Did Face Book Really Censor This?

Oh the horror! Children should never see this image as they'll be damaged for life. What can you do? (Sarcasm meter now turned off.) 

New Shanghai Disneyland Art for Fantasyland

Want a first look at the art for Shanghai Disneyland's Fantasyland? Look no further!

This is a pretty sweet piece of Imagineering art for the first (and maybe only) Mainland China Magic Kingdom. The designers have clearly taken a slight more realistic approach than what they've done in the past. Perhaps this is because the look of Europe and its medieval villages is so far removed and thereby so exotic to the Chinese. 

Regardless, it's nice to see something. Rumor has it, more is coming soon. My bet is this piece is showing the entrance to Peter Pan's Flight on the far left end. (Did you happen to read my piece on the history of this great dark ride? It's filled with some great pieces and one of the never built Peter Pan area for Tokyo Disneyland. Take a look here.)

Ok, there's more art for Shanghai Fantasyland. Just go to the great Disney and More face book page or website (where I found this one!) for one more rendering. You just can't beat my friend Alain Littaye for getting us the scoop on so much so quickly!

(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)

Why I Dumped Face Book

Maybe we should call this season "Cleaning House". After about 5 weeks of choosing to deactivate my face book account, I've decided to say goodbye for good.

What I enjoyed in that break was sometime I have too little of: time. What I didn't miss was what someone had for breakfast, nasty political rants, and cutesie "inspiration lite" quips. What I'll miss will be photos of distant friends and family, but they can send that to me directly if they choose.

More freedom, more time. A change worth making.

Facebook's Fake Community

As with many people, I am a face book user. Albeit with some self-imposed restrictions i.e. only my in the flesh friends are my face book friends. My personal life has some restrictions which make this choice necessary. Posting every day is not something I do, but I watch and read regularly.

In conversations around town, I am discovering an interesting train of thought. In too many cases, I am discovering that on line friendships are now the primary source for companionship versus real face to face, "Can you meet for coffee or come by for dinner?" relationships. Pretty sad, isn't it?

Granted, on line friendships have advantages, but nothing can replace the traditional real life friendships. We were designed to be relational. We were created to be touched, to be spoken to, to eat together, to celebrate together, to worship together, to laugh together, to cry together, to help each other. Much of this cannot be accomplished with Facebook.

Yet, it is becoming a poor substitute for the real thing, even when the real thing is openly available to us. (And don't me started discussing televised worship services, where viewers are encouraged to sit at home and be passive. Sure, for those homebound, it can be a blessing, but for the rest of us, ugh.)

The problem I see with substituting on line friendships for real ones is we get used to it- and then we begin to forget the benefits on flesh and blood relationships. Just think about how our society has changed since texting replaces so much actual conversation. In my opinion and from what I've seen especially among teens, folks are forgetting how to interact appropriately as texting and Facebook both can give genuinely great people a false bravado they do not have in person. 

Do I want to go back to the "good old days"? No, but I want to encourage us to use technology wisely to the benefit not detriment of the human race.