How in the world did I live my life and complete my degree and call myself a Disney fan and think about working for Disney without ever knowing about this website??

I have already applied for six positions, and check for more regularly. Doesn't hurt to get some lines in the water, right? The other areas on the site are also rather interesting, especially regarding the officially announced upcoming projects.

On a related note, I heard a preview of the soundtrack for The Princess and the Frog on a Disney podcast and it made me squee like a fangirl. I am so excited for this movie and what it means for the industry. Just a few more weeks!

"And It's True Too, It's Funny AND True..." *

This offering from yesterday's paper illustrates perfectly the current social climate in my office regarding the you-know-what flu.


Not everything is a symptom, people. And people get sick every year around this time.

* Quote taken from a classic episode of The Simpsons.

Happy Holloween*

I do like Halloween, I really do, I just don't love it. I guess I did when I was younger and costumes and trick-or-treating were THE thing to do, but now I'm good after a few mini Milky Way bars and a nice evening at home watching a scary movie instead. Nevertheless, this was probably my most enjoyable Halloween yet, and I will now explain why in bulleted fashion, accompanied by photos.

• This was my first Halloween with The Wife, and her love of the holiday had to rub off on me a little bit at least. She had a lot of ideas of how to dress up, should the occasion arise that we went somewhere that required costumes, and while we debated over Jim & Pam or Penny & Captain Hammer, we decided for our first Halloween together it was only fitting to go with the classic Harry & Hermione. We both already had all the costume elements, and it really is so much of who we are, it was the obvious choice. Next year we may change it up a little.

• We spent several nights through October attending films at BYU's International Cinema, from the ridiculous (Nosferatu-1979, Eyes Without a Face) to the sublime (Psycho, Pan's Labyrinth, Ringu). Let it be known that as far as we're concerned, Nosferatu is the ultimate geek of all vampiredom, and is in no way frightening or threatening. That movie was extremely dull and boring, and the silent original made in the 1920s is far better. These two movies, along with the current *ahem* trend of vampires (on the big screen and the small) have pretty much turned me off of vampires forever. I hear that word in a movie preview and I totally zone out. I do like the original with Bela Lugosi and the spoof my Mel Brooks, but that's pretty much where my interest stops.
  
• On Thursday night we went to see this year's Actors' Repertory Theatre Ensemble production of Sweeney Todd at the Castle Theater at the Utah State Hospital. It wasn't entirely freezing, and the cast was pretty good for the most part after all. Do I smell a new tradition? After we had kith and kin over to our place for hot chocolate (with whipped cream and marshmallows, the way to go) and cinnamon toast sticks.
  
• We went to Cami's house on the afternoon of the 31st to make and decorate cookies with all the cousins (and secretly cringe with the glances stolen at Monsters vs. Aliens, which the kids were watching). We wore our costumes and must have looked mighty impressive, mayhap the best Harry & Hermione ever! We webcammed with Emily, KC and Mom and saw all three babies, which was great. They are looking so big and healthy! It would have been nice to see Julia in her much-anticipated candy corn costume, but bedtimes superceded all.
• We supported Julie's visiting teaching companion by attending her Trunk or Treat activity at the church and were suddenly visible to our ward members. Our costumes were a big hit, and we ended up with enough candy to take home with us to imagine that we had gone trick-or-treating ourselves! (We're trying to pace ourselves with it, don't worry.) We had a great display in our trunk too, consisting of a full set of the Harry Potter books, some other relevant books, some pumpkins, our wands, a Golden Snitch, and my iPod hooked up to speakers playing songs from the film soundtracks.

• We wanted to show off our costumes a little more (we just don't get to put on our Gryffindor gear that often) so we walked around the mall and did a little window-shopping, then had Winger's for a festive dinner. We even won free dessert on their scratch-and-win-a-prize ticket! Our server was dressed as Rogue and was quite daring in her choice of spandex legwear.

• The next day, to prolong the festivities, we made short work of the two pumpkins we bought earlier in the week. Mine was quickly transformed into a jack-o-lantern of Harry a la Potter Puppet Pals, and Julie's was stuffed with meat, rice and vegetables and eaten as delicious Dinner in a Pumpkin, which glorious leftovers will be enjoyed for days to come.

Dear Pumpkin: I love you!

