Fab Rocks

I'm moving to WordPress as of Monday, and FabRocks.com will link there.

Week 1 is Donald Duck week.
Monday is Fun With Music day - I'll be writing about some of Donald's own songs.
Tuesday is Guest Star Day - I'll be running a couple of Noe's brilliant Donald articles
Wednesday is Anything Can Happen Day - wait and see
Thursday is Circus Day - three rings of announcements, press releases and other acts from the media circus
Friday is Talent Round-Up - I'll be doing a short and sweet bio of Disney talent Don Rosa.

Gifts

Sometimes, my husband will spring an unexpected bouquet of my favorite roses. In younger days, I didn't care for cut flowers - beauty cut down in its prime and all that. Now, I love them. I decided to give Noe a dozen of a different kind of "rose": A 12-pack of Ashanti Hot Wing Sauce. Wait, this is actually going somewhere. I have a pair of best pals, both of the male persuasion. Never been anything sticky there, never will be. They are Jon and Roger. Roger was visiting with his most excellent Mom and brother, we were in DCA, and we wanted a nice lunch that wouldn't break us. I suggested the bar above Ariel's Grotto. Lunch was good, and Noe, who is a finicky eater (oh yes you are) mentioned that he really liked the wing sauce.

One of the things I love about Disney is that if you really like something, they'll give you the recipe. I asked our server about it, and he disappeared into the back. He returned with the name of the sauce they used: Ashanti. I'd never heard of it. For the next few days, I kept my eyes peeled when shopping, but finally had to go to the Internet. I'm not a big wing person, but I like the sauce on fried chicken.

Last night, we worked in Pro Cake Decorating class with chocolate fondant, modeling chocolate and royal icing. I like the 4-3-2-1- marshmallow fondant recipe, and after it's aged a day you add cocoa powder (Dutched is best) and some chocolate liquor. I had none of the Godiva Toba Garrett suggested, so used some Bailey's chocolate mint that was laying around. That's it. From now on, no matter what, I'm feeding my fondant booze to make it happy, because it was wonderfully easy to work with last night. I was "hot" last night...I'm not a Wreckerator (anymore) by any means, but I'm no Jessika Ramos (btw, that's Pierre Jues, my chef instructor, on the previous page). Here's the result:


My MIL jokingly said, when she learned that I was making a chocolate fudge cake, that I was to put her name on it (meaning save it for her) - as part of my royal icing work, I did so, in script instead of lettering. This cake nailed me my first perfect score in the class, and my chef instructor is a renowned French pastry chef who is not an "easy grader".

I'm taking a different cake decorating class next semester, focusing more on sculpture, airbrush and more "stunt decorating". For my four foundation classes, I'm taking Japanese 2, Algebra, History of Asian Art and Web Design. When I taught Web Design classes, we used FrontPage. I think I need to catch up a bit.

I need to buy a 0 tip and 1 tip this week - my smallest round tip is a 3, which is a bit too big to do nice detail work. I really, really love the tiny detail work, much better than the buttercream scrolls around the border of the cake and all that. I'm going to make decorated sugar cubes and see if I can sell them to the local tearooms and gift shops. When I was a teenager in Hawaii, my friend Mariko Takemasa (now Ikagi) sent me some Christmas sugar cubes. I was enchanted. I never used them; I thought they were too pretty. Now, I can make them!

We can't swing a Disney cruise for a while, unfortunately, and there's a huge billboard above the GameStop that I see every day, mocking me. It will be docking in LA in January, and I would like to lay eyes on a DCL ship. I am considering going to San Pedro to see if we can take a few photos of it from land while it's docked there. The first day, I think, is Jan 23. I'll have to double-check.

Japanese class got canceled (this is why I check my email on my Blackberry every 2 1/2 minutes) so I'm going to catch up on homework and help out my parents.

I am not a big TV watcher, though I love The Big Bang Theory and a couple other shows, I saw two commercials that got my attention. The first was for Union Pacific, which I was surprised to see, and the second was the new Alka-Seltzer commercial - Speedy is back! I hope they keep him.

In closing:


Fab

Memory, Opinion and Truth

One of the "funny" things (depending upon where you're standing) about Asperger's Syndrome is that Aspies tend to believe everything they are told. I'm a little better at sifting now that I know better how my mind works, but you'll still catch me saying "REALLY??" way too much. (Usually followed by "Oh. Oh, yeah. Of course I knew you were joking.")

I was so torn back in the late 90s and early 2000s. I'm really glad that huge chunks of that time have disappeared from my memory. Undiagnosed, and with no clue about AS, I was frantically trying to keep my head above water. I wasn't too bad, I think, at "passing" as merely eccentric. I taught myself to study someone's retina so that they would be fooled into thinking that I was making eye contact. People in the Disney community often wear name tags; if I was reminded of the first name, I could often follow that in my leaky memory by their last name and what they did. I was absolutely certain of something, then absolutely certain of the opposite after listening to or reading someone else. Disney was wonderful. Disney was horrible. Why, if Disney is so horrible, do I still love Disney? Because Disney is wonderful. Doesn't even make sense to a neurotypical when put that way, does it? It makes my head spin even now.

