My son and I went with some friends to see The Avengers last weekend. I thought it had potential and had heard good things about it, but I still didn't have high hopes that they would develop the characters and it would just be explosions.
Some have pointed out that they had the previous movies to develop the characters, so there wasn't a big need for that. Any time a character shows up in a movie, I feel like they should have some development. Even more so when they were only just introduced in one movie.
There was a lot of unbelievability in what the presented, but they road the edge to where when I was beginning to say, "Not possible" they drew me back in and I ended up with, "That was awesome!"
It was great that the kept Captain America as a man from the 40s, a man of ethics and faith. Not only did it make for a fantastic character, but also the juxtaposition with Tony Stark's playboy persona.
We got the idea that Tony Stark was a self absorbed womanizer without there having to be a bunch of bedroom scenes. Yeah, there was a lot of stuff with Stark that was too edgy for me, but for the most part they communicated the character without having to get crude.
I did not have high hopes for the characters of Black Widow and Hawkeye, since there were just "ordinary" people.
The opening scene with Black Widow was awesome. The surprise of it and comedy of it. The build up as the viewer is trying to figure out what in the world is going on as much as the bad guy is. Some of my surprise may have been because I forgot that she had been introduced as an intense weapon in Iron Man 2. But even if I had remembered that Iron Man 2 did not play up that she was a manipulator as well as a superb fighter.
I was not thrilled with Hawkeye, but I think the positive things I can say about him was that I was not more disappointed with the character than I was when I went into it. I even slightly enjoy some of the scenes with him in it. I didn't like the mind control to the bad side through half the movie. I didn't really like that for any of the people, even the one that weren't supposed to be "super".
My biggest complaints about Hulk in The Hulk movies was that he was just too big. They either made him more realistically sized in this one or they just presented him well enough that I didn't have a chance to focus on it. He still has to be one of the characters that violates the laws of physics the most, but again, it was presented well enough to mostly get me over it.
I'm just not buying that a being with that much mass of muscle is going to have much of a vertical leap. I not buying that he is jumping through the air and a plane flying into him does change his trajectory.
I still think Loki is a weenie villain, but he was more tolerable in The Avengers than he was in Thor.
On the subject of Loki and Thor, I don't get the Demigod thing. I had a friend say that the way they rendered their home world, Asgard, in a way that it looked like it was pulled right off the page of the comic book. While I respect staying true to the source material, I hated the scenes on Asgard.
I would now like to compare The Avenger to the Transformers movies.
The Avengers was a great movie and they kept it clean for the most part. The Transformers was full of foul language and vulgarity...and the movie stunk.
Both had huge explosions.
The Avengers developed the characters pretty well, even after having them all have movies of their own to develop them. Transformers did next to no character development.
Transformers likely had a larger fan base than The Avengers because there had been cartoons on TV and such. The Avengers characters were probably somewhat know due to their exposure on TV and lunch boxes, but as a team not well known and yet people are loving the movie.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Teen Wolf (2011)
I found the other day that the second season of Teen Wolf had started. While I still like the basic story, I think it is falling apart.
Most every woman and girl, even an older lady, is always in a mini skirt. It is a shallow script that relies on eye candy. On the same subject, the teenage sexual intimacy is a distraction to the plot.
I don't remember how the last season of Teen Wolf was, but so far this season the homosexual innuendos are frequent, unnecessary, and awkward.
The lizards are lame. I was following the werewolves and it was working when it stayed on plot.
Derek's character keeps flip flopping. It was great when he was trying to find out who killed his family and get answers about himself. Seeking for power as an alpha ruined it.
I am hoping Teen Wolf gets better, but some of these turns I fear are irreversible.
Most every woman and girl, even an older lady, is always in a mini skirt. It is a shallow script that relies on eye candy. On the same subject, the teenage sexual intimacy is a distraction to the plot.
I don't remember how the last season of Teen Wolf was, but so far this season the homosexual innuendos are frequent, unnecessary, and awkward.
The lizards are lame. I was following the werewolves and it was working when it stayed on plot.
Derek's character keeps flip flopping. It was great when he was trying to find out who killed his family and get answers about himself. Seeking for power as an alpha ruined it.
I am hoping Teen Wolf gets better, but some of these turns I fear are irreversible.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Tower Heist
I saw that this movie Tower Heist was on DVD and I started to look at the cast (Ben Sitller, Eddie Murphy, Alan Alda, Matthew Broderick, Judd Hirsch, Téa Leoni, and so on) and I was pretty excited. I was also a little hesitant, since even though there is a ton of movies where Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller give an awesome clean performance, there is also a ton of movies where Eddie and Ben are non stop vulgar. They don't appear to know how to give a performance outside of a kids movie without dropping to limited profane vocabulary.
In spite of the solid cast and what appeared to be a potentially decent premise they blew it. Sentence after sentence if peppered with profanity. Even if it is not morally wrong to be vulgar, it is weak script writing to spread profanity so thickly. It got in the way of the story.
After 15 or 20 minutes into the movie I finally shut it off. It was very disappointing, since I really had high hopes for this movie.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Heaven Is Waiting/Midway to Heaven
My wife read the book Midway to Heaven. I started to read it with her after she was finished. We liked the book. She saw that there was a movie based on it called Heaven Is Waiting. We rented it from Redbox.
First of all I'm confused. Why the change of name? Even IMDB.com is confused. I went to look up the movie by the title of Heaven is Waiting and it did not find the movie based on Midway to Heaven. When I typed in the name Midway to Heaven it showed me a box cover of the movie we watched that was titled Heaven is Waiting, but the box cover they showed on IMDB's site was Midway to Heaven.
All of the IMDB confusion aside. The movie is still about the town Midway that is supposed to be beautiful and peaceful. At the beginning of the movie they even introduce the town and say that the name of the town is rumored to be Midway because it is midway to Heaven. The name change makes no sense, but this is just the tip of the ice burg.
The movie stripped out all the LDS references, even though it is still based in Utah. The book is filled with LDS references and that is some of what makes the book unique and interesting. Of course being LDS myself, I may enjoy and understand those references more than someone who is not LDS.
It not only removed the LDS references, but replaced them with protestant references. It appears that they wanted to broaden the audience, but apparently they didn't want to broaden it too far. They seem to be assuming that most people won't find the LDS scenes entertaining or won't understand them, but making the character protestant makes it to where everyone understands them better?
The one that stands out is the scene where he is speaking to a protestant preacher at the gas station and the protestant preacher is quizzing him about why he impersonated him to a college to ask about the guy his daughter is dating. In the book he was called into his bishop's office and asked about his calling the boyfriend's bishop in another town to ask about him. Not only is the scene more intense because someone called him in to talk about it, but this he could potentially lose his church membership over doing something like that on top of the fact that the person he was impersonating could press charges. The preacher getting on him about it did have the option for legal matters, but there was no extra potential penalty for him. Yes, I see there is awkwardness is anyone finding that out and maybe more so if it is your preacher, but it still seems a much lighter scene that with a bishop.
Additionally, after covering the issue of the impersonation the bishop talks with him about how he is doing. How he is handling his wife's death and how he is handling his daughter growing up. The preacher pretty much just laid out that he knew what he had done and Ned quickly disengaged the conversation.
Another LDS thing they removed that really had nothing to do with the church, other than location was the scene at temple square where he stalks a couple that looks like his daughter and then she catches him stalking.
I say they removed the scene only because they changed it so badly that it was not the same scene. They changed from a beautiful scene at Christmas time with the lights on temple Square and the peacefulness of it to a bar.
They changed from him suspenseful stalking this young couple and having his daughter walk up behind him to barging into the bar like a raving lunatic shouting for his daughter and offending everyone around him. This ties into my point earlier of the movie making Ned look crazy, rather than just in mourning.
The movie was too short. Part of the issue with the movie being too short falls back to them cutting the movie apart to conceivably make it more palatable for non LDS people. But even with chopping out the LDS stuff this movie could have been a lot better by just taking some more time to develop the plot. Even though the book was a somewhat short novel, it still takes time.
Several of the scenes seemed really rushed. To the point that if one hadn't read the book it would be hard to understand. I think the scene in the kitchen was like that, but that scene had many of the problems I have previously discusses. It made Ned look mean and the boyfriend look easily agitated and not infinitely patient like the boyfriend in the book.
They cut out several other things that were substantive points of the book.
They took out the golfing scenes with the boyfriend and the father. They took out the running scenes with the boyfriend and the father. As previously stated, the character of boyfriend was not near as "perfect" as in the book. The father was much less passive aggressive in the movie and more directly confrontational. The boyfriend was less forgiving and less giving the father the benefit of the doubt and more confrontational. They kept putting the dad in situations where he would get caught talking to the dead wife. I didn't get the feeling in the book that he was having a psychological break, but that he was just having a lot of trouble letting go.
I didn't get the impression from the book that Carol, the girl that was pursuing him, presented herself as if she knew she was pretty and could manipulate Ned with it. I may be remembering wrong, but I seem to recall that the primary weapon the women used on him was casseroles and the prospect that he would have to make contact with them again to return their dishes.
There were also less women presented as chasing. They mentioned briefly that they had been, but part of taking a book and making it a movie is to visualize things that were just in words in the book.
The movie had potential just by being based on a good book, but it also had potential by what I could see of what was presented. It appeared that there were talented people involved in the movie, but the length of the movie and the slashing parts of the book left it flat.
First of all I'm confused. Why the change of name? Even IMDB.com is confused. I went to look up the movie by the title of Heaven is Waiting and it did not find the movie based on Midway to Heaven. When I typed in the name Midway to Heaven it showed me a box cover of the movie we watched that was titled Heaven is Waiting, but the box cover they showed on IMDB's site was Midway to Heaven.
All of the IMDB confusion aside. The movie is still about the town Midway that is supposed to be beautiful and peaceful. At the beginning of the movie they even introduce the town and say that the name of the town is rumored to be Midway because it is midway to Heaven. The name change makes no sense, but this is just the tip of the ice burg.
The movie stripped out all the LDS references, even though it is still based in Utah. The book is filled with LDS references and that is some of what makes the book unique and interesting. Of course being LDS myself, I may enjoy and understand those references more than someone who is not LDS.
It not only removed the LDS references, but replaced them with protestant references. It appears that they wanted to broaden the audience, but apparently they didn't want to broaden it too far. They seem to be assuming that most people won't find the LDS scenes entertaining or won't understand them, but making the character protestant makes it to where everyone understands them better?
The one that stands out is the scene where he is speaking to a protestant preacher at the gas station and the protestant preacher is quizzing him about why he impersonated him to a college to ask about the guy his daughter is dating. In the book he was called into his bishop's office and asked about his calling the boyfriend's bishop in another town to ask about him. Not only is the scene more intense because someone called him in to talk about it, but this he could potentially lose his church membership over doing something like that on top of the fact that the person he was impersonating could press charges. The preacher getting on him about it did have the option for legal matters, but there was no extra potential penalty for him. Yes, I see there is awkwardness is anyone finding that out and maybe more so if it is your preacher, but it still seems a much lighter scene that with a bishop.
Additionally, after covering the issue of the impersonation the bishop talks with him about how he is doing. How he is handling his wife's death and how he is handling his daughter growing up. The preacher pretty much just laid out that he knew what he had done and Ned quickly disengaged the conversation.
