Tag Archives: Disney

November 20, 2023 · 13:43

Ratatouille

Yes, that was the thought entering my mind. It is not about the cartoon, it is about the dish. I first had it in 1981 in Lourdes. It was also the year I met members from the Legion Etrangere and their kepi blanc. A lot happened that year but it is not set the a singular event. You see, there is a larger stage that my mind is working out and it is one of a few. 

Douse the Mouse
The second stage towards all this is Ronald McDonald DeSantis where we (in no particular order) are given (at https://www.politico.com/newsletters/florida-playbook/2023/11/17/florida-starts-turning-on-desantis-00127753) with ‘DeSantis’ popularity drops in Florida’ where we are given “But DeSantis’ support from Independent voters in Florida has taken a nosedive, the poll shows, with almost 60 percent saying they disapprove of the job he is doing as governor — a nearly 14-point increase from July” so in 3 months his approval rate is down by 14% and I believe it is more than that. The person who wanted to ‘Douse the Mouse’ (source: @Brittlestar) is now trying to avoid whatever he can. So we get to the second link (at https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/disney-says-it-has-40-billion-economic-impact-in-florida-as-it-battles-desantis-in-court/) with ‘Disney says it has $40 billion economic impact in Florida as it battles DeSantis in court’ where we are given “Disney officials in the past year have said the company plans to invest an additional $17 billion over the next decade in central Florida, including potentially adding another 13,000 jobs. However, the company has shown a willingness to pull back investing in the Sunshine State. Earlier this year, Disney scrapped plans to relocate 2,000 employees from Southern California to work in digital technology, finance and product development, an investment estimated at $1 billion”, so not only does Disney account for 40 billion, it was about to increase the economic footprint of Florida by 2.5% money that the state desperately needs. Now we see that DeSantis is trying to spin several settings and the people have had enough. The deep painted republicans are running away (alas in the direction of Donald Trump), the rest has had enough of the republicans. Now we get to the story (at https://www.npr.org/2023/11/16/1213355557/desantis-florida-president-candidate-voters-trump) where we see ‘Once Florida’s favourite son, Floridians turn on DeSantis in his bid for president’ a stage that gives us “Trump currently has more than a 30 point lead over DeSantis in his own state. That lead hasn’t changed significantly since the governor jumped into the race for president”, as well as “Republican state Rep. Randy Fine has been one of DeSantis’ most vocal supporters in the Florida Legislature. But recently he announced he’s backing Trump in the GOP primary”. This is a setting I expected to some degree, but not to this degree. You see when you screw with the economy of your own state for simple shallow egotistical reasons. This is the event you can see coming a mile away. 

This all matters to another stage with all kind of jagged edges. You see, All this was going through my mind when I was contemplating two issues. 

The first one Was Abu Dhabi. I saw the Warner Brothers hotel (and theme park) and I wondered why the UAE isn’t more outspoken in adding a decent amount. The first one is a sidestep from the  normal theme park, I am not sure how Islam regards Harry Potter and I don’t think it is a good idea to have a third one, but some kind of fairy tale forest, based on Scheherazade and the One Thousand and One Nights in the style of the Dutch Efteling, could work. Too stand out matters and this could be a setting. As the stage increases (see below).

The idea is not an expansion based on rides, but on walks and watching the stories of 1001 Arabian nights and other myths. You see, when I was confronted with the Jinn, the idea erupted to create the script for ‘How to Assassinate a politician’, the idea still works for a number of stages. And adding these stories to any theme park would be a win for the theme park. You see, as we get closer and closer to 2030, the tourism groups will alter. The UAE should expand and create a haven for tourists, non-Arabic tourists. Tourism from Bangladesh and Indonesia will grow to a decent degree, and in all this the Europeans who can afford to go there, they will go there. America is rapidly losing appeal and the European tourist as well as the asian one wants to see new borders. With Saudi Arabia growing Neom and the Line they will get more and more tourists. So offering these people an additional choice (like the train Riyadh-Dubai-Abu Dhabi) will get its own appeal on all this and there is time for the UAE to add to their arsenal and after the storms they need more in more places. You see, I will not give word here, but there is a chance that Dubai (if what I saw was real) will have more issues coming. 

So as the expansions 1,2 and 3 are added the larger addition is a magic carpet ride (like the Efteling ‘de droomvlucht’) but over the three expansions showing the people a new ride and the biggest one ever created showing them the expansions as well as additional layers (read: floors) showing them another collection of stories, Abu Dhabi will become an increasing source for tourists, both local and international. 

All this is also linked to a setting of Residuam Vitam (a story in development), I had some idea of how to set the spin towards the conclusion, but now I addd a few sides and that is where the jagged edge came into play. That is all linked to the stories and the past. You see there was one part that Socrates gave me and the other part I know the story, but not the writer and that combination resulted in something more. That part is still evolving but the interactions are defining me. Parts I did not consider before are now getting in motion. It was linked to ‘How to Assassinate a politician’ because it was an idea I had for Arab TV. Yet the setting is not about Arabs, Islam or the middle east, it was about seeing new frontiers and optionally making groundbreaking efforts. Whilst players like Amazon Prime, Disney and Netflix are focussing on Europe and America. The reality is that in 3-4 years that is the most likely to implode, all whilst the areas I am looking at are growth areas and they will have needs too, as such the evolving ideas others are avoiding. You can say it is its own kind of Ratatouille. And whilst players like Ron DeSantis are so egotistical that they will destroy their own state’s economy by Dousing the Mouse. Other players are more realistic in their approach and that is where both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates can capture a decent slice of that tourism gap. You see, we are seeing (for months) the stage of “Travel to all areas of Florida should be done with extreme caution” there will be an impact for both Disney and Warner Brothers and the people going somewhere else, need someplace to go. That is simple abacus logic, but it holds up. You see, most will try to go to EuroDisney or Japan, but like any theme park there is a limit and these two places haven’t been expanding enough. In addition to that there are a decent amount of complaints to the catering of Warner Brothers Japan (all third party complaints, nothing I can vouch for) but these elements add up and now the middle east has one additional track for extended revenue, all because some people considered and placed ego before common sense. I wonder what happens when these players start the blame game, like ‘Republicans blame skewed advertising for Ohio abortion rights victory’, it is merely one small part in a larger stage of failures and that list keeps on growing. So much could have been avoided, but that is on them.

