So Little Time and So Much To Do

Living in Florida temorarily will give me the rare opportunity to be a long-term tourist. Unlike someone who might move there permanently, I will have no desire to try to blend in with the locals. And, unlike a short-term tourist, I will have the opportunity to try to see as much of Orlando as my little heart desires. It's the best of both worlds! Besides the obvious (spending time in WDW and at the beach), there are a million other things I want to do during my 4-month stay. But I am going down there to work, after all, so I know I won't have time to do it all. However, because I am such a good, organized person, I also know that the key to getting stuff done is to prioritize. So here it is, my list of the top 100 things I want to do while I'm in Orlando (Kidding, kidding! I narrowed it down to 5.)

Busch Gardens

I've been to most of the other major Florida theme parks, but never Busch Gardens. It's basically like Sea World with mammals and better roller coasters. Like this one, a floorless coaster with the closest thing to a 90-degree drop I've ever seen. See the tiny people hurtling face-down towards the ground? "Space Mountain" this ain't.

Cirque du Soleil - La Nouba

I've always wanted to see a Cirque show, and I don't think I'll ever get a better opportunity. This show takes place at Downtown Disney, and I can even get a Cast Member Discount on the pricey tickets! Other things on my list may or may not happen, but Cirque is the one thing on this list that I will do...even if it means eating nothing but Ramen Noodles for a month so that I can afford a ticket.

Skyventure

Have you ever leaned really close into a box fan and said, "Luke, I am your father"? Then you understand how much fun a fan can be. That's the concept behind Skyventure, except that instead of simply causing your voice to sound like Darth Vader, this giant fan is under you and keeps you suspended in air, recreating the sensation of Sky Diving. Click here to see an awesome video of the experience. Okay, so actually this is nothing like talking into a box fan. But that's fun, too, right?

Sleuth Dinner Show

As a mystery enthusiast, I've always wanted to see one of these Mystery Dinner Theatre things. Guests at Sleuth find themselves in the middle of a comical, quizzical who-dunnit. It's sort of expensive, and doesn't involve flying (see Skyventure) so as fun as this one sounds, it's not exactly a priority. But if the opportunity arises, I will definitely take it. (Note to self: remember to pack magnifying glass and deerstalker cap.)

ICE at the Gaylord Palms Resort

An annual Christmas exhibit of Ice Sculptures at a fancy resort may not sound very exciting, but just look at these pictures! A giant ice slide, a giant ice Santa, and giant blue parkas for everyone! Cheesy Christmas fun at its finest.

The key to fitting everything I want to do into a short 4-month period will be pushing past the inevitable bone-weariness after working full days at the park. I'll just have to remember that sleeping is for wimps. I'll sleep when I'm dead! (Or maybe when I get back to Missouri. That would probably be a good idea.)

The Computer Blackout Blues

At the end of a mostly good weekend, I tried to get on to my laptop to rip a CD. Nothing unusual, just wanted to put Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band onto my iPod. When I put the CD in and opened iTunes, however, my screen went all shimmery and then black. Uh oh. I tried to restart, with no luck (since when does hitting Ctl+Alt+Del twice not restart your computer? I don't know, but I'm pretty upset about it!) so eventually I had to just use the power switch to turn the thing off. Fortunately, everything looked okay when it came back on. No sooner had my desktop come up, though, than the screen went black again. After much fiddling, I discovered that random things would make the screen flash back up--jiggling the wireless toggle, crazily moving my fingers over the touchpad--but it would quickly go black again.

I've had problems with my computer in the past, but this is the first time it's been this bad. I hate to give up quickly, but it wouldn't surprise me to find out my screen is just done. So I may now be trying to buy a new computer before I leave for Florida.

