002 – Project 365 – 11/21/2009, originally uploaded by gpwelch.

Glenn Paul playing with his car.

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001 – Project 365 – 11/20/2009, originally uploaded by gpwelch.

Megan at her school Thanksgiving lunch. Of course, she’s playing and not eating. What a surprise 🙂

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President Obama, United We Serve, and the NFL Team Up for Fitness and Service

Awesome PSA! Unfortunately, a lot of people in Louisiana aren’t going to like it too much. Glad I’m not one of those people..

Inside Disney World’s revamped Space Mountain | TheDailyDisney.com from OrlandoSentinel.com

SPOILER ALERT!  But if you want to read about what’s new after the rehab, take a look.

Also, here’s another good post regarding the thoughts behind Disneyland’s and WDW’s Space Mountain rehabs..

Christmas at EPCOT, originally uploaded by gpwelch.

Beginning this year, there will be no more Lights of Winter at EPCOT Center. What a shame. This was usually one of the first Christmas decorations that went up at Walt Disney World, and it was wonderful to walk through this structure as the music played and the lights pulsed.

The picture above is a shot of the Lights of Winter on Thanksgiving Day, 2006. This is one of my favorite pictures, and it came after a wonderful day of having Thanksgiving dinner with friends at Portobello at Pleasure Island and then topping it off with a trip to EPCOT. (As a side note: I really miss being able to do this. But, it’s my fault for moving away. Sorry, C & M!)

Disney says that the technology to operate the lights became obsolete, so they’re retiring it. Here’s the Twitter entry

Really? That’s the excuse? After upgrading the millions of Osborne lights at DHS to LED and having them dance to the music just in the past three years? I call BS! They’re Disney, for goodness sake. This is the company that has a whole division of Imagineers dedicated to making the impossible possible. This is simply a cost cutting measure, and they should have said so. It wouldn’t make it any less upsetting, but at least we could understand it, especially in these tough economic times.

I really, really like the new official blogs and Twitter accounts; so far they’ve given us a lot of behind-the-scenes information and announced things before the unofficial sites. But come on. Don’t start lying to us and trying to put a spin on it..

How Mr. Q Manufactured Emotion | Dustin Curtis

Music is such an important part of the Disney Theme Park experience, and something that you rarely think about while you’re in the parks.  This post is almost a tease, because I would love to read a full interview with this person and find out the science behind the music..

Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.

Very interesting..

Microsoft Ad Campaign Crashing Nation’s Televisions | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source.

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Bob Iger is freaking out about this Baby Einstein scandal

I laughed so hard during the last two paragraphs I started crying..

Mobile Magic – First Disney Parks Mobile App Details, Screen Shots Unveiled « Disney Parks Blog

This has screenshots and a bit more detail than my last post about this application.  I would love to have this.  Come on AT&T and Disney….

The Daily Disney – Disney news, Disney Parks tips, ticket deals, resorts, dining, events, money saving tips – TheDailyDisney.com from OrlandoSentinel.com

Check this out!  I just found this.  I hope this is successful for them.  I said over and over again when I worked at the Sentinel that they should have stories about Disney in the newspaper every day, since Disney employs over 50,000 people in the area, and millions of visitors each year..

Verizon’s ‘Mobile Magic’ for Disney Parks Available November 2009; Parks to Introduce Mobile Sites for All | StitchKingdom.com

WTF?!?  How does Verizon get this app and AT&T and the iPhone don’t?  Isn’t Mr. Jobs on Disney’s board of directors and the largest shareholder?  I know…I know…Verizon ponied up a ton of dough for it.  But, come on, offer it to iPhone customers.  I would pay $6.99 every 6 months for an application that listed wait times for the Disney attractions..

The WEDway’s Back | Progress City, U.S.A.

I’m a fan of the new narration on the WEDway.  The first time I heard it a few weeks ago, I thought they had brought back ORAC-1, because the voice is similar.  Even without the ORAC-1 story, I like this better than the previous narration.  I hate to admit this, because the WEDway is probably my favorite ride and the attraction that I’ve been on more than any other, but I was never really a fan of the 1994 narration.  I usually just tuned it out.  I just hope that the current narration isn’t a temporary narration until Space Mountain opens.

I’m looking forward to riding the updated WEDway with the new narration and lighting.  Whenever that next trip takes place….

Adobe Labs – Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3

I’ll be downloading this tonight.  I am psyched about the changes in this beta; the one other feature that’s not in the beta that I hope that makes it into the final version is the facial recognition like iPhoto has.  That would help tagging tremendously..

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Oct. 22, 2009: A day of global mourning

Well, it releases today.  I just hope all those people upgrading from Windows XP realize that to upgrade they’ll have to do a clean install and then reinstall all of their applications.  Hope they have all of their original software discs and license keys and really good backups of their files (which everyone should have anyway).  Good luck everyone.  Should go very smoothly….

Katee Sackhoff makes a ‘Big Bang’ – From Inside the Box – Zap2it

Starbuck on “Big Bang Theory.”  So awesome.
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Restaurant becomes Disney’s only seafood house – Around Disney – OCRegister.com

Tammy and I at at Hook’s Pointe the first night of our Disneyland vacation in 2006, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Great atmosphere and food.  But, it was pretty quiet and not a lot of other diners.  Granted, it was during a slow season, and we may have eaten pretty early.  It’s a nice restaurant, so if this change helps it survive, I’m all for it..

EPCOT Central: Dear Steve Jobs,

Couldn’t have said it better myself.  And, honestly, I don’t care if Steve Jobs has a part in it or not, EPCOT needs to be transformed into what it once was–a visionary place that inspired.  What’s so wrong with that?.

Your Very Own WorldKey | Progress City, U.S.A.

I greatly miss the WorldKey kiosks at EPCOT.

The second to last paragraph is key..

Disney Plans Extensive Overhaul of Mall Stores – NYTimes.com

I am looking forward to a refresh of the Disney Stores.  They are horrible right now.   This sounds like it will be very innovative and fun.  It will be nice for them to be “destination” locations again, like they were when they were just starting out..