It's been a busy past few months with my machine making things, classes, and work I have posted very little here. This is quite a shame since so much has gone on.

In no standard order:

• Went to Invader Hime's College graduation in Orlando (stayed at the beautiful Pacific Royal @ Universal)
  
• Easter Break in Orlando, rode Everest @ DAK, stayed at Port Orleans Riverside at WDW, and saw Madi Gras at USF
• Saw the new attic in the Haunted Mansion at DL
• etc. etc. etc. etc......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Get the idea.

So before I get a chance to post any pics here is a random quiz result, Oh before I forget I did a test where using a photo they will tell you who you look the most like... 1st result - Sinead O'Connor. Ok back to the other result.

What breed of dog are you?

Golden RetrieverThe Golden Retriever is a beautiful, sturdy, well-proportioned dog with a feathered, medium-length, cream to golden-colored coat. These are lovable, well-mannered, intelligent dogs with a great charm, they are easily trained, and always patient and gentle with children. The Golden Retriever is loyal, confident, sweet and eager to please. Golden Retrievers enjoy pleasing their masters, so obedience training can be fun. Golden Retriever may become mischievous when alone for long periods and they love to swim.
Take this quiz!








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Well at least I have a fuzzy tail.

Ok Back to the other Face thing-a-ma-jig thingie it can be found at http://www.myheritage.com

Here are how the results turned out:
First pic I used was the image me at Bats Day down on Aug 30.
the results:

1. Namie Amuro
2. Song Hey-kyo
3. Nora Jones
4. Hillary Rodham Clinton
5. Zhang Ziyi
6. Susan Sarandon
7. Lisa Kudrow
8. Michael Jackson

As you can clearly see all women, weird?

Second pic I used was the image of me under the heading Disney Does Halloween.
the results:

1. Sinead O'Connor
2. Michelle Rodriguez
3. Henry Fonda (finaly a guy)
4. Kajol
5. Holly Marie Combs (I'm sad to see Charmed end)
6. Billie Joe Armstrong
7. Michael Owen
8. Rani Mukherjee
9. Gemma Ward
10. Natalie Wood

The company says to use mutiple pictures and compare the repeats, so far I can't find any.

For the last Test I used the image of myself in my full Halloween garb, here were the frighting results.

1. Rani Mukherjee
2. Nadia Comaneci
3. Katherine Hepburn (that's just MEAN!)
4. Peter Jackson
5. Wim Wenders
6. Michelle Pfeiffer (Ha ha)
7. John Lennon (actuly I have been told often that I do look like him)
8. Sid Vicious
9. Helmut Kohl
10. Rutger Hauer

By the way, speaking of halloween and all Disneyland has already put on sale the tickets for this years Halloween even. Yes I have already purchased them.

One last thing related to the Halloween and Disney thing:

XxThe Best and Most Challenging Quiz of The Nightmare Before ChristmasxX

You know so much about the nightmare before christmas. You must research and study it as much as I do. I have loved this movie since I was a kid and studied it very hard. Congratulations.Please Please Please vote for my quiz.
Take this quiz!

I'll possibly be posting later this evening but if I don't that means I had way too much to do before class and will try to post more later. Till then.

My machine finally arrived. It was just like Christmas morning. As I was unpacking the box and saw the blue anoized body I turned into a little kid. The machine is a MaxNC OL 10, not the best machine that they make but just what I needed. The design is setup in such a way that at anytime in the future I can upgrade the machine to have a higher RPM and more horsepower, add on a 4th axis, add coolant, and expand the machine work area. With a work area of 8"X, 5"Y, and 6"Z I have more space than what I am going to need for some time. Considering that the parts that I will be making at this moment, the largest only being 6" x 4" x 0.25" this is perfect. Some of my students were telling me that I should make some belt buckles with the northwest designs on them, maybe the week after spring break I get to work on some designs.






On a completely unrelated note... Last weekend Invader Hime and I went out to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. So much fun. The day started of somewhat rainy so the crowds were nonexistent. We were able to see from the Wagasa Bushline the new stuff that was added including the new path for the tram. Another new item was the new balloon ride that will rise you high above the park. Some time back I had posted on Demonbird some pics of the construction of this new attraction.





More side notes. Next week is Spring Break and I will be flying to Orlando to spend some time with Invader Hime. I still find it somewhat funny how my Spring Break and hers were so far apart. Come on at least have them in the same month. Oh well, it's well make the best of it, after all for me their is only less than 9 weeks left in this semester.

