#and the like one interesting thing they offered them was an orient cruise

[moralchampion]

Dad just proposed the most insane holiday idea but I can't fucking decide if I like it or not :(

[chrisframeofficial]

Britannia is a beautiful, well designed ship with one major missing feature!

I visited Britannia in 2019 while the ship was in Southampton and I liked almost all of what I saw.

The atrium is the first area I wanted to talk about. While it only spans three decks the space actually has a point.

It is surrounded by cafes, bars, shops and The Glass House, making it more than just a thoroughfare but part of the entertainment and meal offering aboard.

The most striking part of the atrium’s design is the huge starburst art installation that hangs from the ceiling. It extending down over two decks and is impossible to miss so it definitely draws attention. At the forward end of the space there’s a spiral staircase that connects the three decks of the atrium.

Second, I really liked Britannia’s three formal dining rooms. Two of them in particular caught my eye; the Peninsular and the Oriental – the words that form the P and O in P&O’s name. The third is the Meridian, a name that comes from the first class lounge aboard P&O’s Canberra.

Given my interest in maritime history, the use of these historic names makes me happy… Given there are three dining spaces, the rooms are all smaller than you might expect. But this creates a more intimate feeling in each room which is a good thing given the size and scope of the ship is huge.

Thirdly, Britannia’s Sports and Sun Decks have lots of outdoor space for you to enjoy the sun… though when I was aboard there wasn’t any sunshine to be seen! There’s space for you to go for a jog, and heaps of deckchairs to lounge around on.

The top decks have three reasonable sized swimming pools (as well as one tiny plunge pool at the back).

From the top decks you get a great view of Britannia’s two funnels – which are a bit of a throwback to the Canberra’s famous twin smokestacks, though those aboard Britannia are much bigger and boxier than Canberra’s.

Now on the topic of deck space – this brings me to the one thing I really didn’t like about Britannia.

There’s no boat deck!

Despite the popularity of the boat deck (or Prom Deck) aboard P&O’s older ships, Britannia has no true wrap around promenade. There’s only a few very small observation nooks on Main Deck, which is a huge downside if you enjoy a regular stroll on the boat deck during sea days.

Fortunately P&O doesn’t have this problem on their newest ships Arvia and Iona, which do feature a proper Promenade Deck.

Back to the positives!

Brodies’ was the fourth thing I loved about Britannia. This is a spacious bar with a striking black & white floor and seating overlooking the port side of the ship. But it’s the name of this bar that caught my attention, as it pays tribute to one P&O’s founders: Brodie McGhie Wilcox. Wilcox teamed up with Arthur Anderson in the 19th century to create the shipping company Wilcox & Anderson Co. Under the direction of the two, the company grew to become P&O – one of the largest and most influential shipping lines in the world.

Arthur Anderson is probably the more famous of the two founders, as he was probably more entrepreneurial and definitely more enthusiastic with the media. But while many of the P&O Cruises ships have an Andersons Bar – Wilcox seems to have missed out – until Britannia - which is a good thing.

My fifth favourite part of Britannia is the Crows Nest Bar; which continues a tradition from the P&O Canberra, where the forward facing was first named Crows Nest. This is a play on the ‘lookout platform’ that ships had on their mast, which was also called the crows nest.

Since Canberra, many P&O ships have had a Crows Nest. It is found at the forward end of Lido deck, with views over the ship’s bow. A large bar at the back of the room serves drinks day and night.

I really liked Britannia and apart from the missing boat deck I think she’s a really nice design. The decor is well thought out and internally the ship is easy to navigate.

I’m hoping to one day sail aboard the ship. I’m very fond of Aurora so it would be fascinating to experience a larger ship in P&O service.

[marzipanandminutiae]

Youtube advertised a video to me that was a tour of an "egyptomania" house. So I'm like, "that sounds like a gross term but I don't know for sure." So, I went on google and apparently it's referring to a renewed interest of Europeans in Egypt in the 19th century? Which sounds ever worse than I thought? Isn't that just fetishism of a culture? At its worst, isn't that a kind of neocolonial attitude? idk why I am ranting to you about this except that you seemed like a good person to rant to.

That is what they call the craze for all things Egyptian at that time, yes.

Egyptomania is...complicated. On the one hand, it was boosted by colonialist actions like Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798-1801) and the rise of European and American archaeological expeditions that tended to be a “white people go to Egypt, pay locals dubious wages to do most of the actual labor on their digs, take all the credit, and steal artifacts” situation. And it could manifest in truly heinous ways, like mummy unwrapping parties.

(And that’s not even getting into Orientalism and 19th century white people’s views of post-pharaonic Egypt.)

On the other hand, there could also be a deliberate tourism element. 19th-century Egyptians had needs and ambitions just like anyone else, and if they were selling a product or offering an experience like a Nile cruise, they weren’t going to turn away white travelers. Some of the antiquities currently pending repatriation from European museums were looted from tombs by Egyptians and sold on the tourist market. Even some of those mummies at the notorious parties or being ground up to make paint were intentionally sold to visitors- there’s a famous photograph of an Egyptian mummy-seller in 1875. 

(Obviously that doesn’t make Europeans hoarding important cultural items or buying mummies and desecrating them right; it’s just part of the situation.)

Of course, a lot of Egyptian-inspired pieces weren’t made in Egypt. European and American companies produced everything from jewelry to housewares with an Egyptian twist. And I confess, I have no idea how Egyptian people at the time felt about that. If their thoughts were recorded for posterity, I have yet to come across such a source. There were also ways Egyptomania played into Black identities, especially in America, which are fascinating but which I am deeply unqualified to speak on.

Whether Egyptomania was Bad or Okay, I don’t have an answer for you. It’s more complex than that, especially when dealing with over a century of changing perspectives in Egypt and the western world. We’re asking a lot of questions now that we really weren’t then, about inspiration vs. appropriation- as well we should be. If it interests you, do more research! I’d be very curious to see what you find.

[imaginebeatles]

Hello, I'm a homo-romantic ace whose been having a lot of weird conversations lately about who belongs in the LGBT umbrella. I think anyone who is ace has the space if they want it because it is a little understood sexual orientation that experiences a lot of corrective reactions. But lately people have been arguing to me that only aces with non-hetero rom orientations and/or folk who are non cisgender have access to the space. I was wondering the following things:

2/2 what’s your take on asexuality belonging to the LGBT term, the LGBT community and the LGBT complex (cuz I think it’s gotten more complex as a functioning being)? Does asexuality belong in a tertiary space like BDSM which crosses over with queer (and shares similarities) but is not fully within it? Thanks for sharing about your thesis, every time it pops up on my dash I feel very excited. It’s been awhile since I engaged in queer theory and I am loving your work! No pressure to answer tho!

Okay, so…. this is a very contentious topic, but I have a lot of thoughts on this, especially since I’ve started doing research for my thesis. I’ve read some articles on asexuality and the queer community so… here we go. I’ve put it under the cut, so people can easily scroll past it if they’re not interested. 

(I would also like to first say that I will be use the word “queer” here. I know some people are uncomfortable with that because its past use as a slur, however, because it is an actual academic term that is used by everyone writing about these issues, and especially within queer theory, I will be using that word too. I use the word to talk about all non-normative identities/practices related to gender and sexuality, which includes the LGBTQ+ community, but is more extensive than that, including any letters not part of that acronym. Queer is also a (political and academic) practice, not just an identity. This already possibly shows where my answer to your question is going…) 

Firstly, I want to say that I understand why some people within the LGBTQ+ community might be uncomfortable about letting asexual people into that community. There is a difficult relationship between asexuality and queer identities. Some people in the field of asexuality studies have begun to write on this (I’ll list them down one or two down below). Within queer politics, historically but also now, there is a heavy focus on sex. Because queer people have struggled against oppression based on their sexual habits, not having sex is generally viewed as conservative or as a form of assimilation. For wlw this is further true because for a long time healthy sexual behaviour (aka having sex at all) was seen as impossible between two women, because both women would be sexually passive. Not having sex is not radical. This is why hetero-romantic aces are often dismissed as being “straight anyway”. Non-normative sexual practices (like cruising) are an important part of the queer community (academic work within queer studies in especially the 1990s and 2000s shows this too, wherein theoretical and political potential is mined from non-normative sex acts, including bare-backing because of its relation to the HIV crisis in the 80s).

It therefore makes sense that queer people (especially gay men and women, but also others) are uncomfortable with asexuality’s focus on not having sex, and as such asexuality is often seen as being “sex negative” instead of “sex positive” and thus bad. At least, politically. 

I, however, and other academics, do think asexuality is queer, if you define queer as being non-normative in relation to hetero-normativity). Asexuality is seen as non-normative in our current hyper-sexual society and sex is seen as a vital part of heterosexuality too (you have to reproduce and women are meant to be sexually available to men at all times). Asexual people are discriminated against because they refuse sex, which society sees as natural. While the struggles of asexual people are different from those of gay people, bi and trans people (and other identities) also have their own struggles against which they fight. This does not diminish their struggles. 

Acephobia is based on ableist ideas: if you don’t want sex, there must be something wrong with you either mentally or physically, because sex is naturally and everyone should want it and have it (often). Asexuality is often dismissed and not seen as “real”. There must be something that inhibits you from having sex, whether that is physiological, hormonal, or having to do with trauma, or maybe just because you are not “hot enough to get a boyfriend”, which reminds me of how for a long time lesbians were seen as being men-hating ugly women (and feminists). This view leads to asexuality being pathologized (as homosexuality used to be). There have been numerous ways in which low sexual desire or a lack of sexual fantasies has been sees as a disorder in the psychoanalytic tradition. Attempts to “fix” asexual people are made through things like therapy or hormone treatment (or stuff like viagra or other such things), but also through corrective rape, either in a medical contexts under the idea that sexuality needs to be “awakened” within the patient, or in the private sphere at the end of a partner or friend. Research has also shown that people see asexual people as less human, more machine-like. They admit feeling uncomfortable with asexual people, and that they may discriminate against them, such as refusing them rent. 

Asexual people have their own political issues to work through, just as any other identity within the LGBTQ+ community. However, each of these issues and more are related to the fight against hetero-normativity. Another example is that asexual people, especially those who are also aromantic, can help critique the way society privileges heterosexual romantic couplehood, especially married heterosexual couples. Asexual and aromantic people often privilege non-romantic and non-sexual relationship, such as friendships or family, allowing us to re-evaluate these other relationships and open up new forms of queer relating, which will also be appealing to other queer people, who often form their own social group or families and whose relationship and friendships are often in some way “queer”. 

On top of that, it is important to realise that there is a lot of overlap between asexual people and other queer identities. However, queer asexual people constantly remark on how they do not feel safe or represented by the queer or LGBTQ+ community, even those who “welcome” queer aces, but not hetero-romantic aces. The queer and LGBTQ+ community are heavily sexualized spaced, which makes aces feel unwelcome, but also leaves many non-asexual queer people to complain about the lack of safe spaces for queer people that aren’t about clubbing, such as the lack of queer cafes or library. The queer community (and LGBTQ+ community) is itself deeply entrenched in compulsory sexuality, just like hetero-normative society, making aces feel like they don’t belong to either community. 

If an asexual person if gay, or bi, or non-binary, or trans, or queer, or whatever, it is the LGBTQ+ and queer communities that should provide them a safe space and fight for them. Their asexuality informs their experience as homo-romantic or trans or anything else, and cannot be separated from that part of their identity. These are not separate issues. If we want to protect trans kids or gay kids or any other member of the queer/LGBTQ+ community, these communities need to be inclusive of asexuality and provide spaces where these kids are safe and can talk freely about their experiences and the challenges they face. These will undoubtedly also be informed by their asexual identity. 

We are stronger politically when we fight together. We fight the same cause. Asexual people do not ask other LGBTQ+ or queer people to not be sexual. They only ask that they are included and that their own issues are being taken seriously. 

On top of that, asexuality intersects with a lot of other queer issues. For trans folks, for example, the focus on sex in society and romantic relationships may leave them uncomfortable because of their body dysphoria and may thus run into similar issues as sex-repulsed aces. Stone butch women may find common ground with asexuality too, because of the focus on penetrative sex in society. The hypersexualisation of gay men may find that they experience similar issues as asexual people who feel they are being (hyper)sexualised despite not being sexual. There is a lot of overlap, and these issues need to be addressed. We can help each other and offer new perspectives that will help us fight for the same rights. 

On top of that, on a more abstract level, can also be valuable for queer politics in the way that it undermines our current understanding of sexual identity. The way we now think about sexuality was constructed by straight people with the aim of pathologizing and thus actively discriminate against and eliminate perverted sexuality. This started with homosexuality with Freud, and quickly began to expand. If you want to know more about this, Foucault’s History of Sexuality is a good place to start. This allowed for sexual object choice to be used to group specific people together and make them into a specific type or “species”, as Foucault calls it. Our conception of sexuality, then, was constructed to uphold heterosexuality as the norm, making heterosexuality (that is the opposite sex as the sexual object choice) out to be the natural and normal and healthy form of sexuality. 

