Just a quick note for those just kinda noticing that they’re being redirected. Ya, hi! Yes, this is another of my sites. Seems nobody told me that geoffreynease.com kinda had a giant brain fart… Not that I was really paying any attention to it. Anyhooz, until I can figure out what the heck I’m gonna do over there, you can see some stuff here. I’ve been ever so slowly been converting videos over to a usable format and have been uploading some to blip and vimeo… more on that another day. I may start relocating some elsewhere as well. I’ll have more to type later, I just thought I should say, Hi… still alive and that you will now be redirected to here instead for now… More on everything else later. Oh and i’ll have more videos soon as I’m also leaving for Disneyland again next week… Ya, I know I just went but well… O ya, later, forgot… O and don’t mind the theme… meaning to change that at some point. Just had to get away from the whole dark on dark on dark design. Had to brighten up and cheery the whole thing. Soon… but I better go….
Welp, I’ll be leaving on a jet plane come Tuesday morning and flying off to California once again. Yup, admittedly taking my mom out there for a number of reasons. One, she needs to get away for a bit, give work a break for a while. B, to hopefully convince her of an idea I have for another year or so from now. 3X, I found that last time was a bit on the boring side without bringing anybody with. Well, not quite as ambitious as a plan as last September, but still fun to found! Hoping to convince that when Greg gets married in a year or so, we kinda combine a trip….. Figure we’re going to have a whole bunch of us out in Vegas for a wedding. A good chunk of those munchkins…. really not a lot to do out there after the wedding for them. My plan is to shift the party to Cali and take the kids Disneyland.
Got a few things to do out there… I’ll have more than a few chances to tape once again. Hope to get the Fireworks and Electrical Parade. Shouldn’t be any trouble to at least get a couple tapings of those. Been going through making sure my cameras all work. Last thing I really want to do is get out there and find out something doesn’t work. THIS is something that happened a few years ago and made me feel like shit during a good chunk of the trip. This time, worst case scenario… I could always hop in the car and pick up a new camera at a Best Buy… WORST CASE! Seems a lot of the video cams out there aren’t going the hard drive route anymore and I’d really prefer not to hafta use a memory card to record anything….
So, I’ve started going to school again. Only taking two classes right now mainly to get my feet wet and get used to things. Will more than likely start taking three classes after this session is over. So, one important thing was finding a hotel with FREE internet. This way, I can do my homework and whatnot while I’m away. Sure, I could always hit a Starbucks or something, I think their net is free. Problem with that? I’ll prolly sit there and start drinking wayyy too much coffee. Can’t have that… Anyhooz, still kinda getting my school rhythm down and haven’t had much luck yet. Between Greg coming home for a bit last week, traveling over the next two…. well, it’s been a bit tricky, but doable. I just need to sit my ass down for about an hour or so a day and just do it…
Well, like I said, really not as ambitiously planned as last trip. Mainly relaxing at the two disney parks. And, one thing I’ve been reading online… apparently, this is almost the absolute worst time to go. Seems southern California students are on their spring break this week…. So, it’ll apparently be busier than shit. Hmmmm, no probs. I know how to play this game, though more practice in Florida… Luckily, I’ll have a rental car. REALLY hoping for a little Aveo Four door Hatchback… preferably grey… Then I will have know problems finding the car since it should look like mine! Pretty much, we can go to the parks early, hang out til we want, go back when we/I want… Hotel is about a mile from the parking garage, assuming we’ll be parking there…. Got tix for Leno, prolly won’t use them. Seems the big guest that nite is Miley Cyrus… so, um, no. That and the fact that I hadn’t been able/or tried to get a team coco shirt before hand. Plus it’s a Thursday episode and there’s really nothing good about a thursday episode. Got a few more waiting lists I’m on so, we’ll see what pops up… Not holding my breath tho.
Welp, got the zune to load up, packing to do, digital copies to copy to the laptop, and a few errands to run on Monday. Fly out Tuesday AM early to vegas, sit in a terminal for almost two hours, then off to Cali from there… JOY! Watch #gnease42 on twitter or my facebook for bits and pieces while I’m away… maybe surprises like surprise guests! OOOOO, no.
