Tread Heavily

Last weekend I turned 35. The last milestone before the dreaded 4-0. Not that 35 means anything beyond another year, but anything above that; I feel is ‘close to 40,’ and not so much young anymore. So now, I am at that in-between period where birthdays mean less than nothing. Not something to avoid and not something to look forward to.

As my birthday present, we decided to take the kids to the Georgia Renaissance Festival for the day. I say we, because my wife doesn’t really like the whole RenFest thing. She doesn’t mind Medieval Times, but she’s not one for the fantasy mix that you see at the RenFest. We were worried about the weather and the drive down to Fairburn, but we decided that it would be the last chance we would get before the Festival would be over.

If you’ve never been to a Renaissance Festival, let me explain: You have a fairly rural area with a huge parking-lot (pasture) and a festival area with tents, booths, small wooden structures, and lots and lots of medieval-like decorations. This is all walled in with hedges and fencing so you can’t see in from the outside, and can’t see out from the inside. In this space (usually very large, loud, and colorful,) you have hundreds of people milling around shopping at the numerous shops, playing semi-thematic games, and eating food from the many vendors.

What makes this different from any other festival is what people are wearing and what they sound like. Many of the folks there are dressed in period costume, or decked out in fantasy clothes that you’d also find them wearing at Dragon*Con. Next to a group of Knights, Lords, and Ladies, you might find a big troll, a gnome, or a group of girls with pixie wings. And yes, I take my kids there. All of this merriment and entertainment basically revolves around a single storyline where the King has called for a Joust between his Champion and some random bad guy from Spain or France.

I really enjoy these things. I’ve been to several in different states and think that the Georgia one is pretty good. It has been around for a while, so the show side of it is very well done and everyone who works there seems to love what they do. The accents are…well, if you like fake British accents, you’d love it. Me? Well, at least they have on nice clothes.

Our day started out with my kids being completely shell-shocked. None of them would leave the side of the stroller, talk to anyone or play a game. They just stood there looking at everything. The baby started screaming and my wife got really frustrated with me. “Is this what Disney is going to be like?” She asked as she tried to feed the baby.

Then it started raining.

I don’t know what happened, but in the rain, all of the kids just opened up. The Monkey wanted to play a game, so he and I went over to the bean-bag toss. There we won a big stuffed dragon and some beaded necklaces for the Princess. eBaby quited down and looked like she enjoyed sitting in her new sling, and the Monster sat in the stroller laughing and looking around at everything. From then on out, it was an absolutely perfect day.

We loved the shows and games, and the kids liked meeting and talking to everyone. If you want to have a good time yourself, here are a few tips for the Georgia Renaissance Festival that we learned this trip:

1. Go to the Peacock Tea Room at the back of the Festival. It is a covered, cool, secluded restaurant that serves tea (with refills) and pretty good finger-food. It is also right next to one of the entertainment stages and you have a great view of the show.
2. Play a game for your food. If you like playing the games and are good at it, why not spend the $6 you would have paid for that Turkey leg and try to win one. For that same money, you not only get the food, you get the satisfaction of winning it.
3. In the same vein as #2, play the beanbag toss and win your drinks instead of paying full price. I played the game twice and won free drinks both times. We traded these in for the dragon.
4. If you want to cheer on the good guy, sit on the left side at the joust. This may not matter to you, but my son was devestated that he had to cheer for the bad guy. For the second round of the show, we had to get there early to get a seat on the left.
5. Shop around. There are several vendors who sell the same stuff, so you might get a better deal if you ask the folks down the path. You can also haggle, depending on the vendor.
6. If you want to try and win free stuff and you like swords, go to the pirate ship before 4 and get your raffle tickets. They also have an auction on some (all?) days.
7. If you have kids, avoid the Dead Bob show. I hear he cleans up his act for Georgia…but he is still too blue for what is otherwise a pretty family event.

I hope the tips help. Oh, and if you check out their website you might find some money-saving coupons or special days for when you are going.