Enjoy the day, Monday is 56% through for me.

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August 23, 2023 · 20:55

A very different oak

OK, to be honest, this dream hit me some time ago. I had it, but I have no idea why I had the dream and I might never figure it out. The event was at Golden Oak Orlando. I was visiting someone and when we got to his abode (a mansion by any other name) we were overwhelmed. I reckon that this is the feeling that all those who ever visited someone’s place in Golden Oak leaves them. It is a little overwhelming. So we got to his place, we were shown the lower part of the house with an inner courtyard. There was a pool, a jacuzzi and a few other amenities making sure that we all felt a little out of our comfort zone. We went to the corner in the inner courtyard and we had something to drink. There were two pitchers of iced fruit-juice and it was wonderful. I went for the slightly more orange one. It was a mix of peached and tangerines loaded with what seemingly a shrapnel of ice parts. It was icy cold and refreshing. My kind of refreshing. The others were talking and I was listening and looking at the details of the courtyard and the kitchen room through the glass. The stove looked old-fashioned but seemingly bursting with high tech elements. A stove anyone would dream of having in their home. After the drink the second part started. We saw the living room, the kitchen we walked through and we saw a large pantry. The living-room was a little spartan but stylish. We all walked up the stairs and we saw the master bedroom. Not sure what the style was, but it looked neat. The walking bathroom was to die for and had everything on a space that is pretty much my living room. There were the two guest rooms and they both had their own style, nice but very different. And I saw the door, the door that would change it all. The door was out of place. It looked a lot heavier and darker, like dark oak heavy. From a distance it stood out, even as the door was deeper into the wall than any other door in the house. It stood out like a bank vault door would stand out in any apartment, it looked that heavy. The door was dark oak as said, but it was engraved unlike anything I had ever seen. The owner then moved a panel in the door and a small opening revealed itself. 

The opening had a key, a very old fashioned one and if I had to make a guess it was a 17th century key, but it looked off somehow. The panels showed us characters from Peter Pan and Mr. Smee (the first mate from Peter Pan) was the center piece of the door. The door opened smoothly but seemingly heavy and the door didn’t open at the end, the door opened with the axial at one third of the door and the door was a lit thicker than a door should be. What I saw then blew me away. The room was almost entirely made from wood, hardwood floors, and I saw to the right what could have been the navigator desk from a galleon. To the left was an admiral’s table with swanky seat. The navigator had its own swanky seat, both a chesterfield design, both chairs build for comfort and I walked in. I saw the small door to the end and I walked towards it, it opened up to a small balcony with seats. The wooden balcony seemed to have been part of a slightly enlarged balcony like the admirals room on a galleon with a small table and chairs. 

I looked around and I was slapped across the face a second time. The walls I can in from were the  rear of a galleon, complete with stained glass and a view of the ocean. The wall that connects to the house was an ocean and the smell of salt water was invading my nostrils. A freakin ocean? I slowly walked towards the end of the ship realising that it was smoke and mirrors (of sorts) the windows were real enough, the sound of a seagull was there, but as I stared closely I noticed the fine lines. The view on the ocean were TV screens 4 meters wide in total, about a meter high. 4 of them. There was a hidden vapour in there feeding us seawater. The sound came from the screen. It was the sound of the ocean with a bird every no and then and the screens were merely showing us the water waves, almost like it would have been were we on a galleon. The walls had pictures. One in heavy sterling with the image of Bill Thompson (the name was engraved in the centre of the bottom side of the frame. I knew the name as I grew up with Disney movies. He was the voice of Mr. Smee in the Disney version of it. There was an image an autographed one of Bob Hoskins, the man who played Smee in Hook and there were more Smee memorabilia all over the room. The navigator desk was a desk, it was fully functioning with a large map of Never-never land. The map rolled up and stayed rolled up. Beneath it was a screen a 32” touch display that showed the Mac screen and applications. There were all the Adobe ones, all the Apple ones and several I had never seen before. I noticed that below it were extensions that came out, for both the keyboard and to the right of that an A4 digital writing pad. The system was super-fast, faster than the average G5 and it looked super intuitive. I looked around to the admiral’s desk which as a large and very nice desk with all kinds of amenities. The top of the desk was wood and I think a strip of leather, for writing on I reckon. The drawers were all engraved and to the right of the desk was a panel like it was some kind of food elevator. The panel was opened and two plates with canapé’s came out. They were delicious. The door I came in through was no longer visible, well not until you go looking for it. I saw the lines of where the door was and it was almost invisible to the naked eye. 

The chair was bordeaux red, it looked extremely comfy. We ate the food and we all were mesmerised on the room. I was not the only one blown away. This was his office space and it was one hell of an office space. It was a few minutes later when we left the room and as the door opened the screens shut down, the sounds faded and to room lights all dimmed but did not turn off. As I left the room I heard the room lock and I heard more clicks, almost like a set of alarms were set to sharp. We went down again and in the kitchen I now noticed the same panel we hd upstairs. A food elevator and a chef was there with plates of food that staff were bringing around. There was a Japanese plate with marinated eel. Plates with what seemed to be wraps with chicken and I had another fruit juice. I took the yellow now, which was I reckoned pineapple with Limes and I guess pear. It was slightly sweeter, I preferred the orange one. Which was my third drink. We sat down in the living room and I was listening. I also figured out I was the plus one of one of the ladies there. She was way out of my league, so no idea who she was and why she was with me and as I was sipping my fruit juice I faded away and woke up in my own bed. 

