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| Weekend of culture and not-so-cultured | |
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3.03.2010
7:19 AM | Link0 comments |
 My weekends are either relaxing or completely packed, and this last one was definitely busy! On Friday, I played a fun show with The Greatest American Heroes at the Carousel Lounge, and we had a great crowd and made it through some of our newer material (such as the infamous Good Times/Bob Newhart/Alice medley) with fewer mistakes than usual! On Saturday night, I went to see the Austin Symphony with Matt, and then Sunday was the busiest of all. After church, I had my annual tax appointment with my accountant, then grabbed some quick lunch just in time to make it to a Japanese dance recital with Matt & Kumiko. The performances were really interesting and the little girl dances were super cute, but the best part was seeing Kumiko's friend Midori fully transformed as she did her dance. It was truly beautiful and amazing! Finally, Sunday evening ended with a combo birthday party for my pals Chris and Jonathan, and we all had dinner at the Clay Pit (Indian food is one of the few cuisines that I don't touch, but I was full from lunch so my martini was enough for me!). It was lots of fun talking with everyone and playing with my fake-nephew Emiliano (who says "Mikey" really well now!), but the highlight of the party was my crazy birthday present for Chris! His favorite comedy sitcom is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (I like it, too), and he loves the episode where they design a product called a Dick Towel. Of course, someone really makes it now, so I had to buy one for Chris, and it was hilarious watching everyone try it on! View photos: Japanese Dance Recital View photos: Combo Birthday Party 2010 (semi-adult content)
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| Birthday bonanza weekend | |
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2.01.2010
5:32 PM | Link0 comments |
 Considering all my birthday gifts and events, I think I should turn 43 more often! Mom & Dad started things off by getting me an LG BD390 Blu-ray player (which I enjoyed all weekend!), plus my new RedOctane Ignition dance pad that I have been dancing away on. They also sent me two cool cards, including a giant Star Wars card that plays the theme when you open it - it's so big that the music is loud with actual bass! On Friday at the office they treated me to healthy yogurt parfaits with all kinds of berries and granola, and that evening I got a package from my pal Dae with two excellent books to add to my "read soon" shelf. On Saturday I went to the opera with my pal Melinda, and afterward we went out for cake, where she gave me a huge pile of presents, including a new LEGO set, a Wii workout game, and other goodies! And finally on Sunday, several of my pals took me to Ruth's Chris for a spectacular, delicious, and expensive steak dinner, and on top of that there were more gifts. Matt & Kumiko got me a cool Mickey Mouse shirt and some unique beer, and Chris & Eliza loaded me up with iTunes Store credit. I am completely surrounded in birthday loot, and I can't thank everyone enough for their incredible friendship! (Be sure to check out Matt's photos of the steakhouse fun as well!) View photos: Mikey's Birthday 2010 View photos: Matt's Steakhouse Dinner
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| Hanging PEZ on Elfa | |
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1.29.2010
11:50 AM | Link0 comments |
 Recently I've received a few questions about my PEZ display method, so here's a little more info to make things clear. I've been really happy with this idea, so I'm happy to share!Racks: For as long as I've collected PEZ, I've used John Thompson's excellent PEZ display racks. I don't think he currently has a website, but please contact him by email for pricing. These racks are pre-drilled with holes for hanging, and they are quite easy to hang by themselves with two little nails (I used this method when I first started collecting). If you're OK with lining up lots of little nails on your wall, then you definitely don't need to read further. However, someday you might want to move some shelves around, which is why I decided to try another way to hang them. Elfa: My solution was to use the Elfa system, but without Elfa shelves! Since Elfa is sold piece by piece, it's easy to buy or order just what you need from the Container Store. The minimum you will need is one horizontal hanging bar and two vertical uprights (I have several sets of these now, but I have a lot of PEZ!). The final piece of the puzzle is how to hang the PEZ racks on the Elfa uprights. S-hooks: The answer is to get a package of S-hooks from any hardware store. I don't even know what these are normally used for, but they are basically just a little piece of metal bent in the shape of an "S". One end of the "S" goes into the slot on the Elfa upright, and the other end goes into the PEZ rack. I had to bend the hooks a little bit (to stretch out the "S"), but this was easy with pliers. The advantage of this method is I can move whole racks of PEZ up and down the uprights to anywhere I want, which is great if you are reorganizing your collection. You can also space them far apart or really close to make more room. And since the Elfa uprights have perfectly aligned slots, you know your shelves are always level and perfectly aligned with each other! I've posted a couple photos on Flickr to help visualize this method. Have fun displaying your PEZ, everyone! View photos: PEZ on Elfa
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| Five guys hit Los Angeles | |
