tinaalsgirl

I'm starting to think that marksplashtacular guy could be a very clever spammer. That post of his above is almost word for word from Smokymountains.com. I did a Google search; I've noticed that a lot of recent spammers will have copy/paste messages that they'll post and they'll be relevant to the thread, so they kinda fly under the radar. We've been having a LOT of spammers post here on TPR (I try to report all the ones I see) like that.

Seconded on the "must ride Cyclone Sam's"! My favorite non-coaster ride at the park!

I just read the summary on Wikipedia... definitely not my type of movie, lol. Wow. In other news, been working my way through Owen Wilson's filmography mostly chronologically, so last night I finally saw Marley & Me for the first time ever. LOVED it. Cried my eyes out. But I loved it.

Oh my GOD, that was beautiful!

I grew up on all of those movies, as well as "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" and "The Monkey's Uncle." He will be missed.

A couple pictures of me from late 2019 popped up on Facebook the other day and I realized just how great I'd started to look after losing weight... It has spurred me to try to get back to full-time low-carb and intermittent fasting. I'm about 280 right now (I'd gotten down to 230); my first goal is to lose 100 to get me down to 180, which will put me under 35 BMI so I can get a breast reduction. I wish they'd let me at least do the consultation, but my insurance won't do it. You'd think they'd take into account the fact that I have fibromyalgia, so I'm in pain all day every day and having a heavy chest ain't helping my back any. I'm looking forward to losing again. I've been in a really bad funk the last few months mentally and gaining back all that I'd lost has been one of the major factors.

The entire Montero album, but I really love this one in particular:

I've always wanted to go to Dragon Con, but the crowd size really puts me off. The biggest con I've been to so far was about 15k and that was... overwhelming. I might do a trip to Atlanta that just happens to be the same weekend as DC and go to the parade at least and then do other interesting things around the city. I'm not surprised by the number of Loki cosplays. They filmed part of the series at the Marriott Marquis, so it'd be hard to pass up the opportunity to cosplay Loki at that location. My favorite Loki from the con this year was the Delta Variant:

My god, that "Kentucky Show" thing looks like a VR demo station at a convention, lmfao. I liked your analogy of the layout of this park being like an amateur RCT build; perfect description!

Working super fast for me now!

Oh yeah, I forgot he was getting a spin-off show! I do adore John Cena. He was great in his guest role on Psych and I particularly enjoyed his movie Playing With Fire.

I really, really wanna see that movie, but I'm gonna have to watch between my fingers. I have a certain threshold for handling blood and gore, and I know I already reached it just watching King Shark rip someone in half in the redband trailer. But there's such an amazing cast. I have to watch it if only because Peter Capaldi. Also, I adore James Gunn's work, so there's that, too. Kinda wish they'd do like they did with Deadpool 2 and give some of these R-rated comic movies a PG-13 version. I haven't seen the Deadpool 2 one, but it sounds awesome. The problem is that I haven't seen Deadpool 1 because of my blood/gore issue, so not sure how lost I'd be watching DP2.

I almost had to do the "backwards" tour once. Storms started to roll through while we were down in the cave, but we managed to get to the cable car and up to the exit just before they closed it due to lightning, so the tour group behind me had to be put on reverse. I know I absolutely would never be able to make it up that giant structure in the Cathedral Room; I have a hard enough time as it is getting up the "Huff-and-Puff Staircase".

That's why I always liked the restraints on Lost River at SDC. They were just velcro, so you felt safe enough wearing them, but they'd be easy to rip apart in an emergency. Can't imagine going on a ride like that without that kind of safety belt.

Ohhh. Huh. I just figured they'd bought some of the Pickin' On CDs to play. So, if they can't sell the queue music, there's at least a really good variety of bluegrass covers through Pickin' On and The Cleverlys and The Beef Seeds and more. So if you ever wanna groove to bluegrass covers, there's plenty out there even if it isn't the exact versions in the TT queue.

I have to think that the queue music is okay...? Like, they're only using it as background music, so it's likely they bought it with that particular kind of license. The problem, as highlighted in that article about Dollywood, is using the licensed music outside of the agreed usage in the contract. So they may have made a contract to use the music as background music, but they then also performed the songs in their shows, which would require a "dramatic usage" license. One of the shows in the Opera House at SDC used "Just Around the Riverbend" from Pocahontas, and that was what really stood out to me. I couldn't fathom the idea of Disney allowing a non-Disney park to use their music/songs. But yeah, just about every show at SDC uses songs from other properties. Now, I think there's a difference (but I could be wrong) between "performing a song as part of a scripted/dramatized story" and "performing a song as a part of a musical showcase"; the second one would, I believe, be considered fair use because it's technically a cover? But I don't know that for sure, so even their non-scripted shows could be in danger depending on if any of them use songs/music that aren't their own. This is really gonna hurt the park badly. Their scripted shows are their most popular - the Opera House dramas and the Saloon Show. Gonna be interesting to see what happens.

