Archive for April, 2007
4/2/2007
Below: The Universal Studios store. Although the photo doesn’t accurately show this, the sign you’re looking at is huge.
Below: Part of the entrance to Islands of Adventure, the other park at Universal. Again, the pic does no justice. That thing is frickin’ tall.
Below: A large bridge-style entrance that has “The Adventure Begins”. It really looks like carved rock. Nicely done.
Below: Some of the “Suess Landing” portion of IoA. I know a few people that would go ga-ga to see this. It’s every bit as cool as it looks. Once again, the pics do no justice to reflect how big all this stuff is.
Below: This exit sign for Suess landing states “Think left and think right Think low and think high. Oh, the THINKS you can think up if you only try! Bye-Bye!”
Below: Some pics from “The Lost Continent”
Note on the one below: See that lady next to the base of the structure? She’s directly next to it. That’s how huge this thing is.
Below: This is, if you can believe it, a restaurant. It’s called the Enchanted Oak. Note the face in the structure itself.
More to come!
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4/3/2007
Title of this entry is a lyric from a song about a violent guitar.
web site nooz
I will have another design ready to fly for menga dot net which will be somewhat inspired by Chris Pirillo’s blog. I really dig his design, but mine will be different enough so it won’t look like I’m blatantly ripping him off. :-)
possible return of the guitar hero
Since moving to FL I haven’t completely set up my recording rig yet. This is 100% due to a lack of space in my apartment. What I need to acquire is a desk. Oddly enough, I know where to get a desk for free and easily place it in the Menga stronghold, but that means I have to tear down my existing rig in its entirety first just to get it in here.
Decisions, decisions..
i love it when a plan comes together
Sorry for the lame A-Team reference, but for what I’m about to say it definitely applies.
I’ve encountered an interesting situation. Most of the time I’m begging for stuff to do. But now I have so much on my plate that I actually have to draw out a “battle plan” to accommodate for it all.
I could probably draw one up in about ten minutes or less.
The sad thing is that I can get so lazy sometimes I have to plan to write the battle plan.
Yep.
Sad.
But I’ll get it done.
Tomorrow. :-)
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4/3/2007
This is techy, so it’s an extended entry.
(more…)
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4/3/2007
A street close to where I live in Tampa.
Florida trivia of the moment:
In Connecticut I was very used to long sunrises and sunsets. In Florida that doesn’t happen. The sun rises and falls fast down this way. The reason is because I’m over 1000 miles closer to the equator of Earth.
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4/4/2007
I haven’t written a hard rock song in a quite a while. I put together my guitar studio rig just for kicks and recorded something real quick. No drums or bass, just all electric. I call it “Hero” because it’s got that fanfare-style sound to it when the triple lead kicks in (heh).
This counts as my first rock song written in Florida.
Download MP3
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4/4/2007
earlier today…
Went out for a haircut. After I walked into the haircut place I saw two girls in there. One looked like a linebacker, complete with butch ‘do. She could definitely kick my ass. Her girlfriend was a skinny thing with a rat’s nest fem-mullet. Both of them looked appeared to be in their late 30’s. Possibly 40’s.
Scary.
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on the OKC
Decided to put up one of those OKCupid profiles, going by the name of synthstar (it was all I could think of for a screen name). If you want to join up (it’s free), use this link for "karma" points. If you do join up, you’d better add me to your friends list on there or I’ll be mad at you. :-)
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not a dating-only site. I’m using it for friends. It’s a nice alternative to MySpace. If I get a date out of it, great. If not, whatever. And by the way, if you’re into those quiz/questionnaire things, OKC is really good for that. The fun-value is way higher than MySpace, no doubt about that.
Anyway, at this point in my life I consider friends more important than having a girlfriend. Actually, let me be more specific. I don’t want the dreaded "R"-word (relationship) because I’m just not good at those. But at least I’m man enough to admit it.
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speaking of friends…
Stephanie, a friend from Connecticut that moved to FL shortly after I did, messaged me recently and busted my balls a bit about why I haven’t seen her yet. And yeah, I deserved it because we promised each other we’d hook up as soon as she got down here, but now it’s been something like over six months and we still haven’t done anything. Her and her boyfriend just got a new place and invited me for dinner so that is definitely on my to-do list. :-) They live in St. Pete and that place is quite lovely for the most part. Don’t really know when I’m going because I have other things on my plate to take care of first (including another dinner I was invited to).
Wheeee… :-)
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4/4/2007
First message I received on OKC:
You’re an oddity. Such fun!
Hope your world is spinning quite nicely.
And that was it.
Yep. She nailed it. :-)
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4/5/2007
As y’all are aware I posted a video from my March 25 trip to Universal concerning the Back To The Future ride. That ride officially closed on March 30, 2007.
This video has received a lot of hits in a relatively short period of time. That didn’t surprise me.
What did surprise me was two things.
1. The outpouring of emotion at this ride’s closure.
People hold a very, very strong emotional connection to this ride. I did not know this. To be honest, it’s cool that people feel that way because I personally got emotional as I was putting the video together originally. It was like I was saying goodbye forever to a part of my childhood I’ll never get back - and that’s fairly accurate to say what most other people felt as well.
2. Outright anger at Universal Studios Orlando.
More than a few comments came thru from others that said in no uncertain terms that some would “never go to Universal again” just because of this ride closure.
Others said BTTF was the best ride at Universal, one of the only reasons for going, and now that it’s gone they’re never going back.
And yet others have pegged Universal as being “evil” for closing this ride.
Wow.
I guess I can understand Universal removing old attractions to be replaced with shiny new ones, but I get confused because the Terminator 2 show is still there which for all intents and purposes is just as old - and that’s still around.
Personally speaking, I’m not going to bash Universal for doing what they did. Decisions are made in theme parks that I have absolutely no control over, and BTTF had to go for whatever reason. It makes no sense for me to mudsling Universal for that. Instead, I concentrated on the positive, got in there before it closed down and am happy for doing that.
It is better not to use the BTTF ride closure as a rally call to bash Universal. Rather, it’s a happy memory for me and I want to remember it fondly - which I do.
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4/6/2007
My key chain Rubik’s Cube arrived yesterday. Two bucks well spent.
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4/6/2007
My sister has been experiencing what’s best described as just basic crapola going on in her life. Her car, which was seemingly fixed (automatic transmission problem), has now started acting up again. Fortunately she was able to patch it up for under 100 bucks. This should be just long enough to get it to a dealership, trade it and get something else.
There have also been a few things going on that’s adding to the crapola. I’m not going to give specifics because that’s information private to her.
Today I learned that local meteorologist John Winter from WFLA-TV New Channel 8 took his own life. You can watch a memorial video on that if you like.
His death left people in nothing but shock. Nothing appeared to be wrong with him. There wasn’t any strife going on in his life. He had a nice car, big house, his neighbors loved him and life was going great - so it seemed.
I called up sis and informed her of this just to let her know that no matter what crappy thing is going on in her life right now, she’s still around and people like myself appreciate her presence. (Note: No, she is not suicidal, she’s just having a bad week.)
Next time she visits (which should be real soon), I’m taking her to Universal Studios. It is my intention to make her forget all the crapola that’s going on in her life - at least for one day. :-)
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