This is only a test. If this weren’t a test, it would be followed by a very intriguing and insightful message of completely nonsensical nonsense meant to drive you terminally insane. Once again, this was only a test.
Welp… small update… Ya, I know I haven’t written up a trip report or anything about my california trip… That might be later. I did upload the first days worth of pictures to my msn live account as well as facebook. All i will say for now, it was an awesome trip. I also learned that quite honestly, going alone can be quite boring. I think when I go next, I need to bring someone along. Preferably someone who either has never been there or hasn’t been there in a long time. It’s fun seeing things with folks who have never seen some things. Plus it’d give me an opportunity to possibly be in more than the accidental picture of my face when I notice I somehow put the timer on on the camera or i have it facing the wrong way and accidentally hit a button. Ya, you might see those!
Anyhooz… In roughly six hours, Greg and I will go pick up truck number one and load up. I’m hoping we can get everything loaded up BEFORE he goes to work. If anything else, as long as I can get up help with the few big things I have, awesome… I can do most of the rest. Trick is, there’s no parking in our little garage area/courtyard. So, I’m doing it anyway. I really don’t give a shit. I wanna get it done quick. Got everything staged for the most part in the garage. Just back the truck up to the garage door, load it up and I can move it for a while… After that gets loaded, then we take the Uhaul to ABF and transfer everything ourselves to the 28footer that’s going to be waiting for me. Ya, trust me, I know it’s totally redundant, but it saves me a crapload of money. Also, i’m pretty shore the complex here would frown upon a 28footer parked in the street here in the no parking areas. Least the small uhaul, I can move when somebody starts whining about it. I will also ask them what their smart suggestion would be since I’m sure as hell not going to try and find a parking space and then try and lug everything to and fro from said parking space. No, they can bitch about it as much as they might want. Won’t take long to load and then I can find somewhere for it for a bit. Now, depending on how adventurous and eager for pain I might be, I can either go right away and load the main truck, or I can just wait for greg and go after he gets off work. The only problem i will have is my dresser which weighs a freaking ton. It’s a dresser that my mom and dad use to have in their room. Awesome dresser with lots of space. LOTS of fun bringing down the stairs…. Welp, while loading the small uhaul, that’s when i’m also going to do the proverbial final sweep of the house similar to leaving a hotel room. That’s when I grab a box or two and just start tossing miscellaneous things that I find that I’d like to bring but haven’t officially packed. Luckily, i don’t think there’s really much more.
Still looking to start my KC run Thursday morning. Worst case scenario, I have two days to finalized my truck. In that case I would leave Friday. Either way, I should get there before the truck. Also, at some point I need to see if I can change some of the colors here on the site to brighten things up a bit. Kinda hard some late nights with the grey on black text… Sorry if this blog tonite seems a bit disjointed or forced… Rather on the tired side of the spectrum….
Quick note tonite as i’m still in Cali…. Opted to go ahead and stay a few more days. Logic: No where I really need to be or do, no plane to catch, and I still have a few more things to see here. Prolly do a full update this weekend after I get back. At the moment…. over 5 hours of video to sift through, 400 plus pictures…. the new Halloween Fireworks show from multiple angles, even from my hotel balcony! Some fairly decent night shots with my camera…. since I kinda figured out the night thing… Trash cans make for good stabilizers!
Yup… prolly wondering where i’m going with that….. first off….
