The Daughter has a infatuation with Lions and Tigers. It borders on a complete obsession really. From screaming ‘LLLLLIIIIIIIIOOONNNNNNNNN!’ so loud it nearly burst my eardrum during the safari at Disney’s Animal Kingdom to sleeping under a mountain of stuffed felines. If I remember correctly her first words were the complete script of ‘The Lion King’. So when she heard that her team was the Detroit Tigers she screamed like…. well, she screamed like a little girl. Once again nearly bursting one of my eardrums.

Later the same day we’re picking up the boy’s uniform and we found out his team name is the Milwaukee Brewers. So after I belt out a nice ‘YES!’ I look over and notice my wife has her face buried in her hands once again (she seems to do that alot when we’re out in public. I haven’t quite yet figured out why). It took a bit of explaining to the boy until he understood why I liked the team name and if you haven’t yet figured out why yourself, just take another look at the title and header graphic for the blog again.

side note: The sponsor of the boy’s team happens to be the local mortician. Oh well… you can’t win ‘em all. At least its not Chico’s Bail Bonds.

“I dreamed I was stuck in space with three females and we had to have SEX to survive!”

Er.. what? Yeah I know. Not a big deal but it just kind of surprised me coming from a network that uses ‘Family Channel’ as their tagline. Well actually ABC’s tagline for the network is ‘A New Kind of Family’ so who knows what the hell they mean by that.

In any case, its not like ABC has any real interest in keeping the network truely ‘family’ oriented. As detailed in the wikipedia entry for ABC Family, ABC tried to rebrand the network as XYZ but stumbled when they came across a ‘forgotten’ contract clause.

The next major plan was to reposition the channel to market it to college students, young women, or to a more hip audience under the name XYZ, a reverse reference to ABC. Disney soon found that the channel could never be renamed as such. The sale from CBN contained a stipulation from Robertson that the channel contain the word “Family” in the name forever, no matter who owns the network. To create XYZ, the Family Channel would have had to cease to exist – terminating all existing cable TV contracts – and XYZ would have to be created as a new network. Cable companies would not be obligated to put XYZ in the spot vacated by the Family Channel. ABC scrapped the idea after discovering this clause.

Whoops.

So about a year ago Rush Limbaugh was caught returning from a vacation with a supply of improperly prescribed Viagra. It was quickly revealed that Rush was vacationing in the Dominican Republic. This immediately set off a firestorm of stories going into detail about the Dominican Republic’s sex trade (some went as far as to call it a ‘sexual Disneyland’) and how Rush must be a massive, deviated sexual pervert for vacationing in the ‘Single Mans Paradise’. I distinctly remember a Baltimore area blogger accusing Rush of (and I’m paraphrasing here. I don’t know what blog the comment was on and I have little desire for Google to have searchs on ‘Dominican Replublic boy sex’ logged to my IP) “having sex with underage boys because why else would any be going to the Dominican Republic”? Well obviously! Because we ALL KNOW there’s absolutely no ‘normal’ reason for ANYONE to vacation in the Dominican Republic… right? Well….

Clinton Vacations in Caribbean

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton has stepped off the presidential campaign trail for a few days, heading to the Dominican Republic to spend Easter weekend at the swank Punta Cana Resort and Spa.

She was joined by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and their daughter Chelsea at the home of fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, a Dominican native.

The Clintons have vacationed numerous times at the Caribbean resort since 2000, when Bill Clinton was closing out his second term in the White House.

Emphasis mine.

So…. when do the negative sexual pervert stories start about the Clintons?

Iwao Takamoto, the animator who created the beloved Scooby-Doo and directed the cartoon classic Charlotte’s Web, has died. He was 81.

Takamoto died Monday of heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Warner Bros. spokesman Gary Miereanu said.

In a career that spanned more than six decades, Takamoto assisted in the designs of some of the biggest animated features and television shows for Disney and the Hanna-Barbera animation team. They included Cinderella, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, 101 Dalmatians, The Jetsons and The Flintstones.

rutt-row! (sorry… couldn’t resist).

Scooby Doo was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. Today, its one of my kids favorite cartoons as well. Its pretty much the only cartoon they watch that I can stand to watch with them. So thanks for that Iwao.

The kids (all 6 of ‘em, we were visiting the sister-in-law for the weekend) really enjoyed the zoo. The big hits were the Gorillas and the Otters. The Otters are behind huge panes off glass and would ‘play’ with the kids by swimming along with them as they ran back and forth in front of the glass.Eventually the kids tried to trick the otters by suddenly switching directions. This didn’t last long as the Otters proved to be far more skilled in avoiding collisions with sudden changes of direction that the kids. The Gorillas were very active and consisted of a about three females and a very large silverback who got pissed off while he was trying to eat and the females kept messing with him (ain’t that always the case?).

