Hillary's Epic Mail

Back in 2007, I decided to support Barack Obama rather than Hillary Clinton for many reason, the most important of which was I didn't think Hillary was a good enough politician to get elected president.  Now, 8 years later I'm starting to have my doubts about Hillary again.

I'm not going to rehash all the details of the Hillary email controversy here, but the more I learn about the details, the worse it looks for Hillary.  Using her private email address to conduct official government business?  Unwise and a little bit fishy, but nothing that could keep her from becoming President.  What's that?  Her email account was hosted on her own private server?  On her own property?  Ummmm - uhhhhhh, that's really not good.  Well, if she's smart, she could still do some effective damage control.  She could let some 3rd party review all the emails and release only those related to official State Department business; perhaps some respected veteran Republican congressperson or governor with who cares about his/her legacy enough that he/she would not even think of releasing any personal emails.  I'm sure McCain would love to be involved in something like that.   He'd be so eager to find damaging emails about Benghazi, I'm sure he'd ignore that email about Bill's latest threesome.  It's important that Hillary let a Republican take a look at the emails to prove she has nothing to hide.  What?!?  She's already deleted the emails?  OK, but Hillary's attorney is telling us that all of Hillary's emails had been reviewed before they were deleted from her server and all the work-related emails were sent to the State Department.  Well, that might be OK.  Who did those reviews?  Her own fucking attorneys did those reviews?!?  Really?!?  You're kidding, right?  No, really, you're kidding?  Seriously?  No, c'mon - you have got to be fucking kidding!

Look, I don't want to hear any of my liberal friends defending Hillary.  I'm you are going to defend Hillary, you'd better be ready to defend  Chris Christie for doing his own George Washing Bridge investigation.  You'd better to be ready defend Dick Cheney for never disclosing any details of the Energy Task Force he convened in 2001.  You had better be ready to defend Richard Nixon's 18 minutes of missing tapes.

There's simply no defense of any of this.  All liberals should want the government to be transparent, and Hillary was about as intentionally non-transparent as she could be about these emails.  And look, this isn't going to stop me from voting for Hillary if she runs against any Republican, but it really makes me question her judgement, and makes me seriously consider whether she's be the best Democratic nominee for 2016.

The polls certainly suggest that she's still the best option, but the polls can't predict how she'll perform in a long campaign.  If 2008 is any indication, she really doesn't know what she's doing.  She seemed politically tone-deaf in that campaign.  I mean - seriously - Mark Penn?

I know that Mark Penn worked for Bill Clinton too, but there is a huge difference between Bill and Hillary politically.  The main difference is that Bill is a great liar while Hillary is a terrible liar.  That's because Bill has had so much more practice.  When Hillary lies she does it out of political necessity.  Bill Clinton lies because he's Bill Clinton.

Now, don't get me wrong, I loved having Bill as president, and would happily elect him to a third term if I could.  Politics isn't a game for Boy Scouts, and you need some serious "Slick Willie" skills to get by in this game.  When Republicans were playing hardball, I was always happy to have Bill Clinton on my side.

But let's face it "likable enough" Hillary Clinton doesn't has anywhere near Bill's charisma, so If she's going to succeed in a national campaign, she's going to need to be smart.  Based on what I've seen in 2008 and the last month, I'm not really sure that she is.

Rich

The Vaccination Consternation

I know I'm a little bit late to the party on this subject, and all anyone wants to talk about this week is that stupid dress, but before the subject starts to fade from everyone's mind completely, I'd like to give my take on the recent vaccination debate.

Up until now, I've just been sitting on the sidelines, reading the facebook comments on posts about the vaccination debate.  I'm a fairly calm guy, so it's not often that I'll get angry enough to share that feeling with other people, but I've got to admit that some of the facebooks comments I've read on the subject of vaccination have gotten me angry.  Perhaps not "I'm in a rage - I really want to hit something!"-angry, but about as angry as a mellow guy like me can get.

Before I go on, let me say the some of these facebook comments that made me angry were written by friends of mine ( both "facebook friends" who I know casually in the context of facebook, and real life friends/relatives who I feel very close to ).  Most of the comments that got me most angry were written by friends-of-friends, but some were written by people I feel close to.  I've decided not to single anybody out by name in this blog post, but if in the course of reading this, you find yourself thinking, "Is Rich referring to me?", the answer is almost certainly "Yes, I am referring to you.  I care about you a lot, but I think you're wrong about the vaccination issue.  Feel free to send me a private message if you want to debate this with me".

Let me also say that I don't want to paint all people in the "anti-vaccination" camp with a broad brush.  In fact, I don't even know if "anti-vax" is the right term for most people in that camp.   There are many people out there that believe in vaccinating for some diseases but not others, or believe that vaccination is good for society, but promote the idea that it is acceptable for some parents to opt-out of getting their kids vaccinated for various reasons.  In general, I think those people are wrong, but I also accept that they are not batshit crazy anti-science people.

