Advogato blog for kgb

Narnia, Pagers and PI oh my

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:08:20 GMT

Sing Swing

Rehearsals for "Sing Swing" have started. I have mixed feelings about this because there is a possibility I will not be available to perform in the actual show. Linda amazed me by remembering this, even though the last time we spent together was months ago. I won't know for another few weeks, so I am going to rehearse hoping that fortune prevails. The first rehearsal was fun. The bass section is much larger than in the past. I'm not familiar with many of the songs, but we do get to sing "New York, New York".

PI

I've been trying to visit the AdvClub as frequently as I can. With rehearsals, classes, charity time, upcoming concerts and movies, home improvements, and actual work this has been challenging. One side effect of the club closing is that a lot of my friends have been showing up more often, making my time more enjoyable. Thursday I managed to go to the club even though I was exhausted and on ibuprofen from working at "Give Kids the World". At one point during the night some of us went over to the Comedy Warehouse and watched one of the funniest shows I have seen since I can't remember. One sketch had poor Robby guessing a phrase forever. I also got to say hello to Carol for a bit.

Fans continue protesting the AdvClub closing. Sending letters are one thing, but disrupting the staff or bothering the guests are quite another. It is private property and Disney takes guests and safety risks very seriously. I have no doubt they would shut the place down tomorrow to protect their interests, and it would be the fault of these protesters if everyone lost what little club open time remained. Personally I would rather enjoy my final memories of the place, and first time visitors today should not have to endure anything less than the wonderful experience I've had myself through the years.

The performers have been making a running gag out of the radiothon raising enough money to keep the club open for another year.

The Pager Blues

Last weekend I was on-call and there were multiple urgent problems that resulted in my working a 12 hour day Friday and 3 more hours on Saturday. These situations almost never have anything to do with the computer technology I'm responsible for, but other teams frequently need our involvement to help resolve their own issues. Monday I turned on-call over to another person just in time because unexpectedly my pager stopped working that day. While I've had this pager for 4 years without issue, after the hours I spent resolving issues I was secretly hoping this would take a while to correct. It was replaced the next day, but that one was not much better. By the end of Tuesday I had gone through 3 pagers until I was back in the system.

Narnia

Cindy and I wanted to see "Prince Caspian" before it stopped playing in theaters. The latest showing was at 5:25pm. I came to work early so the plan was to leave about 4pm, grab a dinner, and go see the movie. By the time we were together and ready to go it was already 4:55 and we were faced with choosing EITHER the dinner or the movie. There was not enough time for both. We gave up on the movie and went to Chevy's. Amazingly we were seated, served, and finished so fast that by the time the check was paid it was 5:15. Since we were very close to the theater we decided to go for it. On the way the rain poured down, we caught almost every light red, and it took extra time to find a parking space. In the end the rain proved to be an advantage because we were able to immediately approach the ticket window and make our purchase. It was 5:30 now and the movie was in a theater on the opposite end of the building, so we hurried and walked in just as the previews ended and the movie started. We took the first seats we spotted and relaxed for the next 2 hours.

And we enjoyed it.

Bonus Tracks

Bowling for Disney Dollars: Disney announced they will be building a 100 lane bowling alley in the Sports Complex as part of the ESPN changes.
A bunch of us went to the Black Ship Sky concert and had a great time.
August 1st begins cast sign-up for the Disney Candlelight Processional.

Put On Your Sunday Clothes

Wed, 9 Jul 2008 05:06:14 GMT

WALL-E

I went to a company premiere of WALL-E. I think it was Pixar's best film yet. Once again Pixar created movie I wasn't sure I'd like at all, and it turned out so good I must own the DVD.

The dance song that WALL-E enjoys in the film is called "Put On Your Sunday Clothes". It is part of the soundtrack to "Hello Dolly", which coincidentally (like so many things in my life) was the reason I drove to Atlanta that very same evening - to watch my niece in a production of that play.

Atlanta

Immediately after watching WALL-E, Cindy and I drove about 7 hours to Atlanta. As we passed through Gainesville FL we stopped at a KFC for dinner, where we encountered this sign:

Be still my heart! BOTH gizzard AND livers? All my gizzard and liver needs met in one single location?! Am I that gizzard worthy? Does KFC "do gizzards right" using the 11 herbs and spices? Can I get them in the new smokey chipotle BBQ flavor? Granted the sign is handmade on cardboard, but cut them some slack - this KFC is on the bleeding edge of the gizzard revolution! The sign says "We NOW sell", so obviously the local demand was extremely high and they were thinking "out of the bucket" to break away from the traditional KFC to meet the demand. Or perhaps they were selling something more horrible than gizzards and livers before this.

No we did not order any! I am being sarcastic. I text'd our friend Elise about our discovery, to which she replied "What do you expect? It's Gainsville".

