Kowloon Walled City
Learning about Kowloon walled city has been something of an adventure for me over the years. Even though it’s long since been demolished, it’s story is absolutely fascinating.
So, imagine my joy when I found out there is existing footage from a film partly shot there. Here’s some of the relevant scenes from the 1984 Hong Kong movie Long Arm of the Law (Sang gong kei bing) 1984.
Evolution of Disney’s Haunted Mansion
I LOVE classic haunted house stories and attractions. I’m not talking about modern ones that appear in every major city at Halloween – where actors try to gore you out or have people jump out screaming while dressed up in leatherface costumes or as zombies. And especially not ones that submit you to highly questionable experiences.
My favorites ones are dark rides. I got addicted to spooky rides as a kid going to Indiana Beach. They had 2 major rides I would take as many times as I could. First was Dr Frankenstein’s Castle and the second was the Mystery Mansion dark ride.
Later in life I got to visit the spiritual father of them all – Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride. I loved that ride and did it too many times. Turns out, Park Ride History has done a great job on how the attraction evolved. I had no idea there were so many amazing ideas – I wish they could even do another or expand the mansion further to include some of them.
There’s lots of interesting other YouTube videos about the Haunted Mansion – including the reason the stretching room exists. Give them a go.
Going to the best amusement parks in the world – during the pandemic
COVID has ended almost all world, domestic, and even local travel. This means we have to get creative. I started touring the world – but virtually. One of the things I found is that dedicated fans have made extremely high quality 4k recording of almost every major amusement park and ride around the world.
I recommend a good number of the rides at Tokyo Disneysea in Japan. But maybe you’d like some Star Wars, or Indiana Jones, Beauty and the Beast, or one of my favorites Expedition Everest.
Go on youtube and explore all the amazing adventures around the world you can have in 4k video for free.
Kiwanuka – I’m Getting Ready
This song. Man. Brings me to tears more often than I’d like to admit. Such a hope filled song that everyone that on the journey of faith understands.
Israel Kamakawiwoʻole
Israel Kamakawiwo’ole sadly died at the age of 38 due to problems stemming from his extreme obesity, but he created some beautiful music. Here he sings his famous rendition of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’
If you find him haunting, I recommend Geoffry Gurrumul Yunupingu that I wrote about earlier.
Blackjack Odds charts
Want to get good at Blackjack? You can memorize some odds tables and then go have some fun! But remember, the house odds ALWAYS win in the long term. However, if you hold your own for a long time, you can often rack up a lot of perks.
For single decks, you can memorize the above table and play here https://www.arkadium.com/games/blackjack/
If you go to Vegas, things change up a little because they use different rules and often a lot more decks.
L’Appel du Vide
Ever had that experience of being at a high place and image falling or even jumping? Maybe you even get a little shiver when you do – even if you don’t feel suicidal?
“L’appel du vide” is a French term that roughly translates to ‘call of the void’ – and describes just that feeling.
Atomic Marvel has a few Blender creations on his Youtube page. This particular one asks – what if I fell into a running jet engine? Fortunately, it’s a particle-based animation – so it saves you from the horrific gore that would be the actual result.
Rhyming words
Most online rhyming dictionaries are pretty garbage. These two aren’t too bad:
My favorite test word is ‘spaghetti’ – something a Snapple bottle cap said has no rhyming words. They’re wrong. See if you can think of a few first yourself. 🙂
Long Covid and POTS/Dysautonomia
Lets just get this out of the way. This is not a scholarly article. This is not medical advice, nor should it be taken as such. The internet is probably the worst place to diagnose or get information about health matters. You should always go FIRST to your doctor for medical advice and care. What this is, instead, is information about some accredited medical research and programs that might be helpful to those suffering from Long COVID. Research programs you can bring up with your doctor and see if it might be a good option.
While many infected by COVID-19 recover without seeming issue – Long Covid is something that’s increasingly being recognized as affecting a lot of people. The condition has been hard to understand because it usually consists of a whole host of strange symptoms: chest pains, tiredness, brain fog, migraines, etc. These symptoms last for months and often change for unknown reasons.
For those suffering from Long COVID – there is some hope. Congress recently approved $1.15 billion over 4 years for the NIH to research the long term consequences of COVID infection. Across the country, various research hospitals are opening long COVID centers and they are starting to get a little traction.
What they are finding so far is that the strange symptoms list also matches up with something some doctors already know about: dysautonomia. Dysautonomia is a group of possible medical conditions that are caused by problems with the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system controls a whole host of involuntary body functions like your heartbeat, breathing, digestion, and so forth. While this is all in early stages and may not be the root cause, there is some interesting research going on. John Hopkins is starting to call what they are researching POTS – postural osrthostatic tachycardia syndrome. Other centers are in various stages of setting up, taking patients, or even in active research.
If you are suffering from Long COVID, I would urge you to contact some of these new long COVID research centers and hopefully you can find some help – and help researchers and others by sharing your battle with Long COVID.