I just wanted to share a couple of pictures from the last few weeks that make me happy.


The photo on the left was taken at disneyland right after a little rain. The image on the right was taken the next day at the Hillcrest Farmers Market. If you day was down well look at these pictures and turn that frown upside down. Before :( => :) After

Here is another piece of jewelery that I am working on. This one I have already cut out a prototype and so far the responce has been great.








And there is another one still a work in progress, but should be completed soon. I hope [:(]

Like I said last time I would be posting pictures of the items rendered before I cut them out. This one might or might not go into production, most likely many changes will occur to the design before final production. The image above was generated from a two step process. The first step was to save the "cut" model in MasterCam X as a STL file. This STL file was then imported into Blender where it was photo rendered.

It is amazing how much publicity the Govenor's visit provided for the Machine Tech department. Seems companies in San Diego now know that City College and MACT really do exist. ( I do believe in MACT, I do, I do...) Over the past few days I have answered phone calls from all over the county from companies and individuals who either read about, the visit and the MACT program, in the newspaper or saw it on the TV. This is great for our students who are always looking for good job placement and also great for the companies looking for skilled/trained labor.

Having recently read the latest Miceage.com article about the changes coming to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, all I can say is WOW. These changes just sound amazing and in my opinion will be a great addition to the ride. I will be sorry to see the Master Gracey story die off but the change sounds for the better. Who I feel sorry for are the folks over at Slave Labor Graphics with their Haunted Mansion comic who have been explaining the whole Master Gracey/Captain Blood storyline that has been very popular among the Disneyland enthusiasts. Guess it is all AU anyway. I guess that it could be explained that maybe the bride is the second owner of the house after Master Gracey? Oh yea, fan fiction here I come.

Like I have the time for that :P

- On a random side note I have begun work on a new set of projects. These projects are dual purpose, first to make some side money and second to possibly win the MasterCam Wildest Part Contest (instructor division). These new projects are focused on creating both jewelery and architechal embelishments (ie. door knobs, darw pulls, plaques, etc) in a combiniation of modern and "Arts and Crafts" styles. So far the process is going well explectly with the help of the great research materials provided thanks to a subscription to American Bungalow, thanks Invader Hime. Once I get the inital designs done I will post some pictures of the CAD models. -

WOW it does not seem like it has been a month since my last post, but time flies when your your having fun. Here is what you all have missed in my time of non posting.
First some stuff happened, then more stuff, this was followed by a little more stuff and then the Govenor of California came by...

Yes, the Termenator himself came by Machine Technologies, don't belive me take a gander at the offical website Govenor's Office. So far this is the only picture with me in it that I have found in the media but hopefuly I will be finding more soon.

On another note I finaly got to ride the new Monsters Inc. ride at DCA. This is a great ride in the style of the old ways of disney prior to the time of ultra cheep. True, not all the AA are the most complex but it is far better than it's predicessor Super Star Limo. In fact it is hard to belive that this is the same ride.

It's silly little quiz time again, this one was to find out witch Wolf's Rain character I am the most like. If you do not know what Wolf's Rain is, right now go and rent the entire series, too good!

Well here is the result:

Hige, ok is that a good thing? Albiet he does look alot like my dog Bella, and he does have a hot girlfriend. To take the quiz here is the link.

This weekend was the California Gift Show (CGS) at the LA Convention Center (LACC). This show is open only to the "gift" industry and being that my mother owns a retail bushiness I was able to attend. This show is where all the companies from around the globe show off what is going to be the new trends in collectibles, interiors, art, and fashion. The show is also spread across to the LA Mart (interiors) and the California Market Center (fashion). On the note of the CMC, this year instead of having those mini shuttles to take you form the LACC to CMC they were using streched Hummer Limos. This was my first time in one of those monstrosities and most likely my last. I don't know why but I was expecting more room inside them? Anyway it looks like, based on the buying trends I saw at the show that "ethnic" is going to be in for the next six months or so. Mainly styles influenced by Middle Eastern and Asian fashion and art will be carried over into American Fashion and Interior design. Otherwise I didn't see anything that really struck my fancy, this might be the reason that I did not buy anything.

