Darfur - an important topic

This comic cracks me up - not just for its' informative value but really, for the punchline.


I REALLY AM trying to post more!

A recent illustration

Finally getting some creative juices flowing. Here's an owl that I had drawn from the Field Natural History Museum in Chicago, then I used Illustrator to color it, and did final touches in Photoshop. Hope you like it!

Walt Disney World Resort Trip

An update? At long last? Yes, it must be the new year. I think I really should be updating this poor blog more often...so I guess that can be a new years resolution. By the way, a few days ago, my dad and I were watching the The Tonight Show (a tradition, of sorts...we always used to watch the Tonight Show together), and Jay had a bit where he was reading out New years' resolutions. One little girl, I think, age 9, said that Hall and Oates was her hero - and that she thought that Hall and Oates's resolution should be to sing the song "She's Gone" in the style of Alvin and the Chipmunks. I dunno that really got to me...I'm still giggling about that one.



So, the recent trip to Florida. How did this happen? Well, less than a week before Christmas, my dad gave me a call and said that he wanted to go to Orlando to visit Walt Disney World. His explanation? He was watching a special on Disney and the building of WDW and Epcot, and said, "You know, I really want to go!" My mom was preparing for her trip to Hong Kong, and told my dad, "Hey! Call Sandra! She's got nothing to do!" And yeah, I guess she's right.

I set up the vacation for me and my dad (my brother Justin couldn't get the days off after New Year's, so he had to opt out.) through Funjet vacations. Now here's my main rant - DON'T USE THESE GUYS. I mean they weren't the worst but they were definitely incompetent. Reasons? Well, firstly, they spelled my last name wrong. Yet, they spelled my dad's last name right. So when the guy repeated back to me, reading off my dad's name, I'm guessing, I confirmed, yes, that's how you spell it - until I got my confirmation email and seeing that they spelled my last name all jacked up. It's seriously not a difficult last name. So, as I was fairly furious, I called back, and asked them to change it to the CORRECT spelling. And they LITERALLY COULD NOT. They said that since the trip went through, it was UNCHANGABLE by them, and that it wouldn't be a problem at the airport or hotel. By the way, it WAS a problem. Second thing, when we got to the hotel, I then found out that they had booked our WDW passes incorrectly - I had very clearly stated I wanted Parkhopper capabilities. Instead of DOING WHAT I ASKED, they gave me the "No expiration" option - which was useless, as we were going to use all 4 days of the ticket. So fuck you very much Funjet. You guys are useless and incompetent.

DAY 1 - The flight to Florida and Downtown Disney
The first part of our trip was spent getting up REALLY INSANELY early to hop on a plane headed to Denver, Colorado, then connecting to Orlando International. The plane left at 6am, so you can imagine. We flew on Frontier airlines - a first for me. Not a bad airline, although no food to speak of (Sunchips don't count in my book) But I guess it's what I have to expect nowadays, with these cheaper budget flights. We arrived at Orlando International at around 6pm, and headed to the check-in desk for Disney's Magical Express - their bus service that delivers you to the doorstep of our hotel.

I LOVE the look of these buses - old school yet cute and with a retro feel.

During our 45 minute bus ride to Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, our bus driver informed us that it was going to drop to around 35 degrees that night - which was a shock to us, as I'm used to scorching hot and humid weather from Florida. We decided to change our plans- we were going to hit up the Magic Kingdom that night, but instead, we decided to take it easy, check out Downtown Disney and have an early night in. We hopped on the bus at our bus stop at "Jamaica". It's fairly convenient to have bus stops so close to your hotel room.

First off, dinner. At Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, they have a central "marketplace" area called Port Royale, that contains shopping and food. We decided on a pork plate with mixed vegetables and rice, and a salmon plate with mashed potatoes and broccoli. The verdict? Gross. The broccoli was all wilted and nasty, like chewing on soft green gum. The pork was tasteless. The salmon was ok but undercooked in the middle. Thumbs down boo.

We then left to go to Downtown Disney on another bus. When we got off the bus, it was FREEZING cold. Never have I been so cold before. The wind was howling, cutting through my jeans and chilling me to the bone. Is THIS what east coast winters are like? We ran into a store, and basically hopped store to store to try to keep warm. I didn't end up buying anything, as much of the merchandise was the same as Disneyland's. What's the point of lugging back merch that I could get from a quick jaunt to Disneyland on the west coast?

