My first corporate award came in. This is the first time I won a corporate award, so I am very excited and happy to have received it. 
We took today off to relax. Lunch at Ming Court, Dinner at Hot & Spicy Crawfish and shopping at the Prime Outlet Mall in between.
Tomorrow, we head back to Ohio, so no updates about Orlando after that.
For day two of our tour of Walt Disney World, we decided to check out the Disney Hollywood Studios after seeing some advertisements about the shows there. It turns out that the visit was better than expected, as the shows actually showed how they did the stunts as well as entertain. Today was also the first time we got park hopper passes, so it gave us the ability to jump between WDW sites.
The first stop is at the animation studios. They demonstrated how they illustrated the Disney movies that everyone have come to know.
After the short show about Disney animation, we made our way to the Pixar portion and onto the Toy Story shooting gallery. While a lot of fun, the ride wasn’t really worth the 70 minute wait time…
After the ride, we decided to run off to the Disney Special Effects Backstage Tour, which gave a behind-the-scenes look at how movies employ special effects to create action sequences. Included on this ride was a demonstration, and then a tram-guided tour of props and sets used in previous movies as well as in shows at Disney.
One of the things they pointed out is that they can replicate any cityscape seamlessly. In this example, the good folks at Disney created a replica of New York City. The actual cityscape is a cutout, and it seems like it goes for city blocks, but it actually ends a few feet after the police barricades.
We wanted to check out the star wars show and the indiana jones stunts, but we found the 70+ minute wait time per show to be a bit much, so we parkhopped to Epcot for lunch, then we hopped off to the Magic Kingdom. As you can see in the background, there is Cinderella Castle.
After a few scenic pictures, we headed out to Adventure Island to check out the Pirates of the Carribean adventure.
A few more scenic shots…
After the park closed, the Disney cast did a quick show celebrating the holidays.
Howdy there, folks!
It’s onto day three of the Orlando expedition! Today, we visited one of my childhood favorite spots for sightseeing: Walt Disney’s Epcot Center. It’s been a good 15 years since I last visited with my family, so this was an exciting day! The day started off epically, with this great sunrise.
Epcot Center, seen here with its signature geodome, represents the innovation and future-imaging arm of Disney theme parks. In the past, Disney would place all their newer thoughts and inventions into this portion of the park. It was a lot of fun seeing a lot of those familiar sights again!
First stop inside the gates? Spaceship Earth, which is a time machine ride that explores the history of the human race’s existence in the earth, as well as predict where we are going.
It was a lot of fun seeing how Disney studios had managed to update the rides.
Once outside, I decided to take some shots of Epcot in between shows, to see if my skill has improved…
Epcot Center is comprised of two concentric circles. The inner circle contains the bulk of their rides and exhibits, while the outer circle contains their cultures of the nations exhibit. First, the inner circle. The first stop on our tour was the Earth Exhibits, which talk about people’s relationship with Mother Earth. After a short Lion King video about recycling and being mindful of the world at large, we went on a boat tour of the ecosystem of Epcot.
After the land exhibit, we went to the sea exhibit. Now, I’m a real sucker for underwater exhibits. I will spend more time capturing aquatic life in fishtanks than I will any other creature. It’s just fascinating to me. I should get a salt water tank some day.
Now, one of the best parts of the trip and easily one of the most fun rides I’ve ever been on took place at Mission: Space. The ride takes place in 2035, where the participants play the role of astronauts training for the space program to send the X-2 space shuttles to Mars. The actual ride is a simulator, which places 4 people into different roles (navigator, pilot, commander, engineer), all in charge of a different part of the mission to mars. The simulator rotates the participants on their backs, then spins them to simulate upthrust into the atmosphere during various parts of the ride. It actually felt like flying out to space and eventually to Mars. I had so much fun, I rode it twice! If you ever go to Epcot, do not miss this ride!!
After Mission: Space, we headed off to the Universe of Energy, brought to us by Ellen DeGeneris and Bill Nye (the science guy). More time traveling! Yay!
After the time traveling adventure, we went on a tour of the countries.
We eventually stopped to have late lunch/early dinner at Japan’s Tokyo Restaurant.
