Day 12 – Dubrovnik, Croatia

After a smooth day at sea considering our last full day (where the seas were really rough) and a slight detour to accommodate a passenger who had to be evacuated due to appendicitis, we arrived in Croatia this morning.  Opening up my window you could see the small portside community.  Our tour today took us from the port to the Croatian countryside along the border with Montenegro, and then into the old fortress city of Dubrovnik.

The trip along the windy coastal road was incredible.  Along the way, looking into the water, was a huge private yacht.  I can’t imagine how much that thing was worth.  After about a half-hour trip we stopped off at a small countryside restaurant along an old Roman aqueduct where we had some traditional cured ham, homemade (and milled by the restaurant’s water wheel along the aqueduct) bread, and local wine…  Nothing like me drinking at 9:30 in the morning, but do as the locals, I guess.  The scene there was very tranquil and serene with the water flowing by.  After about 20 minutes there we boarded back on the bus and headed into the old town of Dubrovnik.

Considering that, unfortunately, Dubrovnik was at was as shortly as 15 years ago (it was under occupation by Montenegro and was shelled by Serbia), tourism here is a new but growing industry here in Croatia.  But, because of that, it seems not to be as chockful of the crummy tourist shops that I’ve seen in every other stop (though Dubrovnik had it’s fair share).  It does look like many, many tourist traps are on their way as our guide noted that, because property values and costs in the old town are so high the locals are selling out to restaurants and shops and then moving outside of the walled city.  So there was a lot of construction in the old town of new places to draw in tourists.

But, currently the old town structurally is identical to how it was 500 years ago.  I believe the guide said that only one other building was erected inside the walls that was “newer”, though it was still built 200 years ago).  It was a very cool scene and to one side of the city were mountains and the other side was the water.  But, as our ship is leaving much earlier than our other stops, our tour of the old town was pretty short (a little more than an hour).  Tonight we head out of Dubrovnik and head back to Italy, this time to Venice.  Then, Friday morning our cruising portion of our trip is over and we head by train back to Rome.  Should be fun…

P.S. – Random Eurotrip Moment:  Croatia is the only Eastern European country we visit on our trip.  So I found it funny that the first car that I noticed as we were on the bus leaving the port was an ‘80s Nissan Pulsar with a cab-back.  In the movie Eurotrip, when the kids get stock in Slovakia (another Eastern European, former Communist nation), they’re helped by a local with an ‘80s Nissan Pulsar with a cab-back painted to look like the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard.  Unfortunately, the one here was just a boring silver.  Oh well.

Day 10 – Athens, Greece

Today was one of my more anticipated stops on this trip.  As a lover of Greek mythology as a kid I was psyched to go to Athens.  Among today’s stops was the home of the first “modern” Olympics (they were revived in 1896 after being banned for centuries for being pagan) and the Acropolis and Parthenon.

From our ship which was docked in Piraeus, the city’s modern port, to the Olympic stadium in the downtown area about 10 km away took about 45 minutes.  Apparently the rumors of Athenian traffic were true.  But the Olympic Stadium stop was brief as there wasn’t really much there to do (nothing going on at the Olympic Stadium on a Monday morning) so we were boarded back up and on to the Acropolis.  After passing by the Greek National Gardens you could see the Parthenon in the distance.  Of course, with the traffic, it was another 20 minutes to get there.

Supposedly May is a slow month in Athens…  Tourists flock to the city in the summer months to check out the sites.  So, if May is a “less” busy month I can only imagine what it’s like in July & August.  The Acropolis was slammed!  With at least a dozen tour groups and at least two school field trip groups, the path up the Acropolis (only one route up and one route down) was cluttered with people.  And our tour guide was plowing through people leaving us way, way behind.  But, once you do make it to the top, the site is incredible.  The entire site is being refurbished so there’s construction going on everywhere (the guide said that it had been rehabbed several years ago, but the worksmanship was so bad that they’re having to do it again).  So, the scaffolding around all of the landmarks kind of takes away from the magnificence of everything.  But it’s still just awe-inspiring to think of what that site has been through in these thousands of years and the history made there.  Some of the reliefs at the top of the Parthenon still exist and are in exceptional condition considering how old they are.  And the view down to the city of Athens was outstanding (took a great, great picture…  of an IKEA).  So far, getting to see the Parthenon (as well as the Temple of Zeus, which we passed by on the bus) is the highlight of my trip.

Following the Acropolis, we dropped off some in our tour group in the downtown shopping district, so that was kind of cool to see a modern metropolitan area like Athens on a weekday.  Because of our desire to avoid the traffic (and smog which descended on the city later in the afternoon), our tour was completely done by 12:30.  So after that we just relaxed on the boat…  Something I’ll probably regret as tomorrow is completely at sea as we head from Greece to Croatia.  More then!

Day 9 – Santorini, Greece

What’s up, peeps?  Well, after a rough day at sea we arrived in Santorini, Greece today.  We didn’t really have anything planned for the day, and after getting there I could see why.  Like my trip to Pisa a few days ago, a visit to Santorini can be wrapped up in a half hour.  Go up the hill to the city, take a picture of the view, and leave.

But that’s not to take anything away from Santorini…  Santorini is an island in the shape of a crescent made up of several cities, and in the middle of the crescent is the volcano that created them all (which our boat was anchored right next to, which seemed not to make sense).  The towns of Santorini are built on the top of large cliffs, which are scalable by using a winding road or, in my case, by taking a cable car up to the top.  And, from the top the view is absolutely spectacular.  When I have a chance to post the pics, these are going to be a highlight.  The water was so clear that even from the top of the cliffs you could see the rocks below the water’s surface.