The CGS ran form 8am - 6pm so what did I do after 6pm well theme parks of course. That's what the idea was at least. Saturday night we stopped at Knott's Theme Park, however we were all so tired that all we did was buy our chicken and go home. So Sunday evening after all was said and done we all headed over to the Mouse House, that's right the Disneyland Resort. This is where life got sad, well as sad as I ever could be considering I was at the Happiest Place on Earth. The plan was to ride Monsters Inc, take a bunch of photos, eat something and come home. Well the Monsters area was closed to the public when I got there because it was the press event for the official opening of the ride. Oops, I forgot that the ride has been soft open for a month and now it was official. If I had stuck around I could of see all sorts of B list actors and other assorted semi-famous people. But to be truthfully honest I don't care about most of them. The last time I was at DCA and a "famous" person was there was when Raven said the notorious Six Flags is better comment. So with no Monsters we all headed over to Disneyland with no real focus on where we were headed we found ourselves in New Orleans Square and inside of Le Bat 'en Rouge. For those who don't know I often wear a "Button Hat" that is covered in buttons from the Haunted Mansion and Nightmare Before Christmas. Well they had a set of new buttons that I had not seen before so I set out to make my purchase.
As the people in line before me were gathering up their stuff the young lady started ringing up my stuff and some how the topic of how in less than two weeks the shop would be closed, all NBC merchandise will removed from the parks and Haunted Mansion Holiday will not return in '06. This was really sad and shocking to me and the people who were in front of me and the ones behind me who started gathering up as much nightmare stuff as their credit cards could afford. For those non believers, whom I seem to be finding a lot lately, who believe that I just made up this rumor or that this was just a rumor of one CM who did not know what she was saying I did verify this with many other CM's around the park and they all knew the exact same thing. Tim Burton was not happy with how Disney had been portraying his NBC in regards to Haunted Mansion Holiday and considering that the contract between Disney and Burton for the rights to use the characters in the park expires about now, Burton just refused to renew the contract, there for no more NBC at the parks. I didn't realize how odd it was until I noticed how all the NBM and HMH pins were all gone and all the merchandise with Jack on it were rather scarce. The rumor I heard this morning is that all the NBC and HMH merchandise they have left will be sent to the "warehouse" which most likely means the "Character Warehouse" for liquidation. So the evening was ended with a mad dash across the two parks to gather up as much NBC stuff as I could, too bad all the good stuff was gone and I ended up only getting the buttons that I had originally got in line for.

Back at work Monday, it was a funny day, I had students and faculty both who thought that Monday was the first day back to class (bad considering that there are still two weeks to go). Other than that life has been somewhat uneventful.
Well my brain has said it's peace and I will say later all.

I am Sephiroth! You scored 0 good or evil, 1 spirituality, 4 power, and 17 intelligence!

In the beginning there was a man, and his name was Sephiroth, and he was bad... very, very bad. Sephiroth is the kind of guy you put a restraining order on before you even meet him. He's got a head full of bad wiring and funny ideas about his place in the world. He thinks he's the son of God, and that's not good when the God he believes in is Jenova. Religious overtones aside, Sephiroth is a sadistic, calculating, intelligent, unrelenting force to be reckoned with. The guy walks through fire, cleaves Behemoths to pieces in one strike and all that before a picnic at the North Cave with Aeris. He carries a big sword - not so much for the compensating as for the instilling terror factor - and he's not afraid to use it. Sephiroth, if the most convoluted of all FF baddies, is the most infamous due to a bit of drama theater involving an innocent Ancient and his big sword. The one undeniable thing about sephiroth is that he was(is) evil incarnate, and stopping him literally meant(means) the difference between the end of the world and another tomorrow. If you're Sephiroth, please allow me to get the hell out of the way before I iritate you, O Great and Evil one. I really can't think of any good things that can come from someone like sephiroth - perhaps because I'm frozen in terror - so I'll just say "Please don't kill me" and leave you to your own devices. Similar characters include Ultimecia(ff8), and Vormav(fft) Your polar opposite is Yuffie. You can probably get along with Seifer, Delita and Seymour.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 32% on purity You scored higher than 13% on faith You scored higher than 31% on strength You scored higher than 56% on intelligence

Link: The Who are you in the FF Universe Test written by Helbereth on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

This last weekend Invader Hime was here in sunny San Diego, well most of the weekend it was somewhat sunny, before going back to college. I just want to say some things. First Seaport Village has a lot more shops to see than I remember. Second the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade was very nice and very long.... Third Hime was so lucky to see that whale spout. Fourth the diagonal crosswalk in Gaslamp was uber cool and use full -it's the little things-. Fifth the people and food at Royal Thai, Star of India, Casa de Pico, and Casa de Guadlahara are all wonderfully. Ok, that was my quick five comments.