Another LDS thing they removed that really had nothing to do with the church, other than location was the scene at temple square where he stalks a couple that looks like his daughter and then she catches him stalking.
I say they removed the scene only because they changed it so badly that it was not the same scene. They changed from a beautiful scene at Christmas time with the lights on temple Square and the peacefulness of it to a bar.
They changed from him suspenseful stalking this young couple and having his daughter walk up behind him to barging into the bar like a raving lunatic shouting for his daughter and offending everyone around him. This ties into my point earlier of the movie making Ned look crazy, rather than just in mourning.
The movie was too short. Part of the issue with the movie being too short falls back to them cutting the movie apart to conceivably make it more palatable for non LDS people. But even with chopping out the LDS stuff this movie could have been a lot better by just taking some more time to develop the plot. Even though the book was a somewhat short novel, it still takes time.
Several of the scenes seemed really rushed. To the point that if one hadn't read the book it would be hard to understand. I think the scene in the kitchen was like that, but that scene had many of the problems I have previously discusses. It made Ned look mean and the boyfriend look easily agitated and not infinitely patient like the boyfriend in the book.
They cut out several other things that were substantive points of the book.
They took out the golfing scenes with the boyfriend and the father. They took out the running scenes with the boyfriend and the father. As previously stated, the character of boyfriend was not near as "perfect" as in the book. The father was much less passive aggressive in the movie and more directly confrontational. The boyfriend was less forgiving and less giving the father the benefit of the doubt and more confrontational. They kept putting the dad in situations where he would get caught talking to the dead wife. I didn't get the feeling in the book that he was having a psychological break, but that he was just having a lot of trouble letting go.
I didn't get the impression from the book that Carol, the girl that was pursuing him, presented herself as if she knew she was pretty and could manipulate Ned with it. I may be remembering wrong, but I seem to recall that the primary weapon the women used on him was casseroles and the prospect that he would have to make contact with them again to return their dishes.
There were also less women presented as chasing. They mentioned briefly that they had been, but part of taking a book and making it a movie is to visualize things that were just in words in the book.
The movie had potential just by being based on a good book, but it also had potential by what I could see of what was presented. It appeared that there were talented people involved in the movie, but the length of the movie and the slashing parts of the book left it flat.
Thursday, April 05, 2012
Disneyland
I have never been to Disneyland or Disney World. I have never found myself lacking anything by not having gone. My wife went as a child and had a great desire to return and to give our children that experience. So we went.
I found the trip to be enjoyable, but an extravagance in relation to our income level and unnecessary.
One thing that perplexed me was the typical check point that places have to search bags and fanny packs. We would walk in and open our fanny packs and they would look at the stuff on top and move you along. What if I had a weapon or whatever the check point is design to check for underneath the snacks on top? What if i had those items in my pockets? They never checked those and if one had no bags they could walk right through without being checked.
I hadn't anticipated, but was very pleased and interested in the attention to detail in everything in Disneyland. Even the trash cans were decorated and clean. The attention to detail wasn't just in what you could see, but also in what you heard. The rides had sounds in sync and enhancing the experience. The sounds were also designed so you didn't hear them until you were meant to hear them as part of the experience, even though they were right in front of you.
It has now been almost a year since I started writing this post and even though my above feelings are still true, I do at times find myself longing to go back. I suppose I somewhat understand some of my wife's drive that the kids had to go experience it.
Below I will detail several parts of the park that I noticed, but not every ride and attraction.
One thing that should be noted was that at one point my kids commented to me, "Can we go back to the hotel and swim? You don't have to stand in line for that."
Main Street USA
Shortly after walking through the ticket turnstile we were dropped onto main street. It was nice to see the classic home town stylings that I heard later were designed after Walt Disney's home town. It is interesting that it has been retained that way after all these years.
Up and down main street there were what appeared to be security personnel. They all had big white cartoon looking gloves and were waving to everyone. That gave a good welcoming feel to the park and a more comfortable feeling about the security gards that can be forboding.
Mr. Lincoln
Everything in the theater building where Mr. Lincoln was in was cool. It had a replica of the capital building. There was also a display on the history of Disneyland that was interesting. They also had a section of some of the early drawings for some of the movies.
The Disneyland video said that Walt Disney had an apartment put on main street where he and his family stayed a lot. That would be cool to sit up there and look out on everything and everyone.
The Mr. Lincoln program was very interesting. I was surprised that still it existed since it had been around for so long. I was also surprised it was still around since it talked so much about faith and God. I have heard serveral things every now and again of liberal practices that have been creaping into the Disney company. So to have something flat out speaking of God made me wonder about the things I heard and if they were true.
My one son was very curious on how they did the animatronic Mr. Lincoln.
New Orleans Square
Haunted Mansion
The ride was a little confusing at first. There were no line to get in. We walked in the mansion with a handful of people. We were immediately in a circular room. I had my kids with me and wasn't sure how to keep track of them, since I didn't know what was going to happen. The door closed behind us and the room went dark. There was a little presentation with a voice telling a story and the room doing weird things.
After the presentation the other side of the room opened up and we were led to the ride. It was basically a simple ride on a track ride through parts of the story of the haunted mansion. It was interesting to watch.
It was not scary from the standpoint of ghosts and such or from a thrill ride point of view. The beginning might have freaked out little kids, since it was very much about not knowing what to expect.
Pirates of the Caribbean.
This was a basic boat ride on a track. You went down quite a bit under the building and then back up at the end, but I don't think there were any big drops. There were interesting animatronics to see. I have heard that it is very different since they updated it to match the Johnny Depp movies. It was interesting to ride once.
My son said it was exhilarating.
Critter Country
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
This was a basic storybook ride in a cart on a track. It was interesting once and nice for younger kids. Our seven year old went on it several times.
Davey Crockett's Explorer Canoes
We wanted to go on this one, but it was closed for some reason.
Frontierland
Mark Twain Riverboat
It was a three level functioning riverboat. The lines were not bad for this ride, probably because you could fit tons of people on the boat. The boat traveled around this circular "river". It was nice to see the workings of the boat and also look out at the goings on in the park.
The Petting Zoo
It was a nice quiet place for the kids to pet goats.
Fantasyland
This was a cool ride, but the seating was cramped for a tall guy. My kids liked it, except for the long wait in line.
Pixie Hollow
This was where you could meet Tinker Bell. On the way you got to meet a couple of other fairies as well. The line to even get to the fairies was pretty much the same as to get to see Minnie Mouse, but not near as long to see the princesses. We waited for about an hour and a half.
Princesses
My wife tried getting my daughter in early one day to see the princesses, but the sign had lied about what the hours were. Then she went back at the time and the line was horrendous. I think it was over two hours to wait and in the middle of it the princesses took lunch. I would have thought that they could rotate the princesses out for breaks and lunches and keep things moving.
The Tea Cups
The tea cups were pretty nice. It was a fun mild ride to watch the kids. The line moved fairly quickly on this one.
My one son said it was cool and kind of boring.
Fireworks
There was a big fireworks display on Friday night around Sleeping Beauty's castle. It was a little disappointing that they crammed everyone into these little roped off areas on the path near the castle. It made it hard to see the fireworks and it was uncomfortable to navigate the crowd. In spite of all that the show was impressive.
There was more of that attention to detail in the fireworks show. I have seen shows where the music and fireworks were synced up, but I have never seen it so precise. It was so in sync that music would end and the light from the rocket would go out at the exact same time.
They had fireworks happening all around us and sounds too. It was very much surround sound.
After the fireworks were over and the crowd dispersed there was trash everywhere. I was very disappointed with mankind and their lack of consideration and appreciation. But even in that, Disneyland was ready. Within a minute it was all cleaned up. There was an army of workers with brooms and scoops cleaning it all up.
World of Color
We saw signs for something called World of Color as we entered the park each day, but we had no idea what it was and just kind of ignored it. We made some friends at our hotel and they mentioned that it was great and we had to go see it. They said it happened almost every night after it got dark. You had to get special "Fast Passes" to get into it. We went and got them, since the fast pass system wasn't really working for us for anything else. It took some planning to get the Fast Passes, but it seemed to make the event more enjoyable, since the crowds were less because of having to have tickets.
They had a big platform filled most of the lagoon with many many water sprayers of various kinds with lights attached to them and around them. They had sound and light and water and it was amazing. They would often create a mist of water or even a wall and project images and colors onto them. Many of the images were scenes from Disney movies.
World of Color was better than the firework due to their uniqueness, but also because the crowd was more thinned due to the fast pass thing.
Standing In Line
As I have said in several places in this post, standing in line was a big issue for us. I have a friend that told me you have to know how to work the park, but I don't understand it.
Standing in line they usually give you something to look at and they wind the lines enough to keep you moving, most times. Moving is better than standing. It makes you feel like you are getting somewhere and your feet and legs don't get as sore. Not every line was as good as that. Minnie, Tinker Bell, and the Princesses were not as good as keeping you feeling like you were moving, but some of that could have been because lines were the longest and there is only so much you can do with that.
I found the trip to be enjoyable, but an extravagance in relation to our income level and unnecessary.
One thing that perplexed me was the typical check point that places have to search bags and fanny packs. We would walk in and open our fanny packs and they would look at the stuff on top and move you along. What if I had a weapon or whatever the check point is design to check for underneath the snacks on top? What if i had those items in my pockets? They never checked those and if one had no bags they could walk right through without being checked.
I hadn't anticipated, but was very pleased and interested in the attention to detail in everything in Disneyland. Even the trash cans were decorated and clean. The attention to detail wasn't just in what you could see, but also in what you heard. The rides had sounds in sync and enhancing the experience. The sounds were also designed so you didn't hear them until you were meant to hear them as part of the experience, even though they were right in front of you.
It has now been almost a year since I started writing this post and even though my above feelings are still true, I do at times find myself longing to go back. I suppose I somewhat understand some of my wife's drive that the kids had to go experience it.
Below I will detail several parts of the park that I noticed, but not every ride and attraction.
One thing that should be noted was that at one point my kids commented to me, "Can we go back to the hotel and swim? You don't have to stand in line for that."
Main Street USA
Shortly after walking through the ticket turnstile we were dropped onto main street. It was nice to see the classic home town stylings that I heard later were designed after Walt Disney's home town. It is interesting that it has been retained that way after all these years.
Up and down main street there were what appeared to be security personnel. They all had big white cartoon looking gloves and were waving to everyone. That gave a good welcoming feel to the park and a more comfortable feeling about the security gards that can be forboding.
Mr. Lincoln
Everything in the theater building where Mr. Lincoln was in was cool. It had a replica of the capital building. There was also a display on the history of Disneyland that was interesting. They also had a section of some of the early drawings for some of the movies.
The Disneyland video said that Walt Disney had an apartment put on main street where he and his family stayed a lot. That would be cool to sit up there and look out on everything and everyone.
The Mr. Lincoln program was very interesting. I was surprised that still it existed since it had been around for so long. I was also surprised it was still around since it talked so much about faith and God. I have heard serveral things every now and again of liberal practices that have been creaping into the Disney company. So to have something flat out speaking of God made me wonder about the things I heard and if they were true.
My one son was very curious on how they did the animatronic Mr. Lincoln.
New Orleans Square
Haunted Mansion
The ride was a little confusing at first. There were no line to get in. We walked in the mansion with a handful of people. We were immediately in a circular room. I had my kids with me and wasn't sure how to keep track of them, since I didn't know what was going to happen. The door closed behind us and the room went dark. There was a little presentation with a voice telling a story and the room doing weird things.
