Sorry for Not Updating...

But I'm working on a giant research paper on Epcot for a college class right now. Seriously, for those who haven't been scared away by my Mongello geekiness (Oh Lou!), I cover everything from the Florida Project up until the Living Seas switching over to Nemo. The research process actually is really cool (If you haven't seen Walt's Epcot video, I highly reccommend you do). If anyone is nerdy enough to admit that they want to read my final paper (I'm aiming for a mid December end date), drop me a message.

Just Because It's "The Sinkhole Capital of the World", Doesn't Mean You'll Sink

I usually have a lot of respect for travel writer Peter Greenburg, but following this segment on Tuesday's "Today" show dissing Fountain, Minnesota (A town about a half hour south of where I grew up), really makes me wonder if he's still in it for the Joe Schomes of the world:


For the record, I have visited Fountain numerous times and have yet to fall into a sinkhole (Yes, they exist, just ask around). It's perfectly fine to travel there (They actually have a really nice bike trail, thus the bike reference), and it's a really cool natural sight with the bluffs.

Thank a Soldier

As you know, today is Veteran's Day. Without going too much on the tangent on how Veteran's Day should be observed in our schools, my 6th and 7th grade teacher, proud Army vet and friend of mine, gave us the lecture on both Veteran's Days on how he felt betrayed by the school district on how there was nothing done to salute his service. What once was a proud and respected tradition of having a veteran speak at the high school I graduated from with the color guard present has been reduced to "Write a Soldier" or "Write a Member of the Peace Corps" (?) day. Anyway, back on point, I always make it a point to thank uniformed personnel when I see them, and more times than not it makes their day. I actually had a nice conservation a couple months back in my hometown with a soldier who is headed to Iraq in January, and he said that my support is sadly he doesn't hear too often from Americans, especially with the unpopularity of the Iraq war. So, to every member of our military, I THANK YOU!
I also present the songs for each branch of the military.
Air Force:


Army:
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Marines:


Navy:

75 in November? Good stuff!

Yes, that's right, it'll be 75 in MN today :) I also did my 1st 5k jog on Friday too!

Reflections about a Pumpkin

Hey All:
Running is going well, still on mile runs. However, the reason for today's post is a cheap plug for ABC's airing of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" (8/7 Central). I've been a Peanuts fan since I was a little kid, and quite honestly it's great family entertainment (I STILL laugh throughout). Will Linus see the Great Pumpkin this year? Tune in and find out....
P.S. Since they're not continuing Game 5 tonight, I don't want to hear any excuses from ticked off Phillie fans lol

It's Good to Be Back

Today was my 1st day back on my home track in like a week and a half due to midterms and my Tampa trip. I had a lot of fun, but yeah, running a quarter of a mile (Out of a mile) is quite wild, especially if you don't have that much stamina. But hey, at least I'm running in '10 so I got time to get better :)

A Comedy of Errors

I love the airline industry(!), but now it's set to a new level (cue Circus music):
I had a 7 AM flight from Tampa to Atlanta this morning. That was the only "normal" part of my day. I got to the gate for my 9:50 flight to Minneapolis which was overbooked. I took the $400 and lunch voucher and was put on the 1:30 flight. I found out Atlanta Hartsfield to be an interesting place, but I don't buy that it's the busiest in the world. After my exploration I arrived at the gate for my 1:30 flight. Shortly after the safety demo I dozed off, and woke up a short time later I woke up to the sight of our plane still on the ground and that a circuit breaker on the plane had failed so we were going to the gate. After an hour of this, we were told to get off the plane and we stood in the jetway for 5-10 minutes before getting back on, waiting ANOTHER hour before arriving five and a half hours after I was supposed to arrive in Minneapolis.

Go Rays!

