So I can’t turn the monitor on or off. There is a Key Lock display when you plug the AC cord in. The internet is less than helpful. All I can find is some forum post reply that says push two buttons or hold down ESC and ENTER when powering the monitor on…yeah, THAT sounds like a good idea. So let’s push random combinations of buttons on the monitor until somethig happens…
EUREKA!
Volume Up key + Auto key = Key Lock toggle on/off
President
McCain/Palin – The True Name of Barack Obama’s Change: Intolerance
But whoever wins, I intend to fully support the American President. Cuz they’re not going to bulldoze Disneyland. The prices may skyrocket and I may be too poor to afford an annual pass – but it will still be there.
Prop 8
I’ve come to the conclusion that homosexuality is (generally speaking) not a choice. Most homosexuals don’t choose to be homosexuals…that’s just how God made them. With that conclusion, I have no choice but to vote no on 8 because otherwise I’m discriminating against a group of people. And that’s unconstitutional (why is California still voting on this issue? 
).
8 days in Florida – August 23rd – August 30th
August 23rd – Saturday – Flight to Orlando via Phoenix and New Orleans
Wendy’s drive through
Elaborate presentation to hook us on to a timeshare/condo presentation
Wendy’s and The Full Monty
August 24th – Sunday – Relax
Day off – no theme parks, just a timeshare/condo presentation sale + free breakfast + discounted Arabian Nights tickets (Medieval Times with more horses)
Exploration, gather our wits, buy supplies, watch movies (Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day)
We also (?) headed to the Grand Floridian to discover the magic of “Self Parking” where-in you can park your car just a short walk from the Grand Floridian Hotel’s Monorail station which can take you to the Magic Kingdom or the Ticket and Transportation Center, where you can catch another monorail to EPCOT or buses to any of the theme parks, water parks, shopping districts and hotels encompassed by the Disney World title.
The Crab House for dinner
August 25th – Monday – Disney’s Hollywood Studio – worst park ever award despite awesome vintage buildings
Parked in Self Parking, took the monorail from the Grand Floridian to the TTC and hopped on the bus to Disney’s Hollywood Studio (formerly Disney’s MGM Studios, but they lost the right to the name…c’est la vie…). Along the way, Laura discovers there’s a Disney pin stuck in her shoe (“Good Girl” Daisy). Luckily it didn’t stab her foot. We pulled it out, added it to our collection and headed on our way.
First stop was the gift shop right at the entrance to purchase a pack of 5 pin backings for only 4 bucks! Great deal and now we don’t feel bad about executing a pin trade!
Toy Story Mania fast passes and Pixarland Photos
Journey Into Narnia: Prince Caspian
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Lights, Motors, Action 11 am show for Monday only is a misprint
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular 11am
Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage 11:45 am
Tried to eat at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre Restaurant, but it was too long a wait, so we had our sandwiches outside the ABC Commissary
Star Tours Fast Passes
The Great Movie Ride
Star Tours
Dessert (it’s hot) at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre
Toy Story Midway Mania
Gift Shop wandering
Muppet Vision 3-D
Lights, Motors, Action – 4:30pm
Studio Backlot Tour
RAIN! Yay! We hadn’t packed our rain jackets that day, but luckily we had packed an umbrella – so we shielded the electronics in my backpack and went for a stroll in the rain! We both enjoyed it very much regardless of our wetness.
Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream
The Magic of Disney Animation
Veto Playhouse Disney – Live On Stage!
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 7:30 pm
Talk with Fantasmic cast member about possible cancelation
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Fast Passes
Sounds Dangerous – Starring Drew Carey
Fantasmic 8:30 pm
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster 9:45 pm
Tune-In Lounge (inside 50’s Prime Time Café) for dinner
At the end of the day, we headed into the Guest Services Area to lodge our complaint about Lights, Motors, (In)Action. After explaining everything (we know it’s a stunt show, safety first, less than Disney quality), the Cast Member offered us free re-admission later on in the week so we can see it again (since we didn’t buy Park Hopper tickets, only 1-day, 1-park tickets)! Yay Disney!
