Merry Christmas

This post doesn't really have a point or a message, but it's just my thoughts from tonight, and I had to write them down somehow.

8:35pm. I get into my car, tap the voice activation button my steering wheel, speak into the microphone overhead with a firm "bluetooth audio". My car recognizes the command, chimes, and starts playing the music on shuffle.

First it's some Lonestar. The new single is great. Fun and fast tone, all about driving cross country to the girl he loves, with a play on numbers: "It's just five more miles, four streets ahead

Three stoplights till I, I get to the one". 

Second up: Skillet's Comatose. Edgy, hard guitars, loud and in your face about having a life for Christ. "I hate living without you, Dead wrong to ever doubt you, But my demons lay in waiting, Tempting me away, Oh how I adore you, Oh how I thirst for you, Oh how I need you, Comatose

I'll never wake up without an overdose of you"

And as the road winds and falls on the hour drive in the dark back home, the music mellows out, and then all of a sudden Third Day's Merry Christmas comes up. This is where my thoughts begin, thanks to the songs inspiring my posts.

This song has a bit of a backstory. If you haven't heard it, click on the video, listen and keep reading: 

You see, my family is really cool. We have my dad, mom, myself, sister Emily, and Hannah. An American family of five. The difference? Hannah isn't like us. She's not the same skin color, hair color, and probably even as she gets older, height. She's adopted from China. Here's the first photo we ever got of her.

We spent years filing paperwork for a little girl that, at the time, wasn't even born yet. Why? Because we wanted to save a life from a country that would otherwise let her grow to be 14, then kick her out on the streets with literally nothing but a name, or she could have been aborted due to China's strict laws on the amount of children a family could have. 

As we got closer and closer to finishing the adoption, the band Third Day came out with a Christmas Album. As fans of the band, we had to get this CD. Mom, Emily and I were in town one day and we stopped at Target, picked up what we needed, and got the CD as well. As we're sitting in the car getting ready to leave, I pop the CD in, and hit the song that doesn't have a familiar title. I'm weird like that. I skip the classics to find the new stuff. Anyway...the song starts playing, and as we drive out of the parking lot, the three of us completely lose it.

Why? Because literally exactly like that song, we're sitting here in America in our huge SUV, fast food soda cup and all, while my little sister is in some orphanage alone. Without a mom or dad to hug, a Nativity scene to look at, or tree to decorate, or Christmas eve service to go to and sing with everyone else. She was in a crib with not much to play with, and without a family that loved her at the moment. 

Flash forward to July two years later. 

This is the video of the trip. Come back up here after reading and enjoy a viewing of it. 

We're on a plane to china to get this girl that's now our family. We spent three weeks in China visiting her homeland, and a few days into the trip, she's ours. We first see her coming off the elevator scared to death, because this is the first time she's ever been outside the orphanage. Factor in a multi-hour bus ride to where we were in China, and the first time she's ever seen a white person, she was practically mortified. But over time we all got used to each other, and now four years later, she's running all over this house, being a happy five year old who won't stop doing cartwheels from her gymnastics practice, or waking me up on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons with her (big brother had to teach her the classics of Tom and Jerry). 

And what got me tonight on the way home, is that I'm now twenty. I've been on this earth for two decades, and she's only been here a quarter of that time. I have a car payment, insurance, college books, gas, and more to pay for. I have a girlfriend I'm in a incredibly serious relationship with. I've been stressed out of my mind lately about everything, and worrying too dang much about everything going on with work, family drama, how to afford things, and more. Hailey, my girlfriend, even pointed out a single grey hair in my beard the other day. 

But on the drive home, as the song finished out, I couldn't help but think of hannah. This five year old girl who has my heart wrapped around her tiny little fingers, and can get me to do anything for her. She has no fear of the world, and just wants to laugh and watch Disney movies. And I couldn't help but pray for her parents. Not my parents who are now hers. But her biological ones. I pray for them because they more than likely will never know what she's doing here in the United States. They won't know she got reconstructive surgery on her cleft lip and palate. They won't know that she's excelling faster than anyone else in her class at gymnastics. Or how she is obsessed with quoting Tangled, Brave, Aladdin, and Finding Nemo as she watches them. But then I thank God for the blessing that my family got to receive this little girl into our lives, because now, I can't ever imagine life without her. She's the most beautifully innocent little girl who laughs at my cartoon voices, argues with my other sister over sharing the bathroom (even at five years old, yes, this happens), and gets on my parents nerves for knowing how to turn the Wii on and play video games when she's supposed to be sleeping. And I thank God every day for her now being a part of our family. 

My little Nan <3 p="p">

K-Cup Overflow: The Spilling Logic Of Al Lutz

For the fan community, receiving bits and pieces of 'backstage' news about upcoming projects is always exciting to hear. From finding out that projects are ahead of schedule, or that there's actually more than what is being lead to believe, fans love hearing this type of news.

The problem that comes up, however, is who to believe as a reliable source? Who's the guru with the magic insider info ball that can tell us what's going on?

As I sit here with my orange juice and cookie buttered toast (forget Nutella. Cookie butter is the new thing going on at the breakfast colored building), I'm going to question and point out things in the founder of MiceAge's (Al Lutz) column that "only get posted when there is something to report on, and not before." I'm not here to defame Mr. Lutz, despite previous twitter posts, but point out and question what's being posted from a logical standpoint. 