Best Buy has a couple of comparatively economical options. For $399, I can get a Dell with a dual-core processor, 2 GB of memory, and a 160 GB hard drive or for $499, I can get an Asus with 3GB of memory and a 320 GB hard drive. Unfortunately, each has some downsides: the Dell has no webcam (I could buy one and mount it, but...) and, according to reviews, the graphics on the Asus leave something to be desired. Also, the extra $100 for the Asus doesn't seem like that big a deal, except that it bumps the computer up into the next highest price class for the warranties at Best Buy, something I want to invest in. So the price difference actually ends up being closer to $200. The extra GB of memory isn't worth it, but once you figure in the extra 160 GB of hard drive space and the webcam, it might be. I use my computer mostly to store music, videos, and pictures, along with the internet, email, and DVD viewing, so I don't know if I really need the extra hard drive space. I'm not doing any intense gaming or anything like that. Both of these computers have around 15.5" screens, which is another drawback--my old computer had a 14" screen, and even that was a little big for me. But now you can't really get much between the 15" and the little bitty netbooks. So I think this is one thing I'm going to have to compromise on.

I just hate thinking that I'm going to have to spend at least $500 of the money I'd saved for Florida. There's just really very little way to get around having a computer--I'll need it for school in the Spring, anyway, and I was planning to skip taking a TV, and just watch Hulu and DVDs while I'm in Florida. There's a computer lab in the apartment buildings, but I don't want to have to go down there every time I want to check Facebook. It's going to be hard enough as it is to keep in contact with every body at home! And, of course, I need to be able to update my blog frequently! :)

My old computer lasted just over 2 years. It wasn't a really cheap computer, either. It was a pretty nice HP, but I guess I just didn't take good enough care of it. It's extremely frustrating to me, too, that the 2 year warranty had just expired when the screen went out. However, they had already replaced the motherboard and the battery once, so I guess I got my money's worth out of the warranty.

If I have any tech-savvy readers who want to weigh in, please feel free to leave me a comment! Is it a mistake to go cheap and get the smaller hard drive? I'm just afraid that this one won't last long, either, and I don't want to wind up with another very expensive paperweight!

My Life Lately, in 696 Words or Less

Updates on a few of my summer goals:

• Work Full Time--Check! At least one thing on my list is being done. But, boy, is it being done slowly! Since I work on campus, a large part of my job depends on the demands of students, faculty, and administrators thrown into the full-fledged tizzies that are the fall and spring semesters. But during the summer, things are oh-so-quiet.
  They make working in an office seem so glamorous on TV...
  
  Last summer, working part-time, I felt like things were slow. But they were sort of pleasantly slow. In the "take your time with what little work you have to do and pace yourself so you don't get too bored" sort of way. But working full-time, there's just not nearly enough to do here. I've gone home early several days the last few weeks. My supervisor encouraged me to stay, because she knew I wanted the hours, but I just feel bad sitting around being paid to do nothing. In the three weeks since school got out, I have dusted every surface of the office, organized my work space, and even ventured into the dreaded "back room" to organize the mess we call our storage space. It's all stream-lined, cleaned, and de-clutterfied now. Which makes me wonder...what am I going to do for the next 2 months?!
  
  
• Volunteer--It's not my fault! I applied at the Make-A-Wish foundation, but they said they didn't need any help right now. So, basically I'm blaming this wonderful charity for my lack of volunteerism. It's all their fault! Just kidding. I know I really should try to find somewhere else. Someone out there needs help! But I just haven't yet. I'll get to it.
  
  
• Learn Spanish--This is going...okay, I guess. To be honest, I haven't been practicing much, lately. I need to get back on that! But before I got lazy, I was really doing pretty well. I can now give basic directions. However, they translate to something like this: "Left. Go straight and right at next to bank." As you might have figured out, I haven't really gotten to grammer yet. Hopefully I'll get motivated to do that very soon so I can stop sounding like I learned Spanish from a broken See 'n Say.
  
  
• Get Crafty!--Check! I dove back into crafts with a passion after my DIY binge at the ever-wonderful DesignSponge.com. And the one that really ended up catching my fancy was an old friend--knitting! In the last couple of weeks, I've bought knitting needles of all types and sizes, deliciously candy-colored yarns for hats, gloves, and scarves to come, and almost completed a bag. Seriously! The first project of my Craft Revival is almost finished! I started sewing the lining in yesterday, but here's a picture from a couple of days ago when I was blocking the sides:
  Instead of being completed and sewn at the top, this bag is actually designed to be finished on the needles--making this a very cute bag to carry my future knitting projects in! I'm very, very proud of my baby, so expect to see more pictures in a few days! I've already started my next project, even. No pictures of this work-in-progress, but don't worry...you'll get to see them (I know you were worried! Oh, come on. Can't you at least pretend that you're really excited to see these pictures?)

