Why Do Adults Hate on Teen Culture?

I am a follower of Harry Potter’s dark wizard Lord Voldemort on Twitter (@Lord_Voldemort7).  While usually good for a Harry Potter joke or two, a few recent jokes he has made has started a Twitter war with the tween fans of pop icon Justin Bieber.  Poor Justin…  While beloved by his fanbase of teen girls, he is the target of near constant ridicule by everyone else.

At what point did adults start just outright start attacking the stuff popular with kids?  And I’m not talking Maude Flanders “What about the children?”-style protectionism.  This is a near constant skewering of Miley Cyrus, Twilight, and whatever the younger generations like, usually by those around my age on TV and on the web.

Here’s the funny thing…  C’mon Gen X’ers, looking back on it, was the shit we had at that age any cooler?  Lets use my timeline as an example.  I was “tween” (age 12) in 1989.  Looking at the top 10 songs in 1989, two came from what you’d consider teeny-boppers:  “Hangin’ Tough” by the New Kids on the Block and “Lost in Your Eyes” by Debbie Gibson.  While I remember some New Kids jokes, usually it was at the expense of Donnie being “old”, being the thug, and of course the time when he set his hotel room on fire.  Not at all the vitriol spewed at a 16 year-old kid like what’s happening to Bieber.  And really, the only thing I remember adults talking about Debbie Gibson was the “Who’s hotter?” game between her and Tiffany.  Were there the jokes about them like they made about Miley (and I’m not talking about now, but during her Hannah Montana heyday)?  While not comparable to Twilight and the whole vampire/werewolf craze, 1989 brought us about a dozen slasher movies including Friday the 13th Part VIII, Halloween 5, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5.  In my mind cheesy-is-cheesy, no matter the genre.

I heard a great comment on Sirius XM’s Covino & Rich Show a few months ago.  Following the video of the little girl crying on YouTube because she loved Justin Bieber so much, co-host Steve Covino said that he would never let his baby daughter grow up to be the type who would like bubble gum pop music.  One of the listeners, a father of a young girl, called in with this – No matter how much he hated the music, no matter how much he thinks the lyrics are garbage, it made his daughter so happy that, in the end, he didn’t care.  They will grow up to realize that the music was dumb, but they will have great memories of that time in their lives.  In my opinion, to crap on Justin Bieber music to a 12 year-old girl is like telling a 6 year-old there’s no Santa Claus.

Personal Tidbit:  I have a great memory of pushing my newborn baby brother in his stroller around the Central Florida Fairgrounds, jamming to my Walkman and the newest tape I had bought at the Musicland in Altamonte Mall that I had gotten on the way there.  The tape I was bopping-around to and picking up my brother to dance with – To the Extreme by Vanilla Ice.  Yes, horrible music, but 20 years later I still remember that day.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love ESPN

It has been roughly three months since, after getting sick of the hyperbole and bickering, I dropped ESPN cold-turkey.  And not just ESPN, but pretty much the entire “sports talk” genre.  I’ll watch actual games when they’re on, but no more SportsCenter, PTI, Mike & Mike, or other shows I had traditionally watched.  And, frankly, I still feel I’m as much of a sports fan as ever.

What triggered my “boycott” of ESPN was their coverage around the Eastern Conference Finals between the Magic and Celtics.  As you probably remember, the Magic went down in the series 0-3, at which point the pundits start calling out how the Magic didn’t belong and projecting a future series against the Lakers (this is, of course, after many of them had picked the Magic to win the series after they had swept the first two rounds).  However the Magic came back to win the next two games, and they all change their tunes, picking the Magic to complete the “reverse” sweep and comparing it to the 2004 Yankees/Red Sox series.  And, of course, the Magic lose the next game and they immediately all switch back to how the Magic were a weak competitor who were outmatched.