There’s also a big deal being made about the new ‘Big Cats Falls’ exhibit at the Philadelphia Zoo which has been open approximately two weeks. We arrived right before the park opened and the crowd was very large. We decided to employ or Disney strategy and went the opposite way… away from Big Cats and towards the back of the zoo first. We managed to avoid the crowds that way most of the day. We checkout out Big Cats Falls at the end of our trip and where honestly quite disappointed. The exhibit is relatively small, pathways where cramped (and not just because of the crowds) and most importantly, there were no Big Cats to be seen (except for one sleeping lion). These were the only exhibits in the zoo where the animals were not active. I paraphrased a quote from Jurassic Park ‘eventually you do plan on having Big Cats in Big Cats Falls don’t you?’ which earned me a dirty look from one of the keepers.

Pictures of these trips have been placed in the gallery but have been put in the restricted friend/family section because of the frikken weirdos out there who keep linking to my gallery pics.

We’ve been here two and half days now and I feel like its been a month. We haven’t even left the Orange Lake property since we got here (except to get beer of course, and thats only a trip to the Publix which is about 30 yards outside the gate). This place has 7 different pools (and they’re building a massive 8th right now). So far we’ve hit 6. On top of that add basketball, tennis, vollyball, golf (miniature. and I mean real miniature, not that hoaky windmill shit) and all the othe various activities we put the kids in to wear ‘em down and you’ve got some tired people. You KNOW the kids are tired when you have a seven year old boy say ‘dad, can I please go to bed’ at 8pm.

Tommorrow we get back in the van and head down to West Palm Beach to visit the wife’s brother and his family. Her father is driving up from Marathon (Florida Keys) to met us there. Its a two hour trip in the car but given the trip we took down here over the weekend it should be cake (knock on wood). Hell, I just have to hook up the dvd player in the car and we should be there in just over one movie.

Being able to get an employee rate at various Days Inns hotels is a definate help to the wallet while traveling. The downside, especially along I-95, is that most of the Days Inns are, in the wife’s words, ‘skeezy’. I agree. Although it is pretty obvious that they’re doing some serious reworking of the brand. I mentioned the free wireless. Cendant (Days Inn parent) has mandated ALL Days Inns must provide free wireless access by Oct 31st of this year. Another mandate due at the same time is something called the ‘SolTerre Experince’ which is an ‘exclusive’ soap and shampoo line, new waterpic showheads and a curved shower curtain rod that gives you a hell of alot more room in the shower (because few things are nastier than brushing up against a ‘skeezy’ hotel shower curtain). It sounds like fluff, but these changes make a hell of a difference. Trust me, I can tell. The hotel last night had the shower upgrade, this one does not.

We’ll be at the timeshare tommorrow afternoon and will be starting our non-Disney Orlando trip. Time to call the housesitter and check in on things. Oh, by the way, have I mentioned that travelling from PA to FL in a minivan with three kids is PURE HELL?

Disney says it’s simply part of an attempt to find a more foolproof system to block the use of stolen and shared tickets.

This pisses me off (beyond the privacy/biometrics angle). I can understand Disney wanting to verify exactly who is using a Annual Pass. Otherwise there would be no way to stop me from using the ticket for a week, giving it to someone else who uses it for a week who then gives it to someone else and so on.

HOWEVER, if I buy a two, three, five or even 7 day ticket, Disney has been PAID for those days. It shouldn’t matter to them WHO uses those tickets. Disney is taking advantage of the guest who overbuys and is essentially getting free money. This is a shitty business practice. As you can see from my previous post, it has already cost them $1,100 in tickets sales this year. See ‘ya Disney, its been fun (at least for the kids).

Lending Disney a hand
Disney World parks are now using finger scanners to block the use of stolen and shared tickets.

Technorati: Disney

Finger Scanning At Disney Parks Causes Concern

The addition of finger scanning technology at the entrances of Walt Disney World theme parks for all visitors has caused concern among privacy advocates, according to a Local 6 News report.

Tourists visiting Disney theme parks in Central Florida must now provide their index and middle fingers to be scanned before entering the front gates.

The scans were formerly for season pass holders but now everyone must provide their fingers, Local 6 News reported. They have reportedly been phased in for all ticket holders during the past six months, according to a report.

Disney officials said the scans help keep track of who is using legitimate tickets, Local 6 News reported.

Even though the article says that SeaWorld and Universal Orlando plan to roll out the same technology, we’ll go to those parks until they do. Besides, they’re cheaper (not much, but still…) than Disney.

I’m not going to have my families fingerpints cataloged in a Disney database just so they can squeeze even more goddamn money out of me. Thats all this is really. Disney (and the other parks) sell a variety of tickets from single day single park tickets to multi-day park hoppers to season passes. They want to force people to buy new tickets instead of handing over tickets with unused days to friends/family. I’m sure that once a large backlash about this starts up, Disney will revert to the ‘ol safety and security bullshit to calm people down.