After the presentation the other side of the room opened up and we were led to the ride. It was basically a simple ride on a track ride through parts of the story of the haunted mansion. It was interesting to watch.
It was not scary from the standpoint of ghosts and such or from a thrill ride point of view. The beginning might have freaked out little kids, since it was very much about not knowing what to expect.
Pirates of the Caribbean.
This was a basic boat ride on a track. You went down quite a bit under the building and then back up at the end, but I don't think there were any big drops. There were interesting animatronics to see. I have heard that it is very different since they updated it to match the Johnny Depp movies. It was interesting to ride once.
My son said it was exhilarating.
Critter Country
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
This was a basic storybook ride in a cart on a track. It was interesting once and nice for younger kids. Our seven year old went on it several times.
Davey Crockett's Explorer Canoes
We wanted to go on this one, but it was closed for some reason.
Frontierland
Mark Twain Riverboat
It was a three level functioning riverboat. The lines were not bad for this ride, probably because you could fit tons of people on the boat. The boat traveled around this circular "river". It was nice to see the workings of the boat and also look out at the goings on in the park.
The Petting Zoo
It was a nice quiet place for the kids to pet goats.
Fantasyland
| There were several storybook ride much like the Winnie the Pooh ride I mentioned above. They basically just take you through a story and twist and turn you on this little cart, showing you various sights and sounds from whatever story you were in. In reality, eat ride like that was about the same. Peter Pan I think the Peter Pan ride/story was in this area. It was about the same as the other storybook rides, except that it lifted you in the air to go through the story. Instead of having tracks or the ground to run on, the cart was hooked tracks in the ceiling. Sleeping Beauty's Castle The castle is great for pictures and interesting to go through once, but it is what I would describe as flat. You just walk and navigate through this narrow hallway looking at images from the movie. The good part is that there wasn't a long line to wait in. We did get to see a mother outside the castle berating, her child who was barely older than a toddle, for ruining the trip to Disneyland for her. I think she misses the point of Disneyland and perhaps even the point of being a parent. It's a Small World You often here about how the song on the It's a Small World ride can drive you crazy, which it can, but there were a lot of positives. I think I recall that you couldn't hear the music unless you were in the ride, so at least it only took its toll on those that chose to get on it. The ride moved through large numbers of people quickly and the lines were fairly quick. The ride was somewhat interesting to see all the dolls and floating down the water was really nice, in contract to all the walking and standing in line. | |
| Dumbo the Flying Elephant |
This was a cool ride, but the seating was cramped for a tall guy. My kids liked it, except for the long wait in line.
Pixie Hollow
This was where you could meet Tinker Bell. On the way you got to meet a couple of other fairies as well. The line to even get to the fairies was pretty much the same as to get to see Minnie Mouse, but not near as long to see the princesses. We waited for about an hour and a half.
Princesses
My wife tried getting my daughter in early one day to see the princesses, but the sign had lied about what the hours were. Then she went back at the time and the line was horrendous. I think it was over two hours to wait and in the middle of it the princesses took lunch. I would have thought that they could rotate the princesses out for breaks and lunches and keep things moving.
The Tea Cups
The tea cups were pretty nice. It was a fun mild ride to watch the kids. The line moved fairly quickly on this one.
| Adventureland |
| Jungle Cruise The Jungle Cruise was great. Just like some of the other attractions floating along was really good. The tour guides were very entertaining. For those concerned about getting wet, there was some slight misting and even a little spray from some of the fake animals, but you do not get drenched. Indiana Jones Adventure If you do not tolerate having your neck jolted about, this ride is not for you. We went on it a couple of times and I was very apprehensive, not knowing what to expect and not generally liking thrill rides. I never got use to the jolting of my neck, but if the lines weren't so long I would've gone on it again. There is one drop that feels like it is going to be more than it is, so not severe drops. You wound your way through the line while looking at the archaeology atmosphere. Once you got inside the attraction you went down the long hallway like in a tomb. There were videos playing of the chubby boisterous guy from the movie. My one son said that it was the coolest ride there, except that it kind of stunk inside the cave. Tarzan's Treehouse My wife said that when she was a kid this was the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse and not Tarzan. She said that the Swiss Family Robinson was more interactive and more entertaining. The current Tarzan version let's you look inside the house through windows and go over rope bridges and such. At the bottom there was a place where kids could get hands on and that was kind of cool. |
| Tomorrowland |
| Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
This was a cool ride. As we stood in line it wound us through a building where we could look at posters and stuff on our way while we waited. You ride through similar to Winnie the Pooh and all the other story rides, but in this one you get a laser gun to shoot things and you get a score to compete with your car mate. They take your picture as you are going through and at the end you have the option to email the picture to yourself for free. Contrast this with Legoland that chewed me out for trying to take a picture of the LCD displays that had the pictures of my kids on it that they took of them on the ride. Disney's focus seemed to be on their guests having the most awesome time possible and Legoland's focus appeared to sell pictures. Jedi Lightsaber Training There was something in the middle of a plaza where they appeared to be pretending that someone was a Jedi and training the kids to use light sabers. It was neat and the kids probably would have enjoyed participating in it, but unfortunately the crowds were tremendous and it would've been a long wait to get them up there for a turn and I didn't see how long this would going on or if it was just a special thing that pops up for a short time, like a random encounter with a person dressed as one of the Disney characters. If you are in their area you get to visit with them. Other than that your kid gets to watch other kids swarm the characters and then watch them walk away. Star Tours Star Tours was not open when we were there. |
Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. If you are severely claustrophobic, do not take this ride. You climb down into a pseudo submarine. You get a seat on a bench in front of your own porthole. Sounds from the movie, scenes from the movie, and stuff that has been glued underwater pass by your porthole as you go. It was ok and the kids were only somewhat entertained. My one son said it was freaky. |
Mickey's Toontown It this area there was lot of stuff for younger kids. They had many of the characters houses, but the lines were pretty intense to get into the houses or to take pictures with the characters. I think it was a lot faster to get into Mickie's house than Minnie's. I think it was about an hour and a half to get into Minnie's. One very positive thing about Mickie's house was at the end you were in this room with Mickey and they had a professional photographer taking pictures and giving out a card with a code on it for how to order prints of what he took. At the same time they had a worker offering to take pictures with your camera. They did not have the photographer take it, but the comparatively photographic armature Disney worker took them. Which was awesome. That was a great balance between having a service available to make extra money on a premium product and going out of their way to give us an awesome time and not spend extra if we didn't need the professional photos. The worker's photo's were plenty good for our needs. |
Fireworks
There was a big fireworks display on Friday night around Sleeping Beauty's castle. It was a little disappointing that they crammed everyone into these little roped off areas on the path near the castle. It made it hard to see the fireworks and it was uncomfortable to navigate the crowd. In spite of all that the show was impressive.
There was more of that attention to detail in the fireworks show. I have seen shows where the music and fireworks were synced up, but I have never seen it so precise. It was so in sync that music would end and the light from the rocket would go out at the exact same time.
They had fireworks happening all around us and sounds too. It was very much surround sound.
After the fireworks were over and the crowd dispersed there was trash everywhere. I was very disappointed with mankind and their lack of consideration and appreciation. But even in that, Disneyland was ready. Within a minute it was all cleaned up. There was an army of workers with brooms and scoops cleaning it all up.
World of Color
We saw signs for something called World of Color as we entered the park each day, but we had no idea what it was and just kind of ignored it. We made some friends at our hotel and they mentioned that it was great and we had to go see it. They said it happened almost every night after it got dark. You had to get special "Fast Passes" to get into it. We went and got them, since the fast pass system wasn't really working for us for anything else. It took some planning to get the Fast Passes, but it seemed to make the event more enjoyable, since the crowds were less because of having to have tickets.
They had a big platform filled most of the lagoon with many many water sprayers of various kinds with lights attached to them and around them. They had sound and light and water and it was amazing. They would often create a mist of water or even a wall and project images and colors onto them. Many of the images were scenes from Disney movies.
World of Color was better than the firework due to their uniqueness, but also because the crowd was more thinned due to the fast pass thing.
Standing In Line
As I have said in several places in this post, standing in line was a big issue for us. I have a friend that told me you have to know how to work the park, but I don't understand it.
Standing in line they usually give you something to look at and they wind the lines enough to keep you moving, most times. Moving is better than standing. It makes you feel like you are getting somewhere and your feet and legs don't get as sore. Not every line was as good as that. Minnie, Tinker Bell, and the Princesses were not as good as keeping you feeling like you were moving, but some of that could have been because lines were the longest and there is only so much you can do with that.
Malan's Peak Hiking Trail Ogden, Utah
August 2008
Last weekend my wife and I started to head out on a trail and see as high as we could get to the top of Mount Ogden before we wore out. We started out around 8. I would recommend getting an hour or two sooner start to get through most of the hard stuff before the cool of the night starts to wear off if you are hiking on a hot summer day. I also think that 27th street trail head might have been a more direct route after looking at the map while venturing up the 29th street trail head. We ended up getting a little turned around and ended up walking past the 27th street trail head anyway. We ended up in the bouldering field past 27th street. The bouldering field was interesting.
What is a bouldering field? I'm not sure. I've been searching on line and it looks like bouldering is some sort of rock climbing. I didn't see anything in this area that looked like you could rock climb. All we saw was an area of chucks of rock on the ground. It was a interesting space to explore, but not a place where you could rock climb and not the place where we wanted to be headed to.
We got over there because we somehow ended up on Bonneville Shoreline Trail. We needed to be on Taylor Canyon Trail. I think we got off on the wrong trail right from the start. They both seem to bunch up around the 29th street trail head.
Once we got to the Malan trail the views were great. We were able to look over the city, down the canyon, and at the rocky parts of the mountain around.
Leaving Taylor Canyon and entering Malan's Basin Trail we crossed a little wooden bridge. This is the first switch back. It is a little bit of work, but at the next switch back there is a great overlook for the city. Before getting there we stopped and sat and had a snack at a wide part of the trail, which there aren't many.
The trail from there had a lot of views of the canyon. There were a couple of places where you are in the sun for a stretch and it feels a little desolate, but with big payoffs of Douglas Fir trees and Malan's Peak.
The hike is very steep at times and very narrow at times. At one point you have to cross what feels like a boulder. It is a beautiful rock formation, but you have to traverse a washed away area of the rock all very close to the edge. At the same time, below we could see a waterfall, which one hiker we met at that point on the trail described as looking very man made. Like the water had been diverted.
I remember commenting at one point that it was a fresh smelling trail from the ever greens and such I suppose.
In spite of the ruggedness of the trail we saw several people over 50 on the trail.
This is a link to a brief description of the trail http://www.utah.com/thingtodo27442.htm
Spring 2011
The last time we went we stopped at Malan's Peak and did not continue on to Malan's Basin where the old Hotel was. After going up and up the last time I did not want want to go down and then have to go back up. When you leave Malan's Peak you go down at first and I had no idea what was going to happen from there. You do go down a bit and then back up some.
We hiked down onto a path that went through some thick growth. After a while of some more strenuous hiking we got to the basin.
Once we got to the basin there was a great stream there that eventually leads to the top of the waterfall in Waterfall Canyon. It was very full with the wet winter and spring we have had.
We looked up at Mount Ogden. It was an angle we had never seen it from. We could see the snow on the face that is usually hidden from view and the sun by the basin. It was pretty cool.