Asexuality undermines this construction. Asexuality not only shows that there are different forms of attraction, which do not need to be connected to each other in a one-on-one relation, but also shows that sexual attraction is not the only or even the most important basis for attraction. Asexuality is not explainable in our current system and forces people to consider their sexual preferences. What do I like in sex? What kind of sex? What kind of sensuality? And with whom? If I like having sex with men, but only being sensual with women, what does that mean? Asexuality asks us what we prefer, putting the focus on preference  rather than something biological or innate that makes us feel desire towards one gender and not the other. 

This is not to say that asexuality makes sexual identity into an arbitrary choice. Rather, it shows that you cannot divide people into identity categories based on sexual object choice shows that attempting to do so is just as silly as doing so based on if you like tea or coffee. Or ketchup or mustard. On top of that, it allows for sexuality to be seen as fluid, not that it changes, but that it is not fixed. Maybe you like ketchup for a long time, and then no anymore. Or maybe you are briefly in the mood only for this specific type of mustard but not the others. Focusing on preference allows us to undermine the whole construct on which hetero-normativity is predicated. Making identities such as heterosexual or homosexual or bisexual or pansexual almost meaningless or nonsensical. If we want to do away with hetero-normativity completely, this is a crucial step to take. It allows us to focus on sexuality as a social construct, rather than something that must be biologically explained. 

TL;DR: I understand why some LGBTQ+ people are uncomfortable with the idea of bringing asexual into the community. However, I think ultimately we are fightening the same cause despite our own specific issues that we face. We have a similar stake in queer politics and queer academia. Asexuality can offer the queer or LGBTQ+ community a lot, and being inclusive to asexuality is crucial if we want to protect queer kids. As such there is a lot that both communities can offer each other. 

This goes for both queer aces and hetero-romantic aces. Hetero-romantic aces also benefit and often have a stake in dismantling hetero-normativity because they are asexual. Hetero-romantic aces also face discrimination under hetero-normativity. Because of this, asexuality at large ought to be included. Excluding hetero-romantic aces from the queer community or LGBTQ+ community shows a misunderstanding of asexuality and its political issues and seems not so much inclusive of asexual issues, but rather inclusive of those issues that relate ONLY to the other part of their identity. For queer aces, however, these two are not separate issues. If you want to be inclusive to queer aces, you have to be inclusive towards asexuality in general. 

Asexuality, then, should be fully within the queer community, not be treated as a separate but overlapping thing like BDSM. Asexuality, when taken seriously, will affect all spaces of the queer community for the better, while still allowing for sex-positive politics. 

Reading suggestions: 

Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality.

Megan Milks, “Stunted Growth: Asexual Politics and the Rhetoric of Sexual Liberation.” In Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives, edited by Karli June Cerankowski and Megan Milks. 

Erica Chu, “Radical Identity Politics: Asexuality and Contemporary Articulations of Identity.” In Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives, edited by Karli June Cerankowski and Megan Milks. 

[itcars]

Details: The New Audi A3 Sedan

The second generation of an Audi success story is here – the A3 Sedan. The compact four-door model is digitally and fully connected – from the infotainment through to the assist systems. Beneath the body, new drives and refined suspension tuning ensure a driving experience that is as efficient & dynamic. 

Powerful and elegant: The exterior The front is dominated by a large Singleframe with honeycomb grille that is flanked by striking headlights. On the outside, they form trapezoidal angles that are drawn downward. In the top model with Matrix LED technology, this is where the new digital daytime running lights are housed. They consist of a pixel array made up of 15 LED segments that can be actuated individually and give the various versions of the A3 Sedan a specific signature.

With the A3 Sportback, the body line running above the sill rises towards the rear lights before the rear wheel arch, thus accentuating the short rear end. The body line on the Sedan, by contrast, extends up to the rear bumper. This emphasizes its length – 15 centimeters (5.9 in) longer than the Sportback – and gives the flank an elegant appearance. The concave surface under the broad body shoulder further accentuates the quattro blisters and the sill. This creates an intensive play of light and shadow. The roof line slopes down from the B-pillar dynamically – just like on a coupé – and finishes in a striking spoiler on the tailgate. Optionally available in carbon, this provides a visual accent and, in so doing, emphasizes the powerful appearance of the four-door model.

Streamlined body The aerodynamics benefit from the higher rear end compared with the predecessor as well as the large diffuser. As a result, the new A3 Sedan with the 2.0 TDI 110 kW (150 PS) achieves a Cd value of 0.25 and is therefore 0.04 Cd points better than the first generation. The controllable cooling-air inlet with two electrically actuated louver modules behind the Singleframe also contribute to this. They regulate the flow of air intelligently and according to the situation. In addition, the paneled underbody, the exterior mirrors with improved aerodynamics, and the active brake cooling reduce air resistance and make for a streamlined vehicle.

Focused and digitalized: The cockpit The cockpit of the A3 Sedan is entirely focused on the driver. This begins with the interior design and ends with the display and control elements. Thus, the instrument panel with the central MMI touch display is inclined slightly toward the driver. It has a 10.1-inch diagonal and is intuitive to operate. As standard, it includes handwriting detection as well as natural language control that can optionally draw on the capabilities of the cloud. The 10.25-inch instrument cluster behind the steering wheel is digital even in the basic model. As the Audi virtual cockpit plus, it measures 12.3 inches and offers three different views, including sporty graphics with inclined digits and a particularly dynamic layout. The RPM and speed are shown here as bar diagrams with angular red graphical elements. Upon request, a head-up display complements the display concept, whereby it projects important information onto the windshield in the driver’s direct field of vision. Highly connected: From infotainment to driver assistance The top infotainment system in the new A3 Sedan is the MMI Navigation plus, which uses the third-generation modular infotainment platform (MIB 3). The MIB 3 boasts computing power ten times higher than in the predecessor model, connects the car via LTE Advanced speed, and connects the smartphones of the passengers to the Internet via Wi-Fi hotspot. The MMI Navigation plus offers a multitude of Audi connect services as standard, including online traffic information, news, and additional information such as photos, opening times, and user reviews relating to points of interest.

Car-to-X services that make use of the swarm intelligence of the Audi fleet are also part of the portfolio. They report hazardous areas or speed limits, for example, to vehicles with the corresponding equipment or find free parking spaces at the side of the road. If the car is switched off, the myAudi app continues navigation from the car on a smartphone. This way, customers reaches their destination directly.

The A3 Sedan is also connected to the smartphone via the Audi smartphone interface, which integrates iOS and Android cell phones with Apple Car Play and Android Auto in the MMI, as well as via Audi phone box. The latter connects the device to the car antenna and can charge it inductively. What is more, the A3 Sedan can be locked and unlocked as well as started via an Android smartphone with the Audi connect key. Personalization allows up to six users to store their preferred settings in individual profiles, including those for the seat, climate control and media. The DAB+ digital radio comes as standard. Options include online radio and the hybrid radio, which automatically switches between FM, DAB, and the online stream depending on a station’s signal strength, thus ensuring optimum reception. Beginning in the middle of the year, the Amazon Alexa voice assistant will complement the offering.

The driver assist systems are also particularly effective thanks to the close networking. In the Audi pre sense front system, the camera behind the interior mirror works together with the front radar to prevent accidents, or at least reduce their severity. The standard collision avoidance assist also uses the data from this sensor system. Adaptive cruise assist, an innovation from the full-size class, supports drivers with longitudinal and lateral guidance. The efficiency assist notifies them when it would be sensible to take their foot off the accelerator. To do so, it evaluates information including the navigation data. The exit warning, the cross-traffic assist and the surround view cameras that will follow shortly after the market launch are also useful in in urban traffic.

Three engines at ramp-up: The drives

The new A3 Sedan is available with a choice of two TFSI engines and one TDI engine at launch. One thing they all have in common is high efficiency. The 35 TFSI, a 1.5-liter direct injection engine, produces 110 kW (150 PS) and is available in two versions – with a newly developed six-speed manual transmission (combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 5.0 – 4.7 (47.0 – 50.0 US mpg)*; combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 114 – 108 (183.5 – 173.8 g/mi)*) and with a quick-shifting seven-speed S tronic (combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 4.9 – 4.7 (48.0 – 50.0 US mpg)*; combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 113 – 107 (181.9 – 172.2 g/mi)*).

Besides the cylinder on demand technology, the powertrain in conjunction with the S tronic dual-clutch transmission uses a 48-volt mild hybrid system. It recovers energy during deceleration, supports the engine with up to 50 Nm (36.9 lb-ft) of torque when driving off and accelerating from low engine speeds and allows the A3 Sedan to coast with the engine switched off in many situations. In everyday driving, it reduces consumption by up to 0.4 liters (0.1 US gal) per 100 kilometers (62.1 mi).

The 2.0 TDI with 110 kW (150 PS) (combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 3.9 – 3.6 (60.3 – 65.3 US mpg)*; combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 101 – 96 (162.5 – 154.5 g/mi)*) also works in conjunction with a seven-speed S tronic, whereby gear shifts are performed via a new switch using shift-by-wire technology.

Comfortable and dynamic at once: The suspension The suspension of the new A3 Sedan has been tuned to be sporty and harmonious – a touch more precise than in the predecessor model. To a large degree, this precision and reaction speed is thanks to the central dynamic handling system that ensures optimal interaction between all the components relevant to the transverse dynamics. As an alternative to the standard setup, there is a sport suspension and a suspension with controlled dampers. The latter offers a wide spread between highly comfortable roll motion and agile handling. The Audi drive select dynamic handling system also allows the driver to experience different levels of suspension tuning in their A3 Sedan – from comfort-oriented and distinctly dynamic right through to particularly fuel-efficient. This also brings about changes in the characteristics of the throttle response and the progressive steering, for example, which varies its ratio depending on the steering angle.

Prices and market launch Presales of the new A3 Sedan will begin at the end of April 2020 in Germany and many other European markets. Deliveries will commence in the summer. Prices for the 35 TFSI with 110 kW (150 PS) start at EUR 29,800. Shortly after the market launch, an entry-level gasoline engine will follow with a list price of EUR 27,700.

[thekeytohappiness-is-you]

Finding An E-Scooter Is Nowhere Near Straight Forward

Even the e-scooter market could still maintain its own infancy, but those electrically-powered machines already are appreciating an increasing level of fame daily. People living in big cities have rushed to adopt this new fad out of purely practical reasons - with all these cars stuck in traffic, e-scooters are the dictionary more, and much more people are eager to simply take. Variable in their relatively lower maintenance costs and the fact that you can readily fold them for storage or transport reasons, in addition to the main advantage of never getting to your destination having a sweaty back, such as it occurs using bicycles or even kick scooters, and you also receive an unbeatable recipe.

But with high demand happens high offer. Even with a growing number of people interested in getting an e-scooter, companies which produce them have multiplied like rabbits, along with many others have been connecting them as we all talk. This means that you, the customers, now has hundreds of alternatives to select from, from non invasive, cheap e-scooters to overall functionality and off-road-oriented ones. Thus what one is most appropriate for you? Well, just you can decide that, but we will give you a hand with a guide that touches on what key aspects you need to consider prior to setting this arrangement.

Things to Take into Consideration Prior to Buying Razor Power Core E95 Scooters:

Performance

Performance can be actually a paramount facet when deciding to splash the cash for a fresh electric scooter. However, before deciding what level of operation could be the most suitable option for you, then a couple theories has to be reviewed, including rate, power, as well as range. Let us take them at a time.

Speed

Are you currently really buying your very first e-scooter? Perhaps you have had the chance to ride one before? It that instance, you might be better off using an entry electric scooter. These times, you can secure an e-scooter that's capable of reaching speeds of 40 miles, however do you really need it?

Speed can be ordered by the form of floor available. And we all know that not every single patch of asphalt will be smooth across the town. However there are e-scooters which are capable of doing up to forty + mph. Then once more, ask yourself this: is the high rate a realistic focus on for you? Do you want to slalom close to parked vehicles and trucks at the rate? Obviously, if it's the case that you may locate a safe space with asphalt along with no obstacles, then a 40-mph e-scooter could be enjoyable as hell, but otherwise, you'll never have to relish its full potential.

Power

Even an e-scooter's electric engine may lead as low as 250W or as large since 6,720W. However, most e-scooters provides approximately 500W and 2000W values of power, originating in one or two electric motors located inside the wheels or wheel. A high-power electric engine pays to whenever your commute course includes steeper inclines or when you move very long, straight patches of asphalt with low traffic, even when you're desire to reach high speed more quickly - or perhaps even a special cruising speed which permits one to conserve time and access into a destination without even being late.

Range

Range-wise, try to think about how exactly precisely are you going to employ the e-scooter. Can it be sail rather very lengthy? Then you definitely might want to have an electric scooter that's fitted using a bigger battery. Naturally, going for a larger battery maybe not just increases charges but in addition adds a lot more weight into the mix, and that's some thing we'll address in the following section. However, if you're planning on using the e-scooter around the park on weekends to get mild drifting around, then you will not necessarily desire a long-lasting a single. Among the most effective technique to obtain great tip concerning Razor Power Core E95 Review is actually exploring thescooterguide.com/razor-power-core-e95-review website.

