Is This Thing On?

Off to Anaheim!

2011-02-27T07:44:00.001-08:00

It has been a while since I last visited Disney's original theme park, 6 years to be exact. A conference I regularly attend is being held at the Anaheim Hilton, right across the street from The Happiest Place on Earth. Since I'll be so close, how could I not stop by to pay it a visit?

My travel day hasn't exactly gotten off to a great start. I woke up at 3am to catch an early morning flight, only to discover upon arrival at the airport that my connecting flight had been cancelled. The airline has re-routed me through Atlanta, getting me into LAX a few hours later than originally scheduled. I can't really complain, though - they squeezed me into First Class!

To pass the time on my flights, I decided to try to come up with a list of must-see attractions:

- Finding Nemo submarines - I am looking forward to seeing the cool animated special effects.
- Monsters Inc - I never got to see the original ride that this one replaced, hopefully I'll get to catch this one.
- World of Color - I have read nothing but great things about this new nighttime show in DCA.
- Captain EO - I haven't seen this show since the 90's. It's kind of neat that Disneyland has brought this back.
- Tiki Room - I know, this is an oldie, but I haven't seen the original in quite a long time. (It was being refurbished when I visited in 2005).
- Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln - another oldie, but one that I have never seen.

I'm taking a few days after the conference has ended in order to be able to fully enjoy the parks. Stay tuned, hopefully I will find some time to post my experiences.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A Little Touch of Home

2010-12-12T06:20:00.000-08:00

All good things must come to an end, and that includes the vacation portion of my trip. Daniel headed to the Beijing airport early Sunday morning (11/28) to begin his travel back to the US. I accompanied him on the subway as far as the Airport Express train station. As I watched him disappear down the escalator, it began to sink in: I was now alone in this very foreign country. So what do I do now? I could head back to the hotel room and hide and begin preparing for the busy work week ahead, but I wasn't quite ready to do that. Then I remembered that there was a Walmart very near my hotel. It might be worth checking out. I did want to buy a new hat, the fleece cap I brought with me was just not doing the job against the cold winds here.

I could see the familiar Walmart sign from the exit of the Zhi Chun Lu subway station, so I set off to do some good old American shopping. The sign was clearly visible, but it took me three tries to get to the actual store. My first try landed me in a dead end alley, good thing it was broad daylight. My second try brought me to railroad tracks and a barb wire fence that I wasn't even going to try to cross. I headed back to the subway station, to the sidewalk along the road, and worked my way under the tracks and around, making it to the entrance of the store on my third try.

I could start to see differences immediately between this store and the ones at home. The entrance was comparatively small. No huge bank of automatic glass doors; this store had a couple of large openings that were covered with thick heavy curtains that you had to force your way through to get inside (kind of like getting on a crowded subway here). I guess this worked well as an insulator against the weather, but I was glad I would never have to try to push a shopping cart through it.

The inside did not look at all like what I was used to at home. Maybe it was a combination of the lighting and the no-frills displays, or maybe it was the armed guards carrying rifles. This place felt more like a warehouse store than a Walmart. The flooring and display cases looked, not dirty, but worn. I bet this place sees quite a bit of foot traffic. The first floor was electronics and entertainment, lots of CDs, DVDs, TVs, appliances, etc.. I did see some familiar brands like Panasonic, Philips, Citizen, Disney, but there were also others that I'd never heard of before. I saw lots of familiar movie titles among the DVDs. In the CD section, I expected to see familiar recording artists like Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga. There were also names that surprised me, Like Kenny G and Richard Clayderman. Who knew they'd be so popular in China?

Since I was on a mission to find a new hat, I decided to head upstairs to see what was there. To get to the second floor, you had to ride a long, sloped, moving sidewalk, intended for people with grocery carts to be able to move easily from level to level. The second floor consisted of Health and Beauty Aids, Clothing, and Household Goods. The HBA area looked more familiar, there were a few brand name make-up counters and skin care displays. The clothes, however, again had that warehouse look. No large signs advertising specific brands or sale pricing, just rack after rack of shirts, pants, coats, underwear, socks, shoes.

It took me a few minutes, but I was able to locate the winter hats. Now I just had to pick one. I wanted something to match the coat I was wearing, and finally settled on a gray knit cap. Only problem was, it had an unfamiliar brand name very visibly embroidered on it, "huakangtai". I had no idea if this was a good brand or a bad brand. What if wearing this on the street attracted attention and harassment, like the JCPenney Plain Pocket Jeans of my youth? There didn't seem to be many other options, so I decided to take my chances. I also bought a pair of knit gloves that left the fingers exposed, I figured that might come in handy for cold weather photography.

Seeing the HBA section reminded me that I also wanted to look for underarm deodorant. How many of you know exactly how long a stick of deodorant or tube of toothpaste lasts? I sure don't keep track of such things. When I packed for this 5-week trip back in Pougkeepsie, I had to guess as to what quantities to take. I had decided on taking only one brand new stick of deodorant, that surely would be enough. However, I noticed this weekend that it was already feeling a bit light, and I thought it would be a good idea to locate some more just in case I got close to running out.

I was unable to find any deodorant for sale in this Walmart at all. Honest. I looked through the HBA aisles 3 times. I saw lots of familiar products: shampoo, conditioner, lotion, band aids, OTC medications, pretty much everything you'd expect to find in the HBA section. Except deodorant. And you can thank me for perpetuating the pervy American stereotype - I spent an embarrassingly long time in front of a wall of small boxes, trying to figure out if they were what I was looking for, only to realize with horror that I had been staring at a condom display. I considered asking for help, but I don't know how to say "deodorant" in Chinese (nor any other word, for that matter). The thought of having to pantomime the application of deodorant under my armpits to a sales clerk was too much to deal with on my first solo outing. I decided to take my chances with what I had. (Note that I am not trying to poke fun at the local people with this story - I have not once detected any offensive body odor during my stay. I just do not understand why deodorant is not available. Is it possible that the vast majority do not need it? Ancient Chinese secret?)

I decided to go back to the first floor and do some more exploring there. I headed back to where I arrived on the second floor, unpurchased hat and gloves in hand. A girl there waved me away, pointing me in another direction and telling me something important that I had no chance of understanding. I decided she was telling me that I have to buy my merchandise on this floor, so I headed over to a register and payed. Y38 (about $6) for a hat and gloves, not bad. I headed back to the floor entrance, only to be waved off by the same girl again. What the...? Looking around, I realized why she was waving me away: you can only go up on this side of the moving sidewalk. But where is the down sidewalk? Since there were no signs (that I could read), I had to wander around the store for a while before I found it. It was located on the completely opposite side of the store. These people really like to walk.

This was a Walmart Supercenter, so it had groceries as well. I remember receiving an e-mail a while back with photos that were supposedly taken in a Chinese Walmart. These showed some pretty strange food items, like octopus tentacles and whole alligator. I figured that these items were too odd for Walmart, and that the photos were likely taken elsewhere as an attempt at sensationalism. After seeing this Walmart's grocery floor, I'm not so sure now. There were lots of very familiar looking sections, like the bakery, fresh fruits and vegetables, dried goods. The meat section, however, was where the most differences could be seen. Some of the meat on display would fit right in at a US Walmart. Others, like the chicken feet, pig's feet, pig's snout, you'd be more hard-pressed to find at home. There was a section of hanging cured meats that had no plastic protection over them, including some flattened smoked duck with the heads still attached. (I could not help but utter a dismayed "aw" at those poor ducks.) Raw meats such as chicken parts and pork were out on display and were self-service. Shoppers put plastic bags over their hands and used them as gloves as they picked through legs and thighs and wings and slabs of ribs. There was a live food section, which consisted mostly of turtles and fish. These were also help-yourself items. It was quite comical to watch the customers chasing an unwilling fish with a net and getting splashed in the process.

I made a mental note of some of the snacks that were available in the dried goods section for a future shopping trip, and decided to head back to my hotel room. I spent the rest of the day looking at my trip photos, catching up on US news, and reviewing my work materials so that I'd be ready for Monday. My vacation was definitely over.

The Great Wall

2010-12-04T17:48:00.001-08:00

We tried hard to get moving earlier on Saturday, since we had a lot of ground we wanted to cover. After a quick breakfast of pastry and tea, we grabbed a taxi at the hotel, with the intention of visiting the Beijing Olympic site. After we climbed in, Daniel realized that he didn't know the Mandarin words for "Olympic site." The driver had already started moving, so Daniel had to scramble to pull out a guidebook and locate a photo of one of the distinctive buildings there. We were all laughing about that, even the driver.

We spent about a half hour wandering around the iconic Bird's Nest and the Water Cube buildings. There were tours that went into these buildings that we really wanted to try, but we were running late and still had a lot that we wanted to do, so we were content to just take some photos. It was very cold here, especially when the wind was blowing. I was happy I packed a pair of winter underwear.

Next up was the Great Wall. Daniel had learned that there is a city bus, the 919, that goes directly to a part of the Great Wall located at Badaling, and was more convenient (and much cheaper) than other transportation options. (When I told my co-workers that we used this bus, they seemed impressed - that was what the locals used to get to there.) We took a taxi ride to the start of the route, and were able to get on a bus right as it was about to leave. There were two seats left on the bus, but the seat configuration was 3 and 2 across, rather than 2 and 2. These seats were designed for slim Asians, not a larger Caucasian. I spent the entire hour+ ride with my butt hanging off of the edge the seat, not very comfortable at all. I shouldn't complain, though - Daniel and the third person were really crammed into their seats by the rest of me.

We arrived at our destination at 1:30pm, and got in line to purchase tickets. We were given two tickets each, and we had no idea exactly what we had bought. The tour guide that was on the bus with us seemed concerned that we did not have enough time to see everything, and pushed for us to head up the hill, recommending that we only climb as far as the 8th Watchtower, wherever that was. We crossed the street and wandered through the Dong Fang Bear park, complete with some breed of bears on display, We climbed up a hill and eventually came to a gate where one of our tickets were taken, and we were let inside.