We went to see if we could follow the stream to the top of the waterfall. We went down a little trail, but the growth got thicker and thicker as we got in and it made me nervous with all of the rattle snakes we have seen in the fall and this spring. We backed out and headed back. I had been taking the lead, but when we reverse my wife was in the lead. She had startled a rattlesnake on her way by. The snake darted in my direction, apparently not seeing me, but trying to get away from her. Scared me and I think the snake too. Fortunately it changed its direction and headed out into the bush.
We saw the plaque for the hotel that use to be up there, where apparently Teddy Roosevelt stayed.
I have been spending a bit of time this year with a World War II vet in our congregation at church. I found out that his middle name is Malan and one of his relatives owned the property. He said that his mother had spent a lot of time up there at the hotel with the family.
Last weekend my wife and I started to head out on a trail and see as high as we could get to the top of Mount Ogden before we wore out. We started out around 8. I would recommend getting an hour or two sooner start to get through most of the hard stuff before the cool of the night starts to wear off if you are hiking on a hot summer day. I also think that 27th street trail head might have been a more direct route after looking at the map while venturing up the 29th street trail head. We ended up getting a little turned around and ended up walking past the 27th street trail head anyway. We ended up in the bouldering field past 27th street. The bouldering field was interesting.
What is a bouldering field? I'm not sure. I've been searching on line and it looks like bouldering is some sort of rock climbing. I didn't see anything in this area that looked like you could rock climb. All we saw was an area of chucks of rock on the ground. It was a interesting space to explore, but not a place where you could rock climb and not the place where we wanted to be headed to.
We got over there because we somehow ended up on Bonneville Shoreline Trail. We needed to be on Taylor Canyon Trail. I think we got off on the wrong trail right from the start. They both seem to bunch up around the 29th street trail head.
Once we got to the Malan trail the views were great. We were able to look over the city, down the canyon, and at the rocky parts of the mountain around.
Leaving Taylor Canyon and entering Malan's Basin Trail we crossed a little wooden bridge. This is the first switch back. It is a little bit of work, but at the next switch back there is a great overlook for the city. Before getting there we stopped and sat and had a snack at a wide part of the trail, which there aren't many.
The trail from there had a lot of views of the canyon. There were a couple of places where you are in the sun for a stretch and it feels a little desolate, but with big payoffs of Douglas Fir trees and Malan's Peak.
The hike is very steep at times and very narrow at times. At one point you have to cross what feels like a boulder. It is a beautiful rock formation, but you have to traverse a washed away area of the rock all very close to the edge. At the same time, below we could see a waterfall, which one hiker we met at that point on the trail described as looking very man made. Like the water had been diverted.
I remember commenting at one point that it was a fresh smelling trail from the ever greens and such I suppose.
In spite of the ruggedness of the trail we saw several people over 50 on the trail.
This is a link to a brief description of the trail http://www.utah.com/thingtodo27442.htm
Spring 2011
The last time we went we stopped at Malan's Peak and did not continue on to Malan's Basin where the old Hotel was. After going up and up the last time I did not want want to go down and then have to go back up. When you leave Malan's Peak you go down at first and I had no idea what was going to happen from there. You do go down a bit and then back up some.
We hiked down onto a path that went through some thick growth. After a while of some more strenuous hiking we got to the basin.
Once we got to the basin there was a great stream there that eventually leads to the top of the waterfall in Waterfall Canyon. It was very full with the wet winter and spring we have had.
We looked up at Mount Ogden. It was an angle we had never seen it from. We could see the snow on the face that is usually hidden from view and the sun by the basin. It was pretty cool.
We went to see if we could follow the stream to the top of the waterfall. We went down a little trail, but the growth got thicker and thicker as we got in and it made me nervous with all of the rattle snakes we have seen in the fall and this spring. We backed out and headed back. I had been taking the lead, but when we reverse my wife was in the lead. She had startled a rattlesnake on her way by. The snake darted in my direction, apparently not seeing me, but trying to get away from her. Scared me and I think the snake too. Fortunately it changed its direction and headed out into the bush.
We saw the plaque for the hotel that use to be up there, where apparently Teddy Roosevelt stayed.
I have been spending a bit of time this year with a World War II vet in our congregation at church. I found out that his middle name is Malan and one of his relatives owned the property. He said that his mother had spent a lot of time up there at the hotel with the family.
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Adams Canyon Hiking Trail Near Layton, Utah
We hiked up Adams Canyon on the Saturday before Memorial Day 2009.
The turn off from 89 was a little tricky to find. Google maps just said turn toward Eastside drive or whatever the name of that little side road is that takes you to the trail head. The good part is that if you miss it you can see the pile up of cars in the trail head parking lot from 89 and it is not far to turn around and go back.
The parking lot at the trail head was very crowded. The trail wasn't too crowded except at certain bottle necks.
Comparing to Waterfall Canyon in Ogden, UT. Adams Canyon is harder and a bit longer than Waterfall Canyon. The waterfall in Adams Canyon is a lot shorter than the one that flows down the cliffs in Waterfall Canyon, but has huge amounts of water flowing from it.
The trail is steep, sandy, and in open sun for a long way starting out. The trail goes long enough in the sun and is exposed enough to start a sunburn.
The official trail apparently no longer exists. At the beginning there are these constructed zig zags that were not on the two trail maps I had.
It was very rugged at parts. Lots of people with small children, but not sure they went all the way up. We took our kids. It was very hard to watch the kids and keep our focus on keeping our footing too.
There was no way to see the waterfall except by crossing ankle deep water and slippery rocks at the top. I might have brought water shoes had I known, but the rocks would probably been hard on your feet, even with water shoes. When we went, the water was only ankle deep and there were rocks to climb, but the water was fast and cold. If you cross in your hiking shoes, your feet will be miserable on the hike back down, due to the length and difficulty of the trail.
There were lots of good places to stop to enjoy the rushing water. So if you don't want to hike as long or don't want to deal with the hard climbing and dangerous spots further up, you could still have a nice time lower down.
We went in May. Not sure the volume of water at other times of year. If you went later in the summer there might be less treacherous water, but the first bit of the hike in the open might be very uncomfortable.
Broken bridge. The first time you cross the stream there is a "bridge". It is some fallen branches that someone has nailed planks to, but the planks are leaning sideways, probably due to being beat upon by the rushing water, and it is a bit wobbly.
The turn off from 89 was a little tricky to find. Google maps just said turn toward Eastside drive or whatever the name of that little side road is that takes you to the trail head. The good part is that if you miss it you can see the pile up of cars in the trail head parking lot from 89 and it is not far to turn around and go back.
The parking lot at the trail head was very crowded. The trail wasn't too crowded except at certain bottle necks.
Comparing to Waterfall Canyon in Ogden, UT. Adams Canyon is harder and a bit longer than Waterfall Canyon. The waterfall in Adams Canyon is a lot shorter than the one that flows down the cliffs in Waterfall Canyon, but has huge amounts of water flowing from it.
The trail is steep, sandy, and in open sun for a long way starting out. The trail goes long enough in the sun and is exposed enough to start a sunburn.
The official trail apparently no longer exists. At the beginning there are these constructed zig zags that were not on the two trail maps I had.
It was very rugged at parts. Lots of people with small children, but not sure they went all the way up. We took our kids. It was very hard to watch the kids and keep our focus on keeping our footing too.
There was no way to see the waterfall except by crossing ankle deep water and slippery rocks at the top. I might have brought water shoes had I known, but the rocks would probably been hard on your feet, even with water shoes. When we went, the water was only ankle deep and there were rocks to climb, but the water was fast and cold. If you cross in your hiking shoes, your feet will be miserable on the hike back down, due to the length and difficulty of the trail.
There were lots of good places to stop to enjoy the rushing water. So if you don't want to hike as long or don't want to deal with the hard climbing and dangerous spots further up, you could still have a nice time lower down.
We went in May. Not sure the volume of water at other times of year. If you went later in the summer there might be less treacherous water, but the first bit of the hike in the open might be very uncomfortable.
Broken bridge. The first time you cross the stream there is a "bridge". It is some fallen branches that someone has nailed planks to, but the planks are leaning sideways, probably due to being beat upon by the rushing water, and it is a bit wobbly.
Taylor Canyon Hike, Ogden Utah
April 23, 2011
We took the kids hiking up Taylor Canyon starting at the 27th Street trail head in Ogden, Utah. The canyon follows a stream. I have searched around for the name of that stream and I can not find it. The stream was flowing fast and full, but while we were on what we knew to be the trail it did not come onto the trail.
We saw several small waterfalls on the sides of the trail.
There were a few bikers on the trail. I think they were just connecting up to the Bonneville Shoreline trail.
We turned around a little ways onto the upper trail, since my 15 year old daughter just wore light jogging shoes and three quarter length pants and was hurting.
Leaving the beaten trail at the sign for Malan's and the spring or for Taylor Canyon upper trail. Once we got onto the upper trail there were no more bikers or even hikers for that matter.
As soon as we got onto the upper trail the "trail" went into the edge of the stream for about 20 yards. For the most part we were able to keep our feet on the rocks with minimal wetness, but it was not a trickle we were hiking in.
When we got to the bridge and sign again on the way down to rest, two guys with snow board and skis came down from the upper trail. They said they had come from Snow Basin and were bushwhacking their way down. I would be interested to know how they found their way through the bush without getting lost, how they didn't tear up their snow pants in the bush, and if with a little bit of trail blazing would our family have been able to get up much higher.
April 4, 2012
We went up to Taylor Canyon again. We just wanted to go part way up and sit by the water and read and talk and watch the kids play. We trudged through the dusty parts of the lower trail and got to the bridge of the stream. It was bone dry.
I have talked to two difference people after the dryer winter we had. One is a guy in his thirties He spent a lot of time in the mountain as a kid hunting, fishing, four wheeling, and so forth. He is entirely unconcerned about having less snow in the mountain this year to melt down to us. His opinion is that it was above average wet by far last year and there is plenty of water in that mountain.
I talked to another friend of mine this winter about it and he is very concerned. He is a World War II veteran who has lived in Ogden his entire life, other than the brief period when he was bouncing around the country for the military. He says that dryer than normal winters cause a lot of problems come summer time.
We have lived here only a few years and we usually see deep deep snow in the mountain and traces of snow well into July. My guess is that this year most will be gone by the end of May.
Notice the difference between the ankle deep water in April of 2011 to the bone dry stream in April of 2012.
We took the kids hiking up Taylor Canyon starting at the 27th Street trail head in Ogden, Utah. The canyon follows a stream. I have searched around for the name of that stream and I can not find it. The stream was flowing fast and full, but while we were on what we knew to be the trail it did not come onto the trail.
We saw several small waterfalls on the sides of the trail.
There were a few bikers on the trail. I think they were just connecting up to the Bonneville Shoreline trail.
We turned around a little ways onto the upper trail, since my 15 year old daughter just wore light jogging shoes and three quarter length pants and was hurting.
Leaving the beaten trail at the sign for Malan's and the spring or for Taylor Canyon upper trail. Once we got onto the upper trail there were no more bikers or even hikers for that matter.
As soon as we got onto the upper trail the "trail" went into the edge of the stream for about 20 yards. For the most part we were able to keep our feet on the rocks with minimal wetness, but it was not a trickle we were hiking in.
