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".

Window Shopping For Foam

This past weekend while I was at Disneyland, I noticed on Twitter that there was a increase in foamy tweets. I'm looking at all of you, Disney-specific fan sites. "Jake, what are you talking about?" you ask?

I'll show you.

 Some may call this loud, and in your face, but if you look really closely at what specifically is being advertised in the windows, it's done the best it can be done. Big Top Toys has louder style kids shirts and toys in the window. Hats balanced nicely along the left side of the street at Los Feliz. Same with paper goods and books in another window. 

The fact of the matter, folks, is that Disney is a business. Yes, Walt Disney Imagineering is the artists point of the company, and they have created an immensely wonderful land that is ideally the dreamy 1920/30's Los Angeles. Some try to compare it to the wonder of Main Street USA, but the fact is, it has it's own quaint, romantic charm that's totally a different heartbeat than the conceptually designed Midwest town. But...

Disney IS still a business, as stated above. There ARE number crunchers and marketing directors that's sole job is to sell their product inside the land WDI created. There's still a good story told here on Buena Vista Street. It's just doing what the outside world does so well, and sells their product through an age-old marketing technique called (shockingly enough) window shopping. 

Who-da-thunk, right? 

The thing is, most of these geeks that lament over it, are going to be walking out of the park late at night after marathon riding on Radiator Springs Racers, chatting about Tardises....Tardi? whatever that British Time Box show is, and they'll see a window of a hat, or a hoodie, or metal vintage sign, and say "I just remembered, I have to go get one of those for my never-ending collection of Disney stuff!" 

Then they go into Elias and Co., or Los Feliz..shoot, even Big Top Toys (scratch that. They'll buy that plush Oswald in there for sure.), and buy what they remembered they needed to buy in the first place.

And wham. Disney wins again, without them even realizing it. Funny part is, they don't recognize that this marketing technique worked, works, and will still work for anyone in the world. Putting your product in a window is not just great promotion, but also in a street sense like Main Street (Geeks, remember, the original park's done this for YEARS) and Buena Vista Street, because you'll see it in the morning, not want to carry things around all day, come back down the street, probably still see it, walk in, and buy it. 

This is what I don't get. Fans lament over and over again about how "it ruins theming" and is "in your face and forces buying things upon you". If you can't look at a window with items in it, say "thats cool." and walk past without buying it, then clearly their technique worked, and you just bought something because you saw it in the window and wanted it. 

I'm sure there's some imagineers that might be bummed about some of the historical items not being in the windows, and admittedly, they were really cool! But we can't lose sight of the fact that this is a corporation with multiple facets that need to have their hands in areas too. There's still a huge amount of small props that add to the beauty of this new street. Just because the windows now have merchandise in them doesn't mean it's the end of the world. 

Imagine Dragons in Class...

I usually don't post much about music or movie reviews, simply because there's so many of them out there. But since this now a daily (or almost daily) blog, I gotta find things to write about.

This band is definitely a new favorite. With a sound akin to Killers, this is a band that will soon be rocking stadiums as not just an opening act, but a headline. They've got an amazing sound, with really great indie rock ties. The album is available on iTunes for...last I checked when I bought it, around seven bucks. Or if you're cheap, I'm sure Spotify has it. But definitely check these guys out.

Alright, now I'm gonna get back to focusing on my creative writing class....

Happy Labor Day!

Hope everyone's having a fun Labor day getting in one of the final swims of the summer, or BBQ's with your family. It's another action packed day in the man cave with two college summaries and a government essay to write. Nothing really exciting today. But what I wanted to share today was a few blogs that if you're interested in Disney, then definitely check them out.

First up, my great friend Danielle has a terrific blog about past stories and experiences she had as a Cast Member at the Disneyland Resort. Some are humorous, others are sure to bring a tear to your eye. In fact, rumors have it that she's in talks with some people about a memoir book. She definitely deserves it, after all the networking and connections she makes with people. So if you want to check out her Tales of a Disneyland Cast Member, click....HERE

Second in the list is a phenomenal photography blog of Disneyland photography. Albert's a really great guy who happens to catch some really great angles and writes on them at his site. It's still relatively fresh to the interwebs, but I highly suggest checking out his photos HERE.


Also, if you'd like to follow them on twitter, their handles are here with direct links to their pages..

Danielle - @deemagicgurl

Albert - @corkscrewed02

Boom Went The Post

Look, there's just things that are cool to post, and not to post. Plain and simple. There's an art to generating creative posts to not just gain followers, but also keep them interested in the posts you post. It takes time to generate this art, as it's constantly ever-changing. But lets look at things NOT to tweet much about:

• Too much of a relationship. I've done this one, I won't lie. Not everyone cares that you and Honey Schmuckums just shared froyo for the 24th time since you've dated.
• Women: Your period and pregnancy issues. No one outside of Midol, Tampax and your husband or boyfriend want to know you're dealing with this on a public format. 
• Complaining. Now here's a fine line to balance. How does one say something is bad, without coming off as a sad sack of tears? Usually making the complaint light hearted and funny eases the posts tension about your issue of bad valet parking, or missing your favorite show because your kid dropped the remote in apple juice.
• Family/friend drama. So you and your bestie/Bro since Kappa Pi Gamma Beta split up the group for the 9th time? Old news. Now it's expected you'll reunite over drinks at the same bar for now the 10th time in probably record time, too. 
• Reviews. Everyone has their vlog of why they think the Na'vi should have been red instead of blue. But then we couldn't make stretched out smurf jokes. Instead, they'd just be laffy taffy bars with tails. Seriously though, Ebert and Roeper get paid to do what they do for a reason. Best to leave it to the guys that know what a Dolly Zoom is. 