But, other than taking pictures, the rest of the city is just a tourist trap.  I totally get why they do it, but coming from Orlando it seems like each port of call leaves us in the middle of that town’s version of Orlando’s International Drive.  Just gross, cheap tourist stores (one of which sold huge wooden dildos, apparently a symbol of good luck in Greek culture).  So, after about an hour of wandering the side streets of Santorini, we were done and headed back to the boat to spend the rest of the day.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow when we arrive in Athens!  On the agenda is a bus tour of the city which culminates in climbing the Acropolis to visit the Parthenon.  As a huge fan of Greek mythology growing up I’m very excited.  ‘Til then!

Day 7 – Naples & Pompeii, Italy

Yesterday’s stop on our European tour was in Naples, Italy.  A very crowded city it’s built into a mountain and when looking at it from the docks you can see how, the higher up the mountain the houses were, the nicer they were.  The middle levels looked OK and the lower levels appeared to be the slums.  But we didn’t get to spend much time in Naples.  My tour for the day was to go to the ruins at Pompeii.

I don’t know if it’s just me but I can’t describe how depressing the whole place is.  To imagine that one minute you’re just going about your normal routine and the next your entire world is obliterated.  It again makes me thankful that I live in Florida, where our natural disasters are tornadoes and hurricanes…  Things you generally know are coming ahead of time.  But the ruins are really incredible and surprisingly accessible.  For stuff that’s thousands of years old, for the most part, you can go right up and touch the marble columns.  In one instance, a stray dog went right up on one of the altars and looked out over all of the tourists as if he was the priest.  That was another depressing thing about Pompeii.  One of the people in our tour inquired as to why there were so many stray dogs in the ruins (I saw 3)…  Apparently people in the neighboring areas, when they’re tired of their dog, can’t take care of it, or are just going on vacation and can’t take it with them, they’ll just leave them at the entrance to the park figuring that the tourists will feed them.  One poor guy laying in one of the ruins’ storefronts looked really sick.  Just added to the depressing atmosphere.

Once I have a better Internet connection, I’ll post the pictures from yesterday (I think the last day I got up was from Sunday in Barcelona, so hopefully I’ll post the rest soon).  One of the plaster casts, they say, was of a guy who knew he was done for and just curled into a ball and cried and that’s how he was frozen forever.  Another thing that added to it, don’t know if it’s depressing, but my brother went to the top of Mt. Vesuvius and, in their tour, they were told that the cap of the mountain has hardened to a point that if Vesuvius were to erupt again it would blow out the side instead of up similar to Mt. St. Helen’s in Washington.  Should this happen, the neighboring towns would have between 30 seconds and 3 minutes to evacuate…  In other words, they’re all dead.  Very uplifting.

While outside the ruins we stopped off at this little tourist-y area that had a local specialty called limonciello (sp?).  It’s a liqueur made out of lemons and they were giving out free samples.  Expecting the equivalent of a lemon Italian ice it was more akin to milk mixed with lemonade and was absolutely disgusting.  Blech!  That’s what you get for testing the local flavor.  Back to the McDonald’s like in Rome.  :)

Day 8 – At Sea

Well, as for today, it’s another full day crossing the sea as we head from Naples to Santorini, Greece.  Since leaving the port in Naples the seas have been really rough.  Luckily, I guess being an old-hat when it comes to roller coasters and such, the bouncing of the ship hasn’t bothered me much.  But I can tell it’s bothering my mom and grandparents.  And not really much of anything to do today and the boat’s so crowded that I can’t find a quiet spot.  It sucks.  Oh well…  Have a great weekend and tomorrow I’ll be writing from Greece.  Ciao!

Day 6 – Rome Pt. I

What’s up, everyone?!  Well, I just got back on the boat after a couple of hours in Rome.  As we’ll return to “the Eternal City” two more times on our trip, we used this just as an opportunity to take a bus tour around the city.

Our boat is parked in a coastal village called Civitavechhia, about an hour by train from central Rome.  On our trip in, the A/C in our train car was out making it a rolling sauna.  Not the most comfortable I’ve been.  And Rome today was HOT!  And it’s only May, so supposedly it gets much much worse in the next couple of months.  But, once on the tour bus, the air was cooled by the bus rolling.  Doing the tourist thing, we passed by a few of the big sights, first the Coliseum and Circus Maximus, we passed by the Italian Arch of Triumph, got stuck in front of the Vatican as our bus stalled out, and then around to the Spanish Steps and back to the start.  Once there, we again soaked up the local culinary scene this time feasting on…  McDonald’s!  So we’re not foodies.

Now I’m back on the ship and I feel kind of weird…  I’ve worked off-and-on at Universal Studios for nearly 13 years now and I don’t like being back on the other side of the curtain.  I want to know where the ship’s crew live, I want to know what they do during their off-hours (if they have to stick to certain parts of the ship away from guests or if they’re allowed to do what we do).  You know, my brother is getting a tour of the ship’s bridge and all I care about is what the maid does when she’s not making beds.  Oh well, for another day.  :)

Tomorrow is Naples and Pompeii.  My brother is climbing Mt. Vesuvius which seemed like tempting fate a little too much for me.

Day 5 – Pisa & Florence

Well, today’s our first day in Italy as we pulled into the Port of Laverno as I woke up this morning.  An early morning bus trip took us from the ship to the town of Pisa.  As our tour guide stated on our way into town, not much to do in Pisa…  You get there, you look at the tower, take your picture, and leave.  For anyone planning on visiting Pisa, beware of the illegal vendors.  Apparently a guy selling fake watches pulled a knife on my brother because he didn’t want one!  I saw the knife, but because I couldn’t understand what he was saying, I thought he was selling it (which he may have been and we just took it as a threat).  Anyways, got some nice pics from Pisa that I’ll post when I’m somewhere with a better Internet connection.  Did our picture with my grandfather holding up the tower while I try to kick it down, made friends with a cat that lived in the nearby seminary, and we left.

