A+ Teachers

When a teacher/professor actually has a sense of humor, it makes the class SO much more enjoyable and lightens the tense atmosphere. Recently my Government teacher cancelled our written report, and this is what he said that I thought was pretty funny:

"Due to circumstances beyond my control there will not be a written Report due this semester as had been anticipated.  My apologies for those sorely disappointed.  For some this may be proof certain that there is a God and that he answers prayers.  Trudge on my young friends."
Dr. Pease

A Failed Attempt

Today, while my dad and I were working on some light strands in the garage, we watched a man a woman attempt to jump our neighbors fence across the street. This was a failed attempt, since the gate opened and they fell. Not quite sure what was going on, we sorta stared with a blank expression as they proceeded to walk up to us, in the garage. The man, standing so close, less than a foot away from me close, started talking to us, telling us his life story.

I'm not going to type word for word what he said, since literally every other word was the F-bomb or another form of unappropriated words for my blog. (I try to keep it PG-13). But, his story went something like this: Their car tire popped a few streets over, and they need a ride back to it, so they can call a tow truck and their insurance company. They are willing to pay us $80 (he pulls out 20s from his wallet) to take them back. The woman then tells us how she is pregnant and can't walk in the cold rain. My dad starts to question them a bit, like where do they live, how far away is the car, etc. The man, still standing where I can smell the liquor on him as he drops his 2 cigarettes and wallet repeatedly, gets jumpy and starts walking away. The woman then says: "Can you or not? I need to know! No? Fine! Let's go!" And they walk down the street.

We then walk over to my neighbors house across the street and let him know that 2 people just came through his backyard. He tells us that he saw them jump the fence in his backyard, then jump the gate.

Their story didn't add up. For one, she is pregnant and can jump 2 fences, but can't walk? Secondly, why are they jumping fences in the first place? How did they get so far away from their car? Everything was off, and I'm glad they decided to just leave. Hopefully they won't return.

I don't understand choices people make sometimes, but I'm not here to judge or question their actions. If they leave me alone, I'll leave them alone. I have a feeling they might have tried taking the car or something if we would have given them a ride. Thankfully everything turned out alright, and is back to normal. At least for us.

The Many Adventures of Wal-Mart

I would like to apologize in advance for any thing I'm about to say that doesn't make sense. I'm running on very little sleep, and I've been trying to write this post for a few days now. So, instead of procrastinating some more and possibly forgetting the details of my story, I thought I better just sit down and type. So here I am, exhausted from the day, with hot chocolate and my laptop.

I'm going to tell you three adventures that happened at Wal-Mart. Now, here in California, just going to Wal-Mart with the Walmartians is an adventure in itself. But I have three things that happened to me, that makes me ponder the thought of people's attitudes, and also made me laugh on the inside.

Story one- As you know, I'm working on my light show. Wal-Mart, being open 24/7 and a few blocks from my house, is the perfect place to buy late night supplies. And that's just what I did. I went at 9PM, and bought a few boxes of blue LED lights that I needed. I'm checking out, and this was the conversation between me and the cashier:

Cashier: "Is your tree up!?"
Me: "Nope, these are for outside."
Cashier: "Oh. Whatever."

Story two- I'm back, buying more lights. This time it was afternoon, and I had 2 boxes of 300-count icicles. I'm checking out, and the lady behind me says: "Wow! That's a TON of lights!" To which I reply: "Not really, I need 7 more boxes of these." Lady: "WHAT!?" Me: "Yeah, I have over 15,000 lights." *The whole line turns around and stares at me* Me: "Oh, I do a light show." Everyone returns to their normal behavior. Some how me saying I do light shows makes it normal.

Story three- So I'm looking around the Christmas stuff, and I turn around in the isle, and across the little path, on the next isle down, there is a family of 4, who I have never seen before, waving at me. I have no idea why, but I slowly turned around and walked off. Walmartians these days are becoming more and more brave. 

Morning Thoughts

So instead of writing several different posts with all my different stories, I'm going to just write one, due to time.

Our Disney Park Secrets blog has a new twitter account, that you should follow. So far it seems as though many people like the blog, and we have some exciting new ways to promote it in the future. If you wish to stay even more updated, check out our Facebook page. Thank you everyone who has helped support Jake and I's blog. We just enjoy talking about Disney, and we hope you enjoy reading about the secrets.