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1.22.2010
11:36 AM | Link0 comments |
 For the past few days I've been in Los Angeles vacationing with my pals Jonathan, Matt, Dae and Ernesto! It's pretty rare for all of us to be together, but it worked out this time since I was taking Jonathan on his first Disneyland visit, and Matt received his plane ticket to come along as a Christmas gift! Even though there was some pretty awful rain during the trip, we still had plenty of nice weather, too, and nothing could stop us from having a fantastic time.We started off by browsing the Farmers Market and having a nice breakfast, then headed to Will Rogers State Historic Park to tour the ranch house and hike up to Inspiration Point (great view of the city). After stopping on PCH for a nice sunset, the drunken debauchery began with beer, martinis at Musso & Franks (where we had a great time talking with Manny the legendary bartender), whiskey, and eventually ended up with flaming margaritas and Mexican food. The next morning we were in hangover recovery mode, but we had enough energy for a cool tour of the Egyptian, a classic movie palace that Grauman built before the famous Chinese Theater. After the tour it started raining a little, so I talked the guys into seeing Dumbo at the El Capitan (we loved the organist and of course I cried during Baby Mine). That night we gorged on incredible sushi in Little Tokyo, and we got to drive through the iconic 2nd Street Tunnel used in Blade Runner! The next day we had lunch in Pasadena at the Pie'n Burger (Ernesto's all-time favorite) and tried to see some horse racing at Santa Anita, but it was rained out. Luckily, Ernesto's sister Eileen who works at the Los Angeles Cathedral offered to give us a tour, which was a perfect thing to do on a rainy day! The cathedral was amazing (she even took us inside the organ works), and when we finished the sun was out again. Finally, we had a quick dinner and then rented a rehearsal studio for three hours of jazz jamming, using Ernesto's beautiful horn arrangements that he had written for the occasion. The last day was reserved for Disneyland, and I had lots of fun spouting trivia to enhance Jonathan's first visit. The weather was great for the morning and evening, but in the middle of the day there was a downpour that flooded Frontierland and even overflowed the Jungle Cruise. We got to ride the Matterhorn twice in a row in the rain, which is a surreal experience, and for the rest of the day, the lines were totally non-existent. I had never seen absolutely zero wait for Space Mountain before! We had an amazing Disney day ending with Filet Mignon at Blue Bayou and then drinks by the Grand Californian fireplace. It took forever to decide which of my 400 photos to share, but I think I picked a good selection in three Flickr sets. In addition, Matt has started to post lots of great shots as well (including the timer shot on this post), so enjoy! View photos: Los Angeles 2010 View photos: Los Angeles Cathedral View photos: Disneyland 2010 View photos: Matt's Los Angeles
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| Ikkicon goings-on | |
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1.03.2010
9:33 AM | Link2 comments |
 This weekend I started off the new year with a bang by going to Ikkicon, an anime convention right here in Austin! Matt & Kumiko went with me, and we met Kimberly (fellow manga/anime maniac) & Mark to enjoy the craziness together. The convention was a first for Matt & Kumiko, and I had a great time watching their reactions, plus it was fun to see Matt so excited about taking photos of all the costumes. (Check out his totally professional shots, much better than mine!) Speaking of cosplay, I was amazed at the ratio of costumed to non-costumed fans - it almost made plain-clothes fans like us seem out of place. There were fantastic costumes from so many genres (anime, manga, video games, and other animated films like 9, which were my favorite costumes of all), and since Kimberly is much more of an expert than I am, it was great having her around to tell us who all the characters were. I ended up buying a total of six Godzilla figures in the dealers room (I even haggled a tiny bit for a better price!), we checked out the lame Maid Cafe (pretty disappointing), watched the Ikki Idol competition (which would have been great with a little organization), and enjoyed the big cosplay competition, which was thankfully structured as a quick-moving fashion show. Though Ikkicon was nothing like A-Kon or Anime Expo, it was still tons of fun, especially since it's great seeing geeks like me of all ages reveling in their common obsessions and enjoying being all together! View photos: Ikkicon 2010
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| Blizzard for Christmas | |
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12.26.2009
12:35 PM | Link0 comments |
 It's hard to believe it's already the day after Christmas! To continue with our adventures, we spent an evening driving around local neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights, enjoyed Mom's delicious brownies made in a new pan (so every brownie has edges!), and played lots more Wii together (Mom has become a serious bowling competitor). The biggest news is that we had a totally white Christmas, since Oklahoma City was hit with an unexpected blizzard that left 14 inches of snow! None of us believed the weather forecast, but we ended up watching the snow fall and listening to the howling wind all day on Christmas eve. Dad and I did lots of shoveling and helping neighbors get their mail and get their garbage cans to the curb, and truthfully I had the best time stomping around in drifts that went up to my knees! Christmas day itself was wonderful, and I was amazed as usual by the huge haul of gifts that Santa brought (so many books and DVDs). After the unwrapping we watched the Disney Christmas Parade, and later enjoyed a wonderful meal (with lots of wine for me!). Today Dad and I have been doing more "snow work" and we're all going to see another movie in the luxurious Warren Theater later today. Hopefully my flight will get me back to Austin tomorrow, but I'm in no hurry to leave this magical Christmas wonderland! View photos: Christmas 2009 (Part 3)
