The old Commodore 64

I was listening to something this morning that reminded me of the Commodore 64 that my family had years ago. I don't know whatever happened to it, but it was our first 'computer', although I think we only used it for the games we could play on it. I remember some of the games we had, like Q-Bert and Centipede. I played those a lot, but to me the most memorable games we had were B.C.s Quest for Tires and Jumpman Junior. I never got far with B.C.s Quest for Tires, but I loved playing it. I guess I wasn't coordinated enough, but it was fun to see a character I had read in the comics come to life. You had to duck under branches and jump over various obstacles. It was fun and I wish I could play it now (there are software emulations out there, so maybe I will).







Jumpman Junior I was very proficient at. You have to climb up ladders and jump onto different platforms, always avoiding at least one bullet shooting towards you. And in later levels there are more obstacles, like fire. I loved playing this game, and could play it even at fast speed, which I remember my dad being amazed at.

We had our Commodore 64 in our green room which later became the laundry room. I don't know where my parents got it, but I believe it was used when we got it. We got the Commodore 64 with its monitor and several games and other software to run on it, plus a joystick and a rolling ball joystick we used to play Centipede. We had other various parts that I don't think we ever knew what to do with, which is why I think it was used. It was so much fun back in the day. We loved our Commodore 64 and the Commodore VIC-20 we had for some reason.

What a weekend

I started off my weekend by deciding to go see Indiana Jones and the Kindom of the Crystal Skull. I had planned on watching it, but figured I'd go sometime this week as I was tired Friday night and most of my friends that I'd see it with were gone for the weekend. But I really wanted to see it, so decided to go by myself. It was fun! I really enjoyed the movie. It's no Raiders, but it was a lot of fun and I plan on seeing it again.

My niece came into town Saturday with her Color Guard troupe from Tulare Union. They came for a couple of days at Marine World (Discovery Kindgom). I went earlier in the day to Marine World to get my season pass. I parked in the Carl's Jr parking lot and luckily went into the store first before walking over to Marine World. I saw them towing the car next to me when I got back and got my lunch. Anyway, Kris called and said they were on their way, so I met them at the Best Western, and off we went. I hung out with Kris and her friends Tiffni, Alyssa, and Heather. We went on several rides and had fun. We met for dinner with others and I had chili cheese fries. It was a fun night.

Sunday morning I was to drop off Kris and pay for her ticket for that day. I had originally planned on getting a free ticket with my season pass but didn't get it in time, so I had to pay for her ticket. But then I forgot my coupon book, so had to pay $50 for her ticket. I then decided that I might as well get a season pass for her for only $20 more. Unfortunately, once you're in the park, it's $40 more, so it was an expensive day. I normally try not to spend money on Sundays, but my niece was in town and I wanted to spend time with her. I did get to ride on Tony Hawk's Big Spin before I went to church. It was a lot of fun!

After church, I picked up Kristina and we went to Sacramento to see the US Tour version of Phantom of the Opera. I'll have to talk more about that later, but we both really enjoyed it. We got to meet several of the actors afterwards, including those who played the Phantom, Christine, and Raoul.

Monday morning we headed off to San Francisco with the group. I wish they had followed me, as I would have led them into the Pier 39 parking garage where we could have got validations for going to Bubba Gumps for lunch, but instead we went first to the Fisherman's Wharf parking lot and then to Pier 45. We ended up paying $16. Oh well, next time I'll have to be more with it and tell people where the best place to go would be. It was an expensive weekend, but a lot of fun! I love seeing Kristina, and I don't know how many opportunities like this I'll have in the future, with she coming with a group to visit.

A nice compliment

I was asked to speak at Church in the Benicia Ward. For those that aren't LDS (who am I kidding, I'm the only one reading this post), we get regular people speaking in our wards. Once a month, a High Councilor will speak in each ward, and they usually ask for a companion speaker to speak in the ward they will speaking at (they travel to different wards in the stake). At least that's how they do it in my stake.

Anyway, I often get to speak with one of the high councilors, and he asked me to speak last Sunday in Benicia Ward. I love the Benicia Ward. The Young Women there have become good friends of mine up at camp. They're so much fun, so I always look forward to getting to see them.

This was my second time I had spoken in Benicia in six months, and I thought they would be tired of hearing from me, but they seemed to enjoy it, and afterwards, one man (30-ish, married) said that he really appreciated when I spoke there and that he really needed to hear the message I had to give (I spoke on Individual Worth). I could tell he was sincere with what he said, especially when he said they all appreciate the messages I have when I speak. That made my day and definitely made getting up early and the total six hours of church I had Sunday worth it.

