After nearly 4 years, my hard drive is finally dying. D: I'm trying to back it up but I'm having trouble because a lot of the files give me a "cyclic redundancy check" error when I try to copy them. I can open the files just fine - look at the pictures, listen to the music, etc - but it won't let me copy them. :/ I'm trying to decide if I should just replace the harddrive on this one and maybe upgrade the RAM, but then at that point I'm starting to near the cost of a new laptop anyways. But other than the skeevy harddrive (which only became skeevy within the last month) and low RAM (which is easy enough for me to upgrade on my own anyways) this one works perfectly, so I don't NEED a new one... ah, decisions, decisions. But at this point I'm really more concerned with making sure I get my drive backed up.

I finally found a new apartment! Yaaaaay! No more 30-mile-each-way commute! No more paying the whole rent and utility bills by myself! :D It's a really nice little place down in Hunter's Creek, sharing it with two other girls. I'll be moving in there about a month or so from now, so now I gotta start planning moving stuffs. It's a temporary place until January (that's when the girl whose room I'm taking comes back) but as January gets closer I'll figure out where I'll be after that.

Oh, and this week's Sign That Disney Parks Are Dying In The Bad Economy? Fantasmic is going to only two days a week in January. Along with a whole lot of entertainment show offering cuts in September (but FINALLY that horrid Pocahontas show is getting the axe - that's 10 years overdue!). Getting ready for a slow offseason much? Although the weakness of the American dollar is reportedly bringing 180,000 Brazilian tourists here this summer. Yippee.

I did finally finish scanning my Elizabeth Weir drawing, and it's here! There's a LOT I see wrong with it, but that's why I'm still trying to develop my colored pencil skills. I have so many ideas and not enough time. I get really inspired while standing out at the Wheelchair Assist position at work. I get all ADD and stare up at the tree branches and imagine what it would be like to be an itty bitty person up there in the branches, facing down the squirrels and lizards and riding around on the cardinals. And I space out like until I suddenly realize that a guest has been shouting at me and trying to get my attention for quite some time, probably to ask me for the billionth time how far they are from the front of the line, as if asking repeatedly will make them get there faster. But yes, much imagination happens there.

I decided that I'd like to sign up for the Candlelight Processional Cast Choir this year. Eep! I haven't sung in a choir since middle school. I kinda miss it. So hopefully I can get into that. Sign-ups are August 1, but being new to the process I'm not sure how fast it fills up...

Idina Menzel is performing at House of Blues this coming weekend and I kinda wanna go, but I'm not sure if there's tickets left...

Encore Cast Choir's summer show is also this week, and I'd like to see that.

FOUR DAYS UNTIL THE X-FILES. :D

Long time no update! The basics:
-Finally down to 40-hour weeks! However, Casting continues to hire morons, so we'll see if that lasts. (Let's face it - if you can't even pass the Splash assessment after five days of training, you really are not the brightest crayon in the box. And that's being polite.)
-psychoticorca came to visit for a week and pick up shifts!
-My air mattresses has a hole somewhere. Yay for having a backup! (Yes, I'm too cheap to buy a real bed. Or any other furniture for that matter.)
-Hanging out at the parks with ariellen, salukfan, and princeali_m_fan!
-Got my picture taken with Indy after the stunt show at Studios. <3
-LESS THANK TWO WEEKS UNTIL THE X-FILES.

Pleasure Island is closing September 27. BOO. Actually, I could care less, except that the Adventurer's Club is LOVE. I will miss teh funny and teh booze there. KUNGALOOSH! Their strawberry daquiri machine was down last Monday, so no kungalooshes. BOO. But $2 beers all night. YAY!

Saw "Get Smart" last week... loved it! Funny stuff. I wish I remembered more from the original TV series, but I only have vague recollections of watching it on Nick at Nite back in the day. Steve Carell was hilarious, and Anne Hathaway always does a fantastic job.

Brazilian tour group season is here. D: Seriously, getting them to get in and stay seated is like playing whack-a-mole - you yell at one to sit down and three others pop up. BRAZIL FOR THE EPIC FAIL. (Also, apparently me, ariellen, and salukfan have the power to summon them by clapping and chanting. We're sorry, princeali_m_fan, we really are!)

Also, it is a sad day when I have to tell our managers and coordinators "You can't reset A-lift with 2 logs on it. Only one! You have to jog one over!" because they keep trying to do it and think the mountain is broken. You do this reset like EVERY DAMN DAY. Prease to know own attraction?