We eventually arrived at the hotel and checked in for the night. The next morning they had a nice, free breakfast which included eggs and making your own fresh waffle:

We drove to my brother-in-law's house and spent the day talking, playing video games, etc. When evening came we all piled into a car and went to a nearby church auditorium to watch my niece perform a part in a local production of "Hello Dolly". She was quite good and looked like she was having a ball doing it. In the photo below she is the first person on the left:

After one more day of visiting we drove toward home, taking a minor detour to visit Callaway Gardens.

Cindy worked here right out of college as an intern and I've always been telling her that someday I'd take her back there to see how much the place has changed. When we told the guard at the entrance why we were here they actually let us in for free (saving us about $30). The place had changed a lot, with the only thing she remmbered looking the same was the chapel:

We stayed for lunch at the on site restaurant. The food was very expensive and not very tasty, so in a way they got their $30 out of us after all. We got back on the road and drove uninterrupted the rest of the way home.

$2000 and two raccoon pelts

Fans continue efforts to press Disney into saving the Adventurers Club. Some are civil about it; soliciting ideas and understanding that employees will not place their jobs at risk by participating. Some aren't; exploiting the opportunity to throw mud at the company or its management. Hypocrisy appeared when in a single breath, a "mean old lady" (her own words) asked everyone to put aside their differences and come together for the cause, then moments later publicly chastised a cast member she doesn't like for only providing information. Yeah; like it's fair to expect risking their home mortgage for an attraction. I guess she just meant everyone should put aside their differences with her. A fair number of people, including staff, resent the polarized environment she fosters at the club; it must be challenging now for her to be working beside people she spent years insulting.

I checked briefly into cast rates for renting the club. Having a personal function before going to the club still seems much more attractive than paying a large sum for 90 minutes of private time.

I can already see that the last evening at the club will not meet many people's expectations. It is opening late, so there will be less time to enjoy it. Many seats will be occupied by previous performers or cast members, so there will be less available for guests. People are flying in from around the country, so it will be packed tight. The entrance will have long lines. The atmosphere will be loud, fans will be wearing event shirts, drunks shouting, people crying, food and gifts, cameras flashing, etc. Some are planning to have raffles. Every show will empty outside, so you'll have to choose between missing a final performance or trying to get back in afterward. Smart people will get the most out of the club before that final week.

Deckard Cain Returns

Blizzard made their announcement - Diablo III is really coming! The small sample video on their web site looks cool. Now if only there was an actual release date for it. When it does come out, I expect to have several sleepless nights.

1937 a year to remember

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 20:06:42 GMT

The Adventurers Club

I was in Atlanta when news reached me that Disney made public the coming closure of the Adventurers Club. Actually all the clubs on Pleasure Island will be closed, but the AC is the only one personally significant to me. I recognized the signs a year ago that this was coming, despite assurances to the contrary, but that didn't prevent feelings of loss and finality when the announcement occurred.

Many people are exhibiting 7 stages of grief over this. Now that the news has been made public, it would take something extraordinary to change it and it would have to occur before the walls came down. Friends and fans are writing letters. A petition to keep the club open has over 3000 signatures on it as I write this, including mine; however Disney has never before stopped the closing of an attraction because of public outcry. The closest example would be when the 3rd rehab of Imagination brought back Figment, but that occurred AFTER the original attraction was gone and bringing back a character is different than an entire facility directly responsible for generating income. The PI changes were not planned in a vacuum. They were designed with years of investigation, tests, and analysis. Outside firms are partnered in the vision. This was not the decision of any single VP (in fact, Downtown Disney has had three VPs in the last 4 years). Whether you believe protests are futile or not, I've come to realize that the people who care about the club must make some efforts to save it, or else forever live wondering "if only we had tried"...

For almost 20 years the club has been my favorite attraction at WDW. Before I lived in Florida, every evening of our annual vacation ended with my visiting this magical place. It was "my club". The decor is fascinating. The story details and humor were everywhere. It would be addictive to anyone with an analytical personality or appreciation for detail. It was like time travel, you could watch the evening unfold each night from a different perspective. It is uniquely Disney. No other place so immerses people into a combination of atmosphere, performance entertainment, song, improvisational humor, puppetry, and animatronics. It is one of the best venues for exhibiting the quality of entertainers Disney employs. In other attractions, the guest is separate from the performance; mostly a spectator. The AC breaks the third wall and places them within the midst of an ultimate simulated reality. You can shake the hand of the performer that made you smile.

Six years ago when a poor job market forced us to quickly relocate to Orlando. we went from owning a house to renting hotels and a less-than-desirable apartment with half our property in storage for over a year. It was the most stressful and depressing time of our lives, but visiting the AC helped to get through it. The distraction it offered, the improvisational humor, and the company of kind people were a gift from God. The performers helped me laugh when there was little to laugh about. I will always remember what a great help they were.