a close up of the tide pools at Cabrillo National Monument

Work, work, work... That seems to be all that I have been doing lately. It has been a little lonely City College because the only ones here are the insane students taking the 5 week compressed intersession classes and the skelton crew of the faculty. On the plus side of things this has led me to being rather efficient due to a lack of distractions. Although when the Fadal repair man showed up earlier today it was nice to have some human interaction. To elaborate in the Machine Technologies department at City College we have a majority of two types of CNC mills HAAS and Fadal. Well one of the Fadals, the 4020, at the end of last semester had a odd sound coming form the spindle housing when ran at higher RPM's. So matience was called, they then called Fadal who sent someone out to fix it. It turned out that one of the pulleys that goes form the motor to the spindle was missing some "teeth" from the inside. Twenty minutes later he was done and I was alone again.

On a completely different topic I found recently, yes I know it's not new, on Visions Fantastic's website that they have a cool "radio" of Disneyland music.
http://www.visionsfantastic.com/main.php?page=radio
So if you are a fan of Disneyland music this is a must. Also for those who don't know VS has some of the best images, video, etc. of the DLR than any other site. In some ways I feel it is a better "official" Disneyland website. They have free registration that offers the user many great services.

For the holidays I gave many of my family a star as a little extra stocking stuffer. This little project's CAD and CAM were done in Master-cam and were machined on the VF-2 utilizing High-feed technology. Well they ended up being a huge hit, so much so that some people were starstruck. Ha Ha, yea bad joke. Well one of the students asked if he could modify my program and cut some for his family. His family loved them and his new boss who got to see what the guy can do. Cool.

Picture of one of the stars

Well Invader Hime, just to let you know, this is what the hat has determined for me.



I'm
a Slytherin!

In a somewhat pirate mood I took a couple of quizes and to my suprise i found out some things about me.
first: I am William Turner




Which Pirates of the Caribbean character are you?
and Second:

My pirate name is:

Black Tom Cash

Like anyone confronted with the harshness of robbery on the high seas, you can be pessimistic at times. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Anyway that is all of that nonsence. Lots of stuff has been going on lately and most of it is preperations for Mondays return to full time work. It is going to be nice to be doing the full time work thing and getting back to the machines/computers.

On a completely unrelated side note aperantly the San Diego Wild Animal Park has hired the company that did much of the work for Disney's Animal Kingdom to help them redesign the Wagasa Bushline Monorail. What is interesting is that the main redesign rumor has the ride replaced with a system rather simmilar to the the Jeeps in Jurasic Park. This is not too indifferent from the Safari ride at AK except with a focus on education not so much entertainment.

The break has begun... well, actualy it begun somewhat early. On the friday of the last day of work/semester I borded a plane with Invader Hime to Orlando to celebrate Christmas with her. This was so much fun. Here is the short. I stayed at the Carribean Beach Resort. It was amost empty there which made it rather plesant. Did MGM studios first (yes it still had the MGM on the sign) and ate at the Sci-fi dinner for the first time. This is a must see at the WDW. We then went to the Magic Kingdom (first time to watch Stitches Great Excape). Next day was Universal Orlando Resort ie Disneyland Resort Orlando. This place gets better every time I visit the resort. I even rode ET for the first time (scary idea eh?). Grenchmas is so awesome. Ate at the coolest restruant, Monster Cafe, awesome theme and great prices. Came back to San Diego, stayed one day then here I am posting here in Las Vegas on a dying battery. Till later all. 

The semester is almost over and so is the warm weather. This is not entirely true as SoCal for the most part does not have the cryogenic cold weather that other places in States have. Considering how climitized I have become to the weather here when temperatures drop below 60 F I can swear that my blood is freezing. Why am I talking about the weather when there are so many other things that I could be dissucssing, I don't know? But while on the topic of weather I am rather disgruntled with the people in charge of the winds in Anaheim this last weekend. This was Invader Hime's first time to the DLR since the 50th and wouldn't it happen, the winds were too much to see "Remember" the really cool firework display. I guess other than that I can't complain, infact this was one of the best trips to Disneyland in some time for me. (Oh BTW there is more Christmas decortations and holiday stuff at DCA, sorry Hime we missed the bulk of it)

To thoes individuals who have not seen Harry Potter and the Gobblet of Fire, don't wait, go see it, now! This is the best, abliet darkest, addition to the HP series of movies. If it is even possable in your area watch it on the big screen ie. IMAX. Hime and I saw it at the very nice and totaly sold out Irvine Specturm IMAX theater. We felt that we were almost in the film it was incrediable.

