Disney World 2018

My wife, kids and I took a trip to Disney World (Orlando, FL) last week. We all had a grand time, especially the kids – so it was worth it.

We visited Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. Many highlights.

As a family, we all enjoyed the TOY STORY MANIA ride the most. You ride along in a car with 3-D glasses and fire a virtual pop gun at various toy targets.

TOY STORY Mania!

 We ate too well.

My personal highlights were the Kilimanjaro Safari ride and staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The lodge – Jambo House – has a faux-pseudo-African vibe and is designed like a safari lodge house on steroids.

Jambo House

 We lucked out – our room did not overlook the ‘savanna’ but it did overlook animal pens where the animals get fed and/or shelter for the night. In the mornings, we saw bearded wildebeests, giraffes, impalas (mid-sized antelopes,) zebras, and ostriches sharing a common open space. Off to the right in separate areas were roan antelope (elk-sized, I’d guess,) and a pair of red river hogs came trotting out for their breakfast.

Red river hog comes out for breakfast. Roan antelope in the background.

Fire pit to relax and put up your feet after a long day of standing and walking.

The Kilimanjaro Safari ride offered views of more animals, including an elephant, a hippo, lions, and a white rhino. Lots of other animals and birds, too.

White rhinoceros on the safari

The only downsides were spending lots of money and waiting in lines.

The staff and patrons are all courteous and friendly. The staff need to be. But all the visitors seem to be aware we were all there for the same reason – to relax and have fun. Maybe we can all take that back to our daily lives.

It was good to get away, to connect with family and to drop off social media for a week. I think we can all use that once in a while.

Staycation Loot

I am on vacation for the next week. Hanging around the house and puttering with chores and stuff that needs doing, mostly. Plus family time.

I am hoping to get reading & writing done, of course.

I took a little me time at the comic shop Saturday afternoon. It's a little dangerous - a very good local comic store turned their warehouse into a warehouse with a storefront. 6.9 miles from my house! They have many $1 bins. Many.

$1 bin results;

New stuff;

And, even after all these years of being away from scifi in a big way, I can't resist a good ol' Cold War apocalypse story.

Of course, I'm acquiring reading material far faster than I'm reading lately. But I hope to get more posts going - even if they are just one-off comic reviews.

That doesn't even count my eBay score of books last week. More on that later, perhaps. ;)

Post Vacation Blues

Post vacation blues - but, not really.  I had a great week off.  For the first time in a long time, the vacation felt longer than it actually was.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe because we did lots of different things rather than one.

We spent a few days at York Beach, Maine.  Specifically, the Short Sands beach - which is smaller and very rocky.  But, the kids did not care.  They were happy to dig holes, collect mountains of rocks, and jump in the waves.

Aside from that, it was just days at home.  I did some personal shopping, scored some nice goodies.  This past weekend was wonderfully full of serendipity.  Spur of the moment, we had lunch with my parents on Saturday.  My sister and most of her family spontaneously stopped by my parents' house while we were there.  (They were also on their way home from a different Maine locale.)  Sunday night, we decided on dinner at a local establishment and bumped into our friends there.  They live in town, but we haven't seen each other in person in a very long time.  It was really great.

I even had some sense of accomplishment as I started cleaning out the home office yesterday in anticipation of a redo of the room.  We thought about hiring someone to build-in bookcases, etc., but we've decided to take our time.  I'll order a few custom pieces at a time (e.g.; storage cabinet, custom-sized bookcase) and work a wall at a time myself.  That'll spread the cost over some months.

I did not get much reading done.  Well, I didn't get much reading done on The Twelve Children of Paris.  It is a large enough physical book that I didn't want to lug it on vacation.  I brought my Kindle instead, and read a handful of tie-in Doctor Who short stories that have been released this year to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the show.  So far my favorite was the Second Doctor story, which featured The Necronomicon.

Back to the groove or grind, as the case might be.

Cruising

New cap & tourist map of Saint John, NB, Canada

Well, here's a break from all the media review stuff.  I was on vacation!  My in-laws are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year, and my wife & I are celebrating our 10th.  My in-laws threw a bash, took us and other in-laws on a cruise.

My in-laws were accommodating.  I get motion sick far too easy, and my daughter has shown a tendency toward car sickness, though she has been much better since we gave her sea-bands and lollipops on long drives.  I also didn't want to deal with a airplane transfer with kids in tow, so my in-laws arranged for a short cruise (4 days) that left from Boston.

We had one stop - at Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.  We took a brief 'trolley' (bus) tour of the city.  Mostly historic highlights.  Interesting bits - like the two Hollywood connections - both Donald Sutherland and Louis B. Mayer grew up in Saint John - about as far from L.A. as you can get.  (I didn't realize until he said it, but our driver/guide sounded a lot like Donald Sutherland.  So, if you're wondering what kind of accent Sutherland has, it's Saint John, I guess.)

Saint John, from the top (mini-golf) deck of the ship

I liked Saint John, though we only saw it from the tour bus.  The kids were too tuckered out to try walking around downtown and back to the ship.  We bought a few souvenirs at a catch-all tent at the disembark.

