Captain EO

Hi guys! I hope you all had a great fourth of July weekend (regardless of citizenship). With the spirit of the season, I figured I'd make some fireworks. Yes, it is time for a Disney Rant!



Ok, maybe that was a little over the top, but I'm fed up. Let it be known that I am 100 percent against the return of Captain EO to the Disney Parks. I know, I know, I'm stepping on some toes here but so be it! I'm as mad as hell!

I'm against it for a number of reasons. I'm going to be rambling a bit, so bear with me.

First of all, I feel like this is Disney simply trying to capitalize on MJ's death. Sure, that's what corporations do. I get it. But still, I find the fact that Disney would have never entertained the idea of Captain EO's return had it not been for MJ's sudden death just a little morbid. But sure, I'll give Disney a little leeway here as they are simply doing what a corporation does and "moonwalking straight to the bank".

My second grievance is the fact that the show is so damn cheesy! Ok, sure, I've only seen the show via YouTube... but that's all I needed! What really pisses me off? They took out one of my favorite attractions (Honey I Shrunk the Audience) and replaced it with something that should have died (and did) years ago! Let's face it, Captain EO was taken out for a reason. It was old, hokey, and really had no place in the "new" Epcot. Yes it was time for Honey I Shrunk the Audience to go, but seriously? Let's move forward, not backward!

And, I know that 1993 and 2005 are eons in the entertainment world, but the man was an accused child molester. Sure he was acquitted of the charges, but the fact remains. I could go on here, but that is beside the point. Yes, MJ was an excellent entertainer and was very talented, but he still had those charges. Let's say that Disney brought back an old attraction that starred OJ Simpson. There would be outrage, as there should be. OJ was a very talented football player and he was acquitted of his charges too. But his name can't be spoken without thoughts of his crimes. So why? Why does MJ get a free pass and not OJ? I don't know... I just feel like we're glorifying someone who maybe shouldn't be. Maybe I'm wrong for even bringing that point up, but there it is.

Again, I just feel like Disney has gone about this all wrong. Disney says that the show is only temporary. Well, if this is only temporary, while imagineering thinks up something else to replace it, then great. I'm all for it. Moral objections aside, Captain EO will bring people in and that's what Disney is in business to do. However, let us recall what "temporary" means to Disney:

• Mickey's Toontown Fair was only supposed to be a temporary land for Mickey's Birthday Celebration in 1988. It's been temporary ever since.
• The dreadful Wand over Spaceship Earth was built as a temporary decoration in 1999 for the Millennium Celebration. It wasn't taken down until 2007.
• Camp Minnie-Mickey was supposedly a temporary land for Animal Kingdom while Imagineering came up with something better. The land opened with the park in 1998 and yet it still remains.

I could go on, but you get my point. I have a feeling that Captain EO will be with Epcot and Disneyland for a lot longer than the implied "temporary" label Disney has given us. If this happens, Disney is cheating their guests. They've replaced an aged attraction with an even older, cheaper alternative and that just isn't right to us fans.

I could be over-reacting. I tend to do that a lot, but I get so mad when an opportunity like this is squandered. They had the perfect opportunity to give us an awesome new 3D attraction and they screwed it up. It PISSES me off!!! But, if I'm wrong, and I hope I am, I'll retract this post and apologize to Disney. Hell, if they out do themselves, I'll even give them a kudos... and those are hard to get from me!

Ok, my blood pressure is too high. I must stop. What do you guys think? Are you happy to see Captain EO return? Or are you as pissed off as I am? Maybe you don't care.

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.

A Moment of Weak Strength

Hi guys! Just wanted to boast about my most recent victory. As I've mentioned before, I've been struggling over the past few months. I've been giving in to my old habits (or as I call them, demons) of over eating and laziness. No excuse for it at all. But, the past few weeks have been different. I've slowly begun wogging again and I've been doing excellent as far as diet is concerned. I've run another half marathon recently (Race Report coming tomorrow, I promise) and will be running a 5K this weekend, so I think I'm back with it.