By the end of the day, we decided that if things go this well at Disney, we’re going to have a whole lot of fun. We spent too much money (The Princess had to have a new dress and tiara, and the boys had to have swords.)

So, what did I get for my birthday? I got a great day with the best kids in the world!

Filed under: Entertainment, Family | 1 Comment »

This past Monday, Robert “Bawb” Varley passed away unexpectedly in his Orlando, Florida home. He wasn’t feeling well, so he laid down to take a nap. Bawb loved his naps. His wife found him a few hours later.

I’ve never actually met Bob Varley, never interacted with him online, and doubt that he even knew I exist. However, his passing has touched me in a way that I never expected. See, Bawb was a member of the Podcast team for the DIS Unplugged. I have listened to that podcast for a while now and looked forward to each week’s shows. Not only because they talk about great Disney reviews, tips, and events, but because the people are extremely likable and sound genuine on their shows. They aren’t elaborate in their presentation and don’t make a huge fuss about their show or themselves as ‘celebrities.’ It is a group of friends sitting around and talking to us about something they love.

On the show, Bawb was the resident quirky old guy and seemed to be the perfect counter to the host Pete and the restaurant reviewer Kevin. He spoke with a thick Mass accent and constantly told long stories that endeared him to you, even while becoming a little irritated that he wouldn’t get to the point. Bawb had a green ECV that he outfitted with ‘Kaht Kham’ and made great videos that they posted on YouTube. If you haven’t listened to any of the podcasts, I’d go there now and listen to a few before continuing. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

The DIS Unplugged Podcast

See what I mean? You can’t help but like him, even if you don’t care about Disney, something about his nature makes you want to hear more from him.

When I found out about his death, I was immediately shocked and saddened. After I thought about it for a while, I was a little bit taken aback that I was feeling that way. What was it about Bawb’s death that effected me more than say; an actor whom I was a fan of, or a musician. Why do I mourn the loss of someone I only know because of a trivial web-based radio show.

I think it has to do with the nature of social media and what makes it different than traditional media and entertainment. When someone gets paid to do something, they usually don’t put everything they have into it, and rarely put their real selves out for everyone to see, judge, and connect with. When something is your job, you always have a barrier to hide behind, even if you are actually using your real name or persona.

When someone is involved in social media, they aren’t usually getting paid for it, and if they are, it isn’t payment for who they are, but for what they know and the time they spend doing it. I suspect that Bawb was an employee of Pete’s and got paid for his time on the podcast. But it wasn’t because he was a journalist or a voice talent. It was because Bawb loved and knew Walt Disney World. You could hear it in his voice.

I will greatly miss listening to Bawb on the podcasts, and I will continue to pray for his family, the rest of the Podcast Crew, and the entire Disney family. We’ve lost a great one, but we’ll never lose the magic that he added to the Most Magical Place on Earth.

* Graphics Note: These graphics are not my own and were taken from the DIS Unplugged Podcast page and the DIS Boards respectively. They are great images that I just had to use.

Filed under: Walt Disney World, Social Media | 10 Comments »

I have been a bachelor for the last 6 days and I have had the best time.

My wife took the kids to the in-laws’ house for spring break, leaving me and the dog back home. This was the first time in a while that I’ve been completely unsupervised, so I forgot what it was like to be free…free from the wife, free from the screaming kids, free from anyone asking me where I am going or what I am doing when I get there. I have the ability to do whatever I want, whenever I want and there is no one around to stop me or nag me or question my motives. There’s a funny smell? Yeah, I did it, and I don’t even have to blame it on one of the kids or the dog.

Let me fill you in on what I’ve been doing. If you are easily offended by manly hijinks, please don’t read further.