Clips and Excerpts are what's being used, not the entire post, mind you. 

Part One 

The little things you do together…

As regular readers know, TDA cancelled the 56 year old tradition with the excuse that Disneyland was suddenly too busy to close two hours early on a slow winter weekday.

The truth was that TDA cancelled the parties due to pressure to conform to the “One Disney” corporate mantra after Orlando execs got huffy that Disneyland was still throwing company Christmas parties in the park for lowly Cast Members, as if Walt was still alive and a spirit of warm camaraderie still existed.

But Monday and Tuesday of this week, days that would have been perfect to host the traditional parties, have even lower attendance than usual due to the extended Christmas season this year. And with DCA 2.0 now glowing with sky-high customer satisfaction ratings, the early closure of Disneyland while DCA stayed open in the evening would have much less impact to the customer experience than at any time in the past decade.

The excuse that Disneyland Park is too busy now to host a private employee Christmas party is simply a lie from TDA, and it’s important to note that here for all the Cast Members in Anaheim who are still grumbling about the bah-humbug spirit flown in from Florida that has ruined yet another Disneyland tradition. Never mind all of the perks and benefits ladled on the sprawling Florida property, things that Anaheim Cast Members don’t have and  likely will never see, like on-site subsidized daycare, on-site subsidized healthcare, urgent-care and pharmacy, a private beach and recreation club, efficient employee parking, etc., etc.

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Yes, the Cast Member Christmas parties were cancelled. But is it really because of One Disney initiative? I don't believe that. Disneyland could easily still do them if they wanted. Orlando is notorious for wanting things on the cheap and not shelling out for the extra. It's evident in the way that the facade looks for the new Legends of Jack Sparrow attraction. But what some don't also realize is that could have been due to allotted budgets. Also, did anyone ever think that Disney has to cut them for now to prep for other initiatives and programs in the future? I don't have insider sources with this, but I'm just questioning the "what if?" here.  

He's right, it could have easily happened that Disney shut down early for two nights earlier in November to make this happen. There was a night Tomorrowland closed early for a Cast Member halloween party. It's definitely possible. But why make Disney out to be the bad guy in this? They're a company that has billions of dollars to handle, and thousands of jobs to handle. It's a logistical nightmare, but not in the way it's portrayed by Al. Would any of the fans like to step up and coordinate the things this company does, even on a daily, if not hourly basis? 

As for perks and benefits, it's obvious Florida has the room to do it. Out here in Los Angeles and Orange County, things are obviously a little tight, ever since the 1950's when Walt came to Anaheim to build Disneyland. Remember that? You know, when ground broke for the park, and instant mom and pop hotels and diners came in next door? Yea, Orange County is tighter on space than Florida. Plus you have to drive a lot farther in general in Florida, compared to the "everything is everywhere" style that is out here in SoCal. Granted, it could happen that Disney does this for Anaheim, however, with an area of 8-million people, I'm sure grandma and grandpa in Fountain Valley can watch the kids of their kids living over in Irvine. Same goes for Urgent Care. There's places all over the area that can be contracted out with Disney to help assist cast members, and from some low-level CM's that work the park I know, I've heard there's physical therapists that help massage those calf muscles walking all over the park for work, or stretch those arms from waving the nighttime orange glow sticks. Not sure if those therapists can do anything though for vocal cord strains from yelling "stay to your left" for two hours as guests file back down Main Street...

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Part Two

"Cars Land, obviously, is the silver bullet behind this comprehensive change at the Resort, after DCA made solid incremental improvements every year since 2008 with additional attractions, shows and aesthetic improvements around the park. The word is now out in the theme park industry about Cars Land and DCA, and this fall various industry executives were paraded through DCA by pleased TDA executives.

The red carpet was even rolled out recently for top executives from Universal Studios Hollywood, who are busy planning their own Harry Potter land, with George Kalogridis leading the Universal execs on a tour of DCA and showing off Radiator Springs Racers and all the Cars Land attractions. Top executives from Sea World, the TEA industry trade group, as well as parks from Europe and Asia have all made an official pilgrimage to Cars Land this fall.

But it’s not just suits from outside Disney that want to see what all the fuss is about. Other top Disney executives have been spending multiple days in Cars Land, before heading up the freeway to Glendale to see how Imagineering might be able to duplicate the land in their own property back home. While Disney Hollywood Studios is the leading contender for a WDW park to get a scaled down version of Cars Land late this decade, Imagineers and John Lasseter are already frustrated by the Orlando executive never ending requests to trim and scale back the project. (Remember, the Orlando folks get excited about walls, and Princess meet and greets as opposed to actual rides. No wonder bookings are hurting.)

So while WDI lets the Orlando team mull over their downsized options and how to cut them back even further, the Imagineers are moving on to a different client for their Cars Land cloning machine, and it’s a client that has WDI and John Lasseter salivating.

Earlier this month the top executives from Oriental Land Company, including their President and CEO, made a rare multi-day visit to Anaheim and Glendale. They spent hours touring Cars Land before going on to a private dinner at the Carthay Circle restaurant. They also spent a full day in Glendale where WDI gave presentations and showed models of how a nearly identical version of Anaheim’s Cars Land could fit perfectly in the space currently used for their version of… Frontierland.

