The carpenter always hammers twice

Oy. They've finally fixed my lateral file so I can rescue those last few personal files from the cabinet. Which means by the end of today all traces of John Frost should be gone from this cubby. (Well, maybe I'll leave a hidden mickey or two.)

Tomorrow is the last hurrah before a lightning drive through the cajon pass hopefully while the sun still shines. I can look out my window and see snow still falling on the pass right now. Should be interesting.

The Last Friday

It's the last Friday. The last weekend primer that I spend downtown walking around exploring nooks and crannies. Side stepping panhandlers and avoiding the eyes of those who look to hustle me for money.

It's also the last friday I eat at my favorite downtown lunch restaurant, California Pizza Kitchen, and am served by my favorite waitress -- Billie F. Gave her 100% tip today, no explanation why. Maybe she'll figure it out eventually. What's nice is that she took the trouble to learn the names of her best customers. I always left her a little more because of that.

So now, I'm packing up my desk in advance of my final three days. What do I leave behind, what do I throw away, what do I take. Hopefully I leave behind a deparmtment that is better off for my being her. More organized, better trained, better equipped.

Life changes like this are never easy.

Changing jobs and moving at the same time is a bit overwhelming. It's nice that I already have a couple of irons in the fire, but it is still very stressful. For those of you keeping track, we do our walk-through a week from today, then sign mortgage papers that afternoon. After that we can get our keys on the 8th.

I've also been working on selling Ad space on LaughingPlace.com. We're now listed in the major media selling directories. Next step is developing a media kit (online and dead tree versions).

Pop goes the weasel

Why do they call it 'popping the question'? I suppose because it is supposed to come as a surprise to the intended. In my line of thinking one's future wife should never not expect you to ask her hand in marriage.

Stacey has known from before we started dating that I wanted to marry her (but that's a story for another time). In fact, she did all of the leg work on the rings, as she wanted them to fit her exacting specifications. So the challenge for me was to make the time and place of the actual event a surprise for her.

We had talked about doing it at Disneyana on Main Street at Disneyland. We met there while standing in line for a merchandise event. I even conspired with a few Cast Members there about how I might go about doing it. But as it turns out that was just a ruse.

I think most people expected us to get engaged on Valentine's Day. I expected us to as well. I had tried to arrange a nice dinner and movie sort of thing, and then I'd ask her before dessert. But that failed as we didn't get to dessert until 11:30pm that night. (I'm sorry if you lost your bet, James).

I had even bought a disposable camera and planned to ask the waiter to snap a few shots of the moment. Stacey found the camera and I think she expected the question that night, so that kept me from asking her too.

The date I really wanted to propose was Feb 17th. I wanted to do it at Disneyland, but as it turns out we were scheduled to be in Las Vegas that day to meet my Dad and stepmom, Rosemary.

So, I thought, I'll do it at the house. We made a special detour to the property under the thin guise that we might meet more neighbors. And we did. However, we also discovered that our house was locked. We'd visited the day before and found it open, but not on the 17th. Oh well. I quickly thought up a backup plan.

One of the things Dad and Rosemary wanted to do was walk the strip and check out the pirates show at Treasure Island, the volcano at Mirage, and the new casinos like Paris and Bellagio. I knew Stacey loves the Bellagio water show, so things were starting to fall into place.

Eventually we ended up at the Bellagio water show at 4pm. The music was 'One' from 'A Chorus Line' which played into my hands. I started formulating a speech in my head and warming up the flash in that disposable camera I'd been carrying around since Valentine's Day.

After the water show, I handed my Dad the camera and asked him to take a picture of Stacey and I. After the first picture I got down on one knee and it quickly became apparent what was going on. He snapped away as I worked through my simple speech.

"Stacey, I wanted to do this at Disneyland, however, we're going to build a new life here in Las Vegas, so this seems appropriate ... You are my one. Will you be my one? Will you marry me?"

Thankfully, she said, "I will."

Afterwards, a small group of tourists that had gathered applauded. But there was no confetti.

I am glad my Dad got to see the moment. He really was tickled pink (as he promised he would be). I wish Stacey's Dad could have been there, I know he's watching us from above.

Thank you to everyone for the well wishes and congratulations. Stacey and I look forward to seeing you all.