We saw signs pointing the way to "slide cars", and realized that was likely what our second ticket was for. We handed them to an attendant, and headed through a queue to a metal track with a bunch of single-seat cars. We climbed into the cars, a shoulder harness was pulled over our heads, and the cars started moving up the hill along some sort of lift chain. I was getting a little nervous because this was starting to look like it could be a thrill ride, and with my heavy winter jacket and camera bag, I was having difficulties in locking down the shoulder harness. The ride operator had not done this; this was definitely not Walt Disney World. Thankfully the harness was not even necessary, the ride moved slowly and we stopped and got out at the top of the ride.

The cars put us at the bottom of a section of the Great Wall. We climbed up some steps and were soon walking on the Wall itself. This part of the Wall had been heavily renovated a while back, but still it was amazing thinking that someone had designed and built a version of this hundreds of years ago, imagining the amount of time and sweat that went into its construction.

We took our time walking up the Wall, stopping to take photos and to gaze over the hazy valleys. Many people were doing the same on this sunny but cold day. It took us about an hour or so, but we managed to make it up to the 8th Watchtower, the highest point of this part of the wall some 800 meters above sea level. (Many thanks to my walking partner Erin back in Poughkeepsie (hope you're still reading) for making sure I wouldn't be huffing and puffing by the time I reached the top!) There were a lot of people crowded in at this point, trying to get a photo of themselves. We managed to take a few photos ourselves, and then something strange happened - a couple of giggling Chinese girls asked me if I would mind having my photo taken with them. I've heard of this happening to other people visiting foreign lands, but never thought I'd ever look exotic enough for it to happen to me. I gladly complied, and still smile when I think that my face may be gracing the pages of a stranger's vacation album. (Here's hoping they haven't captioned it with "Some stupid, fat, ugly American that we wanted to throw off the Wall.")

It was time for us to start heading down again - we were told the last 919 bus left Badaling at 4pm, and that we should get back to the bus stop by 3:30pm in order to be guaranteed a seat. The last part of the trip down involved another ride on the slide cars. I thought maybe they'd let us slide down individually, adding a thrilling end to the visit, but no such luck. The cars slid down the mountain in batches, led by a brake car that kept us from going too fast.

After the ride, we spent some time wandering through the tourist traps at the bottom of the Wall, looking for some souvenirs. We took more time than we should have, arriving at the bus stop about 3:45pm to a bit of chaos. There was one bus parked there, completely full, and a bunch of mostly Chinese tourists crowded around the doors. Daniel did his best to try to understand what was going on. Nearest he could tell, there was one more bus on its way, arriving at 4:30pm, but it was not clear whether there would be room for all of us. We ran into another Caucasian, a guy from Toronto who had been traveling Asia solo. We told him what we knew, talked a bit about what other transportation alternatives we had (Train? Taxi? We didn't know where to find them) and then waited to see what would happen. A representative for the bus system came out and made a statement, all in Mandarin. The only thing that Daniel got out of it was "get in a line," so we did that. As luck would have it, we were near some college students who spoke English, and one of them was able to explain to us and our new Canadian friend what the representative had said. There was an empty bus arriving before 4:30pm, so it sounded like we had seats after all. The bus arrived shortly after, we all piled on (this time we had seats that fit my entire butt), and took off for Beijing.

We got back to Beijing about 5:30pm. There were still two items on our agenda: food and an acrobat show. Daniel had a restaurant in mind, but we didn't have reservations, so we took a taxi there to see if we could quickly get a table and eat. The taxi dropped us off at the right address (near a pair of buildings referred to as the Gemini or Twin Towers), but it took us a bit of wandering to locate the actual restaurant. We would have to wait for a table there, and we wouldn't have enough time to eat before the acrobat show. We decided to see the show and then come back to the restaurant to eat. Back in a cab, this time headed to the show. We arrived at the show theater, bought tickets, grabbed a couple of sausages at the snack bar and then found some seats. We spent the time waiting for the show to start by listening to the adventures of a very funny couple from New Zealand that we had sat next to. One of the things they described was their difficulties getting a taxi in Beijing - when they tried to wave one down, the driver would slow, see that they were not Chinese, and speed up and drive past them. Any time they needed a taxi, they had to find the nearest hotel and have the doorman tell the driver where they were headed.

The show we watched was called "Legend of Jinsha." There seemed to be some sort of loose plot, but I wasn't able to figure out what it was. The show consisted of a variety Chinese acrobatic and juggling acts, but instead of traditional music, it was set to a more modern jazzy soundtrack. The acts were good but not quite polished, and weren't anything I hadn't seen before. There were a couple of neat twists, like the pin jugglers - the pins they used were lighted, and the lights changed color in patterns. It looked to me like the lighting may have been controlled wirelessly. The finale involved motorcycles riding in a giant steel ball. I've seen this before on TV, but it was definitely more thrilling to see this live.

After the show, we got in a taxi and headed back to the restaurant we'd tried to eat at earlier. This time we were seated immediately. The menu looked so good that we ordered way too much food again, but managed to plow through most of it. We were the last customers there eating; the workers there started cleaning up around us as we were eating.

Since it was so late when we were done eating, we had to walk a bit to find a taxi. We managed to get back to the hotel just before 11pm. I reminded Daniel that I had wanted to get my hair cut. He remembered seeing a salon just a short walk from the hotel, so we headed over there to see if they could take me. They said they'd stay open as long as they had customers, so we ran back to the hotel, dumped our stuff off in our room, and headed back to the salon.

Each time we entered the salon, we were loudly greeted in Mandarin by all of the idle salon workers. It was a bit embarrassing, but funny. Daniel tried to explain what I wanted - my already short hair trimmed, not too short, but cleaned up. In addition to the cut, I also had my hair washed, and they gave me an upper-body massage - head, neck shoulders, and arms. Daniel had a wash and massage as well. The workers here were young and enthusiastic, definitely a fun place to get a haircut! We got back to the hotel room about midnight, a late end to a very busy but enjoyable vacation day.

A Night at the Opera

2010-11-28T05:32:00.001-08:00

I don't know whether it was all that food we consumed for dinner or the extra walking that we did, but when Friday morning came around, we could not get moving at all. We finally left the hotel room about 1pm, just in time to go searching for lunch. Daniel had a place in mind that offered a traditional noodle dish. Since we were getting such a late start, we decided to take a taxi instead of the subway to save some time. The doorman at the hotel explained to the taxi driver where we wanted to go, and we were there in no time.

The restaurant turned out to be another good choice. It had a dark wooden interior, with Chinese antiques and decor all around. The food was equally good. With so many good offerings, we again over-ordered, and had to struggle a bit to finish. The noodles were great, topped with a spicy bean sauce, and the other dishes were tasty as well.

After struggling to find a nearby subway station (we must have asked 3 people before we managed to locate it), we took a quick trip over to Tiananmen Square. Our intention was to quickly see this and then go over to the Forbidden City, but it was after 4:15pm, and these sites all close at 5pm. We decided instead to watch the flag-lowering ceremony, and endured a half hour of cold weather and pushy tourists to see it.

Daniel had finally managed to get his bearings, and decided to try again to find "Snack Street." This time he was successful. We wandered down this very sketchy street, amazed at all the offerings. Some of them were pretty creepy - scorpion, seahorse, starfish, even giant butterfly pupae, all served on skewers. We stopped one caucasian who had just finished some scorpion and butterfly and asked him how it was. Very good, he said. We didn't believe him, so we skipped all that and instead went for some grilled lamb, stinky tofu (yes, that's what it's called, and Daniel enjoys it. Me, not so much.), and a skewer of some sort of fruit dipped in a sugar coating that reminded me of candy apples.

Next on the agenda was the Chinese Opera. Daniel wanted me to experience this very traditional form of entertainment. The Liyuan Theatre in Beijing offers abbreviated versions of traditional operas that include English captioning, so it seemed like a logical choice. Another cab ride later (Daniel is getting very good at the taxis), and we were at the Liyuan. We purchased the cheap balcony seats and had the balcony nearly to ourselves, with a great view of the stage. The opera was, let's say, interesting. There were 3 acts. The first had to do with a traveler and his dealings with a sinister innkeeper, and included a scene where they two of them pantomimed searching for each other and fighting in the dark. It was mildy amusing, but went on and on for way too long. The second act was about a goddess scattering flowers. This was the first act to include singing, that shrill, nasal sound that most Americans would think of when Chinese opera is mentioned. The sound system was cranked so loud that the goddess's singing almost hurt our ears. At least her costume and makeup were beautiful. The third act was about a woman travelling to a magic mountain to collect immortal herbs to cure her dying husband. Some more shrill singing, but also a good, almost-acrobatic, fight scene between the women and the gods of the mountain. All in all, I am glad I saw it, but was also happy that it didn't last more than an hour.

One more cab ride later, and we were back at our hotel. It was after 9:30pm and we had not really had any dinner. Rather than hunting down another restaurant, Daniel wanted to check out a street market that is located right behind the hotel. It didn't seem to have a lot of interesting souvenirs, but we did spot a woman who had a tiny eatery set up. She had a variety of meats on small skewers that were cooking in a couple of vats of hot broth. Daniel wanted to give this a try, so we sat down on a couple of the tiny stools that surrounded the vats, and Daniel started talking with the cook about what we wanted. We ordered some noodles with a sesame sauce, which she also cooked in the broth. The skewers were self-serve, you just grabbed whatever you wanted. We ate quite a bit - meat balls, lamb, beef, tofu, mushrooms (I did pass on the pig's lungs) - and the total cost was less than 10 yuan (about $1.50). It was a great nighttime meal that I would never have attempted on my own.

A Chinese Thanksgiving

2010-11-28T05:25:00.000-08:00

Thursday was here before we knew it, and it was time for us to leave Hong Kong. We checked out of our room in Mongkok rather early and caught the Airport Express bus to the airport. We were checked in and through security and Immigration in no time, and had arrived early enough that we were able to grab a nice breakfast. We also got to witness an entertaining scuffle between two middle-aged Chinese businessmen. Apparently one was upset that the other had pushed him, and was ranting at him loudly in Cantonese. The other man, rather than getting angry, seemed bemused instead, even asking at one point "So, are you going to hit me?"

