frustrated about free offers

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It always seems in poor taste when a company offers something up for free, but only for specific, pre-defined quantities.

More specifically, I’m referring to things like theme park tickets and hotel rooms – that’s what I tend to come across the most and what is actually inspiring this particular blog post. I think I’ve even already ranted about it to some extent with Disney because it happens a lot with the Annual Passholder discounts that they give for hotel rooms, with some in such limited quantities that you pretty much have to wake up early on the first day and be rubbing your lucky rabbit’s foot throughout the reservation process for a chance at scoring one of them!

This particular incident revolved around Legoland Florida, which is set to open its doors here in another month or so. We had literally just gotten a catalog in the mail yesterday that mentioned a program where LEGO VIP members can get free admission and a discount off of additional passes, so the wife and I thought that it might be a good chance for us to get to go (because otherwise money is a little tight right now and it probably wouldn’t be in the cards for us until next year). Nevertheless, upon logging into the VIP website and checking their promotions, I instead found the following message…

Due to unprecedented response to this promotion, the allocated number of free and discounted tickets to LEGOLAND® Parks has been fulfilled. If you signed up and registered as a LEGO® VIP member prior to September 23, 2011, you will still be able to redeem your voucher during the week of October 24-30, 2011, provided there is capacity at your chosen park, and you comply with all the terms and conditions for the promotion as posted below. Thank you for your excitement for the LEGO® brand and the LEGOLAND® Parks, and your overwhelming response to this promotion.

Now aside from the confusing verbiage in the second half of that statement (i.e. I’ve been a member long before 9/23/2011, but have not this voucher that they mention … should I have one somewhere???), the cynical side of me has to wonder, do companies like these ever actually suffer any ill-will from patrons like myself who are disappointed when they’ve not able to partake in an offer that’s being thrown out there? I mean, it’s not like I waited around once I got the word – I actually logged into the VIP website from my phone in the car after getting that catalog in the mail, and yet already the offer was unavailable.

Granted, for this situation I didn’t have much to lose, other than the wife and I were a little disappointed upon learning 5 minutes later that our little plan to visit this fall wasn’t going to work, but there have definitely been some offers for Disney that left me pretty angry with the company – special offers to tour the Cinderella Castle Suite and come celebrate Expedition Everest’s 5th Anniversary, missed because even though I did try to plan in advance, their system just couldn’t handle the interest and got overwhelmed, so only random passholders actually got the tickets that everybody had been looking forward to.

I don’t know – I guess it would be more expensive to ensure that everyone who qualifies gets a chance, but it just doesn’t seem like the best idea to have your most valued customers (VIP or Annual Passholders) upset because they didn’t get to participate in something cool that you were offering.

a new fish tank is in order

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It’s with a heavy heart that I’m here to report that I have a rather large vacancy in my fish tank now.

It wasn’t even from the same issues that my plecosthamus had been facing before – that had basically all cleared up months ago, but earlier this week I started noticing him “sleeping upside down” in the tank, although he was still technically breathing, so I kind of had a feeling that his days were finally numbered. I’ve had that fish for a long time, plus he was getting freaking huge despite the tank not growing proportionally, so in a way I’m kind of surprised to see that he lasted as long as he did!

He was still really gross to get out of the tank, though – filled up an entire gallon ziplock bag from corner-to-corner diagonally – and was so big that I was actually worried about him breaking the bag even post-mortem…

Anyways, now I’m faced with a new situation with this tank that I probably haven’t faced in 4-5 years – I need to choose some new fish to put in it again. Right now there are only two lone tetras swimming about, no doubt still a bit traumatized from me not getting the big, dead guy out of there quick enough, and I think I’d like to stick more to fish that size than the giants that I’m used to having in the past. Nothing fancy – maybe a school of two or three more of them, plus something else that’s kind of unique and stands out.

Also, I think I want to try a different kind of algae eater this time for keeping the tank clean, even though we tried something else with Sara’s tank somewhat recently and it didn’t last too long. I mean, plecos are ok when they’re small, but this guy has just been a monster the last couple of years, to the point where it was almost intimidating to try and move him when we moved earlier this spring! So something that isn’t capable of displacing half the water in the tank when he’s mad, I guess, is more along the lines of what I’m looking for…


I’ll probably also change out those sharp, white pieces of plastic coral – they’ve always been a pain, but the big guy would just knock whatever I put in there around anyways, so it wasn’t really worth bothering with anything cool before. Maybe some of those joke, novelty pieces like a shark or a scuba diver in a beach chair – I’ve already got the snorkeling M&M guy!