That’s my main complaint about ESPN.  Not how they consistently favor teams that can help their ratings, not how they overhype stories (the 2010 NBA free agent class, Brett f’in Favre), not even TMZ-ing of athletes as celebutantes, but it’s this new focus they have on analyzing events that haven’t happened yet!  And it’s going on across the field of sports talk and even the print and online journalists have fallen into the trap.  Instead of actually covering the events and news from the day, they consistently feel the need to bring “perspective” by comparing everything to great moments in sports history (every SportsCenter has to have one random statistic compared to that other random statistic through the history of the game).  Or, they must constantly speculate, which I find is just brainless filler material.  The thing is, sometimes “picks” can be fun but it shouldn’t be something they focus on.  As the U.S. made the knock-out round of the World Cup, they were already prognosticating them making the finals and devoted a whole segment to their spectacular run.  Of course, they were immediately knocked out in their first game by Ghana.

Here’s some tips for the sports fan like me who still loves the games but have had enough of the ESPN’s over-the-top hype:

• If you just want highlights without as much of the “analysis”, I’ve been watching FSN’s Final Score over SportsCenter.
• As a fan on the Cubs and Bears, ESPN Chicago has their local SportsCenter.  Just highlights and some news without all the other fluff.  Of course, as of right now, ESPN only has local editions for a few major markets.
• Sports talk radio is not informative, it’s not even entertaining.  It’s just annoying blowhards arguing over stuff they don’t even know about with callers who know even less.  I actually kind of respect shows like Mike & Mike because they don’t take listener calls, though then it goes back to the over-analysis and prognostication that annoys me.

I’m guessing that I’m in the vast minority as ESPN continues adding more talk shows and analysis, but I know I can’t be the only one.

Time For a New 360 or PS3?

I’ve been very lucky to be the owner of both a PS3 and an Xbox 360.  While I’ve had my issues with each (my PS3 being merely a pricey Blu-ray player since there were no good games for it/360 red ring of death), each has their merits and I will pop on either one from time-to-time.

I’m thinking of selling both of my systems and replacing it with the newer models.  I love the new 360 design and my current one (an Arcade I got after my launch 360 red-ringed, using my old ones hard drive) is close to being maxed-out on space.  Meanwhile, while the Sony fanboys love to crack on how loud 360s can be, I’ve never had that issue with mine.  However my PS3 can sound like a jetfighter getting ready to take off, even when just playing a PSN game.  The PS3 Slim both looks better and supposedly eliminates this problem. 

However, here’s the thing…  If I do go through with this plan, I’m not buying both a new 360 and a new PS3.  It’s going to be one or the other.  So which to choose?  I’m debating the merits of both.

Xbox 360

• Advantages
  • I definitely have a larger library of 360 games to go back to than PS3.
  • While it does cost $50/year, the Xbox Live experience is so incredibly good.  And compared to the PlayStation Network, it’s like going from a Porsche to a Dodge.
  • As I’m a Zune fanboy, love that I can download stuff onto my Zune and easily play it back through my 360.  In addition, Microsoft has said that the 360 will natively support Zune meaning I won’t even have to go through that.
  • Kind of interested in the Kinect.  I doubt that I would get one, but I’m definitely interested in seeing what it could do.  Meanwhile, the PlayStation Move is pretty much DOA with me.
• Disadvantages
  • With no Blu-ray player, getting a 360 would mean that I’d also have to get a Blu-ray player.  While cheaper than a PS3, it’s just something else to clutter my entertainment center.
  • This is debatable, but there’s no good 360 exclusives coming out in the near-term that I’m interested in.  I’m kind of over first-person shooters, and was incredibly disappointed in Halo 3: ODST, so do not have any intention of getting Halo Reach.  And Microsoft’s other big exclusive for 2010 is Fable III and I don’t do RPGs.
  • A purely speculative one, but I think that a new Xbox model is, at most, 2 years away.  I think the Kinect is a stop-gap to tide people over for whatever their new console is with built-in motion support.