OK, so I may be a little biased toward the Rays in that I used to be a frequent visitor to St. Pete (Tarpon Springs to be exact) and that I'm going down again next weekend, but I'm excited for this Rays team! :) However, a kid was suspended from school for wearing a Rayhawk (Or a mohawk) to school on Monday. Please, this is the first time sports in the Bay Area have been relevant on the national picture since the Bucs won the Super Bowl in '03. Not only that, this is the first time the Rays have brought pride to Tampa. Let kids be kids and let them have hope in their baseball team (Especially if you're a Cub fan like me, but we're NOT going down that road).
Link to the details of the Rayhawk suspension:

Movie Night!

Something that few people know about me is my passion for independent film, so I decided to take today's post and talk about two of my favorite indies that have come out recently, Charlie Bartlett and Young @ Heart (I should note that yes, I did enjoy Juno, but everybody and their cow enjoyed Juno, so how is that special?).

Charlie Bartlett:
To be quite honest, I couldn't find one defining part of the movie to summarize the whole thing, so here's the trailer:


It is rated R, mostly for the prescription drug use and an implied sex scene, but Robert Downey Jr.'s performance as the alcoholic Principal Gardner is just beyond belief. It has you thinking throughout to the movie as to who you should/shouldn't trust during the movie as numerous characters often change their behavior throughout the movie.

Young @ Heart:
A 2008 documentary good for the whole family* that follows a senior citizen choir from New England, and does really tug at the heart strings. Probably the most emotional piece from the film (below) is a cover of Coldplay's Fix You, which was supposed to be a duet, but half of the duo died the morning of the performance.
* Whole Family: Since the film does involve senior citizens and due to recent studies that suggest that 100% of seniors die at some point, make sure your kids understand the concept of death before seeing this movie. If not, sit them down and have them watch Lion King. If you don't have Lion King, SHAME ON YOU!


Young @ Heart is rated PG.

Both films are available to rent at your local video store.

Learning to Fly...OK, More Like Run

Hey everybody!
I ran/walked my 1st timed mile tonight.....12:52 :( I KNOW I can do better, I gotta work on my sprint a little bit more...being a newbie it's nowhere near what I imagine what I want be in 2010, but the bird's got to learn how the wings work before it can fly.
"Coming down is the hardest thing"
Tom Petty

Sunset Boulevard Awaits!

Farewell PI, Farewell

As I write this blog, Disney's Pleasure Island is celebrating their last night after almost 20 years at Downtown Disney. Before I address the protests of the Adventurer's Club, and to a lesser extent Comedy Warehouse, frankly, the writing was on the wall. Although I never went to Pleasure Island's clubs, I found it to be a nice place to go at night when I got older when I got to walk through it. Consequently, the openness of Pleasure Island I believe led to it's downfall. Any person could walk though and cause trouble, which Disney didn't like because of the bad press from the media reports. I can see why Disney wants to make Downtown completely family friendly to help ease this problem, but I can't say I'm too hyped about the new projects (T-Rex resturant, yawn...., hot air ballon, fun for a couple times at best). Now to the Adventurer's Club...I appreciate the heart that the people behind the "Save the Club" movement, but Disney fans are currently one for two on the "Save the Attraction" internet movement (For those keeping score, Disney did bring back Figment, but did not bring Toad). You have to remember that this is a business decision, and Disney is essentially sold on the idea. Sorry.....

Matt, You've Convinced Me

After embracing Team Voice's monthly goal of 20 miles a month (6.5 miles left to go!), I'm going to start training for the 2010 WDW Marathon. Seeing how I have no experience whatsoever running (Outside of a sprint), how does one go about and say "I'm going to be crazy enough to do this, to run 26.2 miles in a single day?" Also, I have started a running playlist on my iPod (Containing everything from John Legend to Led Zeppelin). What songs get you inspired?

