Free stuff from work rocks. They got too many promotional posters for next months concerts in. So I have extra tour posters, with the Vegas performance dates stamped on them. They are for the groups below.
U2
Rolling Stones
Paul McCartney
Any of my known friends out there in cyberspace want one.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Free Stuff
Posted by Mike at 5:54 PM 0 comments
Friday, August 05, 2005
Blues and BBQ
So, for those of you that keep up with this little thing. You'll already know that I am hitched. Yep, been married for about 6 weeks now. It is awesome. I love it. Very nice to have someone to come home to.
So, now that you've been updated on the last 6 weeks.
Tonight I get to see a blues legend. I get to see BB King. I scored the killer deal on discount tix through work. He's playing with Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Another great guitarist that has been on my list of people to see. I get to hit two in the same show. I'm like, woo hoo, I get to see the King. Yay!
No, there is no BBQ in this post but hey, something had to rhyme.
Later on, my thoughts about this summers reality trash tv. Speaking of trash, Dukes of Hazard this weekend. Yee Haw!
Posted by Mike at 8:04 AM 0 comments
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Moving In
So, we are getting things settled into the apartment finally. Well, we have all of Lisa's stuff over there. Of course, just starting out we don't have too much furniture to move in. At least we have a couch, a bed, and a table with some chairs. Later today we are going to head to the mecca that is Walmart to find a cheap computer desk, entertainment center, and possibly some bookshelves.
I just got off the phone with my Aunt Lurlene in Florida. We are going to have Sunday dinner with them when we are down there in a couple weeks. She just told me that the beaches down there are still pretty torn up after the hurricanes from this last year. We will just have to see how all of that goes.
Well, it's back to repacking some of my stuff. For those of you coming to Vegas at the end of the month, I just wanted to mention that Wayne Brady is playing town that weekend and Tony Hawks Boom Boom Huck Jam is that weekend too. Just in case I don't chat with you before you get to town.
Keep it real kiddies. Don't know if i'll have time to post anything before the wedding again, but we'll see.
Posted by Mike at 4:58 PM 0 comments
Friday, May 27, 2005
4 Weeks Left
What I have 4 weeks left of I haven't figured out yet. However, I do know that I am getting married to the most awesome girl ever 4 weeks from today. Yep, just 4 weeks left. For those of you that I have not received an address for, you should know who you are, I need that so I can mail you kids the official announcement. We should be sending those out on Tuesday as Monday is a holiday.
We are signing the lease for the new apartment tomorrow. That is going to be cool. I have to figure out if they will let us do satellite or not. The cable situation out here is unjust. I'll post more on that later. It deserves it's own post.
In other news, it looks like they are working on getting me into the company on a permanent basis. Yeay, no more being a temp. They are doing the background check and I have to go in for the pre-employment drug screening on Tuesday. I wonder if they'll give me a free haircut with that as well as they are going to pluck out some of my hair. After all that I just have to interview with the Executive VP and General Counsel for the hotel. A nice little chat with a high ranking executive at the hotel is exactly what I need next week. Well, it is all about the people you know, right?
For those of you looking into employment law and want to get a working perspective of it from the corporate position, let me know. It's actually rather interesting, plus I still get to deal with the idiots of the world. I just can't escape them.
Posted by Mike at 6:13 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Engagement Photos and Such
Being that 1, I haven't figured out how to post them, and 2 after working with them on photoshop, here is the link to the engagement photos. Well, at least the two we had been thinking about using.
http://photos.yahoo.com/mike_c0ntr0l
For those of you that may read my journal, do me a favor and email your snail mail address to me so I can send you an announcement.
mike_control@earthlink.net
I would update some more but I have to head out for dinner and a movie. For those of you with t-mobile, send me your phone number. I have t-mobile and get free mobile to mobile.
Posted by Mike at 6:42 PM 0 comments
Monday, April 18, 2005
Random Rambling
So, in the interest of keeping up with the peeps and the fact I have nothing to do, here is a random friendly whatever update.
Lisa is up in Salt Lake City with her mom and a couple of her sisters. They planned on taking a couple days to find her wedding dress and then come back on Wednesday. I had a message from her when I got out of work that she found her dress in like 90 minutes. That's very cool. I am happy for her cause she's all excited and giddy. Although, I was disappointed to find out that they were not going to be heading home any earlier. Eventhough I miss her I think a couple days apart is good and healthy. It gives me an opportunity to take a break from all the planning and catch up with some internet stuff. You know, things like Homestar and Foamy.