That being said, I had a weak day today. I gave into my craving for Chinese, which is one of my biggest weaknesses. I didn't do too terrible. A friend and I split a small order of sesame chicken and fried rice, but I still felt guilty afterward. That stuff just isn't healthy, even in small portions, but I love it! Then came tonight, which was a moment of both strength and weakness.

Just about an hour ago, I went to walmart to pick up some supplies (for my last day of summer school! WOOT!). Along with those supplies, I got a pack of cinnamon rolls. I get to my car and before I know it, I'm already taking the first bite. I'm driving home, attempting to wolf down as much as I can before I get home, knowing that I can't bring them in. That's when I think, "What the hell am I doing? I'm ruining everything that I've done just over the past few month!" What's really sad is that the rolls weren't even good... I was just eating them because they were there. It was at that moment, just about 45 minutes ago, that I realized that I have an honest to God food addiction. I've always known, but I've never had the "Come to Jesus" moment that I've just had.

It's embarrassing to admit this in such a public forum, but it is what it is. Thankfully, I only ate one of the rolls before I through them out the window (don't worry, pastries are biodegradable). I'm actually kinda proud of myself right now. I stopped myself from doing the self destructive behavior that has gotten me into some pretty serious trouble.

So, hello guys. My name is Matt and I am a recovering food addict!

All Good Things...

I just got some very sad news. Our beloved All About the Mouse is ending. I'm SO sad about this. Here is the press release that Jonathan issued over at the forums.

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AATM - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Celebrate the Finale of AATM!

Wednesday June 30th, 2010 will be the final show for All About the Mouse. Bryan Ripper and Jonathan Dichter have decided together to end the weekly podcast effective this week. This decision did not come easily - and it is very important that you understand the reasons. Both Bryan and Jonathan have had increasing pressures in their lives, including work, family, and health stressors. As such, a decision point was reached where either our lives would suffer, or the show would. Neither was acceptable to us. We refuse to put out less than the best quality show we can for you, our listeners. Therefore, it is with sadness, that we close this chapter together. We made this decision as a team with no animosity or bad feelings between us. It was the only logical choice we could make.

Our final show will be a LIVE CALL IN SHOW starting at 8PM EST. Our live show on June 30th is designed to give you the opportunity to share in the memories of magic and mayhem. We will be hosting a live call in show for our listeners, colleagues, and friends. We will keep the lines open as long as we can, and Mouseworld Radio has graciously allowed us to do so. We want to hear from ALL of you. Call in to remember, laugh, cry, and celebrate this three year journey with us. It will be a fun journey through the wonderful experience that has been All About the Mouse.

The show will begin with Bryan and Jonathan explaining why the show is being retired in detail, followed by a tribute piece of audio put together by some of our favorite friends, and then - open phone lines for you as long as we can manage it. We want to make sure the show ends as it has always been - with YOU, our listeners and friends.

Join us at 8pm EST on June 30th - at http://www.allaboutthemouse.com/ - for the Finale of the All About the Mouse Disney Podcast.

Thank you for being our loyal legions. We can't wait to talk to you all.

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After reading this, I became rather upset with myself. It made me realize just how much our little community means to me and that I've been taking it for granted lately. Now, my favorite podcast is over and I haven't been the loyal listener like I should have been. I will greatly miss this show. All good things must come to an end. Bryan and Jonathan, it's been real!

P.S. AATM may be gone, but Team Voice lives strong! Lets keep this going!

Ramblings of an Insomniac

Ok... I'm on my third sleepless night this week. I don't know what the deal is. It's like I just cannot shut my brain off and go to sleep. On the nights that I do actually get to sleep, it doesn't happen until around 2 or 3, which means I'm either asleep til noon or pass out at some point the next day. I know that the sleeping late is causing the problem, but I just can't fix it. I thought I had yesterday though. I didn't sleep at all Wednesday night, and managed to stay awake most of the day Thursday. That night around 8:30, I took a sleeping pill and crashed. Slept soundly until about 7, then got up and got some stuff done. It was very nice, and I thought I'd be able to keep it up. But, of course, here I sit, wide awake! This is SO annoying! I love getting up early and getting a fresh start to the day, but I can't do that when I'm still awake at 3:20 in the morning! I've tried everything! Warm milk, white noise on the radio, relaxing music, watching PBS... hell, I even counted sheep, but nothing! I know the sleeping pill will work, but I don't like taking them. I'm afraid I'll get addicted to them, and will never sleep naturally again. What do you guys do when you can't sleep? I'm desperate for advice!