That being said, I still find myself getting angry, and it's mostly because I feel betrayed by my tribe.  As most of you know, I proudly identify myself as a Liberal.  I frequently use whatever limited online influence I might have to speak out about liberal causes, including social issues ( Ex: This, this, and this from my YouTube days, and this, this, this, and this from my blog ) economic issues  ( Ex: This and this ), national security issues ( Ex: This and this ), and political issues ( Ex: This and this ).  While it's important to understand opposing viewpoints and vigorous debate is a hallmark of any healthy society, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the community of liberal folks I've connected to on facebook.  I enjoy reading the posts of the more active liberal posters on my facebook feed,  and I get a visceral thrill when I see that red spot on my facebook screen that indicates that somebody has responded to one of my liberal posts.  Whether the liberal person I'm connecting with is across the room or across the globe, I feel like that person is part of my tribe.

So, while I'm a bit disturbed by right-wing Libertarian anti-vaxers, they don't really make me angry, because I expect nothing less than irrational stupidity from those folks.  However, when members of my liberal tribe side with the anti-vax forces, I feel betrayed because I feel like those folks are giving the liberal cause a bad name.

I frankly don't understand why liberal people who would certainly tell any right-wing climate-change-deniers to "listen to the the vast majority of scientists" when it comes to to climate-change are skeptical of the vast majority of doctors when it come to vaccinations.  Am I missing something here?  Isn't medical science - you know - a science?

Yes, I'm sure some of you anit-vax liberal folks have done plenty of research.  I've read a lot of what you've had to say in your facebooks post.  But do you really think the online research you've done in your spare time is a substitute for years of study and practical on-the-job knowledge that doctors have?  I may know a decent amount about how electricity works, but if I want to keep my family safe from electrical fires, I'm going to hire an electrician to wire my home.  I may have a degree in Mechanical Engineering, but when our car experienced steering problems a few weeks ago, we let an experienced auto mechanic work on our car to keep our family safe on the road.  I really don't care how much research you've done on the internet, if you want to keep you family safe from diseases, you are best off listening to what a doctor tells you.

Full disclosure - I'm married to a doctor ( BTW, she firmly believes skipping/delaying childhood vaccinations is a terrible idea. ).  If you want to say that makes me biased regarding doctors, I guess I really can't argue with that.  However,  it's undeniable that the vast majority of doctors think childhood vaccinations are a great idea.  Of course, there will always be a few exceptions, just like there are scientists who are climate-change skeptics, and there were doctors who endorsed cigarettes in the 50's.

I thought about asking why wife to help me refute some of the anti-vax facebook comments I've read, but frankly, she's got better things to do, and there's plenty of people of there who have already refuted many of these claims ( Some examples: This, this, this, and this ).

While I should probably just end this blog post by saying, "listen to what doctors are saying about vaccinations", there are a few issue that I want to tackle specifically.

I'll start with some low-hanging fruit, because this particular "fruit" has gotten me more angry than anything else.  As the father of two children on the autism spectrum, few things get me more angry than the completely discredited claim that childhood vaccinations can lead to Autism.  As most of you should know by now the scientist who sounded the alarm about vaccines causing Autism ( Dr. Andrew Wakefield ) has been completely discredited.  I'm not going to go into details here, but click on this link, you'll see what I mean.  The most illuminating section of that link is the following:

An investigation by journalist Brian Deer uncovered the fact that two years before the 1998 Wakefield group report was published, Wakefield had begun receiving money from lawyers, led byRichard Barr, wanting to file lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers. Of £3.4m distributed to doctors and scientists recruited to help build their case, Wakefield received £435,643 in fees, plus £3,910 expenses.* Deer also discovered that in 1997 Wakefield had applied for a patent for a measles vaccine on behalf of the Royal Free hospital medical school and the Neuroimmuno Therapeutics Research Foundation, a private company of unconventional immunologist Professor H. Hugh Fudenberg of Spartanburg, South Carolina. (Fudenberg claimed in a 2004 interview with Deer that he cured autistic children with his own bone marrow.) Wakefield's vaccine would be a potential competitor to the MMR and single-shot measles vaccines. The final blow to whatever credibility Wakefield had left was delivered in 2009 when it was discovered that he had fixed his data.

I'm well aware of how hard it is to raise kids on the autism spectrum.  My boys are a joy, and I'm generally hopeful, but I also have moments of despair when I feel that my boys might never be able to handle the social interaction needed in the real world, and I worry about what will happen when my wife and I are gone.  I think that kind of despair makes some parents of autistic children yearn for some explanation for their child's condition.  I think some parents want somebody or something to blame, but there is absolutely no evidence that vaccines are to blame.  It's true that children first start to show that signs of autism after they are vaccinated, but that's because children start getting vaccinated at an age far too early in a child's development to tell if a child has autism.  Just because vaccinations happen at an age before children start to show signs of autism, doesn't mean that  vaccinations cause autism.  Saying the vaccinations cause autism because kids get vaccinated before they show signs of autism is as valid as saying diapers cause autism because kids wear diapers before they show signs of autism.

