Two new prizes were recently added to the Tomorrowland Contest to further whet your whistle: a Disneyland Monorail game and a Disney Treasures DVD.

If you haven’t been reading the Head Shrinker lately or paying close attention to this site, then you’ve skipped over something. Last week, a new font—named “Orange Grove”—debuted. A sister font of the Disneyland font (“Started By a Mouse”), the new font reflects the Disneyland text of old. Kerning is highly recommended, but if you really want to hearken back to the days when custom text was hand-drawn, leave the kerning off.

I’m particularly proud of this font, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

The official Disney Experience icon is included in the newest icon set for the very first time. If you’ve bookmarked this site, you’ve undoubtedly seen the small 16×16 version next to the site link.

The first requested theme park theme park cursor is also available. I would have added a couple more theme park icons as well, but a lot of them were re-released last summer, and I don’t like to have repeats so soon.

After tediously working all day (literally), I’ve created another little Disneyland 50th tribute. Orange Grove is a font based on the early Disneyland text, a sister to the Started By a Mouse font. Kerning is recommended, but if you want to reproduce the look of an era when a lot of custom text was drawn by hand, leave it off. Try it both ways; you’ll know what I mean.

The font (designed for PCs) is located on the sidebar to bring special attention to it. After all of the 50th hoopla dies down this Winter, it’ll be placed into the regular font list. I’m also keeping quiet about the font addition until the next site update, so if you’re reading this, you’re among the first to know about it.

Internet freedom is being threatened. Soon, the House of Representatives will vote on a bill that would allow Internet providers 1) to pick and choose what Web sites are accessible and how fast they can be accessed, and 2) to divide Internet service into two groups—one with a lot of restrictions and blocked/slowed sites and one with less blocked/slowed sites (you pay extra $$$). This would also allow large businesses to pay ISPs to block/restrict other sites (like this one) and promote their own.

Here are some highlights (www.savetheinternet.com) of how else it can affect you:

Google users—Another search engine could pay dominant Internet providers like AT&T to guarantee the competing search engine opens faster than Google on your computer.

Innovators with the “next big idea”—Startups and entrepreneurs will be muscled out of the marketplace by big corporations that pay Internet providers for dominant placing on the Web. The little guy will be left in the “slow lane” with inferior Internet service, unable to compete.

Ipod listeners—A company like Comcast could slow access to iTunes, steering you to a higher-priced music service that it owned.

Political groups—Political organizing could be slowed by a handful of dominant Internet providers who ask advocacy groups to pay “protection money” for their websites and online features to work correctly.

Nonprofits—A charity’s website could open at snail-speed, and online contributions could grind to a halt, if nonprofits can’t pay dominant Internet providers for access to “the fast lane” of Internet service.

Online purchasers—Companies could pay Internet providers to guarantee their online sales process faster than competitors with lower prices—distorting your choice as a consumer.

Small businesses and tele-commuters—When Internet companies like AT&T favor their own services, you won’t be able to choose more affordable providers for online video, teleconferencing, Internet phone calls, and software that connects your home computer to your office.

Parents and retirees—Your choices as a consumer could be controlled by your Internet provider, steering you to their preferred services for online banking, health care information, sending photos, planning vacations, etc.

* Bloggers—Costs will skyrocket to post and share video and audio clips—silencing citizen journalists and putting more power in the hands of a few corporate-owned media outlets.

The distribution of the Tomorrowland Contest prizes has changed; the prizes will no longer be randomly rewarded to random winners. Here’s an excerpt from the updated rules:

“Winners will be randomly drawn on June 4, 2006, and winner confirmation emails will be sent out. If you do not respond within 3 days, you will forfeit your prize, and a new winner will be randomly selected. The first place winner will have first choice of the prizes, the second place winner will have second choice of the prizes, and so forth until all prizes have been given away. Limit one (1) prize per winner. This process may take a short while, considering that each winner needs to send a reply and choose their prize. Final winners will be posted on the Disney Experience.”

So, now you get to choose your prize.

From Anonymous:

“Hey Trader Sam, I remember you had a 50th anniversary icon with the gold ears and blue head with ’50′ in it. But it’s been a few months since I first downloaded it, and I don’t seem to recall where I was able to download it. I think it was back when you had the 50th Anniversary layout up. Is there any way possible if you could put it up again for, not just for me, but for everyone else to download and enjoy? Thanks in advance!”

Thanks, Anonymous; that’s one thing I forgot to include in the new site design. See how things quietly slip through the cracks? The Disneyland 50th icon is back, and you can find it on the Disney Icons page.

Additionally, I’ve creaked open the icon vault’s doors and jimmied the rusty lock on the Disney theme park icons and cursors . . . permanently! That’s right, all of the theme park material is now available for request. And you can be sure to see your old favorites mixed in with the regular site updates. What made me decide to do this? Well, they were really my private icon collection that I was selectively sharing, hording most of them for myself. But, they’re also some of my best works, and I wasn’t using many of them (I have so many). They’ll really reflect the quality of the Disney Experience.

Newcomers, download the Disneyland 50th anniversary icon. Veteran guests, review the updated Flashback list. Man, I’m going to have a lot of mail in the morning!

Surprise! I decided to debut the new retro Tomorrowland (RetroTM) look several months in advance. Hopefully, this new design will help alleviate the bandwidth problem that this site has been having lately; the last site design was a little heavy on the graphics. RetroTM was inspired by the old Tomorrowland attraction posters. Of course, I tossed in my own style, too. Flash elements bring the site to life with animations and sound—if you have Flash installed, that is.

The sad news is that I really, really loved the previous design. It was something that I really put my heart and soul into. But, all good things must come to an end, right?

Keep in mind that this design is fresh and may be prone to a few errors here and there. If you discover any, please email Trader Sam.