okie…. been up since before 6am friday morning…. at the park by 8…. it is now about 2am SATURDAY morning. Didn’t leave until close to 130am…. So, ya, feet are currently yelling at me and threatening to go on strike. My eyes are trying to tell me that my ass should be in that bed next to me. So, I will appease the bed suggestion soon. A good part of my feet hurting comes from camping for the fireworks… THAT was scary…. Could be cuz i’m REALLLLLLLY not use to it, but there were a SHITLOAD of people tonite. Ya know, normally i do what i can to avoid the whole swearing angle on here. But, unfortunately, I’m using as the best way to explain how insane things were. Ok…. prolly about 10k+ watching the 9pm fantasmic. Then you got more than likely about 20k-35k in the hub, down main street and the surrounding area for the premier of the halloween fireworks. Then imagine alllllll those people trying to leave after their showing of fantasmic is over as EVERYBODY else is trying to get to a spot to watch the 1030pm fantasmic. Baby steps….. and it REALLLLY helps that I’m fairly patient with a lot of this. Luckily, I did find a pretty decent spot. Learned that dead center isn’t that great as i was off to the side with a semi-decent eyeline, except for heads in front of me. Shame I’m not sylar……
Things I did today…. Walk in Walt’s Footsteps tour(shame I managed to answer all the trivia questions posed correctly…. hey, it’s me), Jungle Cruise, Tiki room, winnie the pooh, big thunder, monorail, autopia, hista, star tours, buzz, pirates, Haunted Holiday Mansion, Tower of Terror, Monster’s Inc, innoventions……… Managed to tape Pixar Play Parade, New Halloween Fireworks, Fantasmic, and Pirates. I gotta look those over as I think I was having autofocus issues. I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope the fireworks came out ok as I REALLY REALLY REALLY don’t want to camp again. That shore is a ton of fun when you’re already in pain and uber tired! Fantasmic I’m already planning on seeing again as I’d like to try and get another angle on it. Pixar parade was kinda a fluke as i had just walked into DCA and boom it was just starting. So, prolly get those posted sometime in the next few months. LOTS more that i’d like to tape. We’ll just see if I do. Might start some conversions while I have everything else plugged in and charging. Give me a chance to see what i need to redo.
Heck, least a Cast Member was handing out free Churros on the way out! Saves me 3bux!!!!
Welp… sorry for the lack of videos and pics today. Seems there isn’t free interweb here in my hotel and I’m not about to pay for it quite yet. Thank goodness I planned ahead and found an…. alternate method…. MUHAHAH… Anyhoooz… Made it just fine to Anaheim. Hotel is a lot closer than I thought it would be, but I think I’m gonna keep driving that you very much. REALLLLLLY ez to get to the mickey and friends parking garage from here.
Haven’t gone on much yet. Took today pretty easy as as soon as you hit the LA area, it becomes a very very long drive. Otherwise, the other 80 percent was just fine and smooth sailing. I kept pissing off my GPS, really wish they’d give it a smart ass tone after awhile.
So far, only rode the train, tram, mr. toad, small world, pirates, pinocchio… and wow… That’s really it. Told ya I was taking it easy. Took a few pictures and sent some to the twitter and facebook.
Tomorrow/Friday… I got walk in walt’s footsteps tour in the morning, then it’s on to see if I can get into the halloween versions of Space Mountain and Haunted Mansion. May even try to catch the premier of the Halloween Fireworks too and maybe fantasmic. So, ya… LOOOOOOONNNNGGGG day tomorrow. Prolly gonna bring some warm clothes and leave them in the car.
Welp. Short one. May type something up later, but for now, this should be able to satiate any appetites out there!
As I’ve said… watch the twitter and the facebook. Prolly upload a few pics as the days progress on there.
Okie gang… I’ll try and keep this ALOT shorter than the last one. Taking the not so short drive to Anaheim Thursday for my first official trip to Disneyland. This is also my first Halloween season at a Disney theme park. This should be interesting! And the fun thing is, I’m doing it under my original budget! Got the hotel booked and the annual pass ready to be valid! Ya, I’m planning on coming back again !!!! Gonna also try and find the Hollyweird sign. I’m pretty shore I know where it is this time. Might take a day of just mindless wanderings… Check out Griffith observatory, the James Dean statue, find the Chinese Theater, maybe I’ll get shot at by gangs!!!! OOOOO Haven’t had that much fun since…. well, that one time…. Maybe i’ll take in a day at Universal! Looking at their park map, I don’t know how it could possibly take a full day. Looks smaller than Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida. Think maybe I’ll check out Disney’s original studio on Kingwell…. Who knows! Also planning on taking a TON of pictures and video. Hopefully enough to last for the site for a year or so! Yeah, I’m prolly just rambling on a bit!
Anywhatzit, booked the truck for the move back to KC. Gotta get a uhaul or something to take stuff to the truck on the other side of town. Why, you might ask? Well, we leave in an apartment area and there is no room for truck. Granted it’s only 28footer of which I’ll only use maybe 5 or 6 feet worth, not gonna work. So, day one, load the uhaul. Day two, load the main truck from the uhaul. Day three, start my 22 or so hour voyage back to KC. My room is starting to look a lot emptier. Just gotta box up some of my good clothes and some misc things. Then all I got left is my big stuff and whatever greg is sending back and we’re good to launch!
