Burger Trench

Christian Bale at D*sneyland!

artchic84@hotmail.com — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:28:26 GMT

Ok so my boyfriend Brian works mostly at the Jedi Training Academy at D*sneyland and he shared a very amusing story with me. A story about Christian Bale at the park. =D It was such a cute story I asked him if I could share it in my journal and he agreed.

So this was all copied and pasted from his journal.

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"Working at Disneyland gives me the opportunity to see/meet a lot of celebrities and usually they don't really phase me when I see them. Today was a little different when I saw Christian Bale at work. It was the last show of the day at Jedi and I was sitting up in the booth as I normally would be during the show. We had already started the show and once that happens we rarely gain extra people into the crowd, especially after all of the kids have been selected. Well, once the instruction portion had started a Guest Relations Cast Member flagged down one of our Cast Members and asked if they could bring a celebrity down the ramp so they could see the rest of the show. Since it was at a safe place to open up the ramp and it was a lot easier to bring them down the ramp then to make them try and pass through the crowd and then into the venue, we allowed it.

I normally don't pay attention to who the "Plaids" bring around but it caught my eye since they all stood literally right next to me outside of the booth. I looked over, went back to what I was doing, and then had to quickly look back again to see if what I thought I saw was right, and it was. Freaking Batman was standing less than a foot away from me. The coolest part of it was that he was totally enjoying the show. He had his wife and daughter with him and they all seemed to be having a good time. After the show he hung out on the dance floor for a moment to figure out what they were going to do next, which I didn't find out about until I went downstairs to the break room later. Apparently his daughter is a big Darth Maul fan and she really wanted to meet him some how. The coolest thing was we were able to make it happen, we sent Darth Maul over to City Hall so he could meet the little girl.

Unfortunately I didn't get to go with Maul for this special Meet and Greet but when he got back I got to hear all about it, which made me really sad that I didn't get to see it. When Maul got into the room it was just Christian, his wife, his daughter, and one Plaid. Right when Maul came into the room apparently Christian got really excited and totally started geeking out about the whole thing. His daughter though wasn't as excited as expected and tried to hide on the other side of the room. Christian tried to let her know that it would be ok and that Darth Maul was going to be nice to them but she wasn't having it. He went over to her and picked her up and asked her if she would take a picture with Darth Maul if he took it with her, she was still a little afraid but then he told her, "It is ok, he can't hurt you, remember I'm Batman!" They all ended up taking a ton of pictures together and Christian even tried again to get her to take one alone with Maul but she was still a little too scared. The whole time Christian was talking to Maul about where he was from, what kind of alien he was, his back story, pretty much everything about him, he was also really impressed at how cool he looked (when it came to his make-up). He even asked if Maul would smile so he could see his teeth, of course Maul did and me flipped out about how gross they looked. Maul tried to find a way to be nice and win over his daughter by offering to let her hold his lightsaber, she was still afraid so Maul offered the saber to Christian instead. Maul said the look on his face was priceless, it was like a little kid getting a new toy on Christmas. Once he had the saber he started freaking out and he actually told his wife, "This is so cool! He killed Qui-Gon Jinn with this!" After a few more minutes Maul finally had to leave and when he made it into the next room he said he could hear them still freaking out about how cool the experience was.

It is so great to know how much of a geek Christian Bale is, I mean you would almost have to be if you played both Batman and John Conner. It was just a little surprising how much he still tried to value the magic of Disneyland and allowed himself to get so caught up in meeting Darth Maul when he honestly knew it was just an actor in makeup. I really wish I could have been there in person to see it but they only needed Maul there for the experience, though I was glad that I at least got to see him when he came to the Jedi show and it made me really glad to hear that he is such a nice guy."

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I just love the fact that Christian works IN the movie business, and he still believes in the D*sney magic. Daww.

More stupid D*sney drama

artchic84@hotmail.com — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:53:55 GMT

Eugh...Ok I have a problem with this guy.

It started when he posted a rude comment on one of my photos. It was a picture of me and rurouni_jedi wearing our D*sney Halloween costumes of Alice and Belle, and he said something along the lines of "What is this? I thought Disney only chose hot girls to play characters." And I wrote a rather peeved letter back and blocked him from commenting again.

Later on I saw that he had taken a picture from Daekazu on devArt and used it to make this manip. Granted, he is very skilled with Photoshop and I actually DO like a lot of his graphics (I mean these ones are downright awesome). But for that picture he gave no credit to the artist, and I commented saying he should and gave a link back to Daekazu's gallery. This guy then deleted my comment and blocked ME from his account. And I don't get it, because on the rest of his gallery he seems like a nice guy! He's polite to everyone else and pretty well spoken. It makes no sense.

Lately he's also been posting these kinda photos showing the various roles the girls play. On one hand, there is no rule that says he can't do this, but from a CM point of view it's bad. It kinda ruins the magic, and I know that many of the girls do NOT like this kinda stuff. On Micechat people were saying that these girls should be flattered and even honored that they notice them in other roles, but I spoke directly to a princess/fairy who said it was very upsetting. It made her feel bad as a cast member, saying she felt like she had failed at her job at keeping the magic. And she hadn't even done anything, it was just from people comparing her photos like this. It's disrespectful. >=/

Wig help!

artchic84@hotmail.com — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:37:54 GMT

Ok so rebel__princess and I need some help! We're both planning on doing Giselle costumes (I'm aiming to get mine done by Comic-Con), but we're having a lot of trouble finding the right wig styles and colors. We've tried a bunch of wig stores all the way from Mission Viejo to Anaheim to LA with no luck.