Work wasn't too shabby. Got our response to an amended charge out to NERC (Nevada Equal Rights Commisson). Oh yeah, as promised here is the basic rundown of what my boss does and therefore I type up and file. Anytime an employee or generally former employee files a complaint with either NERC or the EEOC, and they generally file together, it comes to our office to respond and defend it. Any subpoena's for employee information, general request from law firms for employee information, or employees/other people companies requesting employee info also comes across my desk. We also act as the liason between the company/departments and the immigration attorney in New York for any immigration issues with the employees. My boss also provides basic legal insight and guidance to the employee relations team. That being the case, our offices are down in employee relations. It's pretty cool cause I am making all the important contacts as I am temping here.
Although there was a decent amount of stuff that came across my desk today or that I am waiting on information for, I still played a lot of solitaire today. I'm glad I discovered my computer had it as I don't have net access to kill the dead time. I'm still using the boss' log on with my computer cause IS still hasn't set mine up yet. It's been two weeks since we put in the request. Should have been done over a week ago. I'll give them a call again tomorrow and find out what's happening.
So now i'm sitting at home debating what to heat up for dinner. There are some enchiladas from this weekend in the fridge. Lisa is like the world's most awesome cook. Of course, I am tempted to just go to Arby's cause they have those arby bacon melts on sale and who knows how long i'll be able to take advantage of that deal.
Posted by Mike at 6:10 PM 0 comments
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Viva Las Vegas Baby! Yeah!
So, I have moved up to Vegas. I had made the decision a couple weeks ago that I couldn't leave out the possibility of looking for work up here before the wedding. It's good to be open to new opportunities, you know. So, I came up here the Thursday before Easter. Instead of just spending my normal rotation of a trip up to visit Lisa for the weekend, I decided I was going to spend a whole week up here and hit the pavement. Get registered with some temp services, apply at all the groovy hotels, and all that good stuff.
I walk into Millenium Staffing on Friday as they are having an open house for admin assistants. I figure I have all the necessary skills and people experience, plus it pays good, I might as well start out doing that and then move on from there. So I go in and talk to the recruiter, take their little battery of tests (which I always ace) and head back to where i'm staying. Recruiter says that he didn't have anything on his desk right then but to call him back on Monday or Tuesday as he always has stuff coming in. Two hours later I got a call back. He had an order come across his desk from MGM/Mirage. They were looking for an admin to support one of the guys in their legal department. It's temp to hire starting at 12/hr but will go up significantly if I go perm. So I thought, sure why not. He sent my resume over, they liked me, and I started that following Monday. Good thing I brought a significant portion of my clothes with me.
So, my official title there is Administrative Coordinator for the Director of Legal Administration. Or as the others refer to me, Ted's temp. Ted is their lawyer that deals with all the employee relations stuff so our office is down in Employee Relations as opposed to upstairs with the rest of legal. It's ok though. I get my own little office. My lunch hour is paid by the company and I get free employee buffet across the hall. It's the good stuff in the buffet too. Not a bunch of crappy stuff. I'll start posting more about some of the things i'm picking up on and get to work with in a bit. Especially for all you peeps that are interested in corporate legal. I'm hoping to go perm with this job. I don't see it as something I will do forever. At least while I finish up my school. However, it is my foot in the door with the most powerful company in town.
Posted by Mike at 7:44 PM 0 comments
Monday, March 14, 2005
Work, Joyous News, and a General Update
So, on the work front things have been a bit shaky. My pops ran out of the necessary funds to pay me a couple weeks ago. Now, I knew that was a definitely possibility which is why I have been looking for a seperate full time gig for like 5 months now. It is starting to get very frustrating. At this point I am just looking for some decent paying temp work as I will be moving yet again at the end of June. However, there is definitely good reason to be moving at the end of June.