In my futile attempts to sleep, I've thought about a few goals I want to accomplish this summer. Most are fitness goals, but I have a few others.

1) I really want to be able to jog 3 miles in 30 minutes by the time Fall Semester begins. I know this is doable, I just have to focus on that goal and probably lose a few pounds in the process. Next semester (if all goes well), I will only have a limited amount of time to get my workouts in and 30 minutes for a run is about all I can spare. Otherwise, I'll have to do the runs at night, and I don't like doing that, mostly because of increased pedestrian traffic around campus and the fact that I think these late afternoon runs is what is causing my insomnia. Anyway, I know that I can do this.

2) Also, by the time the Fall begins, I'd like to be down to 200 pounds. Currently, I'm hovering between 235 and 245 (I don't know if it's the scale, water weight, or what), but I really can tell in my face and belly that I am losing though it may not be showing up on the scale.

3) This is more for academic purposes, but I really want to increase the rate at which I can read. It takes me forever to read a book, if I even finish it. I don't know why, but I've never really had an interest in reading for long periods of time. Don't get me wrong I really enjoy reading. So long as what I am reading is in a short form like articles and blogs. I could do that all day! And when studying, I can focus on text books and notes, so long as I'm in an absolutely quite room free of distractions. But as far as actually sitting down and reading a book just for the fun of it, cover to cover in a reasonable amount of time, I just can't do it. I don't know if I'm ADD and can't focus, if I just lose interest, or what. But, I'd really like to be able to read one book every one to two weeks (depending on the size and how much reading is involved in my summer classes). I'm thinking that if I take the book and divide the number of chapters the chapters up, say one chapter a day, or whatever, I'll be able to do it. I literally have an entire library of half read books, that I'd like to finish someday.

Well anyway, that's it from me today. I'm hoping to have the Club 8, Weekly Running Report, and a Running to Disney update and hopefully an AZ immigration law (Amanda? Hello?)/Gulf Oil Spill (ugh...)/Sestak (hee hee!) rant over on the Rant blog up by the end of the weekend.

Alright... back to bed. Goodnight!

Magic from Boredom

Hi guys! This post is the first in a recurring series I'm calling "Everyday Magic". The idea behind this series is basically an everyday "Hidden Mickey's Guide". You know when you see things in your everyday life that reminds you of Disney and you get that brief Disney feeling? Well that is what these posts are about.

The other day I was cleaning out my old notes from this past year and I found this. I guess in my boredom in Con Law I drew him to distract me from the pain. Nonetheless, it made me smile when I found it!

Apologies

My God... has it really been nearly two months since I last posted? Jeez...

Well, I just wanted to drop a quick note to let you guys know that I am still alive. Things have been INSANE over those past two months. School took a lot of time and energy from me and away from training and Disney things, so I had to give up on the blogs for a while. They're still a little crazy this week with my sisters graduation, but I'm hoping to have some time to catch up on everyone's blogs, podcasts, etc... I'm SOOOO far behind and I feel clueless.

I'm picking up where I left off on the revamp. Nothing big is happening, but I'm going through and deleting old irrelevant posts and will start introducing different segments over the next few weeks. I think they'll be fun and maybe you'll enjoy them.

Also, I have decided to abandon my run to Disneyland for this year. My training thus far has sucked and since half the year is over, Disneyland is totally out of reach by December 31. However, Walt Disney World is totally with in reach. So, I'm running to Disney World instead.

That's it for now... I'm back!!!