Lessons learned of a conscientious blogger

My blog is a window into my mind. When I ponder over each new topic; when I contemplate over word usage and sentence formation; and when I read them with nostalgic enjoyment. If I were to send out any kind of energy to the cyberspace, I wanted it to be cheeky and cheery, and I carefully made it the purpose of this blog for over 10 years.

However, the last post about Disney was downright negative. After I wrote that post, my mood was dark for a week as my mind was reliving the unhappy events from two months ago. I was vindictive and could not let go. It was like I purposely smeared my mind with dirt a second time, and let the incidents ruined my mood all over again.

Life is messy and the world is chaotic. There are many external things that are out of our control yet downright hurtful, and we are tough on ourselves a lot. We need to protect our own well-being. Find out things that disturb us, and learn to stay away from those. At the same time, find those things that make us happy and stick with them. Learn to heal from physical pain and let go of emotional sufferings, and keep our friends and love ones close.  Be kind to ourselves and others, not only for Karma, but also because it will help keep our own peace of mind.  

A not so favorable review of Disney World Orlando

My memories of Disneyland in LA were kin. For me as a younger and carefree person back then, it was indeed the happiest place on earth. So as we made the trip to Disney World Orlando, I had high hopes. After all, what can go wrong with taking a few days vacation from busy work in the middle of the June?

We even used Uber instead of renting a car, which was a pleasant surprise. See, as we gave this 'new' trend a try, we did 'accept' this less regulated gig economy. Old dogs can learn new tricks after all.

My beef is with Disney and every corporation like it. We bought the park hopper tickets online, so first of all, these multiple park thing is super confusing for first timers. You have to spend $500+ per person to go to these parks that you don't know anything about except for their illusive names such as "Animal Kingdom" and "Epcot", and there was no guarantee that you, as adults with no kids, would enjoy anything in these parks. The online corporate photographs with quintessential American families with their happy grins were not so assuring to me. (Since when have I become so negative? Sorry Disney, this has to be told in my own words.)

The first day we got to Epcot 30 minutes before the park opened and there were already people waiting in lines. It wasn't too bad, and the park opened on time. As people moved forward to enter the park, I saw that there were two types of scanners at the front of each line, one to scan the ticket and the other to scan each person's index finger, and there was an employee manning each line at the kiosks. Immediately, I was very uncomfortable. Even though it's likely that my personal information was hacked and might be already out in the black market for sale, I could not get myself to knowingly give up my finger prints to enter some theme park, no matter how creative Walt Disney was and how much I loved Snow White. Is this even legal?! I was beyond myself and puzzled that everyone else didn't seem to have a problem.

When I got to the front of the line, I refused to have my finger print taken. The friendly employee courteously explained that this was not a finger print scanner, it was just getting my bio-metrics as a personal identification. Oh? I actually knew something about this and knew that it was just some lip service. Because the finger print scanner is exactly taking your bio-metrics, so giving it a fancy high tech name couldn't fool me. I was not going to launch into the employee, as she was just doing her job, but come on Disney. If you want my finger prints, YOU PAY ME! I wondered if anyone, including the employee who wanted me to scan my finger and got out of the way knew that Sony, Disney's parent company, had the biggest data breach last year? There is no such thing as digital security. So if anyone asks for your bio-metrics or your facial scan, just say no. They have no rights to ask and you have all the rights to refuse.

So I was stuck in the front of the line until another friendly staff came to escort me to the customer service where they checked my driver's license and took my picture.  In which universe is it acceptable to require personal information just to enter a theme park, I don't know. What baffled me even more was that everyone else seemed to be fine with it.

This really ruined my mood. Imagine every time I access the happiest place on earth, I had to go through a three step program, refusal of finger print; some lecture about "no, this is just your bio-metrics," and pictures taken or check ID. I tried very hard to remain calm and not make a scene every time. I tried very hard to be the observer instead of being angry at the situation. I even wish my mind would forego the notion of right and wrong, so it wouldn't ruin my vacation. I used all that I learned from my Yoga training to somewhat keep my sanity.

Everything else in the Disney parks was impeccable. Despite catering to so many families daily, there was no single garbage on the grounds. The workers were super friendly, and they mastered the art of ushering people in and out of canteens and queuing them up into long lines without being pushy. The food was good. The man-made attractions were beautiful, and the rides were exciting. It was obvious to me Disney was unbashfully sucking money out of each visitor, from ice cold drinks to gift shops at the exit each ride to snack bars and restaurants. But it is a well-run city of its own, with happy Mickey-Mouse-ears-wearing vacationers  

Disney World is undoubtedly the king of all theme parks, and commercialism at its best (or worst).