Thanks For a Great Run

Dear All, It's been great adventure and learning experience running this blog the last 2.5 years, but the time has come for me to put my creative energy and enthusiasm into other things. As of today, TheRapidsBlog draws to a close. Twitter, Flickr, and email links have been removed and the associated email accounts will be deleted in time. It's been my pleasure to write about my travels and experiences here and I'm so glad many of you were able to share in them. Big thank you's to all who supported this endeavor and the stories told. I am very grateful. :) Best to all, and my thanks, as always, for reading. Michael :)

Cross Roads

Recently, I've gotten back into something I used to love and live for in high school, namely music. It's yet another creative passion in a long list of mediums I've played in throughout the years. Writing, photography, and graphics are naturally some of the others, yet they're on a different creative and spiritual level. Not better or worse, just different.

Frankly, I'm at a cross roads with how or even if I want to continue the blog. While it does cover one fellow's wacky journey through theme parks and entertainment, in addition to tourism and restaurants, the blog may have plateaued. To compete and reach the next level in the theme park world, a media entity really needs to be consistent and mingle more with park industry folks. While I love the park industry and have had light passing meetings or good exchanges with those in different circles, reporting industry news is not the direction TheRapidsBlog was meant to go. There are podcasts and blogs out there who do this and do it very well. Coaster 101 and In The Loop are prime examples of this.

Part of me is seriously considering putting the same creative energy, zeal, and fun back into music vs. the blog. How all that will transpire and what happens to this almost three year creative endeavor, I'm not sure yet. Like anything in life, there are a few options and you have to carefully consider the after effects.

Whatever does happen, this blog has been a truckload of good experiences and a very good teacher. It's been a motivational doorway to a lot of VERY good people as well. (Laughing) It's also been a creative nightmare from time to time. ;) Yes, very much a labor of love too. Make no mistake.

Oh, and why the title Cross Roads? It fits not only the blog's status, but it's a good movie with a Steve Vai cameo too. Clever, eh?

I'll keep you all posted on things. My thanks, as always, for reading. :)

Blogging Buffet & Nerdly News

I looked up today and realized I hadn't done one of these in a while. Time to fix that. Join me?

• Job hunt rambles on. There was a bright spot of interest not too long ago at a company back in Huntsville, Alabama. While it didn't quite work out (for now) it did make me feel good and that I still had something of a fighting chance for being a working tech professional. My thanks to them and glad to keep in touch. :)
• In last couple months I've started seeing an old flame again...music. Didn't realize how much I missed, especially as yet another artistic medium. Researching the latest and greatest software and gear has been mind bending. It's been 16 years since anything MIDI and keys, and about 5 years anything with guitar. Needless to say, much has changed. Both exciting and daunting. In short, lots to learn all over again. Thankfully, Sam Ash Music (10 minutes away from the pad) is my friend. Oh, and Roland's AX-Synth really makes me miss my Yamaha KX-5. I so should've kept that keytar. S'ok. I WILL own similar one day with fat swirling sounds that'll shake the rafters.
• The wings love continues as I start to explore more places in Orlando. Recently tried Hooters Wings and enjoyed them. Wing House is next on the list along with yet unnamed local places. Yep, this is gonna be fun. :)
• The days are getting warmer with beautiful skys. I've really enjoyed the Friday afternoon jaunts over to Downtown Disney. Lord knows I NEED the walking to keep in shape. It's also a great time for photo documenting and creativity. Still REALLY thrilled about last week's Disney Polynesian Resort shot.

With all the craziness in the world lately, keep your chins up and hang in there. As in times past, amidst chaos, there is certainty of better times to follow. Keep hope in your pocket.

And, my thanks for reading. :)

Downtown Disney: The Latest

Fridays have become an enjoyable new tradition here at the blog. They usually start with a meal at CiCi's, Buffalo Wild Wings, or the new favorite, Hooters, and then a good walk over at Downtown Disney. Sometimes this is followed by more walking at the Disney Resorts or CityWalk to burn off the whatever buffalo somethingerruther I've had for lunch. It's also a great time to get artsy with the photography, which is what I did yesterday on my weekly visit.