I hated the cutbacks and scrimping on quality for the sake of an easier buck. I also hated the endless negativity, sniping and complaining. I got sick of doing it, and I got sick of hearing it. I couldn't figure out which Imagineers were giving me information because they wanted the fans to have the excitement of the defunct Preview of Coming Attractions that I loved so much or if they had axes to grind and agendas to promote. I didn't know who my friends were. Later, I found out.

I moved back home to Hawaii, and was working long hours in a bunker on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor with the NMCI-ISF. I stepped away from Disney, returning for the 50th anniversary kickoff refreshed. It was nice to look at Disney without a jaded, angry outlook.

In the meantime, I'd found other things to interest me. I had a brief Special Focus on Harry Potter, and made good friends at Draco Dormien. At the end of Book 5, Minister Fudge refers to "Lord....Thingy" -he didn't want to say "Voldemort", who got his moniker by anagramming his name, Tom Marvelo Riddle, into "I am Lord Voldemort". I anagrammed "I am Lord Thingy" and got "Royal Midnight". That was my character's name and a few account names had that, too. I also dropped 40 pounds, dyed my hair blonde, got blue contacts, and dropped the Michelle for Shelly. I wanted a new start, and I got one. I even came upon a new Special Focus that sent me halfway around the world - but more on that another time.

I went back to Walt Disney World in January 2001, after being away for five years. I don't remember much of it. I just have to write it off to all the stress I was under at the time. I don't even know where the photos are that I took, but I remember that I borrowed the camera from someone very, very kind at MousePlanet. I know that it was a gentleman, but don't remember whom.

I now write, on occasion, for Jim Hill Media, which Jon Nadelberg and I started back in the Dark Ages and Jim bought from me before I left for Hawaii. I retain 5% and right of first refusal for most West Coast stories/events. He and Nancy have done an amazing job. I'm jealous, and proud, and thankful it isn't me having to do all that work that they do. What makes me happiest is that finally, all those great stories of Jim's are getting heard, and because he doesn't have a slant (though he's constantly accused of it, sometimes "you hate Disney" and "you're a Disney lackey" from the same exact article!) when something negative pops up, it isn't "the boy who cried 'wolf'" and is taken a bit more seriously. Richard Kaufman's points are backed up by solid evidence. He has no axe to grind. He also knows what he's talking about.

I got weary of trying to armchair-quarterback what a dead man would have done, and even more weary of others doing it. Walt Disney's daughter says that even she didn't know what he was going to do next. If she didn't, and his brother and people who worked closely with him didn't, then how the hell do you know if he'd be offended by Indiana Jones in the Parks or would have or wouldn't have or wanted or didn't want? He had an innate sense of what people would like. That made him an exceptionally rare creature; most people can't do that.

This, however, is not a valid reason to slap the Disney name on any piece of crap and wait for the money to roll in. If you're going to try to do what you think Walt wanted, just remember that he was always willing to spend money to make sure something was done right. And while you're at it, don't twist his words to back your cheap-ass agenda:


















Awesome! What new, cutting-edge attractions HAVE you done since 2005 with all that moolah you saved?

Nice try, but people do notice. But they also keep coming, stating more with their purchases of annual passes and Sunday lunches at Rancho del Zocalo that Disney can keep doing this and they'll still come back and spend money. The stockholders will be happy, and that, as a public company, is Disney's primary concern. Is that the right thing to do? Depends. If you're a theme park historian or even a guest expecting highest possible quality for price paid, no. If you're looking to make short gains on your stock or get that profit-based bonus, or, hell, even try to keep your job at Imagineering, then, yes, it's the right thing to do.

Still sucks, though.

Is Disney horrible? Sometimes. Soarin' over California at Epcot? Seriously? Tom! Stand in the corner! Is Disney wonderful? You bet! My daughter Alice raved about Tangled; she said it was as good as "How to Train Your Dragon", and for her, that's saying something. The ad campaign (and name change) had me pretty worried - but a far better person than I had similar fears a few years back:


















Here's what I do: spend accordingly.
When I have (rarely, I'm a full-time student) discretionary income to spend on Disney stuff, I steer clear of the crap and vote with my dollars for the good stuff. This is why you'll rarely see me in a Disney Store nowadays when in the late 80s I used to haunt the place, blowing paycheck after paycheck on wonderful books and collectibles. I understand it's looking less like KB Toys lately, and might give it a peek. I lean away from prefab trends like pin collecting and Disney vinyl. It seems like a money tree for the not-very-creative; collecting for collecting's sake and a knock-off of the Urban Vinyl Movement. Make something that touches my heart, memory banks or funny bone, is useful or at least brings genuine joy, and you're more likely to get me to set the moths free from my wallet. Experiences are another thing I'm fond of, shoddy memory or no.

Lastly, if you're writing about Disney and you're angry and miserable, there are other things out there. Be happy you're not living in a tent in Haiti and go look at my pictures of Lotte World's Snow White Castle Walkthrough for a giggle. Find something that brings you peace, makes you happy, and isn't Disney. Then come back and be delighted. Or not. But at least your eyes will be fresh. I'm lucky, though. When I start to feel like the world is against me, I remember the Happy Troll Song my husband Noe taught me:

"I'm the happy troll and you can all go to hell."

Fab

Thanks to Tim O'Day for helping me figure out the blog's name.