Batman on the beach

I spent the past four & a half days at the beach with my family and in-laws. Not as relaxing as it could have been - the nine month old is extremely screechy. No exaggeration - you could put your head next to the p.a. column at a Judas Priest concert and have the same effect on your hearing. I kept thinking we'd be asked to leave our inn.

Anyway, I knew with the two children (even with grandparents for babysitting) I wouldn't get much reading done, but I brought the Kindle, anyway.

I was smart in also bringing Batman: Year One with me. Graphic novels are faster, easier reads. I chose this one because I had it on recommendation, and it will be the next story adapted for the DC Universe Animated movies.



It was a very good story. I enjoyed it a lot. I could have done without the reinvention of Selina Kyle (Catwoman) as a bored prostitute, but what is a Frank Miller story without pimps and hookers? ;) The rest though, is stellar as Jim Gordon, Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne fight amidst a sea of crime and corruption. Not even a super-villain here. The mob and corrupt police force are enough. Good storytelling moments. I especially liked a crooked cop's recounting of encountering Batman as something mythical, while the illustrations show exactly what happened and how the (Bat)man was becoming a legend by exaggeration and fear.

So, I managed to read that in its entirety. Also gave in this year and grabbed a hardcover of Tim Willock's The Religion - very same book and discount bookstore I debated about last year. Couldn't pass it up this time. I'll find the shelf space for it. I hope it is as good as some say it is.

We had wireless but I mostly lurked from my iPhone. Between this week & my Facebook 'vacation' last month, I'm getting the bigger picture and remembering/realizing just how much darn noise there is on the Web. Don't get me wrong, I've gotten wonderful information and made plenty of friends, I don't damn the medium. But, I really need to cut back on my web time. I just have too many other pokers in the fires of my life right now.

I'll still follow my blog roll and post here, but I am thinking of cutting way back on Facebook and newsites. Surprisingly, perhaps not Twitter because that is designed to be a fast fix - but it's plenty noisy, too, so that might go.

Besides, with Google+ ramping up, there might be a great nomadic social network migration again. Might as well ramp down for a bit.

Facebook vacation

I decided spur-of-the-moment yesterday to take a week off from Facebook (and Twitter.) No reason in particular - just too much noise. I need to focus both at work and at home (writing.) It all just seemed frivolously distracting - which it is, I understand. Just need a break.

Still reading The Hour of the Dragon.

I'll still be on blog rounds and checking email for anything time-sensitive. And modding over at the Conan forums (which, btw, underwent a server upgrade this weekend.) It's just the chitter-chatter sites I want to avoid for a week.

Back from vacation

I'm back. Spent some days at the beach. Having a toddler, I didn't get much reading done, though I did have Kindle in hand. It was great family time though, beach bumming, strolling, walking, eating out. I even squeezed in an acoustic jam with an old friend & others one evening.

Aside from the family and friends fun on the beach, I did a little book hunting. There is a "book warehouse" shop - you know, the ones with the discount books. I wasn't even going to stop in, but I saw The Religion by Tim Willocks displayed near the front of the store. It's a historical fiction novel about the siege of Malta. I've heard good things about this novel, and it was very tempting. In the end, I passed. They had the hardcover, and I am really trying to make space at home. The ebook cost couple of dollars more, but I guess I'm paying for shelf space at this point.

I did, however, find a decent used book store and grabbed three of the eight Lost Swords novels by Fred Saberhagen. They all have spine warping, but for the price, I can deal with it. I know these books aren't currently available in e-format, so I felt justified.

I really need to map out my writing for the next few months. I have about four stories that really need to get written/re-written.

Back to work tomorrow. I would "sigh", but you know - it's what pays for everything, so I won't complain.

Furlough on Mars

I spent last week on unpaid furlough. I wasn't crazy about lack of pay, but I sure enjoyed the time off with my wife and daughter. We went to a local farm & wildlife sanctuary, had a cookout and other fun things. A few home projects were in the mix, too. (Stained some woodwork in our living room, little bit of garage cleanup, fixed a sprinkler head.) The weather was great for the entire week.

I did not read or write nearly as much as I hoped - but I did read. And yes - I wrote!

I am now 2000 words into a story. I'm back on the wagon and shaking off the rust! I'm sure it will need good editing when the rough draft is done, but at least I am writing and have been getting my a.i.c. time. (ass-in-chair [in front of computer])

For reading, I finished Otis Adelbert Kline's The Swordsman of Mars.



It was good, solid sword-n-planet. It hits all the s-&-p notes; body transference, swordplay, a princess & a savage girl, baridium mines & quirky inventions and scary, large creatures that have dog-like loyalty to their heroic masters. Technically I found it more appealing than E R Burroughs Mars tales. But I'll admit ERB certainly populated his setting with more imaginative creatures.

Definitely worth reading if you like sword-n-planet. Paizo has also published the sequel, The Outlaws of Mars, which I have already purchased and will be reading in future.


That's all for now, (few) loyal readers!