• I watched 5 movies. Downstairs. On the BIG TV! And not a single one of them was rated G or PG. They were all PG-13 and even R!
• I played my 360 DURING THE DAY! Loudly, without headphones. Oh yeah. I’m an animal.
• I went to bed at midnight and slept until 10 in the morning. That’s only 2 hours until the afternoon, baby. And you know what? Nobody woke me up. I actually woke myself up.
• I cleaned up the house. I did it the way I like and I even used the Dyson to clean up a mess that would have made my wife scream. (Oh…I hope she doesn’t read that part.)
• I organized my Disney World Plans three times, just for fun. Take that, Missy. I’m free and I’ll over plan if I want to.
• I skipped church! Well, that was because I had a horrible stomach ache on Sunday, but still..wild.
• I didn’t eat ANYTHING at all on Sunday! Yeah…the stomach thing again.
• I got a fresh clean towel every time I took a shower. And on top of that, I used all of the hot water ALMOST every time. Ok, once. And I was washing clothes at the time.

My wife and kids are coming back home tomorrow, and I’ll have to go back to being a responsible adult again. But hey, I have one more night and I have wicked plans for it: I am going to play Call of Duty 4 and finish off that 6 pack of Sam Adams! (That I bought last week.)

I hope I survive.

Filed under: Just me | 5 Comments »

Today is the first day of my new job.

It has been a few weeks since I have written a post, but I at least have a good reason, or a good one to me on any account. Before Friday, I was an Information Architect, serving on a product management team. It was a great group of people to work with, but since the acquisition (we were bought by a huge media company,) the atmosphere and the outlook on the future changed drastically. During that time, I was contacted by a friend and ‘very long story short’ I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Those who follow me on Twitter know that I worried and fretted about this change since last year. Do I give up certainty for hope, current stability for potential? Or do I turn it down and forever wonder what if?

I decided to take the leap, and in about an hour I’ll land in an executive role for the first time. I am extremely excited in the change, not only because there is a huge amount of hope for the company, but I will be getting paid to write again! Actually write and oversee the writing and production of documentation, marketing, and public relations.

I want to thank everyone who supported me during this decision making process, everyone who gave me good (and bad) advice, and everyone who asked how things were going. I also want to thank my wife for calling me stupid when I wouldn’t make my mind up. As she said, ‘It would be dumb to stay.’

She always puts things so well.

Filed under: Do the Job, Just me | 1 Comment »

Last week was not conducive to blogging, so I took a bit of time off. This week I’m coming back strong with another episode of Tweet Files! My guest this week is Shannon, better known as Monty or akaMonty on Twitter.

Use this link to download it for later.

Go to Monty’s blog!

Filed under: Tweet Files, Social Media, Twitter | 7 Comments »

Episode 1 was so much fun to do, I decided to do episode 2!

This week’s interview is with Meg Fowler (megfowler on Twitter.) Meg is an amazing writer and blogger who just happens to be from Canada. Listen to the podcast and go read her blog.

In this episode, we get to know a little bit about Meg, what she does for fun, and what she thinks about bloggers who call themselves writers.

Use this link to download it for later.

Go to Meg’s blog at MegFowler.com

Filed under: Tweet Files, Social Media, Twitter | 4 Comments »

Earlier this month, I presented a short show-and-tell session about new sites and trends in Social Media at the chapter meeting for the Atlanta Society for Technical Communication. I posted about this before, and was very excited about bringing these sites to light within our chapter of the STC. After the presentation, I promised to provide a list of links for those in attendance to be able to reference later. Well, this post is it!

These are only sites that I have personally visited and tried out (if even briefly.) If you know of other sites, please comment the links and I will add them as I check them out.

Microblogging

Twitter - Be sure to add me if you check it out! (Ninety7)

Pownce

Jaiku

Social Networking

Facebook

MySpace

LinkedIn

Plaxo

Video Hosting/Sharing

Viddler

Yahoo Video

MySpaceTV

Seesmic

Vimeo

YouTube

TubeMogul - This service lets you upload to multiple video sites at once!