College Picks Week 3

Sure, a 21-3 record from Week 2 may be hard to top, but I'll try:
#13 Kansas vs. #19 USF
LA-Lafayette vs. #24 Illinois
#23 Cal vs. Maryland
Nevada vs. #6 Mizzou
#14 East Carolina vs. Tulane (Surely the Pirates will go 3-0. I am serious, and stop calling me Shirley!)
UCLA vs. #18 BYU (They beat #18 two weeks ago, and I think they'll do it again in my Upset of the Week)
#17 Penn State vs. Syracuse
#16 Oregon vs. Purdue
#2 Georgia vs. South Carolina (Rule #1: Never pick for a Steve Spurrier coached team. This is why I'm a Seminole fan)
SMU vs. #12 Texas Tech
#9 Auburn vs. Mississippi State
Western Kentucky vs. #11 Bama
#3 Oklahoma vs. Washington
#22 Utah vs. Utah State
North Texas vs. #7 LSU
UNLV vs. #15 Arizona State
#10 Wisconsin vs. #21 Fresno State
And now, for the granddaddy of them all:
#5 The Ohio State University vs. #1 USC (Ohio State has failed to prove to me they can win the big game. This is the case again)
Bonus Games:
Iowa State vs. Iowa (For you Jeff!)
Michigan vs. Norte Dame
Chattanooga vs. Florida State
Season Record: 21-3

NFL Week 1 Semi-wrap up

Even though my Vikes don't play the hated Packers until tonight, yesterday was quite an interesting day in the league. Tom Brady, by most reports, is out for the season (Sorry Pats fans, I'm now chanting J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets! to win the AFC East, because Belichick hasn't won without Thomas Brady). Also, even though they beat the tar out of the Detroit Lions, me likey what I saw out of this Falcons' team. Matt Ryan went out there and looked like he's been the pros for a couple years. The only bummer however, was that I was going against Michael Turner in fantasy (Well, at least I don't have Tom Brady!).

College Football Picks Week 2

Hey everybody!
Sorry for the lags in posts, but I'd like to introduce what'll be a weekly feature on TBNL, my college football picks for the week. Not too much last week (Oh yeah, VA Tech lost to ECU and Pitt laid an egg against Bowling Green), but here's hoping for more football fun (Pick in bold)!
Central Michigan vs. #2 Georgia
Ohio vs. #3 The Ohio State University
Cincinnati vs. #4 Oklahoma
Miami (FL) vs. #5 Florida (Remind me again why this is ESPN's Saturday night game? There's another Florida game I'll get to later that should be primetime!)
SE Missouri State vs. #6 Missouri
ECU vs. #8 West Virginia (Does upset lighting strike twice for the Pirates? No.)
Southern Miss vs. #9 Auburn
#10 Texas vs. UTEP
Marshall vs. #11 Wisconsin
#12 Texas Tech vs. Nevada
Tulane vs. #13 Bama
Louisiana Tech vs. #14 Kansas
#15 BYU vs. Washington
Stanford vs. #15 Arizona State (Upset Alert!)
#17 South Florida vs. UCF (This is said Florida matchup)
#18 Oregon vs. Utah State
Oregon State vs. #19 Penn State
Ole Miss vs. #20 Wake Forest
UNLV vs. #22 Utah
#24 South Carolina vs. Vandy
Eastern Illinois vs. #24 Illinois
Idle: #1 USC, #7 LSU (Game tenatively rescheduled), #21 Fresno State, #23 UCLA
Other games of note:
Western Carolina vs. Florida State
Georgia Tech vs. BC

Intro

Hey everyone!
I'm Andy, and this is the blog to be named later. I'm going to cover lots of things on here, mostly sports, current events, even some stuff about the Mouse, but it's not limited to just that. I'll also get some guest bloggers to contribute some mentally enriching stuff every once in awhile.
Check out friends of the blog:
Chris, Matt, Jeff, Basil, and Mike F. over at Ranting About Politics http://mattspoliticalrants.blogspot.com/

Shane over at VIP Disney:
http://vipdisney.blogspot.com/

Jonathon over at Voice of Mouse Tunes:
http://voiceofmousetunes.blogspot.com/

That's what I got for today, make it better tomorrow!