Welp, i’m out. Since it works pretty well with the direction I’m going, I’m gonna leave you with the same video from last time! Depending on what’s going on, expect updates either here, facebook or twitter. Random pictures prolly going up daily, but all posted later.
BTW, ODST is awesome! Firefight is LOTS of FUN!!!!
Howdy all. Yesterday was tons of fun! Thanks Greg and Cameron for sharing the day with me! Long drive though, that’s for shore… Before I go to far, I got me an awesome new phone. The Google/Tmobile MyTouch 3G. Really awesome phone. Kinda like the Iphone, but it’s not. A HUGE chunk of the apps are free as opposed to a buck here and buck there. See, it’s all based on the Android operating system, an open source operating system. Anybody can make anything for it! There are a lot of things I’m likeing about it so far… Built in Google maps, YOUTUBE!!!, GPS, the free apps, ACTUALLY BEING ABLE TO USE MY GMAIL AGAIN!!!, avoiding zombies, streaming radio, posting to facebook, posting to twitter, posting pics/videos instantly, streaming live video from anywhere with my phone, onscreen keyboard…. much much more. There’s only a few gripes that I have…. lack of headphone jack and partially the onscreen keyboard… Ya, listed that on both sides. I actually got used to it pretty darn quick. Thing is, I can only type one finger at a time, luckily, it’s skills like that that drive typing teachers crazy! O and there’s an extreme lack of flash support for it so far.
O well… prolly wondering how my birthday went….. WELLLLLL…. Got an early start Thursday morning. I inadvertently set my alarm for the cursed time of 4:15am. Hopefully I don’t get back into the 4:15 rut after yesterday. Managed to get out the door by 445 and headed to the gas station. You know you’re off to a great start when you get to the gas station and find that for some reason you grabbed an extra pen and not your wallet…………… Well, turned tail and headed back to the house, totally forgetting that the complex for some stupid reason changed the generic code that we use to get in to a time sensitive thing. Unfortunately, with the time I couldn’t get in….. SOooooooo, had to park a hike away and walk to the house and jog back to the car. Called greg and let him know what was up…… Luckily, still made it to him by 6ish. No matter what time it is, traffic is always a chore. The construction doesn’t help too much with that. Hit Krispy Kreme and out of the city we rolled. Might I suggest the Caramel Apple Donuts! Those were pretty dang good!
This was technically my first REAL trip to California. Sure, I had been there when I was uber little. I know some of you might remember that, I shore don’t. Then, when we were coming here from Kansas doing that moving thing, Mom and I had to drive thru Needles. Well, those two don’t count. You don’t experience California until you experience driving in LA. OMFG!!!!!! Here’s the skinny… Cameron had to work overnite the nite before, so he couldn’t ride in with us. So, got on a plane to meet us there. I had him come into Burbank Airport, AKA Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. This dropped him pretty much right where we needed to be. The trick was, Greg and I still had to drive there. Well, being my car and all, I drove. You know, here I was thinking that Vegas drivers were horrible, ummm no…. Cali Drivers are WORSE! At one point, traffic was at a standstill…. but wait, to the left of me was the car pool lane. So, hopped in and then came to a realization that once I got some good speed going, some greedy Cali driver would notice that there was no wait in my lane and jump in and ruin my day. Now, greg who has NO trouble whatsoever with the vegas drivers and traffic in general was also rather nervous of the whole thing. Luckily, we made thru the madness unscathed. Now, there are a couple great things with driving with a co-pilot… Your co-pilot can dialup the traffic and maps on your phone while you’re driving and focusing on the current situation and relay the info. The other is added support when you’re freaking the crap out!
I would hafta say that that airport in Burbank is pretty darn small. Seems a lot smaller than even midway airport. I found it interesting that the baggage carousels were outside. Granted, there was still a roof over them, but they were outside! O and there’s only two of them. Well, after getting there, we did a quick look around to kill time, then we sat and chilled in the shade to wait for cameron. After he showed up, we continued on our little adventure.