So, now out with the joyous news. It's something we've kept kind of under wraps for a couple weeks but is now out there for everyone to know. I am getting hitched at the end of June. To give you all the basics on Lisa.....She is 29, she works for the Clark County Health Dept, and has got to be one of the coolest peeps i've ever met. Well, I guess she would have to be if she is marrying me. We are getting married on June 24th in the St George, UT temple. Her family is mostly from southern Utah although she is residing in Vegas. So, yes I am going to be moving to Vegas. We've thought it over and prayed about it a lot. It just makes a lot more sense. She has a very good job up there with good pay and benefits and all that. So the current plan is for me to keep looking for work both here and up there. Getting some good paying temp stuff here would be good cause I would save huge amounts of cash.
So for those very few of you cool friends whom actually read this blog, after the end of the summer it's basically an open invite if you need a couch to crash on in Vegas.
In regards to any other things going on besides those, it isn't a whole lot. I'm still doing some stuff for my pops to keep me occupied. However, now we have it worked out for me to do stuff for him on a percentage base. I actually think that's a better deal. That way when he closes deals I get a nice chunk of cash all at once. We are hopefully getting a listing for a very large project in downtown LA which will actually work through and close very quickly. It'd be nice to get another decent chunk of change just before the wedding.
Posted by Mike at 12:39 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Halo 2 is the Bomb Diggity
So I stopped by a friends on Friday and played some Halo 2. It was AWESOME!! I will probably buy it shortly. Everyone needs to buy an X-box so you can get this game. It is just so clean. The visuals are stunning and there is no lag. It just moves so well.
I'm finished with real estate school but I can't take the course exam for another 18 days. California state law. Pesky red tape always getting in my way.
My buddy Joel is premiering his movie on Friday. Finally! I helped them do all of the sound/mic work on it. I wasn't sure if they had finished all the post work or what. They got it all done and it's ready to premiere/test screen. They are going to start shopping it to distributors next week. It would be really cool to see it up on the big screen. That way I get to see my name in credits.
Until the next random update, enjoy the extra six weeks of winter.
Posted by Mike at 4:52 PM 0 comments
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Just Remembered This
I almost forgot to drop in a line about this. I only caught the first night of it, but the LA Lindy Binge last week was great. For those who have no clue what I am talking about, Lindy Hop is your basic form of swing dancing. Every year most cities will do a Lindy Exchange. So it's like taking in foreign exchange students for the weekend, well it's basically hosting crazy lindy hoppers for the weekend. I didn't host anyone this year but I did make it out for some dancing.
Yeah, the dancing went from 7pm to 2am. Generally somebody moves the party to their place when the venue closes but I was beat. It wasn't as well attended as I was expecting but it was still full of lots and lots of cool people. Lots of great people to dance with and the girl/guy ratio was about equal. It turned into one of those nights that you dance with so many people that you may ask somebody to dance a couple hours later and have a hard time remembering you had previously danced with them. As soon as my schedule mellows out a bit i'm working dancing into my schedule a bit more regularly again. Probably about twice a week.
Until the upcoming exchange down in the OC, keep it real.
Posted by Mike at 6:32 PM 0 comments
Yadda Yadda
So i'm in the process of finalizing things for my real estate license. Yay! I bigger chunk of the pie. I finished just about all the updates to the company website. I just have two more pages to reprogram. I need pops to get me the content for those and it will be all set. With the new sponsorship thingy we set up with CAHF that should be bringing in lots and lots of new clients. Always a bonus.
Went out to my sisters place last night for her birthday. Her roommates were glad I came out for a visit cause they needed someone to get her out of the house for a couple hours. You know, to make all the final preparations for her surprise party. She was surprised too, it worked. So after the insanity started to wind down at about one we threw on The Grudge. Those of us that were still around had not seen it. I thought it was ok. Definitely the best flik of that genre that I saw this last year. It had a bit of that creapy feel The Ring did but not quite as good. I couldn't sleep for two days after I saw The Ring. Oh yeah, couldn't watch tv for like a week.
It's a good thing I set my own hours from day to day cause I didn't get home last night until 3.
What other random stuff can I mention. This weeks episodes of American Idol weren't quite as entertaining as the previous two. I was actually disappointed that Orlando got such a minor treatment. I wanted to see all those Disney and Universal performers get ripped.
I'm still missing my hockey. A great deal. This lock out isn't good for the sport. Well, hopefully there will be a season next year. I haven't been able to convince myself to go to a minor league game. I used to have access to two NHL teams in this town.