To get Cars Land into Tokyo Disneyland, much of Tokyo’s “Westernland” would need to be repurposed and the Rivers of America section would be removed entirely. Thunder Mountain, the Country Bear Jamboree and the original frontier town buildings would remain at the front of the land, with the Western River Railroad continuing to circle the property. But towards the back of Westernland the entire Rivers of America would be leveled and turned into Cars Land.

This plan has gained fast traction with the OLC team, as the current real estate used for the Rivers of America takes up a huge amount of space but delivers very little in the way of attraction capacity for that crowded park. Tokyo’s three Rivers of America attractions combined; the Mark Twain Riverboat, Tom Sawyer Island Rafts and Davy Crockett Canoes, only manage about 1,500 riders per hour on even the busiest afternoons. And at dusk the Island and the Canoes shut down, leaving half an operating day with just a few hundred riders per hour taking an evening cruise on the Mark Twain. The Rivers of America is simply a huge waste of space with very little payoff in Tokyo.

Comparatively, the three Cars Land attractions combined in Anaheim are now returning well over 3,000 riders per hour up to 16 hours per day; 1,600 per hour at Racers, 900 per hour at Mater’s, and 800 per hour at Luigi’s (now that the beach balls are gone and loading is faster).  That additional capacity is a huge selling point for the Japanese executives, with the wild popularity of Cars Land with Japanese tourists in Anaheim a good indicator of future popularity if it were to be cloned for Tokyo Disneyland. Replacing the Rivers of America with Cars Land in Tokyo would buy the OLC triple the daily rider capacity in a splashy expansion that could fuel Tokyo resort attendance for years, and the Japanese are now contemplating jumping in and fast-tracking the project while the Orlando executives continue to dawdle and downsize."

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Knowing WDI, they've got to have a concept on the drawing boards for everything. I mean, Tony Baxter was quoted at one point that they were looking to turn the Submarine Voyage at Disneyland into an attraction themed to that steam-punk film Atlantis. As a boy, I loved the film, but now that I'm older, I definitely understand why they didn't go that route, and went with the orange and white clownfish instead. 

Point is, they have to constantly find ideas to make, whether they become reality or not. So obviously there's ideas for attractions based on Cars 2, and who knows, they may actually see the light of day, given how insanely popular the franchise brand is. It makes sense that Tokyo would want something like this. I have to give them a lot respect. Tokyo knows how to operate a theme park not just on their holiday offerings, but on what they put into their parks. Looking at Google Earth, one can easily see the potential for the Cadillac Range being added to the back corner of the Frontierland, making way for Carsland. 

In the fan community, Orlando seems to pay for the cheaper things tourists shell money out for. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but why short change yourself? The new Fantasyland is something that needs to be done on all projects. Go big or go home, right? Tokyo and Anaheim seem to have done this, and it's paying off every day for them. 

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Part Three

Meanwhile, in Anaheim, there’s plenty of unglamorous work about to begin in 2013 to prepare for Anaheim’s NextGen programs that will be first rolling out in January at Walt Disney World. NextGen will allow tourists and day-trippers to plan their visits down to the minutest detail, with a payoff of hyper-personalization from attractions, shows and restaurants during their visit. NextGen requires a lot of infrastructure to be installed, and most new facilities built after Cars Land have that infrastructure already included in the plans. The new Fantasy Faire meet n’ greet pavilion that opens March 10^th (with AP previews and soft openings for a few days before that) has its NextGen data infrastructure installed, but it won’t be turned on for at least another year.

The first thing that needs to change in Anaheim to get NextGen up and running are the entry turnstiles. Much has been made about the lack of biometric finger scans in Anaheim, which are a big part of the entry turnstiles in the Orlando parks. The truth is that the biometric equipment and logistical setups require more space than Disneyland has, and the number of entry lanes would be reduced if biometric screening was installed in Anaheim. A compromise is under consideration for Anaheim to create a NextGen entry process that uses simply RFID tags.

But what has TDA the most worried is the impact all of the NextGen offerings on the huge Annual Passholder demographic, as NextGen caters mostly to tourists and day-trippers who have planned their visit far in advance. It’s that looming PR problem that local AP holders will have with NextGen that now has TDA trying to come up with as many extra perks as possible for Annual Passholders, to not only justify the next round of price increases for the popular passes, but to also offer examples of things AP’s receive that NextGen tourists don’t.

The sudden decision to offer the Candlelight Ceremony on 20 consecutive nights this year and give the seats away to AP holders as a “perk” is only the latest example of TDA’s increasingly panicked attitude toward the looming NextGen rollout. That Candlelight decision was so rushed that it caught many of the planning groups off guard, and the logistical hurdles are causing many late nights for the Disneyland operations teams tasked with making it all work for three weeks straight.

NextGen is a massive Billion dollar program that has been in development for years and is primarily overseen by Florida executives, and the consideration of Southern California annual passholders wasn’t on their radar for most of that development. But when the average Annual Passholder of 2014 drops by Disneyland on a Sunday afternoon to find all the Fastpasses gone, all of the best seating for shows and parades reserved, and all of the best restaurants booked solid with NextGen tourists receiving personalized attention from CM’s, you can bet they won’t be too happy with NextGen. (Especially after another price increase…) Thus the rush to throw as many perks and extra benefits at AP holders as possible in 2013.

