1. This week, the doors opened to what's predicted to be Universal Studio Hollywood's most popular attraction ever.
2. And it ... looks ... awesome.
3. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Wizarding World of Harry Potter ... West Coast edition.
4. What's there to do? Well, lots. First and foremost, you've gotta find the perfect wand. (That's a given.)
5. Then sip on some nice, cold butterbeer in Hogsmeade.
Yum.
6. Yes, that's right ... Hogsmeade!
7. Where you'll spot Madam Puddifoot's tea shop.
And maybe snag some Chocolate Frogs too — Fair Trade Certified Chocolate Frogs, to be clear. Remember when Harry Potter fans united and demanded Warner Bros. stop using child labor to source its cocoa? Yeah, no big deal ... we Harry Potter fans are incredible.
8. You can snap pics of the Hogwarts Express (and its conductor).
9. And continue to pray this summer will be the one your acceptance letter to the school of witchcraft and wizardry arrives.*
*By owl, of course.
And remember — Hogwarts is free to attend, so (regardless of your income, or lack thereof), you wouldn't have to worry about footing a tuition bill. Wouldn't it be great if everyone in the non-fiction world valued education that much?
Clearly, Hollywood's Wizarding World of Harry Potter looks spectacular. But is it all that different than the one in Orlando?
Yes and no. Overall, the vibes are similar. Even though it's smaller in size than Florida's park, the Wizarding World Hollywood has"bigger and better rides," according to Seventeen magazine.
"The roller coaster [in Hollywood] is higher and faster, and the dark ride [in Hollywood's Hogwarts] has been upgraded with effects that make the images sharper and brighter."
Sign. Me. Up.
10. While chances are you'll have to wait to ride through the Great Hall of Hogwarts...
11. ... the line zigzags through some cool spots in the castle, like the Gryffindor common room and Dumbledore's office.
Long live Albus, amiright? He was just the best — and not because he was gay (although you're probably still excited about that if you're a Harry Potter person, because Harry Potter people tend to be more accepting folks anyway) — but because he was a powerful, iconic, badass, who always had Harry's best interests at heart. We miss you, Albus.
12. So waiting really isn't all that bad. I mean, just look at the scenery you get to take in.
13. If you were lucky enough to be at the park's grand opening this week, you may have spotted some fan favorites too.
14. Like Luna Lovegood.
Aka, Evanna Lynch, who's become a champion for body positivity through opening up about her own struggles.
15. And Draco Malfoy.
Sometimes he goes by Tom Felton when he's pretending to be a Muggle.
16. George Weasley* dropped in as well.
*er, Oliver Phelps.
17. Along with his twin brother (on and off screen), Fred.*
*James Phelps.
18. And who could miss Professor Flitwick?
God love Warwick Davis. He's an amazing Professor Flitwick and quite possibly an even cooler human — especially when it comes to putting bullies in their place.
19. The best part about the new Wizarding World grand opening though?
20. Us!
21. You, me ... the fans!
We rock, you all.
22. Seriously. Harry Potter nerds are the best, and we should wear our house badges* proudly.
*Unashamedly Hufflepuff, through and through.
23. Why? Because we know that Harry Potter has made this world such a better place for so many reasons.
There are so many reasons to love Harry Potter — even beyond the fact it inspired an entire generation to love books. Harry Potter is special because of the actual change it sparked in all of us. And that's the real magic.
Men try to read the most disturbing comments women get online back to them.
If you wouldn't say it to their faces, don't type it.
This isn’t comfortable to talk about.
Trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault and violence.
A recent video by Just Not Sports took two prominent female sportswriters and had regular guys* read the awful abuse they receive online aloud.
Sportswriters Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro sat by as men read some of the most vile tweets they receive on a daily basis. See how long you can last watching it.
*(Note: The men reading them did not write these comments; they're just being helpful volunteers to prove a point.)
It starts out kind of jokey but eventually devolves into messages like this:
Awful.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
These types of messages come in response to one thing: The women were doing their jobs.
Those wishes that DiCaro would die by hockey stick and get raped? Those were the result of her simply reporting on the National Hockey League's most disturbing ordeal: the Patrick Kane rape case, in which one of the league's top players was accused of rape.
DiCaro wasn't writing opinion pieces. She was simply reporting things like what the police said, statements from lawyers, and just general everyday work reporters do. In response, she received a deluge of death threats. Her male colleagues didn't receive nearly the same amount of abuse.
It got to the point where she and her employer thought it best to stay home for a day or two for her own physical safety.
The men in the video seemed absolutely shocked that real live human beings would attack someone simply for doing their jobs.
Not saying it.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
Most found themselves speechless or, at very least, struggling to read the words being presented.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
Think this is all just anecdotal? There's evidence to the contrary.
The Guardian did a study to find out how bad this problem really is.
They did a study of over 70 million comments that have been posted on their site since 2006. They counted how many comments that violated their comment policy were blocked.
The stats were staggering.
From their comprehensive and disturbing article:
If you can’t say it to their face... don’t type it.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
So what can people do about this kind of harassment once they know it exists?
There are no easy answers. But the more people who know this behavior exists, the more people there will be to tell others it's not OK to talk to anyone like that.
Watch the whole video below:
.This article originally appeared on 04.27.16