So...the day was a bit of a bust. Went over to Rand's mom's for a BBQ at 3pm, but the other people were late and we didn't end up eating until about 6:30pm or so. It also started utterly pouring and there were tornado warnings, serious lighting issues and a lot of problems with flooding from the sudden onslaught. We didn't even end up leaving there until after 8pm. It was too late by then to get anywhere to see fireworks - plus it was still drizzling - and we didn't know if anyone was calling it off or not. We ended up running very quickly to Barnes & Nobles because I had been without a book for a couple days now. We were originally going to stop for a book on the way over, but were running a few minutes late (we ended up getting there at like exactly 3pm - the time we were supposed to) and didn't want to be rude. I'm sure you can see the irony in the fact we opted to not be like 30 minutes late when the other people were like three hours late. Anyway, B&N was closing at 9pm, but we got there like 8:45pm, I found a new vampire novel (my not-so-secret guilty pleasure) and was able to get in-and-out of there in under 10 minutes. (Yeah! I wasn't that person that keeps them there late!) After that, my Love and I hung out a bit, watched the NY fireworks on tv, drank some rootbeer floats and had a lazy night.
Tomorrow, we're going to try to see fireworks over at Busch Gardens because they apparently are doing two nights of them - both Friday the 4th and Saturday the 5th. They start at 10pm and since we have annual passes, we're going to go sometime later in the day and meet up with Rand's family as well (they all have passes too). So, that's something cool. I hate not getting to see fireworks for the 4th, it's so disappointing. It's like one day you really get to look forward to something good, old-fashioned fun like that. *shrugs*
Um...blah. That's really about it. Damnit, my watch battery must be dying. This is the second time today I noticed it was wrong. When I put it on this afternoon (at about 2ish pm) it said it was like 11:25. Just now, it's like 1:20 and again, it's saying it's like 11:20. Strange. It pisses me off for a couple reasons. One, I wear a watch because I have no natural, inborn sense of time. None. Zero, ziltch, zip. And two, I like my watch. And the last time I took my watch in to get fixed, they totally broke it and never even replaced/paid for it. It's a cute, two-tone Ann Kline II that I got from Ross (what a great store) for like $29 or something - a good deal. It's worth more in regular retail and it's kept dead-on time for me for the last couple years. This time, they better not fuck up my watch. *grr*
*Yawn* Ok, I think I'm going to nose about the net a little (catch up on the missed day) and then call it a night. Hope everyone had a happy, fun and safe Independance day!
Heading out to a BBQ then to hopefully see some fireworks later on tonight. Sun doesn't set until like 8:31pm, so we've got a long time to wait. Happy day everyone! Be safe and have fun!
I know that I can defeat George W. Bush. Why? Because Al Gore and I already did it in 2000. With your support and active involvement in my campaign, I’ll do it again. - Sen. Lieberman
It's a shame that I think Liberman's an ass. He hates anything related to videogames (being one of those morons who can't graps that playing "Doom" doesn't turn you into a psycho killer. The best quote came from pc gamer when they said something to the effect of playing Doom won't turn you into a killer anymore then playing PGA golf will turn you into Tiger Woods *cracks up*), condones censorship of music and movies, thinks people need to be told what to do when it comes to making choices about their entertainment ("for their own good" because of course, we can't just bloody well chose for ourselves now can we?) and can't seperate his personal faith/morality from his politics. He flat out hates anything in, of, or related to our popular culture
I can't stand the man. Anyone with even a shred of thought in the head would realize that he's so far from being a democrat, he might as well be running with Bush. (Another ass. Yes, Dubya, I think you're an ass too) It doesn't make his quote at the beginning of the entry any less funny, but it also doesn't change the fact the man can't be trusted to hold the reigns of the country.
Blah. My pc fan is totally wonky - making a lovely buzzing/grinding/whinning noise suddenly this morning - so I'm popping off a quick message from my Love's pc to account for my almost total absence today. I can't check my email, I can't get on the boards, I can't open YIM - because, well, my pc is not fit for use. He's going to take a look at it when he gets home, though it doesn't make a lot of sense that it's broken since we just replaced it not even a month ago. Grr. I had turned the pc off last night when I laid down (I was getting yet another headache and the light and noise was bothering me, so I wanted to lay down in as dark and quite of a bedroom as possible) and when I went to turn it back on this morning, it was all funked up. *sigh* I opened the case and I don't see anything in it's way, or what, but that noise is all about wrong. And, of course, if the fan's not working properly, my already overwarm pc is going to cook. So not a good thing.
Anyway...no pc for me. I'm going to nose in on a couple things from here, but I can't get my email or anything until hopefully tonight when we can fix what's wrong. Life is boring without a pc. *snickers* The mantra of the 21st century, eh? Oh, woah is me...the 250-odd channels I have is pointless if I can't have my broadband modem connection on my pc... hee hee How did I ever get by without my computer?