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| Jam-packed Christmas | |
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12.24.2009
7:23 AM | Link0 comments |
 I can't believe how many fun activities my parents and I are cramming into this Christmas vacation, so here's another update on the fun! We went to Bricktown (part of Downtown Oklahoma City) to take a free holiday boat ride on the Oklahoma River and see some of the city Christmas decorations, then enjoyed seeing Avatar at the awesome Warren Theater (accompanied by great food and beer). To add to our casino repertoire, we drove to Tulsa to spend a few hours at the Hard Rock Casino, and it was cool to play some slot machines next to exciting memorabilia like the Jonas Brothers' pants and Britney Spears' miniskirt. Mom & Dad took the plunge and ordered their new kitchen countertop remodeling project, and then we drove to Pauls Valley to visit the truly amazing Toy & Action Figure Museum (which I had read about in Wired). The museum was even better than I thought it would be, and we loved seeing all the toys! During the evenings at home, we've all been opening presents (and I also received some great surprise gifts from my pals), playing bowling on the Wii (Mom is throwing strikes like crazy and can beat Dad now!), and eating Mom's wonderful meals like homemade chili and super nacho! I also got to setup Dad's new universal remote, and I'm really impressed with the results. Today is Christmas Eve and PJ Day, since the snow will be falling later today, so we're going to stay inside and try to play all the Wii games that Santa has been bringing (about ten of them!). The time has been flying by so quickly that we're not going to build the traditional jigsaw puzzle this year, but there's always next year! Merry Christmas, everyone! View photos: Christmas 2009 (Part 2) View photos: Toy & Action Figure Museum
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| Christmas in full gear | |
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12.20.2009
10:30 AM | Link4 comments |
 Another Christmas season with my parents in Oklahoma City has begun, and we're filling every spare moment with fun! Of course we've been to Riverwind Casino, where we enjoyed the Star Trek slot machines (Dad reached the highest Starfleet rank, so he can order Mom and I around now), and we've been shopping for new kitchen countertops for Mom (my main Christmas gift this year is helping them out on the remodeling cost). I've been eating Mom's Christmas cookies every five minutes or so, along with a huge spaghetti dinner, but this year I'm also minimizing the weight damage by working out on their treadmill every morning. To earn my keep I've been busy as Dad's personal Geek Squad: I swapped out the cable modem, backed up his MacBook, setup a new soundbar for the TV, completely hooked up a neighbor's AV system, and threw in a few How-To lessons for Dad, too! Dad got a Nintendo Wii this year, and it took about three seconds for Mom and Dad to both get hooked on bowling, so we've been having matches every night (Dad came as close to a perfect game as I think I'll ever see). We've been opening other gifts too, such as matching Santa shirts (to go with our matching hats), and I got a Star Trek Tricorder with cool lights and sounds! I also had fun building a LEGO Christmas Toy Shop (probably a new yearly tradition), and we all enjoyed going out to a local dinner theater for a "Dean Martin" Christmas show. We have many more holiday adventures planned - this sure is a jam-packed Christmas! View photos: Christmas 2009 (Part 1)
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| Pasta for Christmas | |
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12.14.2009
12:42 PM | Link0 comments |
 I feel extremely lucky to have so many wonderful friends in my life, so I decided it would be fun to get everyone together and buy them all dinner for Christmas! Since we're all growing up and there are several kiddies in the bunch now, we don't often get to all be in the same room together, so it was a really special night for me, and I think everyone had fun. We ate at Buca di Beppo, and there were 24 of us to completely fill the Velvet Room, which made for a nice semi-private atmosphere where we could be loud and crazy. The tables were overflowing with food and desserts, as well as six liters of Chianti! I got several surprise Christmas presents, but the real gift was just seeing everyone together having a good time! View photos: Christmas Dinner Party
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| Petting piglets, popping pies | |
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12.07.2009
7:27 AM | Link0 comments |