Remember my Stats rant awhile back? Yeah, this time it's my online Philosophy class. No question I answer is good enough for him. Yet, two of my friends who are in his class have A's, and say how it's a fun class, with a fun professor. However, online seems to be a different story for some reason. I'm happy that my grade is better than my Stats grade! Just not pleased with it completely.


Winter Light!. Wow. I've been working on it whenever possible. So far I have half of the finale up, half of the icicles, and half of the C9's. Tomorrow it looks like we are filming a section for the show, and today I'm continuing to set everything up. My goal is to start programming by this Friday or Saturday. The show is coming fast! You can stay up to date on this as well through my Facebook Page.




That seems to be all that's on my mind at the moment. Now I have to get ready and meet some people for lunch, then head home to put up more lights!

Made My Night

On Friday night, I was on the Drive-thru window at work. We all were pretty hyper, and I was dared to say something funny to the next guest at the window. For those that haven't been to our drive-thru, the path is a long one, wrapping around another building. So I decided to say "Congratulations on making it to the window, your total is..."

I opened the window, gave my spiel, and this older guy just stared at me for about 5 seconds. He and his wife then busted up laughing. He said that it was so true, and that he'd had a horrible night, and I made his night so much better. As I got his change, he still was laughing and by this time was in tears. He kept saying "Hell! That's funny!".

While I might have made his night, he really made mine.

I'm a firm believer that you should have fun at your job, while working and getting your things done of course. I'm happy I get to do this every shift. I enjoy making the guest's experience a special one.

Disneyland Trip Report 11/6

Sunday's Disneyland trip was nothing short of being epic. With lines no longer than 20 minutes, and amazing people in our group, we all had a blast! Filming of the Christmas Day Parade added to the excitement also. The weather and rain was actually kinda nice, and the afternoon sun was nicer. Overall it was a great trip, and I'm glad I got to take my second family- Megan and John- to Disneyland once more before they move out of state.

Before I show you the pictures, I wanted to share a few things.


Indiana Jones worked flawlessly. Everything in the ride went perfect. I haven't seen Indy in that great of shape in over 2 years now. Remember during the summer I kept saying it was horrible and needed a refurb? Not quite sure what happened, but I hope it stays in this shape for many months to come.

Pirates was still down, and there has been no sign of a "ship" being added to the entrance. I can pretty much confirm that is a rumor.

Flotsam and Jetsam has been missing in Fantasmic! for a few months now... Not too sure where they went.





Well, here are some pictures of the day. Enjoy!

See the Christmas tree?

A cool detail I just noticed...

A few pictures under the sea with Nemo

Kinda a cool effect for my cheap camera

You might see this picture in a Disney Park Secrets post...

The group

Filming for the Christmas Day Parade

New Orleans is in the spirit!

Merry Christmas?

The "Man Eating Wreath"

Hey look! Me.

The Matterhorn had some rocks open...

Harold recently snatched a guest...

It's interesting. I do like the flowers on the bottom right.

Carsland will be amazing.

I'll be there opening day.

See anything new?

Here's a panned-out view, so you can see where this is at...

My bro Mainstreetjake and I

And so ended our day. We all had an amazing time! 


Until the next trip,

Dream in Disney.


-Austen

Halloween 2011

Four months in the making, Halloween flew by and is now over. My main project this year was the giant talking face that I've kept you all updated on so much, and it's something that I hope to continue to improve and add to in the future shows.

I procrastinated the show this year quite a bit since I was so busy with work and school. So setting up the day of was a mess, and I was running around like crazy. But I'm really happy with how everything turned out, even if it is a small display. It's fun, and people enjoy it. That's all that matters.

As always, the show will continue to grow. This was only my second Halloween show. I've always set up decorations and various effects, but I've only had 2 Christmas-like shows for Halloween, so I look forward to doing more Halloween shows in the future, and already have a few ideas down.

Thank you to everyone who helped me in any way with set-up, take-down, tech-work, and thanks to my parents who let me invade the office for 4 months while I programmed.

To everyone that came out and saw it- Thank you. I hope you enjoyed it, and I can't wait until you all can see Winter Light! I promise you, it will be incredible.

Without further adieu, here is the video.


Halloween 2011