So Christy is doing Giselle's curtain dress and I'm doing the animated Mucha gown.

Here are some wigs I thought worked really well for other cosplayers.

Obviously her hair in the animated sequence is in-your-face orange. I'd like to go for something more natural-looking, like the photo of Amy Adams. I could go a little more orange/red if necessary. I'm not too familiar with wig shopping online, so if anyone has suggestions I would really appreciate any help! Oh, I'm also looking for a new blonde Alice wig so feel free to throw those out too! =3

Tim's Alice

artchic84@hotmail.com — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:14:18 GMT

Since people have been sending me links n' stuff, I should get my opinion out there about the new pictures from Tim Burton's Alice.

Alice? I love her. I have high hopes for the actress and even though Tim TOTALLY stole the idea from me, I love the idea of her as an adult and running back to Wonderland to escape a marriage proposal she doesn't want to go though (*coughWCMIcough*). Oh Tim, are we gonna have to break out the lawyers? XD

Hatter? I want to like him, I really do. And just like before, I am not going to judge the character until I actually see Johnny perform. I guess I like the fact that he's a red-head and of course he looks eccentric. I do like the costume design so far. But the white face and fuchsia lips? Ehhhh...

The Red and White Queens are whoa, freaky looking. White Queen not so much, but Red Queen is REALLY characterized! I mean, that's just gonna be awkward to watch. It was strange enough seeing Martin Short's massive head bouncing around on his shoulders (despite being one of my favorite Hatters depicted on film).

The Tweedles are creepy and ugly as sin. Which for me personally isn't right, mainly because I'm so used to the Tweedles at D*sneyland. I mean ours are actually cute! Of course I'm a little biased considering my boyfriend once played a Tweedle, but still!

The scenery and set design? I love it. It's wistful and creepy and everything Wonderland is supposed to be. I'm also still wondering how much CG vs live action there will be, but considering they finished principal shooting in just 40 days, I'm assuming it'll be a lot of CG. Which isn't bad, I just hope Tim mixes it well. He's so good with animation, but I have no clue how he'll do with CG. So overall, still reserving judgment. I swear though, if Hatter falls in love with Alice I'm gonna freak. I don't see HOW it would happen, considering Johhny's appearance (I mean I just don't know if audiences would go for that), but still, any Hatter/Alice pairing makes me a little giddy inside. And yet I want Tim to stop stealing my ideas. If there's a purple squirrel in this movie that acts as Hatter's conscience, I'm suing! ;p

Little bit of happiness!

artchic84@hotmail.com — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 06:24:58 GMT

A little bit of happiness came to me the other night. There's a musical snow globe that sat on a shelf behind my desk for display purposes, and people would wind it up ALL the time and it played it's little jingle. After days and days of listening to it, I began to hate the damn thing.

Well at LONG LAST it FELL from its shelf the other night right behind me and shattered! HAPPY DAY! The weird thing is that there was no one really around it. I think it was just placed on the shelf funny, and eventually fell. Maybe it jumped itself because it could feel the hatred seething from me. Huzzah!

What's also nice is that the soundtrack in our store has been broken for weeks. I enjoy working to music and all, but this was 40 minutes of the same D*sney songs repeated over and over all day. And they weren't even GOOD D*sney songs, they were the kinda that got annoying very quickly. They said they put in a request to maintenance to have it fixed but I have been perfectly FINE without music. I hope it stays that way for a while.

Terminator

artchic84@hotmail.com — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:56:21 GMT

So tonight I finally Saw Terminator Salvation with Brian, and I don't know what everyone was complaining about, I LIKED it.

OMFG NAKED YOUNG ARNOLD! Seriously, HOW did they have him in there?! We didn't see his name in the credits so it couldn't have actually been him person. Was it a model? Body double? CGI? I mean he looked pretty close to the original 80's film! Someone fill me in!

Christian Bale did better than I expected. See now THAT voice would have been fine for Batman. It was gritty but still normal.

Also at the very end they had "In Loving Memory of Stan Winston" during the credits. I gasped and cried right there. ;_;

RIP Wayne

artchic84@hotmail.com — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:43:03 GMT

Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse since 1977, passed away yesterday. I was sad when I heard it but then this just freaking broke my heart...

I admit, I nearly cried. Wayne was married to Russi Taylor, who is the voice of Minnie. Yes, Mickey and Minnie were married in real life, and this picture just...God. I can't imagine what Russi is going through. It's just so sad.

New apartment!

artchic84@hotmail.com — Wed, 13 May 2009 08:52:32 GMT

So a LOT of things have happened. Most importantly, I moved into a new apartment with Kait near D*sneyland and we've spent the past week moving everything in and the place is an absolute train wreck. XD The apartment itself is great and pretty affordable, but all of our junk is still lying around. But it's nice living closer to work and having my own room again. Yay! I'm almost settled in and as soon as I am, I'll get started on the commissions I have waiting (namely jjthefourth's shoes).

Also I'm officially registered for Comic-Con and The Gathering! I'm getting a Giselle gown made (her pink Mucha one) for Comic-Con and I'll hopefully have an Edward with me. I still wanna do Alice and Mad Hatter, but that depends on Sam's schedule. Also I don't know if it'll happen, but I would love to do a Dr. Horrible/Penny cosplay with my boyfriend. I think he'd make a cute Dr. Horrible. X3

Regarding costumes, my friend rebel__princess, who put the sexy princesses together last year could use some help. She's adding a TinkerBell to the group and she could get a better deal on purchasing wings from Fancy Fairy with someone. If anyone out there wants to buy a set of wings, let her know! It's cheaper if you buy them in pairs. Alone they would cost $275 but if you buy two at once, they go down to $200 each.