It's cool to say that a movie or artist rocked. That you got into a relationship with your crush, even. But like everything, there's moderation and how you say things matter the most. 

I know I've pissed off a lot of people with things before. In fact, I know there's some that are foa-I mean fuming at me for posting this, and some other stuff. But when there's issues that people don't like, and a group thinks relatively unanimously of it, somebody's gotta say it. I'm gonna leave it at this. When you're confronted, it's not bullying when you tell someone how things are that everyone else privately has agreed upon. I know I would want to be told in a caring fashion that there's something I'd need to work on to be a better person. And if it was true, then I'd change. Because that's what makes people successful. That's how they can start handling their own stuff in the world. Otherwise they're going to fail and be miserable the rest of their lives. I know I wouldn't want that for myself. 

Friday's Gone Monday

Most of the time you'd think Fridays are the best day of the week. Especially with a three day weekend creeping up on your radar. Admittedly, my Friday started out really good. Work was easy going. Pranked some people by taping an air horn to the wall behind their office door. When they open the door, air horn goes off, papers fly, and then retaliation ensues. 

Not just the prank, but a end of the month party with free pizza and sodas made the day a lot of fun. Especially when we all sat down in the great room, and watched Hunger Games. 

But this is where it turns south for the afternoon. 

You see, I work with developmentally disabled adults. You may know it as autism, retardation, etc. So these clients I work with are typically and normally really good and mild mannered. After all, it's our job to keep them that way, and ensure that the best of interests is kept for them. 

A client in our room kept acting up, and we told this person not to keep acting up, otherwise everyone else was going to get a treat, and he/she wasn't. Well, their irritation grew (sometimes this just happens, no matter what we can do to help it.) and we tried to calm them down, and with no luck. Well, in the event of all this, the client ended up biting my bicep. 

I'm fine, no worries. But I had to take off and go get it checked out and start a round of Hep B shots. I end up waiting at workman's comp for a while, and I'm getting nervous, because I had somewhere else to be at 5:00pm, and it was eating away at my time. I had to still get ready and cleaned up from work, too!

So, doctor comes in, gives me the first round of Hep B shots, and then says "Oh yea, we're gonna test you for HIV, and other Hepatitis viruses. Go down the block to the blood bank." So now I have to wait for the rest of the paperwork to file through before I can leave. 

As I finally get the paperwork done, I walk to the blood bank down the street, wait again. File more papers. Wait, wait, wait....oh hey! They called me. I go back and wait again.

They stick this decent sized needle in my arm, and then add the vile to start drawing blood. Now, I'm not usually one to get super squeamish about this, but seeing the steady flow of blood lap over it's self as it rushes into the vile was really creepy to me. 

As they finished up, I rushed out of there, and then onto Target. I mean, I had to look presentable, and not just in some geek t-shirt. I still surprise myself though. I can make it out of Target in under $40. I ran in, found a plaid button up shirt on the discount rack, a white t-shirt to go under it, hair gel (because mine was a mess), and a pack of gum. $31.78 later, I ran into the bathroom of the store, and changed in the stall. As I walk to the sink to do my hair really quick, an older gentleman walks in and begins to wash his hands, and our conversation goes like this...

Man: Goin' somewhere spiffy?

Me: Yea, it's been a crazy day, and I didn't have time to go back cross town to my house to change. 

Man: heehee, I understand son. I've been there myself a few times before. 

Me: Oh yea? 

Man: Yes sir. Back in the day, I was always running late. Ended up doing the exact same thing you're doing right now. 

Me: Well, it must be a dude thing then, huh? 

Man: Sure is. So's buying flowers to make up for possibly being late. Don't keep her waiting too long, son.

Me: Speechless.

How did this dude know? Must have been wisdom with age. But I picked up some flowers, and went on my way for the evening...

Paper, Books, and Websites. Life of a College Student

The first week always hits the hardest. With four classes, a full time job, and then whenever I can go out (like tomorrow night), I'm busy. It's been crazy this week, and it's only going to get more insane.

It's nothing but syllabi and theses. 

The Girl.

I've posted this a long time a go, but I want to resurface this, and see what you guys think. Still haven't found the girl in this dream of mine, but she's out there somewhere.

I miss the beach. I want to feel the cold pacific surround me as I get barreled.
I want that sticky feeling of dried saltwater, and my hair all a mess because I left my hat at home.
I want the smell of a great seafood place right off the beach, tempting me with it's salty, buttery aromas.

But, then, there's the girl.

The one riding the waves alongs side me.
The one running her fingers through my mop of what I call a hairstyle.
The one who's holding my hand, playing with my fingers as we walk up to that great seafood restaurant...all the while, me thinking, "why did she pick me, of all guys?"
The one girl who takes me 45 minutes to kiss her goodnight because we're talking too much..
..and then spending another three hours talking on the phone, until she falls alseep on the other end of the line.
This, is when I realize, life could not get any better.