Disneyland

If there is one person who can convince anyone of anything, it is Sheri. I had Jury Duty scheduled for the 6th of June. Sheri made the argument that I could either be gone from work a few days to Disneyland or unknown amount of time for jury duty, & Disneyland would be preferable. The Deans (who I work for) agreed and wrote a note affirming that I make no other income. So now I have the plane tickets and park pass, If they don't excuse me I don't know what will happen! Truth be told I am looking forward to seeing the 50th anniversary at Disneyland. It will be nice, and we will see if they break down and bring Sammy along. (He has been there 5 times in the last year or so...) I hope it will just be us. It is much easier to go on rides without a young child. With less than a week left I hope I find my Disney Visa. It gives me a few good discounts. Last week we stayed up at the cabin in Washington, CA. This week Disneyland.. As the Ward Finance Clerk I hope they don't get to mad at me for being gone all the time. About the cabin, I always seem to hurt myself in the river every time we go. This time the river was too full (about 3 times the norm) and I was unable to swim down the rapids. It seems habits are hard to break. I ended up twisting my ankle in a hole and fell and banged up my knee in the dark.

No more classes, no more books...

... No more teacher's dirty looks! Yep, finals is here and passed. My last was at 10:15 this morning. Speaking of 'no more books,' my history final ended with me looking down to get my books and they are gone. Luckily there was only 10 or so students left to look at me strangely as I stood up and freaked out. "My books are gone! I can't believe someone took them." The teacher said she would email me if they were turned back in. I'm afraid that even if it wasn't a thief but someone sitting next to me picking them up with their own will not bother to find the real owner. After all it was the last day. Well I had a jury duty in January. Barely a year after my last jury duty. They must have liked me :P Because of school starting in January I returned it marked 'Student'. Well, they didn't waste any time and sent me a new one last week. I now have a summons for June 6th. How fun. (I just have to figure a way to let my boss know his only employee will be out for an indeterminate amount of time) This week was also E3, which I wrote about in my last post. Now last month, around April 29th, Microsoft started a Windows XP Ad campaign to battle the great and wonderful Mac OS X (Tiger). Shortly after that, internet Ads were seen and were obviously created on a Mac with the Mac version of photoshop. Well they did it again. Microsoft's XBOX 2 playable demo at E3 was running on, surprise, 3 G5 Macs. Well you can see why Microsoft afraid OS X when 2 of their OWN departments are using Mac not Windows.

Podcasting, Nintendo & E3

By now, 90% of everyone who has a hard drive based MP3 player has an iPod. What may this mean? Well for starters, there is now a new medium for content. Basically it is radioshows from the internet. If you want to get started, and like Disney, try http://www.disneyland.com/podcasts . Even if podcasts don't end up being your thing the Disneyland Radio show is quite entertaining and informative. You don't have to have a iPod (but why would you want anything else?) The most interesting part of the new offerings at Disneyland this year is the Buzz ride. In July you will be able to play online with the ride, lighting up targets for the riders to shoot. It shall be interesting. Speaking of online gaming. It looks like a bright future for Nintendo. I admit I am a big fan. I got the Gameboy Advance and then the Gameboy SP. Well if you ever thought that even the GBA SP was too big and not a bright enough screen you are in luck! They introduced the GBA Micro! About the size of an ipod mini and much lighter. Also Nintendo's long awaited online service will be free!!! Take that XBox live! Infact not only will Nintendo have free wireless gaming via hot-spots and wireless internet but the Nintendo REVOLUTION will be all wireless. No more cables! I just hope the controllers have as much life as the wavebirds. The Nintendo Revolution might not be the 'best' box out there in mid 2006 but its on my list. Wireless online gaming and cordless controllers are cool enough, not to mention its gonna be smaller than any console out there, but what takes the cake is what is playable. Revolution games? Of course. Gamecube games? Great! DVDs? Finally. N64 Downloadable games? Cool! SNES Too? Awesome NES? Give me Super Mario 2&3!!! However, as can be expected no GBA or DS as they are still the games keeping Nintendo alive and strong. I will settle for a DS MMORPG! If not then Mario Kart DS (Online) and Mario Brothers Superstar Saga, will have to hold me over. Oh and Please hurry up with the new Zelda for Gamecube. I would love to morph into a werewolf. Note to Sony: The PS3 isn't too ugly, but those controllers are Ug-Ly. They better be darned comfortable. However I must congratulate Sony on putting SD slot into the PS3 (as is Nintendo). They rarely let other cards play with their "Memory Stick" which is probably why I don't have a PSP.