Also, I hate that Celebrate! A Street Party at Dland made me start listening to Ricky Martin again. XD

Birthday!

artchic84@hotmail.com — Sun, 03 May 2009 15:57:08 GMT

I turn 25 today!

I still don't know if that's good or bad. XD Wheeee!

Shoe Commission

artchic84@hotmail.com — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:45:42 GMT

Hey guys, I'm doing kind of an auction! But just here from my LJ.

So a very dear friend of mine needs a bit of help. Her mother is being evicted from her home, but she needs money to make rent just for this month so she can at least have time to search for a new place to live. I'm holding this charity auction to help raise money that will all go to her mother.

So if you've seen my gallery, you know I do shoe art on white canvas Vans. You can see samples here and here. If you're interested in a pair, just place your highest offer in the comments on this entry.

+ The winner will tell me their shoe size, and what they want drawn on them. I will purchase the shoes out of my own pocket.

+ As for shipping, I'm asking the buyer to pay that price. What the shipping price will be is unknown yet since I have to purchase the shoes first.

+ Like always I prefer Paypal, but in this case other options are available, like money order, etc.

+ I won't accept anything lower than $150.

+ The auction will end Sunday, April 12 at 10am (I live in California, pacific standard time), and the shoes will go to the highest bidder.

We're looking to raise several hundred dollars, but any amount will a help! Also, I would like to keep the comments organized and to the point. Please do not comment unless you have a question concerning the shoes or if you are placing an offer.

Update: Since people have been asking, if you would simply like to make a seperate donation, you can do that here.

Update again: The auction has ended! jjthefourth is the winner, bidding $350! Thank you SO MUCH guys! This will help Jenny and her family out so much!

Disney Inspire Days

artchic84@hotmail.com — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:46:25 GMT

Omg today was fun.

So I got up at the crack of dawn, sat in LA rush hour traffic for 2 hours, and arrived at Disney Animation Studios in Burbank. Just two days ago I learned they were having "Disney Inspire Days" which is basically an open house to meet with students and graduates. So I scrambled to get all my portfolio stuff together and barely made it on time.

The main focus of the event was to provide portfolio reviews with Disney Recruiting and they also provided tours of the studio. And throughout the day they held Comic-Con-styled panels with Disney artists, producers, and directors. The first pair we saw was John Musker and Ron Clements, directors of The Princess and the Frog.

The tour of the studio itself was amazing, it was my first time actually going inside. The second floor was divided into two sections. One side was for Rapunzel, and the other for Princess and the Frog. I SO desperately wished I could have snuck my camera in, but naturally photos were forbidden. The walls were covered in artwork, including character sketches, color keys, background designs, interior/exterior sets, costume reference, a few storyboards and some BRILLIANTLY painted scenes, especially from Rapunzel. OH man the art direction of that movie looks GORGEOUS. It almost makes me a little sad knowing that the 2D art will be pushed aside by the fact that the film itself is 3D. I can only hope they maintain the feel of the 2D art I saw.

The other half of the building was done up in Mardi Gras decorations, with all the same concept art and designs pinned up on the walls, only for Frog. Since this film is further along in production, there were actual completed frames of film posted up. Tiana looks like she's going to fit in quite well with the other Disney Princesses. The best part of the day was when we got to see actual scenes from the film, including an ENTIRE musical number by the villain, Dr. Facilier, who is voiced by Keith David!! (Gargoyles anyone? =D) And holy crap, I had no idea that man could sing so well! He looks like a really compelling villain, he reminds me of a sinister voodoo Cab Calloway. XD

The art direction for both films looked beautiful and I hope it carries into the final process. As for my portfolio review, it went pretty well. I now know what areas to improve, what to add and take out, and all that good stuff. I really liked how the recruiters were brutally honest and gave genuine constructive criticism. They were kind and supportive but did really well in pointing out what needs improvement.

So lastly for your viewing pleasure, I recorded the Q&A by Andreas Deja (♥♥♥) and Eric Goldberg. I figured other aspiring artists would like to hear their input on animation. =)

EDIT: Gah, sorry guys. I had to remove the youtube videos.

Look I'm a professional now!

artchic84@hotmail.com — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:54:19 GMT

Woohoohoooo! I'm officially on the Disney Website! It makes me feel all important n' stuff. ;p

You can also see my upcoming sketch of the month for April under "product link." Professional registration for Comic-Con, here I come!

Comic-Con 2008 - Disney Cosplay

artchic84@hotmail.com — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:30:35 GMT

Ok so remember waaaaay back when I started my Comic-Con 2008 report? Well I finally got the rest of the photos from Britt about a week ago so at long last I can finally finish the photo post! =D

For a recap, here was Part 1 and Part 2. Huzzah!

Ok so this Joker was not exactly hardcore with his costume, but MAN did he have the personality down. He actually creeped me out. Sam met him in the morning before I arrived.

This was our own little group which we dubbed "The Most Awesome and Obscure Disney Unit Ever." Of course Collin at the end there doesn't really count as Disney, but screw it. He was still part of the group.

Hooray, more Disney cosplay!

Sam and I met Frank Beddor, author of The Looking Glass Wars. He was pretty excited to get a photo with us. XD

ACK. Ok so this was my first time meeting this Joker. HE CREEPED ME OUT SO MUCH. He kept asking me to come closer, and I ran behind Sam thinking 'my Hatter will protect me!'

