Happy Birthday, America

233 years ago, our founding fathers sat in Independence Hall in Philidalphia, Pennsylvania. It was at that time that our founding fathers final gave up any attempt to reach a compromise with Great Britian and declared that the thirteen colonies were officialy independent from British rule.

Since then, our country has faced many hardships. We have been through wars, depressions, natural disasters, and more recently, terrorist attacks. And yet, our country still thrives and we continue to have these God given rights that our founding fathers said we had.

Contrary to popular belief, The United States of America has been and always will be the leader of the free world. No matter what any politician may say, the USA will always be spreading the joys of democracy and freedom to those who don't have it.

And I am proud to say that I'm an American. I hope you are, too. So Happy Birthday America, and here's to many more centuries of being the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Lost Theory No. 2- Jacob vs. Esau

*Editor's Note: The following column is just a theory. The views, events, and situations that I mention are not necessarily true. They are just ideas I have based on what I have seen in the various Seasons of Lost. Please do not take these as rumors or spoilers. But if they do turn out to be true, that would be kinda cool!

During the pilot of Lost, John Locke talked to Walt about backgammon. You Lost watchers all know this scene, because it went down in Lost history as the introduction of good vs. evil on the show. There are two forces. One side is light. The other side is dark. The is the basis of Yin and Yang, religions around the world, and after recent events, is the basis of Lost.

Yes. Lost is full of mythology and drama. Issuses between characters and inner demons have plauged the show since the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. There's a whole science vs. faith thing going on, as well as fate vs. free will. These themes have be in almost every single episode, yet are generally ignored. Insteadm we want to know the mysteries of the Island, and who exactly knows the secrets.

And I believe we have found are men, if they are indeed men.

Jacob was introduced in Season 3 as a plot twist, yet has grown into a huge part of the show, though we've only seen him in (presumably) 1 episode. When we saw him and his rival, they were wearing distinctive colors. Jacob was wearing right, symbolizing good. His nemesis was wearing black, symbolizing just the opposite- evil. We know so little about them. Jacob has an enemy, a rival if you will, who wants him dead, though he himself can't kill Jacob. Jacob has also been an intregal part of the lives of the Losties. He has touched every single one of them, literaly and figuratively. Jacob can travel from place to place, appearing to some people before they got to the Island, and appearing to others after they had left. We also know that Jacob's rival, who many have been calling "Esau" after the Biblical rival of Jacob, was able to take on Locke's form and get someone, in this case Ben, to finally kill Jacob.

But what does it mean? Well, my friends, it means it's time to theorize.

I think Jacob and Esau are gods, most likely from Egyptian mythology. Jacob came to the ISland to start an advanced, holy civilization. Jacob believes that people are genuinely good. But with every god, their is a devil. Esau believes just the opposite. He provokes the original Island inhabitants, and their magnificent civilization falls from grace. much like the story of Atlantis. Since then, Jacob has tried to prove Esau wrong. The tension between them builds, and newer people are constantly brought to the Island.

If this is starting to sound like my theory of last week, it should. All these theories have something to do with each other and are all connected. You see, the Others as we know today are brought to the Island to prove Esau wrong. Richard is granted immortality to lead the Others spiritualy.

But Esau can get to the most ritous people on the Island. Because he is a god, he can assume different forms. He can appear as the dead, like Ekos' brother, John Locke, and perhaps even Christian Shepherd. He can appear as the smoke moster, who protects who he likes, and kills the ones he doesn't. Esau uses these people as a tool to kill Jacob, as evident in "The Incident".

But Jacob is not so innocent himself. He brought these people here, and yes he used them as a tool. But he did it to heal these morally flawed people. In a later column, I will discuss how everyone got to the Island, and how it helped them. But for now, I will leave it as a general statement that Jacob brought everyone to the Island and in turn, helped them.

Now, with every rivalry there will be an epic battle. Jacob is not dead, just merely beaten. For those of you familiar with Christianity, everyone thought Jesus was finally dead. Yet, on the third day he rose again. Remember also that Jesus specifically choose his Apostles for a reason. Just like those on Jacob's list who were taken by the Others throughout the series.

And remeber that things aren't always what they appear. We originally though the Others were bad, and I'm sure many people have abandoned that idea. The ultimate battle in the final season of Lost will reveal to us all just who is good, and who is bad. Who is light, and who is dark.

Disneyland Update and News: Just A Heads Up

In the World of Disney this week, many things have been happening. Many things have also been happening behind the scenes of this blog (more info on that later). In my last post, I explained about Summer Nightastic! and it's offerings. Well, many no that, much like Disneyland, it's premiere night was not very good. I'll tell you where Disney is right now regarding Summer Nightastic! and how it's going thus far. Also, many of you already heard the big announcement about Hong Kong Disneyland, and I'll recap it here, too. At the end of this post, I will explain to you the changes that will go on in this blog. In the meantime, let's get going with the Disneyland News!

Summer Nightastic!: Looking Back

Famtasmic! has had one disaster after another. As reported last month, the brand new Fatasmic! dragon injured it's neck and could not be used. Well, Fantasmic! has been going on as schedueled sans said dragon. Things got even worse when the Mark Twain caught fire last week due to a pyro mishap. Many people used this as evidence that Summer Nightastic was a horrid disaster.