I know that some people will point to the rising rates of children diagnosed with Autism, but consider the following.
1) Until my kids were diagnosed, no one in my family had ever been diagnosed with Autism.
However ...
2) I used to rhythmically rock myself to sleep each as a child.  My mom told me I used to grab the bars of my crib and rock it back and forth rather hard.
3) My younger brother didn't really start speaking until he was 4.   I  was only 7 at the time, but I remember my parents being really worried about him.
4) My Dad's older brother was valedictorian of his High School, but had such severe social issues that he dropped out of college with a nervous breakdown, endured shock therapy, and was never able to hold any job other than manual labor.  He also wasn't able to manage his life effectively after my grandparents died and had to be in assisted living long before his physically abilities deteriorated to a significant extent.  After I became more educated on the subject, I had strong suspicions that he must have been on the autism spectrum.

The point I'm trying to make is that autism simply wasn't diagnosed aggressively in the past.  Just because autism wasn't being diagnosed as often in the past doesn't mean it wasn't prevalent in the past.  Also, while my own's family's history certainly isn't a large enough sample size to prove anything, it gives me the distinct impression that the root cause of autism is genetic, especially when I consider that the younger's brother's first daughter is also on the autism spectrum.

Now that's I've gotten that off my chest, let me get to the concerns/objections that some of my liberal friends may have if they've read this far.  The majority of  "anti-vax" liberal folks commenting on facebook have indicated that they "believe in science", and are generally in favor of vaccinations, but have indicated either that ...
1) Some vaccinations ( such the MMR for measles, mumps, rubella  ) are not really necessary, because certain diseases are not serious enough to risk the potential environmental impact of vaccines.
2) Parents with concerns about the perceived dangers of vaccines should have the choice to opt out of vaccines because herd immunity offers enough protection.

Let's me tackle these one at a time ...

1) I honestly don't know what kind of environmental risk was being referred to in the facebook comments I read, but it's certainly nothing the vast majority of doctor's are concerned about.  There's certainly no risk of autism, and if anyone reading this has other kinds of concerns about environmental risk, send me the details and I'm confident that my wife and her large number of doctor friends will be able to help me refute them.  More importantly, I don't think anyone should be promoting the idea the measles/mumps/rubella are not serious illnesses.  Just check what the CDC has to say about measles, and then consider what measles could potentially do to a baby too young to be immunized.  The CDC also says here that mumps can cause deafness in one out of 20,000 infected children.  That may seem like long odds, but if I were told that an average of 2 people in the crowd would go deaf at each at sold-out Mets game, I would stop going to Mets games.  OK, I'll admit the rubella symptoms in children do not seem that serious, but considering what it can do to a pregnant women's unborn child, why run the risk of a child with rubella giving rubella to a pregnant women picking up a kid at a day care center.

2) The clear problem with the "opting out of vaccines and counting on herd immunity" strategy is that if enough people adopt that strategy, herd immunity will go bye-bye.  I'm not trying to say that nobody should opt out of vaccines.  It's a scientific fact a small percentage of children ( such as children with compromised immune systems ) are better off not getting that vaccines, and I have no problems with parents of those children opting out of the vaccines and counting on herd immunity.  However, science also suggests that the percentage of children who are better off not getting vaccines is extremely small ( 1.8 per 1,000,000 according to this study ), so we should not be in a situation where 13% of children in California child care centers are not vaccinated ( You're embarrassing the hell out of me liberal California, you really are.  Are you really gonna let most of the conservative states out-science you when it comes of vaccinations? ).  I'm fine letting some parents opt-out of vaccinations for their children, but it has be really rare, and I'd like the opt-out to be signed off on by a doctor.

As a parent, I can understand the fears some parent have about vaccinations.  One my friends indicated in a facebook comments that she stopped her child's vaccination schedule after her child developed a "mild case of measles" after getting the MMR shot.  I don't really know enough about that situation to comment further ( I've frankly been a little afraid to ask ), but I can understand why parents in general can be fearful of vaccinations.  As I said, I'm all for medical exemptions when absolutely necessary, but I would strongly encourage most people to try to get over their fear and get their children vaccinated.   If 13% of parents in the largest stare in the US are opting out vaccinations and science suggests that only 0.00018% of parents really need to, there are clearly a lot of people acting on irrational fears.