Posted by Mike at 6:24 PM 0 comments
Monday, January 24, 2005
Spraining my stupid finger
So, I slightly sprained the ring finger on my left hand this past Thursday. We were playing dodgeball of all things. I went to catch a ball and jammed my finger into my other hand. It should have been a real easy catch. It was thrown by a girl. Well, that's what I get for underestimating things like girls playing dodgeball. All things aside, my finger is at least usable for typing. It's still a bit tender.
Yeah, that is about the end of my pretty much boring week or so. Nothing too exciting, but i'm doing good at keeping up with this thing.
Don't forget people, LA Lindy Binge starts in 3 days. Yay! Lots of dancing late into the night on Thursday.
Posted by Mike at 4:33 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Brat Camp
So, I just caught this little show last night. I think it's absolutely hilarious. For those not in the know, they took these 6 teenage kids who are just absolutely beligerant and off the wall horrible from the UK and shipped them to this camp for wayward teens in southern Utah. There parents weren't like, we're gonna send you to a shrink, we're gonna ship you off to the middle of nowhere in Utah of all places. Real shock for those Brits.
So basically they strip them of any individuality and ship them off in groups into the middle of the wilderness to hike out and camp. It's absolutely one of the most hilarious train wrecks I have ever seen on tv. To think that disney exploited these kids and their situation for a low budget show on abc family makes it even better. I haven't been that entertained in a while.
I hope you have all enjoyed this surprise mid-week update. Who knows, maybe there will be more to come before Saturday. Oh yeah, and don't forget these words of wisdom.
"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball."
Posted by Mike at 2:14 PM 0 comments
Monday, January 17, 2005
Almost on Top of This Thing
Look at that, I am almost on top of this thing. Just a couple days behind on my weekly update. That's ok though.
The dance class thing I did was sparsely attended, but I did get some really good dancing in with Lora before and after the class. At least there was something positive that came out of it.
Only other thing of interest was a request from my Sister. She needs a new roommate out there in Toluca Lake by April 1. She was like, you wanna split a place with your little sis. If I end up working in Glendale it would be pretty cool. It would definitely be a shorter commute than from Covina. I'm just not too sure how I feel about moving back out to the Valley. We'll just see how that goes.
Until the next update, be coolio.
Posted by Mike at 1:09 PM 0 comments
Monday, January 10, 2005
Keeping up and Stuff
Well, what can I say. Nothing extraordinarily significant happening the last week.
Went to the temple on Saturday evening. That is always a good experience. It's always nice to sit down in the Lord's house and have a conversation with Him that pretty much confirms that everything I am doing with the various tasks in my life is taking me in the direction I need to go. I am also set to get my home teaching done on Wednesday. That'll be nice to get out and meet and provide a bit of service and support to some new peoples. Always interesting meeting people you don't know.
On Thursday I am teaching a dance class for our Single Adult activity for church. We have invited other kids from the surrounding area to come. My cousin kind of fell down on the reminder invites and we had to scramble last night to make sure they got out. I hope people got them in time. If it's a poorly attended event i'll be disappointed. I always put a lot of effort into everything when I teach a class. Particularly in lining up someone good to teach with me. Lora is going to be teaching with me and we've taught all over the US together. Having someone that is an exceptional dancer to come in and help teach takes a bit of coordination.
Until next week, stay out of trouble, and remember the LA Lindy Binge starts in 17 days. Woo Hoo!!
Posted by Mike at 8:59 PM 0 comments
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Hey! It's actually a New Year
Oi vey...where did the last year go.
Well, my New Years Eve was quiet. As witnessed by the fact that I am up before noon on New Years Day. Actually I was up at 8am this morning and working. My plans kept getting shuffled around. My cousins canceled the thing they requested my help on last second. So, I stayed at home and worked on some new business ideas. I kind of took some time to formulate some of my goals for this new year. I won't recap the last year as I only do that momentarily myself to take note of where I am and where I can improve.
I have taken note of the things I want to do this year and what I need to improve for myself and am charging forward with those. As I hit those things and accomplish I will share those.
I am also working up my knowledge to get this web hosting and design company up and running with a couple of my buddies. Actually, they have the hosting company and a couple things already running. I just need to get my programming knowledge up so I can fill that nitch and jump in. Plus the marketing experience I have will really help push them up and over the envelope.
Other than that and my church responsibilities to take care of it looks to be a slow weekend.
Until the end of next week, or whenever I get bored and feel the urge to post something, keep it real kiddies.