When we got to the bridge and sign again on the way down to rest, two guys with snow board and skis came down from the upper trail. They said they had come from Snow Basin and were bushwhacking their way down. I would be interested to know how they found their way through the bush without getting lost, how they didn't tear up their snow pants in the bush, and if with a little bit of trail blazing would our family have been able to get up much higher.
April 4, 2012
We went up to Taylor Canyon again. We just wanted to go part way up and sit by the water and read and talk and watch the kids play. We trudged through the dusty parts of the lower trail and got to the bridge of the stream. It was bone dry.
I have talked to two difference people after the dryer winter we had. One is a guy in his thirties He spent a lot of time in the mountain as a kid hunting, fishing, four wheeling, and so forth. He is entirely unconcerned about having less snow in the mountain this year to melt down to us. His opinion is that it was above average wet by far last year and there is plenty of water in that mountain.
I talked to another friend of mine this winter about it and he is very concerned. He is a World War II veteran who has lived in Ogden his entire life, other than the brief period when he was bouncing around the country for the military. He says that dryer than normal winters cause a lot of problems come summer time.
We have lived here only a few years and we usually see deep deep snow in the mountain and traces of snow well into July. My guess is that this year most will be gone by the end of May.
Notice the difference between the ankle deep water in April of 2011 to the bone dry stream in April of 2012.
Twilight
When I moved to Utah I saw this book and the others in the series around everywhere. I don't remember seeing it when we lived in Indiana. I didn't know anything about it, but since it was everywhere in large quantities including in Wal-Mart I assumed it was some romance novel that was not worth my time.
Months later my sister-in-law, who still lives in Indiana, asked if I knew anything about it. She said it had been written by someone that went to BYU. I looked into it and it indeed appeared to be a romance novel, but with a teenaged girl and a vampire. Sounded gross, but I figured I would give it a look. She and I have listened to it and discussing it and even though it is not as gross as I anticipated it is still gross.
Age Difference
There is a hundred years difference in age between the main characters. My wife an I have three and even that sometimes seems like there is a generation gap. I can't imagine the differences at 100 years. Also, even if he looks like a teenager, the dude hasn't matured past his pouty and hissy fit phase in a hundred years?
Cold Skin/Sweet Breath
Nothing like cuddling up to an ice cube. Mmmm, comfy.
Sweet breath? What does that mean? I don't get it but it made me nauseous.
Teenage Lust
The book is filled with an under tone of teenage lust. I saw one married lady comment on her blog the emotions it geared up inside of her and she has no idea how a teenage girl who is trying to save herself for marriage deals with a book that sends her mind to those places.
Struggle to Overcome Natural Impulses
One positive side of the books I saw was even though there was the constant push for physical intimacy from Bella, I thought the parallel between controlling drives that we have and denying them or redirecting them to a more appropriate place compared with the vampires desire for blood had potential for a good story. Unfortunately the development of the plot and the lines given to the characters were thin.
Months later my sister-in-law, who still lives in Indiana, asked if I knew anything about it. She said it had been written by someone that went to BYU. I looked into it and it indeed appeared to be a romance novel, but with a teenaged girl and a vampire. Sounded gross, but I figured I would give it a look. She and I have listened to it and discussing it and even though it is not as gross as I anticipated it is still gross.
Age Difference
There is a hundred years difference in age between the main characters. My wife an I have three and even that sometimes seems like there is a generation gap. I can't imagine the differences at 100 years. Also, even if he looks like a teenager, the dude hasn't matured past his pouty and hissy fit phase in a hundred years?
Cold Skin/Sweet Breath
Nothing like cuddling up to an ice cube. Mmmm, comfy.
Sweet breath? What does that mean? I don't get it but it made me nauseous.
Teenage Lust
The book is filled with an under tone of teenage lust. I saw one married lady comment on her blog the emotions it geared up inside of her and she has no idea how a teenage girl who is trying to save herself for marriage deals with a book that sends her mind to those places.
Struggle to Overcome Natural Impulses
One positive side of the books I saw was even though there was the constant push for physical intimacy from Bella, I thought the parallel between controlling drives that we have and denying them or redirecting them to a more appropriate place compared with the vampires desire for blood had potential for a good story. Unfortunately the development of the plot and the lines given to the characters were thin.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith
My son and I have been listening to the book STAR WARS: DARTH PLAGUEIS. As we listened my son had the desire to watch Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith again. As we watched I figured I should lend my voice to the thousands that have already lamented about what should've been.
I think I liked this one the best of the prequills and I think it could've been a solid movie, but the dialogue was so bad. I loved the light sabers and the character development, but each were generally dampened by flat dialogue. Additionally there were many plot holes that were inexplicable
It seemed like Obi Won was the only one that had any close to decent lines. I don't know if that was because Ewen McGreggor is a decent ad libber and her fixed them on the fly or if he just got better lines.
Here are some examples of what I am talking about.
Anakin and Padme on the Balcony
I have no clue what the purpose of this scene was. It was mostly just awkward, pointless, and not romantic. Their demeanor and the way the lines were delivered was weird.
Here's part of the scene and dialogue:
Anakin: You are so beautiful!
Padme: It's only because I'm so in love . . .
Anakin: No, it's because I'm so in love with you.
Padme: So love has blinded you?
Anakin: Well, that's not exactly what I meant . . .
Padme: But it's probably true!
Yoda's Speech Impediment
In The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi Yoda sounded like a wise jedi master. In Revenge of the Sith, and even the other prequil movies, they drug it out so much and put it in such awkward places and ways that he just sounded like someone ignorant of how to speak correctly.
Battles Droids With Squeaky Voices and Ghetto Vocabulary
In the hanger with R2 D2.
SUPER BATTLE DROID 1: What that?
SUPER BATTLE DROID 2: Get to back to work. That nothin'.
Anakin Meets General Grievous
General Grievous: Anakin Skywalker. I expected someone with your reputation to be a little... older.
Anakin Skywalker: General Grievous... you're shorter than I expected.
Anakin's retort was labored and drawn out. Better delivery would've helped and perhaps also dropping the General Grievous at the beginning.
Grievous's Over Dramatized Death
This is not technically dialogue, but still poor writing or acting.
When Obi Won kills General Grievous he gives an over exaggerated weird screech for several seconds.
Palpatine's Dialogue and Fighting
Whenever he would fight his facial expression were goofy and over exaggerated. The luges and blocks he did when fighting we also very forced.
Then there was dialogue like, "No! No! No! You will die!"
She Lost the Will To Live
Since watching it the first time I get the feeling that there was more to it than that (like sidious controling her death to keep control of Anakin), but what a stupid way to explain it. Lost the will to live. Especially coming from a droid.
Additionally the naming of the babies was weak. Lost the will to live, but not to name her babies before she abandons them.
Plot Holes
Four Jedis Cut Down By an Old Man
I think the back stories of these jedi tell of how powerful they were. I realize this is probably to illustrate just how powerful Darth Sidious was. Unfortunately it didn't translate well. Sidious' fighting style was lame with over exaggerated facial expressions and lunges. Additionally the four jedi that were cut down pretty much just stood there and were cut down in a matter of seconds. They had to have been told before they went in that they were apprehending a sith master and yet they were dumbfounded or something.
Sidius's Burning Himself With Force Lightning
I realize the idea was that Sidious was suppose to be trying to get sympathy from Anakin and also give off that he was in great peril, so Anakin would come to his rescue in order to save Padme. Additionally to get him to do dark things to defend her. The whole scene was very weak.
Anakin's turn to the dark side.
At the ending of that scene was Anakin turning to the dark side. It just wasn't very convincing to me that he basically just rolls over to killing children and whatever Sidious says just like that. Wouldn't the angry and impetuous Anakin try to make him tell him the secret?
Yoda Feels Defeated
Why does Yoda feel he is defeated by Darth Sidious? They seemed evenly matched. He had just given Sidious's force lightning back to him and they both got thrown by it.
Lava Burns Everything Except Jedi?
How do the lava not burst them into flames or choke them from the burning fumes? Wouldn't the air have to be filled with way less oxygen than is needed to survive due to the burning and wouldn't the air be filled with a gaseous form of whatever it is burning? Also, lava burns at thousands of degrees. Just being within a few feet of it likely would start to burn a person.
Leia
How does she remember her mother? Why is she a princess being the daughter of a senator. The latter maybe could be explained in that maybe the senator was of the royal line of Alderon or something like that, but remembering her mother at all is ludcrous based on the way it was presented in Ep III.
I think I liked this one the best of the prequills and I think it could've been a solid movie, but the dialogue was so bad. I loved the light sabers and the character development, but each were generally dampened by flat dialogue. Additionally there were many plot holes that were inexplicable
It seemed like Obi Won was the only one that had any close to decent lines. I don't know if that was because Ewen McGreggor is a decent ad libber and her fixed them on the fly or if he just got better lines.
Here are some examples of what I am talking about.
Anakin and Padme on the Balcony
I have no clue what the purpose of this scene was. It was mostly just awkward, pointless, and not romantic. Their demeanor and the way the lines were delivered was weird.
Here's part of the scene and dialogue:
Anakin: You are so beautiful!
Padme: It's only because I'm so in love . . .
Anakin: No, it's because I'm so in love with you.
Padme: So love has blinded you?
Anakin: Well, that's not exactly what I meant . . .
Padme: But it's probably true!
Yoda's Speech Impediment
In The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi Yoda sounded like a wise jedi master. In Revenge of the Sith, and even the other prequil movies, they drug it out so much and put it in such awkward places and ways that he just sounded like someone ignorant of how to speak correctly.
Battles Droids With Squeaky Voices and Ghetto Vocabulary
In the hanger with R2 D2.
SUPER BATTLE DROID 1: What that?
SUPER BATTLE DROID 2: Get to back to work. That nothin'.
Anakin Meets General Grievous
General Grievous: Anakin Skywalker. I expected someone with your reputation to be a little... older.
Anakin Skywalker: General Grievous... you're shorter than I expected.
Anakin's retort was labored and drawn out. Better delivery would've helped and perhaps also dropping the General Grievous at the beginning.
Grievous's Over Dramatized Death
This is not technically dialogue, but still poor writing or acting.
When Obi Won kills General Grievous he gives an over exaggerated weird screech for several seconds.
Palpatine's Dialogue and Fighting
Whenever he would fight his facial expression were goofy and over exaggerated. The luges and blocks he did when fighting we also very forced.
Then there was dialogue like, "No! No! No! You will die!"
She Lost the Will To Live
Since watching it the first time I get the feeling that there was more to it than that (like sidious controling her death to keep control of Anakin), but what a stupid way to explain it. Lost the will to live. Especially coming from a droid.
Additionally the naming of the babies was weak. Lost the will to live, but not to name her babies before she abandons them.
Plot Holes
Four Jedis Cut Down By an Old Man
I think the back stories of these jedi tell of how powerful they were. I realize this is probably to illustrate just how powerful Darth Sidious was. Unfortunately it didn't translate well. Sidious' fighting style was lame with over exaggerated facial expressions and lunges. Additionally the four jedi that were cut down pretty much just stood there and were cut down in a matter of seconds. They had to have been told before they went in that they were apprehending a sith master and yet they were dumbfounded or something.
Sidius's Burning Himself With Force Lightning
I realize the idea was that Sidious was suppose to be trying to get sympathy from Anakin and also give off that he was in great peril, so Anakin would come to his rescue in order to save Padme. Additionally to get him to do dark things to defend her. The whole scene was very weak.