PlayStation 3

• Advantages
  • I can use to both play games and watch Blu-rays.
  • PSN is free.
  • Better exclusives.  In 2011 they get Twisted Metal and Infamous 2 (though I’m still very early in Infamous 1, and while I think it’s cool I don’t think it’s anything spectacular).  And while I’m not interested in DCU Online with its subscription price, I could be enticed if they significantly lower the price, include it in the Playstation Plus membership, or offer the game itself for free.  I’m a console game, I’m not used to paying a subscription fee to play a game which I already paid for.
  • My most anticipated game of next year is Portal 2, and according to Valve the PS3 experience with Steam Support will be much better than what the Xbox is getting.
• Disadvantages
  • While the PSN is free, it’s practically unusable.  The interface is crap, you can’t get into games without agreeing to TOS agreements every time, and since I don’t have a headset or chat pad there’s no easy way for me to communicate.  (BTW, putting the chat pad at the top instead of at the bottom like the 360?  Not very ergonomic.)
  • Only PlayStation friend is my roommate…  He hasn’t logged into the PSN in 13 months when he was playing Resistance 2.
  • OMG they need to do something about the system updates!  I’m not going to pay for a PlayStation Plus membership so I can program my PS3 to do the updates when I’m not using it.  So, instead, I have to deal with turning on my PS3 to play a quick game of Super Stardust or run a quick race in GT5 Prologue and finding out that I have to download a firmware update for some feature that I don’t even use that takes 20 minutes to download and install.  By the time it’s done, I’ve either lost interest in playing or no longer have time to.

Even though I think the Blu-ray support and better exclusives are more compelling arguments, I’m leaning towards getting a 360.  After my launch 360 red-ringed, I lived with only my PS3.  That lasted about 5 months before I broke down and got a new 360.  But that was because, like I said earlier, there were no games I was interested in for the PS3 at the time.  So, without starting a flame war, what do you guys think? 

Counterpoint to Kevin Rose’s Thoughts on an Apple iTV

Today I had the opportunity to check out the latest blog post from Digg founder (and Big J man-crush) Kevin Rose on a potential new version of Apple TV called Apple iTV.  While Kev seems to believe that iTV will “change everything”, here’s some thoughts to maybe temper that enthusiasm.

• Internet-Enabled Televisions:  While still not widely available, I think that many people would consider getting an iTV would be the same people who like to stay on the cutting-edge of technology to get an internet-enabled television.  The applications that iTV would most likely offer are those also likely available to those with one of these TVs.  So, why pay $99 for something you already have?
• Pictures/Video Streaming:  A few months ago I turned on my PS3 and had to sit through a firmware update so that Sony could update the photo viewer and all I could think was “What a waste of time?!”  While offered through PlayStation, Xbox 360, Tivo, and many other services, I have only once sat somewhere and watched a photo slideshow on a television.  And that was because I set it up for my stepfather’s 50th birthday back in April as some background entertainment.  I’m not sold on picture streaming being a valuable utility.  It’s like the old carousel slideshow of our generation…  Nobody wants to see it.  Add to it if, as Kevin states, it’s tied with MobileMe then you have to pay an extra $100 a year to maintain an account for the privilege to do something you didn’t want to do any ways.
• Content Providers Won’t Participate:  One killer app that Kevin mentioned was how content providers will launch apps to stream shows through iTV, monetizing their shows by selling them through iTunes or the App Store.  The current gen Apple TV had allowed for buying and streaming stuff purchased on iTunes.  But here’s the thing – even with mass adoption of these types of applications it’ll likely not come anywhere near to recouping the lost revenue from advertising.  There was an article recently on CNET about how Google is trying to line up content for their Google TV as the networks want to protect their affiliates.  And the whole being able to drop your cable/satellite providers…  Yea, cable channels not only make revenue from advertising but also from the subscriber fees they make from those providers.  So, while cable channels will definitely take advantage of a new revenue source, they’re definitely going to limit what’s available to protect the money they make from the cable companies.

Just a couple of thoughts.  Like with the Apple TV, I wouldn’t buy an iTV just because I don’t have a use for it.  I can use my Xbox/PlayStation to rent digital content, stream Netflix, etc.  So, it once again makes you think “Who is Apple targeting with this product or what does it offer that distinguishes it?”  I’m guessing we’ll see when Apple officially announces it, probably some time soon.