After about an hour and a half trip through the mountains and Tuscan countryside we ended up in the “cradle of the Renaissance” Florence.  We were dropped off at the Church of Santa Croce – burial place of Leonardo DaVinci and Galileo.  There’s also an awesome tribute to Dante, of Divine Comedy fame, but we were told by our tour guide that he’s not actually buried in Florence as he was exiled from the city in his lifetime and thus was buried somewhere else.  In addition, we went to see the “Fake David” and statuary near the Ponte Vecchio, went up to the bridge (didn’t go on it, very busy and not enough time), and passed by the Uffizi Gallery (where the real David is kept, and the line wasn’t really that bad).  On our way back we got some gelato at a small cafe, and headed back to meet the rest of our group.  And, following another 90 minute drive, I’m back on my boat ready for tomorrow – our first time in Rome (of three).

Day 4 – Villefrance de Sur, France

I know that my blog from “yesterday” just went up.  I was uploading it to Blogger when my computer crashed trying to upload pictures.  Now, I’m sitting at the Chez Net Internet Cafe in Villefrance with my brother and grandparents enjoying a very French lunch of…  A hot dog and Coke.  Well, can’t take the American out of me.

This city is beautiful, the water in the inlet is perfectly clear and the city is built along the cliffs facing the water, the buildings are painted in light pastels in a classic villa-style and is protected by an old fort that’s now the city hall.  Hopefully will have pics up later.  Tomorrow, our first Italian stop as we’ll be going to Florence and Pisa.  Until then, bonjour.

Day 3 – On a Boat

What’s up, everyones?!  Today is Day 3 of my vacation and I’m currently on the Celebrity Summit in the Mediterranean along the French Riviera.  The haze has been pretty thick all day, meaning that all I can see is water along each side of the ship, though we should be within a distance that we could see the shore.  Oh well.  I’ll be taking a tour of nice tomorrow while my parents go to Monte Carlo to see the Grand Casino.

Barcelona

I didn’t get much of a chance to say anything about Barcelona in my last post, as I was packing up my room in order to get on the ship.  But Barcelona was a cool, cool city.  I think it was added by the fact that yesterday was the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix, so the city was packed with people from across Europe and the world.  We stayed a cool little trendy place called Hotel Denit which was just off the Placa de Catalunya (sp?), which is like the central part of the city.  From there, we took a bus tour around the city, featuring some really cool sights.  Hopefully, if my computer works properly (it’s 48 cents/minute to connect to the Internet and, of course, all of my offline tools like Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Photo Gallery, and Gmail don’t want to work) I’ll be able to post them shortly.  The highlight was this incredibly huge church called Anglecia Familia (well, instead of putting “sp?” next to everything, lets just say I have no idea how most of this stuff is spelled).  Hopefully the panorama pic I took of it comes out OK.

We also passed by some other incredible stuff, but missed a lot too.  I was hoping to check out Barcelona’s central market La Bouqueria, but ended up crashing out after we got to the hotel.  Along the tour there was also some great things that I would have loved to have gone to had I the time like the home of Spanish team FC Barcelona, a museum dedicated to the architect of the above cathedral as well as many other structures throughout the city, Gaudi.  And, personal face coming from Orlando, they have a theme park at the top of a mountain in town.

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On A Boat

Today is a total day on the ship, and I have to say, I’m bored as #$%&!  Not that it was totally unexpected, my total ADD personality would make it hard to cater to every impulsive thing that I want to do at the moment that I want to do it.  Plus, the types of things that appeal to me probably doesn’t hit the general cruise target market of like 70 year-old retirees who are passing by me near the computer lounge as I type this and a live band plays Dream A Little Dream of Me the deck below me.  The boat has two pools and multiple hot tubs (I don’t swim), I’m sitting next to the ships casino (but I don’t gamble), a huge theater (which does lame Vegas-type shows), and a host of all-you-can-eat restaurants (eating too much makes me sick).  So far the only on-ship entertainment I’ve taken a part in was yesterday’s showing of Iron Man in the ship’s movie theater (making it the 6,241,977th time I’ve seen that movie).  Luckily, only two more of these all-day at sea days to go.  Tonight’s the big “formal” dinner.  Another annoyance, you have to like dress up every night of the cruise, yet there’s no way to like press your clothes without paying them to do it for you (I guess they’re afraid that, if you had an iron, you’d set the place on fire).  So all my stuff is wrinkled because it has been packed in a suitcase, so how nice can one look?  Oh well.  Speaking of the formal, it’s about time for me to start getting ready.  My computer says 11:25AM which means it’s 5:25PM here.  Have a great day Florida peeps!

Day 1: Barcelona, Spain

Well, we all made it to Spain in one piece.  We're just lounging at the hotel as we landed in Spain at 9AM local time, or 3AM Florida time.  So we were pretty beat.  I've posted some pics to my Flickr account from our trip into town from the airport.  But we're fixing to head out now to check out some of the sights.  So, hopefully, I'll have more in a few hours.

Flickr - jcoriddi

Getting Ready for Europe

So, last weekend was my last one home before I head out to Europe for my vacation.  See that my boys the Magic'll end up playing Boston in the second round of the playoffs.  Was pulling for the Bulls to support my boys from Chi-town (also the Magic would have had home-court advantage), but either way I think the Magic will have a shot to advance to the conference finals against a rundown and battered Boston.