DAY 2 - Walt Disney world, aka "The Magic Kingdom"
The next day, we were more prepared and dressed much more warmly (I think I had 5 layers on) and headed to the Magic Kingdom. First thoughts when walking in - the main street is much bigger and more elaborate. The castle is much larger - it actually feels like someone could live there. There's much more room for people, and there's amazingly maintained landscaping and rose bushes everywhere near the castle. But for all these things, I still like Disneyland more - it feels much more easy to walk between lands, as you can see everything from the main hub, whereas at Walt Disney world, it's quite a jaunt to get to where you want to go. No matter - we were here to experience everything Disneyworld had to offer.

After insisting on snagging fastpasses for Space Mountain (always the longest wait in the park, I assumed - and I was right, as our fastpass return time was about 6pm) we headed back to Adventureland. I wanted to see how different the Jungle Cruise was from Disneyland's (always a fun ride) so we decided to wait in the 20 minute line.
I really liked this detail they had hanging above the line right before you got on the boat. It outlines what the meals are for the crew during the week - everything is chicken like or chicken flavored...except for Friday - where they have chicken (really!)

The ride was fun, there's a nice touch with entering a run down temple with Buddhist figures in it, overrun with cobras and a tiger. After disembarking off the ride, we were craving a thrill ride. I asked someone where the Indiana Jones ride was, and he said, 'What, the stunt show? That's at MGM." "No, the Indiana jones RIDE. " "It's not here."

They don't have a Indy ride?

Poor east coast.

We mourned about this for a second as we trekked further. We weren't going on Splash Mountain in this weather,(hypothermia just isn't what the cool kids do) so we waited for Big Thunder Mountain. What a wait. I think we waited like an hour to ride it, and it was WAY slower than Disneyland's version, and WITHOUT the cool goat chewing on a stick of dynamite! Bah I say!

We were getting pretty hungry at this point, so we waited in another excruciating line at the Colonial House (I think) in Liberty Square, which takes the place of New Orleans Square at Disneyland. I think New Orleans Square is WAY cooler than Liberty Square, but that might be just me. My dad ordered a combo of chicken strips and fish, with apple slices instead of fries, and I ordered a chicken salad and a bowl of clam chowder to share with my dad. That clam chowder was amazing - big tender pieces of clam, none of the chewy gummy stuff that is a bummer to eat in most clam chowders.

We checked out the Hall of Presidents, which had Dubya spew some BS. I liked the other president animatronics. That's pretty much all I have to say about that one. We rode the Mark Twain Steamship, then decided that we didn't want to ride any Fantasyland rides, so we took the monorail to Epcot.

I have to say - Epcot is way cool. I think my favorite of the 4 resort parks, it's so different in feeling and in scope. Dad was most interested in checking out Mission: Space but we ran over the Ellen's Energy adventure first - no wait time and they were just to about to start the show. It's a cute ride - a bit dated and a bit of a lame concept (like something I'd come up with if I had to present an idea wrapped around having to present different types of energy possibilities), but I liked the dinosaurs, and how can anyone hate Ellen Degeneres? Have you seen her dance?!

We noticed the line for Mission:Space, Green team, was only 20 minutes long, so we raced onto that. First thing dad notices: "It's Lieutenant Dan!" Gary Sinise is in the prep video for the ride. I guess he is the poor man's Tom Hanks when it comes to space related theme rides. The ride itself is ok, a ride simulator that takes you through the motions of a rocket launch and landing on the surface of Mars. 3D galore, basically. It's alright, pretty short, but I can see how kids would really get into it because you have to press buttons at certain times during the ride, so you can't just "drift off". Well you could...I mean not like the ride will malfunction or something if you don't press buttons. Anyways, nice little touch.