As a local regular, I learned to appreciate the complexities and talent required to deliver such an incredible entertainment experience. I developed friendships with the cast and others. When I became a Disney employee, I learned about the backstage aspects and business challenges involved. I met the person who designed the place and learned how it came to exist. I got to work with some of the performers at media events and volunteer activities. I also saw them perform in outside theater, commercials, and charity events. All of this increased my respect and appreciation for the individuals and talent at this unusual place. It inspired me to break out of my own comfort zone and perform in the Candlelight Processional.

I try to embrace change. Whether desired or not, exciting or tragic, with every new situation comes opportunities that could not exist before. This is the way I prefer to view this. That's not always easy. I went to the club last night, and while watching the Cup Competition it suddenly hit me - No more Christmas shows! No more "Pretty Little Dolly" or "Dominic the Christmas Donkey". My annual ritual of performing in the Candlelight Processional on Christmas Eve, then racing to the club to catch the last Christmas show and the midnight reading of "The Night Before Christmas" was already gone. Forever.

On 9/27, the hoopla will be over for one of the best attractions Disney ever created. My heart goes out to all the staff there; they are the hardest hit by this. They have to find work elsewhere (perhaps less rewarding work, but most certainly less fun). They are also responsible for making the place what it was.

To my original favorite cast:

Joe - You are THE NICEST PERSON I have ever met (said the bishop to the actress).

Kristian - I will remember the oil fields of New Jersey, plus all the favorite songs you wrote that many don't even realize you wrote.

Graham - A fellow hot sauce fan. You defined the character of Hathaway. It was a privilege to see you in action recently.

Tim - You are fantastic in every role you play. I always looked forward to you hanging around the salon. I didn't even know about the mermaids until you mentioned them.

Jennifer G. - "Hello". You are the funniest woman I have ever met and my forever favorite club president. I will miss your "Pretty Little Dolly".

Shelia - You are one of the best entertainers in WDW. I seem to run into you more often than any other performer. Is there anything you can't do?

Glen - You are so incredibly funny when you let loose; I wish you had done that much more often. Your songs are etched in my brain forever.

Joy - My favorite maid

Philip - You are one of the very few people that can make me laugh against my will, and someone I always make an effort to see.

And newer favorites:

Karl - You are an inspiration to anyone who loves improv. I catch every "yes...and" effort you make. Every character you play is entertaining. We have so many interests in common; I am going to miss those obscure joke references. Live long and prosper.

Kurt - You are one of the funniest people I've ever met, and were responsible for some of the best years of club memories.

Mindy - I was there on your first day and your last. I hope to see you elsewhere. Your record at Dolly Parton's is cool!

Simon - Your fisherman has become a favorite, and your band rocks! I will miss obscure comedic banter with you.

Meghan - Fellow sci-fi/fantasy/gamer/internet geek. I miss you. If you ever need a photographer...

Jay - You bought in new ideas and jokes when no one was sure that was possible anymore.

Allison - You are a very funny lady and my favorite frequent president. I was so happy you returned.

Angela - I was there on your first day and your first last day (?). You and your family have been so sweet to Cindy and I. I will never look at squirrels the same.

Robby - What can I say? You took a minor character and turned him into one of the funniest butlers, and you brought him into the Hoopla!

Jaimie - You are our friend and we are always glad to be in your company. You are another woman that can do anything!

John - You brought in everyones favorite junior adventurer Hoopla song! Yours was also the first play I have ever attended.

Andrea - More people need to know about all the charity work you do!

Jen - You are a lot of fun. Congratulations on your new life!

Eric - Our cat and yours are plotting world domination.

Mary, Phil, Tony, Donn - I wish you had been around more often.

And I can't forget:

Jessica with her red hair and fantastic bottles of water
Laura and her frozen hot chocolates
Jen and her bar tricks
George and his ice games
Dana, Matt, Vanessa, Noelle, Ramona, Jode, and anyone else I'm forgetting through the years
And Carol, Lisa, and Krista over at the CW

God bless you all and please stay in touch.

[If you have never visited the Adventurers Club, I can't recommend strongly enough that before 9/27 you spend an entire evening there.]

Monsters, Diablo, and musings

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:10:38 GMT

Giggle-watts

Today's cast tour of Monsters Inc Laugh Floor was great fun and everyone had a blast. That show is a fast pace blend of computer technology, camera shots, and improv comedy. Our tour guide seemed to enjoy himself as much as we did. The people working there are very talented and having wayyyy too much to get paid for it.

The Secret Cow Level

The countdown is on. Blizzard is going to make an announcement Saturday. All the evidence points to it being a new release of Diablo - Diablo III. Boo-ya!! Diablo is my favorite online game. It's a great game to play alone or with others, and there were no monthly fees to play it online.

Of course that was before WoW took over the universe.

Will the announcement be for Diablo III? Will it be free to play online? Will it require a massive computer system to play? Will it have a new secret cow level? Will it run under Wine? I no longer have Microsoft Windows running on any computer system in my house, nor do I intend to let Diablo force me to. It better run under a VM or Wine, or a Mac.

We'll know in 1 more day.