-Indigo (John)

An AP Glut or Parking Famine

You may have heard that Disneyland stopped selling Annual Passes. They claim to have sold to capacity and selling anymore would endanger the experiences of the non-AP guest. They say 'if all the APs showed up on the same day, where would the ticketed guests go?' Gee, it's nice that they care about us APs. Even worse, this announcement was made on the same day AP previews were being offered for the new California Adventure theme park. While inviting us in to sample the merchandise, they were at the same time not allowing us to buy it long term. Or something like that.

And now... the new themepark and Disneyland are both experiencing incredible drops in attendence... coincidence?

So far 35,000 APs that allow entrance into DCA have been sold. The number of total APs for Disneyland alone is close to 400,000. Which leads me to this speculation... they must be worried about more than just how many APs will show up at the gate on a single day. Otherwise, they wouldn't have sold APs that total 5 times the capacity (70K is conservative) of Disneyland. What if all 400,000 showed up on a single day, what would they do then. That logic doesn't make sense. By that logic they would be able to sell 150,000 DCA APs. Before being worried about having to close the gates.

What does make sense is the parking situation. In fact, the opening of the Anahiem Stadium... er ... Edison Field parking lot on busy weekends, lends credence to the lack of parking theory. I have yet to hear any concrete numbers on the soonest they could fix this major blunder... but until then I imagine the numbers for both parks will remain low. Just the usual 70,000 day summer and holiday crowds, but split between the two parks.

I really think the number crunchers were planning on a lot more hotels being built. Instead, just a few new hotel rooms have been added... figure about 3500 rooms, less than the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. That means an extra 7000 to 15000 people in the Anaheim Resort area. Not all visiting DL or DCA on every day. Not enough to populate DCA.

Instead the DLR will continue to survive, thrive, or die on the local visitor. At least until more hotels are built and the resort is 'firmly' established as a multi-day destination. So Disney execs... why not treat these local visitors better, after all, we're your profit margin.

Happy VD

Ikea can kill your relationship.

The future is now...

I am about to do what I once said I never would stand for... sell ad space on the net. Way back in 1991 when I first joined the FutureCulture elist the internet existed without the cyberspace we now call the web. It was pretty much free of the .com domains withonly a few research oriented groups owning those domains. Then in 1994, one year after the debut of the WWW, everything changed... WIRED magazine online added banner advertising to their website.

There was much moanin' and groanin' at the time about the commercialization of the net. I did it myself. People saw themselves being squeezed out of the private playspace that had been theirs alone. But, much like Hong Kong Disneyland, when more space was needed, it was just dredged up with new technologies and added on. No one was squeezed out we just made room for more.

Even better... all those college nerds who spent hours mudding, coding scripts, writing software, etc... are now raking in the big bucks at the fore front of the 'new economy'. I don't hear nearly as much complaining now.

So it is that spirit that I have taken on the mantle of 'Sales and Marketing Manager' for LaughingPlace.com. I hope that I can make some money doing what I love, and in the same breath help thousands of Disney fans, like myself, partake in their obsession. Money will help LaughingPlace.com grow and provide new resources to bolster the Yahoo! and USAtoday acclaimed best 'Disney' site on the net.

No where else can you find a more complete Disney website directory--it's searchable, rated, and free to list. No where else can you find family friendly, PG-13, and active community discussion boards to talk about your favorite Disney topic. Only LaughingPlace.com provides daily news updates that cover the whole spectrum of Disney news and information. LaughingPlace.com also provides detailed travel guides for your themepark vacation needs.

And there's more.... LaughingPlace.com has games, trivia, respected columnists, themepark updates, balanced news coverage, event coverage, merchandise updates, and more stuff added all the time. Put it all together and you have the Number One Site for Disney News and Information on the web.

Now... can you think of a better place to buy ad space?

ssshhh---noooooo!

Drove through heavy heavy snow in the Cajon Pass last night. If we had waited perhaps 30 minutes longer to leave Jean, Nevada we would quite possibably still be in Victorville right now. Now Los Angeles County is under 'storm watch' and streets are flooding, lunch crowds will be down, and outside my window is one generally gray mess. It's difficult to see the building across the street through the low clouds.