And look, I know a lot about irrational fears; I've got all sorts of them when it comes to my children.  Some of you may be aware that I'm the worst kind of helicopter parent when it comes to leaving my children alone ( and my wife is the same way ).  I never leave my children alone in a public place under any circumstances.  Even though my oldest son Michael is just about as tall as my wife, far stronger than my wife, and will soon be getting his brown belt in jujutsu, I still won't let him go into a restaurant bathroom alone, even if I can see the bathroom from my table.  I know that's completely irrational, but my fear overcomes my rationality ever time, and will probably continue to do so until I'm sure my kids are bigger and stronger than me ( which will almost certainly happen in a few years, considering the way they are growing ).

However, as crazy as my helicopter parent irrationality is, it doesn't really put anyone else at risk.  The fact that I'm overprotective with my children doesn't put anyone else's children at risk.  However, opting out of vaccinations due to irrational fears does put other people at risk by weakening herd immunity.

I can't really deny that if herd immunity is very strong ( as it still is for most diseases we give vaccines for ), and the chances of catching a given disease are practically zero, then it opting out of the vaccine might be a slightly safer course of action than getting the vaccine,  assuming the odds of being harmed by vaccine complications are slightly higher than the chances of being harmed by the disease when you are protected by only herd immunity.  However, you shouldn't damage herd immunity by opting out of vaccinations for your children, because as we learned from this fellow who passed away this week  ....



( "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." )

I think I'll leave it at that.  If Spock's logic can't convince you that herd immunity is important, I don't know who can.

Rich

My Defense of Pete Carroll

Harry New Year!

Another year, another holiday trip.  A year a ago, we did Christmas in Vegas, and for New Year's 2015 we headed down to Universal Studios Orlando for some Harry Potter fun.   Of course, as the family's new-media archivist ( my scrap-booking wife is the family's old-media archivist ) I felt obligated to produce a photo essay of our trip.

I'm sorry to say that our adventures this year were not anywhere near as exciting as our Vegas adventures last year.  No famous magician did a close-up magic trick for Peter and Michael didn't get a chance to entertain more than 1000 people with his antics on stage.  However, we did have lots of fun, and I'll share it all with you in the photo essay below.  I'll also try to give a few tips in case you find yourself at Universal Orlando in the near future.

Dec 28, 2014

We flew in on the 27th, so Sunday that 28th was our first day in the park.  We were too wiped out from our travel day to get up early enough to catch the 6:30 AM shuttle from our hotel, so we got the 7:45 shuttle instead, and rolled into the park about 8:15.  Of course, after hearing some much about the newest Harry Potter attraction, our first stop had to be Diagon Alley.

Well, actually, we didn't get the view above for a while, because despite getting to the park at 8:15 AM, by the time we got to Diagon Alley, there was already a large line leading out of it stretching all the way past the Men In Black ride ( Here's my first tip to those making a trip to Universal : If you are planning to head to Diagon Alley at the start of the day, approach it by heading through the Simpson's part of the park and the Men In Black part of the park.  We approached Diagon Alley from the other direction, and when we got there we had to spend another 5-10 minutes walking to the end of the rapidly-growing line.  We would have saved ourselves both time and walking by heading through the Simpsons part of the park to reach the end of the line.   I guess an even better tip is to get to the park at 7 AM each day without making you family want to kill you ( more on that later ) ).

This photo above was taken while waiting on line to get to the Gringotts ride.  By that time,  we had already been waiting on line for 20 minutes, and we had not even reached Gringotts yet.  The official line starts when you reach the Gringotts entrance, and if you can zoom into the lower right corner of the photo above, you'll see that the official estimated wait time from the start of the line was 140 minutes.  This bring me to my next tip.  Pee.  Seriously, pee.  Pee before you get on the line for this ride.  Make sure your whole family pees, do not not drink anything while on line, and for God's sake don't even think about anything remotely related to water.  We all made it to the ride without any issues, which was a minor miracle considering that there was an additional 15 minute wait at the end of the line when the ride broke down for a while ( Another important tip: After getting off the Gringotts ride, the closest bathroom can be found by walking in the direction we were facing when we took the picture above.  If you walk in that direction, you'll find the bathrooms to the right in the grey building with a roof that looks like a church spire. ).

While we all waited on the line not thinking about water, we got to see lot's of Gringotts-related scenery, like the sign below.

The scenery inside Gringotts was absolutely beautiful. 

At some point before you get to the end of the line, there is a spot where they offer to take a family photo.  I would advise against doing this.  You'll be passed in line by several families if you stop to take the photo, and the background of the photo is just a plain wooden wall.  There's really no good reason anyone would pay 20 bucks for a photo like that, so don't waste your time taking the photo.

