"Dances with Smurfs" Coming to Disney's Animal Kingdom

As most of you know by now, Disney announced that they are expanding Animal Kingdom and putting in a new Avatar themed land. When I first heard the announcement, I was pissed. Yet again, Disney is going outside the company to build an attraction. But once I cooled down and started analyzing the situation, I started to realize that I was not being fair.

To be honest, I have not seen Avatar. To me, it just seems way too weird and is probably too long to hold my interest, so I never took the time to sit down and watch it. For all I know, it may be the best movie ever. Also, I have not seen or heard anything about what this new "Avatarland" will be like. All I know is that they are spending $400 million on the project and that construction will begin in 2013. So, again, it may be the best thing ever.

Disney has needed to do something with Animal Kingdom for a very long time. It's attendence numbers have never been where they wanted them to be. I know every time I go to the park, I only hit Expedition: Everest, Dinosaur, and Festival of the Lion King, then I'm out. I'm usually gone before lunch. It has never been my favorite park, and I'd say there it's not at the top of any Disney fan's list. So this new project may just be what Animal Kingdom needs to get off the ground.

Besides, ever since Animal Kingdom opened back in 1998, Disney has been promising us "Beastly Kingdom" (For those who don't know, this was a themed land devoted to Mythical creatures and was supposed to be Disney World's thrill park). Maybe this is a realization of this plan? I do know that this is most definitely Disney's answer to Universal's "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" (Which I still haven't seen).

I still have mixed feelings over this move by Disney. I feel like that this is a huge risk that they are taking. But ultimately I'm going to hold off judgement until I see the completed project.

What are your thoughts?

Look Familiar?

Watch this clip from "The Andy Griffith Show" starting at 3:35. Does this scene look familiar to you?



I was watching "Barney's Bloodhound" today on TV Land with my family and saw this. I just started laughing and said "Hey! They totally ripped this off from Pirates!". Of course my Disney cynic dad had to point out "Well, they probably ripped that off from this." So, I had to prove him wrong. But, I couldn't.

Pirates of the Caribbean debuted at Disneyland in 1967, placing true development probably in the early 60s. "Barney's Bloodhound" came out in late 1964, which means the episode was probably written in early to mid '64. So.. I didn't know what to say. What do you guys think? Mere coincidence? Or a little idea swapping?

What the Duck?!

I call this segment "They Report, We Decide". It was originally meant to be for the ranting blog, but with Fox News doing a segment on the latest Disney lawsuit, I figured it would be appropriate to feature it over here.

Here's a link to the "Kelly's Court" segement on today's edition of "America Live":

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4310658/donald-duck-accused-of-groping-woman

As much as it pains me, I'm going to hold off on my opinion for now. Watch the video and tell me what you think.

Virtual Team Voice Meets?

Ok, I know I'm totally ripping this off, but here it goes...

I was reading over at Byron's blog earlier this week. There he talked about Team AllEars holding a Skype call every so often. I think that is awesome and that we need to adopt this! So, I figured I'd pose the question to you guys here. Is this something that would interest you?

The blogs do alot to keep the team going, but I think something like this, even for just a few minutes a week, would really bring us back together and keep us going. Though I'm not sure of the logistics behind something like this (can Skype handle more than 10 people talking at once and would we be able to handle that, when is a good time for everyone, etc, etc...) I think it would be interesting to say the least.

So, I'm going to open the issue up for debate. Do you think this is a good idea and are you interested? Post your thoughts in the comments and we'll get a dialogue going.

I've Been a Bad Citizen of the Community

I have just sucked as a member of the Disney Community as of late. I haven't visited a forum in probably a year or so, I totally forgot that I had a DisFriends account, and most of all I'm a terrible listener... As I may have mentioned before, I’m like 6 to 8 months behind on listening to my podcasts.

