that problem.

There first “I love you” moment!

I know it was just played for fun, but I wonder if Blitzo (at this moment in time) is a bit jealous of Ozzie being with Fizz. That or he is just that neutral about it but he expresses it in insults.

I’m just noticing the electricity Mammon gives off. With Ozzie having fire, I wonder if this means the other sins have master of a certain element or something similar, except Lucifer who has mastery of all. Leviathan would obviously be water, Bee I think would have air via flapping wings, and maybe Satan could be Earth though that’s where my theory breaks down as we have seen Imps use and control fire too.

Wow 4 songs in 1 episode.

I wonder if this episode is giving us a glimpse of what Angel Dust is going to go through with Valentino in Hazbin Hotel?

Not really liking Mammon’s full demon form.

YES! THE FIGHT IS HAPPENING!

Wait is that Ozzie’s full demon form? It looks more like a power up. Hopefully that is the case and maybe one day we can see a proper full demon form.

Wally is there, thus ending the “Mammon is Wally in disguised” theory. Still think they could be father and son.

Muppet Fizz meme parody. Still hoping for a Ozzie as Cookie Monster parody someday. Also one of the guys 3 phones has a text saying “expect fan art soon”, once again showing how self-aware the writers are about the fandom.

WAIT NO FIGHT!! DAMMIT!!

Mammon says Ozzie is going to regret revealing his feelings to everyone, but I don’t see how Ozzie is going to face consequences for his actions. The only thing I can think of is a scenario where the other sins make the two go through an investigation similar to that one episode of “Parks and Recreation” just to see if Ozzie did something big for Fizz via favoritism that could be unfair for other demons or worst case scenario, get Hell in trouble with Heaven. Is it possible that the Goetia community could use this somehow, like overthrow Ozzie, or something related to what’s going on with Blitzo and Stolas? Could this start some kind of war, like Mammon has lost some profits (like $100 worth) and just decides the best thing to do is kidnap Fizz and force him to work for him? Mammon is pretty dumb, so I could see him doing such a thing.

I hope we see the twins come back one day. I could definitely see them becoming rivals of Verosika Mayday.

Looks like Ozzie platonically likes Blitzo now, if him smiling about his sexual question is any indication. I wonder if this will result in Ozzie trying to help Blitzo and Stolas get together!

Another great episode. I really liked how I was another episode centered around a reoccurring character like Fizz with little to no Blitzo, which is good from time to time. I also think having the VA of Knifey being the VA for Mammon is a perfect fit.

I definitely love that I was pretty close to getting the plot of the episode right, while also improving on it such as having Fizz wanting to try and be the best for himself instead of being blinded by idolizing Mammon.

The biggest thing I disliked about the episode was that we didn’t get to see Ozzie and Mammon fight, I mean come on we were so close. Maybe if we had less songs we could have gotten it. I also didn't like Mammon and Ozzie's demon forms as they don't look that different compared to seeing Stolas go all demon. Hopefully that was some kind of mid transformation, as turning into their fun demon form could have destroyed the whole area alone.

According to the order of upcoming Helluva Boss episodes, looks like the next episode will be a Stolas episode, and with the name “The Full Moon” it sounds like we will learn a bit more about Stolas’ book and FINALLY learn why he needs it on such nights. It’s also likely going to have Stolas and Blitzo get on better terms and maybe start off as being friends this time before becoming a couple later in the season.

I think it would be fitting to have the episode come out on the day/night of an acutal Full Moon, like the creators of Helluva Boss use to do with the character instagram accounts.

What were your thoughts on the episode?

Even when talking about the difficulties of life, this Luz still looked and sounded so positive and upbeat. A far cry from the current state our beloved protagonist girl finds herself in.

And wow, this entire episode really was a targeted attack against me specifically, huh? I mean, even Luz’ line about being able to read witch tongue reminds me how back in the days, I could read gnommish (from the Artemis Fowl books) and decode the messages along the bottom of the pages. It doesn’t hit as hard as that one previous scene, but it still hits pretty close to home.