Anakin's turn to the dark side.
At the ending of that scene was Anakin turning to the dark side. It just wasn't very convincing to me that he basically just rolls over to killing children and whatever Sidious says just like that. Wouldn't the angry and impetuous Anakin try to make him tell him the secret?
Yoda Feels Defeated
Why does Yoda feel he is defeated by Darth Sidious? They seemed evenly matched. He had just given Sidious's force lightning back to him and they both got thrown by it.
Lava Burns Everything Except Jedi?
How do the lava not burst them into flames or choke them from the burning fumes? Wouldn't the air have to be filled with way less oxygen than is needed to survive due to the burning and wouldn't the air be filled with a gaseous form of whatever it is burning? Also, lava burns at thousands of degrees. Just being within a few feet of it likely would start to burn a person.
Leia
How does she remember her mother? Why is she a princess being the daughter of a senator. The latter maybe could be explained in that maybe the senator was of the royal line of Alderon or something like that, but remembering her mother at all is ludcrous based on the way it was presented in Ep III.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Facebook Changes 9-2011 (and the accompanying whining)
I never can tell when all the whining when Facebook changes something are actual problems or not.
Seems like the hatred goes for a few days and then everyone stops complaining and it is their new best friend again. Then another change happens and the begging begins for Facebook to change it back to the thing that was horribly broken just months before.
Seems like the hatred goes for a few days and then everyone stops complaining and it is their new best friend again. Then another change happens and the begging begins for Facebook to change it back to the thing that was horribly broken just months before.
Netflix the New Netzero
I remember when Netzero had the ad campaign, "We will always be free." Shortly after that they cut their free users down to 40 hours a month and shortly after that they cut them back to 10 hours a month. I left them shortly after that, so I have no idea if they still have any level of free at all.
The news that is circulating about Netflix is starting to smack of that sort of business moves. They have marketing their product as unlimited for a monthly fee. Netflix seems to keep shifting what unlimited means. First it was DVDs and streaming together. Stream as much as you want and cue up as many disks as you want.
Next they separated DVD service from streaming. Now they are starting this new company called Qwikster to do the DVD portion of the business.
I have anticipated for a while that they would raise the prices after they crushed video stores enough, but I now wonder with all this gyrating, if they won't shortly cut the unlimited and end up with just renting one movie like with Walmart's and Amazon's streaming services.
The news that is circulating about Netflix is starting to smack of that sort of business moves. They have marketing their product as unlimited for a monthly fee. Netflix seems to keep shifting what unlimited means. First it was DVDs and streaming together. Stream as much as you want and cue up as many disks as you want.
Next they separated DVD service from streaming. Now they are starting this new company called Qwikster to do the DVD portion of the business.
I have anticipated for a while that they would raise the prices after they crushed video stores enough, but I now wonder with all this gyrating, if they won't shortly cut the unlimited and end up with just renting one movie like with Walmart's and Amazon's streaming services.
Friday, September 16, 2011
M&Ms Melt In Your Mouth Not In Your Hands
M&Ms Melt in your mouth not in your hands. What kind of nonsense marketing is this? Clearly when I hold a handful of M&Ms in my hand, within seconds my hand is rainbow colored. Does the color coming off on my hand not constitute the M&M melting? Was there fine print in the M&M Mars advertising that I missed that states that the not melting refers to the chocolate? Thus, since the candy coating is still in place when I get rainbow hand, it does not constitute melting.
I have not done this research, but if one holds M&Ms in their hand for twenty minutes does the chocolate melt through the coating. Also, I would imagine that even if the M&M chocolate is not coming through the candy coating it is likely melting on the inside. This would seem to be melting in my hand, even if it is not melting on my hand.
I have not done this research, but if one holds M&Ms in their hand for twenty minutes does the chocolate melt through the coating. Also, I would imagine that even if the M&M chocolate is not coming through the candy coating it is likely melting on the inside. This would seem to be melting in my hand, even if it is not melting on my hand.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Green Hornet (2011)
At first when I heard of this movie, I thought it would be lame. I had barely ever heard of this "super hero".
I watched the trailer and I thought the premise sounded like it had potential and it was a 2 hour movie for plenty of time to develop the characters.
After watching the movie, I rewatched the trailer. What I noticed was that they cut the scenes for the trailer, pulling out all of the foul languages, which left the trailer great. It would've left the movie great too had they left all of the profanity out.
I sat down to watch the movie with my kids since kids like heroes with great gadgets or powers. I sat there giving it the benefit of the doubt that it was going to get cleaner once the bad son became a hero. It did not. It was peppered with profanity all through the movie. Not only do I not like hearing that stuff, but it detracted from the movie, since they were words that were unnecessary.
The other major disappointment of this movie was that it had such potential to be an interesting story, but it dangled on the edge of it, but never really sealed the deal. Just like with the profanity, I kept hanging there feeling like it was going to get better and it did not.
I watched the trailer and I thought the premise sounded like it had potential and it was a 2 hour movie for plenty of time to develop the characters.
After watching the movie, I rewatched the trailer. What I noticed was that they cut the scenes for the trailer, pulling out all of the foul languages, which left the trailer great. It would've left the movie great too had they left all of the profanity out.
I sat down to watch the movie with my kids since kids like heroes with great gadgets or powers. I sat there giving it the benefit of the doubt that it was going to get cleaner once the bad son became a hero. It did not. It was peppered with profanity all through the movie. Not only do I not like hearing that stuff, but it detracted from the movie, since they were words that were unnecessary.
The other major disappointment of this movie was that it had such potential to be an interesting story, but it dangled on the edge of it, but never really sealed the deal. Just like with the profanity, I kept hanging there feeling like it was going to get better and it did not.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Legoland California
It is hard to give Legoland a review when we went to Disneyland the next day. Disneyland has such detail in everything and most everything is well maintained.
I found the hours to be very restrictive. They opened at 10am when we went and closed at 5. It takes a little bit to get a feel for the park when it is your first time. Once you do then you only have a small amount of time to get a goodly number of things in.
We went to Legoland on a Monday in early to mid May. It wasn't too crowded, but they also had rides where half the seating for the rides was shut down. Perhaps that was because it was a slower time of year for them, but it did significantly impact wait times on some of the more popular rides.
One thing I just found that is interesting that Disneyland doesn't appear to offer is a Google Street View through the park http://california.legoland.com/explore/google_street_view/.
After reviewing things after the fact I am seeing several things on their web site that we did not go see that could've been interesting. I did not realize you could take a tour of the Lego factory.
The rides at Legoland that I went on were all very tight for me to get my legs into. I'm just over 6 feet tall. I don't think that is an uncommon height. It made for a couple of potential safety issues. As the rides spun you around my knees were banging into things which could've caused injury. Also, as I entered and exited the rides there was potential for me to fall as it was difficult to keep my body stable. Just to be clear, the resolution is not to make maximum height restrictions on the rides, since there are many people that will be over six feet tall or have long legs that will come to the park with their kids. Restricting who can ride would decrease the value of their experience. Disney's rides were tighter than they should've been, but Legoland was worse.
Land of Adventure
Beetle Bounce
My nine and up kids seemed to enjoy this ride. It had a bench that seated six or eight people. It had a bar that came down and secured you. Then the bench would ride up and down much like an elevator, except that it didn't go all the way to the top before bringing you part way back down. It would go up and down at varying speeds and bounce you. My nine year old boy liked it, even though he would hunch over the security pad and wrap his arms around it as if he was terrified. He went back on it several times. I think the
wait time was ten minutes at most for this ride. They could've trimmed that significantly, by having the entire ride operating. There was only one pole giving people rides. There was at least one other pole there and it was not in use.
Cargo Ace
This was my seven year old daughter's favorite ride. It is several little planes that fly in an oval low to the ground. On the long side of the oval it is just a flat ride. As you curve at the end of the oval it tilts you up in the air slightly, banks, and increases in speed. Then quickly slows back down on the straight away. I don't like spinning, jerky, get your tummy rides and this was nice for me, other than my knees banging into the metal front of the cockpit.
Dune Raiders
This was basically just a stick your feet in a bag and ride down a big slide. As big slides go, it wasn't that big. Again the bag was difficult for me to fit in, but it was a nice simple ride.
Fun Town
Skipper School
This ride was drained and not functioning when we were there. Not sure what the issue was. Maybe it was under maintenance, which I saw no one working on it, or perhaps it was a cost cutting measure during the off season. Seems like they would want off seasoners to have a good experience too, so they can keep people coming to the park all year. This was not our experience.
Sky Patrol
This was a slow ride that had a little helicopter that was pushed up in the air by a pole under it. It went up and then turned a little. I could tell if the kids had control over the turning and/or the height they went up, but it appeared that it was possible that they did.
Volvo Driving Schools
This was was a confusing attraction. They had two courses. One for kids 3-5 years old and one for older kids. Our kids were interested and they got in line and then we started seeing signs that seemed to indicate that you had to get them a license to participate. The license appeared to be five dollars and then something extra that we didn't understand, so we gave up. Not really a great advertisement for Volvo.
It looked like when we got into the park there was VIP parking for anyone driving a Volvo. It was weird and I don't understand the connection to Volvo and Lego. Maybe Volvo purchased them at some point.
Pirate Shores
Captain Cranky's Challenge
This ride is a small pirate ship. It starts out swinging the bow and the stern back and forth. It then turns you sideways and slides on that same track. I was expecting big swings which I don't like, so I was very apprehensive. Once I realized that it wasn't going to be as bad I liked the ride, but by that time it was over.
Splash Battle
This ride was pretty lame. The cannon they give you to shoot the other players on the ride can rarely reach them. You ride the little boat around a predefined track.
The one potential great thing about this ride is that the cannon is positioned that when you turn one of the corners the water will reach the walkway outside the ride. Not even people in line for the ride, but just people trying to find their way around the park. I had a really good shot at an unsuspecting mom with a stroller and a couple of kids, but I did not take it because I felt bad and I had no child riding with me to blame it on.
Treasure Falls
This ride was good for those that walk a baby coaster experience, because they can't stomach regular coasters. People like me. You around in this water trough and drop and splash a couple of times. I was apprehensive about the drops at first, but they weren't bad. A little jolting, which I don't like, but not bad.
The bad thing is that the seat is terrible uncomfortable. As I recall it was a fairly thin piece of wood or metal barely big enough to sit on.
Castle Hills
Hideaways
This was one of our favorites. It is a huge multilevel play structure. Things to walk, climb, and swing on. one might call it a jungle gym.
There was a single file entrance/exit and an attendant that wouldn't allow children to leave without a grown up.
There was a lot of seating, but it was most on knee high curbs keeping in shrubbery. There was one three person bench, but was taken up by a young couple making out.
Knights Tournament
This was one of my twelve and fifteen year old kids' favorites. It was a robot arm that articulated into varying different configuration to twist and turn the two seater at the end of the arm. It was an interesting concept.
They had four arms, but only two of them were being used. I think my kids waited as much as a half hour to get on it.
The ride had four or five levels. Level one did not turn you upside down. The higher levels turned you upside sound and twisted and turned you about at increasing amounts depending on what level you chose to experience when you got on the ride.
Royal Joust
This ride consisted of a slow moving Lego horse on a track that wound through a courtyard. There were voices that played as you went through the course. It was nice for my youngest, but boring for the nine and twelve year old.
