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Category: Personal

Experience that

April 9, 2004
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Ah, the Disney experience:

Sonny the Maid

It’s wholesome! The photo is from the Adventurer’s Club, which is a 1930s pulp-themed bar on Pleasure Island. The gimmick is the actors playing parts, who do skits and shows and songs (see picture) throughout the evening. I spent a lot of time there last week.

Brain movement

April 1, 2004
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So, did a lot of stuff happen while I was incommunicado or what? I refer, of course, to Nomar going on the DL.

Good things about WDW:

  • The new Kali River Rapids ride at Animal Kingdom. Top-notch water ride with the best line experience ever. Worth going to Animal Kingdom for, which is good, cause not much else is.

  • The new Aerosmith-themed roller coaster at Disney/MGM. It’s got rollover loops, just like a real roller coaster! Add in Tower of Terror, and Disney/MGM is definitely the right place to go for thrill rides at Disney.

  • The Adventurer’s Club at Pleasure Island is good clean fun. Bonus points cause we got to watch the Club’s “maid” badgering underage kids for wearing belly shirts.

  • Epcot. Epcot always rules. Mission Space is a great ride. Test Track disappointed, but so it goes. Reminder to self: Scandanavian history.

  • The weather. 70-80 degrees. And I’m tan now. Well, sort of.

  • DisneyQuest. Free Asteroids, Defender, Stargate, Berzerk, Centipede, Tron, Arkanoid, Joust, etc., etc. No Gorf, though, sadly. And I guess a bunch of modern games but really it’s all about the classics for me.

  • Spoodles over at the Boardwalk. I had a really good Moroccan tuna steak with lovely cous cous. Too expensive by a few bucks, certainly, particularly since the service wasn’t all that, but still very very tasty. Plus cheesecake. Mmm.

  • Chatting with the Splash Mountain manager for about an hour while his ride was down. He was incredibly polite and seemed happy to spend time talking even though he was in the middle of a crisis situation. He handled the crowds really well, too. What’s more, his boss spent some time helping people as well — it’s smart to make sure that even high level managers get face time with customers now and again.

  • Port Orleans French Quarter is a decent place to stay. Not too expensive as Disney goes, and a good location. Although the sheets are too short.

Other good things would be Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park, in that the Hulk coaster and the Dueling Dragons coasters are excellent. And their Spiderman ride combines the tech Disney uses for the Animal Kingdom dino ride and the Disneyland Indiana Jones ride with 3D movies to immensely good effect — in fact, it’s probably the best ride I’ve ever been on period. On the other hand, going to another theme park really highlighted how good Disney customer service is in comparison to, well, almost anyone else.

Mouse ears

April 1, 2004
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Well, that was a vacation and a half. My digital camera broke midway through, so I have few pictures. I still had a metric ton or so of fun. More details later.

Familial fun

March 12, 2004
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So while my mother was in the hospital, I got her a NetFlix account. Since she’s not always into the technogeeky thing, and because I wanted to make her life as easy as possible while recovering, I manage the queue. It’s worked out really well — she gets the fun of opening a surprise in the mail every few days. And I have a pretty solid idea of her tastes.

But I’m feeling whimsical, so now I want recommendations from y’all. What would you rent her? The list of movies rented to date is in the extended entry — she claims to have enjoyed everything so far.

Continue ReadingFamilial fun

Over the years

January 9, 2004
3 Comments

Since it’s the 20th anniversary:

128K Mac (original; later upgraded to 512K Fat Mac)
Mac SE/20
Mac SE/30
Performa 630
Performa 6400 (later ran linux on this)
G3/450 (currently next to me running OpenBSD)
G4/733

iBook tangerine clamshell
iBook SE Firewire
Powerbook 12” G4/1 GHz

Loved ‘em all.