I'm sorry to say that after all that waiting, the ride proved to be a bit of a disappointment.  Sure, it's fun to try anything new, and I don't regret waiting so we could see it on the first day of our trip, but the Gringotts ride is nowhere near as good as the Hogwarts Castle ride on the other side of the Universal complex.  The ride is a mild indoor coaster combined with a 4-D motion simulator ( For the uninitiated , 4-D is 3-D plus real-world effects.  For example, a 4-D ride will augment a 3-D image of water by sprinkling water on you. ).  Unfortunately, the 3-D effects were sub-par.  At times, it seemed like the 3-D images were flat cardboard cut-outs moving in front of flat backgrounds.  There really wasn't any time during the ride when it felt like I was looking at something real.  This was in contrast to almost every other 4-D ride in the park, all of which were spectacular ( BTW, the Spider Man 4-D ride is still my favorite, while both the Minions and Transformers 4-D rides were fantastic. ).

In any case, by the time we got off the ride, it was already lunchtime, so after we all took that much-needed trip to the john ( or "the loo", as they might say in London ), we headed to the Leaky Cauldron to have an English lunch.

Here were our menu choices ...

I went for the "Toad in the Hole", which, at the very least, kinda sounded like something you could actually get in London.  Anyway, the "Toad in the Hole" looks like this, and pretty much tasted exactly how it looks.

In other words, it was nothing spectacular, but I appreciated getting some veggies in a theme-park meal.

After that we, took a photo in front of a popular joke shop, got some ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, and ventured into Knockturn Alley to take a look at the vanishing cabinet inside Borgin & Burkes.

After that, it was time to chat with Stan Shunpike and Dre Head in front of the Knight Bus.

We also got a look at the the inside of the Knight Bus ...

... and well as the front.

After that, we decided to try something else we'd been eagerly anticipating before our trip.  It was on to King's Cross Station to take a ride on the Hogwarts Express!

Of course, before we could ride the Hogwarts Express, we needed to get to Platform 9 3/4.

After we got off the Hogwarts Express, we spent a little time in Hogsmead and Suess Landing ...

 ... before taking the Hogwarts Express back to King's Cross

After that we took a scenic walk to the entrance to catch our shuttle back to the hotel.



Dec 29, 2014

Day 2 started when my iphone alarm went off at 5 AM.  The hotel we choose gave us the privilege of entering the Universal parks an hour early at 7 AM, and damnit, we were going to take advantage of it!  The rest of my family didn't seem as enthusiastic about the early start as me, but they'd come around when they saw how short the lines were in the morning ( at least I hoped so ).

Our first stop was the "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" ride at Hogwarts castle.  Even with the early start, we still had to wait on a 30 minute line, but that's a lot better than 3 hours.

I took the shot below while on the outside part of the line.  This angle kinda of ruins the illusion of a giant castle, but I still think it's a pretty shot.

The shot of the Sorting Hat below was taken while on line as was the video of the Sorting Hat giving safety instructions.

The ride, as usual was great, but unless I'm going crazy, I detected some differences in the line.  As those who have been to Universal before may know, the Harry Potter line is almost as good as a the Harry Potter ride.   There are moving/taking paintings everywhere, Dumbledore's office ( where Dumbledore speaks to you ), the Sorting Hat, and a classroom scene where a 3-D rendered Harry, Ron, and Hermione speak to you.  All of that's still there, but it seems like everything was lot darker that it used to be, as if they had reduced the wattage on all the light bulbs or something.  Maybe I'm just going crazy, but it seemed darker in there that before, and it was harder to see some of the scenery.

In any case, the ride's still really great, and after the ride we spent some time in Hogsmead.  While we were there, we took the opportunity to take a photo in front of Honeydukes, just as we had in the Summer of 2011.  Look at how much the boys have grown!

We did a little bit of shopping after that, and the boys got close up looks at the "Monster Book of Monsters" and a few remembralls.

After that, we decided to head back to the other side of the Universal complex via the Hogwarts Express.  This time, we actually took some pictures of the interior of the train.  Taking the Hogwarts Express is really a remarkable experience.  The inside of the train looks exactly like it was depicted in the movies ( BTW, the depiction in the movies was almost exactly as I imagined it when I first read the books ), right down to the benches in the individual compartments.  You can almost imagine that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are sitting next to you on the way to Hogwarts.  What makes the ride even better is that the "window" on the train car is actually a video screen which shows the world of the Harry Potter books outside the windows.  Before the trains rolls out of the station, the "window" shows bricks that match the back wall in the station you are in ( different bricks for King's Cross station and Hogsmead station ) along with "steam" from the train ( you can't see it in the third picture below because the flash must have washed out the video coming from the "window", but the illusion works really well when you are in the train car.  Appropriately, the order of the scenery outside the window depends on the direction you are going in, and there are different surprises outside the window depending on which direction you are going in.