The Dragon
The waiting line sent you into a castle. I didn't go on the ride, but I think there was stuff to look at while you waited in there.
The ride was a very basic roller coaster. It had a little speed with relatively mild twists, turns, leans, and hill.
Wild Woods Golf
This was a miniature golf course. We skipped it, since it appeared to cost extra.
Granny's Apple Fries
There was an interesting food concept that I saw people walking around with. They appeared to be a small French fry looking box with thin sliced fried apples in it with a plop of whipped cream or frosting on the side for dipping them in. I would've like to try them, but the portion was small and pricey.
Imagination Zone
Aquazone Wave Racer
This was a nice little ride, but very basic. You ride in this little jet ski sized thing. It was nice because you stand. It made it easy to get in and out of and also to ride as you didn't have to pack yourself into it. It stood two people, maybe three if they are small. The back person had a comfy mess thing to lean on. It was very nice.
It gave you the opportunity to get a little wet. While you road spectators could press buttons and make little explosions in the water. It didn't get you a ton wet, but it gave the spectators some fun to try.
The ride was a attached to a circular thing that spun you around. It wasn't very exciting, but if you wanted more excitement you could turn your steering while out and swing the vehicle away from the dock and get a little centrifugal force thrill and your feet get a little wet too when you do that.
Bionicle Blaster
These were little spinning pods much like the tea cups at Disneyland. These pods were shaped with Bionicle parts. It was a decent ride and I think all of my kids liked it.
Lego Technic Coaster
The concept they were pretending here is that you were testing an experimental vehicle. You road in this dune buggy sort of thing on a roller coaster track. It had big hills, speed, twists, turns, and the whole bit. They even take your picture at the big part and try to sell it to you.
I was standing and trying to take pictures, but really had no good vantage point. Afterward I saw the pictures they had taken on the screen. I didn't need a profession photo. A picture of these screen would've been good enough for me, but as I was trying to take it the girl behind the counter was yelling to me to not take pictures of the pictures. For some reason I let her sway me and I really regret it. Do they really have a right to tell me I can't?
I contrast this with the Disneyland experience. Disney is called the happiest place on Earth. One of the reasons for that is how they deal with situations such as this. At least one of the Disney's rides let me email the pictures they took of me on the ride if I wanted, to myself for free. Also, at Disneyland where there were places where they had professional photographers that would sell you the pictures they took with their camera, they encouraged you to take your own pictures too and the Disney staff would take them for you. I don't think the pro photographer was volunteering to use our camera to get a shot, but the employee running us through the place did. If you want a pro shot, it was there, but you weren't forced as the only way to record your experience.
The Disneyland photo experience kept me relaxed and unpressed. The Legoland experience not only tensed me, but made me angry. Anger is a very much oppositional emotion to happiness and contentment.
Miniland
Miniland USA
This was a large area where there are miniature Lego creations of various parts of the United States. It was very interesting. My wife and son took a picture in front of Times Square. When I looked at the photo of them for a second it looked like they were standing in the actually Times Square. Then I noticed the slug bug made out of Legos behind them.
Miniland Star Wars
This was a nice little area where there were Lego replicas of scenes and places from the Star Wars movies and TV shows.
I found the hours to be very restrictive. They opened at 10am when we went and closed at 5. It takes a little bit to get a feel for the park when it is your first time. Once you do then you only have a small amount of time to get a goodly number of things in.
We went to Legoland on a Monday in early to mid May. It wasn't too crowded, but they also had rides where half the seating for the rides was shut down. Perhaps that was because it was a slower time of year for them, but it did significantly impact wait times on some of the more popular rides.
One thing I just found that is interesting that Disneyland doesn't appear to offer is a Google Street View through the park http://california.legoland.com/explore/google_street_view/.
After reviewing things after the fact I am seeing several things on their web site that we did not go see that could've been interesting. I did not realize you could take a tour of the Lego factory.
The rides at Legoland that I went on were all very tight for me to get my legs into. I'm just over 6 feet tall. I don't think that is an uncommon height. It made for a couple of potential safety issues. As the rides spun you around my knees were banging into things which could've caused injury. Also, as I entered and exited the rides there was potential for me to fall as it was difficult to keep my body stable. Just to be clear, the resolution is not to make maximum height restrictions on the rides, since there are many people that will be over six feet tall or have long legs that will come to the park with their kids. Restricting who can ride would decrease the value of their experience. Disney's rides were tighter than they should've been, but Legoland was worse.
Land of Adventure
Beetle Bounce
My nine and up kids seemed to enjoy this ride. It had a bench that seated six or eight people. It had a bar that came down and secured you. Then the bench would ride up and down much like an elevator, except that it didn't go all the way to the top before bringing you part way back down. It would go up and down at varying speeds and bounce you. My nine year old boy liked it, even though he would hunch over the security pad and wrap his arms around it as if he was terrified. He went back on it several times. I think the
wait time was ten minutes at most for this ride. They could've trimmed that significantly, by having the entire ride operating. There was only one pole giving people rides. There was at least one other pole there and it was not in use.
Cargo Ace
This was my seven year old daughter's favorite ride. It is several little planes that fly in an oval low to the ground. On the long side of the oval it is just a flat ride. As you curve at the end of the oval it tilts you up in the air slightly, banks, and increases in speed. Then quickly slows back down on the straight away. I don't like spinning, jerky, get your tummy rides and this was nice for me, other than my knees banging into the metal front of the cockpit.
Dune Raiders
This was basically just a stick your feet in a bag and ride down a big slide. As big slides go, it wasn't that big. Again the bag was difficult for me to fit in, but it was a nice simple ride.
Fun Town
Skipper School
This ride was drained and not functioning when we were there. Not sure what the issue was. Maybe it was under maintenance, which I saw no one working on it, or perhaps it was a cost cutting measure during the off season. Seems like they would want off seasoners to have a good experience too, so they can keep people coming to the park all year. This was not our experience.
Sky Patrol
This was a slow ride that had a little helicopter that was pushed up in the air by a pole under it. It went up and then turned a little. I could tell if the kids had control over the turning and/or the height they went up, but it appeared that it was possible that they did.
Volvo Driving Schools
This was was a confusing attraction. They had two courses. One for kids 3-5 years old and one for older kids. Our kids were interested and they got in line and then we started seeing signs that seemed to indicate that you had to get them a license to participate. The license appeared to be five dollars and then something extra that we didn't understand, so we gave up. Not really a great advertisement for Volvo.
It looked like when we got into the park there was VIP parking for anyone driving a Volvo. It was weird and I don't understand the connection to Volvo and Lego. Maybe Volvo purchased them at some point.
Pirate Shores
Captain Cranky's Challenge
This ride is a small pirate ship. It starts out swinging the bow and the stern back and forth. It then turns you sideways and slides on that same track. I was expecting big swings which I don't like, so I was very apprehensive. Once I realized that it wasn't going to be as bad I liked the ride, but by that time it was over.
Splash Battle
This ride was pretty lame. The cannon they give you to shoot the other players on the ride can rarely reach them. You ride the little boat around a predefined track.
The one potential great thing about this ride is that the cannon is positioned that when you turn one of the corners the water will reach the walkway outside the ride. Not even people in line for the ride, but just people trying to find their way around the park. I had a really good shot at an unsuspecting mom with a stroller and a couple of kids, but I did not take it because I felt bad and I had no child riding with me to blame it on.
Treasure Falls
This ride was good for those that walk a baby coaster experience, because they can't stomach regular coasters. People like me. You around in this water trough and drop and splash a couple of times. I was apprehensive about the drops at first, but they weren't bad. A little jolting, which I don't like, but not bad.
The bad thing is that the seat is terrible uncomfortable. As I recall it was a fairly thin piece of wood or metal barely big enough to sit on.
Castle Hills
Hideaways
This was one of our favorites. It is a huge multilevel play structure. Things to walk, climb, and swing on. one might call it a jungle gym.
There was a single file entrance/exit and an attendant that wouldn't allow children to leave without a grown up.
There was a lot of seating, but it was most on knee high curbs keeping in shrubbery. There was one three person bench, but was taken up by a young couple making out.
Knights Tournament
This was one of my twelve and fifteen year old kids' favorites. It was a robot arm that articulated into varying different configuration to twist and turn the two seater at the end of the arm. It was an interesting concept.
They had four arms, but only two of them were being used. I think my kids waited as much as a half hour to get on it.
The ride had four or five levels. Level one did not turn you upside down. The higher levels turned you upside sound and twisted and turned you about at increasing amounts depending on what level you chose to experience when you got on the ride.
Royal Joust
This ride consisted of a slow moving Lego horse on a track that wound through a courtyard. There were voices that played as you went through the course. It was nice for my youngest, but boring for the nine and twelve year old.
The Dragon
The waiting line sent you into a castle. I didn't go on the ride, but I think there was stuff to look at while you waited in there.
The ride was a very basic roller coaster. It had a little speed with relatively mild twists, turns, leans, and hill.
Wild Woods Golf
This was a miniature golf course. We skipped it, since it appeared to cost extra.
Granny's Apple Fries
There was an interesting food concept that I saw people walking around with. They appeared to be a small French fry looking box with thin sliced fried apples in it with a plop of whipped cream or frosting on the side for dipping them in. I would've like to try them, but the portion was small and pricey.
Imagination Zone
Aquazone Wave Racer
This was a nice little ride, but very basic. You ride in this little jet ski sized thing. It was nice because you stand. It made it easy to get in and out of and also to ride as you didn't have to pack yourself into it. It stood two people, maybe three if they are small. The back person had a comfy mess thing to lean on. It was very nice.
It gave you the opportunity to get a little wet. While you road spectators could press buttons and make little explosions in the water. It didn't get you a ton wet, but it gave the spectators some fun to try.
The ride was a attached to a circular thing that spun you around. It wasn't very exciting, but if you wanted more excitement you could turn your steering while out and swing the vehicle away from the dock and get a little centrifugal force thrill and your feet get a little wet too when you do that.
Bionicle Blaster
These were little spinning pods much like the tea cups at Disneyland. These pods were shaped with Bionicle parts. It was a decent ride and I think all of my kids liked it.
Lego Technic Coaster
The concept they were pretending here is that you were testing an experimental vehicle. You road in this dune buggy sort of thing on a roller coaster track. It had big hills, speed, twists, turns, and the whole bit. They even take your picture at the big part and try to sell it to you.
I was standing and trying to take pictures, but really had no good vantage point. Afterward I saw the pictures they had taken on the screen. I didn't need a profession photo. A picture of these screen would've been good enough for me, but as I was trying to take it the girl behind the counter was yelling to me to not take pictures of the pictures. For some reason I let her sway me and I really regret it. Do they really have a right to tell me I can't?
I contrast this with the Disneyland experience. Disney is called the happiest place on Earth. One of the reasons for that is how they deal with situations such as this. At least one of the Disney's rides let me email the pictures they took of me on the ride if I wanted, to myself for free. Also, at Disneyland where there were places where they had professional photographers that would sell you the pictures they took with their camera, they encouraged you to take your own pictures too and the Disney staff would take them for you. I don't think the pro photographer was volunteering to use our camera to get a shot, but the employee running us through the place did. If you want a pro shot, it was there, but you weren't forced as the only way to record your experience.
