The Mini Golf Post

Last night Sarah and I went out to Hawaiian Rumble minigolf off of International Drive. I had a discount card left over from the service industry night party at Glo Lounge that got us in half price, so I figured we should use it. The course featured a 50ft fiberglass volcano with steam and a waterfall pouring out, as well as some other pretty cool landscaping elements. Sarah managed to send her first ball into the river and swept away on the first hole. She’d later send one flying out of the park and into the parking lot behind the course. I don’t think its because Sarah’s bad at mini-golf, moreso I blame the poor course design. Oftentimes our shots should find themselves rolling backwards towards the walls and sticking in the bricks. While it may not be the best-designed course it was a lot of fun and we had the run of the place to ourselves due to it being later on in the night. I managed to eek out a win with a hole in one on the final hole, which is pretty sweet.

The Waiting Game Post

I am here waiting to go to the airport anxiously hitting reload on the Northwest website to see if Sarah’s flight has finally decided to behave itself. Originally she was supposed to get in yesterday, however due to a snowstorm up in Canadaland she was bumped till tonight. Further making her trip undoubtedly more miserable, her flight from Detroit has been delayed over two hours now…

The Lucasfilm Approval Post

Today I got lots of pats on the back after a successful volley of Star Wars APs* came back from Lucasfilm with the green light. I am particularly pleased with the Darth Maul one getting approved as when its photographed it looks pretty sweet (Star Wars fanboy bias aside). The other shots are composed from numerous different images and put together in believable arrangements to mimic scenes from the movies. I’m pleased that they went through and are on thier way to the parks now.

*APs or ‘Amazing Pictures’, are products we make here at work and sell out at the theme parks and select stores. At the location we take a picture of a guest and map their face onto a character from a movie or TV show etc.

The Zoo Post

Saturday I went to the zoo with Buck and Laura up in Sanford. It was a smallish zoo in comparison to Animal Kingdom’s safari or the National Zoo up in DC, but had a fair few attractions. The elephant show was pretty cool, and due to the small nature of the place you get pretty close. Funny how all zoo animals have the same ‘animal’-smell. It’s like goat poop and burnt hair. Delightful really. Sue and Arnold from work met up with us there and brought their little boy Haden (the unofficial cutest kid ever). He doesn’t talk yet and communicates with claps and giggles for yes, and burying his face in the nearest person’s leg, for no. The trip took the majority of the day, and there were plans to go to a club downtown later on in the night, but I was feeling a tad carsick after sitting in the back of Jess’s SUV on the trip down that I decided to stay in and watch another Bond.

The Lazy Blog Post

This week I’ve gotten lax about my blogging. Not sure why really. In a nutshell here’s what I missed posts on:

A stolen car was spotted by our UPS guy on Wednesday, underwater in the lake behind our office building. Cops arrived on the scene and sent a subversive robot camera down to ID the tags. It was reported stolen last week and used in a bank robbery. They hoisted the sucker out and expected to find a body inside, sending all onlookers away. Alas nothing quite that cool was inside (actually they found nothing at all). Snapped a few shots.

In other Orlando crime news, Cathleen (the new girl) had her first day at work put on hold as she was down at the police station all day and didn’t make it to the office. She apparently witnessed a vehicular homicide on her way to the office. A dude decided it was a good idea to run his girlfriend over with his car outside her apartment… Seemed like a good idea at the time I suppose.

My 360 made its triumphant return to Chateaux Guy. I’ve got it hooked up and running as before, and besides a few clicks whenever it stops reading a disk that I don’t recall, it’s as good as ever. Old Spice announced their Rewards program on the console that nets you some pretty cool prizes if you raise your gamerscore 1,500pts between now and April 12th. Xbox Live buddy, Treebeerd and I have been attempting t reach that goal already and are getting pretty well into it (I think I’m at 350pts at this point).

In news from up north; Jevan got himself a new step-mom this week when Mr. Pradas proposed on valentine’s day with a Spanish poem to his girlfriend for 5-months. Not to be outdone in family news his cousin also announced her engagement on the same day, as well as coming out of the closet. Sorry George, you’ve been trumped.

Got a letter from Stefan the other day. He’s doing well and is out of the first stage of his training. So no more obstacle courses and gas chambers, which is a good thing. Weapons training is next, which sounds pretty kick ass. He seems quite happy and enjoying the process despite its intensive nature.

The Smoking Aces Post

Jeremy Piven is Buddy ‘Aces’ Israel, a Vegas showman turned smalltime gangster. Unfortunately he got too chummy with the big guys in the crime world, and wasn’t low key enough to not get busted. So the feds come down on him and turn the wannabe gangster into a snitch. This doesn’t go over well with the mafia, who put a bounty on his head and cause a whole slew of unsavory characters to make attempts in Buddy’s life.