Instead Sam grabs my shoulders, PUSHES me towards Joker guy, and says "I think you two should become better acquainted!" =D

Really creepy. At the end I squeaked out "I think we've become acquainted for long enough!" and ran back behind Sam.

Um Hulk...smash?

Bumblebeeeee!

You can't go to Comic-Con without meeting Elvis Trooper.

Iron Man!

I think Dan is trying to intimidate the giant warlock. I have no clue what Sam's doing. XD

So then we dropped by for a spot of tea at Jabba's. I'm actually kinda bummed I didn't get a Slave Leia pose while I was there. Maybe next time.

Getting some of Jabba's "tea" to go.

And of course, more photos from our meetup with the sexy Disney Princesses.

All the ladies love Edward.

Britt's the kind of photographer who takes SO MANY pictures it's hard to choose just one angle.

And of course, my favorite photo from the con. I just had to post it again because it's that awesome.

Our friend from Neverland.

Where'd his hands go?

STILL THE BEST COSTUME IN THE HISTORY OF ANYTHING.

See who that is? DO YOU SEE WHO THAT IS?! MATTHEW FOX FROM LOST!!! We just happened to come across him when he was just starting a line, so there were hardly any people in front of us. Sam teased him by saying "Instead of you going to Disneyland, we came to you! We just saved you $90!"

Meeting with more Disneyland cast members.

Andrew takes his helmet off at last!

Austin and Hatter kinda match.

Creepy duck thing.

Had to show off more of the girls. Christy wants to expand the group next year and add an Aurora and maybe if I'm lucky I'll get to do a sexy Giselle. Just depends on how much money I have for costumes this year.

Christy is also looking for suggestions on how to improve her current costumes. If anyone has suggestions, just shout them out here.

Heather.

Becky.

Christy and Victoria.

Victoria has some damn sexy legs.

Yay more photos with Kat!

Sitting in Hatter's lap? Not the kinda photo you would catch at Disneyland. ;p

So Britt took us out for a photoshoot down by the San Diego bay. It was a great little hill that gave us a wide open space with clear sky behind us.

I'm a total sucker for twirling shots. They're my favorite.

Lots of them!

I like this one. It looks like I just landed from floating down the rabbit hole.

In a world of my own...

Now for the Alice/Hatter shots!

Daww.

Hey!

Me: =/

Tea party!

Tea-hog.

"When I tell you your hair needs cutting, YOU CUT IT!"

NO! The felt will SHRINK! D=

Time for a trade!

Aww isn't he pretty?

Here's your stupid BOW.

Here's your stupid HAT.

Help! Crazy man with a tea pot!

Wait, you need tea in your hair!

Just LOL.

Hatter shows just how much he appreciates Alice.

Then he starts pushing my head down towards...um......

I shrieked and jumped back. XD

A total spoof of my WCMI comic here (the last panel).

Daww, another for WCMI.

Skipping back down the hill.

Our lightsaber pose.

Random battles FTW!

And for anyone who hasn't already seen it on my devArt page, I photoshopped the sabers in.

random cosplay FTW by *bri-chan on deviant ART

One of the best photos ever.

Is the day over yet? My feet are killing me.

Aaaaand we're spent. OH NOES, we pulled our wigs off in front of the children GASP!

Ahh finally, my Comic-Con 2008 posts are done. Woohoo!

Aw shit

artchic84@hotmail.com — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 02:58:45 GMT

Holy crap...this isn't a cold. I think I have the flu. I ache all over, I have the chills, and my throat is so swollen it hurts like hell to swallow.

Well fuck it all this sucks.

Watchmen

artchic84@hotmail.com — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:35:09 GMT

Watchmen was so freaking good it gave me a cold.

...wait.

That kinda sucks. But it doesn't change the fact that the movie rocked. It was a mind trip, and I was NOT expecting so much blood and violence but wow. What a movie. Rorschach was by far my favorite, he had the best lines in the whole movie. He's the kinda character who just jumps in and says "I'm here to pass out candy and kick some ass. And I'm all out of candy."

Eh, now I just gotta get through this sore throat. Then go see it again.

artchic84@hotmail.com — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:35:43 GMT

Y'know what was weird? Sawyer/Juliet was a total surprise but in some way it kinda worked. I think mostly because it reminded me of Brooklyn/Sata from the Timedancer Gargoyles spinoff *GEEK MOMENT*. XD Brook and Sata fell in love because they were pretty much stuck together, and it just seemed to make sense for Sawyer and Juliet to do the same thing. It had the time traveling and everything! *snerk* And I don't care who it is, seeing Sawyer act all sweet and lovey dovey towards someone wins in my book.

Where was Daniel during the three years later?! Did I miss him or was he just not to be seen???

OH SNAP KAIT'S BACK WHATTYA GONNA DO NOW SAWYER?! D=

Walt D*sney World Part II

artchic84@hotmail.com — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:35:36 GMT

Trip report, part twooooooo!

Day 5

So Jarod, Dino and I get up super early to get the Magic Kingdom. The good part was that there was hardly anybody there so early in the morning. The bad part was it was freakishly cold.

How cold?

Try 32 freaking degrees!!!! What the hell, Florida? WHAT THE HELL?!

I've only been the (literally) freezing cold a few times in my life. I was NOT prepared for this weather. It was so cold I didn't even want to walk out on Main Street, I just wanted to stay in the shops. I couldn't take my hands out of pockets because they HURT, it was so cold.

