Happy New Year!

On this podcast, I talk about the upcoming Macworld Expo, our trip to Disneyland, HDTV and a special Geeks R Us pre-announcement!

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Forgot to mention – on Wednesday we all beta tested the new Monsters, Inc attraction in DCA.

It was pretty good! They used the same limo vehicles as superstar limo, but repainted as cabs.

The color and story were very good!

On Thursday Sara and I went back to Disneyland and I bought a killer Wittnauer watch!

We rode Pirates (check out the lines!), Jungle Boat and Tiki Room, then headed over to DCA to do Soaring over California. It was already 2:30 by the time we got out of DCA and headed home!

So much to write about!

On Wednesday Matt joined us for a fun day in the park!

Sara and I were so exhausted! First off, how much does Jo rock?! She gave Sara a pass for tomorrow! We met her at the parking lot today and had a nice chat. Poor Jo had to go back to work 9 hours after her shift and they added a THIRD Fantasmic at 11:30! (Jo works at Disneyland and hangs out at mouseplanet.com

Jo and Steve (Sara follows)

Guess what?!!? We fast passed Space Mountain and went to ride at 11:20. By then the attraction was fast passed out! Yow! So we get on the ride and Sara is screamin’ and hollerin’ and then it STOPS in the pitch black, on the next to last set of turns! A voice comes over the speaker to remain seated and then they TURN ON THE LIGHTS! I had left my SLR in the locker (Darn!) but Sara got some cool pics with her cell phone! How rocking is that?

After 10 mins of my brother and I geeking out they started to push the trains one by one, starting at the bottom of course hehe. We were the third train to be pushed and had the rest of the ride with the lights on! They said we could ride again which we did of course! I’ve been riding Space Mountain for 26 years and this was a first for me.

Space Mountain Lights On Pics

Speaking of firsts, the other day we were on Matterhorn and they pulled our sled out to add more sleds on. So we go to go around a second time on that also!

Another first, I rode the carousel!

Yet another first, we rode in the front of the monorail!

All new pics start here!

Stories later, pictures for now!

Pictures

Merry Christmas to all of my friends and family spread out across the world! I hope your day was filled with warmth and cheer.

My Christmas was fantastic, being Coral’s first Christmas! Many noisy learning toys were to be had! It could have only been better if Sara was here to share it with me. Mainly because I am stuck on this puzzle my mom gave me. Just kidding hun

Have a safe week leading up to New Years!

Had the stitches removed from the mole that was taken off last week. Tests were all benign. It all healed well apparently, will take the bandaids off in 2 days.

On Wednesday night Sara invited me to the after show party for Rape. I picked her up and we headed downtown. It was quite the event. I threatened to wear “the shirt” but I was kind and wore semi-casual.

I met a ton of people, so many in fact, it is hard to remember all of the names! I spoke at length with Eric and Kevin about staging issues, lighting, Macs, you name it. The company is cool, they use all of the right stuff!

I met Sara’s boss Chris and his wife, Pam. I met the cast, including Jonathan, Scott, Kendra, Stacey, Aaron, Laura and Amber. How cool is it to work in a way where you just let it all hang out, give it your all and what happens, happens? I heard Tarquinius baptized Junius that night, heh.

Everyone seems bright and especially passionate about their work. I love that! We should all be so lucky to have careers that move us.

I really do adore Sara on so many levels. Introducing me to such a wonderful world is just one of them.

P.S. If anyone knows how to disable certain keys in Keynote, such as the number keys, drop me an email please.

Today is Matt’s 30th birthday. Happy Birthday to the best brother a guy could have!!

Watch what Coral gave him for his birthday!

Ok so I find it cool I can download an adam-12 or Hitchcock presents now. However, Apple needs to make these downloadables cheaper somehow.

An entire season 1 of Adam-12 is $37 from Apple, and the DVD version from Amazon is $32. Or used for $25. You can’t buy used downloads

I suppose I’ll use the iTMS for TV like I did in Germany, when I am on the road and want some cheap entertainment. I just can’t see myself collecting content this way. it is too expensive an DRMed to boot.

I know Apple’s move will be to make this downloadable from the net to trusted machines and then play in the living room. Of course, I won’t buy into that until they output and download HDTV versions. Afterall, why do I want to download a 320×240 tv show and scale to 1920×1080i?

I do find this all very interesting however

I have not bought any shows since I bought the four Desperate Housewives when iTMS launched tv show content.

inspired by Tim and Bridget’s bread maker, and the desire years ago to make my own bread, but having failed due to whatever reasons, I bought a Cuisinart bread machine. quite nice.

Pictures start here.

Bridget suggested King Arthur flower and so far, two good loaves. One was a quick bake, ie 1 hour to make, 1 hour to warm.

The second I used the normal 3 hour cycle and garlic butter. I then set the delay such that it would be ready at 7am. Sure enough, woke up to the wafting smells of garlic through the house.

How awesome is that? Add some marionberry jam from Made In Oregon and have a lovely breakfast.

I think a 1lb loaf can help me make more lunches at home and have some breakfast food, also.

The cleanup is terribly simple. More ingredients on the counter than anything else. The machine just needs the pan washed out and the beater cleaned. You need a little bottle brush to do that well.

Sara was kind enough to invite me to the dress rehearsal of Benjamin Britten’s Rape of Lucretia, the story of an Etruscan prince gone bad with lust for the chaste Lucretia, wife of Collatinus, and it ends up in tragedy as Lucretia stabs herself in shame, which sets in motion a political upheaval in Rome, or something of such sort

The cast was excellent, the orchestra did a great job (not that I could really critique much) and I have to give props out to Scott for his role of the male chorus. His voice really stood out!

The theater for this production is very intimate, seating ~170 people. It was a wonderful night!

And yes, there is a photo!

My birthmark mole on my upper left shoulder is gone! The procedure was only 30 minutes and they said there was little blood. I forgot to have a hi-rez photo of it taken before-hand. Damn!

The worst part was not the needle pricks, those were over quick as the numbing ensued immediately. It was hearing the scissors cut the flesh. Ick. Ick. Ick. I asked “Are you cutting it out with scissors?” and he said “Why yes I am, how could you tell?” Ick. Ick. Ick.

So now I am on Advil for any pain, I hope. He gave me a prescription but I hope to not need it.

My only concern is that I am ok for the dress rehearsal of Rape of Lucretia which Sara has graciously invited me to.

Mmm, surgery, dry cleaning AND opera all in one day.

Worked on my G5! Not sure i really want it, nor what resources it is using. it is a fairly slow and poor computer interface to all of this media I have, but what the heck.

Instructions for the Geeky Minded