The 3rd Advance Screaming Post

Wednesday was the employee-only night for Halloween Horror Nights 08. It’s crazy to think that I’ve been to three of these bad boys already. This one was definitely one of the most fun. George, Bruce, Rio, Greg and I went out for the ‘Advanced Screaming’ and had a great time. Some of the houses where a little dubious, but I know it was essentially a test night for a lot of the scare-actors and a fair few of the effects where not running until the full event starts this weekend. This year they had a focus on ‘scare zones’ much more than previous iterations, and the result works really well. Instead of the occasional characters wandering around between the haunted houses, there were five or six themed areas that where flooded with people waiting to scare you. They ranged from a crashed school bus filled with evil trick-or-treaters to chainsaw wielding guys in straight jackets.

My favorite area was themed after a twisted version of the Wizard of Oz. A creepy version of all of the main characters where wandering around in the fog while a wicked witch set fire too the rooftops. However the coolest part was defiantly the flying monkeys who swung from two of the soundstages across the path. It was very cool, and decidedly eerie. There was also a warped version of Alice in Wonderland and a few other classic fairy tales gone wrong. As always Bill and Ted where back for their Halloween Adventure show, which was pretty hilarious. The McCain and Obama parodies where pretty damn funny, as where some of the others the managed to fit in. There was a little too much Hellboy for my liking, considering I never saw it (did anyone!?) but the Speed Racer spoof more than made up for it.

The Dad Visit Post

This weekend Dad came down for a visit to Orlando. It was great to spend time with him, hanging around and heading out and about. Watched some football, caught a few movies which I probably wouldn’t have seen solo, ate out and some of my favorite spots around town, and hit the Comedy and Adventurer’s clubs at Pleasure Island. Saturday we met up with Stacey for the last night of Halloween Horror Nights, which was really cool. Getting to spend more time in the various houses was way better than spending the majority of the night in line. We saw every house besides Dead Silence, which is irritating because that was the one I really had pegged as something I wanted to see. But we did see everything else and all three shows, including the Bill and Ted final performance, which was great and slightly modified by the cast due to it being the last hurrah. Stopped by an Amazing Pictures store and did a funny picture with Stacey which looks really good. Dad brought down with him my new CS3 suite too which is really exciting. Finally having up-to-date versions of all the Adobe killer-aps is going to make my graphics work much more enjoyable. My first project will be the Celica-to-Transformer-Project. More on that later. I have more manuals to read and tutorials to run through that I’ll ever be able to complete (16 lbs worth actually), but I plan on putting a dent in a few of the new feature centric content. Very fun, very full weekend. I really like getting to spend time with Dad. Makes me wonder why I used to want to argue with him every 5 seconds… who knows?

The Halloween Weekend Post

This weekend marked Sarah’s long anticipated visit to the new apartment. I have been looking forward to having her down here for ages and finally on Friday I could stop counting down days. We had a great weekend, hanging out around the complex and the surrounding area. Got a late lunch at Mimi’s Café which lasted us a few meals and the obligatory trip/s to Target, as well as a Home Depot stop to get Sarah an apartment key that actually works.

Went to Halloween Horror Nights and the Nascar Grille on Saturday and hung out with Bruce and Dianna. Horror Nights is decidedly better when you aren’t alone for the record, and I enjoyed it much more this time around. Saw a lot of houses and a few I had missed the first time through (Texas Chainsaw was our favorite), as well as caught one of the later Bill and Ted shows; and met the carnival’s ringleader, Jack for a photo which was pretty freaky (the guy decided to mess with me over Sarah, which I was not anticipating). He was pretty intense and had a few people running away screaming (which was hilarious for those of us waiting in line. Speaking of lines…wow, the sheer amount of people that show up for the event is crazy, especially when you consider the wait times, cost of tickets and drinks.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to head downtown which was a big bummer for both of us, especially considering the effort that had gone into our costumes. But with that said we did have an awesome weekend hanging out at the new place. Got in a dinner date at BJ’s Brewhouse (my new favorite dinner spot) which was nice-and oh so filling. Very sad to see Sarah go, and the weekend felt cut short more so than most visits, but so glad she made it down and eagerly anticipating seeing her again already.

The Colchester Vistors Post

Childhood friend Melanie, from the UK visited this weekend as one of her stops on a tour across America. She’s travelling with a buddy of hers; Craig, and has so far been to New York City, somewhere in Ohio, Boston and Texas. They where only in Orlando for four days before they head on to San Diego. While they were here I tried to show them different aspects of town; we hit Millenia’s BJ Brewhouse for some awesome food; Minigolfed on I-Drive, hit a few malls and the Van’s Skatepark, and went downtown to some of the more eclectic bars like Spybar and Independent. I think they had a good time. Yesterday they did an all-day-er at Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. Stuck around late for Halloween Horror Nights, which they said, was really good. All in all I think they had a pretty decent trip, albeit a small stop on a long list of many. It was weird to be playing host in my new apartment though having just been there for a week myself.

The Advance Screaming Post

Halloween is in the air and its time again for Universal Studio’s to put on their Halloween Horror Nights event. The park is transformed at nightfall into a creepy carnival featuring haunted houses, eerie actors and long lines. Tonight was the employees only advance showing of the event for this year and I got to go thanks to the awesome efforts of Rich and Henry at the office. Unfortunately I was seemingly unable to coordinate the other people who where going and ended up toughing the night out solo. While there is a lot to do and see and some really cool effects and scares to be had, it definitely loses something having to do it on your own. I saw a lot, but not nearly everything, and look forward to going again on a regular night with Sarah when she is down for Halloween next month.

This year’s theming was much more impressive than last year’s and overall it was a better production. Featuring characters like Leatherface, Freddy Kruger and Jason and some awesome carnival creepiness the whole park really came off a lot better than last year’s attempt. Unfortunately the food wasn’t free this time, and there where no light up glasses with interesting beers (beer came in plastic cups and was limited to Bud only). The Bill and Ted show had its wings clipped noticeably from last year’s raucous show, though still posed a few good pop-culture oriented jabs. Unfortunately it kept falling back to making fun of Britney Spears (though the ‘leave Britney alone’ audio was classic). They where forbidding any and all photography and filming during the show this time too which is a bummer. But any show featuring a phone booth transformer-ing into Optimus Prime while Leonidus the Spartan tosses javelins at Lindsey Lohan is ok in my book.