If not, you can pick the one that really needs a bit more hours for you and energy to bill, since you will not be requiring it often anyway. Suggestion: whenever checking out e-scooter specs for range quotes, makes sure that you take into account that producers bump the theoretical values by 30 percent in comparison to exactly what you'll receive in real life. Additionally, range is affected by factors like riders weightreduction, extra load, terrain incline, floor quality, and rate.

Comfort

It goes with out saying that riding an e-scooter also needs to remain comfortable. In character , we indicate as couple powders and vibrations as you can, no wrist ache following prolonged usage, and a calm and anatomically accurate position whilst riding. For that to happen, you have to take a very good consider these following.

Wheels

Wheels are your link with your ground. They give grip, however they also aid cushion the irregularities that demanding terrain could throw . So when talking about relaxation on a electric scooter, it is paramount to focus on brakes.

Ultimately, it would assist alot if you could examine ride the item prior to purchasing it, however that is not what the real world instructs us. Now, you're able to buy one e-scooter with only approximately three clicks, without so much as watching it, let just carrying it for a spin. But we expect this guide will prove helpful and do tell us in the feedback section when we missed a point.

[hopefulfestivaltastemaker]

July 5, 2020

My weekly review of some things I have been up to. Topics include the goals for think tank work, a data model for policy, decoupling, determinants of birth rates, and the New African Renaissance.

Data, Analysis, Solutions

This has been a week of some serious rehashing of the Urban Cruise Ship project and what we are trying to do.

The three buzzwords we are using are Data, Analysis, and Solutions (though the logo doesn’t have ‘Data’ in it). We are strong on Data, OK but could be better on Analysis, and lacking in Solutions. Our funder wants to rectify this imbalance.

When one reviews various research, think tanks, and advocacy organizations, one finds a tendency to specialize in different portions of the policy pipeline. Our World in Data, for instance, is one of the best presenters of data out there, as the name would imply. They are weak on analysis, and one has to do additional work to turn the data into a coherent picture of the world, at least a picture more definite than the “things are getting better” message that OWID director Max Roser promotes. They don’t offer solutions.

At the other end of the spectrum, there is a range of advocacy organizations whose job is to develop solutions. Citizens Climate Lobby is the one in the environmental space that I consider to be the gold standard. They advocate a carbon fee and dividend. CCL commissions research and analysis from top tier outfits, though as a primary source of dispassionate data and analysis they are not the place I would go.

Union of Concerned Scientists, the organization from which I inadvertently copied the acronym, is the best example I know of that straddles the Data -> Analysis -> Solutions pipeline. Their scope is broad. I don’t always agree with their ideological orientation, and I find that their material has become too partisan for my tastes, but the quality of their work is consistently good.

I tend to gravitate to wide scope projects, so in some sense the Urban Cruise Ship scope of work is a good fit. But I fear that I am setting up for failure for trying to do so much that I cannot do any of it well.

A Data Model for Research and Policy

This is another idea I have been thinking about, and it is still so amorphous that I don’t even have a good title for this section.

As described above, I envision a fairly well-defined pipeline that starts with raw data (from environmental sensors, laboratory results, survey results, statistics, etc.), proceeds through multiple layers of analysis, and leads to an output of a well-defined policy that can be implemented by a well-defined entity. By policy I am referring not just to government policy but also business practices, investment strategy, or pretty much any kind of policy.

It is very difficult for any one entity to do this process in its entirely (see above), especially since good policy should draw upon a wide range of disciplines. Therefore, a division of labor develops in practice. Most policymaking isn’t very good though, relying more heavily on ideology and folk wisdom than on rigorous analysis.

We have the data tools necessary to break the pipeline into interoperable and computable chunks. The open data movement in governance is a good step, though they could greatly improve their offerings. We need open science too, which means open access publishing, but more importantly means publishing in a form that is accessible both to machines and a more general audience. We should think of R or Jupyter Notebooks, and semantic presentation of knowledge such as RDF, rather than PDF files, as the basic unit of academic publishing.

Publication at the think tank level would work in the same way. Since think tanks don’t typically do primary research, they would take as input academic publication and produce as output general policy principles. Advocacy organizations could take as input the work or academics or think tanks and output specific policy proposals.

In theory, a policy proposal could be compiled into its rationale in terms of raw data and mathematical models. On the latter, the models could even be run through a proof checker such as Lean. This would allow the development of agents that could analyze policy proposals for red flags, such as data of disputed veracity or methodological problems.

An end-to-end computable model for research and policy, aside from facilitating better decision-making in general, may emerge as an important infrastructural component of the technology stack that will ultimately become artificial general intelligence. As I’ve noted earlier, I think that popular understanding of AGI neglects the infrastructural aspect of the problem.

If this was an idea that I am serious about--which, to be clear, it is not at present--I would go about it as follows. First, I would draft one or more white papers explaining the technical workings and sample use cases of the system in detail, together with a business case. Second, I would implement proofs of concept of key subsystems using what I have built with Urban Cruise Ship. Third, I would seek funding and build out a team and create a minimum viable product. Then I would figure out how to make the system snowball via network effects. At least the first two steps I know I could do with sufficient time and effort.

Decoupling

In ecological science, decoupling refers to a system that allows population or economic growth to occur without an increase in overall environmental impacts. I spent the week developing some time series of world environmental impacts to see which ones are growing or shrinking in absolute terms, on a per capita basis, and on a per-GDP basis. Of course I’m not the first person to attempt to do this, but I haven’t seen anything comprehensive laid out and I think there should be.

Across a range of impacts, the only recent examples I see of growth relative to GDP are ores (by metal content) and minerals (e.g. sand, stone), both from 2002-2015. I would expect them to decouple after we get past the peak of world urbanization. There are absolute declines in meadows and pastures, 1990-2017 (though I wouldn’t consider this definitive), land for forestry, 1990-2017, several forms of air pollution in the OECD, ozone depletion, mercury emissions, extreme poverty, and lack of access to safe drinking water. On a per capita basis, I’ll just say the picture is a mixed bag.

This will be a good graphic and I am looking forward to having it done. The nice thing about a big picture graphic like this is that there are many conclusions the viewer can draw, and I need not be heavy-handed about it.

Factors that Govern Birth Rates

As planned, I took some time this week on the fertility work, this time trying to get a handle on some more practical questions.

There are a few things that are widely known in the field. Urbanization and educational attainment generally lower fertility. Religious people tend to have more kids. Family planning policies lower birth rates, though the effect is not very significant in wealthy countries. Legalized abortion lowers birth rates.

The two most popular pro-natalist policies are baby bonuses and subsidized childcare. The one estimate on the efficacy of baby bonuses I know about is Lyman Stone’s estimate that it costs anywhere from $30,00 to 300,000 to induce one additional birth, based on an Australian project. Several studies, such as this one, suggest that subsidized child care is more efficiency than a baby bonus, in terms of induced additional births per public dollar spent. That’s not what I would have expected but it makes sense.

Beyond the well-known observation that fertility is lower in urban areas relative to rural, there are some interesting distinctions within cities. Shoag and Russell find that stringent zoning depresses fertility. Kulu and Washbrook find that fertility is higher in smaller cities compared to bigger cities. Kulu, Boyle, and Andersson find that fertility is higher in suburbs relative to city cores. None of these are too terribly surprising, though since the effect of zoning is typically to suppress city size and density, the results of Shoag and Russell would seem to be in tension with the others. There is a story that can be told that would harmonize them, which is that cost of living is more relevant than urban form, and that cost of living tends to be higher in city cores, larger cities, and cities with stringent zoning.

Last week I noted three overarching hypothesis on the drivers of fertility decline: the quality/quantity tradeoff, cultural evolution hypotheses, and the tendency for modernity to create competing desires to family formation. I can’t say that anything I looked at this week helps me distinguish between these hypotheses.

New African Renaissance

This paper came out a couple weeks ago, outlining a vision for a Pan-African future. It is an interesting read, though a bit heavy on the speculative idealism, but I like to indulge in this kind of stuff now and then. There are some heavy hitters behind the initiative.

Based on demographic trends, Africa is the region of the world that looks to be in the best position to prosper in the second half of the 21st century.

[thewhychallenger]

Social Ideologies:

This world of ours has too many problems, more than any of us can ever solve in a lifetime. Yet we cannot live our lives fearing those problems, or ignoring them in the hope that someone else will do something about it. This is why I write about social ideologies, and the problems they cause.

One social ideology that, at the same time, is the most known and most ignored aspect of American society is beauty. Beauty, a simple, plain concept. The idea that one person or thing has certain attributes that cause it to be beautiful, which in the end lead that person or object to be more highly valued. Beauty is therefore an inherently flawed idea, as proven by decades of bloody history surrounding ideologies which value some people over others. Yet this problem isn’t one of history, it is one of now, of today, of every hour and second we go on existing, waiting for another to deal with the problem.

This is starkly obvious in the “Me Too” movement, or the “Black Lives Matter” movement, but what I reference is something more subtle, yet stems from the same flawed ideology wearing a different mask. A few weeks ago, I was cruising around Snapchat out of boredom, when I came across a story that was both beautiful and disturbing. It was a story of a woman who is allergic to the sun, who “still” found love. It showed a woman badly sunburned on all exposed skin, kissing a man. It is easy to see the beauty within the story; it is a beautiful thing to find love, to be loved, and it is a compliment to the man’s view of the woman to be able to see past the sunburns covering her body. Then… the disgust. I was never, even for an instant, disgusted by the woman, or the story in any way. The problem I ran into is the ideology that the story promotes as a result of its existence.

The existence of a story. It is a strange thing to consider, but when we think about the why behind the story, it becomes clear the issues surrounding this story at a sociological level. This story was written to express the beauty and love found between two people, no doubt about that… but the fact that it is found on a social media platform, next to things like “This Korean Cop is Huge” or, “see how this mama lost 25 pounds from home!” Each of which is built and designed with interesting or capturing images designed to get a user to tap on the story, in short, every story can be considered almost commercialised. To put a story of love, something beautiful and celebrated, next to stories akin to the stories above expresses a society that is oriented towards interesting things. This may not seem like a particularly troubling thing, I mean, what’s the problem with interest in things in the world, right? Yet love is interesting and alluring all on its own, the search for it often takes people years of tireless searching. So when one sees a story about the love found between two people being used as a way to get little “taps” that eventually equate to money for Snapchat, it disgusts me. The woman who is sunburned across her entire body is literally becoming objectified because of the lack of objectification that comes from her significant other, all for a story.

So my disgust comes not from the love of two people, but the use of a person's love, someone different than the “normal”, to grab the attention of the masses, to earn money, as an offering for entertainment. The social ideology that leads us to celebrate the story of a woman allergic to the sun finding love, when the only reason that their love is being touted above the masses for everyone to gasp and applaud at is due to the perception of the woman as “different” or “ugly”. We celebrate that love, we put it on a pedestal, saying “Wow, that's amazing”, when love between anyone should be celebrated and cherished until the end of time, when in reality this story should not be something amazing and rare, but an everyday occurrence, because the beauty of a person should not determine the value of a person.

Despite the fact that it should not, beauty does determine the value of almost everything in our world, from art to movies to people. This is a social ideology, one that leads to the endless problems that we as a society face. Problems. Societal Problems. That is what we need to fix. This is an issue that cannot be solved with money, or legislature, or any other number of basic, easy solutions. Our very social identity causes problems that permeate every facet of our lives, and only through a complete societal shift in thought can anyone possibly hope to change the way our world view’s people, things, and their inherent beauty. This is not an easy thing, the right thing is famously difficult, but it is right to change the world, and change it for the better. Only together can anyone ever hope to achieve change, and it starts in the here and now, extending into a future that we must shape, for a better world, a better us. So never stop asking why, never give up curiosity, and always and forever fight for the better world we need.

[haveclotheswilltravel]

Have you ever dreamed of being able to see the Pyramids from your bedroom window? Well, you’re in luck. Marriott Mena House Hotel offers rooms with exactly those views + it’s located in a very secure (almost to a fault) and luxurious compound.

Quite the view from the gardens at Marriott Mena House!

The Marriott Mena House happened to be the only hotel we stayed at the entire time we were in Egypt. (The rest of the time we were on our Nile River Cruise.) It’s in a fantastic location – literally across the road from the Great Pyramids of Giza entrance!

Having a great view, though, isn’t the only reason to stay at a hotel. So, for this post, I’ll break down our experience staying here, both the good and the bad, and let you decide for yourself if this is the hotel for you while in Cairo.

Marriott Mena House Key Features

Walking distance to Giza Pyramid Complex

Free WiFi in rooms and public areas

Onsite dining – 3 restaurants (1 Italian, 1 Indian + 1 buffet style)

Full-Service Spa

24-hour room service

Lounge 

Outdoor pool

Gym

More than 300 rooms

[mv_create title=”Marriott Mena House Review | Cairo, Egypt” key=”20″ type=”list” layout=”hero”] 

My Experience Staying at the Marriott Mena House

We had first arrived here in the middle of the night. Our flight didn’t get in until after midnight and by the time we reached the hotel it was about 2 am. The front desk was still very friendly and helpful, despite the late hour we were checking in. We had also realized that morning that we had screwed up our booking, and needed to book an extra night! The front desk was super accomodating to despite our mistake, and booked our room for an extra night without any grief. (We were also very happy with how they recognized our Platinum Elite status here – which is something the last few Marriott hotels we’ve stayed at have not.)

