The Happiest Place - Part 2 "What's That?"

(I could study for finals, but ...)

This is my niece, Francesca. She's great, but she doesn't really know who I am. Her favorite question: "Grandma, what's that?" Meaning what's me, meaning who's me. Her second favorite question was "Name?" By the end of the second day we were all sorted out. Of course by the end of the second day we were all going home.

This is one of the main reasons I distrust Disneyland:
Terror in Toon Town.


There are mountains in Orange County. They're back there somewhere, but where? Those green things aren't real! And is that the sky? It's so hard to tell! Where am I? Oh Godddddddddd.


For Thanksgiving there was a choice of pretzel & beer (mmmmm) or large corndog, then, to finish it off there was Disney pot roast or Disney turkey. I had the pot roast, which couldn't touch J's recipe, except that the brown gravy was good in a brown gravy way (but you can't really screw up brown gravy). But I digress, I had the pot roast, which, though technically non-trad., sat better in the belly than the turkey, based on after-dinner reviews from the parents.

Here are the parents, by the way.

I take after mom ... no pop ... no more like mom ... or maybe more like pop ...

To round out the trip, cousin/roommate and I were rear-ended on the way back from the Eugene Airport.

me vs. other car ... winner?

The Happiest Place - Part the First

So many lovely photos, but no time to download. They are coming soon, since I up and coil-bound my journalism project yesterday. Now I just have to study for my other classes (... heh ... forgot I had other classes n' stuff).

In the meantime, I will say that for all of Disneyland's shortcomings (lack of evidence that real animal life exists in Orange County, the people, the way beer tastes at California Adventures, the people, the constant references to "cast members" and "guests", the people...) I always see the best t-shirts there. I usually end up getting one for my brother for Christmas. Since this one is not available on Amazon, and is therefore unavailable as a Christmas present (so far), I can post it here.

Not a very clear picture ... but you get the gist of it.

Next post: real pictures of actual things. Honest. I swear.

WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO

I'm done, dear God, all done.

Kind of.

I'm done with the first draft of the Great Project and I feel free. Although I had to take a 20 minute break from the computer before starting the blog (this involved flipping the television stations between "Revenge of the Nerds" and "Black Orpheus"). Honestly, I have no idea what happened over the past two weeks. I remember only waking up, working on the project, going to work, coming home, working on the project, going to school, coming home, working on the project, going to bed. That's been it. No "Lost". No blog. No contact with the outside really. Tomorrow I will print 116 pages out at work and pack it into a bag for editing as I fly to California.

Information Gathering is a tough class, tell you what. It alternately makes me want to give up on Journalism and keep going -- honestly, you finish the hardest class, it's all downhill right? And I've seen what people use for research at Us. Nothing takes 35 sources in the real world of entertainment journalism. You ask two friends what La Jolie did last week and job is done.

One thing I do remember from a couple of weeks ago was a fight that was an undercard to the Mayweather/Baldomir fight. It was Paul Williams (loved him in "The Muppet Movie") against this guy named Santos Pakau. Williams beat him pretty easily, but Pakau had the better walkout song: "Golden Brown" by the Stranglers. Maybe no one told him it was about heroin.

I think it was Pakau ... that was 2 weeks ago, so I can't be sure.

(Just heard on Fox Movie Channel was this gem from Borat: "A woman journalist is like giving a monkey a gun".)

if it walks like a nerd and talks like a nerd ...

"You are most like Hermione Granger!"

well duh.

I'm also like Wesley Crusher, which I think is a little unfair and also a tad uncool.

Personality tests ... This is what happens when you finish homework. The attention goes right into crap'net.

had to add this -- customer of the day:

"I see that you have free shipping for orders over $49.00."
- That's true, we do, yes.
"My order's only $39. Do I still get free shipping?"

That would be no.

It's probably going to be some time before I'm free to post. Information Gathering has been historically known as the toughest journalism course at the university. Scoff and derisive laughter. I thought it was a total breeze.

At first.
It's not anymore.

It's not a hard class in terms of the work, but it takes more time than I have available. It's almost 8 and I have to rush to work so I can come home and get a few more hours done on the project before ... on and on and on. Although I'll more than likely end up doing school work at work.

Don't be surprised if this sits idle until after Thanksgiving. Not gone for good, just gone for a day or two or twenty.

That said --- did they really kill Mr. Eko? I don't feel so bad about missing Lost or never watching it again. Ever. Fahhhhhhh why can't they kill Charlie? What's he done for us lately? $5 says they kill Desmond next.