Random Thoughts

Well, just one...  I just thought this story was funny but a little too long for a Twitter post.  I was hanging at my aunt's community pool yesterday in Daytona and another family was there, a dad and a few kids.  One of the kids was a cute little girl about 10 or so.  What was funny is that, apparently to get her dad's attention as he was lounging in a deck chair was to stand over him on the chair and jump up-and-down above him.  Just the whole scene is reminiscent of what some guys pay $20 in other parts of Daytona for.  The thought just had to come to mind that the dad should probably make her stop doing that while he still can.

Upcoming...

Stay tuned as I'm going to post a daily blog (and possibly vlog) while I'm away in Europe and will post them here.  First post will be Friday!

Pics from the Great American Pie Festival

Have to say, wish I didn’t have my families stomach, ‘cuz after a few pieces of pie I was done and wanted to be sick.  But it is epic for anyone who loves pie.  Runs tomorrow as well in Downtown Celebration.

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I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now SHUT UP!

Image via CrunchBase

I have been an avid Twitter user for a couple years now.  The quick 140 character bursts give me the opportunity to post my randomness as I think of it.  When I first got into blogging 12 years ago (on my old Geocities account, which is sadly dying…  RIP) I would update it when I had a chance and included a “Random Thought” portion of just quick things that I noticed and thought were funny or a song I heard that I liked.  But, waiting to post these things for the chance that I had to put up a full blog post usually meant that I’d forget half of the things I wanted to mention.  The immediacy of Twitter makes it so that when I see a video of a naked wizard getting tased on Digg link>, I can turn around and post a tweet so that my friends can watch a video of a naked wizard getting tased <link>.  I loved the service but got sick long ago of trying to explain why it was cool, and for a while, it kind of wasn’t.  People only tweeted sporadically and nobody followed me, so I didn’t really feel a need post tweets or check the website to see what others were doing.  I think it was when Twitter mobile apps went live, that people actually started getting into it, posting where they were and what they were doing at the time.

However, for some reason, earlier this year Twitter has blown up.  I don’t know what the impetus of this spike was, but now everywhere you look and no matter what you’re doing, someone’s bringing up Twitter.  You read articles one week about “Twitter is stupid and nobody should use it” just for the same writer to post a couple weeks later “Twitter is a great tool and I can’t live without it” I’m looking at you David Pogue).  You hear ad nauseum about what celebrities are putting in their tweets, another “Intro to Twitter” guide and the Twitter-snobs decrying how unhip the service is becoming because it’s being raided by the mainstream.  Frankly, I’m of the more the merrier set, I just have one quick request.  PLEASE SHUT UP!  For people who love it, you don’t have to constantly write about why you do to justify it to your friends who don’t get it.  For those who don’t get it, you don’t have to keep writing about how stupid something you don’t even use is.  Just enough, already!  The conversation about if Twitter is useful or not has been ongoing since the service launched.  I just watched a video from Attack of the Show from 2007 arguing if Twitter is useful or not (oddly enough, Kevin Pereira and Natali Del Conte, two users I love to follow on Twitter, are dogging it back then).  Link>  So you’re not adding anything to the conversation.  And, frankly, hearing the whole “I’m eating breakfast” argument is tired.  While, in the early days you did see this, most actually use their thread for some really interesting stuff. 

Just had to get this feeling off of my chest, and I do realize the irony of decrying the chatter around Twitter by writing my own thoughts, so I’ll keep it at this.  If you’re new to Twitter, there are hundreds of how-tos and intros.  You don’t have to write your own.  If you don’t like Twitter, that’s fine.  Don’t use it.  For those of us who do use the service, we don’t want to hear your nonsense about how it’s useless.  ENOUGH!

Do You Like Fishsticks?

What’s up, Internet?  Hope that everyone had a great weekend.  For me, it was an incredibly relaxing three-days of awesomeness.  Didn’t end up going to see either movie I had wanted to (that’d be Adventureland and Observe and Report) because that would have required effort.  Played Guitar Hero, watched Transformers and Jurassic Park on HBO for the bazillionth time, and now watching my second Cubs/Brewers game of the weekend.  Also picked up What Would Google Do? at the library yesterday for a time kill and got sent out a tweet about it and like an hour later the author Jeff Jarvis sent me a reply saying that he hopes I like it…  Now I actually feel pressured to finish it!

So, in the State Farm commercial with Lebron James where the dude’s car gets broken into, is the other guy “Play” (the one who was talking to the security guards in the golf cart) from Kid ‘n Play?

 

 

Anyways, not much else going on.  My vacation to Europe starts three weeks from Friday and I’m majorly psyched.  I’m taking my Flip Video with me and am going to try to post a daily blog here on my site and link up with my pictures.  So, keep an eye out for that.  Have a good week, everyone!

College Football Fans - Time For My Annual Plea

Well, it's that time of year again.  Time for my annual plea to all college football fans out there who want a playoff instead of this lame BCS garbage we have now.  Do you want change?  Do you want a playoff?  We all know the easiest and quickest way to get what we want and yet, year after year, we can't all band together to get it.  People, if you want a college football playoff, here's all you have to do:

BOYCOTT THE BOWLS!

That's it, if you want change you simply just opt to not support the structure that's in place.  Sponsors won't support games if nobody goes or watches on TV.  ESPN will think twice about dropping $125 million a year if they can't get the ratings to justify forking over that kind of cash.  And, if you're a fan of a team who was maybe mediocre this year (like my Noles), why would you travel across the country and fork over a ton of cash to watch them play a meaningless post-season exhibition game?  In the case of FSU, I'm not even willing to drive downtown in my own city to see them play a worthless game against Wisconsin tomorrow.  And, in these days following Christmas, I think I can find something better to do with my time than watching on TV.