Camila believed that if Luz applied herself more, then she could do great things. She was right about that; just look at what she’s been able to do with glyphs in such a short time. Even Philip, who’s spent the last four hundred years or so thinking he was literally the only real person in the world admitted that he was impressed by her.

The point being that ”normal” subject like math or social studies might not be able to hold Luz interest for long, but given the right subject and the right environment, she will excel.

Timeline wise, this takes place right before the disastrous book report we saw at the beginning of episode one, season one.

I believe the ”Domicile Evil 4” poster is a reference to the Resident Evil franchise.

Down in the right corner we have… ”Night of [the?] Zombie S-” Night of the Zombie S…squirrel? That doesn’t look like a squirrel on the poster though. Maybe it’s a shrew or something, I dunno.

There are also a bunch of books in the bookcase: mostly Azura books, no surprise. There are also three books that have titles. One says ”Ghosts” on it, so I think it’s the same book that Gordon Ramsay read in that one episode of Hotel Hell that was in Connecticut.

Now, despite my brand new glasses, I have a hard time making out the other two. I think one of them says ”Taxi-something” on it, and there’s a skull next to it, so it might be about taxidermy.

That one pink jacket with the golden star in the wardrobe is giving me Steven Universe vibes. I bet Steven would love it. Is it organic though?

”…I’m staying in the Human Realm. Permanently.”

Oh, so that’s what Luz was planning, that makes sense. I mean, it’s a terrible idea, but it makes sense. I’m surprised I didn’t think of that possibility.

I guess Luz though there was still a real possibility that they could create a new portal, even before Hunter told her about the hidden Titan’s Blood. And she thought the other Exiles could return back home… and that they’d be okay with leaving her behind? And I guess she was willing to send them into a world where who knows what has happened ever since they left it at the whims of a hyperactive kid with the power to move celestial bodies around.

Luz, sweetie, I know you hate yourself right now, and I know fourteen-year-olds aren’t the best at making good long-term decisions, but please think about this.

I should probably talk a little bit about Camila’s reactions as well.

Her facial journey throughout this playlist fairly subtle, and I am not the best at reading faces, but here goes:

When the videos first start playing, she looks a little unsure. Probably because she shouldn’t be watching her daughter’s video diary.

Then Luz talks about Manny’s death. And while that is undoubtedly still a great source of sadness for her, Camila’s first instinct is to reach out towards the image of her grieving daughter.

We then move on to the videos showing off Luz’ antics, her trying to cut her hair with the sword, and Camila’s expression becomes fond. She’s missed this side of her daughter, her silly ideas, wonderful creativity, and endless optimism… even if her ideas don’t always work out.

Her smile fades as in the next video, Luz talks about the conversation she had with Camila about school. I get the sense that Camila feels guilty that she didn’t appreciate her daughter for the things she was good at or passionate about, trying instead to get her to fit into a box. 

Finally, we arrives at the last entry, where Luz says she’s going to stay in the Human Realm forever. Camila looks shocked and then… this expression. I believe she’s reached the same conclusion as me, that it is a bad idea. Even without bringing Luz’ extended family in the form of Eda & King (and also Hooty and Cool Aunt Lilith) into the equation, all of Luz’ best friends, and her awesome girlfriend are from that other world. I think Camila on some level knows that Luz will never truly be happy in this ordinary human world.

This is why we wash our wounds and make sure to change our bandaids regularly, Hunter.

Also, nononononono, it’s happening, it’s happening, oh no-

Also, also, eeeeeeww!

Turns out I was right!

To be more precise, my third proposed theory of why Luz’ burnt her hand on the glyph back at the vet clinic was right. It was because of the hidden Titan’s Blood, which makes glyph magic work… at least to some extent, those light orbs look a bit wobbly.