Oh, and if that wasn't enough, you can also hear and see ( shadows ) of Harry and his friends out in the hallway of the train as the rides goes on.  There's so much going on both sides of you that you'll want to ride the Hogwarts Express multiple times in each direction to make sure you catch everything.

BTW, the photo above was taken on Platform 9 3/4 after we got off the train at King's Cross.  I'll show a picture of the Hogsmead station platform  later in this essay.

After we got off at King's Cross, we headed straight to Springfield.

We started by going on the Simpsons ride.  It's a motion simulator ride in the former location of the iconic "Back to the Future" ride ( I don't know if it is actually the same building they used for the "Back to the Future" ride, but it could be considering that it is exactly the same kind of ride. ).  While I was little sad to see that the "Back to the Future" ride was gone, I did not come away disappointed, because this ride is more fun than the "Back to the Future" ride ever was.  While it would be tough to top the pre-ride experience of the Hogwarts Castle ride, the Simpsons ride just might provide the most fun pre-ride experience in the park.  While you wait for the ride, you see ...

1) A bunch of scenes from the Simpsons episode that features Krustyland.

2) Krusty's add for the Canyonero.  I could watch this all day.

3) A bunch of original material, including ...

a) A great homage to the "Back to the Future" ride.

b) Some funny stuff with Apu, Patty and Selma, and Willie the groundskeeper.

c) Fake notices with fake wait times for various Krustyland Rides.  My favorite was the following ...

d) A hilarious story that sets up the ride

The pre-ride experience was so great that it was the one ride where I wished the line was a little bit longer, because I'm not sure if we got to see all the original material.

That being said, there was nothing wrong with the ride itself.  It may have been the boys favorite ride, and thanks to the short lines ( never more than a 15 minute wait ), I think we went on the ride about 5 time over the last 4 days of out trip.

As great as the ride was, it felt like it was only the cherry on top of a great Simpson's experience.  To a big Simpsons fan like myself, this place was Nirvana.  After we were done riding the Simpsons ride ( twice that day ), we walked all over Springfield are posed in front of some familiar spots.

( Unlike the other places in Springfield, there was no store behind this window.  "Worst - fake facade - EVER! ).

After that, I hung out with Duffman, Michael hung out with Milhouse, and Peter shared a doughnut with Chief Wiggum.

Speaking of doughnuts, the Lard Lad Donuts were fantastic.  They taste like a wonderful hybrid of a Duncan Donuts doughnut and a Krispy Kreme doughnut.  They are less cake-like than Duncan Donuts, and less yeast-y and chewy than Krispy Kreme doughnuts, but they just might be tastier than both.  It's hard to describe how stunned I was that I was eating something that good in a theme park.  Sure, they were still charging theme-park prices ( $6.99 for 4 doughnuts ), but it was well-worth the price.

To summarize ...

If that wasn't enough, Lard Lad Donuts also sold a huge doughnut called "The Big Pink."  This doughnut cost $4.99, which is actually a great deal consider it fills up the same box they use to sell a 4-pack of doughnuts of for $6.99.  We didn't try the Big Pink for breakfast, but when lunchtime rolled around Michael could not resist.

Yeah, perhaps that doughnut doesn't have all the nutrients a growing boy needs, buy hey, we don't go to Springfield every day ( Anyway, he had some regular lunch, and we all helped him finish the Big Pink ).

Meanwhile, I could not resist having a genuine Krustyburger in Springfield.

BTW, I did not finish that burger - it was absolutely awful.  That thing probably had more fat than the Big Pink doughnut, without the benefit of the great taste.  If you find yourself in Springfield, try to resists the siren song of the Krustyburger.  Yeah, I know it's Springfield, and it seems so cool to have a Krustyburger there, but it was truly one of the worst burgers I've ever tasted.

To wash the bad taste of that Krustyburger out of my mouth, I hung out at Moe's for a while.

The boys got great results ( Casanova ) on the Love Tester ( Yes, I did get "Cold Fish" ).

I decide to help Moe man the phone for a while.  It wasn't long before Bart called and asked me if Al Kaholic was there.



We then went on the E.T. ride ( I'm kinda surprised it is still there.  I still like the ride, but the boys couldn't care less about E. T.  The first time Ruth and I rode it ( back in 1995 ), we were excited when E. T. said our names, but it seems like the ride is poorly maintained these days, because garbled barely intelligible stuff came out of E. T.'s mouth when he tried to say our names this time. ), checked out SpongeBob StorePants,

hung with Curious George,

and ran into a couple of meddling kids.

I took a shot like the one below with the Jaws shark back in 1995 ( BTW, the Jaws ride was replaced by Diagon Alley - his carcass is now hanging in "San Francisco" for some reason. ), so of course Ruth wanted the boys to take a similar shot.

We concluded our long day by taking a photo outside the front gate of the park.