The dream stuck with me and at first I thought it was the setting for some kind of game, but there was no relation to any game I thought up. Then it could be for TV or movie, but the office space was too distinct. I would have loved to have a house and with such an office, but too much was not my initial desire in office choice, even as the computer clearly was. Sometimes the brain takes you on a meaningless quest, so I might never know why, but that feeling of looking around and watching the ocean still haunts me and I have no idea why.

Enjoy the day, we are now past the 50% point towards the weekend.

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July 6, 2023 · 00:00

Reuter catches up

Yup, that is the frame I am looking at. A mere 2 hours ago Reuters gives us ‘Insight: Swing state Republicans bleed donors and cash over Trump’s false election claims’ (at https://www.reuters.com/world/us/swing-state-republicans-bleed-donors-cash-over-trumps-false-election-claims-2023-07-05/) there we see “The withdrawal of bankrollers like Weiser reflects the high price Republicans in the battleground states of Michigan and Arizona are paying for their full-throated support of former President Trump and his unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him” and you wonder why this is ‘surprising’. Yet, when you consider that months ago (April 20th to be exact) I wrote in ‘Is UNemployed a thing?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/04/20/is-unemployed-a-thing/) “Should Fox settle Smartmatic, or lose in the trials these small sharks will come and take huge chunks out of the Fox cadaver. No matter how you slice it, it will leave a gap for any contender of Fox to step forward because for 1-2 years it will have to contemplate how to go forward and how to invest funds going forward and that leaves their number one customer the Republican Party. Any contender could snatch that client away from Fox, which leaves Fox in a bind.” Now we see this happen and way beyond Fox, yet Fox too will be bleeding a fair bit. In the end these bankrollers need a return on investment and al things Republican are about to feel the pinch in a stage where they cannot afford to lose investors and bankrollers. I reckon that anyone on that horse will soon feel the pinch of lost revenue and more important, anyone feeling serious about their business will not do it with these people. With added “The dismissal impacted prime-time ratings at Fox News, with 20 percent of its audience dropping off between the first and second quarter of the year, according to a review of Nielsen data” this is merely one quote, but it fits the expectations I had and with that bloodletting, tapping the vein will be a lot more dangerous for all republicans involved. People like Liz Cheney have a chance as they turned away from the Trump madness from day one and t cost Liz, it cost her dearly, now she is about to become one of the few members (together with Mitt Romney) that could herald some future in the republican party. Personally I believe that they lost the honourable John McCain too early. That man would have been fifty times the president that Donald Trump imagined he could have become. But that is for another day. In the first the Republican Party needs to reset whatever idiotic view they had and they need to restore whatever they can and it better be WITHOUT Fox News. They lost whatever little credibility they had in the Dominion case and the Smartmatic case hasn’t even started yet. When you add it all up the republican party is in shambles and I saw this months before Reuters seemingly caught on. I reckon there is another side that will gradually catch on. You see bankrollers like Weiser will not ‘suddenly’ become democrats, I get that but that leaves the independent people in an interesting phase. Several states will now have a larger appeal to these politicians. I reckon that people like Cheney and Romney will try to salvage what they can, but people like Mitch McConnell have created gaps by ‘appeasing’ to all republican players (or at least those who shouted loudest) as such he will be trying to fence the republican meadow, but the sheep are already in a panic and large parts of the meadow have no fence. Plenty will side with Cheney/Romney, but too many will not and that is where the independents will have an interesting field day and for some it will be their first chance to gain foothold with corporations that preferred the republican side. The GOP made too big a mess and now the funds will walk away, add to that the dangers that Fox brings and the people they lost and we get a new setting. I partially captured it with “it will leave a gap for any contender of Fox to step forward” and Alex Jones already pushed himself out of the game with all that crazy talk, as such they both stand to lose more and more and the new players who are, what some would define as “republican readable information” will have a field day with collecting from the bankrollers and politicians that need a reliable platform and as such Fox will lose more and more and people will shun the conspiracy people like Alex Jones. As the comedians like Trae Crowder would state as “These people are leaving us? Is it my birthday, again?” And that is the larger setting for Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney (and a few more) and it will redraw republican political lines. I reckon that people like Mitch McConnell will look at the battlefield that they helped to create and wander to a paddock with a stable and intensely quietly live out their life in solitude. They literally bet on the wrong horse which becomes a ‘horse no show’. And that is the larger station for any corporation who had set their money on republican fields. They will consider what to do next and that is where independents will make larger gains, especially where the republicans bungled the ball (and their balls too). I reckon that Florida is in for a very new stage and 2026 will be bad news for Ron DeSantis who lost on a few fronts and the billion dollar losses he instilled via Disney will cost him a lot more, the 2024 elections (next to Donald Trump) first and his governor seat second (his approval rate now in the low 30’s). In this a new setting will evolve. Charlie Crist (D) is the clear favourite here, yet any Republican that did not agree with DeSantis could evolve an independent platform, especially if they want to make nice with Disney. That is merely one of several stages where the GOP will lose more and more ground. 