Annnd back on the road… I should note that it’s a bad thing when I see middle eastern structures that I immediately start thinking of parkour. This is a surefire sign of video game addiction…
And the great finale of the evening: Fireworks and a Laser Light show! The message? Bring Peace to Everyone!!
And that’s it for today! It was a very long day! Tomorrow? Disney World / Downtown Disney / etc!
Stay tuned!
Hello there!
Day two of the Orlando trip! So today, we made our way back to Universal Studios. Our journey starts off with a trip through CityWalk, which is their shopping/dining district leading up to Universal Studios.
And eventually, we make it to the Universal Entrance.
What’s different about Universal Studios versus the Island of Adventure is that Universal Studios seems to be more dedicated to the art of making movies, and half of the park is dedicated to exploring various aspects of this. Island of Adventure, on the other hand, seems to be more of a movie-themes park.
Our first stop is a free magic show! The magician who presented the show was pretty good at what he did. My brother even got to be part of the show, demonstrating the sponge balls portion. I was more amazed by the spinning card trick.
The next stop was a demonstration of make up in horror movies. This was presented in a comedic, yet educational trip through the historical development of make up and special effects in horror movie history. A few members of the audience were also able to participate in the demonstration of some of the common tricks in hollywood horror movie. One of the demonstrators, an actual Universal Studios makeup artist, also took special interest in my mom during the presentation. He made the show.. quite interesting.
After the show, and while we were waiting for the next showing of Terminator 3D, we saw a street dance performance. These talented kids shared their love of the B-boy style with an amazing acrobatics display.
After the show, we finally made it in to see Terminator 3D. The show’s 10 or more years old, and for the most part, is everything I expected. The use of 3D is pretty impressive, considering how old the movie is.
We also saw Shrek 4D which, despite being a short, was very awesome. And wet. =x As I mentioned, half of the Universal Studios was dedicated to making the movies. The other half were rides based on movies themselves.
Afterwards, we went on the Revenge of the Mummy ride, another based-on-the-movie attraction. This one is based out of “The Mummy” and “Mummy Returns” universe.
We later went to a show called “Disaster!”, which was a how-to show about special effects, plot development and best of all… featured making a short including select members of the audience. Using green-screen techniques, selected members of the audience were able to be injected into a short commercial for an upcoming fake movie they were “working on”.
We also stopped by the E.T. Adventure and helped ET get home. The shot is from the interior walkway, which was made to look like a forest.
Afterwards, we made for some familiar grounds…
That rounds out day 2 of Universal Studios. Tomorrow.. Epcot Center!
It’s been a good 15 years since I’ve been to Orlando, and this will be my first trip to Universal Studios, Orlando.
We were able to get a great deal with BookIt.com for a room at the Rosen Shingle Hotel. The hotel is amazing… 4.5 star hotel located on Universal Blvd, which were able to bid and get for $65/night. Three full pools, hot tub, fully loaded gym, beautiful views. This is a great place to stay.
Here’s a few views from our room:
After checking in and getting situated, we took off to hit Universal Studios. For those whom have never been, the park itself is divided into two park attraction components: Island of Adventure and Universal Studios proper. For this day, we decided to hit up Universal Studios: Island of Adventure.
A few views from the entrance:
After the initial venture into Island of Adventure, we crossed through the Seuss attractions and head into The Lost Continent, which focused on Poseidon and some older Greek temples. No real movie theme that I can recall the connection from, but it was a fun time nonetheless. We doubled back later to watch the show. Here’s the entrance:
And the Poseidon Temple:
Shortly after the dip into Poseidon’s world (and the show, which was alrighty), we made our way to the highlight of the day: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We initially thought of coming to Universal Studios after seeing previews of the Harry Potter location on the DVD. And true to the advertisements, Universal Studios spared no expense to create a world that is as lifelike as possible. The buildings are mostly created to scale, and even their Three Broomsticks held a huge hall for eating. Hogwarts castle was a ride rather than an explorable castle, but it is also huge and towering. Definitely worth the wait and the trip.
