Of BYU Weenies, Conquering Splash Mountain, and Redeeming Atlantis

Bon giorno principeza. I know it's been a while since I last updated El Bloggo, but up until last week's Disneyland/Sea World trip, the last few months were mostly big snooze-a-ramas, as far as awesome blogworthy Richard Branson-esque globehopping adventures are concerned. Alyssa's still loving her toddler-wrangling duties, and I've been jobhunting pretty much nonstop. I think I've finally landed one, though not the one I expected. I thought I was a shoe-in for a job with Imagine Learning, a Provo-based company that makes ESL software, seeing how I nailed the interviews and the writing test and have a Master's degree and actual experience writing specifications for ESL software and hit it off immediately with the CEO and looked sharp with my new haircut and carefully manicured nails to boot. But oh, no, after all that, I was not the "right fit." I suppose that at Imagine Learning, Inc., being BYU buddies with the lead tech writer is what truly makes you the right fit. Skills and industry experience? SOOO overrated in this day and age. Anyway, the company I'll be working for is called Corda Technologies and produces data visualization software. They've pretty much selected me for their writer position, but I'm still supposed to go in for a few more interviews sometime, I guess for informational purposes.

As for last week's trip, a grand time was had by all involved (me, Alyssa, and her parents). Thursday we went to Disneyland and actually spent more time on rides than in line, which almost never happens. The morning was especially productive, ride-wise--we went on Splash Mountain twice in a row (they didn't even make us leave the car thing the first time!) and then hit nearly all of the awesome non-Fantasy Land rides (as well as some lamish attractions like the Tiki Room) within the next two hours. Thursday we visited Sea World, which I had never been to, and it was pretty gnarly, although, surprisingly, I wasn't as impressed with the Shamu show as I thought I would be. The whales were spectacular, of course, but the show itself was kind of, how do you say it, on the lame side. Mostly it involved the many Shamus performing random tricks while the audience was beaten over the head with a cliched "When You Believe" message. "Oooh! This Whitney Houston/Mariah Carey song is sooo inspirational! Let's steal the title and integrate it into our whale show!" And, to top it all off, we were in the Splash Zone and didn't even get wet. Wimpy glorified dolphin, can't even splash up to the tenth row, why I oughta... I actually preferred the other shows to Shamu, especially the one with the trained seals and otter, which was hilarious and pretty cool too. What I wouldn't do for a trained otter to do my bidding and fetch me soft drinks, bwa ha ha. Besides the shows, we saw a plethora of bum-kicking aquatic animals, and me and Alyssa went on the "Journey to Atlantis" ride THREE TIMES. Atlantis was definitely redeemed that day, my friends. (I'm not exactly sure how going on a roller coaster saves Atlantis, but the goddess said it was so, so I'm not going to argue.) And, of course, no Benlyssa vacation would be complete without buying a souvenir hat, and on this particular trip, the hat was one resembling Shamu's rear end--I mean, his tail. (See accompanying photo.)