Live Video Streaming or Conferencing

Yahoo! Live

ustream.tv

ooVoo

Podcasting

Utterz

PodBean

Other Types

Live blogging – Coveritlive.com

Create your own social network – Ning.com

Tell a story around an image – VoiceThread.com

Community Voice Chat – TalkShoe.com

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Filed under: Society for Technical Communication, Social Networking, Social Media | 2 Comments »

I have been itching to try my hand at putting a podcast together, not because I like to hear myself talk, but because I love the medium and am curious how I would do as a podcaster. A couple of weeks ago, I came up with this idea and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I present to you: Tweet Files! In each episode, I will interview people who make an impact on the Twitter stream, not because of what they do, but because of who they are and how they contribute. First up is Phillip Zannini, or as we know him, phillymac!

Use this link to download it for later.

Want to learn more about Phillip, or read more from him? Here are his sites:

Metroman

MacNation

The Biography Podcast

Filed under: Tweet Files, Twitter, Entertainment | No Comments »

Ok, I stumbled across this on Twitter. If you are a fan of Rock Band, of Portal, of Jonathan Coulton, or of fun in general, you have to watch this video. It is epic!

Jonathan Coulton performs “Still Alive” in Rock Band from Joy Stiq on Vimeo.


Here is the link to the blog I found it on.

Filed under: Twitter, Entertainment, Other Sites, Games and Gamers | No Comments »

Since Monday was a holiday for me and my kindergartener, my wife and I decided to try and find something around town for us all to do. Something that we haven’t done to death (Fernbank or the Atlanta Zoo,) or wouldn’t completely wipe out our budget for the month. We thought about the Georgia Aquarium, but that was a little bit too crowded to take our kids to, especially on a holiday weekend. So my wife did a little Googling around and found the directions to the Mayfield Dairy processing center in Braselton, GA. It is only around 30 minutes away, and sounded like a fun diversion. We didn’t know anything about the brand, other than the ice cream is very good and the milk is very expensive.

When we got there, it was just about time for the next tour. The plant gives free tours every 30 minutes on the days they are open, and they made the call over the intercom for us to head into the theater to begin the tour.

Once inside, we sat and watched a short video about the history of the dairy and what makes their milk different. We learned about a special processing machine that takes out any non-milk flavor that might be in the cow’s milk. Did you know that if a cow eats a lot of onion grass, their milk will start to taste like it? You do now.

I was pretty surprised by what we found out. The milk is only sold in the Southeast region and only in those places where their trucks can reach in a short period of time. I guess that’s why I thought Mayfield only made ice cream. According to the map we saw in the video, they don’t sell Mayfield in the town in SC I am from.

Once the video was over, we were presented with hair nets that everyone had to wear. We even put one on the baby. I was also given a beard net that I had to wear over my face, making me look like a mix between a surgeon and a duck.

The tour itself was rather short, but interesting — if not a little bit disappointing. I really don’t know what I was expecting, but the tour consisted of walking down the hallway and looking into the big windows at the machinery and workers inside. My kids absolutely loved it and just stared at all of the jugs zooming by and the machines feverishly working to keep everything moving smoothly. I was just expecting a more up-close tour like the one we took in 8th grade of the Adluh Flour Company. That said, I would seriously recommend anyone who is in the area to take the 30 mins to stop by and see the tour and the processing center. The guides were extremely nice and the discount ice cream and milk products can’t be beat. You can get a huge scoop of any of their flavors for $1.50!

Here are some things I found out on the tour and trip:

• Mayfield and other dairies get their milk from co-ops and dairy farmers bring their milk directly in from their farms.
• All of the ‘raw’ milk is stored in big silos.
• They turn away any milk that isn’t below 45degrees.
• Mayfield also processes Wal-Mart brand milk, but doesn’t run the milk through their patented processing, and don’t put the milk in the yellow jugs.
• My 2 year old eats more ice cream than his 6 year old brother.
• Some school districts are moving away from paper containers and going to the little milk jugs.
• I really really really like their Birthday Cake flavor.

I started out this post saying that Mayfield milk was very expensive…so why did I not mind my wife spending the extra money to buy that brand? I guess the tour paid off. I have become a fan of Mayfield milk.

Filed under: Road Trip, Entertainment, Family | 1 Comment »