RSTS/E, RSX-11 and VAX/VMS

If you'd like to see the computer systems I started my career with, check out this video of a PDP-11, DECwriter, and ASR33. Ahh if only the smells of those machines could come through as well.

In that world, I was a king. I was an expert that other experts sought out. You could eat and sleep computers if you wanted - no need to have social skills and interact with non-technical people. You took pride in coding your date function smaller than someone elses. It was the time after mainframes and cobol, but before the personal computer. The new world was timesharing, multi-user, multi-tasking, and networking. There was no SPAM, no viruses, and no rebooting systems to fix or prevent problems.

Digital Equipment Corporation was the #2 computer company in the world, firing arrows at IBM's mainframe universe with small multi-users systems. Microsoft was a kid selling home computers, competing with Atari and Commodore.

Gone are the days of multi-platter hard drives, magnetic tape spools, card readers, paper tape, rubbing erasers on circuit board pins, and toggling in boot programs. Unfortunately also gone are the days of 5 year system up-times, assembly language programming, uninterrupted time to your programming assignment, and engineer controlled data centers.

Free Credit Report dot com

Am I the only one that enjoys the songs in these commercials?

WELL I WAS SHOPPING FOR A NEW CAR
WHICH ONE'S ME?
A COOL CONVERTABLE
OR AN S-U-V
TOO BAD I DIDN'T KNOW MY CREDIT WAS WHACK
CAUSE NOW I’M DRIVING OFF THE LOT IN A USED SUB COMPACT
F-R-E-E THAT SPELLS FREE
CREDIT REPORT DOT COM BABY!
SAW THEIR ADS ON MY TV
THOUGHT ABOUT GOING BUT WAS TOO LAZY
NOW INSTEAD OF LOOKIN FLY AND ROLLIN FAT
MY LEGS ARE STICKING TO THE VINYL
AND MY POSSE'S GETTING LAUGHED AT
F-R-E-E THAT SPELLS FREE
CREDIT REPORT DOT COM BABY!

They say a man should always dress for the job he wants.
So why am I dressed up like a pirate in this restaurant?
It's all because some hacker stole my identity.
Now I'm here every evening serving chowder and ice tea.
I should have gone to free credit report dot com.
I could have seen this coming at me like an atom bomb.
They moniter your credit and send you e mail alerts,
so you won't wind up selling fish to tourists in t shirts.

I actually believe they could put together a CD of these and it would sell.

Star Wars weekend and George Carlin

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:06:41 GMT

Star Wars Weekend

We finally went to Star Wars weekend at the Disney Hollywood Studios. It rained while we were there, which was a mixed blessing because the overcast sky made it a very comfortable temperature. It was very crowded.

This year the posters are all for the "Clone Wars" animated feature.

Mini Maul. Good thing I didn't use "red eye reduction" settings taking this photo.

Making our escape. I forgot the warning about not operating the machinery wearing shorts.

My inner geek (tested below) loved seeing the $3.5k R2D2 video projector system, and the $325 R2D2 web cam and light saber remote in the merchandise area.

On the way out I saw this vision and just HAD to take a photo of. Unfortunately it's blurry from the rain and running after the people and my laughing, but it's tooo funny to leave out:

I guess the force is helpless against the rain.

My Inner Geek

I took the inner geek test. I answered the questions as honestly as I could and scored "Extreme Geek".

George Carlin

The past month has seen a lot of famous people I grew up with pass away. They are passing so quickly it's making me more aware of how much time I may have left myself. George Carlin died of heart failure today at 71.

His FM-AM record was the first comedy album I remember owning. Side one had "AM" material, which was mostly family friendly, Side "FM" had the adult material (which mostly meant swear words and drug references). To this day I can recite most of the dialog of these bits. The Hippy Dippy Weatherman ("Tonight's forcast: dark"), Ed Sullivan Acts, DJ bits, Games Shows, places for your stuff, and 7 words you can't say on television. He was the first host on Saturday Night live. He was Rufus in "Bill and Ted". He was the conductor for "Thomas the Train". He was Filmore in "Cars". He was a class clown. He was a part of my childhood.

Wall-E

I mentioned in the previous blog entry that I get to see a special premiere of "WALL-E" later this week. Today I received my ticket:

Inside my personalized envelope was a color ticket and coupons for a free popcorn and drink. Very cool :-) The movie is at 10am, so I guess this will be my breakfast.

With enhanced special effects

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 07:07:51 GMT

This has been an unusual week. Prayers for people needing help, famous people dying, news stories that I have to share. This entry is a mixture of unrelated topics, but about half of them unintentionally refer to Sci-Fi movies and shows.

Stan Winston dies at 62.

Stan was a special effects master responsible for countless movie experiences, including most recently Iron Man. Many of my favorite movies are because of his work.