At that point we had to rush back to the Kingdom to ride Space Mountain, as our fastpasses were up. The monorail is so convenient...makes me wish we could stay at one of the hotels that have a monorail station (yeah, extremely expensive. Someday, though.) Space Mountain broke down while we were waiting in the fastpass line...it was horrible. The enclosed horribly hot spaces that the line resides in is enough to make anyone choke with the fumes of enclosed human gases. However, the breakdown time was thankfully short, and they were up and running again. Once we got to the front of the line, I glanced at one of the space mountain rockets that were running - there's only one row! At Disneyland, the capacity is TWICE that of this one, as there are 2 per row. I can see how that can get blocked up...

Dad sat in the first seat, and Space Mountain is always a favorite. I love racing through the dark not knowing where the "air time" is going to happen. I still think Disneyland's version is faster (might be because there's more weight per car, so you really zoom around those corners) but this was no less fun. We then went to the Monster's Inc Laugh House thing, where it ended up being a big theater to house us humans, to collect our laughter. I thought it was really innovative to have real time 3D animation going, with the "monster comedians" conversing with the audience, but again, definitely more for kids. I liked how they kept picking on one guy (wearing a Communist China cap??) and saying, "At least you don't look like this guy!" The guy played along well, and a cast member gave him a little pin or something (as no hard feelings, I guess).

After being funneled out of the ride, Dad and I had dinner at the Tommorowland Noodle Bar. I know, that's so weird that they would have a noodle bar, whenever I think of Tomorrowland I think of burgers (again, from Disneyland.) Dad got a chicken noodle bowl, which was mostly veggies (he asked me if I had ordered the right thing for him, but then he dug out a small chicken...cube) and I ordered a chicken teriyaki bowl. My chicken teriyaki bowl was decent, chicken thigh meat with a thin not very teriyaki sauce, with veggies and over rice, sufficient because it was SO COLD outside.

We then walked to Main Street to see Spectromagic, the parade that is a lot like the Main Street Electrical Parade back home, but with different music and not as cool. It was alright, though, as parades go. I'm always pulled in by how their costumes hold all those lightbulbs. After the parade, there was a crazy shopping frenzy going on in all the shops down Main street - seriously, it was like Black Friday or something, crazed parents snatching things off the shelves, kids begging their parents to buy everything under the sun...it was a madhouse. Thing is, there was no where else to go - because it was FREEZING outside. Dad and I would head in a store, regain feeling in our legs, then it would be too unbearable to be inside from the crowd, then we'd head outside again, instantly refreezing ourselves.

But, we were doing this all for a purpose! We were waiting for the "Wishes" fireworks, which I realized I hadn't seen before at Disneyland (but really, once you've seen Disney fireworks you've pretty much seen it all - music + fireworks + maybe "snow"). On a fairly recent trip to Disneyland a year beforehand, we had been denied fireworks in Anaheim - "due to high winds". They started the boo-inducing "This presentation of Wishes, etc etc has been delayed." Delayed?? What does that mean? Should we stay out there more? My feet were literally freezing into two blocks of ice. Dad and I agreed: 3rd time they announce that, we cut our losses and head back to the hotel for much needed rest and relaxation. Well, that announcement came and went, and we were swiftly walking to the bus stations without looking behind us.

We managed to squeeze onto a bus headed back to Caribbean Beach resort - literally, standing room only, 6 people away from being left behind. The stuffy heat of the bus was welcoming as I balanced myself against the bus's movements. I glanced outside and what did I see...the Wishes fireworks going off! DAMN IT! Dad and I swore we'd be back later in the week to see those fireworks, if anything for all the time we spent waiting for them earlier.

I got to talking to the couple with 2 kids that were standing in front of us - they spoke with a British accent and seemed like my age. They were super cool, told us that since the pound was so strong against the dollar, it was like getting everything at half price (must be nice!) and that they had been there since after Christmas. That is SOME VACATION, as they were leaving around the same time as us, so it was like a 2 week vacation spent solely on Disney property. I can only imagine. We chatted about travelling, futbol (that's soccer to us) and cool accents (how saying "dude" somehow sounds cool in an American accent and a Briton saying "dude" sounds kinda weird..I guess it does.), and we all happened to get off at the same stop. I didn't catch their names or anything, but good luck to them, they seemed like really nice folks.

DAY 3- EPCOT

Okay, so we planned to spend a whole day here at Epcot, considering how huge it was and how many things there were to see. I was really excited, as most of the stuff there wasn't anything we had back in LA, and last time I was here was when I was 10 years old.