Now, we had a few options. We could either chance getting a parking spot in a location mentioned on the tonight show’s website that cost 10 bux and not that many spots available, OR the other mention was public transportation. Well, given that it cost 1.25 each way, we took the public route. Little did we realize it was a subway. Now, I don’t really understand their reasoning that in a state that constantly flirts with earthquakes, that they would build a subway, but it’s california….. Bought our tickets and tickets for the return trip and made our way to Universal City. Having parked the car at the station in NoHo, that’s North Hollyword Folks, it was a fairly quick ride to our stop. After getting out and back into the sunlight, we found ourselves at the entrance to Universal Studios!
We then came across the above little sign. It seemed it wanted us to follow it. So we did. We wanted to go get a quick bite to eat, but I thought it’d be more important to find out where we needed to go first so we didn’t have to be confused later. So we followed a string of signs until we ended up by gate 2 of the studios. We came across what was pretty much a pen for herding cattle. Nah, wasn’t that bad, but it was still outside. So, asked the guard what the plan was and since we knew where to go, we’d go get a bite to eat. So, we hoof it back to the entrance of the studios and board a tram for Citywalk!
Now, a lot of you have seen Citywalk before as it’s used quite a bit on CSI Vegas. They tend to use to represent Vegas’s Fremont Street Experience. I will tell you that they are DEFINITELY two VERY different places. Citywalk really does remind me more of Downtown disney in florida more than freemont! We kinda find the cheaper looking food court area and seem to be drawn to the cuban food. Now, I’m all for something different today with food….. What I thought were big chunks of fried potato turned out to be bananas…. Let me just say that i’m not a fan of bananas or beans, so I pawn them off on my fellow adventurers. After eating, we do a little looking around to kill some more time and we realize that we’re also at the entrance to the Universal Theme Park. We of course each get our picture with the sphere outside the studios….
Welp… we had back and catch the tram back to the main entrance again and start hoofing it back to the holding pen. This time i get to show my ticket confirmation and license and they give us each armbands and tickets….
It’s at this point that we wait, wait and wait some more. After a short wait, they announce that they’ll be taking groups to the restroom for a quick bathroom break. Now, I’m thinking hmmmmmm….. A quick excursion onto the studios, what the hell and we go on a quick chapperoned potty break. If anything else, it helped pass the time. Come 315 or so, they started dividing everybody into groups by the color of their ticket. Well, just because we were being grouped, didn’t mean we were going in yet…. we got to stand single file along a fence which honestly felt forever. They had people out with us explaining the rules… think we heard it five or six times. Honestly it was good if you followed their rules… You take a picture in the studio, you risk having your camera confiscated and quite possibly NOT returned to you, along with getting kicked to the curb.
At about 3:50 they start bringing us all in, one group at a time. We of course get to pass thru metal detectors, soooo it’s time to empty pockets. As we start entering the studio, I realize the studio is a LOT smaller than I thought it looked on TV. They do a pretty good job at that illusion. One page directed us to another page who sat us at our seats. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to pick the seats, nor were they preassigned. They probably have their own system or logic of sorts for seating. If I had my pick, woulda been RIGHT behind Andy Richter. Took forever to get everybody inside and seated. Really killed me not to be able to take any pictures inside the studio…. Prolly coulda gotten a whole bunch. They had people out front watching the audience. And I saw the camera bubble mixed in with all the lightning equipment above. Now around 430ish or so, they had Jimmy Pardo come out and warm us all up. He told jokes, interacted with the audience and once again retold the rules we’ve heard sooooooo many times before. He then introduced Andy to the audience who said a few words. Then he introduced the band members one at a time and they did a quick music number. They took their spots and before we knew it, they started the show.
Now, didn’t have any warning that they were going to start…. Just all of a sudden the band started playing and Andy started announcing and away we go. And quite the opposite of the way i thought things were done, pretty much what you see on the tubes is exactly what we see live. There are no second takes. Everything was done with one take. When it’s time for commercial, inside that length of time is the same length of time that passed for us. The show started taping at 5 and was over at 6. The only thing extra were a couple promos for the current show. Now after the taping, Conan sang along to the end of show music. I tried finding a video of this bit, but unfortunately they’ve all been taken down. When all was said and done, we were once again heading out by section single file out the door and out the gates. Very awesome experience and would be willing to do it again! One thing i forgot to look for outside the studio was the white chocolate bust of conan with bacon hair….. O well….. Now, after watching the episode, I tried to find us in the crowd. Unfortunately, i didn’t have any luck. We were sitting in the second section from the left, third row back right behind the producer. Now, everytime they pan out and I think they were going to show us, they fade out right before they hit the front row. There is one time where they show our section and it’s when Andy and company are heading out the back door. Unfortunately, things are not clear enough to make us out.