The Andromeda Strain

Today were planning to go to Star Wars weekend at Disney World, but a storm rolled in so we stayed home and watched the remake of The Andromeda Strain. This new version was faithful to the original movie for the first half, then moved into this weird "the life form is from the future and intelligent", and this politically correct "farming the ocean is bad and almost killed us" story. Combined with the scene of a car blowing up by shoving a lit rag into a gas tank (in reality, gas tanks just catch fire), and several scientists dropping like flies in the last few minutes it lost my interest.

The research facility and the characters in the original movie were more interesting, and except for two items the older version holds up even today. The first is the old ASR33 teletype that gets jammed by a sliver of paper. I got my start in computers using an ASR33 and seeing them always brings back fond memories for me, but in today's computer world most people cannot relate to it. BTW - a sliver of paper would never jam like that. The second item is declaring that the computer displaying "601" means it's overloaded. That would only be true if the system was created by Microsoft.

It's been done for the original Star Trek series, Star Wars, and Blade Runner; I wonder when old movies like this will just receive minor update tweaks like digitally replacing scenes with a modern computer instead of just remaking the whole movie. A whole industry of rereleasing updated movies in theaters for modern generations could be profitable.

Doctor Who

Dr Who was very riveting because of his meeting someone from his future (I don't want to give it away) and the interplay of that plot line. I confess that I couldn't wait to learn more about her and instead of waiting until next week to watch part II, right after the episode I went to the internet and watched it. Yeah for the BBC showing episodes first.

If you haven't seen it, there is a video on YouTube of Catherine Tate and David Tennant in a comedy sketch together. And if you search, you'll find a episode of "The Weakest Link" with the cast from Doctor Who (including K9)

There was no Battlestar Galactica or Sarah Jane Adventurers this week.

Monsters and Robots

Two exciting things are happening this week at work. The first is that our team will get a backstage tour of the "Monsters Inc Laugh Floor" attraction at the Magic Kingdom. It is going to be fun seeing the technology and talent that goes into producing that experience. The second is that our department gets to take time from work to go see the premiere of "WALL-E". How cool is that!

Candlelight Processional

Is it getting near that time again already? August 1st is sign-up for the 2008 Candlelight Processional Cast Choir. Disney fan sites have already published a preliminary list of celebrity narrators:

Nov 28-30 John O'Hurley (Seinfeld)
Dec 1-3 Patti LaBelle (Tentative)
Dec 4-6 Brian Stokes Mitchell
Dec 7-9 Virginia Madsen
Dec 10-12 Monique Coleman (High School Musical)
Dec 13-15
Dec 16-18 Chita Rivera
Dec 19-21 Abigail Breslin
Dec 22-24 Steven Curtis Chapman
Dec 25-27 Edward James Olmos (Battlestar galactica)
Dec 28-30 Marlee Matlin

No Gary Sinese or Rita Moreno so far :-(

Police reject people with high IQs

Something I've always suspected, and growing up in CT I find it easy to believe.

People with intelligence confront questionable actions or orders. They are less of a blind follower. They are less likely to resort to force. They are more likely to understand technology. They are less likely to accept things people tell them as factual without investigating for themselves. Yeah; you wouldn't want that if your goal was to serve the public and protect their rights and freedom.

And they would be far less likely to intentionally run over citizens

Miscellaneous Items

The Walt Disney Co. is buying back the Disney Store chain from the Children's Place.
Give Kids The World was very busy Thursday night. The intense rain storm meant all the guests gave up their park plans and came into the cafeteria to dine instead.
I still have not lost the weight I gained on the Phoenix trip.
I have started my 5th year with Disney. I've been in Orlando for 6 years?!
Facebook tweets and RSS feed photos apear to be working for me now.
We are going to visit relatives in Atlanta soon.

Weekend Wrap-up

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:08:55 GMT

Last Week

I attended a meeting in BET this time. Like Motions, rows of folding chairs were set up and a projector displayed a presentation on a big screen at the back of the stage. Several large monitors were also used. I took a picture but it came out too blurry to use.

I heard about some hypocrites trying to feel better about themselves by degrading others. They exploited a recent event for their own entertainment, gawking at some people while making false remarks about others, showing little respect for anyone. [R]espect [A]nd [V]alue [E]veryone is a policy that embraces everyone, especially those with differing views from yours. Have some respect for people visiting the parks.

A freind at work is going to buy one of the new iPhones and sell me her old one cheap. It will be interesting to see if I can get it working the way I want.

BSG

Battlestar Galactica is finally getting interesting. I'm starting to have some doubts that Roslyn is the 12th Cylon and leaning toward Baltar again. There was a moment I thought they were going to reveal Starbuck's viper was the 12th Cylon ("Transformers - Cylons in disguise"). I thought the idea that Cylon's can get old to explain Ty's situation was stupid. It's more believable if people and their memories are turned into cylons.

Reaching Earth to find it destroyed was one of the possibilities I suggested, and I'm glad they did that. Take Earth out of the picture. No "Galactica 1980". So what's next? Did the population of Earth really die or move on? Maybe move underground? Starbuck's Viper is still unexplained, leaving the "Ship of Lights" idea still intact.