We had an uneventful flight to Beijing, got through Customs and Immigration, collected our bags, and headed off to grab a taxi to our hotel. Our taxi ride got off to a bad start, mainly due to a misunderstanding with the driver. I speak absolutely no Mandarin, and Daniel's abilities are limited. We couldn't figure out what the driver wanted us to do, and he got a bit impatient. Once we got underway, though, his tone changed, and he and Daniel had a friendly chat along the way. We ran into quite a bit of traffic (the roadways here always seem to be very busy), but the driver told us that traffic was moving better than usual.

We checked into our room at the Park Plaza, and then Daniel had a talk with the Concierge about restaurant and sightseeing options. Since today was Thanksgiving, we felt we needed to do something special for dinner. Daniel had received a recommendation for a restaurant called Beijing Da Dong that was famous for its Roast Duck, and we decided that would be the perfect place. Unable to get reservations so late, we opted to just head there on the subway and see if we could wait for a table.

The Beijing subway is turning out to be an interesting experience. The cars are almost always standing room only, and are sometimes uncomfortably crowded. On this particular evening, the car was so packed that it was very difficult to even enter or leave, people had to really push their way through. At one point, someone's body part was nestled very snugly between my butt cheeks. I'm not sure who or what it was, and I'm trying hard not to think about it too much. When it was time for us to get off, I had to push people out of the way and practically fell out of the car. I hope my commutes to the office will not be like that!

After wandering a bit, we were able to locate the restaurant, and we put our name in for a table. We waited about a half hour, but that time did not go to waste. Daniel struck up a conversation with a couple from Hong Kong who gave him some useful sightseeing tips, including an easy way to get to the Great Wall. A table finally became available, and we set out to determine what we should order from the amazing-looking menu, complete with photos and English captions. The food all looked good, and we wanted to try as much as possible, so we ordered 9 different dishes, including veal, pigeon, chicken, salmon, cuttlefish, and of course, the famous roast duck. We were expecting the portions to be tiny, but they didn't turn out to be all that small. Still, we managed to plow through a good part of the food, leaving only a little bit to waste. We were given complimentary kumquats for dessert. I'd never had them whole before, and we peeled and ate a handful before we realized that you could eat them rind and all.

Daniel wanted to show me a famous "Snack Street" (not that we could think about eating right now), so we waddled our way to the subway and got off in the area that Daniel thought this street was located. We headed through a fairly major shopping area but could not find the street. The stores were mostly closed, and the atmosphere on the shopping street had turned a bit seedy. We were approached by young women a number of times, alternately asking whether we wanted a "karaoke partner", "lady bags", or a "massage." I'm not quite sure, but I think at least one of those offers was for something more decidedly naughty than it sounds. Needless to say, we didn't take them up on any of the offers.

After walking almost a half hour, we decided to give up on Snack Street and find our way back to the hotel. We tried approaching a taxi driver, but he wanted 100 yuan, at least 3 times what a metered ride would cost. We headed back to the subway instead and almost got all the way back to the hotel, only to discover that the final train to get us there had closed down at 10pm. We walked out of the station through a gauntlet of cab drivers yelling at us for their business, and managed to flag down a quiet taxi on the street. We were very happy when we finally got back to our room.

Hong Kong Disneyland Christmas

2010-11-27T21:52:00.001-08:00

It had been 5 years since I last visited Hong Kong Disneyland; the last time was just a couple of months after its grand opening. I was looking forward to going again, not only to catch some new attractions, but also because Daniel did some research and noted that the Christmas decorations would be up starting Thanksgiving week. I have a lot of fond memories of visiting the Orlando parks during this time of year, and was looking forward to capturing some of Disney's Christmas spirit.

Daniel's cousin from NYC decided to join us, so we met him at a travel agency where he was picking up a discounted ticket. After a quick Hong Kong-style breakfast, we hopped on the MTR and arrived at the park shortly after its scheduled opening time of 10am. We picked up our entry tickets (Daniel had cashed in some mileage points for them) headed into the park, and stopped at Guest Services to purchase a couple of discounted meal packages.

I won't go into a blow-by-blow description of the day, but I will give my overall impressions. The highlights:
- The park was not at all crowded, and we were able to see almost everything we wanted to. With a 5 minute wait time for most of the day, we rode their Space Mountain twice in a row, and would have ridden again and again except that Daniel's cousin isn't exactly a coaster enthusiast.
- We enjoyed all of the live entertainment in the park, including Festival of the Lion King, The Golden Mickeys, the afternoon Parade (which had been dressed up with a Christmas theme), the tree lighting ceremony (after which they made it snow on Main Street), and the nighttime fireworks show.
- Their relatively new It's A Small World attraction was running a Christmas version, similar to what Anaheim and Tokyo have. This was the first time I got to see the HK version, and for the most part, I liked it (although having Disney characters in there still annoys me). Our boat did stop a couple of times for rather long periods, making the ride last a good 20-25 minutes.
- Although I hated it at the time, the Stitch Encounter turned out to be entertaining, and I was part of it. This is similar to Turtle Talk with Crush at Epcot, but to accommodate the variety of guests, they offer different shows in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. I thought we were attending a Cantonese version, and figured I'd be safe because (1) I don't speak Cantonese, and (2) Crush always interacts with children, and I assumed Stitch would do the same. Once the show started, it quickly became apparent that we were in an English show, and I was the second person that Stitch called on to speak with. He insisted he had seen me somewhere before, and after a few guesses, decided that we spent time in prison together, and even pulled up a mug shot of me, an actual photo that they must have taken earlier in the show. Even after he moved on to others, I was referred to from time to time, almost like being "that guy" from the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor attraction in Orlando. I really dislike being singled out like that in front of strangers and played along just to get through it. Looking back on it now, it did make the show much more memorable for us.

Now for the lowlights:
- Even with the few additional attractions, this park is still rather small. We were done seeing everything we wanted to by early evening, and I think we were starting to get a little bored. They are currently constructing additional attractions, but these new lands will not open until 2011 at the earliest.
- I remember liking the food the first time we went, but this time, the food was mediocre at best. The meal package we had purchased limited us to a few counter service restaurants, and the food choices at these were not exciting at all. We had some ok meat and rice bowls for lunch, but in the evening, we ended up with yawn-inducing fried chicken and french fries. (Interestingly, they include plastic disposable gloves with the fried chicken meals so that you don't get your hands all greasy.)
- I guess they did their best with the Christmas theme, but in the end, I did not come away with that warm holiday feeling. There just didn't seem to be enough of the decorations or the music. (Or it could be that mid-November is just too early for me to get in the Christmas mood.)
- We discovered that rude guests were not limited to the US parks. We experienced a number of line crashers, including those who pretend that family members are up further in line, as well as people who just try to push their way in front of you. And I'm not sure if it is a cultural thing, but it seemed to me like the women were the pushiest; the men in general were content to wait their turn.
- The merchandise during our 2005 visit seemed rather unique and interesting; this time, not so much. The t-shirts were boring, and there are only so many key chains and plushes that one can own. We were all very disappointed with what we saw, and none of us wound up buying any souvenirs.

Exploring Macau

2010-11-24T05:50:00.000-08:00

After a relatively late night, we got to sleep in a little bit Monday morning. Not a lot, though - the hotel package included a complimentary breakfast buffet, and it was only available until 10:30am. It was a pretty decent spread, eggs, fruit, cereal, congee, dim sum. Unfortunately, something we'd eaten yesterday didn't agree with us, so we couldn't enjoy it as much as we would have liked.

We checked out of our room, stored our luggage, and set out to explore. Our first objective was to visit the ruins of Sao Paulo, which is probably Macau's most famous historical site. We headed up the steep, windy streets, stopping in some shops along the way, not really paying attention to where we should be going. We managed to overshoot our destination by quite a bit, ending up at a fort that overlooked the city as well as the top of the ruins. Daniel was still not feeling well, so we sat here for a bit, enjoying the city views as well as the people-watching.

We started back down the hill, this time keeping a better eye on our destination, and managed to reach the ruins. Daniel was still feeling a bit off, so he sat for a while as I wandered and took photos.

We spent the next few hours wandering the shops and snacking. We next headed over to the nearby casinos, not to gamble, but just to see what they looked like. These were quite the ritzy places! The security was a bit strange, though. There were guards and metal detectors at each entrance, and even signs warning not to take firearms into the casinos. I had my bulging camera bag with me and set off the metal detectors each time I went through, yet no one ever stopped me or asked to see what I was carrying.

We stopped by a shrine and giant statue to the Asian goddess Kun Iam (Goddess of Mercy) just as the sun was starting to set. It was getting late, and we still had some shopping to do before our 9pm ferry. We headed back to the shopping district to pick up some edible souvenirs for everyone who had been so helpful to us here in Hong Kong.

It had been a busy couple of days, and the 9pm ferry was suddenly feeling too far away, so we headed over to the terminal to see if we could catch an earlier ferry. Thankfully there was room on the 8pm, and we were back in Hong Kong by 9. We still had to check back into our room in Mongkok and retrieve some items from Daniel's father. The room we had been staying in was not available for the first night, so they put us in one that was smaller, more narrow, and reeked of smoke. It made us appreciate the non-smoking rooms in the US hotels!

Macau and Zaia

2010-11-22T21:16:00.000-08:00

Daniel's aunts helped us arrange an overnight trip to Macau, and today's the day (Sunday) that we head over there. We packed up our belongings and checked out of our room in Mongkok. Since we had some time before we departed, we met Ray for breakfast at a Hong Kong-style cafe. (Eggs, toast, Ramen noodles, Spam, a great way to start the day!) We took the subway over to Central and found our way to the Macau ferry terminal.

The trip to Macau was quick, about an hour on a high-speed hydrofoil craft. It was a very smooth ride, unlike the bouncing around the boat did while docked at the pier - I was beginning to wonder whether I'd have to use that seasickness bag tucked in the seat pocket in front of me.