Everything in MK is just so BIG and SPREAD OUT.

Yay for early entry!

CANDY!

I'm reminded of LotR. I was surprised to see they actually have an area for swordsmiths to MAKE swords right there.

I freaking love that castle.

Just like we have a statue of Aurora and Philip, they have a Cindy fountain. I like how she's in her rags.

HELL YAH VILLAGE HAUS!!! Back in Fantasyland at our park, Village Haus was my regular lunch spot. Best pizza in the park.

Anybody home?

So of course I had to rush over to check out their Fantasyland, which was a TRIP. Peter Pan was our first stop. The ride was cute, but ours is better. But I was so excited to be there I thought to myself "Ooh, I wanna get a picture of the control console!"

I rush up...only to see that Pan is on an Omnimover system. There was no console......

There...was....NO........CONSOLE!!!!!

The bars lowered automatically. There was no console CM to manually put the bars down. I was floored.

Fastpass. They had fucking FASTPASS FOR PAN.

FLORIDA YOU ARE FUCKED UP. XDDDD

Back at home, Fastpass is simply unheard of in Fantasyland. We never had them and we never will, since lines simply aren't long enough. Also having a Fastpass at our Pan would screw everything up because our backdoor line is long enough already.

Then we got over to Small World, which was entirely indoors. Ok, Florida you are doing this on purpose just to screw with me, aren't you?

Yaaaah, that looks so wrong. XD

Philharmagic was AMAZING. I LOVED that show, it was so cute and fun and they need to rip out Honey I Shrunk the Audience at our park and put in Philharmagic right now! Yes, it would work. And it would be fantabulous.

Ok then I made it to Snow White, which blew me away. Their Snow White is TEN TIMES BETTER than ours!

Why? Because for one, it has an ACTUAL ENDING. Our Snow White is mediocre at best, but this was the one thing in their Fantasyland that just exceeded my expectations.

More pretty castle shots!

So my good friend Tommy (who works there) told me a certain pair would be by the Tea Cups in the morning so we rushed over to meet them.

Alice was adorable.

What made it fun was the fact that I didn't know them. This was a first meeting, which is always fun.

Hatter was pretty cool too. He had the voice and the character down, so yes I approve of this pair!

We went to catch the first show of "Dream Along With Mickey", but it was so cold they had to cancel the show for the safety of a bunch of the performers. So instead they had the face characters come out for a meet and greet (which I heard doesn't happen often).

I LOVE Peter and Wendy's costumes in this show. They're so fancy! I also love that Peter's outfit actually has leaves.

I loved Aurora's dress. *steals it*

Omg Prince Charming is TALL.

Sadly Space Mountain was a disappointment. Not as fast or fun as ours. I hear it's getting an update soon, so I hope it gets better in the future.

We stopped by to see the Tremaines again. Because I can't get enough of these wonderful girls. It was the same Lady T at dinner from the previous night, and I'm glad I got to see her again.

Again thanks to my friend Tommy (who was actually in this show), we got a special meet and greet with the Dream Along characters.

Yay for Jarod, our California prince!

Since Little didn't get the chance to meet Alice earlier, we went back to see them.

Funny faces and noogies! My favorite kinda photo.

CASTLE. <3

Yay, Tommy got to hang out with us on his lunch! Earlier last year, Tommy came out to California to hang with us at our park, so it was great coming full circle and hanging out at his park. See, East and West CAN get along! xp

Also since Jarod works at the Dream Suite in our park, he totally had connections and got us a special tour of the Cinderella Suite inside the castle!

We went up an elevator to the top of the castle, and this was part of the floor to the room's entrance.

Real Mary Blair artwork!!

Nice little room with a sweet entertainment system.

Windows...

OOOOOH looking out over the park!

It must be amazing being up there during the fireworks. Not that you could really seem them, but still cool!

Livin' the good life.

A sweet plasma screen that displayed a painting of Cinderella, but could also switch over to TV/Movies.

Bathroooooom.

Hee.

Cinderella's royal throne. LOL SEE WHAT I DID THAR?

Shower! I actually wonder how they got plumbing n' everything this far up in the castle.

The desk downstairs when you first walk in.

Cinderella's castle, how may I direct your call?

Then came the Celebrate A Dream Come True Parade. I loved seeing characters that I've never seen before in person - like Maleficent!

I became addicited to the music. I have it downloaded now. XD

Once again we visited the Tremaines.

I had met up with two other friends who I knew online and also worked at the park, Amanda and Megan. I had so much fun hanging with them since they showed me all around and knew where everything was. ^^

Jarod proposed to Drizella, so here was their wedding photo. I got a video of the whole thing.

She really took a liking to him. XD

Me with Mandy and Meg in front of the castle.

Have I mentioned I love that castle? Great afternoon with these girls.

Haunted Mansion again, yay!

FISH FACE!!!

We went to the big Toon Town Fair thingy and saw the princesses.

Lol casting agency!

The three california Cast Members!

Day 6

Another day at Magic Kingdom!

Hullo there.

So we rushed over to see Alice and Hatter again. It was the same Alice, but OMG this Hatter was so cute. And devilishly good looking.

SERIOUSLY, I wanted to pack him up in my suitcase and take him back home so he could work at OUR park. He was that cute.

Oh yes, he was totally worthy of the name Reggie. Hatter can I keep you? =3

Little and I were waiting for the chance to get a backstage tour, so in the meantime we went and saw the Tremaines again.

Posing with them is just so much fun.

We're all going to be runway models.