Maybe everyone should just pack up and go back to Caprica and live in peace.

Maybe everyone is a Cylon.

Maybe the Cylon centurions are responsible for all this. Wouldn't that be a twist?

Father's Day Weekend

I was originally planning to take a 4 day weekend to complete several projects around the house; buy and install IKEA shelving, wax the cars, go see Narnia, Star Wars weekend, etc. Friday morning we went to Typhoon Lagoon for fun and exercise, and when we came back we found several exciting messages waiting. Friends that live a few hours away wanted to drive up and spend the weekend with us in the parks. Even though it was father's day weekend and Star Wars weekend, they managed to find a hotel room at a great rate -- in the Celebration Mona Lisa of all places. We didn't even know that complex was operating. We heard the operating company had financial "challenges", but apparently the hotel had opened a few weeks ago. They are also pet friendly and our friends brought their dogs. When they checked in, they were pretty much the only people in the entire place. The rooms were very nice and the rates reasonable (at least right now they are).

Saturday, Sunday, and part of Monday we went to the parks. Our party ranged from 4 people to 8, depending on who went that trip. We went on a ton of attractions in the MK and Epcot, had dinner at Boma's, and watched a showing of Fantasmic. I tried to convince them to visit the Studios for Star Wars weekends, especially since I was sure that the fathers would get to join their kids in the Jedi training show like last time, but the children in our group weren't interested. They'd rather go to the MK all the time if they could. It was extremely hot every day. Too hot! Often we needed to seek shade, air conditioning, drinks, and rest. The heat and fatigue caused a few stressed moments, not unusual for Disney World. I forgot to put sunscreen on my face and got quite burned the first day. By each afternoon my clothes were soaking wet and I had to shower and change multiple times. We had quite a pile of damp laundry by Monday - a small price to pay for time with good friends. We had a great time.

PI-3D-IronMan-iPhone-IKEA-Wave-EARs

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:11:46 GMT

Click for full blog entry with photos

Bar Hopping

Lately I've been attending more and more presentation meetings being held during the day at Pleasure Island. Last year they were at the Comedy Warehouse and the AMC theater, which makes sense since the stadium seating works very well for it, but last week I had a meeting in Motions and the next two are in BET.

The clubs look very different during the day brightly lit and they don't have formal seating so folding chairs are used instead. These have been much smaller meetings than last year, so I'm thinking that the audience size is determining which club is used for the event. If they get small enough, say less than 41 people, perhaps they'll end up holding it in the Adventurers Club Mask Room.

WDW now in 3D

Have you played with the new 3D Walt Disney World environment in google earth? All the attractions, resorts, and a few extras are all rendered. Even the trees are there. The only thing they left out (as of this writing) was Pleasure Island and some office buildings like Team Disney and Casting.

Install Google Earth: Go to http://earth.google.com , download it , install
Search for "Disney World" and double click the golden mouse ears that appear in the center of the screen
Navigate to a park then change your perspective to street level my holding the right mouse button down and moving your mouse backwards.
Navigate using your mouse and the compass in the upper right. Doubl clicking the left mouse button will zoom in, the right will zoom out.

It's VERY cool and makes you wish that the VMK game was done this way. The Castle is a neat place to see. You can even walk through walls into the inside of the buildings, but there's nothing in them.

"Clearly I'm not the Superhero type"

Iron Man was the best movie we've seen this year so far. We enjoyed it even more than Indiana Jones. I have no doubt they will make a sequel. This weekend we plan to see Narnia Prince Caspian, then next on the list will probably be the Hulk.

Phone Wars

The specs on the new iPhone were announced. I personally do not get that excited over GPS, but there are a lot of things that can be done with it that will impress the public (think proximity alerts, localized advertising, etc). The more worthwhile improvements are 3G, the price drop, memory increase, and the back case being made of plastic to allow a stronger signal. Rather stupid it still has the 2MP camera when most competitors have much larger ones, but 2MP works for a camera phone if it has good optics. The bluetooth headset still is not stereo, still no video recorder option, no VOIP, and still no voice recognition (a necessity for hands-off operation while driving a vehicle; hands-off is now required in some states). Since 3rd party apps are possible some of missing features can be obtained elsewhere. 3G in the USA is limited and my iPhone would be jailbroken for service on T-mobile, so the older model is actually the better technology fit for my use and should cost even less.

I'm really interested in seeing how Google's Android technology stands up to all this.

A Bin of Dog Butts

Sunday Elyse, Cindy and I went over to IKEA to purchase shelving for Elyse and dining room chairs for us. Having been there before we knew this would be a 2-3 hour commitment of time. If you haven't been to IKEA, they are MASSIVE stores with lots to see. During our walk through the showroom floor toward the shelving section, a family stopped us and asked how do you get out of this place? We told them to follow the exit signs, but later on we realized that all the EXIT doors you pass by are alarmed for emergency use only. You actually have to walk to the main entrance or exit doors to leave the building. No wonder there's a restaurant in the center of the place - you can't leave.