As we’ve told you before, the NextGen project in Anaheim is approximately 18 months behind the timetable for Orlando. The program kicks off formally this January at Disney World and expands throughout the spring, and should be rolling in Anaheim by the summer of 2014. But for now, TDA is focused on the approaching peak holiday season. With DCA now soaking up 40,000+ visitors who willingly go there first and happily stay there all day, this could be the first time in over a decade that Disneyland doesn’t have to close their turnstiles due to overcrowding during the week between Christmas and New Years. And that’s a Christmas present that TDA has been wishing for since 2001.

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There's a lot of thoughts on this. As for Anaheim, The RFID idea sounds like it can be far easier to handle. A simple radio wave can allow access into the parks, and could shift Cast Member jobs elsewhere, with a shorter staff watching and helping guests in. RFID could even be implemented into guests single/multi-day tickets. 

With NextGen and the AP crowd, I sort of laugh at, because unless you're normal, there's a large amount of APer's I've watched around the park, and boy are they a feisty bunch of people. "What do you mean I can't use my discount at the Cozy Cone? I want my discount!" or the stampeding groups hunting down any unsuspecting cast member wearing a lanyard, hoping to trade, with their turkey legs in hand....it's scary. 

Disney knows how they're going to handle it, and they're already doing great with their Twitter handle for DCA (@DCAToday), and even the AP movie nights inside the Opera House. The little things like this are paying off, and will continue to pay off. 

As for sections of Disney not communicating with the other in general, I doubt it's this bad. To be honest, if they were like this, projects would come out looking really far worse. Sure there's miscommunication, but the 20 nights had to have been planned farther out than what's being described. 

It's going to be amazing to see what else Disney has up their sleeves. I'm excited to see what comes to the Original park after DCA, and not just the resort, but around Anaheim as well. This area could very well be THE park to go to between Walt Disney World and here. Let's hope it stays that way. 

Comic Change

I've got 56 minutes before class starts, and I just finished watching "With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story". If you have Netflix, definitely give it a watch. I'm not the biggest comic book reader, since I never grew up on them, and read other things, however, with the recent (past 10 years?) rise of comic book films becoming an incredibly strong staple in American, and now international entertainment, I've started to look into what makes these films popular, and where the film's stories come from the originals. It's quite interesting to see how much goes into the details of not just the comic book film, but the comics alone, and how amazing of an art form it is.

However recently, I had a discussion with a old high school classmate about the recent Star Wars buyout from Disney, and then it led into Marvel's buyout as well. Disney is ruler of Hollywood, in my opinion. They own so much that people don't realize actually how much they own. I mean, look at the list:

ABC Broadcasting
ESPN
Buena Vista Home Distribution
ABC Family
Disney Channel (world wide)
Hyperion Books
Marvel Entertainment
The El Capitan Theater
Muppets Studio
Hollywood Records
Pixar Studios
Touchstone Pictures

and now Lucasfilm, which also includes one of, if not the biggest VFX studios, ILM (Industrial Light and Magic).

They're huge. This doesn't even cover the span of theme parks, cruise lines, food or clothing products, or buying the licensing rights to James Cameron's Avatar for a new land in Orlando's Animal Kingdom.

My friend tried to say how buying out Marvel and Lucasfilm is bad. How the stories, books and comics will be ruined. And I realized, are they really going to be? I really doubt it.

The thing is, books and comics aren't as popular anymore. I'm sad about it, because I love reading a good novel or story like any other coffee drinking hipster who dwells in the corner of Barnes and Noble. But the fact is, Disney bought out these two companies for a reason. To entertain, and create new stories and bring things otherwise shuttered, to life. I highly doubt that Ant Man would have been brought to life on the silver screen if it wasn't bought out by Disney. Not just that, but also, why would someone (meaning the general public) want to read a comic that has a photo of an explosion, with a few lines of dialogue, when they could go drop $10 and see two hours of explosions, with snarky, well written one-liners, and now a cast of actors that blows the roof off any other comic book films previously made to Iron Man?

We're living in a time where people want mindless entertainment. The late Timothy Leary had it right, and the saying goes for people today. All they want to do is Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out. Why else would trash shows such as Jersey Shore, or 16 and Pregnant be as relevant to pop culture? Or a film like Transformers 3 be as "good" (Yes, the action was fun, but for the love of Autobots is that film long in the tooth...) as others?

My final question is this: Where is the quality anymore? Why aren't popular films like the calibre of the films of old like Casablanca, or African Queen? Where is the storytelling in the popular culture films? It's in films that Marvel is cranking out. The next few years are going to be explosive, and not just literally. We very well may see a rise in these films that would rival anything ever put out. With the way Marvel has blended the worlds of their characters, and laid them out to each have their own story in individual films, then tying them all into the Avengers, and soon to be Avengers 2, this is going to be a long haul of films coming out, that only scratch the surface of the Marvel universe. And soon, the same could be said for Lucasfilm, and the galaxies of Star Wars. Who's to say Disney isn't already scheming up plots for a Boba Fett film, or do something outside of the Jedi realm? There are infinite possibilities. Now that Disney holds the keys to Marvel and Lucasfilm, the rest of Hollywood better look out, and get their fingers to the keyboard to crank out scripts to compete. Otherwise, the Mouse is going to reign big.

Finding A Window When The Door's Shut

Declined. 