Dec 30, 2014

Tuesday, started with the 5 AM alarm again, and after getting to the park at about 7, we managed to get on the Minion Mayhem ride twice in a 10 minute span.  We then managed to hit the Transformers ride and the Men in Black ride soon after that ( BTW, as I noted earlier, the Minion ride and the Transformers ride are both awesome 4-D rides.  However, the Men in Black ride is just one of those shooting gallery rides ( like the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disney ), which some people love, but I've always found a bit tiresome.  As long as I'm giving ride reviews, I'll also note the the Shrek 4-D ride had a great pre-show, but something seemed a bit off with the 3-D ( There were plenty of times when I was saw two images rather than a 3-D image when something was supposed to be popping out of the screen. ).  The pre-show for the Terminator 3-D show felt really dated ( It included a "Shaq can't shoot free throws" joke ), but the 3-D effects in the main show are still top-notch. ).

If you look at the photo below, you might notice something that doesn't jibe with what I wrote earlier.

I'd mentioned that we went on the Minion ride twice in 10 minutes, but the sign behind us indicates the the wait time for the ride was 120 minutes.  We needed to take the picture above right before we left they park because I didn't give Ruth enough time to take a picture of the boys and me in front of the ride in the morning.  I was so eager to hit as many rides as possible, that I barely gave my family time to catch their breath.  By the time we got to the late afternoon, we had gone on a tremendous number of rides, but my family was completely wiped out.  Worse yet, it had been drizzling all day, and Michael's wet sneakers had started to fall apart.  Even worse yet, we had worn those Minions T-shirts specifically so we could take a picture together in front of the Minion ride, and my maniacal drive to ride as many rides as possible kept us from doing so in the morning.  Worst of all, we had traveled to the other side of the park ( The Islands of Adventure side, rather than the Universal Studios side where the Minions ride is located. ), but the time I realized we were suppose to take the Minions photo.

  At this point, I wasn't sure what to do.  I knew Ruth had wanted us to take Minions photos in those shirts, and I figured that best place to take those photos was in front of the Minions ride.  However, the kids feet were in pain, Michael's shoe was falling apart, and everybody just wanted to go back to the hotel.  However, the next shuttle home wasn't going to be for a while, so I convinced everyone that we could kill the extra time by trudging over the the Universal side of the complex to take a photo in front of a Minion ride.  Well, as you see above, we did get the Minion shot, but I think that last bit of walking got everyone even more mad at me ( BTW, taking the Hogwarts Express from Islands of Adventure to Universal Studios wasn't really an option at that point.  It would have been a 40 minute wait to get on the Hogwarts Express at that time of day, and considering we were close to the Islands of Adventure exit, and the Minions ride is close to the Universal Studios entrance, getting to the Minions ride via the Hogwarts Express may have entailed even more walking than simply walking from park to park ).

In an any case, this day was an A+ in terms ride volume, but a C- when it came to keeping my family happy.  Not much else to say about day 3, but I'll share a few more photos before I move on to day 4.

Look, I'm back in Queens!

Well, at least we got a shot of boys in front of Hogwarts Castle that day.


Dec 31, 2014

As you might guess from the photo above, I did not wake my family up at 5 AM on this day.  Instead we took it easy that morning and got the 8:30 AM shuttle to the park.  Smiles all around.  Sometimes it pays to take it easy, even if you do miss out on a few rides.

Despite getting our latest start of the week, it wasn't that crowded when we got there, as you can tell from the photo below.

However, the streets were not completely deserted.  Look who we found hanging out there!

Of course, we also had to take a shot in front of the Mystery Machine.

We also spent some time at Moe's, where I took a couple of shots to capture the atmosphere of the place.  Notice that the boys got "Casanova" on the Love Machine again.

Peter used the phone in Springfield,

I enjoyed a Duff,

and Michael had his own Krustyburger ( I guess his young arteries have a better tolerance for grease than mine ).

We even saw a few of the Simpsons ( not sure what Bart and Maggie were up to then ).

Later, in the day, we spent some quality time in SpongeBob StorePants.

Oh, and of course, everybody loves a parade,

and Peter loves to dance!

 OK, so the picture above is one that deserves a story.  The "Disaster" ride is the new name for what used to be called the "Earthquake: The Big One".  Ruth and I had enjoyed the Earthquake ride quite a bit back in 1995, and some research told me that the "Disaster" ride still featured the earthquake special effects.  The picture above was taken on day 4, but we actually tried the ride for the first time on the day 3.  After waiting on line for about 45 minutes on day 3, we discovered that you needed to watch not one, not two, but three pre-shows ( one featuring Christopher Walken playing a hack director of disaster films ) before you got to go on the earthquake part of the ride.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to go on the earthquake park of the ride, because at the end of the 3rd pre-show, they told us the last part of the ride was having technical issue, and we wouldn't get to go on it.  The gave us fast-passes for our trouble ( BTW, those fast passes were not valid for the Harry Potter or Minion rides ), but it was still disappointing to walk past the "Earthquake" train we had enjoyed on 1995 without getting to go on it again.