Any suggestions???

Celebrating Jim Henson’s 75th Birthday…

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwqns7gDw00&feature=player_embedded

I really enjoyed this little clip put together by the Jim Henson Company – it’s a neat little medley that seems to really carry the essence of Jim’s spirit and all that he wanted to do with The Muppets … a pleasant reminder of how much this truly happy man contributed joy to the lives of others.

Plus, it’s got a great soundtrack, too!

Thin Post : Getting Up Early, Day 5 (sort of…)

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Ok, so I could’ve done a little better!

2 out of 5 days – actually just Monday & Tuesday, if you want to get down to the nitty gritty. And the weird thing is, it’s not like I went to bed super late or anything, although I did sleep in too late on all but today – I actually generally went to bed consistently earlier this week than I have in a long time.

That said, I’m not going to beat myself up over it because that’s not going to do me any good, so instead the best that I can do is try harder for next week. For what it’s worth, I think I am going to try to spend some time on the elliptical tonight as well as over the weekend, so at least I’ll still have something to show for it. Ultimately I can tell that this is going to be a real challenge for me, both between legitimately not wanting to get out of bed along with just other meetings and stuff that come up in the mornings and could interfere with my schedule.

Better luck next week, but still 2 out of 5 is still a lot better than 0 out of 5!

a question of mold…

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Sometimes I feel like food goes bad in our house a lot quicker than it really should.

For example, today I had some bread that I had picked up at Target last Sunday with a bowl of soup, and it was kind of crusty and I ended up having to pick a couple of moldy pieces off.

I also find myself almost constantly throwing out strawberries in particular if I literally don’t eat them the same night I bring them home. Plenty of other veggies have a similar result, which is making me wonder if it’s just living in Florida that is the crux of my problem or if somehow possibly an even greater mischief might somehow be afoot.

The only thing I would even really know to check would be temperatures, which is a pain because the fridge that we have now doesn’t have the convenient temp controls on the outside like our last one did, but I’m really tempted to go find a cheap thermometer to leave in there overnight to see if maybe it’s just not keeping things at the right temperature for optimal freshness.

The ice maker is broken, too, so at this point it wouldn’t entirely surprise me…

On the other hand, I’m really stumped on the moldy bread. I mean, we’ve been keeping our AC a little higher than we used to (think 77 vs. 73 degrees) so as to avoid making an entire mortgage payment directly to the power company … is it possible that somehow the bread hasn’t taken to the climate change quite as well as us people have???

Or maybe it’s just that Target sells crappy bread – that option’s definitely still on the table, too.

one more thing on AVATAR land…

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One other thing that I just realized is also part of the hang-ups that myself and others share is that really, this will be Walt Disney World’s very first land that is 100% dedicated to a single brand.

Think about it – the seven (now six) themed lands of the Magic Kingdom, Future World in Epcot, Sunset Blvd at the Studios, and the continents at Animal Kingdom … all cover broad themes that feature attractions from a wide variety of genres. Sure, there’s a Star Wars attraction, but not so much an entire land dedicated to arguably the biggest science fiction franchise of all-time!

So in that same respect, maybe part of it is whether Disney will be able to stretch multiple attractions out of AVATAR, or even if guests will want several attractions out of AVATAR. Universal was willing to take the gamble that people would with Harry Potter, although for what it’s worth two of the three attractions at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter were technically previous attractions that were re-themed around the Harry Potter universe.

I guess really this one is a question of longevity because although Fantasyland and Tomorrowland are still going strong 40 years later, will people still care enough about Harry Potter … or at least enough to want to experience it at a theme park? Consider another touchy issue – that of the Magic Kingdom parking lot’s recent reorganization to swap out the likes of the Seven Dwarfs, Chip & Dale, and other classic Disney characters in favor of a heroes & villains theme including Aladdin, Woody, Ursula, Captain Hook, and the Evil Emperor Zurg.

My first reaction to this announcement again was disappointment, but then I got to thinking … Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was first released back in 1937 – that’s 74 years ago!!! I mean, sure, it’s a classic to me and my parents, but most kids these days would likely be bored watching that original cartoon compared to some of the more fast-paced shows they air today. And if the Seven Dwarfs are feeling a little stale, do you really think that those blue dudes with the pointy ears from Pandora are going to have much staying power decades after the original movies have first aired???

