What Brings Me Out of Hiding

Hello gang! It's been quite a long time since I posted on the blog. I really have no excuse for abandoning writing. Life has just gotten in the way of a lot of things. But I feel a writing bug coming and have been working on a few projects that will bring me back to the blogosphere.

Well... what brings me back? This new announcement from the runDisney Facebook page.

To be honest, I'm not really a big fan of this medal. It's kind of strange looking. And why is there a hole in Donald's head? But none the less, this is a new medal for my favorite half marathon of all.

I had honestly considered skipping the 2012 Walt Disney World Half Marathon. Right now, another trip to the World just isn't justifiable, especially during the first week in January. Hopefully then, I'll be starting a new job and the state inaugurations take place that week as well. So, I felt that it was best to just skip the whole thing and pick it up again at some later point in the year. But then runDisney had to go and pull a stunt like this. Why do they always pick the year that I'm not going to participate to change the medal? So now it looks like I have to find some way and some how to get to the World for this. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I have to!

"Magic, Memories, and You!"

I just found this video on Facebook and thought I'd share it with all of you. I had heard different things about "Magic, Memories, and You!" but I really didn't know what it was. Since I'm so behind in podcasts, I'm still getting news that's about three months old. So when I found this link, I had to check it out.

I am in tears right now. I'd say after World of Color (haven't seen it in person), this is probably the coolest thing I have seen Disney do. This is just what I needed to end this day.

Enjoy!

Topic Du Jour: Finisher's Medals

Since everyone else is hitting on this subject, I thought I'd throw my two cents in. We all know what this is about so I'm just going to jump right in...

First off, this post is not in anyway meant to single out anybody. It is simply my opinions on the issue. As they say, opinions are like [explicative] everyone has one.

It seems to me that the majority opinion here is that a Finisher's Medal is just that, a medal awarded to those who finished a race. I agree with that opinion. I understand all of the hard work that goes into preparing for one of these things. I understand the pain and anguish that one must put into a race. I understand that everyone has bad races and can't always finish. That's terrible and I feel sorry for those people, but they did not finish the race, so in my opinion, they don't deserve a medal. It's just like college... You don't pass your classes, then you don't get a diploma.

Last year at the 2010 Half, they were not giving out medals to anyone except finishers. I made a point to ask because my grandmother was swept. I wasn't upset then. She didn't finish, so she wasn't supposed to get one. I just felt that a 68 year old woman who is 30 pounds over weight, trained for over a year and a half, and completed 11 miles in the most grueling conditions I have ever seen deserved something... so I asked if I could get her one. The volunteer said that she couldn't have one because she didn't finish. I felt that was fair, so I thanked the volunteer and left it at that.

In October, I knew that non-finishers were getting medals, but I brushed that off as the race being the inaugural, and moved on. But then I found out about the same thing happening in January. I was pissed. Totally pissed. But not at anyone in particular. The blame is totally Disney's here. This is a huge screwup on their part. Either give out medals to everyone or just finishers, but pick a stance and stick to it! Disney needs some consistency with this. As much as I love running at Disney, they have been making some big screwups over the past few years and they really need to reexamine their policies.

Just my two cents.

More Disney and Politics

Well ok... this is more of a humor post than anything. I just found it and since it has a Pixar theme, I thought I'd share it. Why? ... You know why...

Congrats!!!

I just wanted to take a second to congratulate all of my Team Voice friends who finished this weekends races!!! You're all a huge inspiration for me! Especially my training buddies Amanda and Chris who did their first Goofy... I'm going to need both of you guys to bestow your goofiness upon me as I attempt it this year.

Congratulations to you all!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!!! To celebrate, here are some pictures from the Disney Parks Blog of all of the parks from around the world ringing in the New Year.

Tokyo Disneyland

Hong Kong Disneyland

Disneyland Paris

Walt Disney World

Disneyland

I hope you all have a wonderful, healthy, and prosperous 2011. Let's all reach our goals this year!!!

Politics and Disney

So I was going though the news feed from google and came across this story from CBS News. Basically, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey is in some hot water for "running off" to Disney while his state has been struck by this freak blizzard. Christie's critics are outraged, saying that the governor should be at his post during a situation such as this. What's caused the biggest mess is that the state's Lt. Governor was also out of the state, leaving the Senate President in charge of relief efforts.

I read some other stories about the backlash against the Governor's vacation, all saying that he should have canceled his vacation and returned to Trenton. First off, Christie was at Disney before the blizzard even struck New Jersey. Second of all, how is he supposed to come back when the airports are shut down? Really, what all this is about is an opportunity for the governor's critics to lash out. They smell blood in the water and attack. So far, it's worked as Christie has dropped 5 points in the polls.

Anyway, the reason why I posted this here instead of the Rant blog is because I was wondering if Disney has any special cancelation policies for situations like this. Like vacation insurance? Governors, Congressmen, Senators, Cabinet Members and other heads of state take vacations to Disney parks all the time. What happens in an emergency? Regardless of who you are, a Disney vacation takes a lot of planning and money to make it work out. Could a vacationing official get some sort of refund from Disney in the event of a state or national emergency? The story just got me thinking. I'm thinking I may email Lou, or WDW Today or even the Cats and see what they can come up with.

Well... I'll stop rambling now. Carry on.