The entrance to the lobby

The rooms with views of the Pyramids are quite a ways away from the hotel lobby. There are hotel employees ready with golf carts, though, to get you back to your room in no time!

The man who took us to our room was very enthusiastic as well (despite it being 2 am), and showed as around the room and then took us onto our private balcony so we could try to glimpse the outline of the Pyramids in the dark.

Waking up the next morning to see the Pyramids from my bed, was an unforgettable moment! It was like Christmas morning times 100! I couldn’t believe just how close the Pyramids were.

The view from our hotel room at the Marriott Mena House

Our first day here felt like a fairytale – despite how tired and cranky we were from out late arrival. This was meant to be an “easy day” where we visited the Egyptian Museum in Cairo at a leisurely pace, had lunch and then returned to the hotel to relax. It was great!

We then had to check out the next day so we could get to our Nile River Cruise. After 4 nights onboard there, we returned to the Marriott Mena House to stay for 2 more nights.

This is when things became a little interesting…

Marriott Mena House has quite the security team outside its gates. There are actually 2 security checkpoints your vehicle must pass through in order to get to the hotel and also to leave the hotel. The first is just to get on the road to the hotel (and also the Pyramids), this is a general bomb sweep of the vehicle, where security guards will inspect the vehicle and take a look in the trunk. Then, you’ll get another round of security at the gate to the hotel, this involves bomb-sniffing dogs and such.

This is all fine and well – as who doesn’t want to feel secure? However, this security also had a downside for us. We ended up not being allowed to leave that morning because our guide to visit the Pyramids had our tourism papers in an electronic format and they were not printed. (They, apparently, have been accepting them in electronic format for the last 2 years, and we had left the hotel this way to see the Cairo museum just days ago.) The guards actually became quite hostile with us and were shouting things in Arabic (that we didn’t understand).

The head guard was the most heated and behaving very erratically. My husband took a photo of him so he could later show the hotel manager who he was dealing with….but apparently, it’s a great big no, no to take photos of guards/police/military in Egypt. He’s lucky he didn’t get arrested! (Although, the photo did help when we later discussed the incident with the hotel manager.) So, pro tip – don’t take photos of the guards!

Our guide didn’t know what to do, and no one from the hotel offered assistance. It felt as though this security guard was on a bit of a power trip and was just looking for a fight. (However, I do think our guide gets some blame for this scenario, though, too. They should have been more prepared and proactive in my opinion.)

It took my husband going inside the hotel and demanding, very sternly, a manager speak with the security team to allow us to leave the hotel. When the issue was finally resolved, we were nearly 2 hours late for our tour. This is crazy because we literally walked ourselves over to the Pyramids that afternoon and no one said anything to us! (It’s only if you’re in a tour group that they need these papers, I guess.)

The security team is not part of Marriott, it is government-run. However, it is my understanding that everything has a price in Egypt, and that includes the security in front of your hotel. (As I don’t believe every hotel in Cairo has such strong security.) Hopefully, the security team and hotel have worked out a more harmonious relationship after that incident!

This was the only negative of our stay here. Otherwise, we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Restaurants/Bars

While in Egypt, you’ll likely spend more time than normal eating in hotels’ restaurants…unless you know some Arabic or have someone who can show you around to the local restaurants. A lot of travelers who are nervous about getting sick usually stick to hotel/tourist restaurants…which isn’t all that exciting, but it beats getting food poisoning.

139 Restaurant

This restaurant has the best views in the house! You can dine outside (or inside) with a spectacular view of the Pyramids. This is where the buffet breakfast is held in the morning and turns into an international restaurant at night (can be a la carte or buffet style dining).

The breakfast spread was impressive! (I’m sorry I never took any photos of it – I am the worst at photographing my food.) They had your normal breakfast stuff, such as eggs and sausages, there were also plenty of Middle Eastern goodies to try. I’m also very picky about my black coffee in the morning, and mercifully, they had fantastic, regular, ole coffee for me!

With our status with Marriott, the breakfast buffet is free. However, if you don’t have this, the breakfast is around $20 USD. (Yikes!) Some room rates do include the breakfast, though. Click here to see the recent deals.

The dinner spread had plenty of choices, however, it was quite pricey, in my opinion, for food that was just OK. You were really dining here for the view (which never got old)!

I should note, though, that I ordered prawns a la carte one night – and while they were plenty expensive (for me, at least), they were SO good. 

Alfredo Italian Restaurant

Alfredo is a lovely Italian restaurant located next to the hotel’s pool. They have both indoor and outdoor seating as well. This, again, was not inexpensive dining by any means…but we ate here on one of our last nights in Egypt – and Italian food really hit the spot! The waitstaff here was very attentive and kind as well.

Moghul Room

This is an Authentic Indian Restaurant located right behind 139 Restaurant. We never ended up eating here as it was closed for Ramadan the night we had tried to go here.

            View this post on Instagram

                        A post shared by Marriott Mena House, Cairo (@marriottmenahousecairo) on Jun 2, 2019 at 10:45am PDT

Sultan Bar

The Sultan Bar is located just off the main lobby of the hotel. It a nice place to sit if you’re meeting up with someone. We actually only came here to have a meeting with a manager of the hotel who wanted to get a better understanding of what had happened with the security team out front. He was kind enough to buy us drinks and offer apologies and promised they were working on improving the relationship with the security team out front.

https://flic.kr/p/5FSeTM

Outdoor Pool!

We never ended using the pool, as I was so intent on always having a view of the Pyramids…we usually relaxed on our room’s balcony instead of here. But my gosh, this pool looked like heaven too!

*There is also a free lounge onsite for Marriott Elite members. It was undergoing construction at the time we were there, though, and was located within the Alfredo restaurant. It has a very nice selection of food and beverages. Photos of our room – pardon my mess!

The Verdict – Would I Stay at Marriott Mean House Again?

Yes! Despite our little incident with the guard, this hotel is amazing. Being so close to the pyramids in such a luxurious setting is a dream come true. Having a few choices for onsite dining is great. And overall, the price of the room really wasn’t that bad for what you all get by staying here. (It was around $150USD at the time we had booked for a Pyramid view room. While that is insanely expensive for accommodation in Cairo, it really isn’t all that bad for your average Marriott stay. Click here to see the current rates.)

[mv_create title=”Marriott Mena House Review | Cairo, Egypt” key=”20″ type=”list” layout=”hero”] *If you would like to see my outfit post from Marriott Mena House, click here. *And you can see all of my posts from Egypt if you click here.

If you have any questions at all about our stay here, fire away in the comments section below!

If you liked it – Pin it!

*Disclosure: some of these links are affiliate links. Meaning, if you click a link and make a purchase, Have Clothes, Will Travel gets a very small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting the brands that make this blog possible! I am also a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Marriott Mena House Review | Cairo, Egypt Have you ever dreamed of being able to see the Pyramids from your bedroom window? Well, you're in luck.

[empress-of-snark]

Tagged by: @mademoiseli (thank you!)

Rules: Tag the person who tagged you, answer the questions and tag 20 people (yeah, that’s not gonna happen--it’ll be more like 10, lol)

1. How tall are you? 5′5″

2. What color and style is your hair? Brown, and I’ve kept it at a pixie cut for about six years now. Just easier to maintain.

3. What color are your eyes? Blue

4. Do you wear glasses? Sometimes, but I prefer contacts

5. Do you wear braces? I did for a couple of years in middle school, but no longer!

6. What is your fashion style? Most days I’ll wear jeans (colored, not just plain blue) and either a tee shirt or a blouse, but I also like wearing skirts with leggings, and I just got a super cute pair of casual overalls that I’m definitely gonna start wearing a lot

7. Full name? Yeah, no, I’m not putting my full name on the internet, lol. My first name’s Kellie.

8. When were you born? December 6

9. Where are you from and where do you live now? I was born and have always lived in Texas

10. What school do you go to? I don’t, I graduated college last May!

11. What kind of student are you? Unless I had a fair amount of friends in the class, I was the one who sat near the back and didn’t talk much and really hated group projects. If I had friends with me, I was more sociable and open to collaboration

12. Do you like school? I liked learning subjects I was interested in (i.e. not math), and I liked seeing friends every day, but there were always classes and classmates that got on my nerves. And I feel like the American school system is always more focused on preparing us for tests rather than the real world, as evidenced in the fact that Home Ec classes are either not required or nonexistent in most schools nowadays.

13. What are your favorite school subjects? English, if I liked the teacher (a bad teacher can ruin a favorite subject), History, Theatre, and Art.

14. Favorite TV shows? Community, Avatar: the Last Airbender, Psych, The Office, Parks & Rec, Bob’s Burgers, Zoo, Bates Motel, The Good Place, Stranger Things, Twin Peaks, Firefly, Doctor Who, Pushing Daisies, and Over the Garden Wall

16. Favorite books? The Harry Potter series, A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Westing Game, Good Omens, East, Frankenstein, Murder on the Orient Express, The Shadow of the Wind, The Princess Bride, The Night Circus, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Inkheart, Wicked, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

17. Favourite past-time? Reading, drawing, writing (usually fanfiction, but sometimes original stuff), making aesthetic boards on Pinterest, watching TV/movies

18. Do you have any regrets? Of course, who doesn’t?

19. Dream job? I would love to be a librarian someday. In fact, recently I’ve been researching schools that offer online degrees in Library Science.

20. Would you like to get married? Sure, if I meet the right guy.

21. Would you like to have kids someday? No. I highly value a clean, quiet environment, and kids are directly in opposition to both of those things. But if I ever change my mind (like if my husband really wants kids), I’d rather adopt than have a child of my own.

22. How many? Ideally, none. But if I end up adopting, probably just one or two.

23. Do you like shopping? I love thrift shopping and book shopping. I don’t really enjoy grocery shopping, and I don’t always like shopping for clothes because I get discouraged if things don’t fit/look bad on me

24. What countries have you visited? I’ve been to England and Scotland, and I’ve been on two cruises that went to several countries in the Caribbean (Mexico, Honduras, the Bahamas, etc.)

25. What’s the scariest nightmare you’ve ever had? When I was a kid, I started to read a book about a haunted house, then I had a nightmare about it where I was trapped in the house and demons were out to get me. I didn’t finish the book after that.

26. Do you have any enemies? I have people I dislike, but most of them are people like Jeff Bezos, and no one I’ve ever actually met. So I’ll say no.

27. Do you have a s/o? Nope

28. Do you believe in miracles? I do, yes

I hereby tag @novi-la @nothingalarming @snake-hyena-bear-lion @kateschechterxthorwasmyfirstotp @televinita @muffin-n-waffle @shaylahope @chickalupe (see, that wasn’t even 10, that was 8)

[aggressivehasana]

Starry Night

Fandom: Aggretsuko/Aggressive Retsuko

Characters: Haida, Retsuko, Fenneko, Ookami, Tsunoda, Ton, Resasuke

Relationship: Haida/Ookami

Summary: AU where Retsuko didn’t break up with Resasuke and Haida is dealing with that.

Warnings: None

- - -

CHAPTER 09

« Prev , Next »

Words: 2,073

Betaed by: @pomp-adourable

A/N: –

As they were cruising the halls of the building, Haida couldn’t help but wonder if there really was something he was supposed to help Ookami with, but he merely forgot. The truth was that ever since the incident, they had been talking a lot more than usual, but he didn’t believe they had spoken to each other at all on that day in particular.

His hand was finally released when they reached the elevator and he saw the maned wolf press the button to go up.

“That was close,” the young wolf said, turning to offer him a smile while they waited.

“Yeah, I guess it was,” Haida responded, gazing down at his cup of coffee for a moment before looking back up to him. “So, about that thing you asked me to help you with…”

Ookami laughed.

“It was just an excuse to take you away from there,” he said, just a moment before the elevator greeted them with a ‘ding’ and both males stepped inside. “However I could use some help with the invoices I’m filing...” he continued as he reached out to press the ‘R’ button. “But we’ll worry about that later.”

As they were moving up, Haida had to glance a couple of times at the red halo glowing around the ‘R’ button to convince himself that they weren’t going to the Accounting Department; they were heading to the roof. He swallowed quietly and lowered his eyes to his own reflection on the polished floor. He wasn’t sure he was happy about it. Perhaps math and numbers would’ve helped distract him from what had just happened.

“Are you ok, Senpai?” the maned wolf’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts, startling him a bit.

Haida looked up at him, seeing him standing to his right with his hands behind his back and his eyes fixed on the changing numbers above the door. However, he could tell his attention was on him, by the way his left ear was slightly turned his way.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he replied, returning his gaze to his feet.

“Are you sure?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Ookami peeking at him, and he remembered the maned wolf didn’t like being lied to, so he limited himself to just sigh and remain quiet. Lucky for him, with another ‘ding’ the elevator announced their arrival to the desired level, and Ookami allowed him to walk outside first.

Past the glass doors that were keeping the elevator safe from the outer conditions, Haida’s face was immediately greeted by the wind of mid autumn. Even if it was only a few hours past noon, one could feel how much the temperature had dropped, as they were slowly approaching winter. He shivered a bit, since it was definitely warmer inside the building, but with the sun still high in the sky, he didn’t remain too distracted by the weather.