The house in Henderson, NV is coming along quite well. As soon as we can get this mortgage approved they can start putting in the flooring and then working out the final touches. Looks like March 10th or so for a move in date. This last weekend we found a couch we love and put a deposit down on it, we found a fridge that is almost perfect and for 25% off (Wards is going out of business in case you didn't know) was more than 'good enough' and bought it, and we looked at area rugs and such for those dining areas. Now we just need a kitchen table set to give us someplace to eat until we can afford to furnish the rest of the house.

Speaking of Jobs. I'm looking for one in the Vegas area. I have a commission based opportunity to sell Ad space on LaughingPlace.com, and I'm excited about the potential there, but having some steady income to back it up would be nice as well. In any event, if you know anything about Ad sales, talk to me.

Now I've done it!

Last Friday I gave notice at work. So now I can announce that Stacey and I are moving to Henderson Nevada, about 12 miles from the strip. Soon, I hope to have some pictures up of the house and the assorted things we've been doing. Just gotta find some time somehow.

Right now life is really busy. California Adventure is about to open, LaughingPlace.com is really taking off, the move, looking for a new job, plus all the little life maintenance things... it's all taking up a lot of time.

Speaking of time, I just finished a good book by Gregory Benford entitled Timescape. Benford's writing is often very detailed, but never in an overbearing scientific manner. It explores some intriguing quirks of quantum physics... and it was written in 1972. More food for thought.

Well, it's Groundhog day.

It is curious how the meaning of Groundhog day has taken on new facets in the last few years. Where the focus used to be on a particular rodent's ability to predict the weather, people are now speaking of this event with odd references to deja vu. I heard it on NPR this morning, and have heard it over and over again since 1994. I think it is one of those rare instances where a movie has an affect on culture.

The movie in question is the 1994 release, Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray. In it, Murray plays a weatherman who has the unique opportunity to relive one day, Groundhog Day, over and over again until he gets it right, turns his life around, and gets the leading lady.

It's hopeful message, that we all can succeed at getting things right, has struck home with the American public, and slowly the term 'Groundhog Day' has come to mean 'having chance to do it all over again' and is often used in place of 'Deja Vu' in regular conversation.

So on this Groundhog Day here's to hoping we all get things right the first time, but if we don't, be comforted in the fact that you can always have a second chance.

Well, it's Groundhog day.

It is curious how the meaning of Groundhog day has taken on new nuances in the last few years. Where the focus used to be on a particular rodent's ability to predict the future, people are now speaking of this event with odd references to deja vu. I heard it on NPR this morning, and have heard it over and over again since 1994. I think it is one of those rare instances where a movie has an affect on culture.

The movie in question is the 1994 release, Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray. In it, Bill plays a weatherman who has the unique opportunity to relive one day, Groundhog Day, over and over again until he gets it right, turns his life around, and gets the leading lady.

It's hopeful message, that we all can succeed at getting things right, has struck home with the American public, and slowly the term 'Groundhog Day' has come to mean 'having chance to do it all over again' and is often used in place of 'Deja Vu' in regular conversation.

So on this Groundhog Day here's to getting things right the first time, but if you don't, be comforted in the fact that you can always have a second chance.

Zoology 101

Working in Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) has given me a little insight as to what it must be like to live as an animal in a zoo. Each day a couple tourist busses drive by or even stop and let out the gawkers camera's in hand. Ostensibly they're here to look at the skyscrapers and art spaces that make DTLA so remarkable. However, inevitably they can't resist a quick look at the more interesting members of the menagerie. That being the hapless office worker.

Just walking across the street I can feel their gaze on my back. I imagine the tour guide describing the scene, "There goes one of the most populous cubicle herd. Notice the way he holds the coffee cup firmly around the middle. The heat providing some of the only stimulation he'll receive today. See how he repeatedly presses the walk-signal button as if to hurry up the walk sign even though it only means he'll be returned that much sooner to the cage his cubicle provides. If you look real close you can see the furrow in his brow as he considers the solution to whatever problem is awaiting him back at his desk."