August 26th – Tuesday -Disney’s Animal Kingdom (celebrating its 10th year by doing nothing)
First objective: Kilimanjaro Safari
After the Safari, wander through the Pangani Trail and discuss our differing views of zoo goggling
Wander towards Asia
Photopass on backside of Tree of Life (baby Simba)
Catch Flights of Wonder bird show
Expedition Everest Fast Passes for 12:25
Finding Nemo musical – phenomenal
Wander back to Asia to check out Kali River Rapids – shutdown, no forecast on re-opening
Purchase awesome China hat (it looks like the one Kiera Knightly wears in PotC3) and Indian Chai Tea, Laura puts her Cap’t Jack pirate flag pin on her hat
Purchase liquidation and enjoy our packed lunch
Wander over to Dinoland U.S.A.
Dinosaur – Countdown to Extinction
Primeval Whirl
Expedition Everest (third time we’ve wandered back to Asia)
Kali River Rapids open again – we go down the falls backwards and get completely drenched
Maharaja Jungle Trek – oooh a tiger….and a kid making convincing monkey sounds
Fake argument with Dream Team Cast Member after passing him a second time at the Jungle Trek about not getting my dream twice
Purchase Chai Freeze (AMAZING!) and wander to Discovery Island
Run into Ken (he blessed my sneeze) who gave us GPS and give him two recommendations
1. Slightly larger cover for unit so that it doesn’t just flip open
2. Ability to clear “directions” once location is reached
More photopass from front of Tree of Life
Wander into Camp Minnie Mickey
Ask Cast Member about Festival of Lion King – more like the musical than the puppet show that Mickey’s Philharmagic replaced
Laura steals GPS and navigates us to a gift shop on the way out
Turn GPS in outside Guest Relations
Stand in line at Guest Relations to say that Nemo was incredible, but cast member says just e-mail the company (was willing to accept cast member compliment, but not general compliment)
Walk out to the bus stop
Navigate to Arabian Nights
August 27th – Wednesday – Epcot – Future World
Self-Parking, monorail to TTC, another monorail to Epcot…whoo!
Test Track Fastpass
Coffee + Cast Member John
Ellen’s Energy Adventure
Mission: SPACE (Green Team)
Test Track
International Gateway to Hollywood Studios
Lights, Motor, Action
Rock’n’Roller Coaster
One Man’s Dream
Boat to Swan and Dolphin hotel, walk to Boardwalk
Journey Into Imagination
Leapfrog fountains
Strawberry Lemonades
The Land Pavillion
Soarin’ Fastpasses
Timon and Pumbaa movie
Boat Tour
Soarin’
The Seas
Spaceship Earth
Monorail to TTC, Monorail to Grand Floridian, live music!, drive home
August 28th – Thursday – Epcot – World Showcase
Self-Parking, monorail to TTC, another monorail to Epcot…whoo!
Initially tried to drink our way around the world, but ended up very short of that goal.
Mexico
Norway
China
African outpost thing
Germany
Italy
America
Japan
Morocco
France
We missed the Canadian band! Damn!
United Kingdom
Canada
August 29th – Friday – Magic Kingdom
Swiss Family Treehouse
Magic Carpets of Aladdin
Jungle Cruise
The Enchanted Tiki Room Under New Management
Pirates of the Caribbean
Big Thunder Mountain Fastpass
Splash Mountain
Big Thunder Mountain
Tom Sawyer Island
Country Bear Jamboree
Peter Pan’s Flight Fastpass
Mickey’s Philharmagic
It’s A Small World
The Haunted Mansion
Liberty Square Riverboat
The Hall of Presidents
Peter Pan’s Flight
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Fastpass
Walkthrough – Mickey’s Toontown Fair
Pooh’s Playful Spot – Pin trade with Dream Team Cast Member
Mad Tea Party
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Barnstormer at Goofy’s Wiseacre Farm
Space Mountain Fastpass
Stitch’s Great Escape
Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress
Tomorrowland Transit Authority (PEOPLEMOVER!!!)
Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor
Snow White’s Scary Adventures
Dream Along With Mickey
Space Mountain
Mickey’s Philharmagic
Wishes
August 30th – Saturday – Flight Home
Jennifer – Snow White – 80′s Reduction
Apparently Pinocchio’s Daring Journey wasn’t in Disneyland when it opened in 1955. I didn’t know this. But getting into a conversation with Cast Member Jennifer (who was working the exit for Snow White’s Scary Adventure) about the different endings for the ride in Disneyland and WDW’s Magic Kingdom, she revealed this little tidbit: Snow White used to take up the entire west side of Fantasyland. When Fantasyland was remodeled in the 80′s to it’s current European village feel, Snow White’s track was chopped in two and Pinocchio was installed in the same vibe the Imagineers had built Snow White with.
*EDIT – 7/5/2010*
This is not the truth. Before Pinocchio’s Daring Journey was built in the 80′s, it’s real estate was occupied by the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (similar to the layout of Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse had many iterations – including a Lion King Theatre – but is now settled on Mickey’s Philharmagic). Thanks Jeff Allen!
Heather – Wishing Star – no “you break it you buy it policy”
You know those crystal blocks that have images three dimensionally printed inside them? The store dedicated to them is called the Wishing Star. And they don’t have a “you break it, you buy it policy”. I was in the store joking with Cast Member Heather about how one of the display crystals looked rather precarious on it’s perch and she knocked it over (on purpose) to demonstrate that the crystals are more sturdy than you would initally believe. She then explained that as long as it was obviously accidental, Disneyland doesn’t require you to purchase broken merchandise.
A genuine Hollywood premiere! My first chance to rub elbows with the muckety-mucks and I’m wearing jeans and a T-shirt! 
.
This documentary is fantastic. Written and directed by former-KFI-late-night-libertarian-guru John Ziegler (check out www.therealkfi.com for the gory details), this documentary chronicles the censorship of ABC’s self-proclaimed docudrama, “The Pathe To 9/11″ at the bequest of the Clinton political machine, which is probably why Hillary lost the nomination (which is ironic in and of itself).
Geoffrey Rowland (Senior Editor of “The Path To 9/11″) had a fever of 103 degrees when they shot his bit of the documentary.
When Zeiglar was wrapping up the 7 hour interview with Cyrus that is the core of the film (he knew Cyrus wanted to watch a big playoff game), he asked the typical documentary question of, “Is there anything else you want to talk about?” and Cyrus leaned in and said, “Ask me about Harvey Keitel.” That’s why that whole section is in the movie.
It wasn’t clearly delineated in the film that Disney and director David Cunningham kept rushing into the editing bay in order to meet Clinton’s demands. It’s kind of demonstrated by the inclusion of the most controversial scene with EDITED overlays, but it took me a minute to get fully up to speed.
It erased my categories, but some browsing the wordpress forums found me this manual repair. Thank goodness for the intrawebs!
Last Sunday through Thursday I went house boating with Laura and her extended maternal family.
Saturday night I crashed at Laura’s house in Redondo Beach so we could take one car from Redondo (25 miles closer to Shasta). Sunday morning we were up at 6am and left the house by 7 to start. We chose the 101 over the 5 because it’s prettier and so we could stop in Paso Robles and visit the A&W Restaurant with carhop service. We got to Paso Robles around 1pm and slowly cruised down “main street” looking for the restaurant. Unable to find it, we scoured the web with my iPhone and found that they tore it down to build a bank. Boo! So we stopped at a Tastee Freeze for burgers and ice cream. Then we headed back on the road. As we approached Gilroy and highway 152 (which we used to get from the 101 to the 5) we ran into an unusual amount of traffic. Turned out to be an auction house/yard sale thingy. Once we passed that it was smooth sailing. As we turned the corner from the 101 to the 152, we stopped at a fruit stand and picked up some fresh fruit to share with the boatloads of people. Around dinner time we stopped in Corning at The Olive Pit. Laura loves olives. She got a huge jar of black olives from her grandma one Christmas and watched Saturday morning cartoons with a cereal bowl full of them. That was lots of fun. After dinner we were about an hour away from the lake so we plugged on through. When we were almost there, it wasn’t very smoky…aside from the crashed, exploded car on the other side of the road. When we got to the lake we drove down the really long boat ramp (the lake’s water level was dropping all week) and successfully located our houseboats. So then instead of unloading the car at the bottom of the ramp (we were unsure of the legality of parking where we were) we drove the car up the ramp to a permanent parking spot and grabbed all our stuff (amusing pictures carrying EVERYTHING) and slowly but surely made our way down the ramp (with only a few pratfalls and dropped items). We dropped our stuff off on one of the boats and started the introductions. Laura has 2 married uncles, 1 married aunt, 9 cousins, 3 second-cousins, etc which break down into the California Patterson’s (Dave, Lucie, Dave, Lynda, Dave, Zach, Owyn, Mike, Heather, Andrew, Grace), the Idaho Patterson’s (Don and Pat) and the Texas Patterson’s (Sue, Jon, Julia, Alisa and Paul). We stayed in the dock the first night (so nobody got left behind) and enjoyed the gentle rolling of the boats. Laura and I ended up “owning” the penthouse (a 3 foot tall padded room on the upper deck of the boat) for the few days we were there which was lots of fun.