We also passed by a bin of wooden dog butts. Yes you read that correctly. They are about 4 inches tall and are just the hind quarters and rear legs of a dog. We never came across any bins of dog heads, so I have no idea what kind of decorating you can do with just a dog butt. There qere quite a lot of them. Perhaps they are really popular in Sweeden or Norway. I really wondered where the heads were.

We located all our items, paid for them, and rolled them out on a cart to the car. It was amazing to see everything fit in the Honda Accord with the rear seat folded down. The trunk even closed. The packages were 5 or 6 feet long and very heavy.

The new chairs were easy to unpack and assemble, especially with my little fuzzy helper.

I was a bit sore and had finger blisters the next morning. We are planning to go again this weekend for more shelving.

New Wave

Tuesday for lunch I ran over to the Contemporary and ate at "The Wave" restaurant. It opened Saturday and replaced where the arcade was on the first floor. The entrance is attractive and resembles a blue a tunnel.

The place is fairly large. It was also fairly empty so I was seated right away. The atmosphere is casual, with the chair backs and ceiling sporting wave designs.

The menu is very limited. I had a crab cake appetizer, and a multi-grain ruben sandwich with slaw. The sandwich and crab cake were delicious (I didn't like the slaw), and the service was good, but it was pretty expensive. For roughly the same prices I prefer the decor and menu selections at Kona's cafe. On the way out I was asked to particiate in a short survey and made a few suggestions for improvements.

VoluntEAR Awards

This morning I attended a breakfast and awards ceremony for the Disney VoluntEARs organization. The event was held in the Epcot World Showplace (formally known as the Millenium Pavilion). I and others were invited because we performed enough service hours and completed the required paperwork to grant additional funds to our designated charities (mine being "Give Kids the World"). At least 1000 people were there, many friends of mine throughout WDW.

Meg Crofton and Mickey Mouse were on hand to present special awards. In addition to this being a nice break from working at my desk, everyone received a rather nice poster and special set of Mickey ears sporting the VoluntEAR logo.

Typhoon Lagoon

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 04:10:18 GMT

When I write a journal entry, I often have no idea what it will look like by the time it's done. Sometimes there is lot of material to relate, like a trip to Phoenix or a class assignment. Other times all I have is a bullet list collection of things I intend to mention. See if you can guess which this is.

Sunday we went to Typhoon Lagoon. Every time I go there I leave believing this is my favoriate park at Walt Disney World. You can kill 3 hours in the blink of an eye, and it's a fun forced work-out. No matter how inactive, lazy, or tired you are, if a 5ft tidal wave is about to make contact with your head you WILL perform some sort of physical exercise movement. And if you are a person who is unhappy with your weight or are terrified by the thought of being seen in a bathing suit, your insecurities will be washed away (pun intended). Everyone except 5 teenaged girls standing in the shallow end of the lagoon will be twice as large and more out-of-shape than you have ever been. Despite all the news reports on how obese Americans have become, many of these people are tourists from foreign countries.

Our visit follows the same ritual each time. First we enjoy the lagoon until we feel like we've drowned enough, then the twisting storm slides until we can't climb those stairs anymore, then we end the day with a relaxing round trip on the lazy Castaway Creek river before leaving for home. The hardest part of the visit is resisting those freshly fried donuts as we walk by that service hut. We use to spend a lot at "Sal's" merchandise but several years ago they got rid of all the cool Typhoon Lagoon t-shirts and replaced them with more generic designs featuring Mickey or an aligator. When I wear my 7+ year old original shirt there I often get asked where I bought it.

There was one pleasant surprise. Even though we are older, we must be in pretty good physical condition because we both had the stamina and energy to climb those storm slide stairs more frequently that we have in years of past visits. We also felt teriffic the rest of the day and the next.

We bought an annual pass, so we need to go 3 more times in order for it to pay for itself.

After showering and changing we had lunch at the new Golden Corral restaurant in front of the entrance to Celebration. Looking at the prices, Sunday was the worst day to do this. It was the one day a week that they charge the higher dinner prices all day long. This is probably because of the afternoon church crowds, which was proven minutes later by the fact that Cindy and I ran into a large table of about 10 friends from our church having a group luncheon. Minutes after saying to ourselves that we would never eat here again on a Sunday, our friends invited us to join them for lunch here every Sunday. We are not sure what we are going to do about that yet.

I finished off the weekend by spending the evening at the club with friends.

During the week I received kudos at work for arranging the backstage tour of the Haunted Mansion. The reason for the recognition was that it was a fun team outing which didn't cost our department one penny. Never underestimate the power of saving money.

This weekend we are planning to knock off another movie by going to see "Iron Man". All week I've had this song composing in my head; "Iron Man, Iron Man, does whatever an iron can. Flattens clothes..." etc. I'd tell you more but on a whim I decided to perform a google search on the lyrics and see if anyone else had the same idea. The search came back with "9,140" results. I guess it wasn't so original after all.