Posted by Mike at 11:36 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
My Almost New Years Update
I have made a goal, not a new years resolution cause I never keep those, to try and write in this thing once a week. Not to share everything with the rest of everyone else, which is cool, but so I can keep track of things as they happen and look back on them. You know, something written for posterity and all that. I can't write things into my regular journal to save my life. I always get busy. However, I am always on a computer somewhere.
See all youse after the New Year.
Posted by Mike at 6:48 PM 0 comments
Friday, December 03, 2004
Disneyland
Disneyland Disneyland Disneyland tomorrow...Woo Hoo! I love Disneyland at Christmas. I get to go tomorrow....nah nah nah nah nah.
Ok, now that i've got that out of my system. Things have been good this week. Maybe that's cause i'm back up to workin out 5 days a week. Could be all the endorphins. It looks like we may close a property deal this next week. Well, contracts should be signed on Monday morning. Then the escrow has to happen, but I think Chabad has the money already lined up for this project and is ready to make it a go. Just have to transfer the proper funds. The company also got some more consulting for this law firm this week. It's good that my dad has the expertise he has. For the three reports the law firm needs he's getting 15k. Not bad for 3 days worth of work.
I'm trying to convince my dad to take me up to Sacramento with him next week. He gets to hang out with the Governator and Adam Sandler for the first day of Chanukah. Rabbi Cunnin who is the head of the Chabad for California told my dad he should come on up with them. That is awesome. He better bring back a picture.
Time to head to the driving range.
Posted by Mike at 10:29 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Horror Nights Review
So here is the Universal Orlando Halloween Horror Nights review by yours truly. Sorry I didn't get this up last night but the ball game went into 14 innings and I couldn't turn away from it. The only time I watch baseball on tv is in the post season. However, I love to go to a Dodger game. On to the review.
Jeff and I, or as Mike and I refer to him (the jewish comedian), got to the gates about 30 minutes before the event was supposed to start. Oh yeah, the nickname for Jeff was his idea. He's Jewish, and he used to make an attempt at stand up comedy. So we stood out there with about 300 other people waiting to get in. Checking out the map and making out a plan. They opened the gates a couple minutes early. We made it through security rather quickly. I did not recognize one person up front there. It also seemed a lot lighter than the presence of guards we had up there last year. Maybe that is because all the green shirts working there to help out.
We went up through the port of entry there at Islands of Adventure. Entrance and exit for the event were through that parks entry gates. The comedian and I wanted to make a right and head towards the stuff on the Studios side of the event to beat the crowds but apparently that side hadn't been cleared and prepared yet. They shuffled everone to the left into Marvel. There was one maze in Marvel, Disorientorium. Let me tell you, although I liked a couple of the effects, this maze is an OSHA nightmare waiting to happen. Talk about potential for guest injury. The primary cause of this being no lighting whatsoever throughout most of this maze. I know I know...haunted houses are supposed to be dark. I do agree. But there needs to be some kind of minimal lighting so you can see where you are going. Particularly when you have your guests going up and down a few ramps in there. The best part of that maze was the psychodelic painted up stobe light room with the techno music. As soon as we walked into that room the guy in front of us said, "The cheat is grounded". I nearly lost it. The other problem I had with this house was lack of scareactors. When we were walking up the queue to go into this thing you could see them coming from there dressing trailor into the house. They opened it up for guests when it wasn't even show ready.
So, after we finally stumbled our way out of that maze we headed back through Marvel across the port of entry to the other side of the event. The only other things to see in Marvel were of course the Hulk Coaster and the Amazing Adventures of Spiderman. I love those two rides but I really wanted to see the event specific attractions and activities. We started making our way into the sections that lay between the two theme parks. It's mostly sound stages and a couple back roads. Along the paths they had set up a couple of decent looking scare zones. I liked that they were made into the walking area so you had to go through them. This particular one was called Field of Screams. It really had potential. If it had been dark. The sun wasn't down and you could see where a few of the scareactors were hiding out waiting for those not paying attention. After meandering through here we made it over to the House of Wax thing. Good idea, one minor problem, it wasn't as bad as the lighting in disorientorium but it was dark enough that you couldn't see the elements of the maze and what looked like a somewhat decent amount of detail. The real pleaser in this one was going through in the middle of a group of Japanese tourists. Those kids scare so easy it was almost painful to laugh that hard. Oh yeah, I saw one of my former supes outside. Not that they would recognize anyways. I'll make a list of the people I ran into or saw at the end here.