From the archives: Disneyland 2005

I absolutely love Disneyland! I wish I lived closer or had some friends that lived down there that I could stay at. I would then definitely have season tickets and go all the time. As it is, I 've recently gone every two years but I plan on going again this year (hopefully). Anyway, here's a post I put up about going to Disneyland in 2005 for the 50th anniversary of Disneyland.


Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Going to Disneyland
Current mood: jubilant
Category: Travel and Places

OK, I'm horrible at writing in my journal, and I've recently been thinking of my Disneyland trip in September, so I might as well write it here then copy it in my journal (along with my post about Diego). Just so you know, this will be really long and probably take a few sittings, so don't be surprised if it abruptly stops and I post it. I'll finish it when I can.So, earlier last year I decided I really wanted to go to Disneyland. It's the 50th anniversary of Disneyland and I wanted to go there and ride my favorite ride, Space Mountain. I talked with a friend of mine, and we planned on going. Complications arose, and my friend couldn't go. My mom suggested that we could go together, and go for multiple days. That sounded great to me, so we decided to look into the deals with AAA. We finally decided to go all out and stay at the Disneyland Hotel for four days (there was a deal of 4th night free) with a four day Park Hopper (Park Hoppers allow you to 'hop' from Disneyland to California Adventures). I came to the Orange County airport directly from Utah, where I was visiting my friend Analane and watching the BYU season opener. My mom picked me up, and we started heading towards Disneyland, although we missed the exit somehow and were heading who-knows-where in Southern California. Finally, we made it to the Disneyland Resort (as it calls itself now). We got a little lost there even, until we finally found the right way to the Disneyland Hotel (DLH). We found a spot to park (in the 20 minute parking) and walked in to check out. It was the first time I've been in the DLH. Well, not really, the monorail used to stop right there and you could go to what seemed like the biggest Disney merchandise store I had ever seen when I was growing up. Still, it was the first time I had been in the hotel portion. I immediately saw the Fantasia store and couldn't wait to go see it later and spend some money. Anyways, we checked in and then went back to the car to grab our luggage. It took about three trips, and then I parked the car in the actual hotel parking, up on the top of a structure. Finally, we were in our room with nothing else to do. It was a Sunday afternoon and we talked about the fact we had a four day hopper. We were trying to decide which days to go, and realized that we wanted to go that day, and then take Wednesday off. Thank goodness we chose that option, because we really needed that break on Wednesday, and the 50th Anniversary Fireworks Show only played Sunday night during our stay. More about that show later. So, although I felt really tired and partly wanted to take a nap, we started walking through Downtown Disney and towards Disneyland. We decided we'd wait on Disney's California Adventure (DCA) until Monday (Labor Day). The park seemed pretty full, as there were a lot of people get one last visit before school started (we chose Labor Day week because we heard Labor Day actually wasn't that busy and the rest of the week most of the kids would be in school). By now I've really forgotten what exactly we did at first, although I think it was taking pictures at the hub (where the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey are, with Sleeping Beauty Castle in the background). I don't remember which rides we went on, although I know we ran out of time that day to go on Space Mountain - which was OK, we'd have plenty of time the other three days. The two things I absolutely wanted to see was Fantasmic, which I had never seen before in all it's 14 years because friends I was with didn't want to see it, and the fireworks show. We went on some rides, perhaps the Indiana Jones ride and I believe Big Thunder Mountain. Finally, we made our way to the Rivers of America to watch Fantasmic. I didn't like our spot, so I tried to talk my mom into moving, but she didn't want to. So I did. I moved more towards the middle right of the stage. The show was, well, fantasmic! Those who have never seen it are missing out. You've gotta go! It's a show about Mickey and his imagination, and how the Disney villians try to take over, but the power of imagination eventually overcomes. Very good, with great models and great use of water works to display images. After the show, I met up again with Mom and I think we tried doing something else, like perhaps Buzz Lightyear's AstroBlasters. Oh, and we saw the end of the Parade of Dreams, which looked really good. That was right after seeing It's a Small World (but now that I think of it, this might have been Monday instead). Then we went to try to see the fireworks show, but the hub and Main Street were packed, and the Disney Cast Members escorted us towards a path to It's a Small World. We saw the show from there, although my mom didn't want to see it where I was, so she sat somewhere where her view would be blocked somewhat, but she could sit down. The fireworks show was truly amazing. They have done an excellent job of fireworks set to Disney clips from Disneyland and Disney movies through the years, including the clip that always gives me goosebumps, Walt Disney's dedication of Disneyland, and the return of some music that never should have left Disneyland, the Baroque Hoedown for the Disneyland Main Street Electrical Parade. That's the best parade ever, and I'll talk about it more later when I talk about DCA, where the parade is now. The fireworks show for the 50th anniversary was so popular that soon after it started they had to create a new viewing area for people, so thus the area around It's a Small World. Due to the surface area of Small World, they display images that correspond to the sound clips on it. It's just really great, especially when Tinkerbell 'flys' from the Matterhorn to SBC (the castle, not the phone company).Well, what rides I went on, again, during the next few days were kind of a blur. I went on Space Mountain a TON of times. It's so great now, and so FAST!!!! I want to go again. I also went on the Indiana Jones Adventure, Matterhorn, Pirates of the Carribean, and Haunted Mansion many times during the week. Monday Mom wanted to see Fantasmic again from a better spot, so I told here I'd go on Space Mountain one more time and then meet her there. It took so long I missed all of the Fantasmic show, which was depressing, because it was the last day they were showing it while we were there. We were also sad on Tuesday when we decided to go on the canoes. Evidently, they only run during the weekends. OK, I'll definitely add more later, but I wanted to start this out now.
Currently playing : Ratchet and Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal
Release date: By 02 November, 2004
11:12 AM - 1 Comments -
Dragon_Fire
Oh fine, just rub it in! some of us have money and time to go on trips to disneyland. whatever...lol. Glad it all turned out to be a wonderful trip...at least most of it lol.
Posted by Dragon_Fire on Wednesday, March 01, 2006 at 8:40 PM