Dad and I ran over to Mission: Space after snagging some Fastpass tickets for Test Track. Test Track seemed like the most "thrilling" ride at Epcot, where the concept is that you're basically a test dummy getting to experience different types of terrain on the road, and at one point, getting to zoom from 1 to 60 mph in open air. Anyways, this time around, Dad and I went to the more intense, "Orange" team for the Mission Space crew. Everything was the same, except there were definitely more "G"-forces during the ride. Dad didn't especially like it, it was hard to concentrate on the 3D animation going on. I admit that I felt a little queasy after the ride, but it soon passed.

Our Test Track fastpasses weren't going to be in effect until the afternoon, so we wandered around the other side of Future world, checking out "The Living Seas", featuring Nemo and friends from the Pixar movie. This ride was kind of a snore - first off, it was EXACTLY like the submarine ride at Disneyland, and not even as cool because in this version, you're sitting in pearly clamshells, which made the whole ride feel too kiddie. Dad said this ride was a "waste of time", I agreed.

We then went to "The Land" area, and rode the ride they had in there - the one where you see all these hydroponic plants and stuff growing. Pretty decent, considering the amount of yield they get and how the whole system works. Dad thought it was pretty decent.

And now for something completely different:

If you know about a certain internet meme - you'll get this picture. I WARN YOU..pretty disturbing.

This post is getting long, so I'm going to start cutting corners. I MUST FINISH THIS POST! Dad and I walked around the World Showcase, which was surprisingly fun. A lot of 360 cinemascope movies of different countries, really good food (We ate at Japan area, dad had a shrimp tempura udon, I had beef curry, later we went to France and got delicious pastries - dad got an eclair and I had a apple tart) I also got dad to snap this snazzy picture...

Yep. It's me in a German yodeling hat. Be amazed, internet readers. The 3 that are out there that actually check this blog.

There aren't many rides in the World Showcase. Mostly, this area is to experience other countries, shop around and soak up the ambiance. The Norway ride is pretty cool but SUPER short, be warned. That's a fastpass ride, for sure. The Mexico ride, the one with the 3 Caballeros, had a HUGE line and no fastpass to be had, so dad and I skipped it. We headed back for another go on Test Track, which broke down while we were waiting in the fastpass line, making it the opposite of fastpass. Finally heading to the front to the front of the park, we rode Spaceship Earth, the ride in the big golf ball. I had made a REALLY funny face when they took our picture, so when the surprise came at the end of the ride (a flash animated cartoon with our faces superimposed on it) I looked EXTREMELY goofy and dad was cracking up.

We then rushed over to eat quickly (a burger) before seeing Illuminations, EPCOT's night fireworks show, which was really something. I hadn't seen it before (not that i remember) and it was pretty cool. Thumbs up.

On the way out of EPCOT, I found a shirt for my brother - it had Donald on it, surrounded by baby chickens, with the phrase, 'Chicks dig me" underneath it. I think it was a pretty funny shirt. And so goes our day at EPCOT. I was beat.

DAY 4 - Animal Kingdom, Disney MGM Studios, AND Magic Kingdom!

Another day, and we were off to a completely new park that neither my dad or I had been to - Animal Kingdom. I admit, I was kind of excited for this place to blow me away. First off, I love drawing animals, and a whole park dedicated to that was pretty exciting to me. And something new is always a great excuse to explore!

I made a beeline for the Kilamanjaro Safari Tour. This is what this park was known for (for this one ride alone, the size to house these animals was the size of the Magic Kingdom itself!) and I couldn't wait to see it. While the ride itself isn't too bad (and their constant search for "poachers"..the new Nazi's, I guess), and I saw a baby elephant and a lot of cool animals, the ride itself is fairly short, and like any good Disney ride, had to tack on some cheesy stuff at the end. Dinoland USA is a hellhole. Do not go there. The Dinosaur ride is a bad ripoff of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, but some things were pretty cool about it - things really POPPED out at you, most of the ride was in the dark, and a lot of screaming dinos. We rode this twice. We had some BBQ for lunch - ribs and chicken- it was alright but the ribs were really dry without a dunk in BBQ sauce.