Monday morning we rented a ski-boat which the Texas Patterson’s took out ahead of us to find a nice spot to land the boats. Uncle Don took charge of the first boat (named Prudence) and Uncle Dave took charge of the second boat (named Folly a.k.a. Monkey – yes Owyn was on our boat). After the Texas Patterson’s had picked out a decent spot, we took the boats and headed out into the depleted lake. When we arrived, we parked the boats about 20 feet apart and secured them to the shore with stakes and ropes (finally! Boy Scout training pays off! I used a taut line hitch). It was a nice pocket of the lake, but our landing spot was especially muddy. Don had landed a few minutes before us and had set out around our pocket to a log that was halfway up the bank which he proceeded to push down into the lake, which we used as a stepping stone for Prudence. We also found a smaller log that we wedged in under the Folly. These logs came in handy the next day. After the logs were put into place we changed into swimsuits, slathered on the SPF 50 and went swimming in the lake. The most fun was the water slides off the back of the boats. You turned on a timer on the lower deck and it pumped lake water up to the slide (which ended about 4 feet above the water). Cousin Davey probably used the slide the most. The Texas Patterson’s took the ski boat out and went inner tubing for about an hour then came back at which point Laura and I decided to join Aunt Sue, Uncle Don, Aunt Pat and Cousin John for the next round of inner tubing. It was the first time I’d ever done it and I…might have been a little cocky about it. John and Don recommended that I lie on my stomach and hang on because it would be easier to hang on that way, but I wound up sitting in the inner tube. According to Laura, John actually got frustrated trying to wipe me out (he finally got me the way everybody wipes out – by doing doughnuts). When I wiped out – it hurt so bad! I mean it quickly faded, but I just kind of floated their exaggerating and milking it. As I’m floating their saying “OW!”, Aunt Pat tried to get into the inner tube and ended up in the water. Now came the fun part of trying to get back in the boat. There are 3 TIIIINY little steps near the top edge of the ski boat, but that’s still a good several inches out of the water. It took forever to get up out of the water…but we finally got Aunt Pat and I back in the boat.
Tuesday: birthday surprise, raft floating, Murder, Bam!, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Wednesday: pack up, head back to dock, drop people off, say goodbye, drive to Oakland Airport with John and Julie (drive past 505 to Jack in the Box and gas, drive past again to get on it), head back towards Emeryville, miss, pay toll over Bay Bridge, free ride over Golden Gate and Richmond/San Rafael Bridges, arrive in Emeryville, find Pixar, take pictures, find Taco Bell, get food, get lectured by schizophrenic black lady, get to a mailbox, start driving South, start crashing when we see wildfires to the west of us, notify parents about crashing in a hotel, find Best Western in Madonna (?), crash.
Thursday: finish the drive down the 101
So last Saturday after team practice, Laura and I told ourselves that we would just go to Disneyland for dinner and maybe a little dancing before heading back to Atomic for the live dancing. My friend Lila Desatoff had called me that morning and let me know that Burnie was in town from San Francisco this weekend, so they were spending the day at Disneyland, so we decided to hook up with them and go to dinner.