Getting excited for the weekend

OK, I know it's only Tuesday, but my niece is

coming into town this weekend. She is coming on Saturday with her flag troupe. We'll go to Discovery Kingdom on Saturday, then she'll be going to Discovery Kingdom again on Sunday while I go to church, then we'll go see Phantom of the Opera in Sacramento. I usually try to avoid going to things on Sunday, but I kind of procrastinated after getting her excited to go, so by the time I called, they only had single tickets to Sunday. So we don't even get to sit together, but we get to go and have fun seeing it. I'm excited. It'll be my first time seeing the stage production. I got the idea by getting excited to go see it in Las Vegas when I'm there in August, but then saw these tickets for only $60.

Then on Monday, I think they're going to San Francisco, so I might be visiting with them. All in all, I'm very excited for the weekend to come!

A different weekend than expected

I had originally planned on doing the big three Single Adult activities planned for this weekend - a dance in Danville, an 'Amazing Race' type of adventure, and then The Chocolate in Sacramento (a chocolate party).

Well, I was actually more interested in watching Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and so asked my friend Amy and found out a group was going to watch it in Vallejo. So I joined Amy, Evan, Jill, Joe, Jennifer, and .... I forgot his name in going to the Vallejo theater, watching Narnia, then heading out to Wendys for a quick bite afterwards. Now Evan is kind of like my little brother. I go over to his family's house all the time - they're my second/third/fourth family. He was amusing all of us with his jokes, singing, and whatnot. Amy hasn't always got along with Evan's brothers, since she grew up with them, but said Evan's totally different.

So Amy and I were going to the Amazing Race thing Saturday morning, but I looked at the temperatures that morning, and they looked too hot to me to be running around, and Amy has real problems in the heat, so we decided not to go and instead to visit our friend Steven and enjoy his swimming pool. I had planned on going to the Chocolate later that evening, but the swimming party ended up being a birthday party for Steven's brother, and we stayed for that. Amy and our friend Tina didn't seem to want to go, so I stayed and hung with them. Oh well, maybe next year I can make it to the Chocolate - I've only been thinking about going for the past three years. It's not that I want a lot of chocolate, but it seems like a fun event to go to with a lot of fellow singles (that's not a dance!)

More on Sunday later.

So dang tired

I'm here with less than an hour left of work and I'm just so tired. I don't know why. Well, then again, it's been so hot at night that I've woken up several times during the night, so I think it's catching up with me. I wish I wasn't so tired, I'm planning on going to see the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian tonight. Hopefully we get in for that 7 PM showing so I can go to bed before too late tonight. Oi!

An unexpected visit

So I'm sitting at work yesterday when I got a phone call from my nephew Timmy. He asked if I knew where he was. Now, I think Timmy sounds exactly like my brother Jeremiah on the phone, and as he hadn't yet identified himself, I assumed it was Jeremiah. Jeremiah is a deputy sheriff in a different county, and every once in awhile they'll have to go to some different jurisdiction and pick somebody up. So I guessed Solano County. When he said no, he was in Vallejo returning from a game conference, I was wondering why my brother was going to a game conference when he's supposed to be working, then realized it was Timmy.

He went to this Sega game conference for his birthday and when they tried to go home, they got bad directions. It's that dreaded part where part of Interstate 80 is Eastbound and part is Westbound. It's really confusing the first time you're here. Anyway, they ended up in Vallejo and he wanted to know if he could hang out at my place for awhile to rest before they went home. Unfortunately, it takes about 25 minutes for me to get home from work, so he said he'd just rest at a gas station.

