I just thought I would drop a note since I will be out of town this weekend. I have been away on holiday in California and then I got laid off! What is the world coming too? Hahah. Anyway, I will tell you all about it on Monday. Have a good weekend...it is the longest weekend of my life!

I am in Disneyland! Yes! This is the place to be! Well, you know. Getting here was an adventure and now that I am grown up I am able to see Los Angeles like never before.

(...three hours goes by...)

Well, enough of LA. It is just the same...but dirtier and just plain bizarre. Onward to Disneyland Resort!

Universal Studios is such a bizarre place. It is a place where everyone that I know would love to create movies, but a place that seems to incredibly out of touch with the real world. Hmm. Isn't that interesting. I suppose it is obvious to most, but I thought it was worth a mention.

So, what did we do today? We zoomed up the I-5 today to get to the studios and check it out. I haven't been to Universal since I was about fifteen or sixteen. It was a long time ago and I seem to recall be hit in the head by a bird just after getting through the ticket booth. So, we arrived and parked in the Frankenstein parking lot (ooo, ahh) and then got through the ticket area. I did check over my shoulder, it was a bit scary but I survived.

So, we checked out some of the shows. We saw Shrek 4-D, the tram ride through the back lot, the special effects shows and some lady who lost her kid. It was a full day and it was bloody hot. The rides we tried were amazing. The Jurassic Park ride was good and very wet. I did want to check it out more than once, but I had to get to the other rides. The Back to the Future ride was good, but definately showing its age. The Shrek 4-D show was funny and really good. It is amazing that these places will build huge buildings to get all of the show gear in. It must have cost them a fortune. Like in Disneyland, the Indiana Jones Adventure ride cost just over 200 million dollars US to build. Anyway, the park gets a thumbs up and I would suggest checking out the park. The rides are worth it and the shows were also good.

Oh, one thing, the X-Men. They were walking around the park looking important. But, I don't know...King Kong was better.

Here is day two. My father and I met up with my mother and my sister after their conference completed today. It was a Kumon conference being hosted in Beverly Hills. We all headed over to Hollywood and Vine. It was a dump! I couldn't believe that anyone in charge of the place where "dreams come true" could allow the area to fall into disrepair. Of course, we got out and looked at some of the stars on the strip but not much else to do was evident. The Mann Chinese Theater was nice, but the area made one afraid to leave anything of value laying around.

The hotel was then established as our place to hide from the world. It had television (which makes it a little odd that we "hid", but anyway, that aside) and beer. There was a 7-11 food store just on the corner and it had some tolerable food to tie us over until the morning.

We left North Hollywood after a an hour and headed back to the hotel and hung around there, drinking beer and taking a swim in the pool. It was a short day, but a good one. The family was assembled...and the week lay ahead.

Well, I am off today to go on a holiday for 12 or so days to the wilds of California. It should prove to be the holiday of holidays. Bright sun, smogged climate, but Disney characters everywhere.

Allyson dropped us off in the morning at the airport. We had to say our goodbyes quickly and then my father and I had to wait for a long time in the Air Canada line for quite a while. We arrived a whole bunch early and it was a good thing too. Twenty nine people didn't make it onto the plane to LAX because they were still going through security. So, the plane took off anyway. It waited a bit, but there were schedules to keep. Flying used to be a problem for me, but not any longer. I can't wait until we have lifted off and I can look out the window to the ground below...amazing.

The plane trip was good and we were able to take advantage of a chair massage place in the Vancouver airport. This is the first day in LA and it is just myself and my father. We drank a whole lot of beer and watched some bad television in the hotel and that was about it. Nothing really to write about. We did check out Downtown Disney (staying at a hotel within ten minutes walk) and it was amazing. I couldn't believe there was anything like it. It was just...well, cool. Can you tell I am a Disney guy? I always liked it.

I also ate at Tony Roma's the first night...the beer was good, but the food was questionable...

Another week has almost passed by and it has been a fairly quiet week at home. July was completely nuts. All kinds of things going on here, Allyson leaving her job, myself going nuts at work, and then being much too tired after getting home. I worked way too many hours at work and should have cut a few hours back, but there was a lot to do. Also, I am starting out helping my uncle with some things at his business..too much stuff going on!

This week also has been the first week I get to start on my cool editing course. I have tried and had a few late night false starts with this one and now I have blocked out some time to get the thing running. It looks like a good course, and I will be happy doing it and it will help me out when editing my own stuff. Which reminds me, I will be missing my writing course for a couple of weeks, which will suck.

See what I mean? Not enough hours in the day and not enough time for me to remain awake. Anyway, off to get some writing done.

I stayed up really late last night to watch this film on my sister's television. It was called American Movie. Now, I had noticed this DVD in stores and at the local video rental store. It is the story about this young man who has a passion for making movies. His dream was to create a film and there wasn't anything that would get in his way. He would make this movie...period. I am not doing it any justice rambling since it is early and I am really tired. But, I suggest checking it out. There is a very good story and a very good cast of characters. They are real people too. I would run out and rent this documentary since there is so much great stuff to see in it. Sleeeeeep....must sleeeeeep.