A lot of this is speculation, but it fits the data that is openly available, which does not make it true. Yet, consider that politicians require endorsements from corporations to continue. What corporation will continue in Florida after DeSantis blew a billion in investments from Disney? And after these fake allegations through places like Fox News, what corporation wants their name and reputation connected to these channels? It was a simple clear setting and no one looked into it at the time and now we see the Reuter stage and others will follow. I wonder what game people like Mitch McConnell will play next when they realise that the people they politically blew away are his only option to remain where he is? That gives a new interpretation to the expression ‘Will work for paddock and stable’ and yes I just made that expression up. 

And when you realise that the republicans are about to lose Arizona, Florida and Michigan (I personally think they will lose Texas too) the fact becomes clear. If the democrats win these three (or four) they will have the house, the senate and congress for at least two terms all at the same time. As I see it, for some republicans yielding the field to independents is their only option as they will need 3-5 years to clean the mess they allowed Donald Trump to create and in all this Ron DeSantis was little to no help at all and regaining hist lost estimated 25% approval will take way too long and Disney is not on his side. The one corporation that employs 75,000 people in Florida and that amounts to a total of (employed and connected) to roughly 1,683,000 votes. This gives Charlie Crist a new lease on political life. It is my personal view that for the republican party Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney are their only chance to regain some of the lost fields, yet I reckon it will not be enough for the the 2024 presidential elections. The best they can hope for (for now) is limit the damage they incur. That is my own personal view on the matter.

Have a great day.

 

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May 22, 2023 · 22:23

From bad to worse

This happens, things are not great and at that point someone states ‘watch this’ and opens the floodgates of disaster. This happened in part when Governor DeSantis decided to ‘douse the mouse’ an intensely stupid action if ever there was one. And now the CBC gives us (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/florida-travel-warnings-naacp-lgbtq-1.6850920) the simple headline ‘NAACP among civil rights groups warning tourists about Florida in wake of ‘hostile’ laws’. For those not aware, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) has set out a travel warning (at https://naacp.org/articles/naacp-issues-travel-advisory-florida) there we see “Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of colour and LGBTQ+ individuals. Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalises the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of colour.” As such the one state that relies on its annual tourism revenue (2021) gives us “Florida visitors contributed $101.9 billion to Florida’s economy and supported over 1.7 million Florida jobs” that comes with “According to the Office of Economic and Demographic Research, for every $1 the state invests in VISIT FLORIDA, $3.27 in state tax revenue is generated”, if only 10% is lost, how much damage will Florida endure as this governor is vying for the seat of presidency and does this on a national level? In addition to what I wrote over the last week, we will see national revenues dwindle down with DeSantis in control of whatever get gets control of. It is even less interesting for the Republican Party as they are enduring two losers in their ranks in power in a decade and it could be a lot worse. And they are in turn empowering China and enabling Saudi Arabia in their own ways. Because in that setting there could be a massive push to grow a sort of Disney world in the United Arab Emirates, but founded much more on the Arabian nights and all kinds of Middle Eastern fairy tales. A setting that is not make believe. The existence of the Boulevard Riyadh City is evidence enough that a theme park a blended theme park could push tourism and revenue in the UAE to a decent amount and no matter how hetero sexual that cluster is, the actions by DeSantis is making them uneasy. The hostilities and the ‘Karen’s of America’ are making the people unwilling to visit the US, unwilling to chance disruptive activities and they are seeking it somewhere else and yes Disney-world Paris would be their first choice, but that place will fill up fast and too many people is a negative impact as well. No matter how we see it, to book for tickets for a place that is too often at 110% is no easy choice. The UAE already has the Dubai mall and from there growth becomes easier (not to mention the Ferrari park in Abu Dhabi) and as such the UAE will have a few options all over the land. And when they consider that this could open a market for millions on Indonesians as well (and depriving the US of even more) they have choices to consider. 

So whatever DeSantis thought he was doing, he will have crushed the Florida economy being the first Floridan governor to do so and this economy after all the covid lockdowns was not that strong to begin with. Basically he becomes the straw that broke the Florida’s Panthers back.

So as one state goes from bad to worse, how many other states will suffer that level of income loss? 

Enjoy the first day towards the next weekend.

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May 19, 2023 · 10:42

The stupidity of some

Yes, we all see that and it has repercussions for these people. We might sit on the sidelines laughing, but it shows a dangerous premise, the stupidity of America, the stupidity of some Americans and how they scuttled their own ship called ‘Future of us’ and ‘us’ could also be seen as ‘US’. This is shown in two articles. The first one is from Yahoo Finance. There was a little better NY Times article, but that was behind a paywall, so you would not be able to read the whole text.

The article (at https://news.yahoo.com/disney-cancels-1-billion-florida-185105108.html) gives us ‘Disney Cancels $1 Billion Florida Expansion’. A setting that came because an idiot (aka Gov. Ron DeSantis) decided to start a war for a trivial reason. He wanted to ‘Douse the Mouse’ (sorry Brittlestar, this is too good a slogan to pass up). And now Disney has cancelled an expansion where we get “The 10-figure office complex near Walt Disney World would have brought more than 2,000 jobs to the region, according to an estimate from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity” So not only does this governor rub any fat cat the wrong way. He now has grievance with the Commercial houses of Florida, his Republican back, the Democrats of Florida and a few other people. Along with the 2000 people not getting a job, up to 8 people connected to anyone losing that job, as such he is 25,000-50,000 votes down and there is likely a larger loss for the Republican side. An ego centric stupid act on the premise of perception that should not have existed in the first place. It is stupid for a few reasons more. The American have alienated Saudi Arabia, optionally the UAE, Egypt and Lebanon as well. Billions in defence industry is now going to China, building contracts in Syria and Saudi Arabia are now going to China, as such the EU and USA are losing out on billions more. The idea that the EU will cater to another Disney-world giving the EU billions more is not out of the question, all money lost to the US, in a stage where they have over 31 trillion in debt. An act too stupid to contemplate and this could have been avoided. In the 70’s my elders taught me ‘Do not bite the hand that feeds you’ and in 1968 we have the premise ‘Money talks, bullshit walks’ and the US seemingly only has walking left. In this day and age I saw the option for millions more in revenue in IT and it will likely go to the UK, the EU (Germany most likely) and Australia (weirdly enough). I am not ruling out Canada, but I know too little about their abilities in that field. Millions more and the list goes on. America dropped well over $5 billion a year on my recent watch alone. And all this before you realise the blunders that signify the USS Zumwalt with its $4 billion expense and the massive drop in abilities. Just to be clear, I am no naval expert, but I dit get a degree in ships engineering and navigation in 1979, so I am not totally in the dark here. The USS Blue Ridge that launched in 1970 outperforms it by a lot and the cost of that rubber ducky is a mere 5% of the failure that the USS Zumwalt represents. I reckon the idea that a congress would not order the smart bullets that the Zumwalt needs (at $800,000 per bullet) might have been the wake up call some people needed. In that environment we get to the second linked article. 

