March 2003 Archives

Its after 2am and I just now got home from work. Saturday night I was back at the Matterhorn for one of those Mmm Mmm good 6pm to 1am shifts. Now the park closed at midnight so when you are off at 1, you usually have to do a lost and found run, but you are still ready to clock out and now that I live closer to the park, I expect to be home at 1. So why was I over an hour late? Pull up a chair and take a bite out of that donut.

I should have known I was in for a rough night when I bumped into rotation, and the first position I got was grouper. Normally, I like to ease into work with a nice cushy spot like Tower or Turnstile, but no, I was thrown to the lions at the get-go. Grouping is a challenge, but grouping on a Saturday is extra special. I don't know what it is about people who come to the park on Saturday (apologies in advance to anyone out there who does), but most of the guests are slow and really stupid. They also tend to travel in packs of 6 or 10, making the task of filling a sled that much harder. When you group during the week, it is not nearly as difficult.

So the evening passes along pretty uneventful, with the most excitement coming from guests who are too large to fit in the seatbelt, macho guys not wanting to straddle each other, and the occasional guest who gets some personal item tangled in the seatbelt so that they can't get out of the ride. All of this changed at 11:52. Less than an hour before, Katie and I were in the break room discussing how dull the evening went and how fun it would be to have a downtime to break up the routine. Well it just goes to show you be careful what you wish for, you may get it.

So at 11:52, as I am giving Jose a bad time about time going slowly, the lights on the station console go out. Basically, something was tripped (usually a sensor somewhere in the mountain does something funky and the computer as a safeguard kills all the power). Needless to say, Katie and I exchanged glances, and personally, I started to laugh. It took us about 45 minutes to get everyone out of A-Side and then we had to get B-Side ready to send the remaining line of people who waited in the queue, even after the park closed. After cycling all the guests through, we had to reset the bad side to get all the sleds down. In the middle of that, we got another E-Stop, forcing us to start over. Finally, around 1:30 we had everything ready to turn over to Maintenance for the night. I didn't mind staying the extra hour, I'm just glad we were able to put the guests on another track. Otherwise we'd still be there.

During lunch, I picked up my new schedule. It is bizarre that I only have a Pooh guest control shift with the rest Matterhorn and Routes. I guess now all the high seniority people are over there and lucky me, I'll be back at the Matterhorn all summer. I really don't mind, I just go where I'm needed. I'm just glad I'm not stuck only at the Routes. I've always maintained that the best schedule is a mixed one with a little bit of everything mixed up. Later this morning, its off to Pooh GC. It should be fun and a nice kick back shift.

It is amazing the things you do to avoid unpacking. This week, I managed to make it to the movies not once, but twice. Now back in the heyday in Davis, Cooper and I would try and see movies all the time. I have fond memories of driving to the Century Theaters near Arden Fair to see the latest and greatest on the biggest screens in town. Who can forget Phantom Menace at 2am? It was during that heyday that I was writing movie reviews and seeing around 25 movies a year. These days, I'm lucky to see 10 in a year, and occasionally I squeak out a review to the Ahwatukee Life site.

Both movies were comedies, the first of which was "View from the Top". This movie, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Mike Meyers, and Candice Bergen, suffered from "All the best parts were in the trailer" syndrome. Gwyneth plays Donna, a small town Nevada girl who after being dumped by her Big Lots managing boyfriend, hits rock bottom and decides to peruse her dream of becoming a flight attendant. Before it is all over she has to make some sacrifices and hard decisions. The movie can't decide if it wants to be a comedy, a dramedy, or a romantic comedy, and I think that is a major factor in why this movie is nothing but average. It has some high points (see the trailer), and lots of slow points. If you have your heart set on seeing this movie, wait for the video.

The other movie was the much better "Bringing Down the House" starring Steve Martin and Oscar nominee Queen Latifah. After connecting with someone in a chat room, Peter Sanderson's (Steve Martin) life is turned upside down when it turns out his blind date Charlene (Latifah) is a convicted felon bent on clearing her name. Hilarity ensues as Charlene must convince Peter to help her, even if it means crashing the club or inviting a few friends over. There is nothing earth shattering in this movie, but it is a great comedy. Betty White and Eugene Levy shine in their supporting roles, and most of the cast does a great job, despite a few awkward moments. Besides, who can resist the ol' laxative-in-the-food-at-the-important-dinner shtick - makes me roll in the aisles every time. Of course the best use of that was in Dumb and Dumber, but I digress.

To sum up, be sure to catch Bringing Down the House in theaters and wait for View from the Top to hit the local video store.

Since I have moved, I have noticed that I have spent far fewer hours on the internet. I chalk it up to mainly being busy with the apartment and work, and not to a fundamental change in the way I lead my life. I also suspect the fact that my desktop is still in pieces might have something to do with it as well. There is also this minor problem of figuring out where exactly to put it since, well I have no desk. I have made some progress with the apartment, but more importantly some key decisions.

First, I think that I am going to get rid of most of my books, save a few selected Star Trek books that I like to read every now and then as well as some of my Michael Palin travel books. Second, I think all of my VHS tapes will remain in boxes. If I manage to make it through a year without pulling one out to look at it, than I think I will finally get rid of them. Now if I had a nice high paying job, I think I would replace all of my Star Trek episodes with the DVDs, which easily would make obsolete 100 of the tapes that I have.

The other big news is that I finally purchased a refrigerator for the new apartment. Sadly, my schedule won't allow me to get it delivered for another week, so I have to suffer eating out for the time being.