 My weekends usually include some kind of event or get-together with friends, but this Saturday was jam-packed with three big ones! I started the day by seeing a sneak preview of Disney's new animated feature The Princess and the Frog (completely gushing review coming soon) with my pal Melinda, then grabbed some lunch and a nap before heading to Emiliano's second birthday party! Chris & Eliza hired a petting zoo for their front yard, so there were all kinds of bunnies, goats, pigs, chickens, and even a baby cow, horse and burro! Everyone totally loved it (adults as well as kids), and had fun playing with all the cute, fluffy animals. Of course we sang Happy Birthday and Emiliano got to devour a birthday cupcake, while everyone else snacked on pizza and other delicious foods with coffee. After another quick break at home, it was time for the third event, Jonathan & Anne-Marie's annual Pie Party! Their newly remodeled kitchen was put to good use, since everyone filled it to overflowing with pies, including non-sweets like quiche and Frito pie. Jonathan was an amazing host, providing awesome booze and cigars, which we enjoyed by the outdoor fire. It was so much fun to talk with everyone and we even sang Christmas carols! Around 2:00 AM reality caught up with me (so to speak), but Sunday was a nice recovery day. I feel pretty lucky that my pals throw such unique and awesome parties for me to enjoy! View photos: Emiliano's Birthday 2009 View photos: Pie Party 2009
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| Thanksgiving 2009 | |
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11.27.2009
5:46 PM | Link0 comments |
 Happy post-Thanksgiving everyone! I had a fantastic holiday, starting with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as usual. I really enjoyed the new Sailor Mickey balloon, as well as the cool Spider-Man balloon (excellent pose!) and Santa's new float! The rest of the day was spent with the King and Queen of Thanksgiving, Chris & Eliza (I guess that makes Emiliano the Prince of Thanksgiving), along with other good friends (it was nice that Matt & Kumiko could join the fun this year). As always, the food was delicious, and I did a good job health-wise by only eating one plate (however, there were no restrictions on champagne and wine!). It was a smaller crowd this year, but it was nice to see friends I hadn't seen in a while, including Tom, Kristin & Carlos, and Eliza's sister Laura. I had fun giving Chris & Eliza a little poster I made of some previous years' "basting shots" (I always take the same picture of Eliza basting the turkey in the oven), and it was great to play with the kids Emiliano, Sofia and Bella. I extended my holiday to Friday also, watching anime and building my LEGO Star Wars Tantive IV (a truly exquisite design from Episode IV, one of my favorite ships). It's been a great couple of days, and now the weekend is here! View photos: Thanksgiving 2009
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| Three Small Things 11.24.09 | |
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11.24.2009
6:57 AM | Link0 comments |
 Last weekend I met my parents in Waco for our usual pre-Thanksgiving visit, and even though it was rainy and foggy, the weather cleared up just enough for Mom's trip to the family cemetery so she could put out new flowers. We had a nice pre-Thanksgiving dinner with my Great Aunt Bobbie and Cousin Clinton in Stephenville, along with early Christmas gifts, and also went out to eat a couple times with my Aunt Geneva. I definitely earned my keep in my role as family tech support, too - I hooked up my aunt's new printer and installed drivers on Windows Vista, showed my cousin how to use his new Blu-ray player (a beautiful LG model), and upgraded Dad's MacBook to Snow Leopard, which was a crazy experience that ended up successful! (The install kept hanging with two minutes remaining, but finally finished after the third try, which was a holiday miracle!) View photos: Waco 2009It's kind of a shame, but since I type all the time, my handwriting is worse than ever, and even my signature is terrible since I don't write checks! I've already got my Christmas cards ready to send, and I made the weird decision to scan my signature (which I repeated until it was legible) and print it on labels to stick inside the cards. I was already printing labels to share my online info (website, Twitter and Facebook), so it was easy to make a set with my signature (using Avery's amazing Design & Print Online, which is perfect for generating a set of identical labels). It looks pretty convincing, so maybe no one will notice! I recently finished re-reading CS Lewis' classic Mere Christianity (I didn't own a copy, so PaperBack Swap came to my rescue as usual) since it was quoted often in the last series of talks at my church. Even though I had read it years ago, I really enjoyed it again, since Lewis' style of writing sounds like a conversation over a pipe and pint. I love his metaphors and explanations of various concepts, which are always fresh and creative, and I can easily see how they translate into his incredible Narnia stories! Labels: family, holidays, photos, small things |
| Three Small Things 11.14.09 | |
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11.14.2009
3:39 PM | Link0 comments |