As I love Owls, lets use Florida Atlantic as a "for instance".  So I live in Boca Raton, Florida as a Florida Atlantic fan.  My team had a crummy year but eked out their sixth win on the final weekend of the season.  So the reward for my fandom is to get to drop some cash in Detroit to watch them play Central Michigan in the Motor City Bowl?  So my options would be to get to spend the day after Christmas at home in Boca Raton or in f'in Detroit to watch them play the Chippewas to see if they can manage not to finish below .500 for the year?  Umm...  Pass!  And the same can be said for any team.  Hey Longhorn fans...  Your team got screwed out of a title shot because, in the current system, only two teams can play for a championship.  So why would you support that same system by going to Phoenix to watch a meaningless Fiesta Bowl game against Ohio State?  What does winning that game prove?  Utah fans, your team's undefeated season is rewarded for their efforts by being sent to New Orleans to play Alabama for nothing more than pride.  You're welcome!  Because at least you didn't end up like Boise State, undefeated and WAC champions but pushed out of the BCS so they can make room for epic matchups like Virginia Tech and Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl.

I understand the tradition and pageantry of the bowls, but lets face it...  If you support these things then you're a sap.  They're using your loyalty to reach into your wallet and bilk you for the honor of supporting your team in a meaningless matchup.  And, it's true that most people don't go to the games.  But, even with that said, you invest your time watching the commercials and willingly enduring constant product mentions as you sit through some corporately titled bowl game.  That puts money into the bowl system and gives them the ability to continue each year.

Now, imagine if fans banded together.  Many bowl games are already struggling with attendance in this down economy.  The new St. Petersburg Bowl will be lucky to make it to Year 2 considering the poor draw they got in Tropicana Field in a game featuring a school that's only 45 minutes away from the stadium.  Others are struggling maintaining their sponsors who can't fork over the millions of dollars to have their names spray-painted at midfield.  If ever there was a time to hit these bowl games where it counts most, their wallets, now would be the time.  If a game can only draw a few thousand people to the stadium and less TV households than a PTI rerun then guess what???  It's not going to be in the best interest of the networks who air the game or the sponsors who fork the cash to support them.  And when the number of games, TV contracts and payouts start getting cut, less schools will be the beneficiaries of bowl money and those that do will get less.  So guess what they'll start talking about...  Making the college football playoffs a cash cow like the basketball ones.  And thus, we will finally have what we want.

Looking for Something To Do New Year's?

With that said, you may wonder what to do on New Year's since you're not going to be vegging-out in front of the tube watching bowl games.  Well here's an exciting idea, how about giving NHL hockey another chance.  New Year's Day the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings will be playing at Wrigley Field.  And, for those who haven't been following hockey in a while, that's not a misprint.  They will be playing an NHL game outside at Wrigley Field!  This is the third NHL game to be played outdoors as part of the NHL's Winter Classics.  And, while admittedly it is just a regular midseason game, you have two of the top teams in the Western Conference this season, two of the tradition-rich Original Six franchises, playing outside at f'in Wrigley Field?!  How cool is that?  Or, you could watch two 9-3 teams (Georgia and Michigan State) play in the Capital One Bowl or two worse teams (Nebraska and Clemson) play in the Gator Bowl.  Is there even a debate here?

Baby Butt Pants

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! Just another week and this nightmare of a year, 2008, will be one we can finally all forget. The '09 seems to hold promise, so lets all hope for the best.

Merry Christmas Casey Anthony...

OK, I don't really give a damn about Casey Anthony, but now that poor little Caylee has been found it's time to look at how Casey's trial will work out. Already the attorneys for the prosecution and defense are acting juvenile, so the one good thing for us here in the Orlando-area is that there's about 0% chance that the actual trial will be heard here. But the case may take a while to work it's way through the process. But, if I were Casey and her attorney's this is what I would do... This is probably too much to ask for, but Casey needs to confess. She needs to throw the investigators a bone and hope that they'll take it easy on her. Look, I believe that Casey did something horrible that cost Caylee her life. But do I think she was setting out one night like "I'm gonna kill that little brat!"... No. I think, whatever happened, it was probably an accident. And yet the state attorney is charging her with first-degree murder. While I think that it would be really difficult for them to get any conviction of first-degree murder, which would require proof that Casey had planned to and then killed Caylee, the prosecution can give the jury choices of lesser charges to convict her of should they feel that first-degree murder isn't warranted. If the speculation is true that Casey maybe used chloroform to make Caylee go to sleep so she could party and accidentally killed her, that's probably more along the lines of manslaughter. She'll still have to pay for a long time in jail, but she won't spend the rest of her life behind bars. And, if she turns around and starts to cooperate with authorities, sparing the prosecution of a long, media-fueled trial, I'm sure they could work out something fair.

And a funny side-story is forming around this... A woman named Zenaida Gonzalez, the name that Casey gave to police as the babysitter she said kidnapped Caylee, is suing the family for defamation of character. This whole story is just bizarre and shows how messed up Casey must be. This Gonzalez woman goes to look at an apartment, somehow Casey uses her name and the apartment complex (even though Gonzalez never actually moved there) as the rogue babysitter, and now people start to suspect her of killing Caylee. Poor woman didn't know anything about anything but got dragged into the media storm surrounding the case. Now, she's suing for defamation and it makes you wonder how that'll work. Lets say I say that John Hughes sucks and I hate him. Then I get a defamation claim from John Hughes the movie director (Ferris Bueller is one of my favorite movies) saying that I libelled him or something, it's then his burden to prove that I was talking about him specifically. I could be talking about anyone with that name. That's, what I think, this Gonzalez woman will run against. I don't think you can claim defamation just because their using your name. I mean, by that logic, that little Adolf Hitler kid who couldn't get his birthday cake will be able to grow up and sue the History Channel or something because they're hurting his image.