We arrived in Macau to a bit of a mess. Macau's Gran Prix was being run on Sunday, and part of the track was the roadway past the ferry terminal. The departure point for the hotel shuttle buses had been moved a block away. With all the traffic snarls the race was causing, it took about 20 minutes for a bus to come pick us up, and some additional time to find our way back out onto the main roadway and away from the congestion.

Check-in at the hotel went smoothly, and we dropped off our overnight bag in the room and headed back out to start exploring. Our hotel, Sofitel Ponte 16, was rated 5 stars and is located near the city center, very posh yet convenient to some restaurants and historic sites (and had no free Internet, of course). Daniel's sister-in-law had recommended a number of good places to grab snacks, and we wandered the streets eating and taking photos.

We had 5:30pm dinner reservations at Platao Macau, a restaurant that was highly recommended in the guidebook. We took advantage of the warm weather to eat outside. The food did not disappoint: soups, a mushroom appetizer, leg of lamb, duck fried rice, followed by cake and Mango pudding.

We took a shuttle bus over to the next island to see the casinos. Macau has recently seen an explosion in the construction of Vegas-style resorts. We didn't go there to gamble, though. Daniel's aunt had suggested tickets to Zaia, a Cirque du Soleil show playing at The Venetian (a much grander version of the same resort in Vegas). The theater was only about one quarter full - as in Vegas, another show had recently opened that was drawing the crowds away from the older shows. We greatly enjoyed the acrobatics and music, although I have to admit I did nap through a small part of it.

Afterwards, we wandered around The Venetian and nearby casinos (Hard Rock, City of Dreams) before catching the shuttle bus back to our hotel and crashing for the night, the end of yet another satisfying day.

Shatin and the Heritage Museum

2010-11-21T05:44:00.000-08:00

I woke up Friday morning not sure of how I was going to spend my day. My original thought was to head to Victoria Peak, which provides great views of the Hong Kong skyline from above. However, with all of the haze that I saw yesterday, the Peak would likely be a disappointment.

Last night Ray had suggested that I visit the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, located in Shatin. I had visited Shatin 10 years ago, but at that time it required a train ride outside of the well-marked MTR subway system. I wasn't sure I was up for that sort of adventure today. When I checked the museum's web site to see what other transportation options I might have, I was excited to find that the MTR had been extended up to Shatin and beyond. I would be visiting the Heritage Museum today.

I used an MTR iPhone app to plot my subway trip. It is very well-designed; NYC's MTA should take lessons from the MTR app designers. The trip required me to change trains 3 times during my journey, yet it took me less than a half hour. (i don't know how they do it, but I've never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a train on the MTR. On the MTA, if you've timed things badly, you could wait as long as 15-20 minutes.)

I got to the station closest to the Heritage Museum easily, and an online map had given me a good idea of where I'd have to walk to get there. My stomach was reminding me that I hadn't had anything to eat yet. A stop at the station's 7-11 for a chicken salad sandwich shut it up real quickly.

I spent about 3 hours wandering among the museum's exhibits, and found it interesting. It helped that there was a variety of subjects to explore: calligraphy, painting, Cantonese opera history, city planning, ancient artwork... The multimedia presentations alternated between Chinese and English, and I took advantage of these to rest a bit.

As I finished up the museum tour, my stomach started complaining again. I had two choices: I could head back to a more familiar area to find some food, or I could see what I could find in Shatin. Since the day had gone so well so far, I decided to be adventurous and find something local. I followed signs to the Town Centre (note the British spelling) and came upon a decent-sized mall attached to a couple of upscale hotels. The mall had a number of restaurants, the trick was finding one that allowed me to easily select and order food. I hit pay dirt on my fourth try: I found a Thai restaurant with a menu that had both photos and English descriptions. Chicken with green curry sauce and rice, along with a lime soda, and my stomach was happy again.

My evening was uneventful as well. I retraced my subway trip and easily returned to Mongkok. I went back to the room to rest and wait for Daniel to return from China. Resting turned into passing out, which was just as well because Daniel arrived much later than originally planned. We grabbed some late-night noodles at Daniel's brother's store, followed by dessert at my favorite Hong Kong dessert place (I love a fruit bowl with coconut milk and mango ice cream!), and called it a night.

Religious Experiences

2010-11-20T05:15:00.000-08:00

I got a better start on Thursday morning - I managed to get out of the room by 11am. My plan was to visit the Big Buddha on Lantau Island. I saw this giant statue 10 years ago, but at that time it required a long, seemingly treacherous bus ride. A cable car system was recently built that allowed visitors to skip the winding roads while offering panoramic views of the island. I was looking forward to this ride, hoping to get some nice photos of the island's mountains, shoreline, and maybe even the Hong Kong International Airport.

The cable car could be reached by subway, so off I went on another ride on the MTR. As the train emerged from underground, I noticed for the first time how hazy the skies were. The skies had been like that off and on during my stay. I'm not sure if it is from pollution or high humidity, but either way I hated the idea of going up in the cable car and not being able to see much.

I thought that if I waited a few hours, maybe this haze would burn off. What could I do in the mean time? It hadn't gone unnoticed that the subway stop for the cable car was just one stop away from the Disneyland Resort Line, the train that takes visitors to Hong Kong Disneyland. Hmm, what a great place to hang out for a few hours while waiting for the haze to clear! It wasn't a tough decision, and soon I found myself on a train with Mickey Mouse-shaped windows and lots of families with young children bouncing in their seats in anticipation of what awaited.

I visited HKDL back in 2005, just two months after it first opened. We got to see the entire park, but didn't spend a lot of time exploring anything else. Since Daniel and I are planning to see the park next week, I didn't want to try to go there. Instead, I thought it would be fun to "resort hop," visiting the two hotels that are part of the resort.

I first spent some time exploring the main entrance of the park. There were a fair number of people hanging out there and taking photos, but it didn't seem to be too crowded. From there, I walked the promenade to the Ferry terminal. This was built to allow the resort to have boat access, but as far as I could tell, had largely gone unused; it was just me and a couple of local fishermen hanging out there. Next I wandered over to the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel. Styled similar to Orlando's Grand Floridian, this was a very elegant place - huge chandeliers dangling from stained glass domes, marble floors, and a grand piano sitting in the lobby. From there, I took the resort bus over to Disney's Hollywood Hotel. This is an Art Deco resort with a movie theme. Given a choice, this is definitely where I'd want to stay. I found a counter service restaurant here and decided it was time for lunch. I was excited to find that they had smoked turkey legs! This is one of my favorite WDW snacks. Plus, turkey is hard to find in HK, and I had resigned myself to not having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year. I think this was a good compromise: a turkey leg (served with a spiced honey dip), Japanese noodles, and some fresh fruit. Afterwards, I wandered around the resort and took some more photos.

Sadly, it was time for me to leave HKDL. I took the resort bus over to the MTR station and caught the next train. I was at Tung Chung in no time, and found my way over to the cable car terminal. This terminal was set up to handle huge crowds - it had long queues and a dozen or so ticket counters. I must be visiting on the off-season, because there was hardly anyone on line, and once I figured out what to buy, I had my ticket and boarded a cable car within 10 minutes.

The 20 minute ride up to the Buddha was quite an experience itself. The cable cars travel high, over water and steep mountains, and on a clear day, must offer quite a view. Unfortunately, the haze did not burn off as I'd hoped, moderately obscuring the scenes. Still, the haze did add some depth to the mountain ridges, and I think I was able to get a handful of interesting shots.

When I visited the Po-Lin Monastery 10 years ago, it was a fairly solemn place. There were a few souvenir and food shops, but all seemed very respectful of the true nature of the site. Now, not so much. The cable car dumps you right into a gift shop, complete with hawkers trying to sell photos that were taken as you boarded the car. There are now lots of shops selling not only souvenirs, but also brand name merchandise. There is also a couple of walking tours, a movie about Buddha's path to Enlightenment, an animated fable about a monkey, and NYC street-like acrobats. This seemed much more like a theme park than a religious experience (although I can't complain about the Starbucks mocha frappuccino I enjoyed there). I walked the many steps up to the Buddha and took some photos of the statue and surrounding area, wandered through some of the shops, and then caught another cable car ride back to reality.

While waiting to board the car, Daniel's friend Ray called. (It amazes me that there is cellphone service at such a remote location. Even more amazing is that it had cellphone service when I visited 10 years ago.) Ray knew I was on my own and invited me for dinner. We set up a place to meet, and he took me to a local Hong Kong restaurant. Great food and great company - Ray even got my cellphone charged, at a 7-11, no less. (Stupid me for not verifying that the adapter was rated at 240V before plugging it in.) I was back in my room by 11pm, feeling pretty good about the day I'd just spent.

Solo in Hong Kong, Day 1

2010-11-19T02:58:00.000-08:00

I managed to survive my first day alone in Hong Kong, but it didn't exactly go well. Daniel left for China at 6:30am on Wednesday. Normally that would mean I'd be awake from that point on. However, remember me mentioning my friend Benadryl? I had popped awake at 4am with a headache and took an Advil and a Benadryl, thinking that would let me sleep until maybe 9 or 10am. Much to my dismay, I was out cold until after 12:30pm. By the time I showered, got organized, wasted time online, and headed out the door, it was 2pm, and I still hadn't had anything to eat. I was angry with myself for having wasted so much of the day, but determined to at least attempt to do something.

Then I remembered that Wednesday is free museum day in Hong Kong. Why not hit a museum and hang out there for as long as it stays open? Since I'm not paying an entrance fee, there'd be no need to feel like I hadn't gotten my money's worth. A couple of Daniel's friends had recommended the Hong Kong Museum of History. Since it sounded interesting and was relatively close, it seemed like a good choice.