Not only does this give Luz a way to find the blood, but it also gives her some way to defend herself against the monster waiting in the woods.

Hey, let’s think positively! Maybe Hunter isn’t possessed by his creepy uncle, but is actually just turning into a werewolf! Yeah, that’s what’s happening. And Luz is exactly the kind of nerd who knows how to deal with a werewolf.

@drake-the-highlander @alexcanine @kingnice1219 @jaysmily2919 I decided besides just doing a story of my sona Adean changing into a dragon at will I would make another story about Adean that’s only a human but has a dragon animal companion named Jade which this won’t be your stereotypical dragon story like HTTYD or Pete’s Dragon which Toothless eventually has to leave Hiccup to go live in the hidden world of Dragons with his mate Light Fury while Elliott left Pete to go help out another kid in distress and that Pete has a real tragic story in the original 1977 version he was abused a lot while in the 2016 remake he was lost and alone till he met Elliot but even Elliot was harmed just as much as Pete while Toothless and Hiccup left to live their own lives while this is a Pokemon kind of story inspired by Ash and Pikachu’s human animal relationship where they are together forever which I want for my sona Adean and her dragon companion Jade to be together forever till the end of time and that my story about Adean and Jade would be inspired after my real life experience growing up as a kid and teenager and even till now and that Adean and Jade grew up together like sisters and of course Adean’s sister Kristy has her animal companion Halloween who is a living black cat hand puppet which is different for my anthromorphic black cat character Grey because Halloween is a living hand puppet black cat character and I think adding Pokemon characters as well as some Digimon characters into my life inspired story about my sona Adean and her dragon companion Jade would be fun to add into my stories like someday I like to add my sona Adean and her dragon Jade into my soon to get Nintendo Switch game Disney Dreamlight Valley with my sona Adean in that game being with different Disney characters along with her dragon Jade in that game soon but I feel like writing a story series based after my real life experience would be more easy to write about then just writing about my sona Adean changing into a dragon at will although I’ll still imagine her as a werewolf like from Wolfwalkers or even design a big monsterous werewolf in a part of my series too although it will be part original and part fanon because I don’t only get my ideas from my real life experiences but the franchises I had experiences with growing up like Disney, werewolves, Jurassic Park/World, Pokemon and Digimon although not the Digimon adventure reboot but the Digimon series I remember growing up watching on fox kids Saturday morning tv so I’m thinking of doing stuff inspired after my real life experiences more then stuff that came out later like Brand New Animals and Kipo and The Age of the Wonderbeasts and somewhat My Little Pony since I actually got into MLP after my senior year in high school so I have less life experience with MLP then the other stuff although I still love MLP even though it was after my childhood and teen years. So here is a drawing of my sona Adean, her sister Kristy and Adean’s dragon Jade sleeping in a bed in a hotel.

Week 4: Digital Community and Fandom: Reality TV Case Study

The convergence of traditional and modern media has led to the emergence of a new form of media different from traditional methods. Studies on viewing habits showed that 54% of viewers in the UK watch audiovisual content on a laptop, 49% on a tablet, and 39% on a mobile phone at least once a week (Sørensen 2015, p. 382).

It is possible to develop definitions that approach Reality Television as a distinct study area with its characteristics. Developing these definitions is by examining the terms 'real' and 'life': the genre invites viewers to witness the everyday, domestic, and behind-the-scenes aspects of ordinary individuals' lives. The audience is promised a glimpse into the lives of "real" people (Alsultany 2016, p. 3), and the shows are not typically scripted, are cheaper to produce, and feature "real" people instead of celebrities. 

