Just an Update

Hello everyone. It has been a VERY long time and it appears I have more blog drafts than actual entries. You'd be surprised to see how many entries are drafts behind the scenes here.

Anyhoo... so things are coming along. I'll be a quarter of a century old come february. What a scary thought! My boyfriend, April and I planned a last minute trip to WDW for Mousefest '08, but stayed incognito most of the time. We attended the graduation party portion of Bleepfest and sat with Earl and the Bleepster herself. It was a very enjoyable evening involving lots of beer, meeting a large amount of people and yummy food at the Biergarten! We didn't have MF nametags this year, April and I think the hype surrounding MF is a bit much. More than showing up, showing off how many podcasts you waste your time listening to and kissing the behinds of the "popular kids" (excuse me, I mean.. podcasters), April and I cannot express the sheer joy we get in meeting people who truly love Disney and are just looking for a few new friends. We got to meet some great people this time around, even though we didn't do much.

My main reason for blogging today is because I have been on a classic movie kick for the last week or so. I've watched "The Seven Year Itch", "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", "Meet me in St. Louis", "Sabrina", "Gidget", "Monkey Business" and am now currently watching "The Pirate" starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. I've grown up with an appreciation for these amazing classics, but haven't had much time to really sit down and watch them. Not that I have all the time in the world right now, but I am having fun watching them while many of the normal shows I watch are off air. My least favorite of the films I've watched? Gidget. I guess I just don't find anything great about Sandra Dee. Maybe I'll give her another chance with another one of her films. I'm much more entranced with someone like Judy Garland who bears amazing talent or Marilyn Monroe who had such an innocent charm. I'm simply taken by the talent of the actors and actresses of the 40's and 50's. Everything was so glamourous, colorful and creative. My favorite so far? Either Sabrina or Monkey Business. Does anyone else ever notice that firecracker actresses of back then were so tiny, but had such powerful voices and accents? I think the cast of Monkey Business was great and feel as though they must've had a blast making that film.

My point of this entry is that the next time you consider going to the movies to see something like "Scary Movie 28" or "Hotel for Dogs", Consider seeing a movie that will actually make your time worth it. Rent a classic and appreciate it for all it's done for cinema today.

Back and ranting!

It has been a long while since I've blogged, this I know. I actually ran into a friend of mine the other day and he told me that he has been reading my blog (Hi Daniel!!). I figured this is as good a time as any to start this thing back up again. Everyone and their mother blogs because they think their opinions matter, so why not continue on this bandwagon? I'm pretty good at ignoring trends and forming my own likes and dislikes, but I think it's important to have an outlet to bitch and complain. I think a website is a good place to go. It can't talk back and won't tell you the things you don't want to hear. Unless someone leaves a comment.

This time around I'm going to really lay my feelings out on the line. Tonight, I need to talk about something very near and dear to my heart. Pleasure Island at Downtown Disney closed this past Saturday night. Let me just tell you that Pleasure Island was the highlight of all my weekend trips to Disney World. I love the theme parks. The whole experience fills me with tons of wonderful memories. I was so excited when I became old enough to go to Pleasure Island. The Adventurer's Club and 8Trax have always been my two favorite places to spend my time. As of Saturday, the memories I'll make in the only area that isn't completely "family friendly" at Disney have come to an end.

Now let me get this straight, one of the most powerful businesses in the world deliberately threw away their nightlife at one of the biggest tourist traps on the planet because survey participants claimed rather than "adult only" clubs, they'd rather have more shops and dining available at Downtown Disney. Let me ask you this, when you talk to people about going to Disney, what is their first complaint? THE PRICE. What the hell would make The Disney Company actually think they'd make more money on shops and restaurants than booze in nightclubs? I believe this is one of the STUPIDEST decisions Disney executives have ever made. God forbid their be one area on Disney property that children aren't allowed in. The problem began when they took away the turnstiles from Pleasure Island. Allowing parents and their children to flow freely through an area full of nightclubs was a stupid idea to begin with. You can't seriously tell me that Disney was losing THAT much money on Pleasure Island that they just decided to close it down. Maybe if they would've designed Downtown Disney a little bit better, they wouldn't have so many problems. Besides, is a store full of magnets really necessary?