My first order of business, however, was food. I thought that if I could walk to the museum, there had to be some restaurant along the way that had an English menu. That would have worked well if I'd managed to start walking in the right direction. I knew if I walked South on Nathan Road (which I keep calling Nathan Lane in my head), I'd wind up in the area that I wanted to be in. However, I still hadn't gotten my bearings in this neighborhood and wasn't sure which direction was South. When I am in NYC, I try to use the sun to help me navigate. The sun was not much help here - the time of day plus the number of tall buildings made it very difficult to tell where the sun was. With no obvious landmarks, I picked a direction that felt right and started walking. But as the Grail knight in that Indiana Jones movie would say, I chose poorly. I walked for about 15 minutes until I came upon an area that let a little sun in, and realized I'd been heading North when I should have been heading South. Crap.

As luck would have it, I spotted a mall. Mall = Food Court, how much easier could that get, right? Only there was no food court, this mall had restaurants on each floor, fancy ones at that. I wandered around on 3 floors before I found one that wasn't too expensive and didn't think sea horses were edible. It was a Japanese establishment with a lunch menu, with photos of the dishes, and in English, even. Bingo, food problem solved.

With a full belly, I headed back down Nathan Road, in the right direction this time. But it was even later, and I realized I didn't have the time to take a stroll to the museum. I remembered I'd passed a subway stop during my wrong turn, retraced my steps, and took a train to the neighborhood I wanted to get to.

The Hong Kong subway exits are very well marked. Each exit is given a letter, and there are signs that tell you both the direction to head to get to the exit, as well as the popular destinations that can be reached by using that exit. I was easily able to spot the exit recommended for the museum.

Once on the street, though, it wasn't so simple. There were signs, but they weren't always placed in locations that were obviously visible. At least twice I found myself backtracking because I'd missed a sign, realizing this because I'd spot another sign pointing me in the opposite direction. What fun.

I did finally make it to the museum. By this time it was after 4pm. I looked for a sign indicating operating hours, and I swear it said that the museum would be open until 9pm. Perfect, I could spend the evening there. I took my time in the exhibits, strolling and reading and taking photos and resting. I got about halfway through when at 530pm an announcement was made that the museum would be closing at 6. Bummer. I had to rush through what I thought was the more interesting part of the museum, Hong Kong in the 20th Century. Oh well, at least it gives me a reason to return.

It was now dark, and since I'm down near the waterfront, I decided to see what was going on there. Along the way, I stopped in Sogo, a large Japanese department store made up of many smaller brand name stores. I wasn't so interested in shopping as I was eating. Food court. Photo menus. Full belly. Happy Tom.

I arrived at the harbour right before the light show was about to start. Called "A Symphony of Lights," the show uses colorful, animated lighting effects on the tall buildings in the famous Hong Kong skyline. Add a synchronized soundtrack, and you've got an entertaining show. Not exactly Epcot's Illuminations, but it works. By this time, it's 8:15pm and I'm tired, so I take the subway back to Mongkok, grab a mango and coconut milk drink, browse some shops, and then head back to my room.

Not exactly the best vacation day ever, but I'm alone in a foreign country where I don't speak the native language, yet I managed to eat, shop, see a few sights, and lived to tell about it. I'd call that Success.

Moving to Mongkok

2010-11-18T02:20:00.000-08:00

Daniel is heading to China with his family on Wednesday for two nights, and I was not comfortable staying at his father's place by myself during that time. It's not that I felt unsafe, I just thought it was a bit remote and not easily accessible for someone who does not read or speak Chinese.

Daniel's aunt helped us find a reasonably-priced inn that was convenient to the subway and was right in the middle of the shopping district. After a quick breakfast of congee, we packed up some things and headed to Mongkok to check in. The woman at the front desk is very nice but speaks no English. If we need to communicate, she will need to call the owner's daughter. To reduce the need for conversation, Daniel prepaid for 4 nights. The room is very simple - two beds, a bathroom, a couple of stools and a small table. Oh, and it has two TVs.

After checking in, we grabbed a quick lunch and then hit the markets to do some serious shopping. The market streets are crowded and pickpocketing is always a concern, but you can get some great deals. We found a stall that sold pillow covers, and knowing that we'd need couch pillows for the new place, decided to pick up a couple. That quickly turned in 10, and the total cost was about $15. We came across other trinkets as well, and soon we had a sack full of things we really didn't need.

Thankfully, it was time for dinner. We met Daniel's friend Marie at a Japanese buffet in Causeway Bay. We timed dinner rather badly; we had to take the subway during rush hour. I've never seen it so crowded, there were lines to get into the tightly-packed cars. I was so happy when we reached our destination!

The food, though, was wonderful, and did mention it was a buffet? We ate and talked for 3 1/2 hours. We were stuffed to the gills when they kicked us out at 10pm. We did some more browsing in the area stores - the shopping areas stay open very late here - before saying goodbye to Marie and heading back to our room.

Tsim Sha Tsui

2010-11-16T14:56:00.000-08:00

Daniel and his father had to go take care of some paperwork on Monday, so they put me on a bus so that I could explore Tsim Sha Tsui. I got off at the Ferry terminal and spent the morning wandering the Victoria Harbour waterfront. This is a very touristy area, with museums, a concert hall, a cruise ship port, great views of the Hong Kong Island skyline (when the smog isn't obscuring it), and the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong's version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This long promenade has plaques and handprints of famous Hong Kong stars imbedded in it, along with statues for the tourists to pose with. The Bruce Lee statue is the only celebrity I recognized. I did stop here for a bit to watch the fun as tourists did their best karate poses for photos with Bruce.

At the end of my walk, I was happy to spot a familiar face from America - the lady in the Starbucks logo. A mocha frappuccino was just the thing to cool me off on this warm muggy day. It was just in time, too, because it gave me the energy to dodge the pushy vendors every dozen or so yards who desperately wanted me to buy their fake Rolexes or a custom-made suit.

I met up with Daniel and his father for lunch in a mall food court. That may not sound very exciting, but the food was actually very good. Many different Asian cuisines were represented - Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, it was tough deciding which to try. I finally settled on a few tasty dim sum items, Daniel had a grilled steak, and his father chose a huge noodle bowl.

We spent the afternoon shopping in the malls in Tsim Sha Tsui. My favorite stores were:
- G.O.D, sort of a Hong Kong version of Pier One. "Gee Oh Dee" phonetically sounds like the Cantonese words for "Live Better." I picked up a couple of pillow covers for my new place here.
- A supermarket/kitchen place that sold all sorts of neat gadgets, food-related and otherwise. I walked out of there with some stainless steel chopsticks that I inexplicably needed to own.

We came back to the apartment to have a light dinner with Daniel's family, and then I crashed while Daniel headed off to meet up with his brother.

Pre-Shopping Day

2010-11-14T18:55:00.000-08:00

After a solid night's sleep Saturday night (thanks, Benadryl!), we had a quick breakfast of congee and noodles at an open-air restaurant and then headed to Mongkok to meet up with Daniel's aunt and look for a hotel for later in the week. This brought us near a prime shopping district, so we had to start browsing. Today was just a planning day, to see what was available and for what price; we'll be doing more serious shopping later in the week, after we've had a chance to scope out all the deals. We weren't the only ones out looking for Sunday bargains; the sidewalks were crowded with both locals and tourists.

We met up with Daniel's friend Maggie for dim sum at a highly recommended restaurant (I have no idea what it was called, but it earned one star in the famous Michelin guide, and was worth the wait). Afterwards, Daniel and Maggie wanted to get a massage, so we wandered around to find a place that had an opening for 3. Daniel and Maggie opted for a 90 minute full-body massage, while I decided to try just my feet. (I still don't get why people subject themselves to foot massages - I have always found them to be very painful, the only real chance at a Happy Ending is when the masseuse finally stops. :) )

Daniel met some high school friends for dinner, so I went with Maggie to Causeway Bay for more shopping. Culture clash of the day: shopping in a Japanese store in Hong Kong with John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" blasting over the store's sound system.

Family Dinner

2010-11-13T15:58:00.000-08:00

Our first night in town was spent having dinner with Daniel's family. I always enjoy these dinners, in spite of my inability to participate in the Cantonese conversation. The abundance of talking and laughter reminds of past meals with my own extended family.

And the food is always good! The meal is served family style, with a variety of fish, meat, and vegetarian dishes. I like to share photos of the more unusual aspects of the food, like these chicken heads. (They were served with the dishes as a garnish; I've never seen anyone actually eat them.) However, most of what was served was fairly standard stuff - if you're used to eating any Chinese food at all, you'd recognize it (ignoring, of course, the giant fish tail dish).

Daniel's aunt always asks me how I like the food in Hong Kong. She contends that their food tastes fresher. I don't usually notice a difference, but tonight I'd have to agree with her. Everything was more tasty than normal - more peppery, more gingery, more sweet-and-soury. Or perhaps it was just my jetlagged taste buds on sensory overload.

Hurry Up and Wait

2010-11-12T05:45:00.001-08:00

Getting to the plane is always the worst part of the trip - dreading the earlier-than-usual alarm (yet hoping it actually goes off and that I hear it), waiting for the car service to show up, praying the rush hour traffic keeps moving, that there will be short lines at check-in, that I'm not carrying anything that gets the TSA in a tizzy. We managed to get through all that this morning and then had to wait another hour to board. I wish I'd gotten a better night's sleep, but one of my friends butt-dialed me right when I was failing asleep, and it took a while for me to drop off again. Hopefully that means that I'll be able to sleep some during the flight. We're boarding now, another line to wait on...

An Asian Adventure

2010-11-11T18:36:00.000-08:00

I'm about to head out on an extended trip to China. Instead of just posting photos, I thought it might be fun to use this blog to report on my activities. How successful I am all depends on how easy it is to find free Internet access. Keep your fingers crossed that I can find a Starbucks or McDonalds when I need one! :)

Geocacher Was Here

2009-10-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I created any new items on Zazzle. I have been having a bit of a creative block - I wanted to use Zazzle as a way to share my photographs, but I am still struggling with the types of shots and products people might be interested in.