The 'REAL' Show

In the analysis of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, the reality program began as a spinoff of TLC's Toddlers and Tiaras which offers a portrayal of people going about their normal lives, with storylines ranging from everyday activities like grocery shopping to unique, remarkable, or bizarre social rituals specific to a particular geographic region or socioeconomic class. However, the constructed panorama must also appeal to commercial television audiences, representing a fusion of popular entertainment with a self-conscious claim to portraying reality (Murray & Oullette 2009, p. 3). This self-awareness highlights the constructed nature of even the most seemingly "observational" Reality Television show, suggesting that perhaps the genre's most fundamental goal is to somehow prevent viewers from critically examining the underlying nature of what they are watching. Conclusively, this highlights that key terms serve an overarching purpose in Reality Television to provide enjoyable voyeurism by allowing viewers to follow an individual's lived experience. When Here Comes Honey Boo Boo premiered in 2012 it was a ratings smash, garnering itself an audience of 2.2 million people and a 1.6 share among 18-49 year-olds, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

Reality TV is a perfect fit for humor as a genre. Social media is a hub for fans to perform for likes and shares, with popular reality franchises like Drag Race and Love Island having multiple fan accounts dedicated to sharing jokes and memes about the shows. Humor is a key component of certain reality brands' social media presence, with both the creation and circulation of jokes and memes being a common practice (Deller 2019). 

The reality series "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" follows the life of Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson, a child beauty pageant participant, and her unique family. Johnny Depp has confessed to being a fan of the show, showing both intrigue and a hint of apprehension, stating, "I'm a little frightened of the show. That's the thing They're probably great people, but there are bits that happen that just I am mesmerized by." Here Comes Honey Boo Boo has amassed many celebrity fans, including Rosie O'Donnell and 'We Can't Stop' singer Miley Cyrus (Harp 2013). In October 2014, the reality TV world was rocked when TMZ.com released a photo of June "Mama June" Shannon in a hotel room with a man named Mark McDaniel, who had just been released from prison after serving ten years for molesting an eight-year-old child. To make matters worse, TMZ also reported that the child was someone Shannon had been in contact with. In response, TLC expressed serious concern and stated that they would be reevaluating the future of the show. The following day, TLC made the decision to cancel Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, emphasizing their commitment to the well-being of the children involved (Meltzer 2023). This caused a stir among both fans of the show and those who were not fond of it, basically, as the TV show was found to be sheltering a criminal. 

To conclude, Reality TV Shows are not about reality, they involve real humans and scenarios.

Reference:

Alsultany, E 2015, “The Cultural Politics of Islam in U.S. Reality Television,” Communication, Culture & Critique, vol. 9, no. 4, Oxford University Press (OUP), pp. 595–613, accessed <http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12121>.

Deller, Ruth A, 2019, Extract: 'Chapter Six: Reality Television in an Age of Social Media' Download 'Chapter Six: Reality Television in an Age of Social Media'in Reality Television: The TV Phenomenon That Changed the World (Emerald Publishing).  

Harp, J 2013, “Johnny Depp: ‘I’m a Honey Boo Boo fan, but she scares me,’” Digital Spy, accessed <https://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/a495764/johnny-depp-im-a-honey-boo-boo-fan-but-she-scares-me/>.

Meltzer, M 2023, “The Real Reason Here Comes Honey Boo Boo Was Cancelled,” The List, accessed <https://www.thelist.com/285217/the-real-reason-here-comes-honey-boo-boo-was-cancelled/>.

Murray, S 2009, I Think We Need A New Name For It: The Meeting of Documentary and Reality TV. In S. Murray, & L. Ouellette (Eds.), 2nd ed, New York: New York University Press.

Sørensen, IE 2015, “The revival of live TV: liveness in a multiplatform context,” Media, Culture & Society, vol. 38, no. 3, SAGE Publications, pp. 381–399, accessed &lt;http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0163443715608260>.

The Hollywood Reporter 2012, “TLC’s ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Scores Winning Ratings With Series Premiere,” The Hollywood Reporter, accessed January 31, 2024, &lt;https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/honey-boo-boo-tlc-ratings-360966/>.