Actually, I’m kind of relieved about this. The ticket prices for the Disney parks are absolutely fucking insane anyway. To buy tickets for my family (2 adults, 3 kids under 10) three day park-hopper tickets would cost a little over $1,100. This just gives me the final push to say screw it, I’m just not paying it anymore. We’ll most likely hit Universal and/or Sea World for a day, hang out by the pool (the timeshare has two very cool lagoon pools that the kids absolutely love) and then head down to the keys to visit family for a few days.

Technorati: Disney

We left Rocky Mount, NC around 9am and hauled ass south since we heard they expected Charlie to landfall again in NC early that afternoon. Charlie turned and came in early to Myrtle Beach, SC but by that time I was browsing through the NASCAR museum and Hall of Fame at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, SC (duh). Nice partly cloudy clue skys and hardly any wind. I was pissed though that they weren’t doing track tours ‘because of the weather’. When I turned and looked outside the girl got all defensive and bitched ‘well, it was supposed to be bad’. I told he she had a future in the Maryland School system. In looking at the storm track this evening, I see that Charlie passed directly over Rocky Mount, NC several hours after we left that morning.

We made record time to Savannah, GA since we didn’t see a single cop on I-95 the entire day (normally you can set your mile marker every five miles from the cops). Apparrently they were all easy dealing with some kind of storm. We hit the hotel around 4:30, checked in (did I mention the $15 employee rate?) and then went to downtown Savannah. We hit the waterfont. That place was amazing. Sort of a mix between fells point and ellicott city but cooler and not Baltimore. The placed looked simply amazing. Some of the buildings looked like freaking movie sets from Pirates of the Carribian. I was pissed and kicking myself because I left the camera in the hotel room. I was even more pissed when we got back to the car and I realized the camera had been sitting there the hole time.

I’ve talked to the timeshare in Orlando and they claim that everything is fine. I also talked to a fraternity brother of mine who works in Orlando for Disney. He stated it was ‘fucking scary’ how 15 minutes after the storm had passed, masses of ‘cast members’ emerged from the bowels of the Disney parks to begin cleanup and repairs in the middle of the night. I actually wouldn’t mind skipping the whole disney thing and just hang out by the timehare’s lagoon pool for a few days before heading down to the Keys but whatever. Tickets are already paid for.

Well we’re supposed to leave Friday morning on vacation to Disneyworld. We’re driving. Into TWO FUCKING HURRICANES. I mean really, what the fuck is that? Two at once? Come on.

Oh BTW, you’ll also remember how I was wondering why the computer room monitoring system didn’t page me to warn of the increased temperature? Turns out it was. It was paging me like mad. Problem is the bean counters decided to discontinue paging service to save some money WITHOUT TELLING the people who use the pages. ‘Hello Dilbert? Yeah, I have a story line for you….’

Clarke has joined the ever growing list of people who will say and do whatever it takes just to sell a few more books. The 9/11 commission is a joke. Nothing but a collection of political windbags set on placing the blame for 9/11 on everyone EXCEPT the fuckers who flew the planes into the buildings. On top of all that, we have this moronic pissing match between the Governer of MD and the Mayor of Baltimore. Goddamn politicians. I hate ‘em all.

In other news, Work sucks. Well, it doesn’t actually suck, I’ve just become very bored with it. Not many challenges coming up any more. In fact, I’m finding myself less and less interested in computers in general every week. I used to always have some project going on at home, now I pretty much just check my mail, browse a bit then hit the PS2 or the garage.

Speaking of the garage, since its finally warmed up a bit outside, I’ve moved the 89 Jeep inside to start working on it. First project was to tackle the electrical and starting problems. Thought I had a problem with the starter but turns out it was just old wires (the negative battery cable turning to dust as I unbolted it from the engine block was the first clue. So the thing starts now. Of course the more I poke around, the more I find brittle wires and connectors. This could get real messy fast. I have to get the Neutral safety switch working (so the reverse lights come on) and change the breaks all the way around. I’m hoping thats all I need to do to get it past inspection. After that I can start stripping the interior (I’m guessing I’ll have to replace the drivers side floorpan because of rust) and replacing(upgrading) the suspension.

I’m really suprised about how fast I’ve taken to just working on the cars. I find I’m in there for hours and just lose track of time. Theres been a few nights when I realize its 3am and I really should be in bed. Just like I used to be with computers years ago.

And finally, I picked up a copy of the disney DVD Brother Bear for the kids today. Yet ANOTHER disney movie where they kill the Mother. Disney has thing about killing off parents in their movies and its beginning to freak me out.