I was talking with a friend of mine about the recent popularity of Geocaching and what Zazzle items might interest these "treasure hunters." He suggested coming up with something that a geocacher could leave behind in a cache. It would have to be something small, since many of these caches don't have a lot of room. I noticed that Zazzle offers a "skinny" sized business card (3" x 1"), and thought that this would be ideal for a personalized geocache calling card or signature card of sorts. Using this item, I designed a number of simple cards using my photographs. These are template cards that allow a geocacher to add their own name and hometown, and perhaps an e-mail address or web URL. A geocache hider could also place these cards in their cache as a souvenir for those who have managed to find it. (Simply click "Customize It!" on the product page, and edit the "This cache was found by" line to say "is owned by" or "was hidden by".)

For those that want to take it a step further, I also designed a template calling card that allows for adding their own photographs on both the front and back of the card. This is ideal for geocachers who have a personal logo, or want to use a photo of themselves or of a landmark from their hometown.

Hopefully there will be some interest in these types of items. If anyone has any suggestions about what I could do to improve upon my geocache calling cards, I'd love to hear them!

Kalaka with a friend!

2008-07-16T05:13:00.000-07:00

I was planning a going-away party for a co-worker last week. In the interest of saving fuel, I wanted to remind everyone to carpool to the restaurant. For fun, I decided to use a term from my childhood in the invite. It was from a public service announcement which aired during the gas crisis of the 70's. A cartoon Noah is explaining that he was the first to carpool, and how they called it "kalaka" in his day. The ad ended with "Kalaka with a friend!" I changed it slightly in the invite, saying "Kalaka with a co-worker or two!" I had hoped that at least some of my peers (age-wise) would get a smile out of this memory.

Would you believe, no one at all remembers this? I don't know why it stuck in my brain. I can't seem to find much history about the ad, other than this entry in the Urban Dictionary. Perhaps it only aired in the New York Metropolitan area? Does anyone else remember this and know more about it?

Big Controversy Over Small World

2008-04-13T05:16:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of the "It's A Small World" attraction at the Disney parks; I even have a Squidoo lens about it. So as you can imagine, I have been following the latest controversy over this innocuous ride with much interest. It all started with this MiceAge article, in which Al Lutz talked about rumored changes to the classic attraction, including the addition of Disney characters to some of the scenes, and the replacement of the rain forest scene with a patriotic tribute to the United States.

The article ruffled a lot of feathers, including Kevin L. Blair, son of the late Mary Blair. (I have a Squidoo lens about her too!) This letter was posted on the Re-Imagineering blog, from Kevin to Disney executives, urging them not to tamper with Mary Blair's "Children of the World" theme. (Be sure to read the discussion comments which follow - some interesting points are raised, both pro and con.)

Kevin L. Blair's letter, along with comments from many fans, generated a response from Marty Sklar, The Walt Disney Company's international ambassador for Walt Disney Imagineering, found here on The Disney Blog. (Be sure to read John Frost's initial thoughts on Marty's letter, found in the first Comment after the letter.)

The rumored enhancements have instigated the creation of Save the Rainforest, Save the Small World. This web site is an attempt to convince The Walt Disney Company to do the right thing, and contains contact information for those who wish to write to the company and express their displeasure in these changes.

Additional links to articles and web pages on this topic:

John Frost provides additional thoughts about Marty Sklar's letter

From the Re-Imagineering blog, The World Of Animation Speaks includes comments about the proposed changes from many famous people from the Animation industry.

The Disney Gossip blog claims to have the real story behind the changes to the beloved attraction, and it doesn't have a happy ending.

Disney archivist Dave Smith pipes in with his opinion in these letters to LaughingPlace.com. And John Frost has a frosty response on The Disney Blog.

2719 Hyperion's Jeff Pepper takes a step back and makes some level-headed observations about the entire debate.

My thoughts on all this? I believe that the idea that an attraction can be plussed by throwing Disney characters into it shows a huge lack of creativity and imagination from a company that is supposed to excel in those concepts. Sure, the characters are popular, but they are already all over the place, and too much of a good thing is not usually good. (It's sad that The Walt Disney Company hasn't learned its lesson from "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.") What's next, updating the Hall of Presidents, replacing George W with the real Goofy? There are other ways to plus an attraction, perhaps throwing in a few special effects, like they did with the Jungle Cruise renovations. No characters slipped in there, but the pirhana effect was a big hit.

And then there's the rumor about the Imagineers destroying the rainforest scene to replace it with that tribute to America. If that is true, then I am simply amazed that the WDC cannot see what a PR nightmare that would create. Besides the symbolic ecological implications from a company that pretends to be so green, I've always thought of that scene, with its flamboyant cat and alligator, as a mini-tribute to the gay community. I wouldn't be surprised if the destruction of those characters ruffled a few rainbow-colored feathers as well.

Sunday Morning Squidooing

2008-01-27T06:18:00.000-08:00

I took some time to update a few of my Squidoo lenses this morning:

It's A Small World: I added some information about the tribute to Joyce Carlson, who recently passed away. This happens to be my highest-ranked lens, but I can't figure out why. A lot of the traffic it gets seems to be related to people looking for music and/or lyrics from the attraction.
Mary Blair: I just made a few minor updates, correcting some wording and adding an end date for the "Art and Flair" exhibit going on now at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco.
Walt Disney World Shopping: I added information about the WDW shops in the Orlando International Airport, plus information on mickeysurplus, another WDW artifact seller on eBay. This lens is personally my biggest disappointment. It has links to what I think is a lot of useful WDW shopping information, yet for some reason, Google has stopped indexing it. I can't even find a direct link to it if I google "squidoo shopwdw"! I wish I could find out why Google is ignoring it.

Comparing Apples to iPods

2008-01-25T09:24:00.001-08:00

OK, I still haven't been able to let this whole iPod touch $20 app thing go. I keep seeing comments on various gadget blogs and the Apple support forum basically telling non-app iPod touch owners to stop their whining, while providing analogies in an attempt to prove that the owners are just plain stupid. Like this analogy, for example:

If you bought a Mac without iWork on it, and then a couple of months later, Apple released an update to iWork and decided to bundle it with new Macs, would you also expect to get iWork for free, even though you didn't have it in the first place?

This analogy, and others that have been offered, aren't even close to the iPod touch situation. A better analogy would be this:

You bought a Mac without iWork on it. iWork exists and will run on your Mac. However, Apple has also put support in place to block you from installing and running this very useful app or anything similar to it without voiding your warranty, in an effort to drive users that really want iWork to buy a more lucrative Mac that has features you don't need, along with additional costs you don't want. A short while later, Apple realizes this isn't working, and changes its strategy. (Or maybe this was the plan all along, to make it seem like they were doing a huge favor to the Mac community, meanwhile extorting additional money from current owners.) With a grand announcement, Apple now begins shipping your exact same model of Mac with iWork installed, for no extra cost. But if you want iWork now, you have to pay for it.

I know that ultimately this is my fault for settling for a device that didn't have all of the features i wanted, but wouldn't you feel that you were deliberately duped by Apple, a victim of its marketing game-playing? I wouldn't want a friend to treat me this way, why would I want to continue to patronize a company that does?

Lesson Learned with the iPod Touch

2008-01-22T18:48:00.000-08:00

So, I ranted here about how I wasn't going to get an iPod touch because Apple deliberately left off some key applications that are available on the iPhone. My desire for a new, cool gadget (plus a decent price at Amazon.com) got the better of me, and the day before Christmas, the UPS guy tossed a box containing my new 16GB toy at my front door. I figured I could live without the Mail application because using the "full-featured" Safari browser would allow me to get at my e-mail using AOL's web client. Or so I thought. Had I done a little bit of research, I would have learned that the AOL mail web client doesn't actually work on the touch. So even though the tiny web browser is pretty cool (I love the way it can rotate and re-size itself), this device turned out to be even less useful than I'd hoped. I have been enjoying the multimedia features, though, listening to music and podcasts, and watching video podcasts and movies that I ripped from DVDs or downloaded from Google Video. And I loaded some contact information in it (just to play around with the keyboard, really), along with pictures of some of my trips. But it's not much more than I was already able to do with the Dell Axim that I bought in 2005.

3 weeks later, I'm on Engadget.com reading up on Steve Job's keynote address at MacWorld. There's all this talk about new features for the iPhone. I start getting excited when I see the touch mentioned. "What can we do for the touch? We decided to add five apps to the touch. Mail, maps, stocks, notes, and weather!" All right!!! Finally, this thing is looking useful again. And then I read his next statements: "Starting today we're going to build it into every new iPod touch, for existing iPod touch users it's going to be just a $20 upgrade." What??? You've got to be kidding me! I just spent a small fortune on this thing in late December, and you're telling me that 3 weeks later, I have to shell out another $20 just to get the device that I really wanted, that Apple should have been selling from the start, and that new buyers will get for no extra charge? What a crock!!!

I know, I've read all the discussions about how the early adopters should stop whining because they bought the touch knowing that there were no expectations that there would ever be new features; how Apple has to charge something for the upgrade because of some silly accounting rules (there's a long discussion here on Engadget about the possible legal reasons behind why Apple may have done this); how $20 is really not a lot of money to pay for these additional apps.

While I understand all that, I still can't help but feel badly about this. I'm partly mad at myself - I got caught up in the hype, bought something that wasn't quite what I wanted, and I'm now being extorted in order to get it to where I want it to be. However, I had also hoped that Apple would do the right thing. I should have known better - after all, they are a for-profit company, so of course they are going to do what they can to make a buck. At some point I'll probably get it over with and pay for the upgrade and be done with it. But I know I won't be making the same mistake again with the purchase of future Apple products. If I ever buy from them at all, it will be a product that has all of the features I want, and I will be patient and wait until after the product has been out for a while and the dust has been allowed to settle.

Christmas At Walt Disney World

2008-01-14T09:40:00.001-08:00

I can't believe it has already been over a month since my Christmas trip. I had wanted to write about it sooner, but life has been busy ever since I got back.

In general, this was one of my better trips to the World. I had a wonderful time with the MouseFest activities, and met so many nice people! I also got to take the "Behind the Seeds" tour at Epcot's The Land pavilion. The tour was just ok - I don't think I learned that much more than what I'd heard on the boat ride through the greenhouses, but it was neat being able to see the plants and growing methods up-close.