Lest everyone worry that I'm sick or something, I'm not. It wasn't like a cold or anything and today I feel better. (I woke up groggy though). I just didn't feel well, for no particular reason. I think I got feverish at one point because I kept getting hot-and-cold and my hands felt sweaty, but then I would feel fine. I ended up going to bed about 2am (early for me) and I slept for about nine hours. I feel better, but I really don't know why I was so out of it yesterday evening.
Tonight, we've got to run over to my Love's parent's house. Then we might swing by our oh-so-yummy favorite chinese restaurant since it's way down by his folk's and too far for us to drive to on any regularity.
Rand's house should be done being painted tomorrow, so we should be able to run over there and see it. (Coolness)
Um....that's really it. No actual post other then just...hey, I'm alive. Ta for now.
i do not feel well. i don't know why either. just that for the last couple hours my head has been hurting in a pressure way, my heart feels like it's pounding in my chest and i feel like i can't get enough air. i just feel off and wrong and i'm miserable. i can't relax enough to sleep and i can't focus on anything. i do ntot feel well at all.
Saturday, June 28th Saturday was the "firesale" thingy in the park near my mom. I had brought up some of my jewelry and put together a display. I was so tired after walking around Disney all day Friday (and not getting home until after 1am), that I was an hour late getting there. I was supposed to meet her at noon and I ended up getting there at 1pm. It was raining on the way up and had just stopped when I got there. I wasn't there an hour when it started to come back and we had to hurry up and pack up. I got utterly drenched. It just poured and I had a hard time getting home through the flooding on the streets (it's a half-hour drive back from where I was). I did manage to sell one necklace and apparently, several people took the cards that I printed up and one lady even owns a shop and was interested to know if I would want to display my items in her store. I hope she contact me because that sounds really cool. I had also made two necklaces that my sister custom ordered so between those and the one I sold, I came home with $50. Not too shabby. Kinda neat when you actually sell something. I really, really need to get the site set-up so I can [hopefully] sell more. A few extra bucks certainly wouldn't hurt.
Sunday, June 29th Woke up after not sleeping well with a headache. Took some excedrin and then got caffine-jittery. Got some food and watched and episode of StarGate: SG-1 on dvd with my Love and Rand. Got the galleries coded and uploaded. Wrote the entry. Now going to leave the pc for a bit since I'm sick of staring at the screen. *lol* So...that would be my weekend. Long enough entry, hu? But, I wanted to get it out and might as well do it all now, all at once, or else I might just not do it at all.
I was sad to see some changes though since I was last there. Most things are changed just a smidge - classics stay classics - but there were a lot of changes over in Epcot. The Imagination ride was totally different. The entire pavillion was changed. I missed the old Imagination. Apparently, the version I saw the other day was actually the third incarnation of Imagination. The Second was a disaster that failed to include the ever popular (and adorable) Figment. It was changed again to be what it is now - Figment included - though I was really disappointed with it. You can find out a lot more on the details of the change and the history of the exhibit here and here. I have to agree with this summary:
Journey Into Imagination has proven to be a somewhat controversial attraction at Walt Disney World’s Epcot. The first version of this ride featured an audio-animatronic (in other words, Disney robot) kooky scientist named Dreamfinder and a friendly purple dragon named Figment who were your tour guides of sorts through the dreamy and whimsical realms of imagination. The ride was colorful, cute, harmless, and silly, but for some reason was a favorite of Disney diehards.
In the late 90s, Disney (in its infinite wisdom) decided that this cute and harmless ride didn’t exactly fit the educational and serious theme of Epcot, so they shut down the attraction and scheduled a complete overhaul. It opened again in 1999 with a slightly new name, Journey Into Your Imagination, only this time without the popular Dreamfinder or his sidekick Figment. Instead, your host was Eric Idle (from Monty Python fame) who plays a -you guessed it - kooky scientist. This new ride inspired to introduce you to an even zanier and more scientific approach to imagination, taking you inside an actual "Imagination Institute," which featured optical illusions and other sensory stimulation exercises. The ride was ultimately forgettable, completely un-inspiring, and in fact drew such a huge public backlash (especially about the loss of Figment who had, previously, been a sort of mascot at Epcot similar to Mickey Mouse at the Magic Kingdom) that Disney eventually did the unthinkable: they closed the attraction down and tried once again to create a ride that was both meaningful and fun (and, oh yeah, crowd pleasing).
Journey Into Your Imagination With Figment officially opened on June 1, 2002....The overall theme of the ride is still the same as the previous version: you are touring an Open House at the Imagination Institute with kooky Eric Idle as your guide...The ride starts with Idle explaining that you will be touring the Institute and exploring how your five senses can help guide your imagination. This time, however, he is interrupted by none other than Figment himself, who for some reason doesn’t seem to like Idle’s methodology (this is never fully explained) and basically threatens to keep popping up and making a general nuisance of himself during the ride.
...As for the ride itself, it has been overhauled but it seems that more has been taken away than added. For example, many of the rooms that you pass through during the ride are kind of empty, as though the props are missing. And the few props that are there are pretty much all from the last version of the ride.