The plot; awesome, The lineup of actors; impressive. So why does this movie leave a bad taste in your mouth and ultimately walking to the exit disappointed? The ending.

There are so many cool characters, interesting subplots and fantastic situations in this movie than it can handle. So to tie it all together the ending seems lackluster in all but a few of the sub-stories. However the ‘main’ storyline with Buddy, the Feds and the Mafia has the worst ending I’ve seen in a long time. It’s flawed, its outlandish, it doesn’t fit the plot arc and it generally cheapens the overall movie and the character’s integrity along with it. But the cast does a terrific job (less Andy Garcia; who seems to be limiting himself to one-tone dialog and no more than 2 facial expressions the whole movie), and the cameos and bit roles from stars like Jason Bateman are brilliant. Alicia Keys makes her acting debut here as a hit-woman, and does a surprisingly good job of playing a cool and collected killer.

Overall it’s a great movie until the last chapter. So if you time your popcorn and bathroom breaks right it could be the best movie you ever missed the end of.

The 24 Inch Post

So the other day I was speaking with my coworkers about my monitors (they were giving me a headache) and was told to ask Glen in Tech to see if we had any non-CRT monitors I could use laying about. Glen’s away on vacation currently so I put it out of my mind as something to do in a fortnight or so. Today however I was talking with Victor about getting a new monitor in a jovial manner because he was being bugged by all the ladies in the office for new speakers. (Apparently the new girl in Human Recourses got a subwoofer, which sparked a ‘my speakers don’t even work’ and ‘I’ve been asking for new stuff for my office for years’-sorta thing). Anyway, 15 minutes later Victor emerges from the warehouse carrying a brand new 24 inch widescreen monitor. Told me he’d called Glen and cleared it, and set it up for me. It’s freaking sweet! Nice to know that the company wants me to have whatever I need to get the job done too. Very reassuring feeling.

To celebrate the bigness of my new screen I’ve made a widescreen panorama of my desk. Sure the monitor doesn’t look all that impressive in this shot due to the distortion…but whatever, its awesome trust me. Also take note of the bad ass talking Davy Jones figure I got off eBay. “99 souls....3 days!”

The Holehouse Post

After work yesterday there was an open house of sorts at the new café behind our office. They had snacks, free coffee and lots of executive types milling about. Not being a fan off coffee or ties, I wasn’t that impressed. However next door to the café is an art gallery that was also having an open house of sorts. An artist by the name of Jim Gerard Holehouse was having a show at his brother’s gallery. His brother specializes in elaborate framing, while Jim works with canvas, so together they put out some interesting pieces. Hung around talking with the guy for a good half hour sipping on a beer they sent my way and had a nice time listening about each of the paintings. He gave me a poster sized print when we left and offered to sign it too which was pretty cool. The original is pictured below. It was a pretty cool, if not unexpected experience. They offered to frame my canvases from me too and give me a discount if I wanted to sell my work through them. Personally I don’t think any of my 20-dollar Michael’s canvases are worth a $1,000 frame job… nor am I comfortable enough with the quality of work to sell anything… but its cool to have the offer made.

I recently posted a few shots of my recent canvas attempts on Facebook to show my buddy some of my work, and received much unexpected praise from my friends-list. It’s very flattering when art students and old friends all want to own some of my work. I like the idea of having a friend put some of my work up on their wall, and will gladly paint pieces for anyone who would like one (who wouldn’t mind paying for the supplies and shipping also). The one stipulation I’d have is that you have to display the work prominently (over the mantel, the front foyer, in place of pictures of loved ones etc.) and whenever anyone asked about it you’d have to not only say you know the artist personally and he’s a good friend, but you have to ad some exaggerated story to go along with it. Like he painted this while wrestling nazi-aliens in WW2 or something. So if you make me look good, I’ll make your wall look good (or at least try to).

The Heist Post

I could have sworn I posted this last week… but apparently not. Attached is a scan from the local paper. It’s a nice little article featuring the corner on which I live. My apartment complex is directly across from this bank, I can see the lot from my mailbox. Kind of scary.

The XLI Post

The Superbowl was fun. Though the game only really kept my attention for the 1st half, I had a good time. I went over to Buck and Laura’s house to watch, which was cool. Loads of good food and fun company. Unfortunately their new hot tub wasn’t warm enough for use (they had just powered it on that morning), but I was impressed with the new deck and hot-tub area. Apparently its up to temperature now, so hopefully I’ll get to try it out sooner rather than later. It’s been a bit chilly down here as of late (low 50s) so a nice dip could be good. I look forward to seeing how their backyard develops, it’s a pretty sweet location and has potential to be awesome once the legwork is put in.