My trip to Japan! ⛩️ Part 5 (last)

21.12

The winter solstice made an entrance with a very cold day. Getting out of Osaka station was fortunately much easier than it seemed on Google Maps, and we found our hotel easily. We left our luggage and went straight to the castle. The current one is the third iteration, rebuilt in 1970 after being destroyed twice in the 17th century, when it was first built. Therefore, at 53 years old, this version is actually the longest-standing one. Inside, it's a museum, not a castle, but it was interesting, unexpensive, and the views from the top are fantastic. What impressed me the most, however, was the double moat, huge and full of water. There were even boat rides around it (we didn't ride, but they were there).

We then went to the Namba district, where I had marked a restaurant that had an Attack on Titan collaboration, but it was over. We had lunch in a US-style burger restaurant. In fact, next to Namba there’s this area called Amerika-mura, with many shops of American items or aesthetics. Lots of hip-hop style clothing. It's worth mentioning that the commercial density of Osaka is similar to Tokyo; every building is a shopping center, and there are several covered pedestrian streets as well. Walking around,  we reached Dotonbori, Osaka's entertainment district around the canal of the same name, and went on to a street with several manga and anime shops. I had already browsed some in the previous cities and everywhere, here too, there was little to nothing on AoT. Only a handful of 2nd hand, 2nd rate keychains/badges featuring none of my blorbos (sorry Jean, I love you, but not as much as to buy merch with your horseface on it). Still, I managed to find a tiny string bag from the Sanrio collabo and a couple gachas.

For those who don’t know, gachapon are coin-operated machines that dispense a plastic capsule with a surprise inside. Like a Kinder egg, minus the egg. Each gachapon has a picture showing the trinkets you can get in that machine: small character figurines from a given franchise, or a collection of figurines following a certain theme, or a certain character in various positions; keychains, stickers, totebags... anything and everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything. Japanese Rule 34: If it exists, there's a gachapon of it. The variety of themes and objects you can get from a gachapon is as overwhelming as the commercial streets of the country. Every tourist attraction has some related gachapon. In castles, there are gachas of samurai figures, tiny swords, or pins with emblems of Japan's feudal houses; near zoos, there are ones with animals. In commercial areas, there are entire gacha shops, some with several floors. Some of these shops include a container for recycling the empty plastic capsules, and all of them have a change machine, since gachapon only accept ¥100 coins. The price for gachas usually range from ¥200 to ¥500, with a majority at ¥300-¥400, although there are some "premium" ones up to ¥1000. All good, but I'm not willing to pay so much for a surprise.

⬆️ English subs available!

In this regard, gachas are not alone: buying surprises seems to be something very deeply ingrained and popular in Japan. Many brands sell surprise products. You buy a little box, an acrylic figure, a little doll, but you don't know which model out of the available ones you'll get. In several shops there are products that aren’t for sale; they're tombola prizes. You buy a number at the counter, you get one of those items. While, as Husband observed, we’re not privvy to the exchange rings generated by this business model, not so conceptually different from the stickers we collected as kids or Kinder Eggs themselves, the profusion of surprises really took me by surprise (no pun intended), both for its ubiquity and for the prices, which can exceed ¥1000, and you don't even get a chocolate egg to console yourself if, as it happened to me twice, you get stupid Eren.

For dinner, we did manage to go to an okonomiyaki place that had an AoT collaboration. Usually, collabo places aren’t particularly good places, food-wise. They offer a menu of dishes "inspired" by whatever franchise they’re featuring, and if you spend more than a certain amount, they give you a souvenir like a card or sticker, a surprise, of course. You also have the chance to buy exclusive merchandise made specially for that collaboration. Again, many of these items are surprises. In short, the food was decent, I got my photo with Levi’s cut-out, and got a little card of him, too.