Finally Someone Agrees With Me!

As most know, I'm a huge fan of the Covino & Rich Show on Sirius 108. This week, they brought up a subject that I have always thought to myself about but never really said anything about. The topic: Those lame ass jewelery commercials. Especially, the one for Kay where the dude is signing for his deaf girlfriend, a commercial so lame that the first time I saw it I busted out laughing and felt like I was immediately going to Hell.



Just like a recent study has shown, chick movies have been shown as bad in real-world relationships because they set unreal expectations of what a relationship is like, these are like the commercial equivalent. About as realistic as the car in the driveway with the big bow commercials they usually show this time of year (guess with the current economic situation even the car makers realize how impractical that is). And, if I were the dude in the one Jared commercial where my date is texting her friends about me buying her something while I'm in the bathroom, I'd show what I think of that by trying to get with the brunette asking if I had a brother. But hey, that's just how the J rolls.

Anyways, have a great day everyone. Have a wonderful holiday!

R.I.P. - Maxim Radio (2004-2008)

Well, when I turned on my Sirius this morning I had it tuned to Maxim 108 from listening to Covino & Rich last night on my way home. Who knew that, after changing it to Howard 100 and letting the channel update occur that it would be the last I would ever see of my favorite channel on Sirius since picking up my subscription.

I got my Sirius in November of 2004 for Howard but was excited for the promised new Maxim station. I believe the original Evan & Brian Show started their dress rehearsals the following month and the station went live at the Jacksonville Super Bowl in February 2005. The original lineup with Covino & Rich in the mornings, Bower in the afternoons (having the Friday happy hour at noon after they moved the show to mornings never seemed right), and Evan & Brian at night is still my favorite. Much love though for Stretch (never really got into his show after Bower was fired) and Devore & Diana, who apparently were let go. Covino & Rich will live on, though not on another channel.

I'll miss the music weekends (which they actually got rid of a few months ago), Game On with Scott, Psyche, and Major Nelson, and Amy and the Sex Files... Just a lot of good stuff that vanished in a flash. Too bad. One of the reasons why I keep my Maxim Magazine subscription was because they'd always reference cover girls who would come in to be interviewed and writers from the magazine who would talk about their articles. Guess that's that for that.

Ghost of Elections Past

Just for some fun while I think of what I want to say following yesterday's election of Barack Obama, here's my post from November 3, 2004, the day after Double Duh was re-elected.

http://aowl.blogspot.com/2004/11/election-depression_109950781614137397.html

One More Day

Just when we thought the long national nightmare was almost over... Rex Grossman is back at the helm of the Chicago Bears! Nooooo... But more on that later, yes, after almost two years of near constant attention the presidential election is tomorrow. Listening to some of the people who decided to try and early vote over the weekend, it sounds like the sites were slammed. One said that he got in like at 6:45 Saturday morning (early voting opened at 7) and the line was already a few hundred people deep.

Election Season Finale!

The most important thing is to please vote. It doesn't matter who or what you vote for, just do it. Everyone likes to complain about the special interests, but they have no power against an involved and well-informed electorate. Here's some quick things (that'll be the theme of today's post... quick things that I ramble on way too long, thus not making them quick).

• In a Florida State Senate race in the Orlando area, it's kind of hard to make a total scumbag like Gary Siplin look less scumbaggy, but his opponent Belinda Ortiz found a way. Apparently taking a cue from this year's Bill & Ted show at HHN where a drunken Hillary Clinton comes on stage accusing Barack Obama of "BEATING A WOMAN! (...in a presidential primary election)" a recent commercial for Belinda Ortiz closes with the line of something like Gary Siplin wants to beat this woman with a picture of Ortiz in the background. It'd be funny if it was on SNL, but in real life it's disgustingly pathetic.
• I was reading an article over the weekend about people afraid they're going to suffer from election withdrawl on Wednesday (which, hopefully, the election'll be decided by then). At first, I thought how ludicrous that sounded but after thinking about it I can kinda see it. Being someone who monitors the election closely isn't any different than someone who follows their sports teams closely. You can have a side (Republican or Democrat), they spend the day doing campaign events and debates, and then at the end of the day you have a score (the poll numbers). Probably overdoing it, but I can see it.
• MSNBC's getting called out a lot as the Liberal Fox News, and as a proud employee of the NBC Universal empire I feel duty-bound to defend them. Yes, with Keith Olbermann and Rachael Maddow, the evening lineup is decidedly left leaning. But people forget who hosts the morning show... Joe Scarborough. This is the guy who said that Jimmy Carter should have his Nobel Peace Prize given to George W. Bush instead (an idea so bizarre I thought he was joking). Personally, I prefer my news sans-skew, but at least MSNBC has commentators on both sides (and don't bring up Hannity and Colmes, which is hardly equal time).
• Can I get a round of applause for the fact that, in just over 24 short hours, we will not have to deal with campaign commercials for two years. Watching last night's Football Night In America (NBC, whoo!) there was literally a commercial break of all campaign commercials with one commercial being aired twice. It's nauseating!
• What's worse than the commercials??? The f'in signs everywhere! Ugh... Another eyesore I'm ready to see get the ol' heave-ho.
• And what's dumber than the commercials or the signs... F'in banner ads on every website. I'm looking at you Barack Obama. In the last few weeks you couldn't go to any news site (or really, a lot of websites as my Windows Live page and stuff had it too) without seeing his face reminding you that early voting was open. I wish there was something so you could be like "Hey, I already voted so ENOUGH!"
• One thumbs-up to the group of people I saw on 436 near Altamonte Mall on Saturday supporting John McCain. At first I was conflicted as they were out there with their signs of support for McCain with their kids. But, after reflecting on it, other than them having their kids in the median of a major road, I think it's a good thing to get kids involved in the political process. Reminds me of when I was a kid back in 1984 and my mom taught me about the electoral process and took me in the booth with her. Considering that's a moment in my life I remember vividly (the dingy Daytona rec center where she voted, how I told everyone that she was voting for Walter Mondale, the old school voting machines which apparently are still used in some places) may indicate why I'm still so politically involved today.