But that's okay. There's a reason for this, and actually, I'm not too upset over not getting it. Sure, it'd be cool to get the internship. However, the reason I'm not upset over it is because I can have family time now. I'm not going anywhere now for a while, and I'm happy with that. If you don't know why I'm happy, please read back to my last post (here: link ). I missed out on a lot of family stuff the past nine or ten months, and I don't want to miss more of it than I have to. 

I'm even planning on doing my major here, since they offer the same thing I was going to go south for, and it's cheaper for the same thing (Win goes to the chain  school system that is Cal-States). So I can save all my money, and not live poor and half-starved like I was gearing up for down south. Sure, it's pushing moving out of here a few years back, however long term, I believe this will pay off a lot better, considering the relationship I have now is blossoming into something great, and I have time to spend with my family that I really don't want to miss out on. I'm young. Why should I rush being alone in some apartment in the city yet? There's still time to be with my family like I always have, and I'm happy with this. So in a round about way, thank you, Disney for not accepting me (just yet, hopefully). There's still unfinished life to live where I am now, and I'm going to finish it here. 

Little Moments

I'm sitting in class. It's 6:42pm as I'm writing this. It's halloween. Kids are out there trick or treating, fulfilling their night portraying their favorite superhero, cowgirl, vampire, and so on. My sisters are out at a church party with my girlfriend right now. And I'm missing out.

Some might think this isn't a big deal. I do. I've grown up being really close to my family. Close as in my parents know everything, even if I don't tell them, they can just tell something is up with me. My sisters are the greatest ever, and always make me smile, despite arguing with them every so often. Being close like this means I very much look forward to the family vacations, the movie nights at home, or the football games for dad. And especially nights like this.

I think this is really hitting me hard this year because life is finally hitting me. And it sucks. I don't want to be here. I want to be with my family. I want to see my baby sister Hannah's excited face when she's running around doing those cheaply themed carnival games, loading up on candy she'll never eat. It's hitting me, because I had a long period of time earlier this year I was, for lack of better words, an ass to everyone. I was miserable with the girl I was dating, because how torn between her and my family I was, and I missed out on a lot of family things, because I felt that the girlfriend was higher priority, because I let her control things. I shouldn't have, but I did. And it hurt my relationship with my family. I missed out on my sister's gymnastic performance. I missed my dad's football stuff. I didn't even do fantasy baseball leagues with my dad, and that's not like me.

But now that the past is behind me, and I'm where I know I belong in life right now, I don't want to miss any more. I hate myself for being mean to my family back then, and I want to correct that. I know I can't make up for lost time, but I want to be there for the future time. I don't know what my plans for college are yet, but I really want to be close. I don't want to be in the world alone yet, and somewhere where I miss out on a gymnastics performance of Hannah's, or getting to take photos of my sister's first date.

If anything, I wish more people would spend time with family, as well. A lot of friends want to move out and go away from their family because they hate it, and some deserve to. But things aren't always as bad as they sometimes seem, and those little moments of laughter in the kitchen from a surprise attack of a wet towel war, or food fight. They're disappearing faster than I want, and I want to hold onto these as long as I can.

Paradise Dreams

Reworked an old work I wrote a while back. Let me know what you think of this. 

I miss the beach.

I want to feel the cold Pacific Ocean surround me as I surf through the barrel of that perfect breaking left wave as the latest storm rolls in from the middle of ocean.

That sticky feeling of dried saltwater after surfing, and my hair’s all a mess 'cause I left my hat at home.

I want the smell of my favorite local seafood place just up the block from the sand, swirling its tempting, salty, buttery aromas in front of me, luring my stomach into endless groans of hunger.

Then,

There's my girl.

The girl who is right next to me on the waves.

The girl who constantly loves to run her fingers playfully through my messy head of hair.

That same girl who walks with me hand in hand, playing with my fingers, walking up to that restaurant right off the beach, and we smile at the owners as we walk in, and chat about the earlier surf session.

The same girl who leaves her car parked down at the beach, and we decide to walk back to her house up the hill.

The girl that wants me, and only me to kiss her goodnight, but somehow delays it for forty five minutes as we end up sitting and talking under that soft yellow glow of the single porch light, watching the storm creep closer on the horizon.

And as we say goodnight, I can still imagine it all going on as if it were yesterday.

College in the Midwest sucks when you grow up your whole life living in paradise.

Tailgating to Stargaze

Simple is often better. In the case of last night, that's for sure. Like a lot of people on this earth, I've had my share of hard times. Mine might be easier than some, or harder than others. But that's the beauty of humanity. We're all on our own levels in life.

I've had a few broken hearts. I've broken a few hearts. But last night, nothing was broken. 

My mom had to borrow my car for a trip, and dad had the other family car, so I used his truck to drive. It's a behemoth of machinery. Ford F-350, crew cab, extended bed. The kind of truck that you pick motorcycles and honda civics out of the grill.

My girlfriend works as a part-time DJ at the local radio station, and she had a shift last night on air. I came in the last hour to hang out before getting dinner, and it was a lot of fun to just sit and watch her in her element. After she ended her shift, we bounced out of there, and went over to her family's house for dinner, which was amazing. It's always fun getting to have just a lighthearted and easy going conversation with people on any topic, and that's how it is all the time with them. Actually, thanks to her parents talking about their vacation and spa package they got, I wanna throw my wallet at the next sauna I see and say "have this for the next few months".