 I've never really figured out why I'm such a big fan of Planet of the Apes, but it seems I'm always discovering ape books or collectibles that I want to get my hands on! A few months ago I read about the Planet of the Apes Ultra Detail Figures by Japanese toy manufacturer Medicom that were released in 2000. This series is so amazing not only because they are incredibly accurate (they really do look like the actual actors), but because they span all of the movies! They are no longer in production, but some of the figures (such as the Apeonauts from Escape from the Planet of the Apes) are easy to find at online toy stores, so I ordered a few just for fun. Of course, as soon as I had them I decided to buy more, starting from the cheapest to the rarest, exhausting all the regular stores and eventually finishing up on eBay. Now the last few apes are on their way to my toy museum! All ape maniacs should definitely consider hunting down these fantastic toys! View photos: Planet of the Apes toysI've really been enjoying the latest update to my Apple TV, not only because the new interface is such a welcome change, but because I love checking out the huge variety of internet radio stations! Every morning I like to hear a little reading music, and there are so many classical stations available that I've been trying a new one every day for a few weeks now. I know there's a million ways to listen to streaming music, but I really like the convenience of using my remote to get the music flowing. I still think I may end up getting a Mac Mini sometime next year so I'll have complete flexibility to watch all forms of streaming and downloaded video, but I'm going to miss the consumer polish of the Apple TV, so I'm not in a hurry to switch. My latest favorite way to fill a few spare minutes is to click Wikipedia's random article link and learn something new! On Wikipedia's site, this link appears in the left navigation column, and you can click it all day long and be amazed at the stuff that comes up! The other day I started reading about the Chinese Room argument (which I had never heard of) and got totally absorbed in the philosophy of computer AI! Labels: apes, apple, photos, small things, toys |
| Double gig Halloween 2009 | |
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11.02.2009
12:57 PM | Link0 comments |
 Just like last year and the year before, my band The Greatest American Heroes (Austin's favorite TV theme song band, of course), rocked the Carousel Lounge at our special Halloween show this weekend! We wore our official uniforms from the show that inspired our name, and nearly everyone in the crowd was in costume, too! There were so many great outfits, and we were able to get lots of people "into the show" by asking them to participate during an appropriate song. The Blues Brothers showed up for our introduction to Good Times (which has a Blues Brothers feel), Gomez & Morticia Addams led the crowd in snaps for The Addams Family, a couple of Brokeback cowboys were there for Dukes of Hazzard, Wilma danced during The Flintstones, Wonder Woman was there for Wonder Woman (of course), and we even played a surprise version of Old Time Rock & Roll (which we learned on the spot) for our friend Grace who was dressed as Tom Cruise in his undies from Risky Business (the band claims no responsibility for heart attacks caused by this incident)! One of our former vocalists Dana was visiting in town from Washington DC, so she was there to sing several of her old tunes, wearing an awesome GAH-TV remote control costume (so clever). We gave the best costume prize to a guy who did a completely perfect Chris Farley impression, and the crowd was totally generous with tips (and they threw some Blow-Pops in the tip jar, too).The next night, my jazz combo Casa del Swanko played at Satellite Bistro, which was totally relaxing and fun, especially since it had been quite a while since our last show. Since it was officially Halloween, Matt wore his Yuri Gagarin costume and did all of his banter in a hilarious Russian accent (thankfully, he sang with his usual smooth voice). Kumiko showed up in her Tricia Takanawa (from Family Guy) costume with some other friends who were dressed up as well. The band had a delicious free meal, a couple drinks, and a great time with our friends, which is the real reason we love to play! View photos: Halloween 2009
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| State Fair weekend | |
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10.13.2009
5:52 PM | Link0 comments |
 This past weekend was packed with three events for me, starting with the symphony, then a gig with the Greatest American Heroes, and finally my first ever trip to the State Fair of Texas! The Heroes played at the MS Walkathon at the Dell Diamond, and it was a great experience (nice and chilly outside, but we could play as loud as we wanted!), plus it was fun to hang out for free lunch (and a free T-shirt). Super-early the next morning, my pals Matt & Kumiko and Jonathan & Anne-Marie squeezed into Matt's car to drive to Dallas, and we made it to the fair by 10:00 AM (the ride was fun since we all made different mix CDs)! Matt was the tour guide for the day, so I had a blast not worrying about a thing, wandering around and soaking it all in. We tried lots of snack samples in the Food & Fiber pavilion, then did some browsing for Arts & Crafts (where we almost saw Oprah, who was filming at the fair, but we didn't care enough to keep waiting). Next we "met" Big Tex, who was huge and bizarro looking (but cool and historic, too)! After some nachos for lunch (this was not a day for healthy eating!), we saw the Birds of the World show, which was definitely the highlight of the entire fair. I couldn't believe they could let birds go from all the way at the top of the Ferris Wheel, where they would swoop right down over the audience to the trainers on stage! The next show was "dog dancing", which was cute and especially cool when we saw one dog walk on his front legs like a handstand! Then we looked at a million chickens, ate a delicious corn dog (necessity of the day), and finally saw the US Marine Drum & Bugle Corps perform. They were so precise and the sound quality was amazing, so we were all blown away and enjoyed it! Soon we were getting tired, so we started heading back to the car, and the timing could not have been better since the rain started coming down. We had a nice wet ride home (thanks to Matt's skillful driving), ending a really fun day with wonderful friends! View photos: State Fair of Texas 2009
