MouseVENTURES IS UP!!

I am super excited about our newest website MouseVENTURES !! I admit, it's a website we have had since 2010, but until now it's not been much of anything. Well all that's changed! We have repurposed the site a little since launching it, so it's kind of like we are re-launching it. The focus has always been Trip Reports from the parks, but when we first launched it we just had a link page full of reports floating on other website and message boards. Now we have decided to host our own Trip Report (you can read it here) as well as creating a place that other folks can host their own Trip Report with us and get exposure with our weekly mailing list.

Our goal is to have our report go out every Wednesday and then all the other people that are hosted go out every other day of the week! Can you imagine!? That's a lot of reporting which will help people planning for their trips and certainly will help those that have never ventured to the parks. We even want people to write reports on the Cruise Line and Adventures by Disney. The latter is something really cool Disney hasn't been doing for long. If you book with that service a specially trained Disney guide will take you on excusions and adventures once you get there and make your vacation one to remember forever! How cool would it be to go to Europe and be guided by one of those Disney cast members? Anyway... so this is our new, if you pardon the pun, venture into what we love doing. It's our way of never leaving the parks. I guess that sounds a little weird, but trust me, a lot of people out there feel the way we feel and they hate to leave those purple signs behind too!

Take a look around and stay tuned. There's a lot more to come in the weeks ahead.

Concert of Worship Coming Soon!

Oh man, I am excited about what is going down in February at StoneBridge! First of all we are bringing back "Can Buy Me Love" which is a clever play off that old Beatles song that said "Can't buy me love" well, turns out YOU CAN!! We did this event two years running then, we stopped for some reason. Whats got me so excited about it? The fact that it raises some much money for our interns over the summer for one thing. The other thing is that the entertainment is always great! This year it's Taylor Mason the comedian you can afford, as he says.

So the other thing is the Concert happening at the end of the month. I am a little anxious to get to get going on planning it as a ton of stuff has to happen. We are doing like twelve song or something nuts like that, but we are also going to record it all. We are recording for a live CD and DVD. This is going to take all I have learned about production to pull off, but you know what? I am ready and I say bring it on! This is going to be amazing, stay tuned to the blog for more details to come.

Seven-Nine Productions

In case you don't know, I am running a small production company dedicated to helping people bring their projects to life. I am calling it Seven-Nine Productions and the way it got its name is a pretty funny story.

As you know Laura and I are both Disney nuts. Well on one of our more recent trips I was trying to think of a name to call my new company and I wanted it to be related to Disney, but only in a very obscure kind of way, thats just how I roll. Anyway, we were riding the TTA, or for those that are not in the know the Tomorrow-land Transit Authority, and as we came to the part of the ride that takes you through Space Mountain I saw a sign that read 'Star Port Seven-Nine'....more on this later....but I saw that sign and that was my eureka moment. "I'll name it after this and no one will ever guess it came from my love of Disney, but I will!" So thats what I did. When we got home I immediately went to work on creating logos and business cards and all kinds of stuff, even the website. I was so excited that the new company name reminded me of Disney and that vacation and all the great memories from it, I couldn't wait to go back and snap a photo of the sign that inspired me so much to post it here in this blog! Well, a few months ago we went again, it was back in October I think. We hopped onto the TTA and I started looking for that sign again, camera in hand. You know how memories aren't exactly the best sometimes? How they can change the color of a car, or the size of a building? Well this is what happened to my sign, in my mind it was a small, out of the way tiny sign that you would only see if you where really looking hard for it. In fact I had ride the TTA a number of time before I realized what I had seen on that fateful trip I named my company from. As I said before the sign did say Star Port, but it never read seven-nine, it really read Star Port Seven-Five and it was in Space Mountain, so at least I got that part right. So here I was reading the sign and realizing how wrong I was and thinking to myself...."All the business cards, the logos, the website...it was all based off what I thought this sign said...and now I find out it's a Five and not a Nine!?" Oh well....at least I can say that I was original now! lol.

That's basically the story in a nutshell. I have recently updated the website with all new info and even a new demo reel. If you want to check it out click here. Before you go, take a look at my new demo reel below!

2011 Will Be Different.

As I reflect back on 2010 I am asking myself what was significant about it? Well, I learned a lot about how to make 2011 a different year. This year I am laser beam focused on getting more done. I am dedicated to not lazing about the house when I come home from the day job. Yes my friends, 2011 will be different. When I turned thirty last October reality hit me like a lead pipe in the face with this harsh truth "It's time to stop screwing around and get serious, about everything" My spiritual life is not where I want it to be, and my money management sucks. So, that being said, 2011 will be different. In 2010 I made no moves to better our lives, in 2011 I am aiming to change all of that. I ask for your prayers, and in my own prayers I am asking for guidance from the LORD. For it is only in His will that anything will truely change, so I am begging for that to be part of His will.

2011, you will be different so help me God.

Another WDW Trip Under The Belt.

Well we made it. We are back safe and sound ( and FREEZING!) What's the deal here Al Gore lied to me about Global Warming!? I NEVER saw that one coming! ;P Anyway, that's for another topic.

Before this trip I had never made a drive this long on my own before. I was bit skittish, but I knew I could handle it if I got plenty of rest and time to collect myself. Luckily I got both, on the way there, and coming home. The drive there wasn't to bad. We left at around 1 and drove to Destin, FL where we stopped and slept for the night. I meant to take a photo of the room the next morning, but we were in a hurry to get to Disney. But wow! This room was incredible! It had a flat screen TV, a king sized bed, two bunk beds with a little wall mount flat screen for the kids, well families with kids any way. It even had two separate lavatories for us. So any way that was Destin.

That morning we left for Disney and got there around 7 or so and checked into our resort. After we got settled into the room we jumped back into the car and drove to the Polynesian Resort and ate at one our favorite restaurants Ohana. I love this place cause the food is never ending. They bring you pot stickers, chicken wings, skewered beef, chicken, and pork. The other cool thing is that the whole room is surrounded by windows, so you see the castle pretty much where ever you sit. At the appropriate time they pipe in the music for the fireworks so you can enjoy the show.

The next morning our trip really started, but I'll let Laura fill you in with the full trip report. You can find it over at our website www.mouseventures.net if you want to know the full details. She's a much better writer than I am. Be on the lookout for it.

DisneyVentures

Our website is picking up popularity! Nothing like Dude Perfect but you know, we're trying. We are getting more people everyday tweeting us and letting us use their trip reports. Even Cali Lewis plugged us in one of her latest Geek Briefs. So all in all, Laura and I are pretty pumped about all of it! Also I can't forget all the good people at Be Our Guest Podcast cause they are all great people! Keep reading the posts, and let us know what you think on our guestbook. See ya real soon!

Editing

Working on a little video for my friend Mike Faltin, the timecode is all whack and I can't make sense of it, so I'm venting on my blog. Deal wit it! No, j/k. I'm going to bed now....I feel better.