What's bad about that, I'm only subscribed to four Disney podcasts (All About the Mouse, Those Darn Cats, WDW Today, and WDW Radio) and three non-Disney ones (Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Meet the Press, and Fox News Sunday - Which I'm even farther behind. Thankfully I don't have to catch up on them since they're all news based). But I'm slowly getting caught up.

I am caught up with Those Darn Cats as of today and have begun WDW Today, which I’m almost halfway finished with. Next will be All About the Mouse and WDW Radio. They're always last just because of their length. With my "certain way of doing things", I have to be able to listen to a show all the way through in one sitting. If I know I can't get the whole thing it, I won't listen to it. Hence the reason why I'm so far behind with these too. AATM should be easy since it's divided into sections more so than WDWR. I'm almost tempted to just start fresh, but I will get as far as I can.

What podcasts do you guys listen too and how do you go about catching up when ever you get behind?

A Quick Post and a Quick Question

Hey guys! Well, this morning I finally got my lazy ass out of the bed and walked 3 miles this morning. Granted, it was just speedwalking, but it was something. I'm GOING to do the same thing tomorrow and hopefully get some running Friday morning. So far diet and lifting has gone very well this week. I love any diet that I can eat as much steak, hamburger and globs of butter and mayonaise as I want and still cut through the fat like a tornado in a trailer park.

Now on to my question:

I've been contemplating a cardio stategy where I gently walk and/or jog a few miles in the morning as soon as I wake up and then at night do about a half mile to a full mile of sprints at the gyms "track" before I swim a few laps 3 to 4 days a week. Of course I would still have a long run on Saturday where I do both.

Do you guys think that focusing on distance in the morning and speed in the evening would work? Do you think it's safe? I'm considering this because of where I run. MC's Campus is extremely hilly and there is really no way that I can manage anything other than a light jog around here. However, the campus gym has an indoor track that is totally flat. I hate running on it because it takes ten laps to make a mile, but since I wouldn't be concerned with distance, just speed, I think I can manage it.

What do y'all think?

A Question and a Rant

Hey guys! It appears that I'm finally back on the horse today, and not a moment too soon! I had intended for my rebound to happen last week, but due to weather and illness (every time I say I'm going to start back running, I get sick... have you noticed that trend?), I had to wait until this week.

My run today went well, though it was cut short. I was only able to complete 2 1/2 miles in 42:16, which I don't think is bad all things considered. I couldn't go farther because my heel felt like it was on fire! That leads me to my question. What could be causing the burning? I bought new "Drymax" socks, I bought a new pair of shoes (which feel great normally), I'm putting Vaseline on my feet. What's doing it? The only thing that I can think of is that my shoes need to be broken in or my heel just needs to adjust. What do you guys think? Can you think of anything else I can do to address this?

Ok, now for my rant... Do you guys have problems with bikers in the areas that you run/walk in? I'm not talking about the decent human beings that are biking for legit reasons (i.e. Rae). I'm talking about those little hell on wheels biker gangs of 3 or 4 12 year olds. Those "little biker bastards" as I call them, are a menace to society! It's almost like the scope out people with iPods, sneak up on them then zoom past the victim, scaring the bejesus out of them! Then, right when you think it's over, another one zooms past you on the other side, scaring you all over again. That's when the remaining ones come zooming past you. It's really quite annoying. If you're lucky they won't run you over. I've seen that happen to other runners and have a few near misses before.

They're not even supposed to be on the running trail. It would be like me taking my car out for a joyride on the trail and knocking a few of them over! I wouldn't have a problem with them if they would just be considerate of other people and weren't so rude. Where the hell are the parents?! UGH! Ok... I'm going to stop now. See you all soon!

Quick Question...

I know Jeff can answer this...

I have been seeing some blogs (Jeff's for example) with a "Running to Disney" feature. I would love to do this on my blog, but I can't quite figure out the map. I guess it's beyond me. From the look of the ones I've seen, they are from Google. Can you guy's tell me what I'm doing wrong?