Not likely, but a single attraction highlighting the very best of that world might.

AVATAR, WDW

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So Disney made a pretty big announcement the other day about building a new AVATAR-themed area at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and although admittedly my initial reaction was not-so-good, I’m really trying to stay positive so I guess you could say that I’ve moved up from not-so-good to an even neutral.


On one hand, depending on exactly how it gets executed, this could end up being a very cool experience – without a doubt, some of the imagery from this movie was just absolutely beautiful, so for asthetics alone, I can see a lot of possibilities here … I’m thinking especially with luminescence, and even though the gigantic tree sounds similar to The Tree of Life that’s already in the park, we’re already seeing smaller castles being introduced in the Fantasyland expansion at the Magic Kingdom, so I would trust that if they can build those without taking away from the grandeur that is Cinderella Castle, then they should be able to do the same thing over in Animal Kingdom.

As for attractions, I could see a walkthrough or even dark ride to experience that same beauty of the forest, along with maybe a rollercoaster or something themed after the dragons that are ridden by the natives in the movie. I kind of would hope that they would steer clear of the combat side of things, even though that sort of ties into one of the main environmental connections, there were also a hell of a lot of guns and explosives in those battles, which aren’t very Disney-friendly, to say the least!

That said, I can’t deny that I do still have some of the same worries that other people have already expressed – even with two more movies scheduled for 2014 & 2015, is this area going to be immediately dated by themeing it after a movie instead of a concept like we see elsewhere in the parks? My personal fear would be seeing this look like another land out of Universal’s Islands of Adventure, complete with a big promotional billboard overhead that says, “Now entering AVATAR Land!” – whereas so many of the Disney areas transition so smoothly, Universals parks always feel to me like you’re just jumping from one set to another … which might be what they’re after, but I look at Disney parks a little differently.

Of course, there are also concerns that these movies were just too adult for Disney, and that the park would get a better land long-term with a completely original theme rather than through licensing … honestly, I think it’s the blue people that throws this angle off for me because I’d be completely content with their original launch concept of The Beastly Kingdom, featuring mythical creatures from storybooks out of Roman and medieval times. Maybe because those were all still written for this Earth, whereas it’s very clear that AVATAR exists on another planet … one that mankind is actually mining for resources, actually! It’s like that piece of the puzzle is just slightly too differently shaped to fit with my current expectations for the Animal Kingdom…

I think it will be interesting to see what does, and doesn’t, happen with this in the years to come. We’ve already seen Disney Imagineering do some bewildering double-takes around WDW, both in the Fantasyland expansion as well with their new “vision” for Pleasure Island at Downtown Disney, so I don’t necessarily think that this is a total crapshoot like I might have when I first read the announcement. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me to see several different plans for this new expansion released before the final construction as they make changes, respond to guest feedback, battle budgets, and so forth.

Just as long as they don’t stick us with another version of DinoLand USA!

a backstory for Adran … finally!

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Adran being my D&D character in the campaign that I’m currently playing in, anyways…

I’m sure more surprised than anybody will be the other guys who I play with – we literally started playing back in July every two weeks, however I guess you could say that I’ve just been a bit busy to have the time for writing up a proper backstory for my new character. I mean, I had a general concept that I was playing him by, but whereas all of the other players already had these rich histories created, mine took a wee bit longer to draft up.

That said, I’m finally done now, so if you’re into that sort of thing, click away to read a bit about Adran, the Elven Avenger…

Oh yeah, and you can also find photo galleries from all of our sessions on that same wiki as well. All in all, I’m pretty pleased with how it’s turned out, and I definitely enjoy having someplace to link to when I want to talk about the campaign here.

Anyways, happy exploring!

Boy, am I soooo glad that this is finally done…

Thin Post : Getting Up Early, Day 1

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Not great, but not terrible, either.

I probably didn’t allow myself enough sleep last night – I think I fell asleep around 2am to then wake up at 8am, but I guess it wasn’t horrible. It definitely took a little while for my body to actually wake up once I had started, but at the same time I think that also sort of made the time pass by a little faster, too!

My only real complaint, other than having to get up early in general, anyways, was the sweat … even after taking my shower, it was still a’flowing and made things a little tough. For what it’s worth, I did wake up 20 minutes late and then go straight from the elliptical into the shower, so maybe if I can get up at my target time I can spend a few more minutes cooling down before I move on with my day.