When we got off the tram, we spent a little bit of time wandering through World of Disney looking at jewelry (Laura and I were still on the quest for the prettiest necklace in all the [Disney]land), then we headed inside the security checkpoint to renew Laura’s annual pass. After spending A LOT OF MONEY (sigh…when did it get so darned expensive to be a Disney die-hard?) we headed into the park to continue our necklace quest. We wound up in the Main Street Jewelry shop when I noticed I had a voicemail! It was from Lila saying to slow down, that they were right behind us (when we were coming through the ticket turnstile’s). I called her back and told her where we were, when all of a sudden we spotted the perfect necklace! It had Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and everything! So we purchased it and walked outside to join Lila, Burnie, Scott (who we already knew from swingin’) and (newcomer) Joel. We decided to go to Naples Ristorante e Pizzeria in Downtown Disney for dinner.
After a lovely meal, Burnie headed to the structure to get a Jacket and Scott headed off to his roommate’s birthday “celebration” (they had no idea what they were doing, except celebrating). The rest of us headed into Disneyland to stand in the behemoth (standard) line at Gibson Girl. With yummy ice cream in hand, we headed over to the swing plaza to “enjoy” Doc Anello and the Swing Machine and do some dancing. About halfway through the break inbetween the first and second sets, Burnie and Joel said they wanted to ride Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin, so we headed off to Toontown.
Toontown was still open for another 10-15 minutes by the time we got there, but Roger Rabbit’s was closed, so we stood in line for Gadget’s Go-Coaster (like 20 minutes). Then we headed over to Matterhorn. Burnie quit on us because the line was rather long and he didn’t think his back could take it, but the three of us kept standing in line. We get up to the loading dock…we get into the car….lights on dashboards start blinking and the ride breaks down. So we stand around watching the employees running around, hauling the bobsleds onto the sidetracks (really exciting). The announcer says the ride will be inoperable for 45 minutes and we agree to wait 10-15 minutes and see what happens.
We start chatting with the cast member on the loading dock (Andrea) about what has to happen when this particular mechanical error occurs (every zone of track has to have it’s brakes, sensors, etc manually reset and then any sleds trapped in those zones can be manually run through back to the loading dock). We ended up waiting the whole 45 minutes to ride, but it wasn’t a wasted 45 minutes. We talked to Andrea, we talked to each other, we watched tinkerbelle and the fireworks. Then finally we got to reboard the bobsleds and off we went! We were on the right side of the mountain (closest to the ice crystals) and it was lots of fun. They still had some work lights on at the top of the lift hill which was amusing and the 2nd yeti (not the glowing eyes) had a really bad hair day (like someone took a hair brush and brushed it back to front instead of front to back). When we finished, I jokingly asked the cast member near the speakers (not Andrea) if we could ride again, and he acted all dramatic and I assumed he was going to say no. But then Andrea told him that we COULD ride it again. So we rode the Matterhorn twice in a row after an hour and a half wait. It was so exciting! Then we headed back to the swing plaza (the last set had already started), danced a little bit, then headed home tired.
Apparently Netflix has a queue limitation of 500 discs…I have hit that limit with films that I wish to see….sigh
And I just chugged 8oz of wheat grass. My local Jamba Juice was trying to get rid of their wheat grass so instead of paying for 2 oz, they gave me 8 oz for free. And I chugged it. That’s right…I’m insane. *takes a bow*
One of the things I was able to “save” (via photography) from my water-soaked box of mementos was an old issue of Star Wars Insider with the Top 10 Classic Trilogy Moments.
BetaNews | Sweden formally charges Pirate Bay owners
Hmmmm….interesting…I mean I use Pirate Bay all the time (now that I’m stealing music again), but I never thought about them doing it to make money (which they do with their ads)…can it not be justified that they are paying site costs with their earnings? Probably not since the ads generate SO MUCH revenue….hrm.
WE THE ROBOTS » Archive » When I Grow Up
Comics – Explosm.net
PHD Comics: Why? Why??
PoliSci 6A was fun today….for the lecture, the teacher had tried to write someone from Connecticut (Connecticuter is the correct form) and this led me to try and list all 50 states from memory (no wireless in the lecture hall) and convert the state to what you would call someone from that state using the Microsoft spell checker. I almost got all the states, but after class, I used the podium internet to look up the ones I missed (Wyoming, Pennsylvania and Illinois) and I randomly decided to search google for “what you call people from”. There’s a word for it! Demonym! So I wiki’d demonyms for US States, and lo and behold I found a complete list! So all my hard work was for nothing, but that’s what happens when you don’t have wireless in class
Template:Adjectivals and demonyms for US states – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