Drizella was all kinds of awesome. Just from seeing her photos online, she was my favorite Driz.

So Jarod joined us and we got a special backstage tour since aparently all we had to do was flash our Disney IDs and we were good. So the three of us got to check out costuming, makeup and wigs, and all that cool backstage stuff. What really surprised me is that all of backstage IS underground! I'd heard all about it, but didn't believe it until I had seen it with my own eyes. And wow, it was pretty cool. But no photos, obviously. I'd like to keep my job, kthnx. XD

I love the Roy Disney statue. It's a great tribute to Walt's brother, who oversaw the completion of D*sney World after Walt passed away.

The Haunted Mansion view from Tom Sawyer's Island.

A little bit of the Dream Along With Mickey show.

I met up with yet another WDW friend, Harrison and we went to check out the fairies at Pixie Hollow.

Tink. Was. Awesome.

Normally I'm not a big Fawn fan, but this girl was so good I couldn't help but love her.

Silvermist asking about my buttons.

We were the last ones in line for the night so we got a bit of extended interraction with the fairies.

LOL.

Fawn, you kick ass.

A very fun ending to a very fun day.

Day 7

So it was finally the last day of our vacation. We stopped by Hollywood Studios again in the morning to enjoy a bit of the park without rain.

We hit all the cool rides again, like Tower and Aerosmith. I rode that coaster a total of 4 times. I couldn't get enough.

Then we hopped the monorail to Magic Kingdom again. I love how you can see the castle waaaaaaay in the distance.

Sick of seeing that castle yet?

We got great seats for the parade, and we noticed that the Photopass CMs had very interesting costumes. They're quite different from ours, and we noticed that they wore white shoes. In almost all of D*sneyland, policy sticks to strictly black shoes only.

I took a photo of guest control because I APPRECIATE THEM. I worked in guest control for 2 years, so I know their pain. YOU GUYS ROCK, srsly.

Parade time!

Ariel: OMG leik YAY!
Eric: Uh...

Of course we couldn't leave without getting our photos at the Sword in the Stone.

I told this sweet young lady I worked in Fantasyland in California, and I would love to get a photo to show costume comparison. Ours were a bit different, with more olive green pants and different embroidery, and we also wore our nametags in the center of our shirt. She was excited to learn I worked in the same environment and we talked a bit of how our parks differ. Y'know over all I had a great experience with most of the Cast Members there. They were all pretty cool.

OH HEY LOOK, A CASTLE.

Sooooo pretty.

Our last character sighting, Aladdin and Jasmine.

We realized it was the same Aladdin from Epcot and we told him we successfully passed on his message to Snow White that she smelled like a wet camel. XD He was very pleased.

So, night came and so did the closing of the park. Siiiiigh.

One more last awesome castle shot. Walt D*sney World, our time with you was too brief. It was an incredible trip I'll never forget. Magical memories FTW.

So the next morning we were at the airport bright and early at 5am (well, maybe not bright, but defintitely early) to catch our flight back to California. I have every intention of someday going back to Walt D*sney World. Someday...

Walt D*sney World Part I

artchic84@hotmail.com — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:26:10 GMT

Trip report, part one! Because I have nearly 300 photos, I'm splitting this report into two posts to save my flist the stress of a massive picspam.

Our whole group. YAY!

Day 1

Ok so! My awesome mom gets up with me at 4am, we leave the house by 5am and we get to LAX right at 6. There I waited for a few minutes and the three other members of my party show up. We get through bag check and security all in a breeze, and we get our standby tickets thankfully with no troubles. Caleb, one of our group members, works for Southwest Airlines so he got a tickets for free. Sweet.

So began the looooong plane ride.

The flight got kinda bumpy so I clinged to Jarod's arm for a bit. Never liked turbulance.

Little and her fiance, Robert. Ok now, before people ask - yes she is friends with Alice at Disneyland, which is why I won't be using her real name in my report. So I'm just going to refer to her as Little (my nickname for her).

We stopped at an aiport in Texas to jump planes.

And at long last we made it to Florida!

They had an entire area of the airport just for Disney arrivals. We hopped a bus to our hotel resort, Saratoga Springs.

Whee bus ride!

I just liked this little place.

We checked in at our hotel and that's when the trouble started. When we loaded our luggage on the bus, the staff there said not to worry, they'll handle the bags and they would be at our room in a couple hours. So we figured we would head to the Magic Kingdom for a few hours while our luggage arrived. But it didn't. Details to follow.

So! While we thought our luggage was being delivered, we met up with the rest of our group and stopped by the Magic Kingdom. And boy oh boy was this a head trip. Seeing everything there, the wide open space, the giant Town Square, the MASSIVE CASTLE. It was overwhelming.

Everythig there was big and beautiful.

OMG CASTLE. Sure I had seen hundreds of photos of this Cinderella Castle, but it still floored me at just how BIG it was. I mean, it's like every photo I ever saw never did it justice now that I was there. It actually was magical.

OMG THEIR TOMORROWLAND KICKS ASS. Just the atmosphere alone beats ours.

Little and I on the Tea Cups. It was one of our first rides there, and holy cow their Tea Cups go FAST. Much faster than ours.

The Haunted Mansion - my favorite ride there. I'm a die-hard Mansion fan anyway, and while their's was very similar, it had some awesome new rooms and kickass effects. And the AUDIO. WOW.