The Disneyland photo experience kept me relaxed and unpressed. The Legoland experience not only tensed me, but made me angry. Anger is a very much oppositional emotion to happiness and contentment.
Miniland
Miniland USA
This was a large area where there are miniature Lego creations of various parts of the United States. It was very interesting. My wife and son took a picture in front of Times Square. When I looked at the photo of them for a second it looked like they were standing in the actually Times Square. Then I noticed the slug bug made out of Legos behind them.
Miniland Star Wars
This was a nice little area where there were Lego replicas of scenes and places from the Star Wars movies and TV shows.
Monday, May 16, 2011
California
I passed through California on the way to Oregon when I was in my twenties traveling with my father-in-law and my wife's cousin to do some camping and such. I didn't notice the things I noticed on the trip I took this time, probably because I was young and someone else was driving.
This week I went to Disneyland with my wife and four kids.
I was had trepidations of buying gas in California, due to all the environmental controls they have. I figured gas would be a lot more expensive. I was right. We got gas in Nevada at $3.89. A couple of hours later we saw a gas station in California and it was $4.33.
Shortly after we crossed the California border there was an agriculture check point where they asked if I had animals or produce. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing it was for export and import taxes. It is like going to another country when you go to California. It is also ridiculous at all the taxes. In addition to the taxes on gas there was 17% tax on our hotel room. A 17% tax on anything is insane.
I worked for an oil company a couple of years ago, which purchased an oil refinery in California. It took years to get it in compliance with all of the California regulations.
I also coded software to bring that refinery onto our software system. There were so many complications in dealing with labor.
It has felt somewhat this way, but more so when I went there, that California seems like a different country.
This week I went to Disneyland with my wife and four kids.
I was had trepidations of buying gas in California, due to all the environmental controls they have. I figured gas would be a lot more expensive. I was right. We got gas in Nevada at $3.89. A couple of hours later we saw a gas station in California and it was $4.33.
Shortly after we crossed the California border there was an agriculture check point where they asked if I had animals or produce. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing it was for export and import taxes. It is like going to another country when you go to California. It is also ridiculous at all the taxes. In addition to the taxes on gas there was 17% tax on our hotel room. A 17% tax on anything is insane.
I worked for an oil company a couple of years ago, which purchased an oil refinery in California. It took years to get it in compliance with all of the California regulations.
I also coded software to bring that refinery onto our software system. There were so many complications in dealing with labor.
It has felt somewhat this way, but more so when I went there, that California seems like a different country.
Alpine Inn, Anahiem, CA
We went to Alpine Inn to stay while visiting Legoland, Disneyland, and Huntington Beach last week.
I had made reservations a month or so before. They seemed to have the best price in the area for those places to stay that were in walking distance of the Disneyland gate. Several others said they were closer to the park, but were in fact misleading people, since they were not within walking distance of the gate. Their property just happened to be the closest to Disneyland's property, but there was no way to get into Disneyland on that side of the park.
It was interesting that the one that I almost made a reservation with that touted being closet to Disneyland that was only close due to property lines and not location to the gate also had the most reviews dealing with being dirty. Are their misleading marketing tactics and their lack of keeping their place clean and repaired symptoms of the same problem of lack of ethics? Are they more looking to trick people to coming there, rather than provide a good experience to their customers to inspire them to come back.
I called to confirm the reservation a couple of weeks ago, since I am a little paranoid and I have seen the Seinfeld episode where Jerry makes a reservation, but the company he made the reservation with was unable to hold the reservation and when he got there he had no car or hotel or flight or whatever he had reserved. Alpine Inn still had it. I was going to call as we were getting close to Anaheim while we were drive, but I got lazy. Thankfully everything was in place when we got there. I was also grateful that they didn't try anything tricky like change the rates on us.
Alpine Inn is smack up against the back of California Adventure. We could see the tops of a couple of rides like the Mickey Fun Wheel ferris wheel sort of thing and California Screamin. The noise was not bad from the park. Occasionally you would hear mild screams in the distance from people coming over the top of one of the rides and rolling down the other side, but it was not intrusive. The park closes around 8 or 9, so that stopped before it became a problem for sleeping anyway. Daylight savings time and the neighbors returning from the park were way more intrusive on sleeping. Sleeping was pretty much the top priority after driving all day and taking the kids swimming.
The drive was about 10 hours or so from Ogden, Utah. It took us more like 12 since we stopped to see the LDS temples in Saint George, Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada.
The driveway was easy to get into pulling in right off of Katalla Avenue, but there were several problems with the parking lot and driving in general.
People pull in off of Katalla quickly to get out of traffic and they are right where one of the stairways to get upstairs is. If they stop under the canopy to check in at the office, things are fine, but I did not see anyone stop and park in front of the door. Also those stairs are kitty corner to the entrance to the swimming pool, so kids are likely to run across from the pool to the stairs and not look and possibly have an issue with cars coming in.
The parking lot is small and cramped. I don't think there was one parking space for each room. The parking spaces were also close together. It was difficult to navigate around the parking lot, which is necessary, since one side is enter only and the other side is exit only in a horseshoe.
Another problem we had with driving in this location was that if I wanted to go left I had to go right and then u-turn. I'm not sure at this point if this is a California problem or just some of the places we visited here. I think I saw this in every city we visited Anaheim, Carlsbad, and Huntington Beach.
The swimming pool was decent. It was outdoor, but it was heated somewhat. It was in the upper 60s in the evening and it was still comfortable to swim in. It was much less comfortable when you got out. The jets that let in the heated water were very warm and felt good on the back after driving so much.
The water depth of the pool went from three feet to nine feet. The deep end seemed to slope in from the sides and many times I would jump in it felt more like seven and a half or eight feet. It was a small rectangular pool and was great for just me and my four kids. At one point we had another family that was there that had five kids in with us and it was good, but that was because we had made friends with them when we first got there and we had very similar ways of behaving and similar values. Had there been more people in it or people we did not have a relationship with, it would've gotten crowded quickly. Nonetheless, people come to go to Disney, I suppose, and not to swim in the motel pool.
The entrance of the Alpine Inn is done up like a chalet, but as soon as you drive into the parking lot it is just one typical motel horseshoe.
We had a two bedroom queen room. It was just big enough to get around with 2 beds, a TV, a night stand, a little desk, a sick, a mini fridge, and a microwave. The bathroom was very small, but livable.
The room was clean. We had two adults and four kids in the room. Most places I called would not allow this. Alpine said on the phone it was fine. No one gave us hassle when we got here, but there were signs about, saying that the room could only have four people in it. Not sure what the fire issue is with having two people sleeping on the floor or three people in each bed. To me it seemed more like a scam to get people to rent bigger rooms. I'm not sure that the scam was the motels, but maybe the governments to get people to spend more money.
There was a threatening sign about not smoking posted outside our room door. I did not see one next to anyone else's door. On the one hand it was weird to be singled out. On the other hand it was kind of nice to know that we could be proud that the sign was entirely irrelevant to us. There were people below us that would come out and smoke and when we would be on the balcony we would have to deal with the stench of smoke. Maybe I should've moved the sign to their door. :-)
After we made a few bags of microwave popcorn and changed the settings here and there to help it, we found that the microwave was incapable of completely popping a bag of popcorn. We tried popping it longer on high and all it did was burn it. We tried turning the power down and it burned it with even less getting popped.
The microwave did heat other foods sufficiently.
There was a decent sized mini fridge in the room. We could fit most everything we brought in our cooler in it without much trouble.
There were two trash cans in the room. One under the vanity outside the bathroom and a slightly smaller one in the bathroom. It is true that we had six people in a room they set up for four people, but a third trash can located on the other side of the room would've been a nice convenience. When you are sitting at the little desk or if someone is using the vanity it would be an added convenience without much extra expense to the motel.
There was a Subway restaurant, a 7 11, and a convenience market sort of thing on the way to the main gate, about five minutes walking distance from the inn. There were also several other restaurants in the area.
As I review things now, as I write this, I see on their web site that they offer a complimentary breakfast. They don't use the word continental, but they do use the word breakfast.
There was indeed a something that could be called a breakfast of sorts. It consisted of tiny cups for orange juice, cocoa, coffee, and sugary plastic wrapped pastries. The orange juice was in a big tub dispenser with a spout, which worked well, but the cups should've been bigger. The pastries were hardly sufficient for anyone starting an entire day of walking and playing in a theme park. They were pretty much empty calories that did not stick with us very long once we got going and were heavy and not satisfying. The cocoa was in packets and they had a coffee jug filled with hot water to use to mix the cocoa yourself in the tiny cups.
As I had researched hotels and inns in the area it appeared to be one of the most inexpensive in the area that didn't have rotten reviews about being filthy. It was only about ten minutes from the Disneyland east gate and 15 or so from the ticket stations inside the gate. If they are going to offer appliances in the room I would prefer that they work, but it would not preclude me from coming here again. It is hard to argue with getting the best price around and accommodating the six members of my family without making us take a bigger room than we needed.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Strong Canyon/Bonneville Shoreline April 16, 2011
We hiked Strong Canyon again today. This time we hiked all the way up. It turns out we had almost gone all the way the last time. It looked like one could follow the stream farther, but a path had not been cut out. I would love to be able to follow the stream to it's origin.
The trail stopped at a bridge at Bonneville Shoreline Trail If you crossed the bridge to the right you could follow Bonneville to Beus canyon. If you went left it would follow Bonneville to Waterfall Canyon.
We chose the right an headed toward Beus Canyon. We went a fairly long way, but didn't go all the way to Beus. It was a really nice hike, but it has been a wet late winter and early spring, so it was very green and the dust was kept down. I imagine that in the summer or even a more typical Utah spring it would a lot more dusty and possibly hot, due to being in the most of the way.
There were a fair number of bikes on the trails. Bonneville looked like a very good trails for biking, since it runs along the foothills of the mountain, so you don't have to climb straight up and when going back drop straight down.
A little way after we got onto Bonneville we saw a fair open area. Our boys were able climb up the side of a grassy hill there. They said there was a flat area that then continued to climb. I thought that the base of the hill and next to the trail near a nice and big trail marker would be a great place to camp some time. It is a little slanted and you would have to clear a few big rocks, but it had a great view of the city, Strong Canyon and Ben Lomond.
The path was not soggy except in one place. The stream was flowing a lot, but it was still well within it's bounds.
The trail stopped at a bridge at Bonneville Shoreline Trail If you crossed the bridge to the right you could follow Bonneville to Beus canyon. If you went left it would follow Bonneville to Waterfall Canyon.
We chose the right an headed toward Beus Canyon. We went a fairly long way, but didn't go all the way to Beus. It was a really nice hike, but it has been a wet late winter and early spring, so it was very green and the dust was kept down. I imagine that in the summer or even a more typical Utah spring it would a lot more dusty and possibly hot, due to being in the most of the way.
There were a fair number of bikes on the trails. Bonneville looked like a very good trails for biking, since it runs along the foothills of the mountain, so you don't have to climb straight up and when going back drop straight down.
A little way after we got onto Bonneville we saw a fair open area. Our boys were able climb up the side of a grassy hill there. They said there was a flat area that then continued to climb. I thought that the base of the hill and next to the trail near a nice and big trail marker would be a great place to camp some time. It is a little slanted and you would have to clear a few big rocks, but it had a great view of the city, Strong Canyon and Ben Lomond.
The path was not soggy except in one place. The stream was flowing a lot, but it was still well within it's bounds.
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