Just to let everyone know, Thanksgiving was good, good food, good family, good friends, good times. Ah, wasn't that sweet. :P

list of things that rocked this weekend at Disneyland:
New Space Mountain
the Indiana Jones Adventure
Tower of Terror
Buzz Lightyear
Sandbox (club Buzz)
ASMIO
Autotopia (yea I won)
Santa's Raindear Roundup
Invader Hime :P

It has been way too long...

I have been so busy this past month with work, school and extra.

In one month of October:
Midterms (taking and reciving)
Knott's Scary Farm Halloween Haunt (twice)
Mickey's Halloween Spooktacular at DCA
Purchasing a new Fridge
Halloween (Yea!)

What more could a guy ask for, well more free time for one but hey who cares.
And speaking of time, due to the fact that I am currently utilizing the time that is for covering for one of my coworkers this is not going to be as complete as it could be. In the near future this sentence will not be here and there will be links to more images on my http://themeparks.demonbird.com website until then enjoy the present.


Disney does Halloween:
This year the Disneyland resort celebrated halloween for the first time in a very long time. This was a good thing.
The event was held at Disney's California Adventure park (soon to possibly be renamed) and was a second tickeded event. I can hear the screams of price gouging, well fear not the events price for passholders was $15 not an fearful amount considering that by the end of the night I had about $7 worth of candy in my bag and enjoyed much ERT on all the rides even walk on for California Screamn'

---

Well here is me for halloween more to come later...

Well I just had my birthday the other day, I have to say a great big thank you to my friends, co-workers, and students for the great birthday wishes. I want thank my family for the great gifts and for just being there for me. And last I want to thank Invader Hime for the beautiful cake and wonderful presents.
Thank you all.

Ah, the onset of Oct. that means that it is time for the Haunt. For those unfamiliar with "Knott's Scary Farm's Halloween Haunt" it is the largest Halloween party in the world and has received the Golden Ticket Award for the best Halloween event in the world. This is the 33rd year of the haunt and for myself I have been attending since the mid 80's (hint it was the only year that they tried to hang a witch).

This year by far is the best year yet for Knott's. The day started the day with a whole day at the park. One of the advantages to going to Knott's in Oct on a weekend is that the park is near vacant. Saturday the longest wait that we had was 10 min for the Calico Mine Ride. We literally rode all the major rides and most of the minor rides multiple times, it was "awesome".


One of the neat things that Knott's they did this year was the solidification of a pirate theme to the Camp Snoopy area of the park for the kids to do a "Treasure Hunt". This made the entire land look so cute, in a creepy way. There were colorful spider webs and skeletons everywhere. Once the season really kicks in it will be wicked to see all the kids in there costumes running around pirates and Snoopy.


Anyway back to the Haunt itself this year there were so many mazes (12), shows (5), scare zones (5), and almost all of the major rides and attractions open everyone was so spread out and entertained lines moved quickly and happily. The longest we had to wait was no more than half an hour. As for the actual mazes I give Knott's full props for the quality of the show they put on this year.



And the winners are
top 5 mazes:
1. Feary Tails
2. 13 Axe Murder Manor
3. Lore of the Vampire
4. the Asylum
5. tie Hatchet High / Cavern of the Lost Souls
* Feary Tails and 13 had some of the best talent and set design that i have seen, the same goes for the Asylum. Lore still offers some of the best talent that the haunt has to offer however the attraction seems to get smaller each year (yes I know the layout is the same as the past two years). This is an attraction that deserves a nice larger layout like when it first opened.

top 3 scare zones:
1. tie Ghost Town Streets / the Gauntlet
2. Silver Bullet Mining Town
3. the Dark Realm
* Some things just never change GTS and the Gauntlet are unbeatable, nowhere in the world can anyone compete with the combination of fog, theming, sound fx, frightful talent and most important of all SLIDERS! As for the two runners up. SBMT suffered from theming and environment but with top notch talent trying there best (may the swamp rest in peace). The Dark Realm would of been a better maze than what it was. No body went through it, the talent just kinda paced thought it and watched the people walk by. The area had tons of good hiding spots but the talent just seemed to ignore the people waking though???