Random Thoughts - June 12, 2010

Well, at the end of each of my posts to my blog, I always promise to write more often... Then write up a new post a couple months later. But, this time, I think I will be as I'm going to start learning some webpage programming and will be using my blog as a test page. So, obviously, I will post a link to that as soon as I'm ready to launch.

Comics Review

Being in graduate school, I've noticed that I don't have as much time to watch television. My replacement over the last few months have been comic books. This week, I picked up the new issues of Nemesis, Avengers Academy, and Batman #700. While I haven't had a chance to go through the Batman issue, here's my quick thoughts on the other two.

• Avengers Academy #1: Following the events of Siege (which, by the way, I thought was a much better cross-over event from DC's Blackest Night), the Heroic Age has started in the Marvel U. The superheroes have banded together to help rebuild the Earth that has been torn-apart so recently. To help rebuild the ranks, the superhero team The Avengers, has started a school for teens displaying mutant powers (similar to Professor X's School for Gifted Children). Avengers Academy #1 introduces the first class through the voice of Maddy Berry, the usual awkward teen in a Marvel book who displays her power (being able to evaporate) when tricked by the "mean girls" at her school into thinking the hot boy had a crush on her. She's introduced to her team of "super teens" and instructors at the newly opened Avengers Academy. While this is an introductory issue, it just seems to go down the road that has been travelled time-and-time-again by the X-Men. Marvel really beat the X-Men franchise to death in the '90s with all of its iterations that it's hard to imagine they can do anything new. I'm probably not going to continue following the series, but who knows... It may surprise.
• Nemesis #2: The first Nemesis, which I think came out in April, was a great intro issue. A master supervillain who tours the world matching wits with the best police detectives he can find, just to come out victorious. To announce his arrival in the United States, he kidnaps the president and crashes Air Force One. Issue #2 decides to tell the origins of Nemesis which, in my opinion, diminishes the character and by making revenge his motivation weakens this story arc. However, if you just ignore those first three pages of backstory, the pace matches the first issue as Nemesis wrecks havoc around Washington, D.C. with the police aparently little able to do anything to stop it. But, a great couple last pages makes me excited for what's next.

Screw You Cable

I have been waiting patiently since it was announced for AT&T's U-Verse service to come into my neighborhood. But, lately, I have been seriously considering dropping cable altogether and switching to a completely digital plan. Like many, I have an 47" HDTV in my living room, so when it comes to watching TV on my laptop versus watching on an actual TV, I'm sticking with TV. But, in recent months, I've noticed how I really only watch a select number of channels, and even then, as I mentioned before, I'm not watching much TV to begin with. It may be cheaper for me to ditch my cable and start buying shows individually from like a Zune Marketplace or iTunes. My primary concern was watching sports, but with Sony announcing recently that you can stream MLB.tv content through the PS3, I could then watch any game instead of just the same four teams that Fox/ESPN seem to shove down our throats.

I don't know, has any one else tried? Through my homeowner's association, I will always have access to basic cable for local TV and such. If you're buying just the stuff that you want through Zune Marketplace/iTunes, does it really save you any money? I was hoping that, during Steve Jobs' iPhone conference, he would announce the rumored iTunes subscription program for video (should have known that wasn't going to happen, how long have they had the opportunity to do the same for music like Zune and Rhapsody and passed).

OK, that's it for this post... I'm going to be trying to build up a new blogroll for when I start my new site, which'll hopefully be in a few weeks. Until then, keep a look out here or on my Twitter, @GrandOwl. Have a great weekend.

Special Segment: Umm, Apple... WTF?!

Response to Steve Jobs' Open Letter Regarding Adobe Flash

What's up, Inter-Tubes?!

Yea, I don't blog much any more. But, I do want to take a moment to do a quick post.

I'm a tech nerd, and what got me into technology... My small little Catholic school in Daytona Beach, back when I was in the 1st Grade in 1983, had the money to invest in a small computer lab. And what did we have? Apple IIe. Like many kids of my generation, we were awed by the dancing bear when you got a math problem right or spending a lunch break playing Oregon Trail. Apple Computers were a huge, huge deal. And when my finally got its first computer, I lobbied hard for a Macintosh. But what did we end up getting? An IBM, thus making me the Microsoft fanboy that I am today (to prove that it all comes back around again, my current laptop's a Lenovo, formerly IBM's personal computing division). Like many at the time, my family felt that Apple's were toys but IBM's were computers.