I managed to see every one of my "Must See's"! Here's what I thought about each:

The refurbished Haunted Mansion: I got to experience this twice, and I must say, they did an amazing job on it. I loved all the new effects and the modified storyline.

The new Golden Dream montage in The American Adventure: I saw this late in the trip, after several days with not enough sleep. I hate to admit this, but I slept through most of the show. I did wake up when Golden Dreams started. I'm not sure if it was because I had just woken up, but it seemed like there were just too many images coming at me too quickly. I'll have to try this again after a good night's sleep.

"National Treasures," the new American Heritage Gallery exhibit: I was a little disappointed in this - there weren't many more items on exhibit here than what I'd seen in the online descriptions. And the lighting was very dim, making it more difficult to see what was there. I guess I was expecting more.

The new "O Canada!" movie: I saw this twice, and really enjoyed it. Martin Short's humor made the experience much more fun, very different from its beautiful but more serious predecessor.

The Gran Fiesta Tour in the Mexico Pavilion: I experienced this twice, too. Although I liked it, I still missed the original El Rio Del Tiempo theme song.

The refurbished Spaceship Earth (maybe): It sounded like my chance of seeing this was slim, but they began holding soft openings during my trip, and I actually got to ride it twice! Without spoiling it, I'll just say I loved the improvements made to the first half of the ride, and was bored by the second half. We'll have to wait and see whether they do anything else to spice it up.

The Harlem Gospel Choir at the Disney/MGM Studio's Theater of the Stars: I found it amusing that they kept calling themselves "world famous," like they were trying to convince the audience of that. But I did enjoy their energetic, heartfelt performance. Nice to see WDW making an effort to bring in some new acts during the holiday season!

The Laugh Floor Comedy Club: I only saw this once. I love this technology they have developed for the Living Character Initiative, and found the show funny and fresh. But what I hated was that I felt nervous the entire show that I might get selected - I prefer to be entertained more than being part of the entertainment.

The new Christmas parade (during Mickeys' Very Merry Christmas Party): I saw both runs of this parade durint MVMCP. It was good, but really didn't feel much different from the previous version. The new music seemed nice, but I don't even remember it now. I can't understand why they didn't have the music available for purchase, seems like pretty poor planning.

Finding Nemo, The Musical (so I can take photos this time): I did get to see this and take pictures without getting yelled at. We were seated pretty far back, tbough, so I couldn't get any closeups of the characters.

Dream-Along With Mickey (to see the new articulated faces): This technology is so cool! The characters with their moving mouths and blinking eyes look so lifelike! They were using these hi-tech heads in at least one other place as well, but I can't remember exactly where. It seems like it was during MVMCP, perhaps on the Christmas Parade floats, or Mickey's Twas the Night Before Christmas show?

And I almost forgot - here is a link to my trip photo gallery.

WDW Planning (Part 3)

2007-11-27T19:24:00.000-08:00

The planning continues. Most important was finding Daniel a park hopper ticket for the week. I didn't want to wait and get a ticket at the parks due to the extra cost. My first thought was to buy the ticket at the local Disney Store, but then I read that the Borders Perks program offered tickets at an even cheaper price. All I had to do is join Borders Rewards and then sign up for Perks a week later. After shipping and handling, I only managed to save about $9, but what the heck, every buck counts!

I also called to get my Disney Dining Experience card, a discount card for Florida residents and annual passholders. $65 gets you a 20% discount for a year in many restaurants throughout the WDW resort. The card used to have to be ordered in advance of the trip, but when I called this time, I was told that the rules had changed, and I could now purchase the card at any WDW Guest Relations desk. So this todo item was moved to the "after I arrive" list. I did try to arrange an Advanced Dining Reservation for Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The earliest seating I could get was 9pm! I hope this isn't a sign that we'll have problems getting table service meals all week.

My biggest disappointment was finding out that a newly-renovated Spaceship Earth would not open by the time I arrive. Apparently they ran into some difficulties with the renovations and have delayed reopening until early next year. I recently heard on Ricky Brigante's Inside The Magic podcast that Spaceship Earth might open for guest testing on December 5th, so I have a slim chance of maybe getting to experience it. I guess that's better than no chance at all, which is what chance I have to take a Segway tour. I called to sign up for one, but both the Epcot tour and the new Fort Wilderness tour were completely booked for my entire trip.

On the plus side, it was announced that the Harlem Gospel Choir would be performing in the Disney/MGM Studios in December. I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing them! I have also spent some time learning more about the various MouseFest activities. There are so many meets, but it does look like it could be a lot of fun. I recently joined the Tagrel community and have sat in on a couple of MouseFest-related chats. They seem like a fun, crazy group of people. I just hope I can fit in.

My updated "Must See's" (in no particular order):

The refurbished Haunted Mansion;

The new Golden Dream montage in The American Adventure;

"National Treasures," the new American Heritage Gallery exhibit;

The new "O Canada!" movie;

The Gran Fiesta Tour in the Mexico Pavilion;

The refurbished Spaceship Earth (maybe);

The Harlem Gospel Choir at the Disney/MGM Studio's Theater of the Stars;

The Laugh Floor Comedy Club;

The new Christmas parade (during Mickeys' Very Merry Christmas Party);

Finding Nemo, The Musical (so I can take photos this time);

Dream-Along With Mickey (to see the new articulated faces).

iMac Musings

2007-11-26T19:26:00.001-08:00

As of today, I have been an iMac owner for exactly a year - I bought a Core 2 Duo during the 2006 after-Thanksgiving Black Friday sale (online, from the comfort of a hotel room in West Atlantic City, NJ - no lining up at 2am for me!). I have to say that for the most part, I am pleased with this machine and its software. I honestly haven't used many of the applications and features it provides, but I do spend an awful lot of time sitting in front of it. Way too much time is spent surfing the Web using Safari. I really like using Mail to manage 4 e-mail addresses and iTunes for my digital music jukebox (one of these days I might actually own an iPod!). I have also installed PhotoShop for digital photo editing. I have played around with some of the other multimedia applications, but I really don't have much use for them, so have nothing significant to report.

My biggest disappointment with the iMac has been Safari. For the most part, it works; however, it has more incompatibilities than it should. I have come across a number of web sites that simply do not work correctly in Safari. Ironically, some of them have been Disney sites. With Steve Jobs sitting on the Walt Disney Company board of directors, you'd think that he might have some influence getting Disney to test its Web applications with Safari.

Since I am into digital photography, I did play around with iPhoto a bit. I was turned off by its insistence on organizing my photos for me, rather than honoring the directory structure I am used to using. There may be a way to turn that off, but I never took the time to figure that out. I do wish that IrfanView ran on OS X - it's a very simple way to quickly view photos within an existing directory structure, and to perform simple editing tasks. I have yet to find something comparable on the iMac. Any suggestions?

A Fraud-Filled Friday

2007-11-23T20:57:00.000-08:00

A friend who is away this week asked me to make a major purchase for him, to take advantage of Apple.com's Black Friday Sale. So first thing Friday morning, I got online (from the comfort of my hotel room in South Jersey - no standing in line at 6am for me!) and completed the transaction using my Visa card. I didn't get an e-mail confirmation note by the time I had to leave, but I didn't think anything of it - other online retailers like Amazon often take a while before confirming my purchase.

It wasn't until I stopped for gas this evening that I found out something had gone wrong - my Visa card was declined at the gas pump. Suspecting it may have been caused by this morning's transaction, I checked my phone messages at home. Sure enough, the Chase Fraud Detector's computerized voice called to tell me some questionable charges had been attempted using my card. I returned to my room and got online, but didn't see a note from Apple reporting any problems. Not until I checked my Spam folder, that is. Apple did send a note to me this morning, but since I'd never gotten a note from this particular Apple e-mail address, my e-mail provider was kind enough to mark it as spam and hide it away from me.

Apple gave me a chance to update the payment information for my order, so I called the Chase Fraud Detector hot line to straighten things out. After confirming that the charges were OK, I was told that I would be able to use the card again in 30 seconds. I patiently waited 3 minutes just to be sure, and then tried to update my Apple order, but I continued to get "declined" errors.

Frustrated, I decided to switch the order to my Discover card. That one went through rather quickly, and within a minute I got an e-mail from Apple telling me the order was accepted. That was followed seconds later by an e-mail from Discover Card's Fraud Prevention service!!! So I'm back on the phone, this time with Discover, to see what happened there. Luckily, Discover had accepted the charge before warning me, so I didn't have to go back to Apple and correct my payment information again.

The whole incident left my very annoyed. I make major electronics purchases on my Visa card all the time. I have absolutely no idea what caused this one to be flagged. I realize these companies are just trying to protect me (and themselves). However, what should have been a simple transaction turned out to be very inconvenient. Between having the initial charge repeatedly declined, then having my Visa card itself disabled, losing the "Order Problem" e-mail in my Spam folder, and having to call two card companies to get everything straightened out, I really feel like smacking the heck out of the thieves and spammers who have helped get us to this point.

SquidWho?

2007-11-07T17:49:00.000-08:00

Ever since Squidoo announced their SquidWho site, I have been thinking about who I could build a fanpage about. It finally hit me who I should start with: Mary Blair, Disney Legend and my favorite Disney artist. I spent a few hours scouring the web for information on Mary and samples of her artwork. I published the results here. It still needs a bit of work, but hopefully it points to some interesting web pages.

And while I was at it, I also added some information to my Walt Disney World shopping lens. It seemed to be popular earlier in the fall, but lately interest in it has waned. Maybe the Christmas season will stir up more interest in WDW shopping.

WDW Planning (Part 2)

2007-10-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

I am continuing to look at what I can do during my December trip to WDW. I travel there frequently enough that I have done most of the common touristy things, and I am always looking for a couple of new activities to make my experience there more interesting.

I'll be there during the pre-Christmas season, so I'm looking forward to some of the Christmas activities, like the Candlelight Processional and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. I also enjoy the special holiday tag on Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, so I expect I'll be viewing that at least a couple of times. Sadly, I recently heard that the Country Bear Christmas Special will not be back this year. It wasn't there last year, either, and I really do miss this holiday attraction.