22.12

After breakfast, we took the Shinkansen to Himeji. The city's 17th-century castle, which has remained intact until today, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Himeji Castle was defensive; it's not a palace, although it may look like one from the outside. Still, it's fabulous to see what a castle was like during that time in Japan (the defensive systems are very similar to European ones. As someone who hates the cold, I was pleasantly surprised by the arrow slits with replaceable covers). It's also mindblowing that this megastructure, mainly made of wood and adobe, is still standing after three centuries.

A few years ago, for maintenance, they dismantled it... and reassembled it entirely… with the same 300 y.o. pieces. The two main columns are two logs almost a meter in diameter and 25 metres long, going from the basement to the 5th floor. The views from the top are beautiful. The visit included a stroll through the neighbouring Japanese gardens. Here, there's a very cute restaurant with views over one of the many ponds in the gardens, which, oh joy, had very reasonable prices, so being already noon, we had lunch there. We returned to Osaka, and after coffee we decided to go our separate ways so each could shop to their heart’s content until dinner. I checked a few merch shops for AoT stuff, no luck.

⬆️ This comic book shop had a lot of dedicated doodles. I looked all over twice and Yams wasn't there, but I did find some other familiar faces.

We’d planned to meet in Shinsekai, but Husband got there first and said it was pretty dead, so we met in Namba and went to Dotonbori for dinner. We had takoyaki and kushikatsu, a local specialty consisting of breaded and fried skewers. I also ordered a beef cartilage stew, it was delicious and, funnily, it sort of tasted like fricandó, one of my favourite typical Catalan dishes back home.

23.12

We woke up early to catch the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. We left our luggage at the hotel (the same one as on arrival), and here I had a great disappointment because we planned to have a mid-morning snack at a nearby place, Hekkelun, which has been selling flan since the sixties. I don't know if I saw the schedule wrong on Google or if they changed it in the ten days we were touring the rest of Japan, but it was closed on the weekend. It made me very angry because I was really looking forward to it and, had I known, we would obviously have gone in the first Tokyo cour. I needed to cheer myself up, so after a tea in front of Shinbashi station, we passed by the NTV building, where there’s a beautiful clock designed by Hayao Miyazaki.

We arrived just in time to see the movement at 12, which was, of course, super cute. We then went to the Hama-Rikyu park. It used to be the shogun's gardens and includes things like ancient tea rooms; a seawater pond, as it’s next to the bay; and duck-hunting ponds, an activity which seems to have been very popular back in the day. Using real trained ducks as bait, they led the birds to narrow corners of the pond with camouflaged huts on both sides from where they hunted them. We returned to Shinbashi for lunch and stumbled upon an inconspicuous sushi place in the basement of the station, where we ate amazing susi for almost half of what takeaway costs here. We decided to go our separate ways like in Osaka, to cover more ground. I checkedd a couple of cute stationery shops I’d bookmarked and went all the way to Shibuya to check the Attack on Titan pop-up shop (it opened on the 22nd, so it wasn't there in the first part).

⬆️(Sorry for the awful audio, I was trying to be discrete)

Finally! I got decent merchandise (plus surprise cards for spending a lot my purchase).

There was supposed to be a collabo café nearby, but I had enough “surprises” and Shibuya was horribly crowded. I would’ve expected that a weekday at 6pm, not a Saturday at 4. I met Husband in Akihabara, where we looked at some merch stores (found nothing), had something at a cat cafe (pretty shitty, but the cats were cute), and had dinner at a nearby place.

⬆️ All my Levi stuff was in that blue bag, kitty knew what he was doing!

24.12

We both woke up ridiculously early, so we had breakfast at McDonald's (the only thing open at 6 am where you could sit) and went to Meiji Jingu. It's a Shinto shrine in Harajuku where Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken, are enshrined as deities. Emperor Meiji opened Japan to the world in the mid-19th century, ending two and a half centuries of isolation during the Edo era. It’s beautiful, well-maintained and free. There is a small fee for the gardens, that we also visited. These were the emperor's gardens; there's a closed tea house from where the empress would gaze at the lake, with a small pier for fishing. There's also a lily field (barren since it was the middle of winter ofc) with a gazebo to contemplate the blossoming. This field was planted in what was once a rice paddy, where the children of noblefolk were made to work in ancient times to understand the labour than went into rice cultivation and appreciate the food they had.

