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Thursday, August 31, 2006
I'm driving with some friends over to Vegas this weekend. We're leaving Friday night, so I expect a lot of traffic on the drive. I don't plan on doing much gambling though, mostly out of a lack of funds and not an overall dislike of gambling. I'd rather conserve what little I have than blow it all in the first five minutes. Actually, we're only driving out there to pick up a friend of Nammy's who's flying in from Japan. Apparently, the whole scale of the country hasn't quite sunk in. So we'll be doing the tourist-y thing in Vegas, too. That includes a drive to the Grand Canyon. Maybe I can convince them to take a helicopter ride instead....
posted by Phillip at 6:51 PM
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Monday, August 28, 2006
Yeah, I kinda wanted to see how I'd fare:
Pure Geek
39 % Nerd, 52% Geek, 30% Dork
For The Record:
A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored better than half in Geek, earning you the title of: Pure Geek.
It's not that you're a school junkie, like the nerd, and you don't really stand out in a crowd, like the dork, you just have some interests that aren't quite mainstream. Perhaps it's anime, perhaps it's computers, perhaps it's bottlecaps, perhaps it's all of those and more. Your interests take you to events and gatherings that are filled with people you find unusual and beyond-the-pale, but you don't quite consider yourself "of that crowd." Instead, you consider yourself to be fairly normal.
Which, you are.
Congratulations!
My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
You scored higher than 99% on nerdiness
You scored higher than 99% on geekosity
You scored higher than 99% on dork points
The first time through, it gave me a listing of Joe Normal, but in trying to add the code to my blog, I seriously screwed up the page. So I retook the test to just copy and paste the answers, and I guess I may have done a few answers differently to get this result!
posted by Phillip at 11:31 PM
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Thursday, August 24, 2006
Nammy and Mai finally convinced me to go with them to Japan this winter. Oddly enough, I'll be there on Christmas day, so this will be my first Christmas without my family. Hell, I think it's my first Christmas outside the state of California! Mom offered to have a pre-Christmas celebration for me, but right now I'm more concerned about how much money this trip will cost.
posted by Phillip at 9:59 PM
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Tuesday, August 22, 2006
A Trip to Marceline
Many of you may have heard of a place called Marceline, Missouri. Walt Disney lived there as a boy, and it's rumored to have been the basis of Main Street in Disneyland. Well, I was fortunate enough to be spending some time with my family in a town only an hour's drive from Marceline last week, so I convinced my family to take a little side trip!
A two-hour drive north from Kansas City, Marceline is a little town that survived on the railroad industry. That is, it did until the 1980s, when the train line decided to no longer stop there, devastating the local economy. Still, if you’re a die-hard Disney fan, this town is a must-see, as there’s several little tidbits just waiting to be uncovered.
A postcard from Marceline. The text reads:
Coming to Marceline
Elias purchased 45 acres in Marceline from his brother Robert at a price of $125 an acre, promising installment payments with his money he was to receive for houses in Chicago that Flora had designed and he had built.
In the spring of 1906, the Disney family packed up their belongings and moved to Missouri.
Walt Disney only lived in Marceline for 5 years, but it seemed to leave an impression on him, as in his later years he returned often as a favored son of Marceline.
A View of Kansas Ave, or Main Street, USA, depending on whose building you read the address from.
The architectural stylings of Main Street are glimpsed here, and there are even signs on the street pointing out significant locations.
This one’s a little blurry, sorry. The text reads:
Main Street USA
Walt Disney’s hometown of Marceline today is much as it was when he lived here. The first plans of Disneyland show a remarkable resemblance to the town, with it’s [sic] store fronts on main street and locomotives coming and going. All who enter Disneyland travel down the main street Walt created from his memories of his childhood in Marceline. He hoped to give all visitors the impressions and sensations he had in Marceline as a boy. Walt wanted people to feel comfortable, he wanted them to feel like they were coming home. Welcome to the original Main Street USA.
Yes, I did take a picture of this building, but sadly it came out backlit. All you can really make out is the outline.
The Disney influence can be seen in many of the businesses here, from realties to this little window dressing in the bar!
But there’s got to be more to Marceline than just a little street, right? Correct you are my friend! Let’s walk a block off Main Street to the old Santa Fe train depot, now a museum dedicated to Walt Disney.
There’s no photography allowed inside, so I can’t show you anything, sadly. But I can say that Walt’s school desk is on display, as well as family papers and photographs. They even have a Midget Autopia car on display. (Marceline has 8 cars; I’ll talk about that more later.) The building is still being remodeled, so the second story is not yet opened, but the volunteers at this not-for-profit museum assured me they had much to add, as Ruth Disney left the museum many of her items when she passed on. There is a small donation fee to see the museum, but it seems worth it to help out with keep this bit of Americana alive. Be sure to stop by the gift shop on your way out, too.
One of two pins on sale here. Pin collectors, be the envy of all those in the park when you come walking in with this hard to find collectible!
A book about Marceline, made for Walt’s 100th birthday.