• We rounded out the weekend by watching an old favorite, Edward Scissorhands. I know, it's not really a Halloween movie (more a Christmas movie, if anything), but Tim Burton's movies all have that sort of spooky feeling to them, and it had been a while since either of us had seen it, and The Nightmare Before Christmas is appropriate any time from October to January anyway, so on Edward went. It's still a brilliant film.

So there you have it! Halloween come and gone, and now I can start to phase in my Christmas music! (For the record, I usually start to listen to it casually mid-November, then listen with wild abandon and almost exclusively starting the morning after Thanksgiving. I just think it's unfair to relegate listening to some of the best music ever to just three weeks of the year.) While I have issues with the liberties some people take with Halloween, using it as a flimsy excuse to put Satan in their front yard or dress as a rotting corpse or a shameless slut, the idea and fun of the holiday still eventually meanders its way to me, and surely with this superfan at my side each year, this trend will continue and increase in the years to come.

Happiest of Halloweens to each and all, and God bless us, everyone!

*The typing of the title of this blogpost is intentionally misspelled. It's one of my biggest pet peeves this time of year when people pronounce it "Hollow-een" instead of "Hallow-een" as it's spelled. It doesn't make any sense, especially since the name's origin is All Hallows Eve. There you go.

AI Update: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

Re: Cover artwork revealed for upcoming debut albums from American Idol 8's top 2 (The first on 17 November, the second a week later). A study in contrast.

Dear Kris Allen,

Well done. Simply self-titled, this is artistic, classy and dramatic with just the right amount of edge, and even displays the fact that you're a married man.

Dear Adam Lambert,

What is wrong with you?? I said months ago that you're a drag show waiting to happen, and here is the fulfillment of that prophecy. I don't care if it's "deliberately campy," there is a line as far as taste is concerned and you have crossed it.

It's times like this I'm so glad America sometimes votes right.

!!!!!

Snow falls from the 'bove.


Welcome, winter. I've missed you.

Visit this Blog

I guess I've never really promoted this formally, so it's about time.

The Standard of Liberty foundation now has a blog up and running. There are ever-current and up-to-date posts about the pervading social issues and subtle (and not so subtle) dangers posed against our families and children. I invite and encourage you to visit often, leave comments, and educate yourselves against the agendas threatening your freedoms and morals.
Find the blog here (http://standardofliberty.blogpost.com).

Recent Hankering Unsatisfied

For the last few weeks I have had this insane and profound desire to go back to Disneyland (which Julie shares). I don't know if it's because we honeymooned there two months ago or if it's just been "too long" since we were there or if it was crowded last time we went or whatever, I've just had a crazy hankering that's sometimes only made worse by listening to Disneyland music or podcasts (but I still listen to them anyway). In the last two weeks there have been two radio contests giving away passes, and though Julie and I tried faithfully both on KOSY and The End, we were utterly unsuccessful. No one wanted those passes more than we did, and I'm pretty sure no one tried as hard as we did, and with three tries a day for two weeks, I was sure we would get some of the 101.9 ones, but it wasn't meant to be. (The contest was that they would play a clip from a Disney villain and the caller identifying the character would win four two-day park hoppers. The results were at times shoddy, giving the prizes to people who guessed incorrectly or partly correctly--I'm pretty sure it's not Jafar who sings "Hellfire" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, LaFleur is not the same as LeFou, some villains were repeated, some were ignored, and sidekicks and live-action villains are cheap shots. Get it together, man.) We're now quite certain that it's entirely a matter of luck as to whose call gets through, though we came close once or twice, after getting our system down. (Online streaming has a delay of over a minute, by the way. Not knowing this cost us dearly.) If I disliked the radio at all before, I have a definite beef with it now.

Anyway, I guess the hankering will just have to subside if I want to maintain my sanity. On the plus side, I guess that I don't have to sit by the radio at 9:00, 12 noon and 4:00 every weekday and redial fifty-plus times in futile attempt to get through. Very small plus side, but still. Elise drew this at work to illustrate my excitement as the Disneyland contests began.

I mean, doesn't it seem unfair to anyone else that I've still never seen the Haunted Mansion Holiday? Or the new overlay of Space Mountain? Or the new fireworks show hosted by Jack Skellington and featuring Zero flying over Sleeping Beauty Castle?