“Oh!” he exclaimed, his eyes opening wide as he couldn’t resist walking all the way to the other side of the roof, stopping at the rail. “Man, look at this view!”

“Heh, yeah, quite impressive, huh?” he heard Ookami reply, feeling the presence of the maned wolf settling next to him. “You don’t come to the roof very often, Senpai?”

“Not really,” he admitted while contemplating every building, every car, and every person walking by. “I’m usually too busy for that. I think I’ve only been up here like once or twice since I started working for this company.”

It had to be more than once, but he could only remember the time he checked the roof in a hurry to make sure Retsuko was not about to jump off one of the rails. He’d been a little too worried about her to bother admiring the scenery around him.

Ookami hummed in understanding, and it kept Haida from dwelling too much in the memories of that day, and his feelings for Retsuko.

“I come here a lot,” Ookami revealed calmly. “Especially to smoke, or when I need a moment alone.”

Haida’s ears twitched as a certain word broke his concentration, and he finally ripped his eyes off the panorama to give a severe look to the young wolf.

“You smoke?” he questioned, knitting his brows together with a frown.

“Sometimes, yeah,” Ookami admitted. He was resting his elbows on the rail and his chin on his hand. Noticing the hyena had turned to him, he did the same, folding his ears backwards, as his superior didn’t seem too happy. “Don’t you?”

Haida stared at him for a beat, deepening his frown, but then he sighed defeated and closed his eyes, turning back to the railing.

“Sometimes… I try not to, though,” he admitted himself, pausing for a few seconds while imitating the wolf’s motion to rest his elbows on the rail, and holding his cup of coffee with both hands to make sure he wouldn’t accidentally drop it. “You shouldn’t smoke. You’re too young for that,” he admonished, returning his eyes to the younger male who chuckled in response.

“What am I? Like 3 years younger than you?” Ookami asked mockingly, scooting closer to give Haida a playful push with his shoulder. “Don’t talk like an old man, Senpai. We’re both young! We should enjoy the little things in life!”

The bright blush that took over the older male’s face made Ookami want to laugh, but he held back as best he could.

“Thank you for worrying about me, though,” he expressed instead, hesitatingly reaching out to place a hand on the hyena’s arm.

The gesture wasn’t overlooked, and with a thump in his chest, Haida felt that familiar warmth crawling up his neck again. He looked down at Ookami’s hand before peering back up at his face, and noticed how the determination in his emerald eyes slowly clouded with fear. After a breath, the younger broke eye contact, lowering his gaze, and he withdrew his hand as he backed away to the place he’d been standing before.

Haida felt bad. Even though the closeness caught him off guard, he didn’t mean to make things awkward for his co-worker. Somehow he really didn’t…mind. But now he was having a hard time trying to figure out what to say, and it seemed to be the same for Ookami, as silence stretched between them, and Haida was starting to tap at the carton of his cup impatiently.

“Oh! So… how did you know?” He found it, the perfect way to break the silence. It was something he had stuck in his head anyway, so he thought it was the ideal time to ask away.

“Huh?” Ookami asked confused, and, thankfully, he glanced back up at him.

“You weren’t in the Dining Area while everything was happening… How did you know I was in trouble?” Haida tried to sound as gentle as possible, even offering the maned wolf a shy little smile, and it seemed to work, for Ookami stood straight again, his ears perking with interest and his tail swinging.

“Oh! I was on my way back to Accounting when I saw Retsuko-Senpai and the other guy walking by! I was curious as to what they were up to, so I started following them. That’s when I saw them reach you and Fenneko-Senpai, and I, well… I thought I had to do something.” As he told his tale, Ookami’s voice gradually lost excitement, like he had been so proud of himself in the beginning, but then realized that what he was saying was probably a touchy subject for the hyena. He finished off with a shrug, and lowered his gaze a little bit.

“You saved me. Again.” Haida chuckled, and Ookami looked back up to him, responding in the same manner.

“Yeah, seems to be a recurring thing between us.”

Both males exchanged smiles, and for some time there was nothing but the sound of the cool wind blowing between them.

“Senpai…” After a while, it was the maned wolf who spoke first, but Haida interrupted him.

“I’ll be ok, Ookami,” he assured with a gentle yet firm voice, lowering his eyes to the rail for a moment before returning them to the wolf and offering him a cheeky smile. “Thank you for worrying about me, though.”

Now it was Ookami’s face that lit up with a bright blush, but he giggled playfully and slowly approached the other again, not standing as close as he had been before, but with only a few inches apart.

“I really hope so, Senpai. You don’t deserve to go through all this shit.”

And just like that, the smile disappeared from the hyena’s face. He sighed deeply, turning back to the railing and setting his attention on the cup in his hands.

“Sadly, I do. I delayed too long to tell Retsuko how I feel,” he explained, raising the cup to his lips to take a sip, and he growled softly, as the liquid had already run cold. “It’s what I get for being so scared of my own feelings.”  

For once, Ookami didn’t know what to say. He stared at his superior in silence, feeling his heart slowly increasing it’s pace, until Haida turned to look at him and their eyes connected.

“Have you ever been in love, Ookami?” Haida asked, and the maned wolf felt his insides jump.

“I… I don’t know. I think I was, a couple of years ago,” he answered as calmly as possible, but he felt the need to focus the sudden rush of adrenaline on something to keep it from getting to his nerves. He held unto the rail with both hands and leaned backwards, allowing the task of not letting himself fall to cloud up his mind.

“And?” he heard the older male insist.

“Well, it didn’t work out. I mean, we did date for a while, but…” he paused for a bit, feeling his arms starting to tremble. “I guess I just wasn’t good enough for him.”

The hyena stared at him for a moment, and then he shifted his vision forward, back to the horizon.

“Him,” he repeated mindlessly.

That seemed to be a recurring theme, lately. Between Ookami and Fenneko assuring him that there were guys interested in him, and Fenneko even revealing the identity of one of them, he couldn’t help but start wondering about his co-workers’ sexual orientations.

“I’m bisexual,” he heard Ookami explain, and he felt his face burn because it was almost as if he had read his mind.

“A-Ah! Is that so?” he asked nervously, turning to look at the other and noticing, as the maned wolf pulled himself back on his feet, that he wasn’t looking too happy.

“Does that bother you?” Ookami asked calmly, however, and Haida immediately shook his head.

“No, no, not at all! It just caught me a little off guard, I guess. You’re well known around for being quite the lady-killer, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you flirting with a guy.” Ookami snorted quietly at that, but the hyena seemed to be a little too worked up to notice. “If anything, I’ve seen you flirt with Ms. Tsubone the most, so I thought you were into mature ladies…”

It almost seemed like he had delivered the best joke in history, because Ookami’s face turned as red as an apple and he burst out laughing.

“Oh, no, no! With Ms. Tsubone is a different story!” the maned wolf clarified once he was able to talk again, taking a hand to loosen his tie a bit. “She’s quite the flirt, in case you haven’t noticed. So I just use that to my advantage. She flirts with me, I flirt with her back, and that earns some benefits, like better treatment, or the chance to hand her my work so I can leave early, or even money.” He smirked and winked, seeming so proud of himself. “It’s quite convenient, actually.”

“I see,” Haida said smiling awkwardly.

However, after everything had been said and done, Ookami dropped the cocky attitude. He sighed softly, setting his gaze down to the ground as he turned around to lay his back against the rail.

“But no, I’m not really interested in her. Or… anyone, really. I don’t…” He paused, seeming hesitant to continue, but he took a deep breath, and closed his eyes as he pressed himself on to talk. “I don’t do relationships for now.”  

[skeletonscribbles]

Wishes

here’s chapter one of this Losers WDW employee AU! let me know what you think <3

Rating: M, eventually. G right now, except for cursing.

Pairings: Reddie, Stan/Bill/Mike, Benverly WC: 4,465

Summary: 

It's one thing to vacation at the Happiest Place on Earth with all your friends.

Working there with them is another thing entirely.

(or: the Disney World Employee/Cast Member AU written by a former Disney World Cast Member that some people asked for but most did not)

Other: Scroll down for explanation of starred phrases. There’s lots of Disney lingo in here.

Also, chapters will alternate perspectives like I Burn I Pine I Perish (Mike’s up next!)

Read on Ao3

Tag List: @roobarrtrashmouth @jem-carstairs-is-perfection @tozier-club @aizeninlefox @stanheartsbill

BILL DENBROUGH - GUEST RELATIONS, MAGIC KINGDOM THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8TH 7:48 A.M.

There was absolutely no fucking reason for the Magic Kingdom to ever open earlier than 9 a.m.. That was indisputable truth among MK workers; the tunnels were too nasty for any human to have to wander through between the hours of 1 a.m. and 8 a.m. (Third shift cast members were brave and foolish souls.)

Bill Denbrough really couldn’t be blamed, then, for rolling in with just a few minutes to spare on an early-open Monday (well, actually a Thursday, but his Monday. He’d applied to have a regular weekend, but didn’t get it because he hadn’t been working for the company for a million years, so his days off were Tuesday and Wednesday, and it was a huge bummer). As soon as he got off the West Clock bus*, he made a beeline for the mouth of the tunnels to clock in on the computer next to the Mouseketeeria (the cafeteria for cast members - “The Mouse” for short). He wasn’t the only one, either - everyone was walking fast, trying to make sure they were in on time lest they get a point on their records**. That was what MK got, Bill reasoned, for opening a whole hour before what was strictly necessary.

Once he was clocked in (with two minutes to spare, no less), Bill slowed down, taking a more leisurely pace as he made his way through the tunnels towards Town Hall. The rest of his Guest Relations cast members would be pissed with him, but he didn’t care. They’d left him out to dry with angry guests more times than he could count.

Almost immediately, he was just about bowled over by somebody plowing their way towards the Mouse. He glared over, hoping that it was a bitchy entertainment cast member he could tell off, but to his dismay and concern, it was his acquaintance Eddie, a Character Attendant who he spoke to quite often on tours. He seemed to be on the run from someone...and given that he worked pretty exclusively with Princesses, that was probably true.

“Eddie?” Bill asked, and Eddie stopped in his tracks. “Are you all right?”

Eddie turned around, shaken up by the fact that he’d been recognized (there were SO many cast members that worked at the Magic Kingdom), and blinked woozily back at Bill. “Oh. Yeah. Hi, Bill. You taking people my way today?”

“I dunno if I have a tour,” Bill said, “but I will if I do. Which way is your way?”

“Fantasyland,” Eddie replied, “Princess Fairytale Hall. Not Adventureland anymore, thank God.”

“What’s so bad about Adventureland?” Before he’d taken the Guest Relations gig, Bill had been an attractions cast member in Adventureland and Liberty Square. Granted, his allegiance was much more to the Liberty side, as he’d been a butler at the Haunted Mansion (and a damn great one, too, even if he did still have his stutter then), but Adventureland was still a big source of pride for him.

“Hecklers,” Eddie said cryptically, “and everyone in Adventureland always asks if I’m friends********** with Pan, because he used to meet there. I hate that. Anyways, it’ll be a pretty slow day at PFT, so if you’re doing tours, put any kids in Tiana’s line. It’ll be short, and she’s a sweetheart.”

“Roger roger,” Bill said, saluting him. “You’re a good man, Eddie….shit, I have no idea what your last name is. I’ve only ever read your name off of your nametag.”

“Kaspbrak,” Eddie offered, smiling thinly. “Not that you’ll remember.”

“Probably not,” Bill admitted. “I’ll see you later, though.”

“I’ll be waiting,” Eddie promised, disappearing through the doors of the Mouse.

Running into Eddie had made Bill even later than he was originally planning to be. His coworkers were going to be livid. Hopefully there wasn’t a tour waiting on him.

Sure enough, when he walked into Town Hall, his coordinator flew at him. “What is the matter with you?? You have a tour waiting!”

“Cool,” Bill rolled his eyes and smoothed out his vest. “What’s the situation?”

“A couple of C-list VIPs. Kids from a recent horror film, I think. Seven of them.”

“Girls?” Bill asked, quietly hoping for an affirmative answer.

“Just one,” his coordinator said, glancing over. “Six boys.”

“Fuck.” Bill sighed and slid on his sunglasses. “No Tiana this time, I guess. I’ll start ‘em with Richie instead.”

“I dunno if Richie still works mornings,” said the coordinator, frowning, “he likes that late night CP shift*** garbage. But if he’s here, he’ll probably tip the boat and drown ‘em, so...godspeed, I guess.”

Bill stepped out neatly from behind the customer service booth. He spotted his group right away. They were all about 13 years old, and extremely loud.

“Hey there, kiddos!” he called. “Ready to make some magic?”

The children cheered, and Bill swept them out and towards Adventureland.

----

Miraculously, they made it to the Jungle Cruise in about ten minutes. The group only got distracted by the swords in the Agrabah Bazaar once (and incredibly, it was the girl that was most excited about them), and were less interested in the spitting camels at the Aladdin ride than Bill thought they would be.

He approached the cast member at the head of the Jungle Fastpass line while the kids took a picture with the ride sign for Instagram. “I’ve got a group of fourteen - seven kids and seven moms - and we want to ride Richie’s bote****.”

