Skip to content

Tag: theme parks

Fastpass is Dead, Long Live Fastpass+

Published February 11, 2014

In the past 6 months I’ve had the opportunity to use the new Disney World MyMagic+ system as a guest at Animal Kingdom Lodge on two separate trips – my honeymoon in October and a trip at the end of January. In October, we got to test the Fastpass+ system – which allows you to schedule rides before you arrive at the park – while still enjoying the old system. A shining moment of efficiency where we rode Big Thunder five times and Space/Splash Mountain twice each. Alas, that loophole is now closed – as of January, the old-fashioned Fastpass…

Continue reading Fastpass is Dead, Long Live Fastpass+

Comments closed

Tale of a Mix Tape

Published February 4, 2012

(Well, a mix CD, but that didn’t sound as good.) Over the years I’ve developed a strong belief that the “universe” sometimes takes a heavier hand in our lives. I’ve seen evidence that the universe can send us signs when we’re on the right path, and try to slow us down if we’re skipping down the wrong path. This is a story about such a time for me – fall of 2011. In my life, these moments of fate usually begin to manifest themselves as a strange “déjà vu cluster”. I’ll have a week or more of intermittent episodes where…

Continue reading Tale of a Mix Tape

Comments closed

Being Grover

Published November 16, 2011

My handle on most of the Internet is “muppetaphrodite”. It’s true that I have a deep appreciation for the Muppets that runs to my infancy – an apparent near-immediate obsession with Sesame Street that I think played a large role in my reading at 18 months. That obsession was only fueled by my immediate proximity to the only Sesame Street theme park in the world, just minutes from my house (Sesame Place). My bus drove past a 3-story high Rubber Duckie every day on the way to high school. I’m sure many people who have not talked with me personally…

Continue reading Being Grover

1 Comment

What Comes After Ever After? (Part 2)

Published June 7, 2011

In Part 1, I matriculated to CMU thanks to a presentation by Randy Pausch, but the promise of CS was about to change drastically. By the time my senior year at CMU rolled around, I had completed a successful internship at Pittsburgh area design firm MAYA Design, and they had expressed interest in offering me a full time position. Everything seemed to be coming up roses, and I was happy to plan on staying in Pittsburgh indefinitely. That all changed on September 11, 2001, when the stock market crashed along with those ill-fated planes. MAYA’s financial sector clients vanished, and…

Continue reading What Comes After Ever After? (Part 2)

Comments closed

What Comes After Ever After? (part 1)

Published June 2, 2011

In “Muppets, Technology and Me” part 1 and part 2, I went into my background as a young geek desperately in love with theme parks, computers, and Big Bird, in no particular order. That story was intended as a prologue to this story – my personal story about how I finally realized it wasn’t “normal” to be a woman in technology, how Randy Pausch both inspired me and changed my life directly, and why I’m so passionate about causes like IGNITE now. I was what I call a “walking GPA” in high school. Tied for valedictorian in a graduating class…

Continue reading What Comes After Ever After? (part 1)

1 Comment