The second article is from the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/business/commentisfree/2023/may/18/us-debt-ceiling-crisis-republicans) and here there is another side. I do not agree. You see, we can listen to the emotional ‘The US debt ceiling crisis is more proof of Republicans’ cynicism and bad faith’. Here I am on the Republican side. There is a folly to let 31 trillion fester and fester to something more. This is a pox on both houses and it has been for well over 25 years when a tax overhaul was needed and we all hear the same BS. Too hard, too complex. Well, they are close to default on whatever they have left and as Disney goes towards the EU they will open more doors. IBM, Adobe, Amazon, Google and Microsoft are already diversifying leaving the US with nothing (well almost nothing). And as they alienated the few allies left they see an exodus to China, China of all places. 

This is the act of stupidity, stupidity on both houses that would not act when they could and now they are in patters of indecision and they are all trying to find fat jobs in global corporations before the house collapses and it is close to collapsing. This, (and a few related items) was why I tried to sell my IP to the Middle East. In the first you go where the money is. In the second you find a place where you can enjoy your golden years. Because as I see it the US will be a very dangerous place to stay soon enough. Over 200 million desperate people? Yes, that is not a place for me and when the energy shortages hit it will get a lot worse soon enough, they had options there too, but they squandered those options in the last 5 years. 

So whilst everyone is pointing at me stating that I am the stupid one (a fair thought to have) consider that my IP was right in at least two cases, optionally two more that are now evolving. Yet I have a few more and they are all destined to go towards places like Huawei and Tencent technologies. And in all honestly between nothing and  few crumbs, ill take the crumbs, especially if that results in a view like below. 

This is not my 39 coins of silver. It is merely a retirement dream that could optionally be true. And what would you do when you have the choice between what I choose and a retirement home without resources? Because that is what the US (EU and UK too) created with their ego driven decision tree.
Dousing the mouse? When was that ever a good idea, especially when it decides to cancel a billion dollar expansion? Will it go to Euro Disney? With the economic setting the French have, that might be a realistic option for the minions of Walt Disney, and the US? Well it made its own bed, to bad for them that as the others leave that sinking ship well over 275,000,000 Americans will be caught in the middle. They had their options and they voted, or they did not vote and lost their right to complain.

Have a great Friday.

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May 3, 2023 · 09:23

The empty wall

That happens, the writings is not always on the wall and now with the writers strike in the US, that wall may be empty for some days. Before I go into the now, lets consider what happened 15 years ago when the writers had their fill of exploitation. They went on strike for 100 days and the cost to the California economy was a thumping 2 billion dollars. That setting just now after covid would buckle many players all at one, making the US economy take a turn down in a stage it cannot afford it. There are other elements as well, but they do not matter at present. I was thrown by stories last week about writers that were living on US support. The people that are the foundation for billions in profit are not given a fair shake. How is that for greed and exploitation. They are not asking for the moon, they merely want a fair shake, a decent income. And I cannot see why not. I write stories, I created the foundation of movies and TV series. As such I identify with their needs. Not because of the income or the work I am in. I write for fun and to keep my skills honed. Yet the power of creation is strong and I can identify and side with anyone who made that their life’s ambition. 

As such when the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-65447046) gave me ‘Hollywood strike: Late night comedy shows to go dark as writers’ walkout begins’ I took notice. It wasn’t merely “A Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, the first in 15 years, saw more than 11,000 writers – 98% of voting members – walk out from midnight. Tuesday’s late-night shows are expected to shut down first, while forthcoming shows and films could face delays.” This wasn’t merely a majority rules setting. 98 percent agreed, that is more than strong. It shows that the greed driven parties have taken things too far. I know it is not that simple, but that is the feeling it gives us. In. Place like the US where most people cannot agree one way or the other, 98% agreed and that number needs to sink in with many of us. We see the late night show references, but the larger stage is that this is not about one employer, one show or one movie. This is about the bulk of all and that matters, especially when a person like me throws the terms ‘greed’ and ‘exploitation’ into the mix, because that is how I feel about it. When I see stories about creators of successful series being on government support, something does not add up and these two term come to mind. 