Zombies, or Junior High students? Probably both..

After dinner we decided to go do the final maze at the local Haunt attraction. Wasn't scary...because all it was, was a corn maze. But still, holding her hand and walking around in circles and losing track of where North or South was was entertaining enough. Once we finally made it out of the maze, and away from the crowd of short Junior High kids, who all had the similar arrogant independence that only comes with the age, we made our way back to the truck to leave.

We didn't really know what we wanted to do. The showtimes at the movies weren't right for what we wanted to watch, and the mazes aren't that scary once you go through them after the first time. So we just decided to get coffee and see where the night led. So we drove over to Starbucks, got coffee, and decided to drive around.

With Jack Fm playing this odd playlist (seriously, Katy Perry playing right after Creedence Clearwater?), we drove around for probably an hour just listening to music and talking about school, family, and life. Then we found a half-constructed road that should, by now have had houses surrounding it, but thanks to the market crash, PVC Pipe, rebar wire and ditches surrounded the sides of the asphalt, unattended for who knows how long.

I crawl the truck to a stop, flick the lights off, shut off the engine, and we step out into the somewhat cool night. Tailgate down. Coffee in hand. We sit. I hold her hand, and she smiles.

For the next two hours we sit and take an occasional time lapse photo (that turned out terrible, thanks to not working with my new camera much..) of the night sky. But we talk. About God. The Universe, childhood traditions, favorite sodas, and eighties movies. What we want with our lives, and where we want to be in ten years. That's all we did, and it was amazing.

From my previous posts on this blog, you'll know that I cherish innocence, and that's exactly what this night was. It was fun, easy, and innocent. The fact that two teenagers (soon to be one, thanks to my 20th birthday coming up in 10 days) could sit and talk, and beat the stereotype that teens are unable to control their emotions and desires of physicality (I'm being polite here. You know exxxactly what I'm talking about), was another thing that I appreciate about last night, and the relationship period.

The future is unknown, but I know something about it. I found someone who I want to share it with, and hope that I can. God willing, it can happen. 

Can't You See That It's Just Raining...

...there ain't no need to go outside.

Today I woke up to a dark room. Obviously, since it was 5:45 A.M. Steve and Geoff woke me up from my small sony radio alarm clock with some chat about thunder and lightning. Day's already better. But it's not. What'd make it even better is a scene like this.

Waking up early to rain lightly tapping the window. Just loud enough to keep you awake, but soft enough to make you want to hide under those heavy, goose down covers. Then hearing your name from across the bed from the girl you love, saying "Honey, it's time to get up." After those words are whispered through the sheets, there's that light shuffling and gentle movement towards you, with a warm and comforting hand rubbing across your back, and that kiss that energizes one faster than any espresso ever would.

As you hit the cold, wooden floor of the urban, third floor apartment, the quick change of temperature temporarily takes your breathe away, but you quickly regain it as you walk into the kitchen to pour the coffee that's heated and ready to go, thanks to the pre-set timer. She's already in there, wearing your hoodie and those long pajama bottoms that have monkeys all over. She hands you a cup of the hazelnut blend your dad got you, just because he was thinking about you the other day at Starbucks, and you take a sip. You kiss her, even with morning breathe mixed with coffee. She doesn't mind, because she loves you.

Since this scene would be ideally perfect, this isn't a work day. Time to lounge, since the rain's keeping both of you in. Jeans and old hoodies, with a big blanket on the couch. You spend the morning watching old movies, and her laying on your shoulder. Around early evening, you finally get ready for the night, and dress up a little bit. You have a surprise for her, it's advance screening tickets to the new movie she wants to see. Since it's cold out, you bundle up and get ready to go. Black jackets and dark denim jeans, you both head out to the car and drive into the city. The clouds have a near-apocalyptic orange glow from the city lights, almost as if a riot could break out at any chance, but it's peacefully calm around the city.

Dinner at a quiet cafe with clam chowders and chicken soups, the meal keeps both of you warm and cozy. You know the owners of the cafe, so there's a nice discount, just because he's in a giving mood. As dinner's done, it's a quick walk to the small theater the films being shown at, so you go arm in arm, down the block.

The movie's great. Good drama, clever humor, and a pinch of romance added in. It's enough to garner a potential oscar, only because of the leading actress's role.

When everyone's filed out of the theater, you pull her close as you talk, only to cut her off as she's talking with a kiss under the white lights of the theater marquee. It's a kiss that leaves you dizzy, and breathless. As the night ends, you walk back to the car and head home, only to fall asleep to what you woke up to. The rain lightly tapping the window..

Don't Ever Grow Up

Showing my baby sister the plan for the day..I was around four at the time.

Oh man tonight's hard. I don't even know why. I have my Disneyland audio on shuffle, and more of the older audio has been coming on, and I'm sitting here thinking about life, and all of these memories are flooding back to me. Disney's been a large part of my childhood just like many other children. But as I started to grow, I took that part of my childhood and started to apply to wanting to make the magic happen that I once fell in love with for others. No, I don't work for the mouse, but it doesn't stop me from dreaming and thinking about what I could someday do. 

But that's off topic. Tonight's hard for me because I'm sitting here listening to my childhood, and thinking about the trips my family's taken over the years. How I can hear this: 

And instantly go back to one of the most vivid memories ever for me. 