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| Walt Disney World 2009 / Days 4-5 | |
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9.28.2009
11:59 AM | Link0 comments |
 I have two more days of my recent Walt Disney World vacation to cover, so here we go! I scheduled the fourth day as a full day at the Magic Kingdom, which I thought would give Melinda and me just enough time to fit in all of the attractions. However, since we had already been to the Magic Kingdom twice already (once for Wishes and again for the Halloween party), we had already checked off several busy attractions off our list, which left this full day wide-open to enjoy lots of entertainment! Of course, we rode several rides again, and I was really impressed with the slightly longer versions of the Fantasyland dark rides, and totally blown away by the new staircase room in the Haunted Mansion. I loved watching Dream Along With Mickey (the only stage show with new technology that allows Mickey and his pals to move their mouths and blink their eyes), and right after the show we were suddenly "trapped" in the hub by the new Move it! Shake it! Celebrate it! Street Party! It was really fun to dance along with the characters, and it was cool to be in the middle of a spontaneous party in the middle of our day. We even got to watch the Celebrate a Dream Come True parade, as well as SpectroMagic at night, and somehow we lucked out into riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at the exact moment that the Wishes fireworks were going off, which was a totally surreal experience!We spent the last day at Hollywood Studios, making the morning march along with everyone else in the park directly to Toy Story Midway Mania, definitely one of the best (and certainly the most popular) new attractions in quite a while! The new Pixar street area and attraction queue are fantastic, full of giant classic toys, and the ride itself is so much fun that I could ride it all day! After spending the morning gathering Fastpasses, we got to see all the shows, including Lights, Motors, Action, plus we went to the Animation building to meet Mickey, Russell and Dug from Up, and even the Incredibles (I got to request a special cool pose from Elastigirl)! After surviving the Tower of Terror and Rock N Roller Coaster (which was somehow less scary than usual - maybe after Mission: Space I can take anything!), we got great seats for Fantasmic, which was awesome as always, and then took a quick look at the One Man's Dream exhibit to end the day. I could go on and on about all of the other attractions, restaurants, snacks, and other things we saw, but I guess I've pretty much covered the trip. Every detail just magically worked out, making the whole five days simply a perfect Disney vacation for total Disney geeks like Melinda and me! View photos: WDW 2009 Days 4-5
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| Walt Disney World 2009 / Days 1-3 | |
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9.25.2009
12:28 PM | Link0 comments |
 Now that I've picked some good photos from the first three days of my Walt Disney World trip, it's time to hit some more highlights! After checking in at the resort (which was really smooth with both Disney's Magical Express as well as online resort check in!), we rode the bus to Downtown Disney, enjoyed riding the Characters in Flight balloon, and immediately got most of our essential shopping done. I had made a list of possible toys to buy myself, and I ended up getting them all at the Once Upon a Toy store (then had them conveniently delivered to the resort so I wouldn't have to carry them)! Next we rode the Monorail around and quickly visited the Contemporary, the Polynesian, and the Grand Floridian, then stopped at the Magic Kingdom for dinner at Crystal Palace. We had a great time with all the Winnie the Pooh characters, enjoyed a couple Fantasyland attractions, then had a great spot to watch the Wishes fireworks show!The next day was all Epcot, and the major event was being brave enough to join the Orange Team for Mission: Space! On the last trip, Melinda and I chickened out and joined the Green Team, but this time we were determined to feel those sustained G-forces, and it was totally incredible! The launch was awesome, and I could really feel the pressure on my cheeks and hands as I pressed buttons for the mission. I also enjoyed the changes on Spaceship Earth, including the new narration and the Apple garage scene! Moving on to World Showcase, the addition of the Three Caballeros to the Mexico pavilion was hilarious, and it was fun taking a nice stroll around the countries with a couple drinks. We had dinner at Restaurant Akershus with Belle, Jasmine, Cinderella, Ariel and Pocahontas, and the food was delicious! Of course, we ended the day with a great spot for Illuminations, close to the water, which was pretty exciting! On the next morning we headed to Animal Kingdom and rode almost every attraction before lunch! Expedition Everest was fantastic (but I think the Yeti lighting needed some adjustment), and as always I was overwhelmed by Festival of the Lion King. Our big meal for the day was at Tusker House, and I was so impressed with the variety of the buffet - I ate all kinds of interesting veggies and tofu, too! We had to leave Animal Kingdom after lunch in order to get to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, which I commented on previously. Since this was our second Magic Kingdom visit, we got to ride even more attractions, which set up the next day with lots of free time to enjoy the entertainment! By the way, if you have a chance to go to the Halloween party, don't pass it up - it's really an amazing event that had me wowed the whole time, and staying at the park until midnight was a blast! View photos: WDW 2009 Days 1-3
