gavinshearer.com

« April 2009 | Main | June 2009 »

May 31, 2009

Support The Thomas Turner Scholarship Fund This Wednesday

In late 2007, my good friend Tom lost his 17-year-old son, Thomas, in a car wreck on US-2.

In the intervening 17 months, the family has set up a scholarship fund to celebrate Thomas' life. The fund awards two college scholarships every year to "deserving high school soccer players, who exemplify the qualities that made Tom such an extraordinary young man."

This Wednesday, Monroe High School is hosting the Monroe Soccer Alumni Game, with the proceeds ($5 per ticket) going to the scholarship fund. If you're in to soccer (or just want to help a good cause), it's the place to be.

Kickoff's at 7 PM.

UPDATE: You can now donate via PayPal if you're so inclined.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated May 31, 2009 6:07 PM.
Posted to Cool. Permalink for this entry.

Who Drives The Vancouver SkyTrain?

From the "I love YouTube" department - the Vancouver SkyTrain people have a nifty, 7-minute clip up on the site ("Who drives the Vancouver SkyTrain?") that showcases the SkyTrain operations center and different places in the system (e.g., SkyBridge).

It's produced by the agency (and, admittedly, a little cheesy), but it's pretty interesting stuff for transit geeks.

Cool side note: SkyTrain uses a live, "rolling block" system to prevent the trains from crashing in to one another. Since the system only dates from the '80s, they were able to embed a digital tracker that knows where every train is at any given moment in time. This allows SkyTrain to keep far more trains running concurrently than does the traditional, 1900-era "fixed block" system, which uses a rough estimation of a train's position
(and must therefore have a bigger window between trains to prevent crashes). It's a terrific advantage, and it's being retrofitted into other systems (e.g., the 100-year-old NYC subway is in the process of switching from fixed-block to rolling-block to squeeze more throughput from their tracks).

(H/T to the Buzzer Blog for the link!)

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated May 31, 2009 12:31 PM.
Posted to Transit. Permalink for this entry.

May 30, 2009

"Storm Begin A Life Of Independence"

I missed this one when it first hit (traveling on business always puts me behind on the 'ol RSS), but the Seattle Times ran an interesting piece on the new, standalone Seattle Storm:

The Storm has about one-third of the employees that the Sonics/Storm had, according to Levinson. The team had to negotiate its own KeyArena lease, and after about a year of discussions with the city, it finalized a 10-year deal that dropped its rent from $15,000 to $5,000 per game. And earlier this year, the team moved its headquarters to a 12,000-square foot, old ice cream-equipment factory in Interbay.

It's a great glimpse into the organization, the owners, the philosophy behind the team, and its long-term prospects here in Seattle.

(The home opener is a week from tomorrow!)

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated May 30, 2009 9:27 AM.
Posted to Seattle Storm. Permalink for this entry.

May 29, 2009

Disneyland Paris in Google Earth

I got in to a conversation last week about Disneyland Paris: specifically, what I liked about it, and how it differs from Disneyland in Anaheim or Disney World in Orlando. I gave some of my usual comments - amazing theming, Discoveryland vs. Tomorrowland, the awesomeness that is Space Mountain: Mission 2 - but I realized as I was talking that it can be hard to capture the flavor.

Well, now you can see for yourself.

Disney has introduced a Google Earth fly-through of Disneyland Paris that is pretty astounding. It gives you a terrific sense of the place - the layout, the detail, and what makes the park distinctly European.

Disney And More has a huge number of screenshots from the fly-through, but if you're a Google Earth user, you can check it out here.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated May 29, 2009 7:09 AM.
Posted to Cool | Disney. Permalink for this entry.

May 23, 2009

Audio-Animatronic Obama To Debut At Disney World July 4

We have a new President, so the the Magic Kingdom's Hall of Presidents is is getting an update:

The Obama figure is the result of attention to minute details by Disney sculptors, animators, engineers and even anatomists who pored over presidential photographs and video of him and then drew on the latest advances in robotic technology.