You see, it was Valentine's Day. Fourth Grade. My school planned a visit to the San Fernando Mission that day, and my mama was a chaperon on our trip. We explored the mission and learned a lot, but my mom had something else planned that I didn't know about. She signed me out early, and 'kidnapped' me for a mama/son date at Disneyland for Valentine's Day. Thanks to traffic, it took us three hours from San Fernando to reach Disneyland, but that didn't stop us! I got to pick dinner, so we made our way to one of my favorite restaurants, the Plaza Inn at the corner of Main Street. Dining on a chicken leg, biscuits and lemonade, we watched the parade go by, and then once we were done, made our way to Pirates of the Caribbean. I can still remember how surprisingly busy it was, but we walked around and I got to pick every ride to go on. From Pirates, to Matterhorn, to Autopia, and the train, we rode only four rides that night before heading home, but not before we stopped at the lego store to get any lego I wanted under $10. 

And that's just one of the memories I have...

It's not just a day like that with my mom that's getting me. It's the fact I can still imagine as a younger child how huge Disneyland seemed. How amazing it was to just walk from a jungle, right into the frontier west, and believe that it was actually a real world, and not the world we live in. How I could fight alongside pirates, and then float around with ghosts in that old Mansion by the river. Everything was so beyond real, that I never could see the literal mechanisms that power those Pirates or Ghosts. It was always reality to me that they existed, and that's what makes me fall in love with Disney all over: the fact that there's so many hidden things that unless you know what to look for, you miss it, and missing the literal nature of the rides often times makes things so much better. 

This brings me to my closing. Disneyland was made for the "ideals, dreams and hard facts that created America, with the hopes that would be a source of joy, and inspiration to all the world" (Walt Disney's opening day speech). It's the one place in the world specifically designed with the intent to leave your troubles at the door, and just embrace the wonders of pure imagination and magic. Tonight, it's hard because I'm listening to the past audio of yesterland, and thinking about how innocent, how wonderful it was to just not know about what MADE things what they were, and just embrace the fact that it was there. It was magic of Mickey's sorcerer wand that brought things to life. It was the pixie dust that made things fly. Now that I'm 15 days away from turning 20, it's a hard pill to swallow when people are so cynical, and so negative about the world. They have to find something, anything, about everything to nitpick at. They can't just take things without questioning if it's something legitimate or not. That actually really brings me down, because there's so much that people miss out on when they lose sight of how being purely innocent and practically naive, can actually make things better for you. Having friends talk about who they're hooking up with, or what party they're going to makes me want to crawl back down the rabbit hole even more, because we're still young! We're only 18, 19, 20..there's still 60 or 70 years in our lives, why start with all those 'experiences' now, when we're still able to just stay youthful, and focus on the innocence of the world, or what's left of it? As long as I live, I am going to fight to maintain as much of that innocent magic as I can. If not for myself, then for the future generations that start to fall in love with Disney like I did. 

Agumented Fantasy(land)

There was a catchy article over at Blue Sky Disney on the future of Disney and how they're going to handle the transistion to digital streaming ala Netflix-style. There's talk of their own app for all things Disney past and current, but really that's kept under close watch inside the walls of the Mouses' tech HQ.

What got me thinking though, was this relatively new technology that has some really amazing potential. Augmented Reality takes any smart phone and can turn it into a new world on your phone. What "A.R." is, is utilizing your camera on your smart phone, mixed with GPS locationing on your phone, and giving you a chance to post on a 'wall' or suspend a photo in the middle of digital air. For example...

 This idea stemmed from one of the few games I play on my iPhone/iPad, Simpson's Tapped Out. The style is very akin to the old VMK game, with high camera frame, and building your own world. It's definitely a fun way to pass time waiting for meetings.

What I think has the potential here though, is combining augmented reality tech with a virtual magic kingdom. Unfortunately, I can see Walt Disney World getting this before Disneyland, simply because of the Kim Possible/Agent P mission games they have had in EPCOT. I'd love to see this in the original park first though.

Utilizing A.R. tech with VMK game play, iPhone/android users would be able to log into an app that would give them quest missions inside the theme park to gain prizes and points for their characters back on the computer at home. Imagine walking through Sleeping Beauty's Castle Walkthrough attraction, gaining coins along the walkway on your phone, allowing you to gain money to buy more things than you normally would on the game at home. Or walking past Tom Sawyer's island, and seeing Maleficent, and through your phone you yourself have to battle against her to save the island, ala Fantasmic! finale.

This wouldn't just be coins and battles though. Taking it a step higher with that rumored KeyChest, adding smaller animatronics throughout the park to interact with the game's coding to give you clues to hidden missions and hidden items to find in the park.

With the right designing, this is something that I think could make guests' visits that much more exciting when they're in line for pirates, and these paintings come to life through their phone to tell them to look out for Blackbeard or Davy Jones..

Young.

Why be in a relationship? I'm young, I have my friends. And there's beautiful girls I can hangout with, without one on my hip gettin' jealous all the time that I just talk to them as another human being on this planet. I'd take this over being stuck with someone for right now in my life. I'm young. There's a globe with my name wrapped around it, and I think I need to pay a visit to it.

Why not go out in the world and live life? Go to a rave. Skydive. Taste the local drink. See the smiles of a foreign face. Make a friend.