I'll probably have more to say on the election later this week, so stayed tuned.

Movie Review: Zack and Miri Make a Porno (3 1/2 out of 5 Owls)

Well, as anyone who knows me knows that I'm a huge Kevin Smith buff. Clerks is the first movie I saw at an "arthouse" theater, and just the random pop culture references is totally how I talk to my friends. Zack and Miri pretty much is a combination of the early Kevin Smith movies (mainly Clerks and Chasing Amy) and combining them with the current roster of Judd Apatow movies. Pretty much, Zack and Miri is a romantic comedy about two friends from Pittsburgh who decide to film themselves in a porno to raise money to pay off their bills. As a "romantic comedy", you can see where this is heading. But the trip to that point is pretty funny, even though afterwards it's pretty meh.

As a romantic comedy, it's definitely not a 27 Dresses kind of date movie. But, for Kevin Smith fans, don't go in thinking you're getting Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back or something. The movie goes far beyond anything shown in an Apatow movie (and even most of Kevin's), so I can see where the argument between NC-17 and R came from. I would recommend it, though, for just that Kevin Smith is a great director whose characters you can totally relate to and how a run-up of circumstances can lead you to make a supposedly unimaginable jump.

Round Up of Other Movies I've Seen Recently

While I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago, I took the time to check out a few movies. However I never had the opportunity to write up what I thought. So, here goes really quick.

• Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (3 1/2 out of 5 Owls): Speaking of Apatow, Nick & Norah stars Michael Cera (from Superbad) as a high schooler trying to get over a breakup with a hot and slutty ex (makes you feel wrong watching her when her character's supposed to be 17) by playing a gig and trying to find a secret show being put on by the elusive band Fluffy. Obviously, along the way, he hooks up with Norah and an evening of mayhem around NYC ensues. This was a really good movie with some great music but was a tad too girly for my tastes, which made me glad I was the only person in the theater for the show I saw.
• Sex Drive (4 out of 5 Owls): What can I say? I love the road trip movie (Eurotrip is among my all-time faves). Sex Drive is the story of a group of teens who take a road trip from Chicago to Knoxville, Tennessee to busts the main character's cherry before heading to college. As in any road trip movie, the story is more than them driving down the interstate, occassionally pulling off to get gas and hit up the Waffle House. But the funniest characters in the movie are James Marsden (playing the douchy older brother of the main character) and Seth Green as an Amish farmer who enjoys the outside world. Both were great. And let me just say, the women in this movie were un-f'in-believably hot. Not to spoil the ending, but the over-sexed best friend decides to give up his life of decadence to settle down with an Amish girl, played by Alice Greczyn. If I met an Amish girl who looked like her, I think I'd make the jump too.
• Pineapple Express (3 out of 5 Owls): I never got the chance to see Pineapple Express when it first came out, so I went to see it recently at the nearby dollar theater. One weekend I had the option of seeing Pineapple Express or Tropic Thunder and I'm definitely glad with the choice that I made. Pineapple Express was OK, with some really great moments, but the time in between is just so dull... Seth Rogen and James Franco are two stoners trying to escape two mob hitmen and a rogue cop after Seth's character accidentally witnesses the murder of a mobster. Like in Sex Drive, the supporting characters make the movie (i.e., Danny McBride who was also hysterical in Tropic Thunder and Craig Robinson who was also great in Zack and Miri). All in all, it was OK, but I probably wasn't in the "right state of mind" before going to see it.

Random Thoughts

• I'm kinda concerned... Last night I had a dream where I had a seizure and had to be taken to the hospital and now, this morning, I feel like I had a seizure. Like all my muscles feel weak and tired. Probably not a good sign.
• It was announced last week that Universal Studios Hollywood's getting a new ride based on the Transformers movies (it's opening in 2010, so the second one should be either out or coming out by then). That sounds so cool... I know us getting Harry Potter's a bigger deal, but how often am I going to go on the Harry Potter ride versus how often would I go on a Transformers ride?
• Much love to Amy Poehler and Will Arnett who had their baby boy on Saturday. Two great comedians having a comedic superbaby. Now if we can only get Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman to have a baby girl, cross those genes, and in 40 years we will have a comedic goliath.
• OK, even though the game was close and ended on a fumble in the endzone, it has to be said... Why can Florida State not beat an option offense? How long has Mickey Andrews been the defensive coach and they've had that problem as far back as I remember? The only times I can remember are when they were playing a far inferior team (i.e., Duke tried to run it for a few years) or when we had a dominant offense that could outscore the other team (i.e., the Florida State/Nebraska championship game).

Halloween Horor Nights 2008 Preview

What's up, Internets?!  Last night was the Universal Orlando employee preview night for this year's Halloween Horror Nights festivities, which officially opens tomorrow night.  The preview night is always a good time, though this year I went by myself as my usual partner-in-crime, my little brother, is away in college.  

This year's HHN theme is Reflections In Fear and hosted by Bloody Mary.  As you approach the park, you see Mary's mirror as she beckons you to come into her world of horror (a very cool effect which I took this video of).  The park's Scarezones and many of the houses mirror (get it...) the warped theme being based in legends and childhood stories.