Oooooh ghosts! ;p

Alright so after those few hours in MK, we got back to our hotel room...to see that our luggage had still not arrived. By then it was almost midnight. So we called the front desk and they didn't know where our luggage was either. So they said they would contact the bus drivers and find out. In the meantime they gave us complimentary items like toothbrushes and robes to wear. Since none of us were tired from the jetlag, we decided just to have fun and walk around the hotel resort in our white robes.

Sad because we don't have our luggage.

Oh yah, we're dorks.

Uh...YAY FOR JUMPING AT 1AM!!

So THEN because we still weren't tired, we decided to go grocery shopping! After all we had a kitchen and everything so why not use it? So we borrowed Mika's rental car, found a Wallmart and did some last minute 2am shopping. Little and I didn't bring our swimsuits so we bought new ones, and we got everything from breakfast cereal to meds.

When we got back to our room, Little and Robert surpised me with this - a really nice champagne to toast to my late Grandpa who passed away just before this trip. I also toasted to my parents who were paying for my trip (it was my graduation gift after all).

Also while we're still in the beginning, I wanted to post photos of our hotel room. Note that these photos were taken later so you will see our luggage there. Which means we eventually did get it.

Room one, where I stayed with my group.

Our vanity mirror.

Part of the living room.

Living room/kitchen.

More living room/kitchen.

Laundry!

The bathrooms were pretty nice. We had two seperate showers...

And one jacuzzi tub.

That lead into the master bedroom, where Caleb and Anne-Marie stayed.

Day 2

So we finally got our luggage by 10am the next morning. We had originally planned to get up early and get to the park by 8 or 9. But that just didn't happen because we all had the need to sleep in after being up until 3am. XD

Here was a shot of our hotel building from outside. Really nice place.

Our next destination was Disney's Hollywood Studios. This was a pretty fun park and reminded me a lot of DCA, only better.

In fact, DCA's new entrance will soon look like this after the refurb.

I loved that they had actual "street" performers. These guys were hilarious to see walking around. See we need this at our park!

Me and Little in front of Tower.

Their Tower was a LOT of fun. I loved how the elevator actually left the shaft and moved forward to another one. THAT was creepy. The drops were slightly less intense than DCA's, but still fun.

We also rode Rockin' Rollercoaster featuring Aerosmith, which ended up being my favorite ride throughout the entire trip. I was blown away. I found myself screaming on the coaster and at the same time, singing along to the Aerosmith music (which is some of my favorite music EVAR).

About halfway through the day though, it started to rain. And at first we thought "Oh it's Florida, it'll rain for half an hour then stop." But it didn't stop. Instead it turned into a torrential downpour and didn't stop until later that evening.

Later we checked out their Animation building, which was cool.

I want that desk setup.

PAAAAAIIIINT!

This was the desk station for their sketch artists. (Ours are better HAHA!)

Ahh good ol' San Francisco, my second home.

Pixar replica!

We got lucky and came accross Mike and Sulley with no line. Sulley tried to kidnap me until the host said he wasn't allowed to keep me. Daww.

Robert and his little umbrella. XD

I rode the Aerosmith coaster again. I couldn't stay away from it. Btw, look at how wet my legs are. The water just soaked up all the way in my jeans. HA.

Tower looked cool at night.

We got lucky and the rain stopped enough for them to proceed with the second showing of Fantasmic! (the first show was cancelled). I was amazed at their amphitheater-styled seating. It was ingenious because it eliminated the need for guest control. BRILLIANT.

Go Mickey!

After Fan! we headed back to our hotel and and spent some time at the jacuzzi to warm up.

Day 3

Trip to Epcot! This was the most interesting park I think because it was so unique. We hit all the rides in Future World in the beginning, including Mission: Space, Test Track, the Seas With Nemo, and all those funny little rides that I can't remember the names of.

Our postcard from the future. XD

Halp!

I was SO IMPRESSED with stroller parking. As a guest control CM, I wanted to shake these peoples' hands for doing such a good job. Way to go, Florida cast members!

Soda tasting from around the world! And Robert leering over me...>_>

STUPID BIRD! I blame him for making me drop my camera. That was a painful experience. So after Future World we headed to the World Showcase, which was divided into different countries of the world.

First stop was in Canada, then over to England!

YAY FIRST CHARACTER SIGHTING!!!

Of course we had to get shots of Little with Wendy because she's very good friends with her already. X3

Wendy was just darling (LOL see what I did thar?)

MINE MINE MINE. Apparently the seagulls in Epcot are greedy little bastards. They really are.

We got to meet Mary...

And Alice YAY!

This started a pretty amusing game. When Alice learned that we were cast members, she asked us to participate in a game, which we didn't quite understand but agreed to anyway. She asked that if we saw Aladdin, Belle, or Snow White we would verbally tag them and say they were it.

Nap time with Aurora!

So we found Belle and told her Alice said tag. I guess Belle was familiar with this character tag game because she told us to pass it on to Aladdin if we saw him.

So when we did find Aladdin, he was amused and upset that he had been tagged. So he said to tag Snow White, and also to tell her that she smelled like a wet camel. XD

When we passed the message to Snow and told us Aladdin said it, she almost completely dropped character and said in a total southern bell accent "HE DIIIIID?" It was pretty much the funniest thing during our whole trip and became sort of an inside joke. XDDD

Germany was my favorite country to visit.

It actually looked a lot like our Fantasyland.

And we met Mulan in China.

My home country of Mexico! Well, half anyway. I'm half Mexican, and half Irish but sadly there was no Ireland in World Showcase.

YAH, DONALD REPRESENTIN' MAH PEOPLE! XD

When nighttime came around, it was FREEZING. We stayed late enough to watch the fireworks then went home.

