Back in action...........

Well, we made it back from Disney World in good form. The trip was a blast, the best trip I have ever been on. The girls loved it, and I really enjoyed everyone that went with us. I can't remember all of it because we crammed so much in in seven days. We literally got up at daybreak, ate breakfast, hit the parks, and didn't return to our room until nightfall. The pedometer read that we averaged walking 6 miles a day. I enjoyed the walking after about day 3, but before that, it was work.
The parks were impressive, and the rides were fun. The Cirque De Soleil show was my favorite, La Neuba was the title, I believe. Epcot was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be, I found a new favorite beer in Germany, it is named Dinkel Acker dark, and man is it delicious. Then in Japan, I got some wasabi peas, and rice candy. Of course I can't leave out Pocky, that stuff is good. We ate dinner in Morocco, and saw a belly dancer, I ate lambshank and couscous, it was good, a little gamey though. Mission space and test track are both worth riding, pretty well done. Tower of terror and Rockin' roller coaster are both good, though the coaster was a little rough, it rode better in the cars toward the back. Splash Mountain was a hit with the little ones, thus it was the most fun.
I finally found a Donald Duck hat and shirt, believe it or not they were hard to find. The plane ride was great both ways, but the pilot on the return trip was an excellent pilot. We had cross winds gusting at 35 to 40 miles an hour when we were landing, and we never felt him touch down, he was that smooth. When we were getting our luggage, they had lost one piece, but drove it to our house that night, so it was here when we awoke. That impressed me.
While in the park, we saw a lost little boy, and I got a park worker to help him. They found his parents in about 2 minutes. I felt good about that. There was no magician to be found, and I was disappointed about that, so I performed my own magic while in line and at dinner. The magic shop they have down there is way too expensive, definitely not marketing to the performer, but more to the ones wanting to learn a gimmick. Anywhoo, I'll go get ready for work now, 3 more days till the weekend.
Happiness is a brisk fall morning.

Brian

T minus 23 hours

Well, yet another exciting week has gone by, and 23 hours I will be in the southern skies heading towards Orlando. I am pretty excited, not only to go to Disney World, this will be my first time aboard a large airplane. The takeoff, I think, will be the best part. Little Gigi is excited as well, but as luck would have it, she came down with a cold 3 days ago. Fortunately she is almost over it. Shell is also excited, well heck who wouldn't be.
O.k. onto the non vacation stuff. This week I solidified or I should say strengthened an online friendship with a fellow magician, and am pretty stoked about this. I know on the outside you are saying,"so what's the big deal, I chat with people online all the time?" Well, as magicians you are upheld to a code of silence, you cannot freely chat on the forums about specific effects, and for specific help. But by having a trusted fellow magi, such as he, we can discuss the finer details about routines, effects, moves, and the such. The only thing I regret is that I don't live closer to where I could meet up with him for some sessions. Should I visit him it would take 14 and a half hours to drive there, basically a whole weekend. That is better than 15 hours though. I would give him a shout out, but magicians code you know, I can't reveal who he is. I can tell you who the masked magician is though. Chances are you don't really want to know.
I received my latest order from SpookClub Tuesday, and got some great books, and a couple of effects. Lately, I have been devouring books, as I have more effects than I can perform. Busking is seeming so much more interesting to me, and I think it would do well here since I'm in a college town. Currently, I am working on building a couple of personas, working out their nuances, and personalities. I can't seem to think of any real catchy names. They will come as the personalities get developed though, and I will gladly let you in on them.
Last night I watched Disney's made for t.v. movie, "You gotta see this..." and I was very entertained, they did several illusions that were neat. A couple they botched to go along with the story line, though I personally would have rather seen them played out properly. All in all, a great movie for the family and rather entertaining. The plot is designed for a kid to keep up, and there aren't any subtleties, such as what is going to happen, but it was good. Bravo, Bravo, another decent family movie.
I am hooked on this little game right now
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/iizuka/games/dopewars/index.html
it is a neat little game, but not for the kiddies. My high score, no pun intended is 420,568,009. And I can't seem to beat that, man that would be cool in real life.

So, back to magic based stuff, I am torn as to take more than my TT, a deck of cards, and a few sponge balls, to Disney World. I don't think the little girl will get bored, but I might, plus I need to work on my spongeball work more. I think I am going to have more downtime than I am thinking now. My mother-in-law is going with us,(I know what you're thinking, but she is not a typical in-law, she is great), and she is fighting bone spurs in both feet. Shell and I tried to talk here into taking a wheel chair, but of course she won't have it. I can't say I would if I were in that position. I am defiately packing books. Anyway, I'll sort all of that out later.
Well, I better get packin, literally. I wish you all a great week, and I will post back on Sunday, hopefully I will learn how to put pictures here when I get back.

Peace, Love, and happiness

Brianstein

Swimming up the stream, away from the school.....

Well, this has been a fairly eventful week. I finally got my website sorted out, and am about to offer a great new service for my customers. They will be able to design their own letter head, envelopes and business cards online, purchase them there and have them shipped to their door, all without speaking to a customer service rep, if that is what they choose.This should be an effective item, or at least I am banking on it being popular. I still have a few kinks in the html, but should be ironed out soon enough.One thing through this web page fiasco, I have learned a couple of valuable lessons; one is to never just register a domain name without having a host. I registered my domain name at one place, and was under the impression that the price included hosting, because it was higher than most hosts, but found out, they were just expensive to register a domain name. That has been resolved, but with much ire. Secondly, Web templates are the bomb! I would have not had gotten this far without them. Thirdly, Having your own business is a ton of work, especially if you have absolutely no help.
I can't wait to start doing magic for a living, if I could only speed up my refinement. That is probably the most technical thing I have ever studied in my life with the exception of competitive driving. There is so much history I am trying to get down pat and correct. I plan on starting my magic business this coming fall, after I get my other venture set up and going. My silent partner, is pretty excited of the progress, so with all of that I am going to sell magic at shows, and flea markets locally. That way I can stretch myself really thin. Currently my goal is to have a complete nervous breakdown within six months, *sighs contently*. Not really, but I do tend to take on too much.
Well, the countdown is on, only 9 days until we leave for Disney world, and I am ready. I haven't had a week of vacation in almost a full year. This summer we are driving out to California, and we are going to visit DisneyLand there. We will stop in Vegas for a few days on the way, and I plan on catching some kick butt magic shows. I will definately catch Lance Burton, Mac King, The Amazing Jonathan and Penn and Teller. There are plenty more there but I will have to see if any others tickle my fancy. While I am in Vegas, I will have to track and spot any street magicians.
One last thing magic related, I will be getting my SpookClub package in the mail Monday, it takes 14 days to recieve magic now, but that's all good. Wayno is a cool cat. I try and give him as much business as I can afford, I admire the task he is taking on. Anywho, I look up to him as an example.
Earlier this week, I bought a couple of new dvds and they are good. The first one is Donnie Darko, starring Jake Gyllenhall,(I think I spelled that right, his sister Maggie was hot in "The Secretary"), which I have seen about ten times, it is a great story with a completely great plot twist at the end. The second is Garden State, written, directed, and starring Zach Braff. A great movie, great sound track, and includes a night in shining armor,(which is completely hilarious.). I highly recommend both of these movies, they are both a little dark in the content, but hey, that's how I like my movies. Around Wednesday I read an article on making short films, and might give it a shot, I have an idea for a plot, but it would be longer than a short. The first one I do I want to be between 3 to 5 minutes.
Well, I'm out like a trout