• Destructionwise, the jack hammers were going next to Sosa, likely tearing up the what's left of the concrete foundation for grading. Yep, just dirt and concrete blocks.
• There's a new construction wall up around some of the planters to the left of the stage near World of Disney, which has narrowed the walkway a good bit. No idea what that one's about.
• Over at D Street, the Vinylmation Nerd series is out, in clear boxes, so you can choose your favorite. Have to admit, Donald was kinda cool. The Fantasia 9 inch and Tree of Life 9 inch are out. The latter was so tempting, but I'm trying to keep a lid on my Disney swag lust. Also saw Minnie as Boush Star Wars figure which looked new. So if Mickey ever did 4-Lom, does that mean they could be Boush and Lom? Get it? Do you see where I'm heading with this? (crickets) Ok, moving on...
• The Mickey Spring Break 2011 limited edition pins are out over at Pin Traders. Took a little birthday cash and got a St. Paddy's lanyard, pin, and the spring break, to kick start my annual pin and lanyard tradition. Also looks like a dog tag auto-engraving machine has been moved into the building from somewhere else.
• Since it was a beautiful sunny day of 78, I headed over to the monorail resorts for more walking, ambling, strolling, sauntering (but not swaggering) etc. Got a couple really good shots of the Polynesian and Grand Floridian with the new camera. Also tested out the video. While it says I have 28 minutes of record time, it's more like 5 on 3 AAA batteries. Even so, the vid quality is decent.
• The Poly is always such a soothing place to go, between the atmosphere, and the mellow music. There are parts of it that play on the same sensibilities that the atriums at Gaylord Opryland Hotel did. Just a very peaceful and relaxing place to wander. Poly, of course, has the upper hand, thanks to in-house Dole Whip. ;)
• Stopped into the Contemporary Resort after a short monorail trip. More of the 2011 swag is out, including new sackpacks, Kooki pens, and 40th anni mouse ears. On a side note, I've found the sackpacks and Kooki pens to be very handy around the apartment and would recommend them as souvenirs.

All in all, another good visit, and the time property put me in a great mood for the weekend. Hope you all have a good weekend too, and thanks for reading. :)

Thoughts on Traditional Media vs. Digital Media

I read recently that Border's Books is filing Chapter 11 and very likely to close. One of the reasons given was that the company didn't do enough with the emerging ebook download trend that's caught on in the last couple years, and that is catching up it's movie and music brethren.

In 2009, my girlfriend at the time (an avid reader, author etc.) and I would go to Border's a couple times a week just to see what was new. I enjoyed these trips, especially for the game guide section and all the goodies related to World of Warcraft (which I was just getting addicted, er...in to). We'd peruse the magazines, have a cookie and coffee, maybe even pick up some Pocky, but there was always a feeling of wide open possibility at Border's. Why? Because there were thousands of books you could reach out and grab, on any subject. They were all just a short car ride away.

Then we'd pass by whatever ebook system Border's carried. She and I would look at each other with the same thought, "Convenient, yes, but it lacks the warmth and color of a seasoned book shelf." Many of our mutual author and creative friends agreed. It just wasn't the same as holding a real book in your hand, whether you enjoyed reading or did it merely to learn about something.

Years ago, I asked my Mom why she never wanted one of the cookbook collections on CD-ROM (yes, this was some time ago). She said she liked being able to look at the books on the shelf and hold them in her hands.

On another occasion, I went to a friend's house who was an avid music collector. He had several shelves, floor to ceiling, lined with thousands of CDs. It was a colorful and varied archive that sported everything from The Beach Boys to MegaDeth.

Even more recently, I visited a theme park friend when I moved to Orlando the first time. He was an avid movie collector and had several racks of DVDs. Everything from Disney to wrestling was accounted for. He let me borrow Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Terminator 3 so I could catch up. His movie collection was most impressive. Dare I say Legendary?

More recently, I've started buying CD's again. Yes, they get ripped into iTunes to have on my pc and iPod, but I've come to enjoy having both the digital as well as the traditional on a shelf to look at. There's just something aesthetically pleasing and soothing about all that media, at arms length.

In an odd way, it's a reminder how valuable and fascinating old libraries, book stores, and archives can be. The books are both time capsules and history that can be touched and even smelled. You feel a deeper connection to the past, to tradition, to different times and ways. While digital reproductions are wonderful tools, there just isn't the some level of connection. It's like seeing one of Musashi's paintings on the Internet vs, standing five feet away from it at the Smithsonian. The time, the person, the heritage, are all the more real, especially since you know he put his hands on that same canvas hundreds of years ago.

Put another way, I know a few theme park enthusiasts who dearly love to collect old maps, press releases, and the like. Sometimes it can be a real treat to hold a map to a park that no longer exists (like Six Flags Ohio) or to see how much a park has changed by what the map tells.

Suffice to say, digital media is here to stay and it's terribly convenient. We should, however, continue to value and cherish traditional media that can still be held in the hand. We should also still value those real world places who provide access to and sell such media. Otherwise, what is the point of being excited over things like The Dead Sea Scrolls or ancient libraries unearthed around the globe? Because they are valuable connections to our past.

My thanks for your time and reading. :)

Thoughts on Cloud Computing

Uh-oh...there's that word again...thoughts. For the regular blog readers, that means I'm analyzing a topic. Why? Because I like to observe, think, and learn.

