. . . but that’s a good thing! Louie Mantia has a new Haunted Mansion wallpaper like nothing I’ve seen before. It has the look and feel of real wallpaper. It’s almost as if you’re standing inside the mansion. As an interesting side note, Louie used David Occhino’s Mansion Cryptbats, which are a part of the Doorless Chambers offerings.

If you still haven’t checked out his website, you’re missing out on a lot!

Designed by Louie Mantia.

Ever since I discovered Dave Lowe’s Para Abnormal comic, I’ve been hooked on them. Last week, on his Blog, he had a little Disneyland photo contest. The winner got their name hidden in one of Dave’s comics. Out of a whopping three entrants, can you guess who won?

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First off, I don’t have a small head. What I do have is an awesome two-for-one special. I’ll tell you about it some time.

Secondly . . . woo-hoo! My email was read on the 50th episode of Mousetalgia! I was hoping it would get on there. You can listen to an edited snippet, above, but the full audio (2-3 minutes in length?) is at the 52:31 mark on the podcast. Download episode 50.

Mousetalgia podcasts are available every Monday. I would have reported this sooner, but I typically don’t listen to the episodes until later in the week, and while I’m laying in bed at night. It’s perfect for winding down the week and letting go of the worries & cares of both the past and coming days.

Now, if only the Mousetalgia crew can perfect a way to use Skype so that their special guests (mainly me) can join in remotely.

I recently had access to a Kindle DX, one of Amazon’s eBook readers. It supports PDF files, which got me thinking about if it could be used to display paper model instructions.

Some of my instructions can be lengthy (measured in pages), especially for the more complex paper models. Printing them does waste ink and paper because they get tossed when the model is finished. Some folks prefer to view the instructions right on the computer screen. That’s handy if you have a portable laptop, but not so much if you have a desktop computer. Personally, I like to build my models both in front of the television and the dining room table. Portability is key for me.

I uploaded the Temple of the Forbidden Eye paper model instructions to the Kindle to see what it was like, and I was less than enthused. The text was very small, but crisp and clear. It was readable. Not easy on the eyes, but readable. And, the text-enlarging feature was disabled for the file. Bummer.

The graphics were clear, but it would have helped if they were larger. The big minus was that the part labels in the images were faint. Readable, but faint. But, that’s due to the color of the labels, I think, so it’s not the Kindle’s fault.

Since the Kindle DX has a rotation feature, I tried that out, too. With more horizontal screen space, the text and images became bigger. Unfortunately, only half of the page can be seen at one time, cutting off text and images. That’s more of a hassle than reading it in the smaller vertical position.

Bottom line: I’m not thrilled. Don’t get me wrong; the Kindle DX is really nice! It’s just that my paper model instructions don’t look all that great on it. If you have really good eyesight, it might be worth a shot. If you own any of the older Kindles, don’t bother trying it. The Kindle DX’s screen is two-and-a-half times larger than the others, and it’s only barely readable on that.

Yes, we’ve got more Halloween goodies dug up from around the Net. These two wallpapers are designed by Louie Mantia, who designed the Nightmare Before Christmas icons for the IconFactory.

There are some surprising designs in this Fan Board update. Becky returns with more of her Snow White Castle, Dominique shows off a Winter holiday craft, and Courtney has a few surprises of her own.

The long-overdue French translations of the Fortune Cards is finally here. Thanks go to Jason for translating.

Yes, that’s right. No villains. I have exhausted all of the villain icons. What I do have, though, are plenty of Haunted Mansion icons for you to enjoy.

Typically, the Villain Collection has been limited to icons and maybe a smattering of mouse cursors. But, with low reserves, I’m thinking of expanding it to anything villain/spooky/Halloween. The possibilities of future villain goodies is frightening!

Ten years ago today, the Wonderful World of Icons debut on the Internet with a Tripod account. Over the years, it eventually morphed into the Disney Experience and what you see here today. We’ve had a lot of adventures here with guest submissions, eBay scammers, and Disney. Good or bad, it was all worth the journey!

Feel free to leave any anniversary comments. I’d especially like to hear from any Imagineers, theme park Cast Members (current & former), and any other Disney employees. Well, provided company policy allows. But, all are more than welcome.

To celebrate the tenth anniversary, the end of Disney papercraft approvals (that couldn’t have come at a better time), and the Halloween season, I’m releasing the Wicked Queen’s Heart Box paper model.

There are a couple more (at least!) Halloweenish goodies coming this month, including the Halloween treat for the Doorless Chambers event (October 25-31). If you missed last year’s Doorless Chambers goodies, take a look at the 2008 yearbook. You can still download treats from my own websites there.

I waited from 6 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. to specifically sign for the letter of termination. Inside the cardboard FedEx envelope was a single sheet of paper from the Walt Disney Internet Group (they’re still using that name and logo?). In a nutshell, the tiny paragraph simply said that my contract has officially come to an end. So . . . no more approvals for papercrafts!

I can finally start finishing a few papercrafts. The Sleeping Beauty Castle Holiday Pop-Up Card still needs illustrated instructions, but you can expect to see that this holiday season (late Nov./early Dec.). The Disneyland Paris Sleeping Beauty Castle still needs some error corrections before moving onto the instructions. That probably will not be available until sometime early next year (possibly sooner). And finally, I may be able to get around to finishing the Mark VII Monorail model.

In the meantime, several projects are already in progress, and will be occupying my time throughout the month of October. After Halloween, I can get back to work on old projects. The wheels are also turning on future endeavors.

My thanks go to the folks at the Walt Disney Internet Group for wanting to include me in their work. It’s just too bad that the company changes occurred when they did, thwarting any attempt at letting the project get off of the ground.

With that said, it’s time to move forward.