Haunted Mansion, Epcot, Pocky and more

Sun, 1 Jun 2008 08:19:50 GMT

Click for full blog entry with photos

Ghostly Secrets

Tuesday I arranged for my team at work to have a backstage tour of the Haunted Mansion. It took place at 7am because it had to complete before the park opened to guests. Out of 9 people I invited, 6 showed up for the event:

We basically walked the entire ride, with a guide telling us about the history and special effects. Personal thrills included walking down the candelabra hallway, patting the crow, touching the cobwebs, and the ballroom from the other side of the glass. The tour lasted until 8:30 and everyone loved it.

Epcot, Pocky, and Speed

Today Cindy and went to Epcot to have lunch at Marrakesh. This time of year Cast Members get a special discount. I love this restaurant, but then my favorite item is not even on the menu. It's a very hot red pepper sauce. The waiter recognized me so we ended up chatting for a while. Here's my name in Arabic:

Since we were near Japan, I went in to buy some Pocky to bring to the club for friends. There were people at the store asking me what it was, so I opened one of my boxes up and gave away about 10 of the "Men's Pocky" sticks. It was a micro pocky party. I ate the rest of that package myself.

We also played with the wall clocks. There were several new ones since the last time I was there. If you've never seen them these clocks perform all sorts of visual activities; faces split, hidden gears appear, figures dance, etc.

I always think of these clocks as one on the little secret attractions in Epcot.

We walked over to the American Adventure to see Voices of Liberty. Several of our friends were in that performance.

Afterward we continued our walk through the World Showcase. The park was practically empty, but it was EXTREMELY hot. As we passed the African Outpost we stopped in to chat with Jenn. It was geting late and we were getting rather cooked in the heat, so we walked the rest of the showcase circle back to our car. When we got to the car I noticed that all my Pocky had melted and fused together into one multi-stick blob. So much for sharing it with friends - I kept it for myself. :-)

20 minutes after we got home we had to go outside again to view the shuttle launch. It was a clear day and the shuttle looked like a fireball climbing in the sky, leaving behind a smoke trail.

After another 30 minutes we drove to the AMC theater to see "Speed Racer". We both grew up on the cartoon so it looked like fun. The trip over was filled with vehicles making sudden lane changes or driving very slow - it felt like WE were in a race ourselves. The movie was pretty faithful to the cartoon, but it was also annoying. The multiple scene cuts and flashbacks were tiresome and sometimes confusing. I was practically forcing myself to like it. That kid and his monkey were just as irritating as they were in the cartoon. It wasn't until the final two races that the movie became enjoyable. It was one of those "I'd like to see it but not pay money to see it" kind of flicks. I won't be buying the DVD.

I took Cindy home and went to the club for a while, but I was tired and the place was filled with unpleasant drunks so I went home just after 11pm.

A fairly busy day.

Social Networking

An article I read called MySpace the working class network and Facebook the white collar or geek network. Then there's LinkedIn which is truely the working connection network.

I've had a MySpace page for about 3 years and a facebook page for over a year. Being a geek I prefer facebook because my real blog and tweets can RSS feed directly into it, there are more controls, and it lets me know what my friends are up to. MySpace has been adopting some of these features, but I still have to cut-and-paste my blog there. There are also things I hate about both of them. [As far as I know the yahoos still cling only to MySpace, which isn't surprising. They are pack followers. They'll move when it involves one of their idols.] Google is still working on their social network, which I'm sure I'll like the best when it's available, but...

The biggest handicap for any social network is friends. At first all of my non-technical friends were only on MySpace, but most of them have finally created Facebook accounts to the point where I now have less than 20 real people that are only on MySpace. How long or easy will it be for Google to populate theirs?

I will say that the first social network to allow automatic forwarding or interoperability of their email environment with the outside world (yahoo, gmail, pop3) will grab a large fan base. I'm betting Google will do it.

Miscellaneous

- It seems like all my childhood comedians are dying. Harvey Corman, Dick Martin.

- We enjoyed Indiana Jones IV. It was not a good as the first or third, but it was light-years better than the second. It doesn't deserve the bad reviews it's getting.

- Multiple people have asked me where I got the Shin Chan song. I don't remember.

- BSG is getting just plain stupid. What was with the imaginary cat? I'm still betting that the President turns out to be the 12th Cylon.

- I will not be seeing The Hulk. Between the Bill Bixby TV series plus specials, and a previous movie, I am hulked out.

- They've recarpeted our office building. Team Disney finally has more of a Disney theme. Here's an arial view from my office looking down toward the 1st floor rug:

- Thursday I visited the Hollywood Studios cast "spring fling" party. There was free BBQ, games, and more. It was a rather hot day though. I also ran into a previous manager of the Adventeruers Club there and caught up on things.