Can't there be more than just small town USA? Yes. Not knocking it, 'cause it's totally radical for some of you out there. But there's bigger and better for me, and I want a city with a heartbeat that never dies.

It's time to live.

Coke A Cola Chapstick

So, I think tonight is one of those nights that I'm just going to...you know...NOT sleep. Thanks to math class, I had an Amp (energy drink) late at night, and now I'm just...up. Which leads me to somehow think of this story from junior year of high school. You seated and ready to go? Alright. Store that tray in its upright fashion, hit on the stewardess and pray for no turbulence, 'cause here we gooooooo! (admit it, that one was WAY better than any other one Al Lutz has penned. Geeks, you know what I'm talking about)

Link

It was a warm late summer afternoon. I was hanging out at the field my dad was coaching football practice at. Why? Because I had nothing better to do. I stand around, listen to music on my iPod, and then I get a text from this girl I knew. She was free, and wanted to hang out. I told her where I was, and she said she'd come right over in a few.

As I hang out, I can remember Jason Mraz's "A Beautiful Mess" playing as she pulled up. I stood there as she walked up in those short jean shorts, white blouse and her sandy blonde hair pulled back in a sloppy ponytail. This was something I couldn't help but dream about until it became a reality.

We stand at the edge of the field, watch the players go through their drills (I would have played, had it not been for an ankle injury), and my dad yell and blow his whistle what seemed like a hundred times over. Practice makes perfect, right?

She ends up sitting down, and I follow suit. My lips were getting dry, and I try to carry around chap stick so I don't get chapped lips. It's a pet peeve. For some reason, my mom thought it'd be funny to get soda flavored chap stick for me as a little prank. Coincidentally enough, I had a coca-cola flavored chap stick with me this day, and what happens next, I kid you not, is something I will always remember, and never in a million years expected to actually work. 

I un cap the chap stick, and start to apply it, and this girl looks at me, and asks if it actually tastes like the soda. Usually, I'd say some "here's your sign" joke. But for whatever power that be, possessed me to tell this girl "kiss me and find out."


She did.

She pulled back, looked at me, and told me "Wait, I couldn't tell.."

Leaned back in, and kissed me longer this time.


Guys, this is when I realized that soda-flavored chap stick can be the best thing ever invented. And since then, I don't care if some guys think it's girly, and would rather stick to the "original" or "medicated" chap sticks. I'm buying soda flavored chap stick from here on.

College App

So, today I applied for the Disney College Program in Anaheim. I'm hoping I get a spot. If I don't, then oh well, it wasn't meant to be. But with that said, it's another step forward to trying to move down south and start the life I've always wanted. I'll hear back in a few days if I get accepted for a phone interview, and you can bet that I'll be hoping for that e-mail. We'll see how this one plays out!

Golden Horseshoe Dinner Revue Concept

Math homework. Whoever loves it, can you come save me, and do it for me while I think more about my blue sky ideas?


I just had thought about this idea, while listening to some old show audio from around Disneyland. What if they created a dinner Revue for Golden Horseshoe in Frontierland? It appears that right now the shows inside there are bouncing around locations. It's a popular place to dine with guests, so what if they created a dinner show and turned it into a reservation based location, and brought in a re-worked Golden Horseshoe Revue?

It could be close to the original, with some remixed characters and even guest interaction. Obviously I haven't thought much about it, since I'm typing this as I first came up with it, but it could be something that might work well with the land, and make for a very popular show. Something to think about..

The Bio of The Most Interesting Man In The World

I like Bob Marley music in the morning. I like painting. I like stuffed animals. I like being messy. I like keeping my Christmas tree up way past Christmas. I like having a heater. I like procrastinating.
I once stole first base while rounding second. 
Had lunch with the pope in a bar. Curator of African safari jerky, and distributor of Italian sliced Hams. Climbed Pikes Peak in nothing but jogging shoes and rubber ducky boxers. 

I am that little ewok in the background...no not the one with the spear. The one that stands next to Han Solo. That one. 
Pepsi is the drink of choice. Helped Alicia Beth Moore come up with the stage name P!nk, while sitting at a cafe in downtown L.A. drinking blueberry smoothies. I coined the term "Bacon is meat candy". Once won a round of paintball without getting shot, and only used a pistol. 

Foreign cars aren't so foreign to me. Expert in poker, veteran in love, outlaw in Peru. I can bake 30 minute brownies in 15 minutes. Redbox gives me two days to rent a DVD for a quarter. Tweeter of facts, blogger of sorts, connoisseur of exotic sodas.

My zip drives unzip themselves. While climbing a rock's face, it sneezed and blew me and three sheep into the next county. I landed on my feet, in a boat with none other than Jimmy Buffet captaining the vessel. He then motored us to shore where we went to Margaritaville to drink Pina Coladas. 

When VW Bugs see me, they punch each other. 
went snowboarding two of my friends. I used a surfboard. 

Drinking pepsi from a glass coke-a-cola cup is considered normal. I expect the unexpected, and punch someone when they tell me to expect the unexpected. As I walk away I tell them 'Didn't expect that, now did ya?'
Once made a foreign film in sarcasm. No one caught on. 

Ate a teaspoon full of cinnamon and never choked.
Western Personality, Eastern Mentality, Southern Hospitality.

Loose Cannon with a straight aim.

Once fist bumped the sky. The Clouds immediately turned black and started to cry. Or as humans call it "rain".