Brendan Fraser was at Universal last Friday. I was this close to calling in and going to see him, but I was a good girl and went to work instead. (My reward was a 3+ hour downtime at the end of the day)

Been trying to draw a lot, too. When I was hanging out at Studios one day, I spent a loooong time talking to the sketch/watch artist, and he pointed me to a good art store up in Winter Park. So I stopped in there on Tuesday and picked up some stuff. (I keep an art supply list just like a grocery store list) Been playing with some nice bristol paper and colored pencils, and also trying Col-Erase pencils for sketching. And when I'm at work, I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking up pieces I want to do. (If I'm at virtually any position except grouper, most likely I'm working on autopilot and thinking about art or something else instead of the task at hand) If I could do nothing but sit at home and draw all day, every day, I'd be the happiest camper in the world. (I'd also like to start taking commissions to make a few extra bucks, but I honestly don't think that I really have the skills to do so) I did finish an Elizabeth Weir portrait, but Photoshop keeps dying on me so I haven't been able to scan it yet. Also decided to join animalart100 to get more animal stuff done...

I've totally been on a movie-watching kick lately. Not new movies, but stuff I've seen a billion times: all the classic Star Wars trilogy, Mulan, Ella Enchanted, Gone With the Wind, Mary Poppins, etc... and then I watch them each about 50 times.

And it's been ages since I posted anything regarding stuff I've read, so here's an abridged update of stuff I can remember finishing recently: ( Finally trying to catch up on some of the reading stuffs... )

This random post brought to you by too many beers.

ariellen arrived this week! WOO! She and her mom crashed here for a couple of days before her CP arrival date, and put up with my furniture-less apartment. :P Woo! The Disney geek factor in Orlando just skyrocketed! XD Watching Enchanted together was lulz... because we both totally said the words along with the movie. XD

We had fun at work earlier in the week, though... during a lightning storm we got a power surge that reset the ride... and when we went out to do the reset, we found that the flume pumps hadn't come back on and half the logs (still full of guests, BTW) were suddenly sitting on the bottom of the dry flume. Doh! :P Prease to evac? Turns out that Magic Kingdom (which had most of the major attractions go 101) got off easy - Epcot and Studios lost power completely. :P

I had a manager approach me yesterday and tell me he wanted me to talk to the coordinator of training about becoming a Splash trainer. We're WAY short on trainers right now, and he said even though I've only been here 3.5 months, he thought I'd be REALLY good at it and thought our area manager might be able to pull strings to get me a spot even though I'm not really eligible. I think it'd be awesome, not to mention the extra pay while doing trainer shifts... but at the same time I keep wondering if I really know enough to be able to do it. I have no problem at all with handling and explaining the basics of the attraction... but there's so much I don't know or have never actually encountered before that I think it'd be tough to really do a good job. Hrm.

(...I have, however, already racked up 8 Great Service Fanatic cards. /bragging moment)

Day parade almost got rained out today. We had to stop rolling out the ropes just as we started because of lightning (when Splash goes 101 for weather, so does parade). So at like 2:55 they go "It's back on! Roll out! Rainy Day Cavalcade is going out!" So we roll out like maniacs and get ready for Cavalcade... only to turn around and find the entire regular parade lined up, minus only the princess float. Thanks for the heads-up, guys. :P

Was gonna do Epcot today after work, but the rainstorm made me decide to come home instead. Was also gonna do a drawing for Lilo and Stitch's 6th birthday today, but was too lazy and went to bed at 7 pm last night instead. XD And now I sit here sketching and watching Newsies. This movie doesn't get NEARLY enough love.

Splash is special this week. Yeeeah. Wednesday we opened 1.5 hours late, were down for an hour after a mid-day e-stop evac, and then went down for another half hour in the afternoon. Today we opened two hours late. *pats Splash on the head patronizingly* I think Frieda (the computer) hates us. :P Oh, well. :P Tomorrow and Sunday I'm in at 7:15. I haven't come in that early since training. I hope there's training groups, 'cause I don't know that I remember how to open tower or trackwalk. :P

I've done a lot of PAC this week, too. Day and night parade yesterday, day parade today, and I'll have day parade for the rest of the weekend. Yaaaay parade! I tried to play beach ball with kids yesterday afternoon, but there was a storm coming in (parade stepped off ten minutes early) and the wind kept blowing the ball away. :P I made up for it at night parade, though. We had an AWESOME beach ball game with a bunch of teenagers before the 11pm parade. :P

Oh, and DDCT today? Thanks for the epic pre-parade fail. You should probably start the music BEFORE the grand marshal performers are 50-100 yards down the parade route, so that we can, you know, know it's coming and get out of the way? Just a thought. :P

I was a good girl and finished my Indy drawing! I think I really biffed up his face, but I LOVED shading the horse. Uploaded to DA here!