The Animal Kingdom Post

This past weekend we headed off to Animal Kingdom (Jake, Mum and I) which was a lot of fun. Though I’ve never been a big zoo-fan, the environments they have at the park are really stunning to see. Lots of terrific carvings and lush plants that they shipped in from allover the place, and some pretty cool original stuff. The animals were interesting too I suppose. Hit Expedition Everest, the new coaster, and was pleasantly surprised. It reeks of Thunder Mountain, but has a nice ride-plot and some really good segments featuring the Yeti. 2^nd time was a lot better, guess I had a better seat or something but the stomach lurching was a little more evident than the first. Tried to tape the whole thing but my camera turned off for some reason. Also hit the big safari tour which I missed last time I was there with Dad. Pretty impressive setup once again, but is cut too short by the fast moving trucks that drive you about, and ends with a very weak ‘stop the poachers’ storyline that it could stand to loose entirely.

Due to unforeseen circumstances centering around Premier being a total jerkface, there will be no video for this post. Had some nice footage…but I guess I’ll be keeping it all to myself. Here are some pictures instead.

The Epcot Post

Epcot was next on the list, and we hopped on a bus after lunch. Enjoyed Spaceship Earth and Test Track (though the ride photo would have you believe otherwise), but was less than impressed with the new Living Sea’s Nemo themed upgrade. Spaceship Earth needs to be totally redone. It’s laughably outdated. You know when the ‘future’ consists of being able to talk to people on your TV across the globe, that its time to play some catch-up. The International Showcase was fun as always. We stopped by the British pub for some overpriced import brews, then wandered about for the rest of the day. Ate dinner at the German beer-garden which was awesome. All you can eat buffet with massive beers. It was opretty sweet. And the real icing was that they had a live accordion and Ricola-horn show.

The Gaming Graveyard Post

So the 360’s dead. Fine I have made my peace with it, and even though I get the red-ring-of-death whenever I want to play a movie or game I am pleased that it’s not costing me anything to fix. The box arrived today from Microsoft for me to mail it in with, so the ball is in motion on that one. However the gaming gods have taken a shot at the other nut now, and have killed my PS2 for the second time in its lifetime. Uncool. Knowing that it will cost me more to mail and repair it than the system is worth, I headed to Target today and picked up a new PS2, this time getting the sleek, silver, tiny model. It’s way sexier than the giant black and blue behemoth I bought 7 years ago.

The Epic Movie Post

Ok, now of course this movie won’t score highly here simply because of the type of film it is. Spoof-comedies are never well acted, shot, made or well…anything. But Epic Movie has the appeal of a SNL sketch, and as we all know SNL can be hit or miss. Epic missed a lot more than it hit unfortunately.

In an attempt to spoof the Chronicles of Narnia the movie sets 4 orphans on a quest to stop the Ice Bitch (Stiffler’s Mom) from taking over ‘Gnarnia’. Along the way they meet rip offs of Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, Borat, Harry Potter, the X-Men and many more. It’s pretty much that Bill and Ted show they do at Universal every Halloween, except 2 hours long. Somehow Kumar made it into this film without me knowing about. Not that I keep tabs on Kal pen, but I’d of thought that a 2^nd Van Wilder movie would be enough to keep him off the big screen for a good few months. Apparently not. Carmen Electra makes her usual ‘Movie’ return, as does that little black midget they like to keep bringing back.

For 2 hours of suffering there was about 5 minutes worth of funny. So don’t bother with it if you are wanting a good laugh/time ratio. I enjoyed it simply due to the company watched it with and the fact that we knew what we were getting into before we signed on. But the way the movie doesn’t take itself seriously and often goes out of its way to pull things off in the crappiest and cheapest way possible makes it a laugh worth renting down the road if you have some friends over. And look on the bright side, there is not a Wayan’s brother to be seen! That’s worth a few points right there.

The Cheesecake Post

So we just ate dessert at the Cheesecake Factory, a first for me. All I can say is ‘wow’. I am so full I can’t even see straight. I feel fat. Like Venus of Willendorf-fat. Considering I just consumed nine bazillion calories (I looked it up online) I suppose that’s understandable. But oh man...good cake that’s for sure. I did the White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake, which was every bit as delicious as its 11 syllables implies. Tomorrow we are hitting Epcot which should be cool, if I’m able to do more than lay about while patting my belly and moaning, which is all I can manage at the moment.