Other than these things, I've spent the rest of my time lately being robbed by homeless people, (He was drunk, my car was unlocked, and they arrested him. The only thing he got was some worthless text books. Seriously. I couldn't even sell them back. Worked out real well for him, didn't it?), unintentionally providing shelter for baby mice in the air filter of my car (This didn't work out so well for the mice...or for me! Smelled horrible!), and seeing Shakespeare in the Park (Unlike the other things mentioned here, this was a very pleasant experience.)

It's been a little crazy lately, but in a fun, interesting kind of way. And, yes, I just described being robbed by a drunk guy as sort of fun and interesting. Makes for a good story, anyway!

Disney Survey

It's been a sloooow week. All of my friends are either out of town for the summer or working too much to hang out, and there's not much going on at work, either. And you may wonder why I haven't been writing more if I've got all of this free time. Well, the answer is that there's not much going on with the CP, either. So I just haven't had anything to write about.

But rather than go yet another weekend without posting anything, I decided that I would post my answers to a little Disney survey. I wanted to do one of these surveys before I left, because I have a sneaking suspicion that my experience at Disney World will shift my opinions on a lot of this. For example, I may love the Wishes Fireworks show now, but if I end up working on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom and have to hear the song a million times before the end of my program...well, I may not be loving that particular show so much anymore. So I wanted a record of just how much I loved "When You Wish Upon a Star" before it was ruined for me. :)

I plan to do this survey again towards the end of my program, to see how much things have changed. So let's get to it!

I got this survey from SurveyDumpster.com, and took out some of the questions that I thought were boring and/or stupid. Use the comments section to share your answers! (or to let me know how bad my taste is for liking The Emperor's New Groove. Either way.)

Movies
Which movie is your favorite? The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Which movie has the best story? Beauty and the Beast
Which movie did you laugh the most at? The Emperor's New Groove (I know, I know, but hey! This is my survey, and I can like whatever movies I want :P )
Which movie made you cry? The Lion King. And, full disclosure, here, not just the first time I saw it, either.
What is your favorite song from the movies? Tough one! Probably "When You Wish Upon a Star." It's such a classic!
If you were sucked into one of the Disney movies, which would you prefer? Sleeping Beauty, I suppose. The landscapes are gorgeous!
Which Disney movie probably shouldn't have been made? The Black Cauldron. What? You've never heard of it? My point exactly.
Are you sick of the sequels? No! I love seeing them pimp out my childhood friends. (kidding!)

The Parks
Have you ever been to Disneyland? Nope.
Have you ever been to Disney World? 4 times.
Have you been to any of the other Disney Parks around the world? Nope.
Which park is the best? Of the parks at WDW, I'd probably say Magic Kingdom. But that's just today. Tomorrow, who knows?
What's your favorite ride? Tower of Terror
What's your least favorite ride? Um...Tomorrowland Speedway? Never ridden it, but it looks pretty lame. Test Track has its moments, but it's definitely the biggest waste of time in the parks if the line is long.
Who have you been to Disney with? My family.
Would you go back? Maybe. August seems like a good time to go. ;)
Did you get autographs and/or pictures with your favorite characters? Of course!
Which character is your favorite picture with? My favorite character picture out of all our trips isn't even of me. My favorite picture is the one where my 14 year old brother, who refused to take pictures with any characters, saw Alice from Alice in Wonderland and rushed over to get his picture taken because she was hot. Boys. lol
Would you ever work for Disney? Hey, that's a great idea! :)
Would you remember where they were if you went back? Yeah. It's not that hard, really.
Which is the best show at Disney? It's sort of a tie between Fantasmic and Wishes. But I'll give the edge to Fantasmic because they provide you with some fairly comfortable seating instead of expecting you to sit on the sidewalk.
Which is the best restaurant? I really like the Garden Grill at Epcot. It's a small, comparably quiet restaurant, and the food is pretty good for in-park. Plus, it has a cool revolving dining room!
Which is the best hotel on Disney property? I've only ever stayed at the Value resort, but the Animal Kingdom Lodge would be my first choice if money was no object. (Savannah view room, of course!)