First off, the houses...  As I stated in my blog post last year, I'm a huge wuss and absolutely refuse to go anywhere near them (I shot a video of the entrance to the Doomsday house, but notice how there's a fence between me and it plus the fact that it wasn't open at the time), so here's a quick rundown of this year's offerings.

• Creatures! (Entrance along Production Central near Twister gift shop):  This was an interesting premise for a house, so I'm kind of interested in hearing what people say about it.  The house is supposed to be based on old sci-fi B movies and if you were actually in the scenario (in this case an alien invasion on a small Southern town).  Can't give an estimated wait time as their sign wasn't working each time I walked by.
• Interstellar Terror (Entrance through Twister's main entrance):  Each year it's like they have a space-themed house...  I think to save on prop costs.  Just retheme the same premise, change a few of the costumes, and you have yourself an "original" idea.  Again, the wait time sign wasn't working as I passed by, so I didn't see a wait time.
• Body Collectors - Collections of the Past (Entrance in front of the New York Public Library facade):  Another seeming rehash of previous year's efforts, this house appears to use a similar theme to the Caretaker's house from 2006 (which, in itself, was a remake of a house from a couple years before).  Both times I passed by there was a 30 minute wait.
• Doomsday (Entrance near the Beetlejuice show):  This year's addition to "Houses Based On Universal Movies That Nine People Saw", I don't know if there were problems with it or if it was scheduled to only be open off-and-on throughout the night.  Don't know what was up with that.  So, the only wait time that I saw for it was 5 minutes, but it had just reopened as the Rocky Horror Show I was in was letting out.
• Reflections of Fear (Entrance in the Jaws extended queue):  The year's signature house, it seems weird that they relegated it to the Jaws queue building instead of one of the soundstages.  The usual warning for the Jaws house carries over this year...  Do not bother trying to hit up this house after a Bill & Ted's Show has let out.  It looks like this year they're trying to manage the flow by not allowing you to go directly from the show to the house (instead, you must go around the Jaws restrooms, where I originally started my Universal career, or head towards the Men In Black area).  But probably one you would definitely want to hit up early in the evening as, each time I went by, the wait was 45 minutes.  But also, because they are trying to control the flow in that area, it just creates a huge mass of people in that general area.  So again, probably want to get that out of the way before it gets too crowded over there.
• Dead Exposure (Entrance between Men In Black and The Simpsons Ride):  There was a funny team of zombies out in front of the Dead Exposure house.  House has something to do with zombies, dunno, don't care.  The house hadn't opened yet when I first passed by, but had a 30 minute wait the second time I went by.
• The Hallow (Entrance to the left of the KidZone stage):  I actually have no idea what this house is about.  Couldn't really tell anything from the sign.  I only went to that side of the park once, so I only saw that it had a 20 minute wait that one time.
• Scary Tales - Once Upon A Nightmare (Entrance to the right of the KidZone stage):  Another seemingly rehashed house from previous years this one has evil takes on fairy tales.  I also only went by there once and it had a 30 minute wait.

This year, they have many more Scarezones than I remember in years past.  As you enter the park, you're greeted by these creepy mirror-faced people.  The Production Central area between Jimmy Neutron and Shrek has a Wizard of Oz theme and, as you enter, your taunted by the Wicked Witch of the West (who was pretty funny).  Then, as you pass through, Flying Monkeys attack you from above as they swing back-and-forth between the buildings.  The area around T2-3D is called Asylum in Wonderland which, obviously, has an Alice theme and the hookah smoking caterpillar making wisecracks.  Along the back of Shrek where you can get your picture taken with Donkey is the small American Gothic set, which seems like a take on the Lizzie Bordon rhyme (at least I think I heard someone say 40 whacks).  The area between Twister and Mummy is called Streets of Blood, which was Jack the Ripper-themed.  The final one, Fractured Tales in the KidZone area, seems to carry over the nearby Scary Tales house.

On to the shows...  This year's show in the Animal Actors stage is a magic show featuring Brian Brushwood.  The Rocky Horror Picture Show Tribue returns on the Beetlejuice stage, once again featuring an overly top-heavy background dancer who draws your attention as she nearly pops out of the scantily corset with each step she makes (this year a cute, pompdoured brunette).  Which just leaves the marquee attraction for me each year, the Bill & Ted's Show.  I ended up seeing the first performance last night, so I don't know if there was just something off or what.  I did see one of the first shows last year and didn't care for it, but ended up seeing it like five times and liked it more and more each time I saw it.  This year's show features characters from Hellboy (another Universal movie which is coming up on its DVD release, so maybe a little corporate synergy at work) as well as the usual assortment of pop culture references.  This year's lineup includes Obama and McCain, Indiana Jones, Sweeney Todd, the Joker, and Hannah Montana among many, many more.  Each year, the Bill & Ted shows fill up very quickly.  Even though they only open the stadium up about 10 minutes before each show, it's usually best to get into the courtyard a half-hour before the show starts.  My comments from last year still pertain:  Get there early, be prepared to mow some people down as soon as the music starts, and try to get into the middle.

So, while I don't think that the Bill & Ted's show is as good as it was last year, I think that the event itself seems better.  I think that last year's event, which was focused on the New Line licenses with themed houses for Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, kind of didn't do as much for me because I don't go in the houses.  This year there seemed to be more to do in addition to the haunted houses.  But, even after saying that, I'd say still probably give this year's event an 8 out of 10.  The same I gave it last year.

Pictures from the event <Link>

On the Road Again

Well, in playing around on the Internet today, I found that Yahoo! 360 has now gone live... At least on the Beta level. So, I'm setting up my blog over on my 360 page, http://360.yahoo.com/thegrandowl. Be patient, as since this is still in testing you may get an error page, but keep trying. You also get the shock of a lifetime... The face of your future dictator!