And there is a larger stage with “This time around, writers are clashing with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) – which represents the major studios, including Amazon, Disney, Netflix and Paramount – in demand of higher pay and a greater share of the profits from the modern streaming boom” the BBC gives us part, but I believe that there is more. You see when we see ‘a greater share of the profits’ we think it is the writing, but what we forget that streaming profit streams in ‘ad infinitum’ and even if that were true, that is not what the writers get, nowhere near what the writers get. To give a simplistic version, if that setting was completely true. A person like Dorothy Catherine Fontana could (due to her involvement in Star Trek The Next Generation) buy David Hasselhoff out of his $51 million mansion and take it for herself. Even if she got a mere $0.05 per episode, Star Trek TNG has been running in syndication since it aired in 1987 and it is still running at full speed on Netflix, even today. Not all series get there and not all do that well, but there is a time gap, there is a larger stage. Consider that a radio station has to register every record they play, because the composer gets a royalty fee, this has been going on for decades. So why is there no setting for streaming? Now, I am over simplifying this and I am setting a slightly inaccurate example but the premise stays the writers want a fair shake and when we see that industry make billions, why not? The stage is that streaming is a new media that is not completely understood. Some see it as a temporary stage, some see it as the next iteration in media and there is a reason that studios are jumping on that train, it is where the consumers are and during that jump some thought it was a sweet deal in a few ways, yet the people creating those series are largely forgotten, that is how the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and its members feel about it and when you have to make ends meet that feeling of happiness sour in seconds and that is what I believe we see now. 

And when we see “Key issues in the talks have been how writers get paid for shows which often remain on streaming platforms for years, as well as the future impact of artificial intelligence on writing.” And here again we see two different settings. You see AI does not exist, whatever comes from these solutions isn’t created from the mind, it comes from data, data that these writers contributed. See it as an IT solution to cloning the writers mind, based on data the IT solution never created in the first place. So how long until they are made obsolete? And when I see “The AMPTP said it had offered a “comprehensive package proposal” including higher pay for writers.

But it was unwilling to improve that offer further “because of the magnitude of other proposals still on the table that the Guild continues to insist upon.”” I do not see a solution or a proposal, I see a stalling tactic, a way to keep more and hand out less to a people who created the success in the first place. In this Jimmy Fallon (the comedian) gives us “Arriving at the Met Gala, Fallon said he hoped the strike would not go ahead, but at the same time wanted to see “a fair deal” agreed for writers. “I need my writers real bad, I got no show without my writers”” which I think is the true part and with ‘a fair deal’ he hits the WGA nail on the head, I wonder how long it will take the AMPTP to take a serious stand and not true to negotiate part by part and with a ‘win’ on every segment. You see,100 days is enough for some streamers to find whatever they can in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, not to overlook Korea, Japan and India. All players that will have time and with 100 perhaps even longer to find players to go for THEIR solutions. They have been in the dark a lot longer and they are hungry for desperate streamers. How much damage will that bring. I reckon it will be more than the $2,000,000,000 the industry had the last time and when that happens, who will win? I feel certain that at that point the AMPTP will not feel like a winner. You see, a player like Netflix relies on its 230 million subscribers, especially outside of the US, their subscribers will look for other solutions when Netflix does not deliver. All this whilst the WGA and its members merely seek a fair deal? This could end up being a mopping exercise whilst the tap remains running. A lot of energy going nowhere and the spectators can clearly see that tap running. The empty wall is not merely the lack of creativity, it will be the result by not decently rewarding creativity. But it is early days, it is merely week 1 of the setting, the writers are adamant. How strong is the AMPTP deal? I honestly do not know because I have not seen any of these documents, but writers that take hunger over food whilst being underpaid is not a good setting, greed never wins over desperation, history taught us that lesson the hard way a few times over.

Enjoy this marvellous day past Sunday.

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April 23, 2023 · 20:37

Whilst watching a painting

This is an odd day, even by my standards, but to see that we need to take this chronologically. It all started with an article about 10-12 hours ago. The article (at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/21/pentagon-leak-modern-spying-ts-si-fvey-signals-intelligence-five-eyes) gives us ‘TS, SI, FVEY: what the Pentagon leak initials tell us about modern spying’. The Guardian article is quite good, there is nothing negative to say, but whilst I was reading it, thoughts came to me. The first came with “Teixeira was one of 1.25 million people able to access top secret material on the US Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, a share repository created in response to 9/11. A former senior British official said he believed it was obvious that now was the time to review the distribution of top secret material.” It took me back several years and the over BS imagery that Huawei was a danger. It was so dangerous that it had to be taken out of the networks. The UK had a decent reason, but merely barely. Now we see that there is causality between showing off gamers and the Pentagon. They do not need to wait for China, US intelligence staff are eager to please (optionally through peer pressure) and they will put it all online. No weakness in Cisco, or backdoor in Huawei equipment was required. It sounds harsh and it needs to be. The next part is “In an era where counter-state threats are taking over, and the danger of leaks greater, it looks like a rethink is needed, the ex-insider said.” That is actually quite deep. Rethinking the intelligence classification system is not an easy task, but one worthy of considering. I reckon the Navy (any Navy) is the hardest part, they are set in their ways and changing that is near impossible, making a 50 year old hooker a virgin is probably easier. 

Anyway, I was contemplating these issues and suddenly an image appeared in my mind. It was a painting of General Lafayette I saw a long time ago and suddenly the cogs started to turn. I remembered certain arcade machines in the 80’s and now my mind redraw the specs and reset the issues to a new kind of arcade. One that might find great interest in places like Universal world in Orlando, and adjusted setting might make it also feasible for Disney-world (also in Orlando), and the idea didn’t stop there. The setting powered by Sony Playstation 5 (multiple) gives a rather different stage and one that I don’t think has been considered before. That being said, if one part works this thing could go in all kinds of directions. You see, if engagement is the power of marketing, what happens when rides become engaging and almost interactive? It is a new and different setting. The nice part is that the Sony Systems are more powerful then required, as such the stage isn’t merely what powers it, but HOW it is powered and I wonder if these two players ever thought in that direction. Now we merely need to fill in the blanks, almost like the pentagon is doing by handing blanks to people who should never have been given security clearance. Still it was the thought that counts and I reckon that even with the absence of Huawei equipment China is delighted with people like Jack Teixeira, I wonder if they will send them a Christmas card this year, just for jollies. 