...Anyway, I can’t really say much for this ride. The storyline is not cohesive and there’s not a whole lot to look at. Yeah, they brought Figment back (along with his catchy theme song, "One Little Spark") and that’s good. But it’s like they just kind of stuck him in the ride with no real rhyme or reason. I’m hoping it grows on me, but I don’t think it will. Is it at least better than Version #2? Well, yeah. But - and this may be my nostalgia speaking - nothing will be as good as the first and original. Dreamfinder, where are you?
Then again, I remember watching Captian EO(another site here that discusses the Disneyland version) at the Imagination pavilion, so perhaps I'm just jaded by old-time memories of the place. Still...I didn't so much enjoy the Imagination ride now. It just wasn't anything interesting or memorable.
I was also really saddened to see that one of my all-time favorite rides at Epcot - Horizons - was gone, and had been gone since 1999. (Guess I never heard about it's quiet death; I would have liked to ride it again before it was gone for good). The ride was neat because it had the most beautiful star field towards the end that really made you feel like you were just hanging in outerspace. And, you got to pick which of the three endings you got to see: space, undersea, or desert. There's a couple good sites out there with pictures and even a real motion video of the ride, but sad to say, it's gone for good - building and all. Epcot to me seemed very barren and lacking some of it's former sparkle in an attempt to try to give it more "umphf" I think it's just washed itself out in half-hearted rides. There doesn't seem to be a lot of reason to go there anymore which is really kinda sad. It was Walt's dream and they made it into a {badly done} side-show. (While looking up information on the changes in the other rides I mentioned, I realized the other missing thing from Epcot - told you it seemed empty - there is another. The World of Motion was replaced by Test Track. Sheesh. Nothing's there that I remember anymore.)
Hrm. Well, the kinda boring emptiness of Epcot aside (yeah, I got a little off-track with my reminiscing), we had a great time. I can't wait to go back. And, I'm thrilled to know that we have not just one more day, but three more days waiting for us. weeeeee!.
Wow. That took a really long time. I just got done putting together all the images from the trip to Walt Disney World last Friday (June 27th). Sometimes in life, you just have to up and do something fun and silly and this was it. I had gotten paid for the work I did for Rand's mom and my Love also got his paycheck and it was just a matter of "screw it, we're going to live a little!" He desperatly needed to get out of Dodge for a bit and it had been over three years since we last went to Disney, so we decided to change that. I took my camera with me (and some spare batteries) and had a blast. I ended up making an entire gallery just for them, with sub-pages of themed images. All the pictures of Cinderella's Castle for example are together, and all the seperate countries in the World Showcase at Epcot. I had taken 172 total and most of them did in fact, end up being used for the galleries. It's a great virtual tour. Why not go take a look?
We had the best time. We got the Play 4 Days Florida resident's pass. For $109, we get to Park Hop between all four parks for four total days. It's good until September 30th and considering a one-day admission is like $52, you basically get two days free. It's a damned good deal. (If you're not a Florida resident, the 4-day Park Hopper pass goes for $208!). So, on Friday, we spent a few hours in the Magic Kingdom and then took the monorail over to Epcot and walked all around the World Showcase. That's where I took the majority of the photos. In the one day (we ended up getting into the gates of Magic Kingdom at about 12:45pm and the park was open until 10pm), we managed to do this: Magic Kingdom - Alien Encounter, Buzz Lightyear, Carousel of Progress, Tomorrowland People Mover, Big Thunder Mountain (my favorite!), The Haunted Mansion (my second favorite), and Pirates of the Caribbean (classic).
Epcot - Innovations, Journey Into Imagination with Figment (TOTALLY different then it used to be), Spaceship Earth, walked through ALL the countries in the World Showcase, and rode the Mexico boat ride as well. We missed out on riding Test Track because we forgot to grab a Fast Pass, and the wait was 45 miunutes, so we'll hit that next time. We also had wanted to go into the The Living Seas but we forgot until we were on our way back to the Magic Kingdom.
We plan next time to head over to MGM Studios because my Love's never been there and I was last there when it very first opened and almost nothing was working/open/opperational yet and swing by Animal Kingdom which neither has been to, but neither of us wants to make a full day out of. We still have THREE MORE FULL PARK HOPPING DAYS to look forward to. It rocks!
yeah yeah, so my eyes are practically bleeding and I need to sleep, but...... I didn't want to lose track of this. Darnit, I had seen one in my local Pagan bookstore a few months ago, forgot about it and then went back the other day and it was gone. *sad* So I found two places online that sell it and I want to remember the links later. (If I bookmarked it, it'd get lost. My bookmarks are a disaster)
Friday we went to Walt Disney World Had an EXCELLENT day. Just got done sorting through the 172 (!!) pics I took and resizing them for the web. Too tired to get into details (sore and worn out today, plus it's like 3am and I'm getting a headache really bad from staring at the pc for so long) but look for a biiiiig entry and a whole gallery of photos most likely tomorrow.
Wow. That took a really long time. I just got done putting together all the images from the trip to 