I know that the whole premise of what Disney World represents is the family, but not only families go to Disney World. Some of the most loyal disney patrons are single individuals, couples with no children, teenagers and older couples who's children are grown with families of their own. Hell, they even had a commercial with an older couple enjoying Disney World together. Getting rid of PI and catering only to families is going to force loyal parkgoers to head to Universal's CityWalk or Church St. Station, two places I really don't want to go, but since you are basically throwing it in my face that I'm a single female with no children to bring to your parks and spend oodles of money on, I may reconsider. I may also reconsider so much as to not repurchase my annual park pass this year. Call me crazy, but this is how truly upset I am to see PI go. I have never been to anything like The Adventurer's Club. It was one of a kind and now it is gone. I suppose I'll relocate the memories I have of PI to the part of my brain where all the other extinct attractions exist.

So that is my first rant back to the blogosphere. I know I'm not the only person who feels this way and to all of you out there who fought for Disney to keep PI alive and kicking, THANK YOU. Your letters, calls and whatever else you may have done may not have kept such a fun place around for years to come, but it was worth a shot. I sure hope that Disney turns a profit on the millions they are going to spend on more shops and dining at Downtown Disney. Good luck and thanks for showing me how truly spineless you Disney executives really are.


Sincerely,
A Formerly Loyal Disney Patron
-Jackie

So typical...

I haven't posted a blog in a VERY long time... But I figure, it's nice to have a place to vent so I will be sure to post more often. I won't be talking about Disney stuff... Maybe sometimes, but I'm keeping this very general so I can talk about whatever I feel like.

Let's see, what has happened since the last time I blogged? Well, the holidays came and went, so did my birthday and a new semester of school started. So far things are going pretty well. I get so busy sometimes that by saturday morning I'm toast and sleep till 2 in the afternoon. Which is probably the reason I'm still up right now, but I'll be on my way to bed shortly.

Today I did some things around the house and then spent the evening with one of my best friends, JP. We shopped, ate sushi and saw a movie. A very fun night, as always. I spent far too much money at MAC Cosmetics, but it was birthday money and I haven't spent any of it yet, so I guess I'm allowed to treat myself. I'm a make up fiend! What else did we do? Wandered into a few stores, checked out The Disney Store (of course!) and then had dessert. This is so bad, because I really want to watch what I eat, but I couldn't resist when I saw this... neither could JP. The Melting Pot restaurant has a kiosk in the mall called "Dips" and they dunk anything from a list in chocolate for you. I'm a typical female and I believe EVERYTHING is better with chocolate. They had little fondue sundaes. I had seriously died and gone to heaven at that point. So I had a tiny sunday of strawberries, bananas and poundcake covered in milk chocolate, whipped cream and caramel. They weren't very big, but it was filling (and delicious). I wanted to find Mr. Melting Pot and beat him up for coming up with such a tasty treat. Thoroughly enjoyable, I must say.

We were going to see The Spiderwick Chronicles, but when I saw The Eye was still in theaters, plans changed. The worst part of the experience? The loud and incredibly obnoxious teenagers in the theater with us. I really didn't feel like causing a scene, so I just ignored it. I heard this movie didn't get very good ratings, but I actually liked it. It was freaky, but not as bad as some other movies. I actually really liked the story line. It was similar to movies like The Ring and The Grudge, but refreshingly different. The story line was based on real life concept so it gave the plot a bit of realism. Anyhow, I would definitely recommend seeing it.

So that's about it for now... The Flower and Garden Festival is hitting EPCOT soon, so I'm sure I'll be heading over there in the near future.

Goodnight!