After this house we wandered through the soundstage section over to the next house, Lightning Gulch. It's like your old wild west ghost town. This house was one of my three faves. Great detail, excellent use of story, and the scareactors in here were cool. Once again we had the Japanese tourists behind us but I think we left them in the dust hanging out with the people ahead of us. It was nice having people that were jumpy go ahead of us. It makes it more amusing for me causeI am a wuss but love to scare other people and see them get scared. I loved some of the distraction gags in this house. You know, something makes a noise or rattles elsewhere and the guy jumps out from the other side. I also liked the bartender offering to make drinks for the 11 year old kid in the group ahead of us. He did however refuse to make me a shirley temple. He said he only makes manly drinks.
Jeff says he likes wild west haunted houses cause they are cool.
After dusting ourselves off we wandered around looking for the entrance to the vampire maze, Castle Vampyr. This one had to have been my fave out of all of the 7 houses. It's not just because there were hot chicks dressed up as vampires in here. I think Jeff wanted to stay behind with them. The detail was absolutley amazing. All the scareactors were very cool. They really worked to pull of the them of the maze. They didn't just necessarily jump out at you. They would walk up behind you and act like they were going to lean towards ya and take a bite. Also something they added this year were screens and tv's out in front of all the houses to try and give background story. The one for this house was done very very well. Maybe they spent too much on all these little video segments playing outside the houses. Anyways, back to the house. They really tried to pull elements of all the popular vampire stories together into one place and it was pretty seamless. Even the room that was a shout to Blade. A little meat locker rave party. We enjoyed this house thoroughly. I even ran into Wagner out at the exit. Got to chat with him for about three seconds.
So after this house it was time for a potty brake. Although the vampire chicks were hot there were scary things in there too and it was just time to pee. Oh yeah, speaking of hot...did I mention the jello shot girls. Probably the best thing they have done to try and market those jello shots for while you are waiting in line. Nice black t-shirt, plaid school girl skirt, black fish nets, and black knee high boots. Yeah, I was just salivating.
After our short break we headed around the corner to ride Revenge of the Mummy. The one at Universal Orlando is so awesome. The one at Universal Hollywood is sooooo weak it's not even worth a 0 minute wait. So it was good to finally get on this attraction and witness another great attraction that was done right. Plus we only had to wait like 5 minutes. When we finished the mummy it was almost time for the parade of the dead. So we grabbed some sodas and waited a few minutes curb side. It was just what you would expect. Parade floats pulled by tractors with dead people on them. Throwing out mardi gras beads of course. A few giant dancing skeletons, some vikings, and some cool tribal type drum music. We followed the back of the parade around the corner to our next maze, Horror Nights Nightmares.
Let me tell ya, this was kind of a let down. This was the maze I anticipated most and I will tell you why. It was a combination of previous years Icon characters and mazes. Most years up until this year they had an event icon. Of course they icon's maze was the featured maze of the event. Last year was the director, the previous year the caretaker, and so on. Although a couple of the elements were cool, both the caretaker and the director scared the crap out of me, it was just very disjointed and they really didn't put the effort I believe they should have into something that was supposed to be a tribute. Especially since all these icon mazes had been done in the past and were very good.
After this we headed over to Deadtropolis. It was the first maze we really had much of a wait for. I think we waited like a half hour for this. The premise of this maze was of course the dead becoming reanimated and feasting on the living in the middle of downtown. Decent idea. The opening film thingy at the begining was kind of cool. Not quite enough scareactors for this maze. Plus only 1 or 2 memorable scenes. I think what really would have put this one back towards the top of the list would be a nice industrial/metal type soundtrack. Like maybe some pantera or ministry. I think that really would have added to the metropolis zombie kind of idea. Still, it wasn't at the bottom of my list.
After this we headed towards the other path that starts leading back to the IOA side. This is where I got some of the industrial music I was looking for. Plus there were chain saws and flame guns. Plus this was one of the best done up areas for fog. Nice sections of fog where you really could not see. Giving the numerous scareactors room to work with. I believe the area was called Fright Yard. Oh yeah, it had all those nice helicopter noises too.