Well, during our lazy care-free day 4, we decide to try the Disaster ride again.  This time the line was much shorter ( about 15 minutes ), but after the 3 pre-shows, the same damn thing happened again!  No earthquake ride, but fast-passes instead.  I wasn't too upset, but Michael had a bit of meltdown after that.  It probably took me about 90 minutes to get Michael completely calmed down.  In the end, missing the earthquake ride those 2 times turned out to be a good thing, because those fast-passes saved us about 200 minutes combined we we used them on the Spider-Man ride and the Transformers ride.  BTW, did I mention that the Transformers ride was awesome!

( Getting ready for some Transformers 4-D fun! )

BTW, we'd tried the Disaster ride one more time the next day, and we finally got on the earthquake train.  The train was good, but not as good as the Transformers or Spider-Man rides, so we probably would have been better off with more fast-passes.

Eventually, we found ourselves back at Diagon Alley.  The line for the Gringotts line seemed fairly reasonable that day, so we gave it another try.  The ride wasn't really any better the 2nd time around, but we did get some more shots of the fabulous Gringotts interior.

Ruth also got a shot of the Gringotts dragon breathing fire!

She also got it on video!



After that, we took a trip to Ollivander's to get some wands.

The boys loved their wands.

We're glad we didn't get the wands back in 2011, because the wands back then were wands only a squib would love, while these wand could actually do magic!  There are plenty of places in both Diagon Alley and Hogsmead where you can wave your wand to make magical things happen, and the boys spent the next hour casting spells all over Diagon Alley.

For the photo below, I'll just repeat what I wrote on facebook:

It would be a black day if I gave anything on the order of a Harry Potter spoiler, so let's just say the boys were serious about taking this picture.

We decided to go to bed before midnight that night, so our New Year's Eve celebration consisted of these photos we took at about 7:15 PM when we left the park.

Jan 1, 2015

The boys still has plenty of spells to cast, so our first stop on our last day was naturally Hogsmead.

We started by heading to Hogwarts Castle one last time.

While there, we discovered that Gryffindor was doing pretty well in the race for the house cup.

Michael also got to take a trip down Memory Lane using a Pensieve.

After that, it was time for breakfast at the Three Broomsticks.

I got what was described as a "Traditional English Breakfast".  It was good, but I doubt that a croissant is a traditional English food.

One last Hogwarts family photo with a long-ass selfie stick!

After that, it was on to the spell-casting.

We took a bunch of the videos of the boys casting spells, but in most of them, either ...
1) You couldn't see the magic well.
2) The magic took too long to work and at least one of the boys got briefly frustrated.
3) Peter ( who is very anal about his magic - he stands in exactly the designated spot for the magic and carefully says the incantation ) got upset because Michael tried to do the magic at the same time as him.

The video below was the best we could do.



Before we left Hogsmead, I took one last shot of the castle.

After that, we heade to the Poseidon's Fury interactive show.

We couldn't take photos or video during the show, but we had a great time because our tour guide picked Peter to be his helper.  We got the best view of all the parts of the show, and Peter got to lead the group while carrying Poseidon's trident.

After Peter helped Poseidon save the day, the boys had fun at Seuss Landing.

We then hung out with Spidey for a bit.  Spidey told Peter "I like your name".  Hey, be careful with that secret identity, Parker!

OK, I was wrong earlier.  I guess the shot below was actually our last photo of Hogwarts Castle.  While waiting on the line for the dragon coaster in Hogsmead ( I rode it while Ruth and the boys did rides in Seuss Landing ), I noticed you could get a few good scenery shots from the dragon coaster line.  So, right before we hopped on the Hogwarts Express to head back to Diagon Alley, we got on the dragon coaster line to take somes shots of Hogwarts Castle,

Hagrid's hut,

and the Weasley's flying car.

Michael looks apprehensive in the picture above because he was afraid we would be forced to go on the coaster if we were in line for it ( we got off the line after the photo above ).

So, in any case, we got on the Hogwarts Express at Hogsmead Station after that, ...

... and headed to Diagon Alley, where we stopped at the Gringotts money exchange booth ...

... to get some wizard money.

Before we left Diagon Alley, we took one last shot of it.

We took it easy the rest of the day.  Highlights included our successful 3rd attempt at the Disaster ride, a "Beetlejuice" musical review that was so bad it was actually cheesy-ly entertaining, and our 3rd trip to the Transformers ride.

We finished our Universal vacation by hitting the gift shop near the exit.  We were all a bit sad that our vacation was ending, but we were secure in the knowledge that ...

... we had Coconutties!

Rich