From there, we went to the ukiyo-e museum a couple of blocks away. It was small but very interesting, with lots of insight into this technique, the one from Hokusai’s famous "The Great Wave off Kanagawa". We ate at a nearby place, Kyushu Jangara: the ramen was excellent, with its tonkotsu broth, soft-boiled egg, and the comforting feeling that a proper bowl of soup brings on a cold winter noon. We took a stroll through Harajuku; it was so full it was a challenge to walk through the pedestrian street. We then walked down the main avenue, full of fancy brands, to Omotesando Station, where we took the metro to Tokyo Station. Here is Character Street, a gallery of character shops. I’d heard it was expensive, it wasn’t so good, yada yada yada… well, here I did get more AoT stuff, including Sanrio items.

⬆️ There was probably more Aot stuff here than in all of the other shops I checked.

I stopped by the hotel to drop off the purchases, and we met at the KFC in Shinbashi to buy our "Japanese Christmas Eve dinner." The tradition, born from a 1970s advertisement, is to have KFC for dinner on this day. Despite what the decorations might suggest, Christmas is not celebrated here. They’re just into it for the aesthetics.

It was our last night in Japan, but not our last adventure! Around 11pm, right before getting into bed, we got an email saying our flight was canceled. Wham!

25.12

Needless to say, we slept like shit, and at six, we were already awake. Husband chatted with Lufthansa, and they rebooked us on a flight two hours earlier than the original one, so we got dressed and rushed to the airport. Every cloud has a silver lining, though, and I was thrilled when we got to ride on the LTS monorail! See you, Japan!

a rant on monet de haan and “but og gossip girl was old money”

not to bitch abt racist og gossip girl fans but im gonna bitch abt them. i REMEMBER yalls tone when the show first got promo before it even aired, and weren’t even willing to give it a chance, u just made assumptions bc the entire cast wasnt white. 

 ppl, specifically og gg tiktok fans, were saying the old show “gives old money” and the new show doesnt, conveniently forgetting chuck’s dad wasn’t born into wealth but became wealthy when chuck was young, making him new money. his dad is worth 22 billion dollars. 

monet’s parents are heirs to a new york pharmaceutical company and on her wiki its listed that her family descends from old money. johnson and johnson is one of the biggest and has a net worth 435 billion as the wealthiest pharma company in the us. bc im lazy and dont feel like counting means and stats for the top 10 pharma companies in the us relative to ny, im assuming the de haan company has a networth of 100-400+ billion. whatever her family’s networth is i will happily believe it is more than chuck bass.

and monet’s parent’s donation of the wing had to occur sometime after everyone in the og show including jenny’s grade had graduated constance bc it wasnt yet canon, but just before monet had gone there. if we’re talking as soon as jenny’s grade had graduated, thats between june 2010-aug 2018, and monet would be 5 to 13. i’m going to average that the time the wing was planned to be built was 2014 when she’d by 9 bc i love the idea of little monet dreaming of going to constance with absolute certainty, and bc 2014 is a prettier number. my theory is that greyson and camille were planning to have monet go to CB St Judes ever since she was a child, hence the early donation.

anyway her parents literally paid for wing in constance and it has their names on it w the money from an old new york pharma company they own. and yall are like,,, dying on the hill she, bc she’s part of the reboot, wasnt born into wealth??? and even if she wasnt i know yall didnt just forget the og gg had poc on the show who were also old money or otherwise so loaded rich they could afford constance, but usually they were background characters like the minions, nelly yuki, and raina. the minions who literally only served to do blair’s bidding, and nelly yuki who was opposed bc blair saw her as an academic rival and was willing to sabotage her.