What brought about this image? It wasn't that you couldn't accomplish many things on an Apple. It was that Apple wanted so much control over the things that you did on their machines that developers went to the more open platform offered by DOS and then by Windows. And it wasn't just what you could do on the computers, but also the computers themselves. DOS, to the chagrin of IBM, wasn't a proprietary system... It was available to any computer maker and could be customized to do whatever task that was needed. While Apple computers were usually technologically-superior, it didn't matter if its superiority didn't do anything you wanted it to.

Controlled environment vs. open platform? Hmm... Sounds familiar. Yes, after Steve Jobs resuscitated Apple from near-oblivion, it seems like his original business model may hurt the company once again. Instead of the personal computer platform, Apple is using its dominant position in the mobile and portable devices platform. With the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, Apple has a dominant position when it comes to mobile devices. They use it now to bully those who wish to develop for it. If you want to develop for any of Apple's mobile platforms, you have to cow-tow the Apple line, just as developers had to do in the 1980's with Macs.

Here's the thing... When you create your own world, you can set the terms for those who choose to live in it if you want to. But in an environment such as technology, with so many creative types, they're not going to stand idly by while you set boundaries when they can choose another environment without rules. I believe this is already beginning to happen in the mobile environment. Now that there's a lineup of devices using Google's open-source Android software. While it's limited to phones right now, the talk of their own slates to rival the iPad will likely be out before the holidays. Now, you have once again Apple - with their one device that only does what Apple wants it to do - against a more open system, this time Android available on a variety of different devices and customizable to do what you'd like.

C'mon Apple... You know what you're doing is wrong and it won't stand for much longer. I have an iPhone, and I like it, but I imagine my next phone will have an Android OS. Every time I see the blue Lego when surfing on it, I want to throw the phone across the room. Why would I want to get an iPad for it's great Internet surfing experience when I can't use it to surf the Internet?! I don't use the iPhone capabilities as an iPod, either. Apple's desire to control what's available on the iTunes store and pricing is such a turn-off when you can use Amazon to get a better price or Zune Marketplace to get an unlimited subscription. I'm just saying, it seems like once again your stubbornness will cost you in the end when your pop culture appeal flames-out (which, I believe, it inevitably will).

I'm not here to damn Apple, even as a Microsoft fan... Apple has always proven to be the king of innovation in the tech environment, and one can only imagine what the landscape would be like right now had Apple failed in the 1990's, as they were so close to doing. I just want an open and fair environment for developers and not to be dictated as to what I want by some preppy in a black turtleneck.

P.S. - Gotta love the irony in Jobs' open letter talking about how he refuses to support Flash because it's a completely proprietary property. Hmm...

4 Months of Built-Up Random Crap

Wow, can't believe that I haven't put up a blog since I was on vacation. Know that I have been busy, but man... Nothing in 4 1/2 months. Not that anyone cares.

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. For those outside of the Sunshine State allow me to break down Florida weather: hot, hotter, and unbearable. But Fall is the season when the intolerable heat starts to break and one can actually enjoy being outside. The weather gets cooler and because it gets darker earlier you don't have to deal with the sun beating down. Of course, so far this year has kind of sucked as we've only had two decent days so far with temps here in the Orlando area still in the 90s everyday.