Two more postcards, showing various sections of town. Note the E.P. Ripley train with “Disneyland R.R.” on it, an addition requested by Disney himself.
Take some time browsing the museum, but don’t stop there. There’s more to see! A few blocks past Main Street, you’ll come to a park with an unusual sign:
Dedicated July 4, 1956, Walt, Roy, and their two wives returned to Marceline to personally attend the dedication festivities. This was proud moment for the town indeed. But this isn’t the only thing Disney in the park. Remember those 8 Midget Autopia cars? Why does Marceline have so many? The answer is that Marceline has the Midget Autopia!
Walt intended to attend the relocation of this ride from Disneyland, but only days before he would leave, he sent a message talking of a terrible cough he couldn’t shake. He passed away that December.
The ride’s not looking too good these days, and as you can see, the track is no longer present. But Marceline is optimistic that they can restore the ride one day.
But where did Disney himself live? Would you believe his house still stands? Would you believe it’s still a private residence in use today?
Here it is, folks! Walt Disney’s childhood home – though the extension to the right of the chimney was an addition made after the Disneys’ tenure, and I believe the house was yellow in Walt’s time.
What remains of Walt’s “dreaming tree.” Walt would sit under its branches and imagine whole new worlds. A seed from this tree was planted on Tom Sawyer’s Island in Disneyland, too.
A postcard of Walt’s barn. Now stay with me here, as this can get a little confusing. This is a recreation of the Disney family barn, built using blueprints of the barn in the backyard of Walt’s Burbank, CA home. That barn was made according to memories of the Marceline barn. The blueprints were acquired for Marceline when the Burbank barn was moved to Griffith park.
Catch all that? No? Sorry. I may need to draw up a diagram.
Why would Marceline build a recreation of Walt’s barn? Good question! Aside from an additional point of interest for tourists, it’s the beginning of the town’s determination to complete Walt Disney’s Missouri Project. When Walt returned to Marceline for the park dedication in 1956, he met with the townspeople to quietly repurchase his childhood home. His idea – to create a working farm that would educate and entertain tourists to the life of a farmer. Unfortunately the plans stalled, and with Walt’s untimely passing, Roy found himself knee deep in Walt Disney World’s construction. He couldn’t dedicate the time to the Missouri Project, so the plans were dropped. Now however, Marceline has other plans.
Interested in visiting Marceline? Interest sufficiently piqued? Well, here’s a scan of the town’s pamphlet. Read up on what they have to offer.
Check out Marceline’s website at http://www.marceline.org/. Marceline has some annual festivities you may be interested in.
Well, that’s all from me.
So long, folks!
posted by Phillip at 12:06 AM
1 comments
Monday, August 21, 2006
I've really been terrible with keeping up with my blogging this month! Anyways, I guess I'll finally tell you why we shouldn't have been on that plane last Wednesday. To put it succinctly, we were way too late to be able to board! On our drive back to St. Louis, we stopped in Hannibal to look around some of Mark Twain's childhood haunts. Well, mom took a little too long there, and the plane flight was 20 minutes earlier than we thought. So now we're two hours from take-off and 105 miles from the airport! Dad hightailed it on the highway, sometimes hitting 90 mph, but we got there with 40 minutes to go. We barely checked in on time and just squeaked in the checked luggage. There was a good possibility we wouldn't see them when we got to LAX. Dad returned the rental in record time and we all got onto the plane barely 10 minutes before they wanted to take off. We got to our connection in Denver with plenty of time, though, but the biggest surprise was landing in LAX and finding our luggage on the conveyor belt!
posted by Phillip at 10:01 PM
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Thursday, August 17, 2006
Sorry about the silent treatment I've been giving over the past couple of days. I was visiting Mike in Missouri, and my internet access was limited to dial-up speed. Not a conducive environment to posting blogs.
Basically, the family and I were in Kirksville to spend time with my brother for about a week. Some random thoughts of those days:
- We left on the first day of the "no liquids" restriction, which was hell since we were at LAX so early virtually no travelers knew about the new rules. To say it was hectic would be an understatement.
- When we finally got to Mike's house, we found he had a new dog! It's a little female beagle-something mix he found at the local animal shelter and named Sierra. Mike said he pulled about 30 ticks off of her.
- Dad and I built a little fence to give Sierra some running space in Mike's otherwise unfenced yard. Nothing too fancy or big, but it'll do for what Mike needs.
- We took a side trip to Marceline to see some of Walt Disney's old haunts. There's a small museum there dedicated to Disney, and his house still exists. I'll be making a significant post about my trip to MiceChat once I get a chance to scan in a few things. Expect to see it be copied here.
- And on the way back, we shouldn't have been able to board the airplane. I'll explain more about that one in the next few days.
posted by Phillip at 6:01 PM
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Monday, August 07, 2006
Someone sent me a phone message from Samuel L. Jackson for Snakes on a Plane. I knew about the gimmick but never expected the hear it. So thank you awesome person who sent me this!
posted by Phillip at 10:58 PM
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