So overall this was an amazing year for the haunt at Knott's and cosidering that this was just the first week of operation there were bugs and now they have until tomorrow to work them out. Well until the 8th we will see what changes occur and improvements are made.

Ah Ha!

???

Anyways, week 3 of the semester has begun and the past two weeks have been non stop assaults.

Going back two weeks ago was the 30th annual Barrona Pow-wow. Complaint No. 1, Man it was hot out there, you would think that it would be cooler considering that the Barrona Valley is on top of a mountain. Complaint No. 2, 45+ minute waits for frybread? How? No other Pow-wow has waits like that at their food booths. Complaint No. 3, How much dust can one make? The Pow-wow is held over at the baseball field far away form the Casino surrounded by dirt. Come on now, be nice and move it near the resort where the grass is greener. On the plus side it was nice to see faces of friends who I had not seen in some time.

Thursday last week started my dance class. Yes you read that correctly D A N C E class. Actually I have been wanting to take a class in ballroom dancing for quite some time now and have to say that the class was rather fun. I must admit though that my legs were rather stiff after class, darn Foxtrot. Soon enough I'll be dancing with the best of them at the Carnation at Disneyland. :-P

Ah yes that then brings us to this last weekend. Invader Hime made a trip to the left coast here. Thank you Invader Hime, this weekend was amazing and I can't wait to see you again -BTW Saturday Night you looked Amazing-. For those of you looking for a good Thai restraunt in the Gaslamp area of Sun Diego might I recromend Royal Thai, good curry and excellent ginger. While on the topic of Gaslamp I have found the best parking in the area. Between the Omni hotel and Trophies restaurant in an excellent parking garage that has wide spaces (in comparison to SoCal standards) and is only $1 per hour and maxes out at $6 on weekdays and $7 for weekends. Who would of thought that one of the high points of the weekend would of been finding good gaslamp parking? Actually that was not the high point but it was still neat to find.

Sunday Night involved a trip to Knott's to buy Haunt tickets, I'll post pictures later, followed by a stop at the Disneyland Resort. About the only thing we did was get a Dole Whip (very good) and watch Turtle Talk with Crush (also good). Turtle Talk is a rather cute show and because kids say the dardest things it can be rather unpredictable. The computing power is still impressive though.

Positive salutations to Invader Hime once more,
until later

The first week is over and the weekend is ready to begin. This has been an insane week, although I do not remember a first week that was not nearly out of control.
-ok, this was a short post because I still am half asleep-

Yesterday and today are back to school. :(
Yes the world is spinning less quickly now and the mornings just seem to get here quicker. Working in education has given me an appreciation of how early the sun starts to rise, got to get up early or the facuity lot will be full and the students will be nervous to get inside the classroom. Anyway so far the semester has gone well, less the crashing computer systems, inoperative software, disconnected CNC machines... Ok, well it could be worse, I could be in the South right now. Family of mine that is there has yet to determine just how bad the damage is but we will find out soon enough. Positive thoughts and prayers go out to those families who lost their homes and loved ones in the storm.

Look at me I'm at Bat's Day number 7!

This last Sunday was Bat's Day in the Fun Park (AKA Goth day at Disneyland). This is by far my favorite day of the year to go to Disneyland. What makes the Bat's Day event so great is that it offers two services. The first is that you get to meet some of the most friendliest, nicest, best dressed people with similar likes and dislikes as you. The second is that Bat's Day demolishes all the stereotypes that people have about "Goths". At Bat's Day it is not uncommon to see and meet entire families of goths who supprisingly to most of the Disneyland guests are not depressed antisocial criminals who sacrifice cats on the next full moon. But instead a group of people who have extremely high moral character and quite possibly have a higher respect for the Disneyland resort (and the Disney lifestyle) than your average American.


The mid-day castle meet

Bat's Day is usually spit into 3 picture meets. The first is the castle meet at around 1:45 where everyone crowds around the castle forcort and our picture is taken as one large group. The only problem with this meet is that at that time of the day the forcorut area is extremely hot this time of the year and we are all dressed in black. The second meet is the Baby Bat's photo. This photo is when all the kinder-goths and there parents gather at the Sword in the Stone ceremony in Fantisyland. The Baby Bat's photo shoot is the cutest thing you will ever see. Then the last gathering is the 8:00 pm photo at the Haunted Mansion. This is the big one where everyone gets in line for the Mansion and groups of 25 are arranged on the stairs of the Mansion where there photos are taken. This can take some time as there is usually over 1500 goths that show up for this photo. There is no accurate number of how many people show up for Bat's Day because not everyone is able to show up for all the photo meets (parents with little children who live in the area rarely make it to the Mansion photo, it's past their sleepy time) but it is and incredible number that show up through out the day.