The cast member rolled his eyes. “Of course, Richie’s bote. It’s a miracle you caught him - usually he doesn’t get scheduled until noon or later, but he’s here today, whining about having to spiel at 'the asscrack of dawn' or whatever. He's basically a bat: blind and nocturnal.”

“Grumpy Richie is good luck for us,” Bill said, smiling. “I was kind of hoping he’d leave the kids in the Cambodian ruins show scene.”

“He just might.” The cast member waved Bill along, and Bill called back to the boys. They snaked their way through the line until they got to the dock, where another cast member in khaki held them back.

“You want Richie, right?” she said, adjusting her wide-brimmed hat. “Good timing. He’ll be rolling in in a sec.”

“Who is Richie?” one of the boys asked, looking at Bill curiously.

Bill shook his head and smiled. The kid really had no idea.

“Aaaaaaaand we’re back,” called a loud voice, saving Bill from actually answering the boy’s question. Bill turned to see Richie steering a boat to the unload dock. His glasses were steamed up from the Florida humidity, and his hat was hanging around his neck by a cord because his hair was too unruly for the hat to stay on his head. In short, he was a SIGHT. The kids gawked at him as he pulled up to the pier and stopped the boat, yammering all the while:

“I hope you’ve had as much fun as I have over these past four weeks...which is to say, none at all, I hope you had no fun, you’ve been terrible. Parting is such sweet sorrow, yadda yadda yadda, get out of my bote. Watch your head. Just kidding, you can’t actually watch your own head. Watch somebody else’s head, I guess.”

Richie’s rambling was sweet music to Bill’s ears. The two of them had been friends since they’d done Ad-Lib orientation together some two years prior. They’d been separated to different attractions - Richie to Pirates of the Caribbean, initially, and Bill to Mansion - but they still managed to make time for each other every now and again, and Bill loved to take his tours down to the Jungle Cruise so he could spend time with his friend.

Bill was justified in bringing his tours down Richie’s way, though. Richie was by far the funniest Skipper in the Jungle. Everyone had been kind of surprised when he’d been sent to Pirates right off the bat - the boy was basically put on Earth to narrate shitty Disney journeys through plastic wilderness, so as soon as he could put in to cross-train*****, he had jumped to Jungle and not looked back.

“Hey Rich,” Bill called, “heard you were giving out free two-week vacations. Got room for fifteen more?”

Richie’s face lit up when he spotted Bill on the dock. “Big Bill, on MY bote? Dreams really do come true! Magic is real, folks, you heard it here first and not from anyone else on this wack vacation property--”

“Beep beep, Richie,” Bill said mildly, unable to hide his giant smile as he moved to hug his friend.

“I can’t believe ‘beep beep’ has lasted the test of time,” Richie grumbled. “I hate the Tomorrowland Speedway.” He turned to the kids. “Okay, single file, sit all the way around, both sides of the crates please or we’ll flip and the gators will eat you. Don’t climb over the crates, you’ll fall and I’ll laugh and then probably get fired. All aboard!”

The kids clambered eagerly on to Richie’s bote, chattering excitedly to themselves. Their mothers followed them with great hesitation and an obvious sense of dread. Bill got in last, and secured a seat next to Richie.

“We all here? Great! If not, oh well.” Richie got the ‘all clear’ from a fellow cast member, and put the boat into gear. “Welcome to the Richie Tozier express, I think you’ll find it river-ting. I know you’re all thrilled to spend the next two weeks with me as your tour guide, but please, hold your applause until we’re past this tribe of hand-eating cannibals….”

Richie’s bote was always an exciting experience, and Bill found himself laughing more than the kids at certain spots. He knew that he shouldn’t be encouraging some of the jokes - Richie was supposed to stick to a script, and he’d almost gotten fired a few times because he couldn’t rein in his giant mouth - but he couldn’t help it. Richie was a comedian, through and through.

After the tour was over, the kids all insisted on getting a picture with Richie, so he graciously climbed out of the boat with them and handed things over to another khaki-clad cast member. (It was his turn to rotate******, anyway.) They took photos on everyone’s iPhone, and then the kids scrambled away to edit and compare, so Bill had a few minutes alone with Richie.

“How goes it, Big Bill?” Richie asked, wiping sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand. “Plaid looks good on you, as always.”

“Butler uniform looked better,” Bill said wistfully, tugging at his vest. “I miss Mansion, except for the heavy coat.”

“Anything’s better than khaki shorts,” Richie said sagely. “I’d kill to cross-train at Mansion. They won’t let me, though. They know I’d just sit around and scare kids all day.”

Bill shrugged. “I mean, I used to just let people fall down on the moving belt. I can’t imagine you’d be any worse.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty fucking awful, Billiam.” Richie shoved his hands in his shorts pockets. “Anyways. Um. I have a query.”

“Shoot,” said Bill, eyeing the kids. They were just about ready to go.

“Where’s Cute Character Attendant today?” Richie’s ears had gone scarlet, and not from the sun.

Bill shot him a withering look. “I don’t know every single person that works in MK, Rich.”

“You know this guy. I’ve seen you talking to him.” There was desperation in Richie’s eyes, which was new and disconcerting. “Small, pretty smile, shrill voice. I made an Aladdin joke about the loaf of bread in my pants and he told me that if he had a genie, he would wish me away.”

Bill squinted incredulously. “Eddie?!”

A huge, goofy smile slid across Richie’s face. “Eddie…”

Realization hit Bill like a freight train, and he let out a barking laugh. “You’re the heckler! Eddie said he had a heckler, and it's you!”

“Where is he?” Richie begged. “Bill, please.”

“Goodbye, Richie,” Bill sang, re-joining his group. Behind him, he could all but hear Richie attempting to keep from cursing.

It seemed that he was going to have to pay Eddie a visit after all.

----

As it turned out, the kids were pretty hyped about Tiana even with the fact that she was a girl. Bill was pretty impressed by that - they were a mature bunch of twelve year olds, which was rare and lovely.

Eddie was standing in front of the door to her station in Princess Fairytale Hall with his arms crossed. He looked almost elf-like in the Fantasyland attendant costume, and Bill couldn’t help but wonder at Richie’s taste. Eddie was a good person and quite attractive in his civilian clothes, but he looked ridiculous in his Attendant get-up, and Bill was pretty sure Richie had never seen Eddie in civvies. It made Bill wonder if Richie lusted after the Peter Pans in Entertainment, too.

“How many?” Eddie asked as they drew nearer.

Bill smiled meekly. “Don’t kill me.”

Eddie’s shoulders slumped. “Over ten?”

“Fourteen,” Bill said apologetically. “Plus me.”

Eddie rolled his eyes and sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you knew Richie?” Bill asked, low enough that the kids and moms in his group couldn’t hear him.

Eddie’s breath caught in his throat, and his face immediately went pink. “You’re talking about Jungle Cruise guy, aren’t you.”

“Yeah. We’re old friends.” Bill looked at Eddie seriously. “Is he yanking your chain?”

“He’s so embarrassing,” Eddie complained. “Every time I’m with Aladdin and Jasmine, he stares at me from across Adventureland and shouts dumb jungle pick-up lines. And that’s not even the worst part.”

Bill blinked back at him. “What’s the worst part?”

“The worst part is that I’m into it,” Eddie hissed, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t know what to do. It’s ridiculous. I have to go check on Tiana.” He disappeared into the next room, and then reappeared. “Yeah, she’s good. She’ll see you now.”

“Do you want me to talk to Richie?” Bill asked, gesturing the rest of his group forward.

“If you do, I’ll kill you,” Eddie threatened, pushing Bill through the door. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” Bill repeated, wondering what he could do to help his two idiot friends.

----

The tour pretty quickly went back to occupying the majority of Bill’s thoughts, and so he was able to bring the kids and moms through Fantasyland pretty efficiently. The kids were obviously losing steam heading into Tomorrowland, so he talked to the moms and decided that Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear would be their two final stops of the day. Monsters Inc would have to wait for another time.

Bill wasn’t a huge roller-coaster guy, and Space Mountain was particularly iffy for him, especially after he’d gotten the opportunity to ride it with the lights on, so he elected to stay outside with some of the moms while the kids and the braver mothers went through the line. One of the mothers was clearly relieved to have gotten him alone, and immediately started flirting with him, which he hated. It happened all the time, and while it was definitely worse when wives flirted with him in front of their husbands, it sucked pretty much across the board. He had no real defense mechanisms: he couldn’t be rude to the guest, or he’d get fired, and he couldn’t tell them he was gay, because then they’d probably tell his supervisor and he’d get fired for sharing too much information. It was a lose-lose situation.

Fortunately, someone else had noticed his plight. A blonde, bearded man in a dress shirt and, bewilderingly, a Disney name tag, came walking towards him from the direction of Astro Orbiter. “Hey, um.” The man read Bill’s nametag, and then straightened up. “Bill. Can we chat for a sec?”

“Sure,” Bill said, pointing to him and mouthing ‘supervisor’ to the moms as he was led away.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Bill shoved his hands in his pockets. “Am I in trouble?”

“What?” The man seemed confused. “No, I was just trying to help you out. That mom was really laying it on thick.”

“Oh.” Bill couldn’t find the words to express his gratitude, so he settled for patting the man on the arms. “Thanks, man, I really appreciate it. I thought you were the manager for one of the attractions around here, that’s why I asked…”

The other man laughed. “Oh, no. Well, actually, kind of. In a sense, I manage these rides.”

Bill knitted his eyebrows. “I don’t follow.”

“My name’s Ben Hanscom,” the man introduced himself. “I’m an Imagineer.”

“Oh!” Bill beamed, delighted. “That’s the raddest job on property, I think. What brings you to MK? New developments in Tomorrowland?”

“Just observing,” Ben said, smiling. “I have a lot of Star Wars stuff on my plate, so I wanted to see how guests were reacting to the space-y theming we already have.”

“Smart,” Bill nodded. “What Star Wars stuff?”

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” Ben dropped his voice to a low whisper. Bill almost believed him for a hot second, but Ben ruined the joke by bursting out laughing.

“Dude. That wasn’t even that funny.”

“I know,” Ben wheezed. “I just can’t contain myself.”

“The rest of my group is coming back,” Bill said, pointing at the exit, where the kids were skipping out towards their mothers, “so as much as I’d like to listen to your crazy, I’ve gotta fly. See you around?”

“Definitely,” Ben said, smiling a huge, genuine smile. “Anytime you need to be rescued from crazy moms, you let me know.”

“I sure will,” Bill joked, walking back towards the kids.

“Hey,” Ben called after him, a little hesitantly.

Bill turned around. “Yes?”

“Could you, uh, say hello to the redheaded costumer next time you’re picking up costumes?” Ben asked sheepishly. “Tell her that Tomorrowland Pants Guy says hi.”

Bill had a feeling he knew exactly the person Ben was talking about, but there was no way Ben would know her name, so he decided to skip that particular discussion and just say “Okay”.

It was shaping up to be a weird day for relationships, all in all.

----

The costumer in question happened to be none other than Bill’s best friend and roommate, Beverly.

Bill met Bev just a little while after he’d started working at Disney. She’d worked more on entertainment costumes then, and they’d bonded over their love of the Haunted Mansion attire. They’d dated in those first, more immediate weeks, but quickly realized that their relationship worked better on a platonic level (especially considering that Bill wasn’t super into women in the first place)...which, ultimately, led them all the way up to becoming roommates.

She still worked in costuming, but now, she was in charge of frontline cast******* costumes in the Magic Kingdom. She ran clothing maintenance and tracked down all checked-out costume pieces, and also had the well-deserved reputation of being the nicest girl in all of costuming. After Bill sent the kids off to their hotel, clocked out, and hopped the West Clock bus back to the station, he stopped in to see her, knowing that her shift would be finished soon.

“Please, please, please come to the Boardwalk with me for a while!” Bill found Bev almost immediately upon entering the Costuming building, and wasted no time in launching into a whiny beg.

Bev huffed. “Is this about that guy you saw feeding the birds there literally one time? With the pretty curls and the sneer?”

“Obviously.” Bill unbuttoned his vest, took it off, and stuffed it in his bag. “I’ve gotta find him.”

This was true. Bill had spent his last couple of weeks in pursuit of a man he’d seen on Disney’s Boardwalk some time ago. The man had been angelically beautiful, and despite seeming a little on the stiff side, had been sweet and wonderful to watch when he’d pulled out birdseed and started tossing it to the ibises. Bill had been entranced, and now he was obsessed with finding him again.

“He’s probably not even from around here,” Bev pointed out, disgustedly watching Bill strip to just his undershirt and a pair of running shorts.

“He is. I know he is.” Bill zipped up his backpack full of wrinkled clothing. “And there’s another guy I have my eye on, too, if we can swing into Epcot and stop by some KidCot******** stations.”

“KidCot?” Bev raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t ask,” Bill said, sliding his bag back on to his shoulders. He’d seen Boardwalk guy about two weeks ago, looking at birds on the lake, and KidCot guy about four days ago, charming kids and mothers alike in Epcot’s Mexico pavilion. They were the two most evocative men Bill had ever seen in his life, and he was determined to track them down.