On the bright side, I will be there during MouseFest! In addition to attending some of the meets that they have planned, I am also hoping to meet some of the people that create the web sites and podcasts that I spend so much time with. I am a bit on the shy side, so I'm not sure how well this will work out. But how could MouseFest not be fun, hanging out with fellow Disney Geeks in my favorite place on Earth?

On a previous solo trip, I took Keys to the Kingdom tour in the Magic Kingdom, and enjoyed it immensely. I am looking at booking another tour or two this trip, perhaps Behind the Seeds or Around the World At Epcot. My friend Daniel will be with me this time for most of the trip, and he's not much into the tours. I'll have to try to schedule around him.

My updated "Must See's" (in no particular order):

The refurbished Haunted Mansion;

The new Golden Dream montage in The American Adventure;

"National Treasures," the new American Heritage Gallery exhibit;

The new "O Canada!" movie;

The Gran Fiesta Tour in the Mexico Pavilion;

The refurbished Spaceship Earth (including the new Project Tomorrow post show);

The Laugh Floor Comedy Club;

The new Christmas parade (during Mickeys' Very Merry Christmas Party);

Finding Nemo, The Musical (so I can take photos this time);

Dream-Along With Mickey (to see the new articulated faces).

Razzle Dazzle 'em in Zazzle?

2007-10-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last week adding new cards to my own little product gallery at zazzle.com. (I call it "Poughtography", a word I coined by combining "Poughkeepsie" and "Photography". I know, pretty dorky, but that's exactly why I love it so much!) Most of the newest photos are from my April trip to Spain. I also added a couple of QSL card templates after a ham radio operator brought that concept to my attention and bought 100 copies of my Bannerman's Island Castle Ruins postcard.

Honestly, very few of my photos have actually been purchased, and I haven't had one sell since late August. It could be for a number of reasons:

I've chosen the wrong photos to feature on my products - I'm still trying to figure out what photos people are interested in, but it is difficult to do on Zazzle because there are so many other products. And it is quite possible that my photos are just not good enough for people to want to purchase;

I'm horrible at marketing - I've honestly done very little to advertise the existence of this product gallery. I have told some friends, and put a link to it from other sites where I have an on-line presence, but I'm not sure what to do after that. Print off a few postcards, and leave them lying around somewhere for advertising?

No one buys cards anymore - with the Internet, I'm sure that people are not sending cards as often. This means I'm screwed no matter what I do.

Maybe things will pick up at Christmastime, as people start looking for gifts for their loved ones...

San Diego Photo Galleries

2007-09-26T04:32:00.000-07:00

It took me a month, but I finally finished uploading my favorite pictures from my San Diego trip. I was there for a convention, so I didn't really have a lot of time during the week to explore and shoot. A couple of friends and I stayed for a long weekend afterwards, and that gave us some time to relax and explore. The conference hotel was located right at the Seaport Village, which allowed us to explore the shops and restaurants, and to wander along the shoreline. We also got to visit the USS Midway, Hotel del Coronado, Old Town, La Jolla, the San Diego Zoo, and Sea World. San Diego is a very beautiful city - the harbor provides some amazing views, the weather is very comfortable, and the coastline is simple beautiful!

Photos galleries are at these links:

San Diego

San Diego Zoo

Sea World San Diego

Enjoy!

I won't be touching the iPod touch!

2007-09-05T18:29:00.000-07:00

From the first day I saw it, I thought that the iPhone was a pretty cool device. Problem is, as much as I love all it does, I really don't need the phone, nor the EDGE data transfer capability. I'd be happy to simply use it as a video iPod, and to use wifi to access the web and my e-mail. I kept saying, "Can't they just build an iPhone without the phone?"

Well, that's exactly what the recent rumors had been for the next generation iPod - music, video, and wifi without the phone. I was so looking forward to today's announcement, hoping that they'd be offering something closer to my dream gadget. You can imagine my disappointment when I started hearing the details of the new iPod touch. My biggest frustration: no e-mail application! Why the heck not? What were they thinking? They already have an e-mail application that works on the platform, it's not like they'd have to write something new.

I am so disappointed, I have even started fantasizing about picking up a 4GB iPhone from the clearance sale and using one of those hacks to activate it without signing up for the AT&T service. Seems like a waste of money, though. Plus, I'll probably outgrow the 4GB pretty quickly.

Here's hoping that Apple comes to its senses and makes the iPhone's mail application available on the iPod touch.

Time To Start Planning!

2007-09-04T17:11:00.000-07:00

My much anticipated Walt Disney World Annual Pass Exchange Certificate arrived in the mail today! I had ordered it last Monday for my upcoming December trip. Its arrival means I can really start planning the rest of the trip - booking a room, arranging flights, etc.

I'm not used to doing all this so early; usually I book about a month out from when I plan to travel. However, when I tried that for my trip last December, I was unable to get a reasonably priced room (like one much less than a few hundred dollars per night) at a Disney resort for the days that I wanted. This year I decided to book early and prevent that from happening again.

After some difficulties logging into the Passholder web site with my Exchange Certificate (the trick seems to be to enter only the last 4 digits of the last group of numbers), I managed to snag a room at the passholder rate of $59/night. Next step is to book my flight. I have to decide whether I want to drive all the way up to Albany Airport just to use a Southwest credit from last year, or fly on JetBlue from the much more convenient Stewart Field.

I've also begun my list of new "Must See's" (in no particular order):

The refurbished Haunted Mansion;

The new Golden Dream montage in The American Adventure;

"National Treasures," the new American Heritage Gallery exhibit;

The new "O Canada!" movie;

The Gran Fiesta Tour in the Mexico Pavilion;

The refurbished Spaceship Earth (including the new Project Tomorrow post show);

The Muppet Mobile Lab [Update: this is only at Epcot for a couple of weeks, after which it will be shipped to Hong Kong Disneyland. Maybe I can catch it there next year!];

The Laugh Floor Comedy Club;

The Country Bear Christmas Special (rumor has it that it will be back);

Finding Nemo, The Musical (so I can take photos this time);

Dream-Along With Mickey (to see the new articulated faces).

Any other suggestions?

A Birthday at Walt Disney World

2007-08-30T18:25:00.001-07:00

The Disney Blog is running a little contest, and to enter, I have chosen to describe a birthday that I spent at Walt Disney World.

Mine was September, 2002. My friend Daniel was unemployed at the time, I was dealing with a very stressful work project, so we both needed a bit of an escape. We didn't plan to travel there explicitly for my birthday (I would normally prefer that the day just pass by quietly), but Daniel decided that he was going to try to make it a memorable one. With all that extra time on his hands, he scoured the Internet looking for fun WDW birthday things to do. And decided to do every one of them. Well, not every one, but he did try to fit a few into the day.

Of course, it all didn't go as planned. He requested that a birthday card be delivered to the room, and it didn't arrive that day, or the next, or the next... Daniel can be pretty persistent, and kept at them. Balloons and a card were finally delivered on the day we were to depart. I got to enjoy them for about 10 minutes before we checked out. I remember trying to give the balloons away at the Ticket and Transportation Center parking lot, but no one wanted any part of them ("no one" meaning the parents, of course).

We started off the day at the Disney/MGM Studios, where Daniel made sure that I got an "It's My Birthday!" pin. We enjoyed the park until after lunchtime, when we suddenly had to make a detour over to the Grand Floridian. Daniel surprised me with a wonderful chocolate cake from the GF's bakery. He had ordered it a few days before, and understood that they would deliver it to our resort room. However, for some reason, they wouldn't deliver it, hence the sudden side trip. We couldn't carry the cake around with us all day, so we had to eat the entire thing right then and there.

Did I mention that we were scheduled to attend the Ice Cream Social at the Garden Grill an hour later? With our bellies full of cake, facing an early dinner at Alfredo's, there was just no way we could have all that ice cream too, so we cancelled that. We had a great dinner at Alfredo's, though, which included a birthday cannoli and being serenaded by all the Italian waiters. A wonderful ending to a memorable day!

A New Toy

2007-08-29T05:39:00.001-07:00

I do love electronic gadgets! It's a struggle resisting the urge to own one of each. However, my recent trip to San Diego got me too close to some of the latest GPS technology - NeverLost was in our Hertz rental car. Pretty cool stuff! I had purchased a small handheld Garmin GPS a few years back, but it contained only very basic maps, and was really more useful for hiking than driving. I knew after our first use of NeverLost that I was going to have to get an upgraded model for myself. It made driving in a strange town more fun than stressful. At times it almost seemed like there was an additional person in the car helping us along.

After a little research, I decided on a Garmin nuvi 350. Reviews seemed to be pretty favorable, and I especially liked that:

it is TTS (Text to Speech) capable, so it can actually tell you the name of the road onto which it wants you to turn;
it has a built-in MP3 player (Normally I hate when they cram too much stuff into one device (I still don't get camera phones), but since I like to listen to podcasts on long drives, I thought this would come in handy).

My nuvi arrived yesterday afternoon, and I just had to take it out on its maiden drive (a quick trip to my sister's house and back). Overall, it seems to work very well. The volume seems reasonable, the voice is mostly understandable. It did make a few strange route choices, but it still got me to where I wanted to go, and I learned a couple of new roads along the way. I think I'll keep it!

I can't believe I'm doing this.

2007-08-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

I've always thought that blogs were for people that were craving attention, or thought they were more important than they really are. But more and more lately I've found myself feeling isolated from the rest of the world. I spend a lot of time in front of the computer (thanks to work and the Internet), and way too much time in front of the TV (thanks to my DVR). And I'm kind of on the shy side, so I'm not very comfortable posting on forums and popping into chat rooms unless I have specific information I want to convey. Lots of passive time watching and reading, and very little time interacting with real human beings.

So I thought I'd give blogging a try. Besides giving me a chance to practice my writing skills, I'm hoping it'll make me feel like I am reaching out to the world, sharing parts of my life and my thoughts. And with any luck, maybe someone will reach back in, and I might make a new friend or two. I guess I'm the one who is craving attention now.