I've got a Legend of Mythica one in mind next, because that show amazes me. (Video on YouTube starts here with the intro, check the "Related Videos" for the rest of the parts) Tokyo DisneySea, how are you so awesome?

And dammit, I got hooked on Ikariam now! I blame it joesmom92 and droops. So now I immediately check that in the morning, as well as my two Travian servers. :P

Oh, and I totally blame ariellen for spurring on my favorite new crack!pairing: Jack Sparrow/Giselle. Because it just brings the lulz. :P

And on the Wii front...
LEGO Star Wars Complete Saga: 85%
LEGO Indiana Jones Original Adventures: 72%

It's my weekend! Finally! And a TWO DAY weekend! I'm back to 6 days next week again, but still only 47 hours. And I have parade 3 days this week - one Spectro and two day PAC. And I have morning trackwalker shifts all next weekend, which should be interesting... I haven't walked track since I trained. I hope I can remember where everything is. :P Yesterday was MK's Gay Day, which ROCKED. It's amazing - the folks in the redshirts were so wonderful. They're friendly, fun, can listen and follow directions, and don't whine to us about everything. Someone at Splash put it best: we were treated like HUMANS. So to everyone who attended Gay Day: THANK YOU! You guys rock. I just wish I could have seen the 1pm show insanity at Bears - I hear it's hilarious. XD (The line about that time stretched to the Haunted Mansion. For the COUNTRY BEARS.)

Went to DAK on Monday! I wandered for awhile, and stopped to see princeali_m_fan at work. (I'll eat cake next time, I swear! XD) And salukfan happened to be there, too, so I hung out with them for a bit and we watched the parade. Tried to go see Nemo, but got in, sat down... and then they cancelled the show. Doh! So I went on Everest, front row. Not bad, but it was raining and that rain HURT at high speeds! Saw Festival of the Lion King (that show is always sheer awesome), did Maharajah Jungle Trek (Southeast Asian mammals! <3), saw the baby siamang and baby white cheek, did Kilimanjaro. Lots of fun! Pics up here.

Then... Pirate and Princess Party on Wednesday night!! WHEE! OMG, it was SO much fun. ( The P&P recap! Pirates! Princesses! Fangirling! Kirsten in costume! )

Of course, I picked up Lego Indiana Jones last week! Been playing it like crazy, and have finished Raiders of the Lost Ark and most of Temple of Doom so far. ( Lego Indiana Jones review! )

And in the random news:

Publix's Buy One Get One is WIN. Easy Mac AND Thomas bagels on that sale? I totally stocked up.

Andrew Stanton + John Carter of Mars = EPIC WIN.

Got my yellow ID this week! Wiiiiiiin!

Still trying to get back into the habit of drawing daily. I'd like to beef up my portfolio a bit and maybe start taking commissions here and there. I'm bout halfway done coloring the Indy drawing, and have an idea for a Legend of Mythica piece.

Happy hurricane season!

(Central Florida, BTW, you're doomed, as natural disasters seem to follow me.)

My sore throat never got better this week. In fact, it got worse. I could barely talk on Tuesday at work. (Trying to group at Splash using only hand gestures? LOLarity!) I didn't eat for about 72 hours because it hurt too much to swallow. Then whatever I had in my throat moved to my ear for a few days, and I battled vertigo. (which got REALLY bad whenever I was watching the logs go by. You know, like I have to do ALL DAMN DAY.) FINALLY I'm feeling better. A bit of dizziness now and then, but nothing unmanageable.

I think this is where I insert the famous "Hallelujah" chorus. Why? OMFG I ONLY HAVE FIVE DAYS NEXT WEEK. I CAN HAVE A LIFE AGAIN.

Wednesday night I might go to the Pirate and Princess Party, since it's the last one for the summer and I'm finally off. I need an excuse to wear my Giselle costume to MK! XD I just gotta run to Company D and get a ticket.

Did day PAC the last couple of days... I rolled for the first time ever today! For those who know the Disney parade routine, that's the person who walks behind the parade with the Big Ass Heavy Harness and actually physically rolls up the ropes along the street. I didn't lose my roll, and for that I am eternally grateful. :P (When you lose the roll, it's panic time for the managers, who them have to finish that entire section rolling it up on their arm and then sort it all out later. Plus it's really embarrassing.)