YKISW -- part II

...when you're out registering at Crate and Barrel. It was nice to find out that we have very similar tastes in design. We like it simple or disney. If it's both, that's a big plus. :-)

Bye Bye Birdie

As you may have heard go.com (Disney's web portal) has been directed to close up shop. The profitable stuff, such as ESPN.com and Disney.com will continue on, but the unprofitable, such as the old Infoseek group, will be laid off and sold for scrap where possible. This leaves me wondering what to do with my two pages that are hosted on the homepages section of Go.com. If they do close the homepages section I will need somewhere I can get a free 50 or so megs of space and a reasonalby priced domain name, I'd like to move my Barraged site there. The Laker's Victory Parade page can be moved to yahoo.geocities without much of a problem. But if I'm going to move Barraged, I only want to do it once and with a domain name so it's always easy to find.

You know it's serious when

You know it's serious when you're looking down at two good sized rocks and your girlfriend is trying on ring molds to see how they look. But I survived with only a minimum of perspiration. The ring should be ready soon. Better put my plan into action.

Embarrassment time!

It's that time again. Time for another round of Birthday well wishes, remembrances, e-cards, and silly jokes. Are you ready? It seems like just yesterday that he was running around in his diapers with our dog Sugarbear nipping at his butt. Ahhh, I remember it well. Or maybe that time when he broke his wrist playing soccer. How about that day at Grant Park when he rolled his skateboard in front of my bike and I flipped over the handle bars onto the cinder track ... ouch! We both wish we still had some of those star wars toys we blew up too.

All that was at least 15 years ago. Are you feeling old yet? I'm sure my brother is. Today is his Birthday. He's 27 and just going back to school for his Masters in Philosophy. What do you do with that, I hear you cry. I don't know either.

In other news Cnet news has implemented a new advertising plan. Instead of the banner advertisements you see across the top and bottom of the screen on many pages, Cnet has moved the ad to take up rougly 1/5 of the page in the browser (much like a picture or graphic for a story). This is supposed to induce more people to 'click through' and make advertising online more attractive. I suspect that I'll be able to ignore these ads just as well as I have been banner ads. For whether online or offline I only look at ads that pertain to my life at that moment. Even if the ads are targeted at me as a reader (for instance, if I'm on Cnet in the Mac area, I probably want to see ads for Mac products, not mouthwash or ISP services), I still won't click through unless I am actually shopping for Mac products at the time, and an ad for a product I need shows up. On the otherhand, if there is a sponsorship in addition to the ad, and I enjoy the website and want to support its owners, then it's is very likely I'll return to that site and click through to the sponser's site so the original site gets credit for the referral. I do this on LaughingPlace.com all the time. In fact, I wouldn't mind it if the website came right out and said "please support our sponsors. it's the best way for us to make a living and support this website."

Happy New Year

Well, Happy Chinese New Year anyway. If the weather outside wasn't so gloomy, I'd consider a quick bus ride to chinatown for lunch today. But instead, So Cal has been hit by another 'stormwatch' and by another rash of people who can't drive in the rain. So today's commute took an extra 45 minutes this morning. Twice the normal time makes for an extra grumpy Indigo.

I've been meaing to write about California Adventure but I just haven't had the time. So you'll have to wait. Sorry. In the meantime, check out Ammy's account of her recent visit.

Wow

Sometimes life can pass by in the blink of an eye. For instance, I can't believe the last time I wrote here was on Jan 12th. It's already Jan 23rd. My Brother's birthday is coming up, Stacey is in Las Vegas again, and I've already visited California Adventure 4 times. Where has the time gone?

I received a 'travel journal' from Nathan Heidt last week. He's one of my cousins in Oregon. I can't believe he's now in 5th grade. I'm supposed to fill up a few pages with history and stuff from around my State (being California) and then pass it on to someone in a state the book has not yet visited. So... if you don't live in California, New York, or Washington, and think you can whip out a few pages of interesting factoids for Nathan, let me know and I'll send the travel journal to you next. Otherwise, I'll send it randomly to someone on my list. Who knows, it might be you.

I try and post more later tonight after I make an attempt at cleaning up my room. If I don't make some headway tonight, things could get ugly.

where there's smoke...

We just had a building fire a few blocks away from us downtown. Saw flames and lots of smoke from my window on the 51st floor. They had to close the air intake valves on our building or the smoke would have clogged up our system. Haven't heard if anyone was hurt. A lovely way to start a weekend though.