There's a lot of talk about Cloud Computing lately. What is it? Imagine all your music, files, movies, games, etc that are on your computer, not on your computer. You log in to a huge data bank of servers somewhere else to access your digital life. We're not just talking about a blog or photo account here, but EVERYTHING. All you have is a stripped down computer or device to access your digital property of sorts. Sounds so convenient and Utopian right? Even a little Star Trek LCARS? What could be the harm? Think again.

Now let's think carefully about this, shall we? A person or company's everything is stored out on the web. What if the connection goes down? You can't work. You can't post. You can't call for help in an emergency. Nothing. Granted, we're all used to this with work network outages, but you can still get some work done on a proposal because your word processor is still on your machine, or you can keep editing those promo pics or movies, because the software is on your machine. With current networks, some, but not all are incapacitated. With Cloud Computing, everybody is incapacitated.

Remember that sensitive secret company data that competitors would just love to get their hands on, you know everything from latest projects to earnings reports? That's now on the Cloud, verses under company lock and key in an internal network...and somebody else (the Cloud provider) controls the access to it. In an age of shamelessly selling personal information to the highest bidder, what's to stop the provider from doing the same? A threatening lawsuit? The provider has your company by the mahbals, and even worse, can cozy up to a competitor if the price is right and allow them access to your secrets. If you're a business, that means potentially devastating losses, from projects, to customers, to contracts, to money. If you're the average person, it's another way someone can get into your financial info, etc, and exploit it.

Have you ever had iTunes go haywire and lock you out of your own music that's sitting, paid for, on your machine? What happens if the Cloud provider has a major glitch or mass failure? There is no way to back up the data or access it if HAL 9000 won't open the pod bay doors. You lose everything from pictures of the kids to wills in the digital equivalent of a house fire. Also, think about how troublesome it is to correct simple data in a personal account, like your cell phone, when someone has entered something in the wrong text field.

On the political front, if any country's enemy is technically savvy, they can cripple a country who is using Cloud Computing very easily. This in turn can play havoc with national defenses, communications systems, power and water systems, and even other secret projects that the general populace of a country doesn't know about.

Simply put, these are some serious trades that companies are pushing for and that we as individuals are eyeing in the name of convenience. We're negotiating and gambling yet more control and privacy here. These trades may save cash in the short term, but there is a great risk of bigger costs down the road due to potentially lost productivity or compromised sensitive info. And this goes from the individual all the way up to government.

Above anything else (and the true point of this article) we need to think carefully and act wisely in this latest exciting creative surge of technical possibility, lest we step into misfortune.

And, of course, my thanks for your time here. :)

Downtown Disney: The Latest

This week at Downtown Disney, I give you...more dirt and less rubble. Yes, not too much different from last week, even the sunny day. No changes to the other PI clubs just up the walk (behind camera view). The usual dance music was playing and the winged bronze lady/human statue was out. She always draws a crowd when gracefully posing for pictures.

Pin traders has the limited edition Valentine's Day and St. Paddy's pins out, along with the 40th anni Vinylmations. Meanwhile at D-Street, what's this, both Jack Skillington and The Pumpkin King were in good supply. Glad to see that along with the special edition Vinylmation ice cube trays/figure pack. Also saw the 9 inch Beast from Beauty and the Beast. There was also what looked like a Pete's Dragon with tac tac toe across his chest, packaged with a a 3 inch Vinyl that's probably Pete.

Over at Art of Disney, Larry Dotson was on hand selling work and possibly autographing it. I can't be sure. There was also a new Vinylmation lanyard showing the many different figures. Fellow collectors, you have your targets. ;)

Pooh's Corner and Disney $10 are still dark and closed, as is the Lego store for it's expansion. The temp Lego store is still going strong near Earl of Sandwich. Too bad it has to listen to the constant beeping from the Tonka trunks over the toy store's entrance.

There had to be a dance team or cheerleading competition recently, since there were hoards of teenage girls. If you see matching sackpacks, jeans, and sandals in large numbers, take cover. They're easily spooked and will stampede. ;)

Myself and another lady got tickled at a group of women who let out a loud gasp at the site of candy apples in the window of the candy store on West Side. They ran excitedly over to the window as the lady and I passed. We just laughed. Well, what can you say? Disney does have this magical power to revert any grown adult back to 8 years old or a teenager...not that I'd know...(doop doop de doo.....)

If you're traveling to Orlando in the next few weeks, you might want to make plans for Mardi Gras over at Universal, MegaCon sci-fi convention in March, or Epcot's annual Flower Garden Festival, which is already being set up.

Cheers to you all and my thanks, as always, for reading. :)