Getting my DIY On

Lately, I've been feeling very crafty. I used to do lots of crafts, even knitting and crocheting, but it's been a long time since I've had a real project to work on, and I'm really starting to get the itch. Part of my newfound inspiration could be my recent gorge on old Design*Sponge DIY posts. They're always entertaining, and their ideas are adorable, but at the same time make me want to smack myself in the forehead for not thinking of it myself.

I'm also thinking of how I can use these ideas in my apartment in Florida. Some of them are definitely ones that I'm going to tackle, and soon.

First, I'm going to try out the "Paper Coasters/Trivets" project from Design*Sponge.

I was using one lonely hand-me-down glass coaster rescued when my mom decided to get a new set for herself. Until, that is, it got wrapped up in my computer cord, and crashed to the floor. So now I have no coasters, and I'm thinking that my old N*Sync and Britney Spears CD cases would go to good use if I used them to make these coasters. (After I remove and carefully store the CDs elsewhere, of course. ;))

And this project from Photojojo is going to have me scavenging for glass jars for months, I fear:

Super cute, right? And this is one of those projects where I go "why didn't I think of that?". I'm seeing a lot more jelly, pickles, and other things that come in jars in my future.

This has also inspired me to finally finish a few DIY projects that I've been planning to do for months now: I'm finally going to make a headboard for my bed, and I'm going to finish that jewelry tree that I've already bought a gorgeous vase for.

Jewelry tree inspiration

It's going to happen! I'm gonna get my DIY on! I'll be sure to post pictures of my awesome completed projects. :)

A: Bills, Credit Card Offers, and Germs

Q: Name three things that always come in an envelope!

As I was licking an envelope just moments ago to send off in the mail, it got me thinking: that is really, really gross! How terrible is it that, after all this time, with all we know about germs now, we still lick envelopes? And then people put their fingers inside, right on the part we've licked, to open it. Disgusting!

Don't do it, Johnny! You'll get germs all over your pretty hat!

Maybe I'm just a germaphobe, but I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who is bothered by this. In a perfect world, everyone would use the envelopes like the ones Netflix movies get sent back in. They have a sticky strip, covered by a piece of paper. When you're ready to seal the envelope, you just peel off the paper strip, and stick! What could be easier? I wish people would stand up and say, "Hey! I will do the responsible thing and not send my germs through the United States Postal Service." *Sigh* Someday. But until then, I guess I'll just have to be sure to use a letter opener...and then dissinfect that letter opener after each use.

"Rat Me Out to the Coppers, And I'll Do To Youse What I Did To Pluto, See?"

*Whew*. The last of my major hurdles has been jumped. I just finished paying my assessment fee, and yesterday I met with my Financial Aid advisor. So I'm all set there. Now the only thing I really need to worry about before Florida is whether or not I'm going to take classes (probably not), whether or not I'll get credit for those classes if I choose to take them, and how I'm going to fit everything I own into the trunk of my Nissan Sentra. Luckily, it's a pretty big trunk.

So, now that there's nothing more for me to write about (for now) how about some Disney fun?
I'm not usually a huge fan of those "Which ________ are you?" quizzes. Usually the answers are stupid, and the questions are easy to predict and manipulate. A great time-waster, sure, but not really all that fun or entertaining. However, I couldn't resist this quiz: "Which Disney Mobster Are You?" Turns out, I'm Goofy "the Gun".

My full quiz results:

You are Goofy "The Gun". No one was really surprised when you went postal following your unsuccessful attempt to rename Epcot Center after yourself. However, it was only after this incident that your ties to the mob were uncovered. Now, the whole world knows that you are the reason why Pluto can not talk. You just couldn't handle the competition, could you Goofy?

I played around with the answers, trying to get different results. They were all equally funny, and slightly disturbing. After all, who wants to imagine Jiminy Cricket as a high-profile member of the mob family? Oh, wait. That's right. I DO! :)

Take the quiz at http://www.quizyourprofile.com/disneyquiz.php, and put your answers in the comments section. Let's start our very own Disney mob!