I finally get my yellow ID this week! Woo! Then I can stop feeling like a n00b! (Albeit one who was around when MK wasn't a CastZooming location and when Property Control was just a tent, but whatever!) And, you know, get health insurance and stuff. Bid information came out this week... they've hired so many new people lately that, on the full-time Frontierland Ops seniority list, I'm already #42 out of 88. Woo! Not even out of my 90 days yet, and I'm in the top 50%! ;)

King King got demolished in a fire this morning... that makes me sad, that's like a classic bit of Universal Studios right there.

And speaking of fire, on my way home last night, as I was going down 535 there was a HUGE plume of smoke (I could see it all the way from MK). Turns out there was a big brush fire in Hunter's Creek. It only made it to about 50 acres before it was contained, but the smoke was still hanging around this morning. While I was out setting up our FastPass area, the smell of smoke was REALLY thick. It more or less blew out by late morning but... ick.

I'm trying to get myself drawing more, so I've made a new "draw every day" rule. Too many ideas, too little time! (That Indiana Jones sketch is sitting next to me, half-colored...)

Lego Indiana Jones in TWO DAYS!

Splash had a 101 party today. It was great. We went 101 5 minutes after opening, and were down for 2 hours. Then a couple of hours after we reopened, we went down again for another hour. Yaaaaaay for sitting around all day! Apparently Paris Hilton was in the park, and visited Thunder while we were down the second time.

Toy Story Midway Mania cast previews were this weekend! I thought I wasn't gonna get to go because I was working the whole time, but I found out they extended the hours today, so I stopped by after work! Here's my thoughts... ( Not much to spoil, but under a cut anyways... )

I ended up going to Studios for a bit on Monday night to photograph Fantasmic. It was fun to try out my 400mm at a Disney park finally! Got some nifty closeups. It was also a dragon-less show. I'd never seen one of those before, in all the bajillion times I've seen Fantasmic at both parks. But really, it's done very well. If you didn't know there was supposed to be a big dragon there, you'd probably never know the difference. Pics from the night are up here!

Grey's this week? Addison Montgomery, how are you so awesome? Seriously.

Operation "Beat LEGO Star Wars So I Can Buy LEGO Indiana Jones Next Month With A Clear Conscience" progresses! I'm at 40% now after 25 hours of gameplay. I've beaten everything on story mode, and I'm going through everything in free play mode now to get all the True Jedis and red bricks and minikits. I bought Ghost Yoda, and he kicks ass. Ghost Ben Kenobi is up next, because Yoda is too damn slow when he walks and that annoys me. :P

And speaking of things Indy... AFHLALKGJKSLHK JUST OVER TWO WEEKS TO GO. Seriously. I'm SO psyched. I keep hoping to see Downtown Disney AMC theater announce a midnight showing, but they haven't done it yet. It's SO weird to see Indy tie-ins being pushed everywhere now. And new theatrical trailer out!! LOVE it. And you can pre-order the soundtrack at Amazon for $10. I already did! Is it May 22 yet?

So I should probably update this thing, huh? :P

Life has been crazy! I've been working all the time, which is awesome for my bank account. :P ( Adventures at Splash Mountain... )

In non-work news... I learned today that my apartment's dryers suck. :P I've got damp laundry scattered all around my apartment because it barely dried and I had no quarters left. :P

I've been having migraines liek whoa lately. I've had about 5 in the last two weeks. I'm taking Excedrin like candy. I stopped and got a small notebook today so I can start keeping track of sleep/food/drink I've had on days I get them, so I can TRY to find a pattern. I've gotten them badly off and on for about 7 years now and have yet to find a pattern. I don't know if the ones I'm getting now are stress or dehydration or what, but they're driving me insane.

I caught Block Party Bash at the public soft opening last weekend. Color me impressed - they kept it almost completely intact from DCA! All the acrobats and everything, the dances even looked similar. The Bug's Life float seemed different to me, but I could have just been remembering it wrong. Can't say the crowd seemed overly impressed, though. At least where I was standing by the Hat, no one seemed to go nuts over it. So, really no different than DCA. ;)

I also saw Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day last weekend, since Downtown Disney was showing it. YAAAAY, Amy Adams! The movie was all right, nothing spectacular. A lot of it really kind of dragged and didn't hold my interest. Amy was fun to watch, because her comedic timing is great. But it wasn't until the last 15-20 minutes that it really got good. I wouldn't send everyone rushing out to see it. It's enjoyable, but if you're not really interested in it to begin with, I'd wait for a DVD.

And ENCHANTED DVD TOMORROW!! XD I'm off, so I'm running out to Target to get it!

Lastly, I just have to post these lyrics here, because this song is so amazing, and it's totally describing my life now... ( The World You've Dreamed of Lately... )