I went on with my work, helping a coworker with her computer issues, and evidently he called during that time saying they were lost in Vacaville (going the wrong way to get home). Anyway, I didn't see he called but at 5:20, when I was about to go home, I saw hime calling. I answered, wondering how it was going, he said bad and told me he had a flat tire past Vacaville, and they had a spare, but no jack. Since I was the closest family, could I help him out. I said sure, and headed on my way. Well, he was actually past Dixon, which is even further and he was at the left hand shoulder. Evidently, he couldn't move the car over to the right. By the time I got there, CHP's Freeway Patrol Service was already there. The guy changed the tire, but the spare was a little low in air, so he pumped it up as well and told my nephew (who was driving his friend George's car) that he should also replace the other front tire because it was pretty bare.

We pulled over after the next exit (after reaching freeway speeds to get back onto the freeway - that's always scary). This picture is from there. We're both not photogenic always, and besides the wind blowing our hair everywhere, I think you can really see how tired Timmy was). Timmy asked if I knew how to get home from there. So that he didn't get lost again after all of these hours, I let him borrow my GPS device until I come for his graduation next month. Then he asked if half a tank of gas was enough to get home, and said they only used about half a tank to get up there and had a cushion of $20 to spend if they needed to. I didn't want my nephew running out of gas or running out of calories, with how tired he was, so I told him to follow me to the next gas station, where I bought him $15.00 worth of gas (is was $3.95 a gallon!) - it would have been more, but it was his friend's car, not his, and I didn't want his friend to have all that extra gas. I also bought him a Mountain Dew and some chips. Then they took off and that was that. Interesting way to spend my evening after work.

Goodbye U-hall and Deseret Towers

It's kind of sad when a part of your past is gone. BYU decided to take down the dorms that I lived at my freshman year. U-Hall, where I lived from August 1993 until April 1994 was the site of so many good times. I have never been closer to the people in my ward as I was here. I think part of that was due to the fact our whole ward ate together every day. We'd take the second large table and you knew you had to get back to the Morris (Morbid) Center during dinner time or you'd miss out on seeing all of your friends. I'll have to write more someday about the great times I had my freshman year, the first year I lived on my own. Sure, there were hardships, but it really was such a great experience. I miss everyone from that group, and would rather have a reunion with all of them than I would another high school reunion. I guess sometimes you really can't go home again. I lived at 421 U-Hall. It was the last of the Deseret Towers dorms to be demolished, which in a way is kind of cool, although Q hall, where the men from our ward lived, was demolished long ago.


This is U hall, in the process of demolition (thanks to the blogger who's image I copied), I believe the two big shafts remaining in the air are the elevator shafts. The first section of it that you can see I think is the 4th floor. So of the top four floors, the most that's left is the 4th and 5th floors, which are the two floors that comprised the women of my ward. The common room (ah, the common room) is gone.

This one is of U-Hall around the time that I was there (I think that's the sign they had back then, but it might have been newer (thanks Deseret News). 431 is right about in the middle of the 4th floor, facing the street (so my window is showing). You know, I chose to stay at DT because the brochure I got about it made me think it was similar to the apartments my Momo (grandmother) used to live at in Fresno. They weren't at all, but I still loved it.

And this is a photo from BYU that shows S, T, and U Halls. I think there's something now where that large patch of grass is, but it might just be a lot of grass in front of the Morris Center.

It's sad to see it go, although I had plenty of opportunities to go visit U-hall whenever I came to visit the campus, but never did. It's just sad to realize I'll never be able to, and that a part of my past is gone. I wish I had written in my journal more in those days. I'd love to remember all the good times, with Julee, Natasha, Carrie, Ben, Mike, the Jareds, and everyone else, and of course my roommate, Kim Brown. And I should mention Kim's home ward mate, Josh Romney (who I hope will someday be part of the 'First Family' with his dad, Mitt. And Brian Gill. Haha, I won't say what I used to say to him all the time, because I found it annoying but couldn't stop myself from saying all the time (that and my stupid handshakes).

Learning to dance the Thriller!

Last Saturday night, my church ward sponsored a dance for our youth. While there, my friend April and I decided it would be kind of fun to teach the Young Women (12-18 year old girls in our church) to dance the Thriller. Now, neither of us really know how to dance it, so we'll be watching the video and trying to emulate it. We're obviously not expecting to learn it all, but to know enough to have fun. That's the whole goal - have fun and try to learn something. What's really funny is that it was pretty much April's idea, which I really wouldn't have thought she'd be into. It's either going to be a lot of fun or pretty lame. Well, we'll make it fun!