Cheer on the Wicked Queen - This is an unofficial meet where many of the Bat's Day attendees show up for the 11:45 Snow White musical and cheer on the Wicked Queen, it is all in good fun.


Thanks Noah for such an incediable event

My Bat's Day dash

One last note more pictures that I took on Bat's Day can be found at:
themeparks.demonbird.com/dlr/batsday5/
Can't wait for next years event, it just gets bigger and better every year!

Well I did another one of those who/what are you tests. This one is what Disneyland Attraction am I. Well I knew I would be one of two attractions, the first being the Haunted Mansion and the second was correct.

I am: the Pirates of the Caribbean - I guess they saw me in my pirate shirt?

The Pirates of the Caribbean: A swashbuckling
adventure! Yo ho, a pirates life is indeed for
you, seeing as you are the classic Disney dark
ride that presents a time when New Orleans was
under attack from a band of treasure loving
bandits. You have a bit of an edge, and an
element of danger, and you can scare the
youngins, but for the most part you mean no
serious harm. You are youthful at heart,
strong and energetic, with a taste for the good
life, if not hard work. You have romantic
notions about the adventurous life on the sea
with no rules and no responsibilities except to
your ship, but you also weary and worrisome of
the fate that eventually gets all those who
those who live life on the lamb, stealing gold
for greed and burning down cities for your own
delight. You are what you are, and you're out
to enjoy the glamour of your wild days while
they last! Despite your rough surface, the
people know you have heart and they will always
come back.


What Disneyland attraction are you?
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This last weekend had been rather chaotic, but I made it through to today. Sunday My family and I went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, it had been a while since my last visit in December, a lot had changed. The changes were very pleasant. The SDWAP had added a nicely themed carousel called the Conservation Carousel. All the animals appeared to be threatened or endangered species. The ride looked awesome with it's thached roof and wooden queue walls. Also the price was very good for an upcharge attraction at $2.00. Also new to the park is the upcoming helium Balloon ride that will raise passengers above the heart of the park, just in front of Lion Camp, giving them a 360 view of the valley. Counting the carousel, balloon ride, the I-werks simulator and the Wagasa Bushline, the park is ending up with a decent collection of rides to complement there collection of highly themed animal exhibits.

No that paragraph was not a plug for the Wild Animal Park, it was just that I was so impressed with the place.

Ahh what an relaxed picture, you can see how much I liked my time there.

Moving forward in time...
Monday, Tuesday, Today!
Those 3 days have been just one long solid day as we approach the beginning of the upcoming semester. Down in Machine Tech we have all been scurrying around like a bunch of chipmunks on too much caffeine. New machines from HAAS now in place and the surrounding partitions going up the classroom has never looked better. Also there has been lots of work done in the 2 computer labs to make sure the students have the most up to date software, and that there are no conflicts between any of them. For those who don't know CAD/CAM software is some of the most difficult software to install and configure.

There is still much to do but the bulk of it is done, but there is still more to do! No rest for me until Friday.

Friday was a busy day at work for me, infact I think that today being sunday I am finaly catching up. This had been a big deal between the School and Haas to have Haas donate 2 brand new machine to the school. Unfortunatly there was timing issues that caused much stress between the movers, electrictions, and other stuff. To give you an idea the machines arrived just moments after the electrictions had just finished disconnecting the other machines that needed moved out of the way. So let see the fun!


Your eyes are not deciving you, that is an flying fork lift. To be able to move the machines around inside the shop the movers had to lift a second forklift into the shop.


Sitting in the faculity parking lot our SL 20 lathe waits its turn to be put into the classroom. 


... and the VF2 mill is also waiting it's turn to get uplifted into the shop.


Because of the slope of the parking lot, the loading ramp and dock, it took the movers a lot of time and thought to accomplish the task of getting the machines into the classroom. These two guys did an incrdiable job!


Ta Da! The SL20 in place, aint it purdy. Even thought the machines are in place now there is still a lot to do before the semester starts to make the machines useable, but that something to worry about next week, er... tomorrow? Eeek!