When we pulled out of the Fright Yard we wandered over to the last maze of the evening, Hellgate Prison. The wait for this maze was about 35 minutes, but that was ok cause there was another Jello Shot Girl! The video sequence set up for this section was cool too. It's your basic what would happen if you walked through the worlds most notorious maximum security prison after the inmates took over. The scareactor interaction in this maze had to be the best. Inmates playing along with people. A couple of note. The first section of the maze is like walking into the visitor area with the whole phones on glass thing. Of course there are inmates on the other side chatting at ya. There was this mom and teenage daughter in front of us. One of the inmates was like how about the both of your being slices of bread. I almost died laughing. They got comments in on the couple behind us too. The girl was holding on to her boyfriend from behind. The other inmate in there was like, hey sweetie you got a good one there. He's got a really nice smile. And holding onto the back you are definitely protecting the right end. So yeah, some good gags in this house. The scene with old smokey was cool. Great distraction type tool to allow the other scareactors to scare the crap out of everyone. Plus there was lots more funny interaction. Some of the inmates were hitting on Jeff which Ifound extremely amusing considering his background.
After this we wandered through the other path back into IOA. Past the scareactor on top of the truck inviting everyone into the fright yard and hellgate. He mentioned something about hellgate being the finest establishment in the penal system. Then he told some girl, you like it when I say penal don't you. That's the kind of funny interaction I love at these events. Anyone who thinks of bringing a kid to this is an idiot.
We made our way back over into Marvel for the Bill and Ted Show. This year they actually did a fantastic job on this show. They lampooned just about everyone. Excellent jokes and gags. We loved it. After the show we went over and rode spiderman. We got a snack. After that we headed back over for the last show of Bill and Ted. I had though about another run through my three fave houses but they were on the other side of the event and my feet hurt. Besides, that show was just freakin hilarious. For those going to the event remember it is a pg13 rated event. That is why you have some slightly racy humour. Particularly in the Bill and Ted show. I tell ya, seeing darth vader do the robot was one of the funniest things I have seen in years.
I am debating about going again. We could go to the event on thursday night and then I can get up early to fly home on Friday. Jeff found a connection that can get extremely cheap tix. Better than the deal than he got on the previous nights tickets. Being that I am running out of things to do on my trip I might go for it.
Overall I think the event was entertaining. This year could have used some slightly better execution. The one last year when it was just in IOA was absolutely incredible. I think they were more concerned about the logistics of getting it into portions of both theme parks. However, now that they have the whole cross section figured out and executed very well. I can see this expanding to being in both parks completley opened up. That would just be awesome. As long as they don't cut back on quality for quantity. I give this years event 4 out of 5 stars. I think something that would have made this one immensely better was a better and larger group of peeps to go with.
Oh yeah, for those who want to know whom I ran into but they did not recognize me.
Ron Lamada
Ron Mane
Perry
Barry
And other random guards.
I thought about poking them with a stick but I didn't wanna end up in a holding area for the night.
Posted by Mike at 7:22 PM 0 comments
Monday, October 18, 2004
Mid Vacation Report
Soooo, here is how the vacation has been going. Not too exciting. We went to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal my first night in town. That was basically the only thing that I had definite plans for here in town. The rest of it just time to sit back and relax. Basically to do nothing and recharge. This is cause I am going to be making major pushes and planning when I get home. Although the plan is basically still the same, there will be a bit of fine tuning.
So aside from catching a few fliks I have just been sitting around the apartment, spending a bit of time on the laptop, working out, and watching a little tv. Oh yeah, I got a bit of reading in too.
Movies turned to a good option cause I can get student discount at citywalk here. That comes to $5.75. That is almost 3 bucks less than the student discount at the movies back home. So it has been a good time to catch up on fliks.
I am hoping to hear from Chris in the next 24 hours or so. I know he has today and tomorrow off work but still has school. It would be nice to be able to get together with some of the other kids here in town for dinner or drinks or pretty much anything.
Although I am pretty much doing nothing it would be nice to get some time away from Jeff while I am down here. Hanging out so much and crashing at his place reminds me of one of the numero uno primary reasons I moved. Cool to hang out with on occasion but not be roommates with. Too many issues. Anyways, more on that at another time.
I'll probably throw the horror nights update on later tonight sometime. Maybe during the ball game.
Posted by Mike at 7:27 PM 0 comments