“Eh, I don’t have other plans.” Bev shrugged. “I guess I’ll come.”

“Fuck yeah,” Bill grinned. “My wingwoman.”

“Never say that again,” Bev said threateningly, and disappeared into the back to clock out.

----

They drove over to the Boardwalk and parked in cast parking, despite the fact that they weren’t Boardwalk cast. Neither of them wanted to pay to park in a guest lot (it was stupid that that was even a thing, now), and Bev figured they’d get away with it, so they decided to make it work.

Curly-haired boy was not on the Yacht and Beach********* side of things, and Bill couldn’t see him across the way. That was discouraging, but he didn’t want to make Bev feel they’d come for nothing, so Bill suggested that they walk the loop for a minute.

“Oh, by the way,” he remembered somewhere over by the Abracadabar, “some guy told me to say hey to you. Something about Tomorrowland pants.”

Bev frowned. “I’m not friends with any Tomorrowland cast.”

“He wasn’t Tomorrowland cast,” Bill clarified, “he was an imagineer. Something about Star Wars….but then, I mean, I guess they’re all kinda doing Star Wars at this point.”

Bev thought for a moment, and then her eyes widened. “Oh, shoot, what was his name. He was so sweet. Uh. Bert? Starts with a ‘B’.”

“Ben,” Bill remembered, smiling at the memory of the bearded guy who laughed at himself. “Imagineer Ben.”

“Ben!” Bev’s face was alight with excitement. “SO cute. He came in to see what the Tomorrowland folks were wearing, and then he stuck around and talked to me about sewing and Disney’s Hercules. What a cool cat.”

“He’s got a little crush on you, I think,” Bill teased.

“I’ve got a little crush back,” Bev responded without missing a beat. “Shit, I’ll ask him out myself if I ever see him again. He was so much fun.”

“That’s a pretty big ‘if’,” Bill reminded her gently.

“Yeah.” Bev kicked at a rock as they passed ESPNZone. “For you, too, though. I notice we haven’t found your bird boy yet.”

Bill sighed, gazing sadly across the little man-made lake. The sun was setting on the far end, and it would have been almost perfectly picturesque if the giant statues from the Swan and Dolphin resorts hadn’t been silhouetted against the sky. “I just can’t shake the feeling that he’s still here somewhere, Bev. Like, the universe keeps bringing me back here to find him, and one of these days, he’s going to be sitting on the steps outside the Yacht Club with a little plastic bag of birdseed again.”

Bev gave him a pitying look. “Maybe, honey. Maybe. We’re by the side entrance to Epcot; do you wanna try and find Kidcot guy instead?”

Bill did also really want to try and find Kidcot guy, but he couldn’t give up on curly-haired bird boy so easily. “One more lap, okay?”

“Okay, sweetheart.” Bev was, as always, inhumanly patient, and took his hand as they started on their second loop.

There were more people out on the Boardwalk now than there were when Bev and Bill had first arrived. It appeared to be prime time for people to be leaving the parks and coming back to their hotels to swim or change for dinner.

“They seem nice,” Bev giggled, gesturing to a set of parents that were obviously minutes away from snapping and screaming at their children.

Bill groaned. “Bev, thank your lucky stars that you don’t have to deal with guests, ever.”

“I do,” she replied easily, “every day.”

A loud, officious voice cut through the crowd as they passed the Yacht and Beach pool and approached the entrance to the Yacht Club. Bill felt his face contort into a scowl as he looked for the perpetrator.

“Too loud, asshole, too loud,” he muttered, feeling like a crotchety Mansion cast member again.

“It’s not my fault I couldn’t change my shift, dickhead,” the voice snapped. “I’m sorry you had to work in the morning, but honestly--no, your normal shift is batshit crazy, who the fuck goes in to work at 2pm? And I don’t care that you didn’t get to see….whoever this kid is. Mine didn’t come today either. Bad day all around. ...what? Oh, go fuck yourself.”

As abruptly as it had began, the voice stopped. Bill assumed that he’d hung up on whoever he was talking to. Curious, he looked around, trying to find someone who both looked angry and was shoving their phone back in their pocket.

In the whole post-pool area, there was only one person who matched both of those descriptors.

He also happened to have amber, springy hair.

Bill stopped short.

“Are you okay?” Bev asked, having almost walked into him. “Is something…?” She followed Bill’s line of vision, and then gasped. “Oh my God. That’s him, isn’t it? Something’s telling me that that’s him.”

Bill nodded weakly, and before he knew it, Bev was dragging him towards the beautiful stranger.

“What the fuck, Bev?” Bill yanked back on his hand, but she was holding firm. “I’m not ready to talk to him! Let me g---”

The curly-haired boy looked up. He was a lot prettier up close - almost statuesque - and holding a bag full of clothes, this time, instead of a Ziploc full of birdseed.

He also, jarringly, did not look surprised to see Bill.

“Oh,” he said, looking Bill up and down. “It’s you.”

In later re-tellings of the story, Bill blamed his lack of sleep and his dizzying tour group for what happened next, but the truth of it was that the sheer shock of it all was far too much.

He passed out, right onto the Yacht Club steps.

------

NOTES

irl Richie would have been fired from Jungle by now but we can sit here and pretend

*West Clock Bus - to preserve the integrity/secrecy of the tunnels, there is a bus that takes Cast Members from Magic Kingdom cast parking to the mouth of the tunnels. It is impossible to drive and stumble upon the tunnels.

**Getting a point - you clock in on a computer, so it knows you're late. lateness & other offenses of the like earn you points on your employee permanent record. 3 points earn you a talking to from a supervisor, more than that is Bad News

***CP Shift - CP = college program. College kids do internships at WDW that are basically just slave labor (that's how I worked there!) & they give them all the late-night graveyard shifts.

****Bote - that's just what they call boats at the World Famous Jungle Cruise. I genuinely don't know why.

*****Cross-train - as an attractions cast member, you can be trained at any attraction in your "zone" (so: Fantasyland, Adventureland/Liberty Square, in Epcot there's Future World East/West, etc.) but you have to apply to be trained, so...cross-training

******Rotate - every 45 minutes, attractions cast members rotate positions. this is mostly to give CMs some time in the air conditioning

*******Frontline cast - the CMs you interact with when you go into the park. There are lots of others (coordinators, managers, costumers, etc.) that you don't see.

********KidCot - stations for kids around Epcot Center's World Showcase

*********Yacht & Beach Club - two resorts in the Boardwalk area of WDW. you can walk to Epcot and boat to Studios from there.

**********"Friends" with a character - WDW lingo for acting as that character. EX: if I'm hanging out with my friend Elsa in Epcot's Norway pavilion today, then I'm gonna be the Elsa in Norway. Done to maintain the illusion with small children.

thanks for coming to my WDW ted talk, now enjoy some crazy gays

[swimmingpool258]

10 Money Saving Tips for Pool Owners

Having a pool is perhaps of the most interesting thing you can have at home. All things considered, what else could permit you to make a patio desert spring that you can impart to loved ones? Yet, what might make all that poolside fun shockingly better? What about setting aside some cash?

The following are 10 ways to save cash that will assist with making your pool life that vastly improved.

Hold the Heat

Whether you heat your pool with the warm evening sun or with a pool radiator, you will set aside cash in the event that you can hold the intensity. Toss a sun oriented cover (otherwise called a sun powered charger) over your pool to do exactly that. Sun based covers not just assist with keeping the intensity in your pool yet in addition draw in additional intensity from the sun. Furthermore, by utilizing the sunlight powered charger around evening time, you will awaken to a warm pool for your morning laps. swimming pool contractors in dubai

 Winterize Your Pool Yourself

When the pool season closes, you should find specific ways to guarantee that your pool stays protected during the chilly months. While certain individuals employ experts to close their pool, you can set aside cash by doing it without anyone's help. For an aide on the most proficient method to winterize your pool, really look at our bit by bit guide.

Deal with Your Pool Equipment

At the point when you treat your pool gear right, you can some of the time twofold its life. For example, store your vacuum head topsy turvy and out of the sun. This will keep the brush from smoothing. Additionally, make certain to get it far from chlorine as you store it in the colder time of year.

Use Chlorine Alternatives

Changing to an elective disinfection technique like a salt, ozone, uv, or bromine can assist you with decreasing chlorine utilization and lower pool upkeep costs incredibly. Swimming pool contractors in Dubai

 Try not to Let Water Sit on Your Pool Cover

Since the colder months show up and you can't utilize your pool, that doesn't mean you ought to forget about it until the following season. For instance, assuming that you permit standing water to sit on top of your pool cover, it will track down its direction into the water under it. That will make a bog! Then, when you open your pool, you should stun it to clear the water.

Utilize a pool cover siphon to empty the water out of your pool cover after each downpour or blizzard. Then, when the cover dries, utilize a brush to clear off the trash. This will build the existence of your pool cover and make opening your pool a lot simpler. You'll express gratitude toward yourself next season!

Search for Sales

Rather than buying your pool synthetic substances as you really want them, search for deals toward the start of the time. Many stores will offer kick off costs toward the start of the time to get clients in the entryway. Likewise, search for year's end deals when pool organizations attempt to empty their stock. When you track down a deal, stock up for the year and set aside some cash!

Siphon Those Savings

Did you had any idea about that numerous electric organizations have top hours — those hours where it sets you back more to utilize power? Rather than running your pool siphon during those hours (ordinarily between 7 am and 7 pm), why not run it around evening time? It's a simple method for saving money on pool costs! Swimming pool contractors in Dubai

Allow the Robot To make it happen

You need to keep your water sifted, and running the siphon and channel is the conspicuous method for making it happen. Yet, if you need to save money on costs, you can utilize your automated cleaner to do a portion of the messy work. The little pool robots cruise all over the pool getting trash en route. What's more, fortunately these cleaners go through significantly less energy than your siphon and channel. In this way, utilize the robot once in a while rather than the energy-weighty siphon and channel.

Use Chlorine Stabilizers

You realize you want chlorine to keep your pool water clean, however did you had at least some idea that the sun has a terrible propensity for disintegrating the chlorine to add to it? Set aside cash by broadening the existence of the chlorine you add to your pool with a chlorine stabilizer.

 Watch Water Waste

The typical pool loses somewhere in the range of 7,000 and 25,000 gallons a year because of vanishing, spills, sprinkle out, and channel discharging. Peruse our article about how to forestall water squander in every one of these areas.

Futurescapes is the best swimming pool contractors in Dubai. For Any Queries Contact us: +971-52-2747006  Visit us: https://futurescapes.ae/

[kittybad316-blog]

Free Lancer the book by J. Drake

Trent woke up strapped to a chair that was bolted to the floor he had just enough room to breath and turn his head. Soon after he woke up a small man followed by two larger men entered the room. tell me how you came to be at free port nine when it was destroyed the small man demanded. I first became a pilot of a mining vessel almost a decade ago... for a company that simply wanted to strip mine asteroid belts in Molden Heath they paid me based on two factors: the first was the quality of ores the second was how useful it is to their in house industrial factories. turns out this was done to encourage pilots to stay in the belts as long as possible to the point that some miners even went as far as to hire freighters to come out to the belts to haul the ores back to a company depot... I soon had scraped the money together to by my ship from the company. Once I had started equipping my ship with small armaments and improving my sensors once in a great while I would swap some of my mining equipment for weapons when moving into a more hostile area... a few times it was upon the request of other miners willing to give me a share of their payouts. After the first time I collected a bounty I realized that it was very profitable if done in a manner that drew the bounty to you, I quickly collected the funds for a civilian class frigate armed it and endeavored to squeeze the minors sensor package into the new ship funnily enough I discovered that it could be done but if I tried to take it back out it would destroy the sensor package But as soon as went into arena that had become destabilized and was quickly becoming a known skirmish site I discovered that the "special" sensor package gave me a definite advantage including kitting larger and more dangerous ships into mines and other traps. I even managed to level the playing field on a few make shift battle ships this way. Trent said before he was interrupted by the military interrogator so whats this got to do with what you were doing at Free Port nine? I was getting to that if you would wait for me to get to it I know that once a pilot gets dragged in for Interrogation you look in to the last decade or so activity of said pilot. Trent replied in mild irritation Okay if that is how you want to do things we can do things by the more interesting way... from now on I'm going to ask direct questions and you will answer them. do you understand me? The small man demanded. Okay I can live with that if this is how you want to do things. Trent responded knowing this was the first signs of his interrogators mental armor cracking even if he had not begun using his force gifts. Good, so what where you doing at Free Port nine? the small man asked again. I was dropping of a cargo hold of hydrogen three rich ice often used in the manufacture of fuel blocks and attempting to get hold of a registered bounty hunter to transfer custody of Charles Wayne Hunt whom had the misfortune of trying to attack my current ship which is probably so heavily customized that your techs are still fighting with the on board AI for clearance to the bridge.Trent replied trying to keep a straight face as the smaller mans eyes bulged in disbelieving his statement You expect me to believe that you captured a criminal as dangerous as the Charles Wayne Hunt on your own?! and you admit that your ship has a AI that has probably gone rouge?! the small man nearly screamed at Trent. if you will recall that my first combat oriented ship was talking on ships that had been cobbled together into something similar to a battleship. As for my ships AI it has several safety measures in place to prevent rampancy and the development of a Rouge data stream. I captured Charles through a layered mine field and sentry gun placement trap and the expenditure of several precious wasp anti-cruise missiles, oh and least I forget my ship has a micro FTL drive. Trent explained as if it were normal that a ship should be outfitted this way. How in the abyss did you collect these things and just what dose that AI do then? the small man asked sounding as if his mind just could not comprehend the shear value of such a ship and at the same time making it clear that he thought that it would be wasted in the hands of a civilian. Smiling in a patronizing {Pg1}