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| A perfect Walt Disney World adventure | |
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9.23.2009
12:43 PM | Link0 comments |
 Last week I took a fantastic vacation to Walt Disney World with my fellow Disney pro Melinda, and it was definitely a trip for the record books! Looking back over the five days, we literally experienced nearly every single attraction in all four theme parks, as well as tons of shows and entertainment! Of course, we had to get up early, stay out late, and walk our feet off (and we have the blisters to prove it), but it was worth it to have so much fun. Amazingly, even though the weather forecast said there was a 40% chance of precipitation every day, we never saw a drop of rain (maybe because of my "lucky umbrella" which makes the clouds go away!). There's a lot to mention, so I'll have to stretch this report over a few WEBmikey posts (which will give me time to select the best shots from over 1,000 photos!), but I'll get started with a few overview highlights.My resort this time was All-Star Movies, which is one of the value resorts, but it still has nice rooms and super-cool huge character displays all around the buildings. I was excited to get the Toy Story building, which was really close to the food court for breakfast, as well as the gift shop and bus stop for those early morning rides to the parks! We were lucky enough to book our trip during a great promotion that gave us the Disney Dining Plan for free, which meant we hardly spent a dime on food and still pigged out! It was always so amazing to look at a menu and realize I could get anything I wanted, and every meal came with dessert (I ate so much ice cream). Snacks were included each day as well, so I got to have all my favorites: Mickey Premium ice cream bar, Dole Whip, frozen banana, and a giant pretzel, too! Thanks to the amazing weather, we got to ride the fairly new Characters in Flight balloon ride at Downtown Disney. It was really cool to be lifted 400 feet up by a giant helium balloon, and the view was great (you could see the major icons of almost every park)! The landing was pretty exciting as the tether pulled the balloon back to the ground, too! The best entirely new experience of the trip was definitely Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! It was so cool to be part of the "special" (which means, willing to pay extra!) guests that got to stay in the Magic Kingdom from 7:00 PM until midnight, with tons of exclusive things to see and do! We got to trick or treat and munch on candy, meet tons of Disney characters in special Halloween costumes (we also saw incredibly rare occurrences like Snow White with all seven dwarfs!), and of course, visit the Haunted Mansion, where all the cast members were decked out in scary make-up. There was a special Happy HalloWishes fireworks show with awesome spooky effects, plus an incredible Halloween parade featuring fantastic Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean characters as well as the Headless Horseman (galloping on a real horse)! Finally, we saw a cool show in front of the castle with all the classic Disney villains, which topped off this huge night of Halloween fun! View photos: WDW Pals 2009
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| Parents visit and birthday fun | |
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8.21.2009
6:28 PM | Link0 comments |
 Last weekend my parents made their yearly trip to Austin to visit me, and we had a wonderful four days together! When I was planning our time I thought we might be a little bored, but the hours flew by and we always had something to do. One night we saw Esther's Follies, which was as hilarious as ever, and another night we saw the Broadway touring production of Wicked, which was incredible. We also drove to Lake Travis for lunch at Carlos & Charlie's (Mom and I really like their margaritas), and we were stunned by how dried up everything is because of the lack of rain (tons of formerly floating docks sitting on dry land). We also did lots of shopping, Wii playing (now Dad wants one!), and some successful MacBook and iPhone maintenance. Since Dad's birthday fell on the same weekend, I took them to Fleming's for a nice steak dinner. I had never been to Fleming's before, but it turned out to be fantastic - Dad enjoyed it so much! The Chocolate Lava Cake dessert was totally amazing! As usual, I was a little bummed when these goof-off and good-eating days were over, but I think I'm adjusted now.Just before my parents' visit, a few of my pals got together to celebrate Kumiko's birthday, which was a lot of fun! Kumiko got lots of nice gifts (I had a good time making a Godzilla birthday card in Japanese) and the food at the original Kerbey Lane was great! View photos: Kumiko's Birthday 2009
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| More fun in Los Angeles | |
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7.10.2009
6:17 PM | Link0 comments |