 and then raina thorpe whos one of the only black girls in the show w a prominence in the og series, but idk. she’s moreso there bc she was w/ nate and chuck, but also her dad is basically a “villain” in the show and raina gets the short end of the stick and has to suffer for it, which is when she leaves the show. im just saying ofc someone the same race as monet or luna or aki would be happy to see themselves represented on screen and not as a background character or recurring character there only a short amnt of time if they loved the og gg. 

and if you personally aren’t? cool thats ok but let ppl who are be happy. you dont need to mount some moral high horse pretending u care abt poc to defend why u hate us being represented in media. yall complain whenever poc are shown in media even when it isnt a reboot but rather an extension of the franchise such as star wars, so i find it hard to believe ur crapping on new reboots in media for having poc bc u actually care abt us being properly represented. 

like, factually racism is the only thing convincing yall the old gg is “old money” and the new one isnt. also we need to have a talk abt what yall constitute as old money, bc hf twitter stayed hating on alexa demie for her early 00s fashion for being “cheap” as if paris hilton also wasn’t dressing kinda like alexa currently does in the early 00s while also happening to be an heiress to a hotel brand. and as if hf twt doesn’t constantly worship the air bella hadid breathes for wearing low rise jeans and baby tees which is just as much y2k inspired as what alexa wears. 

like,, yall think all rich people, w/in ur very narrow view of what rich old money ppl look like, only ever dress in ralph lauren polos,,,and it’s not even like yall read the gg books to know the og characters wear burberry and ralph lauren which any tiktok old money “connoisseur” would hate for being “flashy,’ but because its in the list of their weird arbitrary rules of crap all old money rich ppl apparently do. if the reboot characters wore burberry scarves and ralph lauren polos w giant logos on the front yall would complain they arent following ur made up rich ppl rules u think applies to everyone who’s an heir to fortune. 

yall just forget abt raina and hated gg2021 before it even aired all bc it starred poc, and bc its weird seeing a rich it girl in a position of power who doesnt look like blair or serena. for the de haans to have the money to donate a wing to the school and pay monet’s tuition on top of that and live in the excess monet does simultaneously kinda shows like,,how fucking rich monet is. therefore the attitudes of the students make a lot of sense. and if blair was treating a teacher the way monet does bc she had a wing dedicated to her parents, yall would eat that shit up whether blair was old money or not!!!

listen im a huge gg fan but i also pay attention!!! i am not letting monet de haan slander slide!!!! im all for her being as entitled due to her wealth and carefree as blair was!!! bc blair did some f’ed up shit yet monet being snide w a teacher gets yalls feathers ruffled...and we all know why yall wouldnt have the same reaction if it were audrey doing the same but thats none of my business 

Today, the so-called asset-light model of franchising allows brands to grow their reach with the added benefit of eliminating real-estate and overhead costs. “That’s where the money is,” Greg Hanis, a veteran hotel consultant, told me. “When I’m a franchiser, whether that franchisee is performing well or not, I get a royalty fee on those rooms that sell.”

Initially, franchisers provided detailed instructions—like those in Howard Johnson’s “bible”—on every aspect of a franchisee’s operation, including safety. This, in turn, opened up companies to lawsuits when employees or customers were hurt or harmed at a franchised property. In 1983, for example, a guest at a Chicago Travelodge was injured after jumping from a second-floor window to escape a burglar who had entered his room. The customer sued the franchiser, Travelodge International, arguing that prior inspections of the property had identified safety problems and its franchise agreement required properties to maintain a “clean, safe, and orderly operation.” As lawsuits mounted, franchisers learned to limit their liability by removing overt security requirements from agreements and operations manuals. Instead, corporate brands have come to focus their contracts and policies on maintaining material consistency. As a result, the type of coffee served in the lobby and the thickness of the towels in the bathroom are closely policed, but decisions regarding crime prevention are not.

—"Should Hotel Chains Be Held Liable for Human Trafficking?" from the New Yorker