If I could live forever…..

I’d do everything in my power to keep that a secret. Should anyone find out about it my neverending time on Earth could be very unpleasant. To prevent that I would wander from place to place, eventually visiting every country on the globe. Yes there are several countries that are extremely dangerous and in some cases not possible to visit, but a country that is a living hell today may be just find tomorrow and the reverse is also true. Look at Croatia, twelve or so years ago it was a warzone but now it is enjoying rising popularity as a vacation spot. Then there is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which once had five star hotels and was the “Breadbasket of Africa” (granted it was not a pleasant place for the natives) but is now a politacally shattered country with a decayed infrastructure. By living forever I could see conditions in the world evolve over the years, I would even see empires rise and fall.

What would I do as I wander the globe? Most likely I would help people in need. This would range from random acts of kindness to more substantial things that would change peoples’ lives. I would do all of these things anonymously, lest people become to familiar with me. On the other, it might be cool to become some kind of urban myth of an immortal do gooder. 

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/daily-prompt-mere-mortal/

I’m Back

Just returned home a few hours ago. Disneyland was very nice, I’m glad I decided to go (I had had prior arrangements but those didn’t work out). I was sweating for much of the time even though the sun wasn’t too hot, but it was much hotter than I’m used to in Washington. Waiting in line wasn’t as bad as I thought, on the other hand I don’t do rollarcoasters so I didn’t have to wait for Splash Mountain which takes like an hour of waiting. The range of rides I can handle are limited, the fastest thing I could go on was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride which had two or three fast drops. I steered clear of the Tea Cups, I probably would have puked on the Mad Hatter. I went on them at Disneyland Tokyo when my family lived in Japan during the 90’s (no, I don’t speak Japanese), and I can still remember how sick I got. For the rest of the time I went on stuff like It’s A Small World Afterall and the Pinocchio ride. While on the former I played a game of “count the obsolete ethnic stereotypes” and lost track before leaving the first room; taking two Sociology courses makes you do stuff like that. The fez is so pre Mustafa Ataturk.

If there is one thing I am troubled by it is the increase of corporate oligopoly, and no where is it more blatant at Disneyland. For those of you who didn’t hear, Disney purchased LucasArts a couple of months ago, effectively annexing Star Wars and Indiana Jones into the Magic Kingdom. There was always the Star Tours attraction, but now Star Wars merchandising is everywhere and TomorrowLand may as well be called “Galaxy Far, Far Way.” Even more disturbing was a poster for Stark Industries from Iron Man, a quick web search revealed Disney also owns Marvel. But hey, I had a fun time with my family and it’s easy to see how Disney got so damn rich.

We didn’t land in LAX or go through Los Angeles, so we didn’t see that many interesting figures. One that I did see was a guy outside Disneyland with a sign rambling about “sexual perversion” and “corporate greed.” The latter makes perfect sense, but I’m not sure what sexual perversion would be associated with Disney. Most likely the picketeer was one of those people who can look hard enough and find phallic towers in the Little Mermaid and S E X written in the night sky on the Lion King. People will believe anything about Disney: http://www.snopes.com/disney/disney.asp

Overall I had a really good time and it was a great vacation.