OOF. I've always wondered how SDC got away with using all those IP songs. They've used Disney songs, and I was super surprised that was allowed. But maybe it wasn't...? I guess their being a "smaller" park kept them under the radar for a long time. That sucks that the entertainers were let go. Does that include Dave and Rachel Wallace? I've always been a huge fan of theirs. They've been there for so long and have done some amazing work in the productions at the park.

Self-replicating spider bots, huh? I think Peter needs to lay off the Stargate for a while, LMFAO. Seriously, though, this report was awesome! You got some really amazing photos! I love all the giant stuff in the Pym's Kitchen, especially the resizing pretzels. And the new pavement details around the tower are so cool! Thanks for posting this!

My three-way tie for favorite is the new Hong Kong Castle of Magical Dreams, Shanghai's Enchanted Storybook Castle, and Paris' Sleeping Beauty Castle. I like MK's Cinderella Castle, and I'm particularly fond of the new paint job and embellishments for the 50th celebration. Disneyland's castle is... not particularly impressive, but I remember how much I loved the walkthrough the first time I visited DL, at age 4. Tokyo... sadly, it's not particularly unique, which is kind of a bummer, since everything else I've ever seen from the Tokyo DLR is just beyond amazing; maybe they'll get a re-work eventually, like Hong Kong did!

As usual, no music on at the moment (I tend to have Spotify paused when I go on sites where I'll be doing reading, like message boards and stuff). But I've got "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" stuck in my head 'cause I watched a guy's "Try to Stan" video for Lil Nas X earlier. I suppose I could just state whatever song happens to be paused on Spotify at the moment.... but I just realized I paused during the ad break (I tend to do that 'cause I don't like stopping in the middle of a song). Lemme hit play and see what pops on once the ads are over... "Sax" by Fleur East. SUPER catchy, SUPER fun, and the double entendre is *chef's kiss*

On Wednesday at my 6-month checkup, I was 281. The highest I've ever been. But we discussed some stuff and I'm now weaning off the beta blocker I've been on, because while correlation doesn't equal causation, my increase in weight after losing started immediately after starting on the med. Plus, reviews online have a LOT of people saying they gained weight on it. I'm also gonna be starting on thyroid medicine; we've been testing my thyroid for ages and it always comes back "normal," but my symptoms don't fit anything other than hypothyroidism. So my doctor said we might as well try the med on me and just see what my results are in three months' time. He said he's had other patients that have had a similar issue - test results in low part of normal range, but still having symptoms, but with meds, symptoms went away when they hit the high part of the normal range. And fingers crossed that my Medicaid will approve an ADHD med for me this time around. We've tried all sorts of non-stimulants, and none are helping. I think with the three above med changes/additions, I might actually be able to lose weight again.

The first time I ever went to WDW was during that Birthday Cake overlay and for years I was disappointed that I didn't get to see Cinderella Castle as it normally looks. I'm glad this time around they've learned their lesson; less is more and I really love the richer colors and pretty ornamentation.

Hmmm. Well, Dollywood already has two Gerstlauer coasters, and they're pretty great, so I wouldn't be surprised if Dollywood wanted another one from them.

Whenever I watch a video on YouTube and they use a bluegrass-type background music (usually on the TRY Channel when they try American stuff), it immediately makes me long to be at Dollywood. Bluegrass is one of the great unique things about Herschend's two main parks. You hear it all around you as you walk around under the trees and along the babbling brooks. Those parks wouldn't feel right with modern music. For example, at SDC, they do the whole "Moonlight Madness" thing... When they do, they switch over the modern music, and the level of jarring that is to hear is BEYOND. I was in line for Thunderation and they started playing "Build Me Up Buttercup" in the queue and I was floored. It just did not feel right. I don't know if they still do that (haven't been to MM in years), but I do know from vids on YT that they finally clued in and started playing the bluegrass covers of modern songs, at least in the queue for Time Traveler. And I know I heard bluegrass covers at the buffet at Dollywood, too, a few years ago. That is how you integrate modern music into these parks. Younger people will be standing in line and then suddenly their ears will prick up and they'll realize that their favorite Lady Gaga song is playing, but as bluegrass! It's really, really fun to listen to bluegrass covers of modern songs, to get an idea of what these songs might have sounded like if written a hundred years ago. It's unique. So if they want to continue to use/add modern songs, but as bluegrass covers, I'm all for that.

It's May now, so updated with a different frame. This last Wednesday was my two-week mark from my second dose, so I'm fully protected now! Whoo!