I'm actually surprised we got through all of Epcot in one day. Most people I've spoken to say it takes at least two days.

Day 4

Next day, Animal Kingdom!

It was still freezing!! This was like the biggest and most glorified zoo I've ever been to. It was a great park, but probably my least favorite of the trip.

Mingo birds!

Expedition Everest - my second favorite coaster after Aerosmith. <3 Since our snow monster is named Harold, I had to ask the CMs there if they had a name for their Yeti. They told me her name was Betty. Yep. Betty the Yetti. XDDD

SHE was awesome.

That's like, her LEG going up that tree trunk. Awesome.

We went on the Kilimanjaro Safari and saw all the animals out and about.

"Hey guys, 'sup?"

We also went on the Dinosaur ride which was FREAKIN SCARY! It was similar to Indiana Jones in the jeep ride sense, but holy crap I was scared.

A replica of Sue Rex, the most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found.

And they had a CARNOTAUR!!! One of my favorite dinosaurs ever!

Later we saw the Finding Nemo musical.

Since the park closed early (like most zoos close for the animals after all), we decided to have dinner at the Grand Floridian at the 1900 Park Fare with Cinderella and her family. Now the funny thing is I had spoken to Lady Tremaine online (turns out we went to the same school in San Francisco) and told her we were coming. But when I called, they said reservations were full. Lady T said not to worry, and she got us in. WOOO!

It was awesome finally meeting her in person. I couldn't thank her enough for helping us get in.

Lady T was showing off Anastasia's traits to win the favor of the gentlemen at the table. Ana was downright hilarious.

Half the time I didn't know what she was doing, but it was always funny.

She finally got Caleb's attention...

Then Jarod! Gasp!

Fish face!

Drizella was not as easy to please.

But she was still awesome.

I wanna be a stepsister. Why not meeeeee?

My thank you hug to Lady Tremaine. You know she loved it. XDDD

She was even kind enough to invite us for a couple private photos away from all the other guests.

TREMAINE LOVE.

Ok so that ends the first half of the trip report. Second half to come in a day or two, consisting of a bit more Hollywood Studios and mostly Magic Kingdom. =3

So...

artchic84@hotmail.com — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 06:28:15 GMT

Feeling better. Grandpa's funeral service will be in a couple weeks. Much love and thanks to all of you who sent well-wishes. They were very uplifting. So for now I leave you with this.

Yay for being at the airport at 6am. x_x

I love you, Grandpa

artchic84@hotmail.com — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:21:31 GMT

Today was incredibly hard...my Grandpa's health had been failing for the past several months. Recently he suffered congestive heart failure, sepsis, and then breathing troubles. The doctors said there was no more they could do for him.

I went down today with my family to see him. He was moved to San Diego Hospice where he was sedated and resting. He never woke up, but we were told he could hear us. All day family members were coming in and out, saying prayers, talking to Grandpa, holding his hand.

At the end of our stay, I said my goodbyes to him and kissed his forehead.

When my sister and I got home a only couple hours later, my mom called to tell us that he had passed on.

I'm in shock and I'm still crying as I write this. John Durcan was a New Year's baby, born 14 minutes after midnight on January 1, 1934. He and my Grandma raised 6 children, including my mother. He was 75 when he passed. I love you so much Grandpa. And I miss you right now...I miss you so much already.

LOST is back!

artchic84@hotmail.com — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 07:21:09 GMT

After 5 years I think I finally realized why I'm so hooked on LOST. I love being confused with this show. I mean, I follow the gist of it but I'm usually just one step behind. But at this point...being confused is now a happy addiction for me.

And damn...even after 5 years, I haven't missed a single episode. What made the whole night was when Hurley threw the pizza pocket at Benry. XD HAHA and it sucks to be Frogurt.

ALGJKHL;ASJA;HKGA

artchic84@hotmail.com — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 06:51:37 GMT

I'M GOING TO D*SNEY WORLD!!!

It was a last minute offer, I'm going with a group of cast members and friends, from February 1 to the 8. Words cannot describe the joy I feel.

HEY GUITIERREZ!

artchic84@hotmail.com — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:58:51 GMT

Ok so I think I finally got rid of the spyware, thanks to Malwarebytes. I haven't had any problems after running that program, but I think just for the pure hell of it I'm going to download a few more programs and give them test runs. I'm getting a lot of suggestions to try out "Avast!"

Also, sad news that Ricardo Montalban passed away. Sure he did a lotta cool things but my favorite will always be Guitierrez on Freakazoid.

"Laugh with me, laugh with me!"

Computer help?

artchic84@hotmail.com — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:28:05 GMT

Wait, what? Spyware...on MY computer?!

How the hell did this happen? I have Ad-Aware Pro and AVG Internet Security 8.0, and both of them have failed to fix this problem! When I'm online, these freaking ads keep popping up. It also seems to affect my Windwos Security Center and won't let me turn on my Automatic Updates from Microsoft. x_x

The programs have identified this thing as "Virtumonde" and yet I can't seem to get it off my computer. I also found "trojan-agent.gen" and "rundll32.exe" keeps showing up as well.

I tried running this process, but it didn't work. And now my patience is running thin. Anyone out there got any advice?

I'm just drawn that way

artchic84@hotmail.com — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 05:17:45 GMT

Suddenly it has all become clear.

Amy Adams IS Jessica Rabbit!!! I've had that shot of Amy for months and just the other night I found that pin of Jessica and it amazed me how similar they looked. =O Weirdness...