In addition, Fall brings Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Florida. As I no longer have to work them, I can actually enjoy them. While I'm still too big of a wuss to go into the haunted houses, I did take the opportunity during the employee preview night on September 22nd to check out the shows and scarezones. First off, this year's Bill & Ted show is the best since I came back to Universal in 2006 (I've seen 9 of the 17 shows, so I do have some frame to judge them by). Plotline involves a fanboy who uses the phonebooth to pull characters out of movies. Leave it at that so as not to give anything away. But great music, love all the references to Internet memes, just totally geek-worthy. The Rocky Horror Tribute Show is cool as well though no uber-hot dancer for me to drool over this year and at the show I saw Rocky was black. WTF?! Gone this year is the random magician/psychic/acrobat/random crap show that they normally hold in the Animal Actors stage. Guess they finally realized that nobody goes to that show and thus there's no point in having it. Of the scarezones, I absolutely love the area around Mel's Drive-In, which has been renamed the Horrorwood Die-In. Now every year the sign of Mel's has the "I" and "E" removed to be the Die-In, but this is the first year that I can remember where they designed a scarezone around the theme. The area is a drive-in movie theater with random horror movie monsters wandering around. But what makes it ultra-cool is that, on the drive-in's movie screen are trailers and clips from classic and current horror films, and my favorite, old-school drive-in concession advertisements. In addition, the Chainsaw Drill Team gets their own scarezone around T2:3D. The others were just the random frights every year (zombies and such). And even if you don't get a chance to go into the event but happen to be in CityWalk, head over and watch the video on the big screen "movie marquee". One segment of a rude movie-goer is hysterical!

Best/Worst of the Summer

Yea, so I got a lot of gaming and a lot of movie-watching in during the Summer. Normally I write up an individual review each time, but as I haven't blogged in over 4 months I'm just going to a best-of/worst-of the Summer edition.

• Best Movie - Star Trek: Surprisingly good, as I'm not a Trekkie. But just a good, all-around sci-fi movie. The whole time travel aspect was kinda cheesy (actually, like a lame Star Trek episode), but I'm definitely picking it up on Blu-Ray when it comes out.
  
• Worst Movie - X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Very, very glad that I didn't pay to see this (made it a Daytona double-feature at the dollar theater with Angels & Demons, that's how bad it was... I refused to pay to see it at the DOLLAR THEATER!). Just so much incredibly bad story and such bad CGI that I think the reel I watched was the unfinished version that leaked onto the Internet. Plus, how the butchered Deadpool's origin pretty much makes it so that he won't be able to get his own movie without a total relaunch.
• Best Video Game - Batman Arkham Asylum: Lots of nerdy goodness and inside references to the Batman comics. Plus, the gameplay was great with a really fun fighting mechanic. And I loved the 90s Batman cartoon, which this game borrows its story (written by the show's writer) and voice talent. So it was like playing through the show's best episode.
• Worst Video Game - NCAA Football 10: What the f, EA?! It's like one step forward/two steps back with you guys. You make one cool advancement but then take out several cool things. And the gameplay is a lot of meh, nothing new. Feels like playing NCAA Football 03, which I had for the original Xbox, with nicer graphics. Really wish someone could afford to throw some cash towards the NCAA and NFL to break EA's stranglehold on football games.

State of FSU Football

Speaking of college football, I have to bring up my alma mater. For the first time in 11 years, I got to go up to Tallahassee to see a game in Doak Campbell last Saturday when the Noles played my brother's school USF. Now, considering that I'm not a particularly big football fan and especially don't like college football, I was just happy to be back in Tally and enjoying the atmosphere. But things are obviously getting bleak at the ol' alma-mater. FSU this year is at 2-3, and barely beat I-AA Jacksonville State. One girl from my old fraternity joked that I went to school when the football team was actually good. Now, personally, if they went 0-12 I could care less. But here's what's upsetting to me: the treatment of Coach Bowden. Now, for years I didn't really get why he even still is the coach. He doesn't even bother wearing a headset anymore to call plays. He's more of an inspirational leader for the football team than a person who acually gets his hands dirty drawing up plays. But, the upsetting thing is all of the talk behind Coach Bowden's back about how he needs to leave. The man has been there for ages, is really the father of that program. In my opinion, he gets to choose when he leaves. You're not firing Bobby Bowden. And for those who wish to push him out the door, people our next coach is already on the staff. I'm sure he'd probably change some thing, but he's already there so he has some control over the team now. I'm just saying, I don't expect a lot of change either way.

Well, that's it for this post. I'm not going to pretend that I'm going to go back to posting weekly, but I'll post as much as I can. Otherwise, you can follow me at twitter.com/grandowl77.

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!