I think Animal Kingdom is a very PRETTY park, I like the way Africa and Asia are designed, but I didn't find anything that really kept me there. Nowhere did I want to sit down and relax awhile. This is definitely the California Adventure of Disney parks on the east coast.

We snagged some fastpass tickets for Expedition Everest, which was a popular ride, and had enough time to head over to Disney MGM. We checked out the Backlot Tour ride (SUCKS! The first part is all about Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor, and the tram part is shorter than short.). We then ran over to the Car Stunt Show, the last one of the day, housed in a HUGE amphitheater (I swear there were at least 10 thousand people in this open air stadium) and the car stunts were pretty cool. It started POURING rain, and a lot of people were heading out of the park. We did too...but we left to go back to Animal Kingdom - to ride Expedition Everest. And what a ride! I liked going backwards on the track, the animation, the ride was well done.

As dad and I were headed out of the park, we were willing to go to one last ride, which was that horrible Bug's Life 3D movie. They kept us in the hot stuffy waiting area for about 20 minutes, kept pushing more and more people inside the waiting area, and kids were screaming...it was horrible. We walked out. Horrible. What a horrible way to end our time at Animal Kingdom.

Since Animal Kingdom closed early, dad and I headed over to the Magic Kingdom to finally experience the Wishes Fireworks. We managed to get a good spot, and started patiently waiting for the fireworks to start. While waiting, I saw a kid RUN a HUGE stroller (one of the ones you can rent from the park) into a lady's leg, instead of asking her to move, he just kept ramming the huge stroller into her leg!! Rude much?!

The wishes fireworks were actually pretty cool. The only crap thing was this kid kept YELLING whenever there were a particularly nice set of fireworks..BOOM.."AHHHHH" the kid would scream. I really wanted to throw something at him, and his parents for not quieting him down.

After the fireworks, dad and I were pretty hungry, and wandered around looking for somewhere to eat. We ended up at the Crystal Palace, which was a buffet and character meet and greet for Winnie the Pooh and characters. The food was pretty decent for buffet food, and i got a few pictures with Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore, as did Dad! (He was pretty surprised at the fact that they wanted to take pictures with him too!) After dinner, the park had emptied out quite a bit, so we decided to take advantage of this and ride a few rides.

Pirates and Haunted mansion were awesome. No wait at all. Haunted Mansion was WAY scarier than the one in Disneyland! It was the last ride of the night, as we got caught up with the end of the Spectromagic parade that took place after the fireworks. But what a great way to end the day at the park.

Day 5 - Last day! Disney MGM

Last day in Florida! Probably the nicest weather, as well, as it was heating up to be a hot one. Finally some proper weather for the area and we're leaving! Oh well, it happens. We went to the Rock n Rollercoaster first, and got fastpasses in case we wanted to go again after waiting in line. The line was moving kind of slow, and I was starting to get tired of the constant Aerosmith songs that they were playing (as they were endorsing and starring in this ride.)

Dad noticed some really old senior citizens waiting behind us in line for this ride...and was like, "Why in the heck are they trying to ride this?" I answered, "Maybe they're huge Aerosmith Fans." Dad replied, "Man, Go to their concerts!!" I thought that was pretty funny.

The ride itself was really fast, and really dark. It was basically like a roller coaster version of the LA freeway 405, going from LAX to Beverly Hills...which I had done when I was at Netflix, so uh, not too exciting for me. There was one upside down loop in the ride, and a corkscrew, which didn't sit well with my dad. He didn't want to ride it again, so later I gave our fastpasses to a family that wanted to ride it.

The Great Movie Ride had its' cute moments, but the line was excruciating. It was basically a ride through "great scenes in movies"...eh. Good for people who were REALLY in love with the movies...I was a little underwhelmed. I think living and learning about movies in LA has beat all the wonder I felt as a kid about movies out of me.

The last ride of the trip was The Tower of Terror. Better than the one at DCA. Still a really short ride.

We had nothing else to check out, so we headed back to Caribbean Beach, to walk around and enjoy the lake area, before heading back on a Disney bus to the airport.

Well...that's my trip! OMG I am finally done blogging about it...it only took me, what, 2 months to finish it!