Monday and Tuesday next week Stacey and I will be attending the first real public days for Disney's California Adventure. That's the new themepark they built in the old Disneyland parking lot. So far the reviews have been fair to good. I haven't heard any really negative reviews at all. I'm taking that as a good sign.

Today marks the official opening of Downtown Disney -- a shopertainment (oooh, neologism) center that occupies the space between the two parks and the hotel complex. We've been there a few times already for pre-opening days and plan to enjoy a movie or two at the new AMC theatres this weekend (hey, that's a good idea for tonight). Come on down and join us... parking is free for 3 hours and 5 hours with validation. Enough for dinner, a movie, and some shopping.

Stormwatch 2001

Ugh. Rain. Southern California has been hit and so traffic has been really bad, waves have been crashing high, and power outages have struck downtown... not here, of course. But just a few streets away. It would have been interesting to see what sort of emergency procedure we put into action if the power had gone out. Would we work out of our homes? West LA? Comdisco? inquiring minds want to know.

Speaking of power... it looks like the Feds might shut off the power flow to california sometime later this week. Both the big utilities are in horribly over their heads in the rip-tide created by their recommended deregulation of the energy system. Somebody is getting rich off this and I suspect it will be the powerplant owners and somebody is going to have to pay to keep the lights on and I suspect it will be the tax payers. Should be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple days.

I must be getting old. If I don't get 8 hours of sleep these days I'm a total wreck for the rest of the day. Last night was one of those nights with noisy roommates, police sirens, creaky bones, where it all added up to a fitful night of (un) rest. I hate'em.

Stacey and I walked over to Barnes and Nobles last night with a $25 gift certificate from her mom burning a hole in my pocket. After much enjoyable browsing I ended up with a copy of the 2001 Writer's Market. I'm hoping to expand some of my writing for LaughingPlace.com and send it off to some travel magazines (for pay, I hope). The first article I'm hoping to sell is my Grand Californian Review. If anyone out there would like to send me a critique of the article I'd be very happy.

Had a good weekend that ended with an allergy attack on Monday. Missed work, but got lots of extra sleep. You figure out that score.

Went to Lost Wages to see Stacey's new cousin Max. He's a real cutey at 24 days old. Not very fussy or noisy, he mostly sleeps and feeds. Had dinner at one of the famous LV Buffets, this one at Main Street Station Casino downtown. Afterwards we walked over to Fremont Street to experience the Experience. Unfortunately all those bright lights in quickly changing colors hurt Stacey's eyes. So we ducked into a casino (Binion's Horseshoe) for some single deck Blackjack. We both plopped down $20 at a $2 minimum table and then held on for a very fun and profitable 1.5 hours. By the end of the night we were each up more than twice our initial chips (Stacey more like 5 times)... we also played a really fun slot game based on Yahtzee. I won big there. So we'd basically paid for food and gas for the trip in one night. Woo Hoo!

We returned to So Cal and made a stop at the Disneyland resort (it's hard to resist) to see what changes had occured over the weekend. Ate lunch at ESPNZone. Good food at resort prices (had a 8 ounze turkey burger that was wonderful) -- kinda funky setting. We ate on the Studio grill side which boasts a live set for filming ESPN's UPClose show. With filming in progress it was busy, but pleasant. The otherside seemed too dark, and too much like a sports book from a Vegas casino to me. Upstairs was the biggest disappointment, however. They have a huge game area upstairs, but the prices are so inflated it's just not fun. Since I heard the restaurant was opening up I've been looking forward to a game of Air Hockey (Disneyland removed their tables over two years ago). At ESPNZone each Air Hockey game is $2.50... games at Disneyland used to be $0.75. I'd pay a $1.00 a game... but $2.50 is just unreasonable. Looks like I'll have to wait even longer to get my air hockey fix.

Smokin'

Only took 20 minutes to get into work today. Took my little Saturn in to get some repairs and was able to take advantage of the carpool lane. Boy-o-boy, I'm thinking of making Stacey drive me to work everymorning. Sorry Hon.

I'll be in Lost Wages this weekend scoping the place out. So no updates for a few days. We're trying the new Sunset Station, the flagship of the station casino's and also the closest to Stacey's cousins. Looking forward to a few days of getting away.

So y'all have a great weekend and I'll see you on the b-side.