Coming into Hogsmeade:
Chatting with the conductor of the Hogwarts Express:
A view of the Great Hall and Hogwart’s Castle:
We started hitting some of the rides. Here’s Hagrid’s Hut from the Hippogriff ride line. According to Daniel Radcliffe, whom was here during the opening, Hagrid’s hut is the correct size as the set piece in the movie.
After the ride, we went on the Harry Potter Adventure, which takes place within Hogwart’s Castle. After the ride (sorry, wasn’t able to show many pictures of the interior… I’ll leave those secrets for you to discover), there was a trip through the apparel store, which offered many different things a wizard would need, including Robes ($100), scarves ($30) and hoodies ($50).
And of course, no trip would be complete without a stop for Butterbeer:
Nor a trip to Three Broomsticks. I had the Shepard’s Pie. It was pretty tastey, but for the price, I could have made it on my own.
After moving from there, we went on to explore Jurassic Park. This portion of the park is pretty aged, as Jurassic Park has been out for a long time. It was fun, as they seemed to have preserved many of the things from the original movie. And yes, you can see Hogwarts from inside Jurassic Park.
Honestly, I think they’d do better to scrap Jurassic Park and do some rendition of Terra Nova, but I don’t think Fox would give them the rights to do so.
They also had a cartoon town, featuring many of the famous cartoons and comics from newspapers that we’ve come to know over the ages.
And a few poses with more well-noted characters:
That wraps it up for Island of Adventures. Tomorrow: Universal Studios!
For those of you whom don’t know, I’ve been inundated with new games lately. And work. And school. And school. And School.
But I thought I’d drop by and post some thoughts on some of the things I’ve been staring at.
On 11.11.11, Bethesda Softworks rushed their latest massive role playing game into release. Skyrim follows a progressively improving series of games in the Elder Scrolls saga. However, rushed into production are the key words. Since launch date, numerous bugs, defects and generally bizarre behaviors have been reported, mostly tied into their graphics system. Even with advanced systems like mine, the game can barely run in a stable fashion for more than an hour. My system, with the highest settings, often crashes to desktop without rhyme nor reason. And it’s not an issue of the graphics card, but rather the engine driving Skyrim (as verified by other users experiencing the same issue).
But on with the hillarity.
As much as I'm up for food, I'm a little put off by your lack of.. well.. body.
We're all simply trying to understand the reasoning for your lack of rendering...
Well, the house is a fixer upper. Needs a bit of paint. And some walls.
Haters be fadin...
Skyrim is a big place, and while walking a billion miles can cause you to fly into a blind rage, this is ridiculous...
So, today was another learning opportunity. During the summer, I signed up for a free personal training session that the gym I go to was hosting. I figured it would be a good time to update my workout routines and see what I can do to improve. I let my intentions be known to my trainer, and while I did meet these goals… sort of… it came with an interesting additional hour or so of guilt-laced sales tactics. The actual workout was 20 minutes, mind you. But I thought this would be a great time to break down the sales tactics.
The Cast: Myself (semi-active guy), 2 Sales Managers
The Analysis
Pretty standard situation. They go through my background and habits. Curious to note, they asked more questions than a police officer during citation filing. AS expected, they took my daily routines and workouts to create an overall picture of me so that they could beef up arguing points on why I should subscribe to their services.
The mixed math
After the initial description of what they were offering, I opted to go straight to brass tacks: price. I have already trained with them before (and told them this), so I know the routine. I wanted to see what prices they had. This is when they began to give me weirdness.
The sale was… “The package we are offering you now is better because previously you were training for $40 a session, but now we’re offering it to you for $35 a session, which is cheaper!”
Here’s the problem. Prior, I was training 2x a week @ $40 a session. They’re recommending 3x a week @ $35 a session. And if I were to drop to 2x a week, I would go to $40 a session, so there’s no new price schema. It’s the same as it was before (they even showed me the packages after telling me about the “sale”, and it’s the exact same price.)
Here’s the second issue: $40 x 2 times a week x 4 weeks in a month = $320/mo. $35 x 3 times a week x 4 weeks a month = $420/mo. I’m not saving money at all.