manor Trent continued to explain that he attained the funds through a combination of "high risk" mining jobs and short

duration security contracts as well as continued high value ore sells to industrial companies such as Raven Tech. Industries and 501st Foxhound Industrial Complex. This is how I was able to afford the hardware upgrades as for the AI that was something I acquired that as combat spoils although I had to get some assistance with installing it in my ship and since I have worked with Raven Tech. Industries I was able to work it out so that I had a two month minimum profit contract. Bam! I had the near perfect E war counter measure as well as an inhumanly fast and capable and automated E war system, more accurate FTL coordinates and a way of securing my ship against unauthorized people. The small man looked surprised that any civilian pilot would use military jargon properly and the business sense of a CEO of any corporation. Trent sensing an opportunity to further push his captors into making more mistakes spoke up again. Is there any thing more you need or can you release me yet? He asked sardonically. The small man lost his temper briefly striking Trent across the face hard enough that Trent's head snapped to the side suddenly. I ask the questions around here got it?! Trent turned his head back slowly working his jaw to make sure that it was not broken then turning his head slightly and spat  out a tooth and some bloody saliva before responding. Yeah got it I don't like it but I got it. however I do believe your  boss might not be pleased with your actions. As if on cue there was a small beeping sound from the watch that the small man was wearing. I'll be back then we will pick up where we left off the small man said injecting his voice with as much menace as he could manage before starting to leave and motioning the large men that had been passively standing in the corners. before they could leave Trent addressed them quickly. If you ever get board let me know I have friends that can offer you jobs that are far more interesting and pay well. Before the as the last man left he turned and paused and gave Trent a Kubrick stare and simply said we will remember that. Before turning around and very quietly leaving. shortly after the three had left there was a odd crackle of audio static before a soft female voice said I must apologize for Mark he sometimes becomes a little to enthusiastic about his work and insist on being self-sufficient. Trent smiled and nodded as he said I can understand such thinking it is why I became a free lancer, sadly there is a huge benefit to being part of some kind of organization one of which is few people even question you when you pilot large or powerful ships. indeed that is true the voice said calmly. so what may I call you if you don't mind my asking? Trent asked trying to sound polite. All you need to know is that I am a friend and that help is rapidly approaching... Crap I have to leave you alone again. the voice said before there was a sharp click followed by silence. Moments later the small man that had been Identified as Mark entered the room alone. Hello Mark. Trent greeted attempting to shake Marks confidence. Mark tensed briefly then relaxed. I know what you are doing right now Jeedai.. don't think that you have earned a reprieve of any real length. we have sent for a Shadow Master and we will have someone that can deal with you more effectively. mark said with a sneer. oh goody! Trent said with an overly bright smile. I suppose you aren't curious as to how I know your name? Trent asked with just a little menace in his voice the smile still on his face. Mark shuddered slightly failing to hide his growing discomfort. since you brought it up why don't you tell me.

[recruitment-consultancy601]

Understand The Background Of Catering And Hospitality Recruiting Agencies Now.

Catering as a business includes providing food-related services at a number of locations, including hotels, resorts, airlines, trains, and cruise ships, among others. The catering industry incorporates hospitality and management as part of its operations. Hospitality is a sector that does not get much attention yet plays a significant role. It's a hidden gem that provides excellent service to the public. The hospitality sector is large and may be broken down into many different categories. The top four sectors are 'Food and Beverage,' 'Accommodation,' 'Travel and Tourism,' and 'Entertainment and Recreation.'

The catering and hospitality industries are the most essential part.  The job professions like Chefs and cooks, managers, quality checkers, operation managers, cold-storage managers, hygiene supervisors, waiters, Hospitality Services assistants, Front-Desk Clerks, Restaurant Managers, Event Servers, Hotel General managers, Spa Therapist, are the most essential job professions in today’s generations. 

But now a day it is tough to get a good job with a handsome salary in the catering and hospitality industry. Candidates juggle a lot of things to get good and prestigious jobs. In this place, Catering and Hospitality recruiting agencies help a lot to get placed in the nation and international companies. There are a lot of scopes and opportunities abroad with a lot of job vacancies but getting an opportunity abroad is a tough nut to crack. 

The Catering and Hospitality recruiting agencies get the work done in a few minutes. They place the candidates with proper documents and proper positions. Specialized recruitment professionals are part of the team and are always available to help. International recruiting companies guarantee that the employer is aware of the candidates' estimated salaries before presenting a position. Candidates are frequently approached with other job offers. As a result, when pitching your offer to them, the catering and hospitality recruiting agencies can help you succeed. They advise stressing the rewards and perks that come with the job you're offering.

During this Covid, this industry has fallen down but now again it's standing as humankind has started moving again. This is one of the best times to secure a job internationally. The pandemic has exacerbated long-standing recruitment concerns in the retail and hospitality industries but these Catering and Hospitality recruiting agencies will lead to good placement.

The interviews are now been taken virtually by the companies and on that basis, the candidates are been recruited. The hospitality and catering sector is a fast-growing and well-known industry. Many people become interested in pursuing jobs in this field. In this area, skilled and self-assured individuals are necessary. The efficiency of the industry is determined by the strength of its workforce. In this industry, there are highly specific disciplines that require very precise people. If an employer begins recruiting for all of these distinct but related disciplines, he or she will spend a significant amount of money and time. A recruitment agency, on the other hand, can do it quickly and easily.

To be considered for the positions, individuals must pass many rounds of written and personality examinations. Our professionals also provide them with basic instruction. These experts not only discover the greatest people for their clients, but they also find the best jobs for their candidates based on their experience and knowledge. Before developing a staffing solution, these professionals thoroughly examine our clients' project requirements. They are given goal-oriented solutions with guaranteed outcomes. These services are provided at a very reasonable cost and are always delivered on time. 

Professional recruiters create catering and hospitality recruiting agencies based on their decades of experience in the field. The international client network is extensive and constant, and it includes numerous global corporations from many nations. They keep a detailed database of candidate profiles that contain millions of names. As our information staff keeps us up to date, these two things assist them to fill job opportunities rapidly. 

For a better living and better earnings candidates search for good jobs which must be paying them well. There are many leading Catering and Hospitality recruiting that can help get a better opportunity. For such an opportunity, you can opt for a leading recruiting company and can get your dream job.

[laraveldevelopers]

How Augmented Reality Travel Is Changing the Tourism Industry

With its ability to enhance the real world with overlaid digital components, augmented reality (AR) is fast becoming the tourism industry’s favorite tool. While AR was invaluable in helping companies that rely on tourism keep their customers engaged during worldwide lockdowns, the innovative technology was already gaining traction even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Augmented reality travel is also likely to experience a boom in post-COVID-19 times. 

The reason the travel industry has always been interested in adopting AR is simple: AR is one of the best ways to supplement travelers’ experiences, and with more than three billion people owning a smartphone, no tourism brand can afford to overlook augmented reality travel apps if they want to stand out from the competition.

Here are some examples of augmented reality travel experiences available to any tourism brand.

1. AR portals 

One of the best ways to promote destinations, AR portals, which serve as an entrance to new and exciting virtual worlds, can transport customers to completely different environments. In this way, users can explore the world without having to leave their own space. Although similar to virtual reality, AR portals don’t require expensive equipment. Rather, individuals can explore the entire world with their smartphones.

For example, recently, TAP airlines took its customers to a famous square in Lisbon to promote the city as a destination. Users could step off a virtual TAP plane, look around the famous European city, and even take pictures of themselves there as if they were touring Lisbon. This experience is beneficial in two ways. One, it’s a way for TAP to let its customers know that it flies to Lisbon without bombarding them with annoying ads. Two, engaging users with a holiday destination in this way can promote bookings and sales.

Culture Trip did something similar. To promote their first original film, The Soul of Soho, Culture Trip partnered with Poplar Studio to design Facebook portals that brought users to three iconic Sohos of the world in Hong Kong, London, and New York. Individuals could walk around the different Sohos and even “try” the food sold at the various stalls and restaurants. 

2. AR guides

When visiting popular locations and tourist attractions, it is commonplace for visitors to hire a tour guide to show them around. However, depending on the season, getting a guide may not be so easy — or visitors may be put off by the price. One way around this is to offer the services of a virtual AR tour guide. 

Virtual tour guides can offer a far more personalized experience to users. Depending on the destination, augmented reality travel guides may be historical figures, fictional characters, or real lifelike humans that provide one-on-one interactions and an immersive journey. 

For example, in 2018, visitors at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum were greeted by a hologram of Mae Jemison, the first woman of color to explore space, who took them on a tour of the Space Shuttle Enterprise and walked them through the history of space in general. 

Also in 2018, London’s Natural History Museum worked with Microsoft to create a holographic David Attenborough, Britain’s most famous natural historian, who shared stories with visitors about some of the artifacts on display.

AR tour guides are not limited to cities or museums, though. In 2018, to promote the launch of its new cruise ship, the “Celebrity Edge,” the luxury cruise line Celebrity Cruises created an AR app with the intent of delighting and exciting passengers by showing them the most innovative spaces on the ship as well as giving them a peek at restricted areas. The tour included holographic versions of some of the company’s most important figures who acted as tour guides and dancers that were part of the ship’s live performances. 

3. AR maps

Whether they’re exploring a new city, navigating a busy airport, or wandering around a theme park, navigating a novel environment or making sense of the information on a physical map can be a real challenge for first-time visitors. Augmented reality travel maps, which use image tracking technology, can make information on a map come to life by adding digital components, such as arrows and other details that point users in the right direction.

For example, American Airlines’ app offers an AR overlay that directs users to important areas, such as the check-in desk and security checkpoint, as well as restaurants and cafes. The app can also display additional information, such as wait times at specific security checkpoints and available security lines.

Similarly, The Hub Hotel from Premier Inn located in London’s Covent Garden displays a map of the city of London in each room, which guests can point their iPhones at to see points of interest overlaid on top of it and receive orientation before they go out exploring. 

4. Gamified tours

Even though voyaging can be fun all by itself, one approach to make it much more captivating is to offer guests area-based gamification for expeditions and difficulties that include gathering rewards. 

Gamified visits normally include clients examining various pictures to enact expanded reality travel encounters or scaled-down games, and are particularly interesting to kids. 

For instance, in 2016, the Ohio-based carnival Cedar Point, otherwise called "The Roller Coaster Capital of the World," incorporated "The Battle for Cedar Point" insight into its application. After entering the recreation center, guests could join various tribes and contend with different visitors by checking ride signs, game images, and shirts spotted around the recreation center, which set off an expanded reality experience. Thusly, visitors never became exhausted, regardless of whether they needed to hang tight in line for a ride. 

As well as keeping visitors engaged, the application additionally improved abide time at places like eateries and marketing stores, accordingly expanding spend, and assisted the recreation center with creating footing via web-based media. 

Beginning with increased reality travel 

With no chance of venturing out from home, commonality and solace with virtual and increased reality travel have developed immensely during the pandemic. Nonetheless, although the world is rising out of lockdowns and things are gradually opening up, that doesn't imply that increased reality travel will slip into haziness. The travel industry brands were utilizing AR sometime before the COVID-19 pandemic made travel unthinkable, and they will keep on doing as such long get-togethers are back. Although traveling can be fun in and of itself, one way to make it even more engaging is to offer visitors location-based gamification for treasure hunts and challenges that involve collecting rewards. 

Gamified tours typically involve users scanning different images to activate augmented reality travel experiences or mini-games, and are especially appealing to children. 

For example, in 2016, the Ohio-based amusement park Cedar Point, also known as “The Roller Coaster Capital of the World,” integrated the “The Battle for Cedar Point” experience into its app. Upon entering the park, visitors could join different clans and compete with other guests by scanning ride signs, game symbols, and t-shirts dotted around the park, which triggered an augmented reality experience. In this way, guests never grew bored, even if they had to wait in line for a ride. 

In addition to keeping guests entertained, the app also improved dwell time at places like restaurants and merchandising stores, thus increasing spend, and helped the park generate traction on social media. 

Getting started with augmented reality travel

With no way of leaving home, familiarity and comfort with virtual and augmented reality travel have grown tremendously during the pandemic. However, even though the world is emerging from lockdowns and things are slowly opening up, that does not mean that augmented reality travel will slip into obscurity. Tourism brands were using AR long before the COVID-19 pandemic made travel impossible, and they will continue to do so long after travel is back. 

Viitorcloud is one of the leading companies in Ahmedabad, Gujrat. The company deals in all technological services like blockchain development, machine learning, AI development, augmented reality, virtual reality, etc. You can hire an expert from the company that solely works for you.