In part I wonder why the Pentagon doesn’t have a verification system. I read about it once, I forgot where. The systems creates almost identical documents, the punctuation was key here. They figured out the source by having different versions with here and there a different punctuation and with some punctuations missing. As such with only 33 punctuation alterations, you could drill  down on the leak with the second document, consider the amount of punctuations 3-5 pages has, it would be an easy task and with deeper machine learning it could be automated to some degree. No interference and a clear path towards seeking verification. This was not my idea, I read it somewhere and for the life of me, I cannot recall where I read it. 

Still this all led to a new idea in theme park options, it just came to me, thank you very much General Lafayette (he died 189 years ago, so the IP is all mine). 

Still there is another link, the link is one the approach to classification. You see, mot nations have a clear track, the US and the five eyes intelligence group a lot less so. It does not matter how it is done, the issue is resources and staff and that link is not optimised. Tell me in all honesty, why do 1.25 million Americans with top secret clearance have access to all these documents? Why is there not a database where it is stored and people will have to access when needed. But when was there information? Is that not in reports THEY file. There needs to be a more intelligent tag system that allows people with access to seek document that they should be aware of. In all honesty, which documents did Jack Teixeira actually need? It is a serious question because there is part of the solution. Anyway, it is a slippery slope and it is not easy to navigate SIGINT and GEOINT and those are the two I have some knowledge of from 1981 onwards and my exposure was extremely limited. Still it makes for an interesting puzzle and it led me to a new IP options in theme parks and in all honesty I have no idea what to do with it next. I need to figure that out at some point.

Enjoy Sunday.

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September 23, 2022 · 21:29

Dopey to some

Yes, Dopey, a name I cloak myself in frequently, that loveable dwarf not right in the mind and that is me to a fault. I just saw Matrix resurrections. I did not really like it, that is not the fault of the actors, they all played their hearts out and you can see that. The story was clever, really clever but the WOW factor was missing. I saw the first three as a complete story and I was fine with it. There was nothing missing. It had the elements of a Greek Tragedy, it had action (a lot of that) and several other sides. I was happy. So when the 4th movie came out, I was not really on par with my thoughts, and it had been close to 2 decades. I still remember the trailer that I saw in Chicago, it blew me away, I saw the movie 8 weeks later in Europe and I saw it more than once. Then the DVD came. I reckon that plenty of people got a DVD player just for this movie and that is saying something. There was a WOW factor that numbers 2 and 3 continued. It was missing here, but it made it not a bad movie, it merely made me less interested and I was not alone in this, but it does not matter. The storyteller in me woke up. I had my own movie considerations. It is called ‘How to assassinate a politician’ and the story was made for the Arab world (Egypt, UAE, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan) in this I personally believe it would be a hit, but that I my view. Then my mind created ‘Another Furlong’ after the whole 9 yards with Matthew Perry. Just now I saw the Hulu Trailer of Hellraiser, it might be a hit. Especially if they resurrect the Nightbreed franchise as well, in the comics there have been several interaction between these two and there would be enough materials for either movies of mini series. The mind does not sit still, so as I was contemplating ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’, more important the other books. Not sure if Tim Burton is considering to make the others into movies, but if he is not any of the streamers should consider it. There are so many options, but we get to see (for the most) a newly resurrected version of Death Wish, Robocop, Firestarter or Flatliners. I have nothing against any of these movies. Yet where is thee good stuff? Where is the original stuff? Now, lets be clear Matrix resurrections is original, based on a franchise, but an original story. Yet where are the titans? Another Lord or the Rings? OK, this is the prequel, the rings of power. I grant you that, but we are so about seeing more of the same that we merely endure repetition, this was one of the reasons why I came up with ‘How to assassinate a politician’, not the most important reason, but a reason none the less. I wonder what more I could make. I started to pencil season two on the grandson of Hades (still no title come to mind), I made one on the stage of the past with Kenos Diastima and Residuam Vitam. And past that a few small parts that require evolution. Perhaps it is a dopey thought, but is this what most of us have resorted to? Repetition? I am uncertain but overall I see less awesome movies. I reckon that Maverick is the most overwhelming movie I have seen this year and that is not a good thing. Consider, how many truly good movies have You seen in the last 6 month? If you need more than a minute to name 5, you will be able to see my point of view. With Netflix, Hulu, Disney we see so many more works, but the overall quality is falling down, that is not a good thing. You might have another idea regarding this and that I fine, but I worry what we will get in 2023, 2024 and 2025. That might just be me though.

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September 8, 2022 · 17:39

Weasels in the limelight

Yes, this is about some weasels, others call them members of media. As such, I am only handing you the Arab News link, the western media DOES NOT DESERVE any consideration at present. The article (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2158496/media) giving us ‘Disney found ‘substantial portion’ of Twitter users fake in 2016: former CEO’ is the larger setting. So as I have given you all my point of view in several articles in the past months, even accusing the media to be nothing more than creators of click bitches. We now get the fact that the evidence that Elon Musk was right all along in this article (and several in Western Media). They are now at the end of what they can exploit, so NOW we get the real deal? The fact that the Disney setting was that a situation existed since 2016 gives us the true setting of western media. For a large extent they have less credibility than a crack whore high on cocaine. Filtered information that meets with the approval of their stakeholders. That is what we have been exposed to. So now as we get to see “Iger did not specify what he meant by “substantial.” Twitter has consistently reported that fewer than 5 percent of its “monetizable” daily users are bot or spam accounts. Iger’s comments come amid a legal battle between billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and Twitter over Musk’s deal to buy the social media company for $44 billion. Musk, who is trying to walk away from the deal, has claimed that Twitter has misrepresented the prevalence of spam or bot accounts on the platform.” And the media was aware since 2016 and now when we look back to the articles in western media, we see no mention of the Disney deal whatsoever, the media is THAT corrupt towards digital dollars and stakeholders. And you wonder why I do not trust the media? Well, this is about to get a lot more interesting over the next few weeks when I give notice of a much larger setting. The stage we see now is one where the media is sucking up to whomever they can to not be disregarded as obsolete. They did this to themselves and I have no pity or mercy for them.