Amazingly, the Academy Awards have come and gone in the last week. This has been another year where I just didn't get into them. I watched the broadcast after the fact via TiVo, and I found it to be not nearly exciting as previous years. Also, I was surprised that they did another "meet all of the past award winners" so soon after doing it ( I think the last time was five years or so ago). I think Steve Martin was OK, but not nearly as good as he was the first time he hosted it. I say next year how about Craig Kilborn or Conan O'Brien?

On the work front, I trained 9 of the 50 cast members of the opening crew as well as 1 manager on the Pooh ride last week. Today, the ride had its soft opening. Word from my friends on the attraction is that it went well, though the ride broke down 10 minutes after it opened. I can't wait to get out there, but sadly my first shift there isn't until next Friday. I have a couple Guest control shifts over there between now and then, but the rest of the time I will be at the good ol' Matterhorn. I actually am happy to get some time over there. One of the things I like is to have equal time on all the attractions I know, even the classics.

So moving is a pain. Not that it should be a surprise to anyone. But you see, for every year you live in a place, the degree of difficulty multiples on a logarithmic scale. Actually, as I look around my place, I think I have done OK. One of the casualties of the move is the white Steelcase desk I picked up at the UCD Bargain Barn back in 1996 (Sorry Peggy - she let me and Darren move it in her old Blazer back in the days). I am excited about getting a smaller computer station, especially one with good placement for the keyboard and mouse. The way I will have my dining room configured is that it will end up being a combo dining area and office. I just need to make sure there is additional room for my still-in-the-box scanner.

I am still trying to put together my entertainment center. I've been to the local Fry's (closer than the one in Burbank was to my old apartment), and I'm trying to go completely S-Video. The biggest item I need to hook up is the TiVO. It will require running a super long phone cable, so I am still trying to track it down in my boxes of cable. My deadline is Thursday so that I won't miss an episode of Survivor.

Ya know, things have been so chaotic in my personal life that I didn't even realize just how close the Academy Awards are - only a few days away! I might have to break from tradition and not post my annual prediction list - heck I haven't even seen Chicago! I did manage to see the American version of the Ring and I can honestly say it was not nearly as good as the Japanese version. I want to see Dark Water which is a recent movie by the Japanese director of Ringu. Dan managed to see it, and hopefully he can score me a copy.

I have the cable modem hooked up to the laptop and that is my only contact with the outside world. It is connected via a USB port which I think is contributing to my perception that it is slower than my DSL. When I get the network up and running, I'm hoping that things will move faster, and that I'll be able to sit out on the patio, enjoy a nice beverage, and surf the web. Maybe I'll even resurrect the web cam.

That's all for now, I'm hoping to return to more frequent updates soon!

I have spent the last few days living in my new apartment in Fountain Valley with the barest of essentials: a Futon mattress, all my clothes, some folding chairs, a laptop, a TV with no reception, a DVD player with a smattering of DVDs (including all of the Ab Fab episodes and Twin Peaks season 1 - thank goodness for Ab Fab or I would have gone insane) and my toiletries. Back at the old apartment, the rest of my possessions sat waiting to be loved. It made me realize the things that I truly miss and need, and what I need to just donate to Goodwill.

First, my larger TV and my TiVo. Man I can't wait until the digital cable is installed on Friday. I also miss my regular bed. The futon is nice, but it is much firmer than my regular mattress so I can't sleep on my side for too long. I wonder if the Futon will be able to serve well as a couch. I can envision me getting a new one at a later date. I also miss my big computer and desk. The laptop has also been a sanity-saver, but the dial-up connection is hard to get used to after having DSL for so long.

Other than that, I really didn't miss much of the stuff I have around the house (of course until I came back today and was like awwww I miss you to all my stuff). I have mentioned before that I really want to get rid of a lot of junk I have stashed in closets here and there and there is no better time than the present to do so. I almost wish there was a dumpster outside the window so I could just drop it and not look back. With time running out before the movers get here, I need to get going on the paring.

Despite life's little (or not so little as the case may be) setbacks and challenges, it never seems to catch up. So while I am still dealing with the issues surrounding the events of last week, I have been mondo-busy with work at the Pooh ride. In a way, I think it has been a good thing in that it has given me something to focus on, so that I do not sit around all day and feel sorry for myself. Bad news is that since finding an apartment last Sunday, I have done zero preparation for the move. I will start moving to Fountain Valley on Saturday, with a carload here and there throughout next week until the big furniture move next weekend.

Back to Pooh, this week has been a tad on the dull side, with the majority of the work testing various show faults. Some excitement rolled into town Wednesday and Thursday as the film crew showed up to film a 30 second TV spot titled "Pooh's New Home". It is a cute little commercial (at least according to the storyboards I saw), and I am sure I will well up with pride when I see it on TV. One of our favorite games was guess who was who in the crew by the way they were acting. I think our final score was about 85% correct. One crew member we met worked on Fear Factor so I decided to ask him what the grossest thing he saw was. Of course, it had nothing to do with the show, but rather an off night at a bar in San Bernardino, where the host of the show challenged someone on the crew to vomit into a glass and have his buddy drink from it. Nice lunch time conversation don't you think?

I have also had a chance to catch a couple of movies this week: Final Destination 2 and Ringu, the original Japanese version of The Ring. FD2 was one of those lamely acted and dumb story movies that still had me peeking through my hands through a good part of it whereas Ringu just creeped me out. Really. Big Time. Especially the part where the lady crawls through the TV. Almost wet myself. Daniel reports that he liked the Japanese version better than the American version, despite the American version being even more intense in parts.

Internet will be spotty in the next week - I won't be getting Cable Modem until next Friday. Hopefully my SBC (nee Pac Bell) dial up will last until then.