Wilin' Away The Time

It's Day 6 of the post-interview count. I've heard of people getting acceptance letters as early as 6 days out, so I'm starting, against my better judgement, to get a little bit excited. When I passed my mailbox last night, I thought "maybe tomorrow!" All of this excitement just makes it that much harder to know that, realistically, I probably won't get my letter for at least another week. The anticipation is killing me!

So, because I have a long wait before I hear back, and an even longer wait before I leave for Florida in August, I've been trying to find ways to kill the time. And, for all of my fellow Fall '09 hopefuls/CPs, I thought I would share some of my favorite ways to kill the time...Disney style!

First of all, you can never know to much about the CP. There are a few great sites out there, and, of course, I don't have space to highlight them all. But a couple of my favorites are:

• http://www.disboards.com/ -- A wonderful, vibrant forum about all things Disney. The College Board, however, is really where it's at. (http://disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=90). Almost all of the topics on this board are about the CP, and there are some great folks here with a ton of knowledge. And you can also at least get acquainted with some of your fellow CPs before you arrive! Some people are even using the board to set up with roomates!
• http://wdwcpblog.blogspot.com/ -- Out of all the blogs I read while trying to decide if I wanted to do the program, this was by far the most detailed and one of the most entertaining. This site is his "un-official, hopefully definitive resource for future Disney College Program students". On this site, he also has a link to a more traditional day-by-day journal type blog that he kept while actually on the program (http://sarbruis.livejournal.com/?skip=60&tag=wdwcp.) While the first blog is more informative, the second is more entertaining. The writer is clever and funny, and everything I hope to be in my blog.

If you're doing the CP, and reading blogs about it, chances are you're a fan of Disney in general. If so, then why haven't you been checking out the following sites already?

• http://www.laughingplace.com/ -- Just like DisBoards is my first stop for CP related forums, LaughingPlace is the first place I go for general Disney. The site includes general information about the parks, a constantly updated list of links to Disney news called "The Latest", videos, and one of my favorite podcasts, which is put out on a weekly basis. Although the main focus here seems to be on the parks, EVERYTHING and ANYTHING Disney is covered here.
• http://www.jimhillmedia.com/ -- Another very entertaining blog. This one, however, is of a more professional type. Mr. Hill covers almost every aspect of breaking Disney news. He has many "inside sources", and always seems to have a scoop of some kind. (Disclaimer: Half of the "scoops" never seem to come to fruition. Whether Disney just changes their plans, or Mr. Hill's sources are giving him bad information is up for debate. Very heated, entertaining debate taking place in the Comments section after Mr. Hill's articles. :) ) Where this site really shines, though, is in his "Disney That Never Was" stories. Mr. Hill and his amazing collection of contributors have a seemingly inexhaustible supply of concept art and publicity materials from park attractions and movies that never got off the drawing table. Plus, the site often features articles from Disney insiders like Floyd Norman and Ron Schneider.
• http://www.disneylies.com/ --Taking a turn to the silly side, DisneyLies is the number one stop for, well, lies about Disney. For instance, did you know that the Magic Kingdom originally consisted of 43 elaborately themed lands, including Spy Alley, Pulp Novel Plaza, Adultyhood, Castlevania, and Jurassic Park? Or that all of the electricity for the Animal Kingdom park is generated by underground elephant-powered pistons? They've got a million of 'em! And after you've had your fill of Disney lies, head on over to...
• http://snopes.com/disney/disney.asp for some truthiness. Snopes is a pretty well-known site that lists urban legends, and gives them a "True", "False", or "Undetermined" status, with a little of the history behind each tale. There are so many Disney myths, that they recieved their own section, and are further divided up according to subject: Theme Parks, the Disney Company, and Walt Disney himself.

And, by the way, as you're checking out all of these great sites, don't forget about HappiestInternship.blogspot.com. The readership here has been growing, and I appreciate all of my new devotees. Please add me to your blog lists, or even become a Follower of my blog! Then you can say you were there when it was all started by a (computer) mouse. ;)