And now as we see “In his memoir, “The Ride of a Lifetime,” Iger wrote that he had second thoughts about a deal with Twitter because of the “nastiness” of the discourse on Twitter that he feared would become a distraction.” So the media (and their book sections) and many other parts have had the information for years and we got to see nothing of it, now it does not matter. I had my evidence, Trollrensics had evidence and Elon Musk had evidence. The media is now obsolete, a voice for stakeholders. They no longer deserve their 0% tax group as they are mere digital dollar marketeers. But the politicians are unwilling to hold the media to any level of accountability. 

As I see it, I hope that Elon Musk gets whatever he wants and should he be forced to buy Twitter, it should be no more than a maximum of 6 cents to the dollar. As such Jack Dorsey ends up with a 2.7 billion dollar payday and that is overvaluing Twitter by a lot. And after that, when the media is thrown OFF Twitter, I wonder how long they can hold on. It would irritate me that Elon Musk might lose 2.7 billion, but I reckon he could afford that and more important, when Twitter goes the way of the Dodo (just like the media) I get to introduce a new part of social media to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, just like the initial part I offered to the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia in Sydney this week. If that goes right a new market will open and now the media will have no say over the matter, they are as obsolete as possible and not welcome at what comes next. They clearly cannot police themselves, that much is shown all over the field. Even if I only get 3%, that over $17,000,000,000 is a lot more than I ever made before. The game is set, the orchestra engaged and now we see if the media (as well as their political and stakeholder friends) can dance. Out there in the limelight. Like weasels trying to hide away from the light beams, not realising that the grass is flat, the lights are high and every bit of grass is exposed. We all get to see the weasels jump and run in every direction hoping to find shade to vanish in, but not this time. This time they really went to far (as I personally see it).

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May 19, 2022 · 21:55

The true setting

Yes, that is what we want, what we need. What is the true setting? We seek it, because (for the most) the media tends to give us a loaded canon, the question becomes for who they are loading their canons? This is seen with the BBC as they give us ‘Netflix cuts 150 US-based jobs after losing subscribers’ this headline is true, no one denies it and overall I wonder how many people left Netflix as they fired 1.2% of their workforce (150 out of 12,135). I can come up with all kinds of settings, yet we need to accept to some degree that Netflix will do what is best for Netflix, and that is not easy. Netflix has all kinds of issues. The first is that there is saturation in the streaming services. Netflix is apparently offering gaming services and become a competitor to Google and Amazon and as the BBC gives us “The redundancies, announced by the entertainment giant on Tuesday, will mainly affect its US office in California. They account for about 2% of its North American workforce.” This is fair, it amounts to a US workforce of 7500, so why did the BBC not give us that? We then see “In April, the streaming giant shocked the industry when it revealed it had lost 200,000 subscribers in the first three months of 2022, and warned another two million were expected to quit in the coming quarter. The news sparked an investor sell-off, with the firm’s stock plunging 35% in one day. It is now trading at $190 (£152), a 46% drop on its previous premium.” Now it is harder to say something about that. The stage of 2.2 million people is the setting of saturations and to some degree covid ending, or perhaps better stated, the people are expected to go back to work and there we see that Netflix is hurting the most, but not the only one. Covid endings will hit Disney, Hulu, Apple+ and others too. I see another problem, the fact that covid was ending was clearly visible, so the stage of “stock plunging 35% in one day. It is now trading at $190 (£152), a 46% drop on its previous premium” makes me wonder whether the suits of Netflix were wishful thinking or something. They are losing members, they are not correcting for 200K and 10 times that much in the coming quarter and the 35% drop implies an overreaction on one hand, or a lack of information on the other (BBC). This matters, because this knee jerk reactions from investors with their gaming enterprises will make it fail a lot faster than anyone expects. It is good news for Google and Amazon, yet there is the idea that it is not good news for gamers. You see the more game streamers there are, the more interesting it becomes for developers to sit don and seriously contemplate that dimension. Netflix would have been a decent third party. It is still possible with the other two, but three makes for a crowd and therefor for a larger interest by serious developers. That is how I see it.

So how will Netflix fare?
That is not easily seen and whatever I see makes it not truth, mere speculation and I am telling you that upfront. You see, no matter how I see it, how I interpret the knee jerk reaction by investors. There is every chance I might be wrong, and to some degree I do hope I am wrong. I have no idea how Netflix will be as a gaming solution, but a third player makes for more gamers and optionally for more embracing the streaming gaming solution. They do have options, or so we see. With “it’s looking at a cheaper, ad-based model and also planning on cracking down on password sharing which has cost it 100 million households.” We see two parts. The first is one, but one I personally would happily reject. The second one I have no issues with. The idea that 100,000,000 households share passwords implies that Netflix is losing over a billion a month. So they will need to evolve that system. At present I have no idea how, but there is always space for evolution.

So what will the future be for Netflix? I still believe that they can find all kinds of IP in the past, people forgot or merely ignored it and that is no different for movies and TV series. So saving costs in one directions does offer options in another and to be clear, there is an essential need for them to restore the loss of a billion plus. Beyond that? It will be anyones guess and a guess is as good as it gets for Netflix at present.

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