Thus the audio-animatronic Obama purses its lips to pronounce its b's and p's in a way frighteningly evocative of the real one, and raises its hands, open-palmed, while shrugging its shoulders, in a way that can only be described as Obamaesque. Even the president's wedding ring, with its braided design, has been recreated.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated May 23, 2009 10:32 PM.
Posted to Disney. Permalink for this entry.

May 14, 2009

Details On "Toy Story Mania" For The Wii

The OC Register has an update on the development of "Toy Story Mania" for the Wii, including quotes from the developers and some interesting stills of the game-in-progress:

The game version includes the five carnival galleries found in the ride, such as balloon pops, plate tosses and darts. In addition, game developers came up with new and original galleries along with a series of mini games, for a total of 30 different games.

My favorite note?

The game was produced by the Irvine-based Papaya. Because of the company’s close proximity to the theme park, game designers got to spend time understanding the game.

Emphasis mine. Yeah, sounds like a rough life, huh? "Honey? I'm off to California Adventure for a few hours for, uh, 'research'..."

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated May 14, 2009 5:45 AM.
Posted to Disney | Entertainment. Permalink for this entry.

May 9, 2009

Walt Disney Museum To Open In San Francisco

This sounds like it's right up my alley:

A new museum about the life of Walt Disney is planned to open in three buildings in San Francisco’s Presidio in the fall, but don’t expect any spinning Tea Cups or Haunted Mansion.

...The New York Times took a behind-the-scenes look at the $112-million museum in “Museum Is to Show the Human Side of a Cartoon Titan” and reports that it will include “personal items (home movies never shown before) to ‘Steamboat Willie’ animation cels. Other items include drawings and cartoons he made, early drawings of Mickey Mouse.

The NY Times article is here, and the official site from Disney (www.waltdisney.org) is pretty sparse; it's big message is "Opening Fall 2009".

Can't wait. Maybe I can catch it when I'm at Macworld next year.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated May 9, 2009 8:40 AM.
Posted to Disney. Permalink for this entry.

May 8, 2009

"Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'"

God, I love The Onion.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated May 8, 2009 7:04 AM.
Posted to Entertainment. Permalink for this entry.

May 7, 2009

"Toy Story Mania" Is Coming To Tokyo DisneySea

Looks like we have a full-blown franchise hit on our hands: "Toy Story Mania" is coming to Tokyo DisneySea in 2012. This will be the third park to get the ride - can Paris and Hong Kong be far behind?

I've been eager to see DisneySea for a long, long time - and not that I needed much encouragement, but this might make it all the more fun when I finally drag my ass to Tokyo.

(Tip of the hat to Blue Sky Disney)

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated May 7, 2009 8:24 PM.
Posted to Disney. Permalink for this entry.

May 6, 2009

Oh Well, I Was Going To Buy A New iPhone In June Anyhow

My iPhone + hard concrete floor + 4 vertical feet + perfectly flat landing.

Phooey.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated May 6, 2009 9:06 PM.
Posted to Geek. Permalink for this entry.

May 5, 2009

"Mickey's Fun Wheel" Is Now Open

California Adventure Update: "Mickey's Fun Wheel", part of the $1.1Bn renovation of California Adventure, has soft-opened.

There's a small sense of momentum, here, especially since this follows so closely after last month's re-launch of Paradise Pier's "games of the boardwalk".

Step by step, DCA's gettin' better.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated May 5, 2009 9:02 PM.
Posted to Disney. Permalink for this entry.

May 4, 2009

Lauren Re-Signs

Big, big news on the Storm front today - after much deliberation, Lauren Jackson has re-signed with Seattle for the 2009 season. Times coverage here; official press release here.

Happy day.

Reminder: the first home game of 2009 is June 6!

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated May 4, 2009 8:02 PM.
Posted to Seattle Storm. Permalink for this entry.