Here’s the other common money logic: “You’re eating out once a day during your work week, right? If you packed your lunch, you’d save $25 a week which could go towards your training.” Here’s the thing… the food I buy is pretty healthy anyway, and were I to convert to a packed system, it means I buy more groceries, which means my reallocated money actually goes there; it doesn’t float in limbo. And I’ve seen what they want me to eat, and it’ll end up costing me more. So no, I’m not reallocating money to gym. It’s reallocating to packed lunches, and the gym adds onto that cost. As a side note, they estimated my lunches were running $10 a day… wondering why they’re assuming I’m dining on lobster. Mine’s actually more like $5. Love sandwiches with veggies.
The Mixed Signals
During the middle of the discussion, the two trainers then started reviewing readings that they took of my BMI and what they consider optimally healthy On one end, they were stressing the importance of getting to my optimal health, then telling me that it is essential I get there. They then began saying that I couldn’t get there without them, saying that I was kidding myself if I thought I could. During this time, they also asked me “Don’t you believe in yourself?”
Point of clarification: If you’re going to ask someone if they believe in themselves and whether or not they believe that they can reach their goal, you should not be carrying it in the same breath as saying “You can’t reach your goal without my assistance”, since that’s a contradictory message. A better, more honest phrase is “While you can definitely do it, I’m here to help you get there faster.” But this warped logic of asking me if I believe in myself, then telling me that I can never make it without you is really backwards.
Second tip: Don’t compare your training expertise to buying textbooks for a class. I can get training advice on the internet; the information is out there. 
The Over-assumption of self importance
In the digital age, there are loads of information and training schedules available online to help people plan out their training sessions. One of the points that was mentioned to me was that without them, I would be unable to put one together or follow one. I really wanted to avoid using the commonly coined phrase, but… “there is an app for that, and I have it.” RIP Steve Jobs. You will be missed.
The credentials
This was a bizarre one. When I didn’t agree to signing up for training, they also threw their credentials and degrees to me, as if that was the one thing holding me on the fence. Then he began talking as if i was questioning the authenticity of his training, when all I said was “I’ll think about this, and will get back to you.”
One of the trainers then turned to question my training and background, saying that my desire to work out on my own without his help would be akin to someone telling me that they knew more about programming than I did, when they did not have a software engineering degree. I’m not sure which logical fallacy that is, but I’m pretty sure it’s there.
The Awkward Logic
The final assumption that was given was that I clearly needed their help because I didn’t up and leave the discussion. This was bizarre to me, because I generally engage in discussions with people and I don’t want to be rude, so I hear what they have to say and leave when the discussion reaches its conclusion. But according to them, I should have just got up and left mid-sentence if I really didn’t need their help. Weird! Apparently they expect me to be rude from the get-go. Kind of a weird business model.
Ultimately, I understand the sales world, and the need to make commission. Perhaps there’s a genuine concern there as well regarding my personal health. But there’s also a better way to talk to me as an individual. I prefer truth, so be honest with me. If you can argue that I need your help to get my results faster, I may not disagree with your services. But when you try mixed messages and strategies, especially when I’ve had experience working with you, your staff, and your system of sales in the past, then add high pressure and guilt trips, things probably won’t work out as well. =)
And for those looking to train, it’s not a bad route to go. I did have a lot of gain when I did do it, but I’d also like a trainer who isn’t going to manipulate me to get me to do things.
Be genuine. Be honest. Life is simpler that way. =)
Though, I did learn something. I need to have higher intensity workouts. I’ve been taking too many breaks and letting my heart rate drop too often. So…. it wasn’t a total waste. =)
Heres how I celebrate a week of crashprep for a pain in the ass exam.
It’s been a long time since my last post!
During the last week in August, I drove to Kansas City to visit some friends and work out of the corporate office for my development team. It was a real blast, and my visit with my friends was definitely long overdue.
On the way back, Jerry and Wires (two of my former roommates) came along, and we took a trip with their girlfriends to Cedar Point. It’s been ages since I last went, and the trip was absolutely fun.
While I didn’t take the pictures with my usual D300, my iPhone4 did a nice job.
One of the various rides we rode:
Tired after the rides and sun:
Some video work:
This guy was pretty shady.