They could not be more wrong. I know there are many people on the internet who think that everything Disney has been doing is wrong, and only Walt Disney could do something that worked. To that, I offer te Opening Day of Disneyland as evidence to the contrary. But no matter.

Summer Nightastic! has done just what it was supposed to do: get people into Disneyland. If any of you have gone to Disneyland recently, you have seen the crowds. Fantasmic! has been so crowded there have been 3 showings a night. But, because of the crowds, there have been many complaints about the crowds and the Summer Nightastic! "glitches". To that I say "Stop complaining. You chose to go."

People have been especially complaining about the Magical Fireworks show. For a few days, Tinkerbell and Dumbo have not been flying. Granted, they have been flying recently, which have quited many of those complainers down. No, it's currently unkown if Tink and Dumbo didn't fly due to weather, high winds, saftey precautions, glitches, or something else. I've heard the most likely reason was to windspeeds and saftey precautions. If that is really the case, then i offer an option to those who complain: if you really want to see Tink or Dumbo fly, why don't you go up there?

But things are looking better. Crowds are dying down. Some APs are being blocked out. Meanwhile, the Fatasmic! dragon's neck as been repaired, however, many people at Disney are worried about the dragon's neck snapping again. So, in response to this, Fatasmic will be going on without the dragon for a while until WDI is sure that it will not snap again.

Now, I do have only one problem with Summer Nightastic! and that has to do with the Electrical Parade. Now, yo have to understand that the Electrical Parade is my earliest memory of Disneyland. I always loved it, especially the music. I do love the changes, especially Tinkerbell, because it just suits it more for Tinkerbell, the person you always see in front of the castle before movies, to lead the parade. But the music- not good. It's too frilly and fantasy-y, if that make sense. Just listen to it, and you might understand. I miss the regular Baroque Howdown. If I could, I would have the Baroque Howdown remain the same and just add a ochestrated version of the Disney songs into the mix. Hopefully, this won't remain for long.


Hong Kong Disneyland Expansion

Yep. That's it. (Click on the Image for a bigger picture). After a few years, HKDL will be going under a massive expansion. New Areas include:
-Grizzly Trail: This area will most resemble Frontierland, but themed to a Grizzly Peak-like forest. The main attractionis most like Expedition Everest, in wich you will go through a mountain littered with animal Audio-Animatronics, and go down it backwards.
-Mystic Point- Think New Orleans Square, but in a rain forest. The highlight of this land will be a Huanted Mansion like ride called Mystic Manor. This ride will feature the trackless ride system used in such TDL rides like Pooh.
-Toy Storyland- Think Paradise Pier-type rides. Remember the Army Man parachite drop for DCA? That will find residence here, as well as a coaster and a few other things. This whole land is themed to the pesrpective of a Toy, much like A Bug's Land.
Now. these new lands, as you can see in the above map, have pretty much destroyed the hub concept of HKDL. Also, many people are branding this as original ideas, however I see nothing original in any of this. However, I do like the changes, minus Toy Storyland. I really hope this is good for HKDL, I really want to see it grow into a realy nice park. But time will tell.

Changes in my Blog
As you can see, in this update, I have combined 2 very different topics together. After a few months of doing this, I have decided to more or less abandon the idea of the Disneyland News. Now, there will still be DL news each month, however, it'll mostly deal with park hours, ride closings, and that sort of stuff. The realy juicy stuff, like DCA and HKDL expansions, park rumors, and ride construction will be posted here when I hear of it. So, in 2 weeks, this new system will start. There will also be a few cosmetic changes to the blog, wich i look forward to unvieling.

Until then, this is PirateGuy 815 with the Disneyland News!

General Hospital: Week of June 22

Who wouldn't want to be a Quatermaine?

You live in a huge house, have a cook prepare gourmet meals, have a maid clean up everything, and on top of everything, you're loaded. If I was ever invited to their house, I would leave in a heartbeat.

Yet no one else wants to live their. Michael would rather live with is gangster father and his emotional wife. Although that was a nice car Sonny gave him, but Carly is not too happy about that. Perhaps this is another reason that Carly wants to send Michael with the Q's.

Jason was also asked on Friday to move back in, but everyone already knows his answer: NO. What an idiot. How about if I disguise myself as Jason, do you think they would fall for that?

Meanwhile, while this horrible teen sceene storyline continues, Michael keeps saying he handeled the guy in the woods. (Sidenote: does anyone else suspect he is actually Dante?) WTF? Michael was schooled! The only thing he was able to handle was control over his bladder, and just barely. And Kristina is... well... really annoying, to say the least.

The PCPD once again, I fear, arrested the wrong person. Why? It's too obvious for the mayor to have killed his mistress. Hopefully, all these people will find the correct murderer, before he/she strikes again. I for one am very interested to see who it is. Maybe Helena? I really don't have too much info on it now, so my guess is as good as any.

In the meantime, what is this affair between Mayor Floydd and Alexis? When did this happen? Or is he lying? Hmmm...

In closing, I'd like to comment about Ric Lansing's exit on Thursday. I've stated in my last column, I'm not a Ric fan at all. Actually, I dispise the character. However, I did enjoy his exit scene. The way he threatened to take Claudia's baby if it was his was very convincing. And the way he told Claudia "I'll be back" as the elevator doors closed was awesome. A very good exit. And it didn't even involve murder.

So, what are we going to do about the teen scene thing? So annoying, let's hope it ends soon.