 I have a few more memories to write about the Los Angeles trip, mostly not Anime Expo related, except for this first one! The Toshiyuki Morikawa panel (which I saw by "accident" while waiting for the Morning Musume panel) was thoroughly excellent, and Dae and I both enjoyed it. Morikawa is a tremendously famous Japanese voice actor, who has hundreds of credits to his name, not only in the anime field, but also live-action dubbing (he is even the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the dubbed Star Wars films). He is best known as the voice of Sephiroth, the ultimate evil villain in the Final Fantasy series of video games, and he definitely has a huge fan base! The crowd was absolutely enamored with everything he had to say (one girl sitting next to me was so excited that she felt she needed to translate everything to me as he said it, even though there was a professional translator doing the same thing). The fan questions were great, since they were mostly requests to do voices. My favorite was a girl named Daphne who asked him to use the voice of Sephiroth and ask her to marry him. Morikawa loved the request, and did his evil laugh with a sinister "Daphne! Kekkon shite kuru!" It was pretty awesome!In addition to all the time with Dae in Anime Expo lines, we had a fun time in Little Tokyo after the concert. We got to shop around a bit (I bought a cheap Godzilla toy) and listen to a live sax/keyboard combo, then we had some great sushi (including some incredible hamachi sashimi with shiso leaf, plus plenty of sake!). Also during the trip we got to hang out with Ernesto two nights, and had a wonderful time drinking and catching up! On the 4th of July, Ernesto got us into a super-fancy party in a neighborhood near Hollywood, since his sister's friend is married to a rich (and generous) lawyer. The house was built in 1935, and the interior decorating looks like a magazine (I should have taken photos inside, but I didn't want to snoop!). The backyard has a beautiful pool, tons of Adventureland style plants, and the place was buzzing with caterers delivering hors d'ouvres, as well as serving a full dinner and dessert, and of course an open bar with expensive Balvenie scotch! I got to talk with Ernesto's dad and sister, and we all had a blast watching the fireworks (from a nearby country club). I always have so much fun with my LA friends - it's no wonder I'm always ready to make the trip! View photos: Los Angeles Pals 2009
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| Momusu at Anime Expo Part 2 | |
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7.07.2009
7:00 PM | Link0 comments |
 On with more Anime Expo details! The next day was the official start of the convention, so Dae and I arrived early for opening ceremonies, since we knew Morning Musume would be there. At first we thought there was no line at all, but we soon realized that almost all lines at Anime Expo were outside in the sun (because of fire code/traffic reasons inside), so we worked on our T-shirt tans a little. We got pretty good seats (around Row 15), and took a couple naps since it got started 45 minutes late. It was worth the wait, though, since this was my first glimpse of Morning Musume (un-masked) on stage, wearing their frilly outfits from Shouganai Yume Oibito! Non-flash photos were allowed (the only exception for the "no Momusu photos" policy at the convention), so I took a few grainy shots at max zoom. All of the honored guests were extremely impressive and interesting, but truthfully I spent the whole hour looking at Morning Musume and waving if they looked my way!Immediately after opening ceremonies, the next job was to try to get one of only 300 guaranteed autograph tickets from buying Momusu merchandise. We got there as fast as we could, but soon realized the line was already over 500 deep (we later found out it had started at 4:00 AM!). I was a little bummed about missing out, but decided to use the time to start waiting for the Momusu Q&A panel, even though it was three hours away. Of course, there were already lots of people in line! After lots of confusion, the staff eventually decided to move us into the panel room for the previous guest (who was the immensely entertaining Toshiyuki Morikawa - I'll write about him later!), and when he finished, Dae and I were able to jump up to third row for Morning Musume! When they first walked in I couldn't believe how close we were, since I could smile at them all and there was no doubt they were actually smiling back at me! The crowd went crazy, and listening to the girls (in both Japanese and adorable English) was fantastic. My selfish fanboy strategy was to try to get the attention of the members who weren't currently talking, so they could smile and wave back at me (I got the best reactions from Reina, Jun Jun and Lin Lin)! I was totally on the edge of my seat for the whole hour - it was such a great time. After the Q&A, they handed out 500 non-guaranteed "priority" autograph tickets, and since we were up so close, Dae and I got them! Then they announced the location for autographs, so we ran (along with everyone else) to the exhibit hall, only to find the information was incorrect. Fans were wandering around everywhere, asking staff questions, and finally we got the correct answer and made it to the actual location. By that time, other people that solved the mystery first were lined up, but we were still feeling hopeful. Unfortunately, after the hour and a half was up, they closed the door while we were about 100 back in line. That door closing was a depressing sound, but we were told our priority tickets would still be good on Saturday. (Even though I was bummed, I felt better when I met the guy who was only 7th in line when they closed the door!) After using up all of our adrenaline that day, all we could do was get some food (and ice cream!) and crash at Dae's condo. At least we had plenty of rest before the concert the next day! View photos: Anime Expo 2009 Watch video: Morning Musume at AX Opening CeremoniesLabels: jpop, morning musume, photos, trips, videos |
