6 posts tagged “florida”
Caylee Anthony the missing central Florida toddler whom disappearance over the summer launched a statewide search and police investigation has been been spotted in Georgia. Well, her "missing person" flier has been spotted anyway. The Georgia Department of Transportation is actively dispersing these fliers across the state rest stop facilities in hopes motorist will uncover the helpful clue in the young girls mysterious disappearance.
Soon as you leave the Georgian border and enter Florida via I-75 south bound there'll be a large stone and glass building off the side of the road. If you're speeding you'll easily miss it, especially if you're traveling in the fast lane. What at first glimpse may appear as only a nicer than usual rest stop yields a unique museum of Florida heritage and one of a kind gifts. Don't forget your free glass of orange juice for stopping by. I miss living in Florida, if our economy picks up stream hopefully we'll be relocating back there sometime with the next 15-24 months.
While in Florida Victor wanted to see an alligator up close and personal, so I told him we'll go visit them in their natural habitat. So to took him to Myakka River State Park about 15 miles inland from Sarasota, Florida. The park is known for it's diversity of ecosystems including 53 square miles of wetlands, prairies and woodlands it's one of Florida's oldest and largest state parks. (in comparison all of Walt Disney World property including the four theme parks, hotels, sports complex, water parks, and golf courses total up to 42 square miles) so this is a massive preserve.
This December we made our annual holiday trip to Walt Disney World for a quick weekend getaway. Everyone that really knows me can bear witness for my love of Disney theme parks and property, I'm the kind of theme park guest that will actually start picking up litter if improbably disposes their food wrappers in the grounds. During the busy holiday season at Walt Disney World I sit back and take the time to thank the cast members (cm) I come across for making the magic happen. It's not a easy chore pleasing the every whim of an anxious public, hungry for a quality entertainment experience after having shelved out $74 for park admittance. Most hourly cast members still don't earn much money. Surely' not the amount their talents are worth.
Victor and I decided to have lunch at the Columbia Harbour House quick service restaurant in Liberty Square, the place was a mad-house of hungry customers and screaming children... you could see the strain on a few cm's faces but they tried their best not to let it show when it came time to interact with them. While waiting for our food I noticed a wooden sign in the back kitchen prepping area that read "Because nice matters, just try your best." and it's refreshing to know management is taking type that stance rather than forcing or threating cm's to be happy or else.
Victor and a few others have pointed out some cost-cutting measures Disney has implemented around the Magic Kingdom gone are the days back in the early 90's when buildings throughout property would receive a fresh paint of coat. I saw both high traffic and hidden away areas that required some sprucing by the maintenance crews, fading signs, chipping paint, and signs of wood rot. Also most noticeable by the everyday guest the holiday decorations around the Magic Kingdom where kept to a minimal this year. Mostly focused on Main Street the other lands had no visible sign of holiday decor on attraction facades. Disney not decking all the halls really let Victor down this year... in addition to that Disney management decided not to run the holiday version of the Country Bear Jamboree again for the second year in a row. That's usually not a good sign.
So despite all that we still enjoyed ourselves in Walt's Magic Kingdom and at the end of the day, as always, I wish I wouldn't have to leave.
A few more of our trip photos:
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts was commissioned by the U.S. State Department to create a welcome video to be shown to incoming foreigners arriving at our national airports Disney executive Fred Tio directed as crews scoured the nation gathering footage of smiling faces and grand open vistas. The material is rather outstanding despite some location discrepancies where three scenes of Horseshoe Falls also known as Niagara Falls are shown, which technically is considered Canadian soil. Oops... There's also a bit of controversy and hypocrisy on the U.S. State Department blog comments section (as to be expected) regarding the video and it's attempt to mask our national problem with poverty and current situation with the federal governments treatment of illegal immigrants. As for a bit of Disney trivial: The instrumental arrangement used in the film was originally created for use at Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida for the theme parks nightly fireworks display Illuminations in the World Showcase Lagoon.
Just as I'm starting to feel better chilly temperatures are reaching further south tonight as the low is expected to be around 27° . Booo...
Related Links:
This has to be the ultimate sign of media emergence in our society. According to studies conducted by the marketing team at GAS TV each person spends approximately three and half minutes standing in front of the pump while filling the tank. Why not entertain them? Currently the networks lineup consist of clips from ABC prime-time shows, news briefs from ABC News, local weather and traffic conditions, and sports bulletins from ESPN.
In store television advertising isn't entirely a new thing, been around for a while, starting in convenience stores back in the early '90s. In its infancy the monitors displayed a colorful power point slide presentation and highlighted special pricing on limited edition slushes and the weeks winning lotto numbers. Gradually as multimedia continued to evolve the marketability of these in store monitors started to change. Suddenly they were playing commercials while you waited in line to check out. That's when the companies such as RMS and PRN stepped in to develop content and maintain those in-store television networks.
RMS consulted with me 2005 during their efforts to expend the corporations digital post-production facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida which I had to decline due to my then newly secured obligations with WWSB-TV; a ABC network affiliate in Sarasota, FL. Coincidentally the man shown on the screen in the photo is Kevin Negandhi the former sports anchor at WWSB who left the station shortly after I did to pursue his on-air career at ESPN.
