In a while, maybe longer. I really don't care...

... It's just mother nature, doin' her share.

Confusing title, dunno why I used it, it's a line from a song my dad wrote and I like it a lot.

It's been a while since I have posted. Basically some pretty chaotic things happening in my life. Before I get to that, a recap on New Years. and I took a trip down south for New Years for a nice little getaway to Disneyland! It was great, and a good chance for us to be together.

Let me tell you about Disneyland. No, no, let me first tell you how we got four free passes to Disneyland. If you ever want free passes, sit outside your hotel on the bench waiting for the Disneyland shuttle at check-out time. Okay, so now to Disneyland. We got there and it was raining. Us being the gothy types we were spent a good amount of time in the wet, wet rain searching the various shops for black umbrellas to no avail. Once we gave in and bought blue umbrellas that we pretended were black everything began to look up. We went on ALL of the coolest rides, including the Christmas themed It's a Small World which got me a little choked up. The medley between Jingle Bells and It's a Small World was done so well that I did not have a repeating loop of audio death roaming around in my head afterwards. We got to go through the Nightmare Before Christmas themed Haunted House as well. It was surreal to see an animatronic Jack waving to us in our little cart. The taxi ride in Toon Town made me giggle with delight and the Indiana Jones ride made my eyes bug out. I have to say in all honesty that the last time I went to Disneyland as a kid, I didn't like it very much and my friend and I spent the majority of the time in an arcade. I honestly think adults have more to be entertained by than kids do, which is ironic considering the target audience of the films. Saving the best for last we saw a fantastic show called "Fantasmic". It was amazing! (Be sure to check out the video clip on that link) There was Mickey standing on ol' Tom Sawyer's island waving his wand around making fireworks shoot up from the water and making water splash this way and that, all the while with clips from various Disney films being projected onto a giant sheet of water being sprayed up into the air. Micky, you see, was having a dream, and his dream became a nightmare filled with all of the classic villains: Ursula from Little Mermaid, Chernabog from Fantasia, Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. They were taking control of Mickey's dreams. Poor little mouse! There were floats that moved across the water carrying the various Divas from the movies that Mickey summoned and the Pirate Ship floated across the water with Peter Pan and Captain Hook battling on the top of the masts. In the end Mickey had taken back control of his dream and banished the villains from his thoughts. At the same time I was trying my hardest to think about how ashamed my testicles would be if they saw how wet my eyes were. It really was an emotional show. Or maybe I just hadn't had a beer all day cause Disneyland is alcohol free. That must have been it.

Next day we went across the street to check out California Adventures. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be really. I got very soaked on the river rapids ride (and seemed to have the unique ability to shield everyone else on the raft from harm's way). We went on a droppy, boingy ride that relocates your stomach into your throat. Also went on the best roller coaster I've been on in a long time. Ended it all watching a live action rendering of Alladin which was really spectacular.

Okay, so with all that spoken of, it's on to chaos. I'm being laid off at my job in Livermore, my last day is Jan 31st. I am glad my Spidey Sense was tingling a few months ago and I got the wild urge to move to Santa Cruz, because it's going to be my full time home very shortly. Job market is looking pretty grim, but I believe I have a firm grasp on all of the things I need to take care of and what I need to do to get back on track. If anyone out there needs a programmer, please let me know and here is my resume if you are interested.

That's all for now folks.

-Aaron