Originally, we had planned to drive down towards buena park and eat at Portillos. After the experience on the highway earlier and the fact that it was a LOOOOONNNG drive down that way, least by my opinion, we opted to go out at CityWalk again. Not fast food this time, but something bigger. We settle on Buca di Beppo, an Italian Restaurant. It’s a chain Greg and I have wanted to try for a while and more so had been turned off on the expensive nature of the place. Surprisingly, it technically isn’t as expensive as feared as the meals are served family style. Now, a couple fun things happend in there. I gave the guys permission to leak that it was my birthday……… they needed to borrow my license to verify my birthday. Sad, I remember the days when we could get away with free dessert on non birthdays….. sigh…. Anyhooz, you know that whole hollywood stereotype with waiters/waitresses are actually actors or script writers….. well, it’s true. Our waitress named katie filled us in on her movie…. Paranormal Activity. www.paranormalmovie.com Basically, it’s in the same vein as Blaire Witch. Filmed to the small sum of 11,000 bux. Lots of info online, check it out! Also, on our way out, Greg noticed David Lawrence from heroes eating there as well…. He played one of the villains, Doyle, the Puppetmaster.
Now, one thing we did notice was that the trams only ran until 630. Not really a huge problem. We looked around Citywalk one last time on the way out. Well, it’s a short walk down to the main entrance. The thing is, there’s a HUGE hill to walk down. Now, we’re talking a pretty steep angle…. Quite a fun challenge after eating spaghetti. Seems like something out of band of brothers or something. HEHE… After a short hike down to the train station we hop back on the train and back to the car.
Now, there was one other thing I wanted to see before we left and luckily it was on the way. Drove down Riverside, grabbed some gas and hopped on 134. That took us right passed the Disney Studios. It might have been dark, but you can easily see the Animation Building with the Hat outside!
You know, the way in wasn’t really too bad of a drive. Went by pretty quick I thought. Driving home was completely different. That was a long long looooooooooonnnnnnngggggg drive. I think we finally started heading out after gas around 9ish, pretty much on target for getting to town around 130-200am or so. Ya, didn’t work out that way. After Barstow, we hit a rest area and slept for a bit. Keep in mind i had already been up since 415am….. Didn’t really sleep much, but it definately helped. Woke up around 2 or so and headed out again. Still a bit on the groggy side, but better than I was. Kept going until with hit the border and stopped at a gas station by Buffalo Bill’s casino and grabbed some snacks, or in my case a donut and coffee, and walked around for a bit. That combination right there helped out a LOT and we continued along our way. Dropped cameron off at the airport, dropped greg off and headed off back to the house and slept. Think i got home sometime between 4 and 5. Went to bed pretty quick and got up around 8….. After cursing a bit I tried to sleep a bit longer….. but not much.
All in all, I think we had a LOT of fun. I for one plan to go to Cali again soon before i leave for Kansas…. Me thinks next weekend! Welp, the pictures used here aren’t by any means all of them. All of them are posted on my Live spaces page as my facebook. Soon as I get picassa worked out, I’ll have them attached somewhere with google whatnots.
!!!! Gonna also try and find the Hollyweird sign. I’m pretty shore I know where it is this time. Might take a day of just mindless wanderings… Check out Griffith observatory, the James Dean statue, find the Chinese Theater, maybe I’ll get shot at by gangs!!!! OOOOO Haven’t had that much fun since…. well, that one time…. Maybe i’ll take in a day at Universal! Looking at their park map, I don’t know how it could possibly take a full day. Looks smaller than Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida. Think maybe I’ll check out Disney’s original studio on Kingwell…. Who knows! Also planning on taking a TON of pictures and video. Hopefully enough to last for the site for a year or so! Yeah, I’m prolly just rambling on a bit! 
