Sea World is currently running a great deal: the Fun Pass (good for admission for the rest of the year with no blackout dates) costs the same as daily admission. I decided to take advantage of this deal. Even better, my friend Sarah (from the running group) works at Sea World as an animal trainer and offered to give any of us a backstage tour.
This is how you can tell you are in Florida.
I arrived at the park and bought my Fun Pass, and then made my way to the Sea Lion and Otter stadium, and caught the last half of a show. After wandering around a bit, Sarah got in touch just as another show started and said she'd meet me after the show and bring me back. So I watched another one. The plot involves a shipwreck on an island, a stolen treasure map, and eventual rescue, but it really is all about watching sea lions, sea otters, and walruses do tricks. :)
Sir Winston found the treasure!
Once backstage, Sarah showed me the refrigerated fish room, where all the meals are prepared. It looks like a normal industrial kitchen, except instead of plates there are metal cans with colored rings, which are packed with ice and fish for the animal performers. Every morning the trainers prepare all the food needed for the day's shows and put them on trays and carts for ready access.
Luxury accomodations for the otters.
The animal section is divided into three areas: sea otters, sea lions, and walruses. Each area has a swinging gate so it can be partitioned off from the other areas, allowing the trainers to bring out the animals individually if needed. Apparently some don't play well with the others. I can see this, the poor sea otters are tiny compared to the walruses!
Sea World currently has 9 sea otters, but two are "retired" from performing. They each have a roommate, and have a swimming area, ramp, and various toys to play with. There is a misting system for keeping them cool in the summer too.
Resting up between shows.
Sarah then brought me over to the walrus area, where Slowpoke and Bruiser share a much larger space. They are 3000 pound animals so they need the larger room. Slowpoke understands the word "kiss" and makes a very realistic smooching sound when she hears that. So I held out my hand and Slowpoke kissed me twice. :) When Sarah said "water" she turned around and waddled back to the pool.
Do you want a kiss?
Finally Sarah repartitioned the area and brought out Jay, a Sea Lion who behaves well around strangers. Jay let me pet him behind the head, and shake his hand (flipper), and was extra excited when I threw him a few fish to eat.
Jay says he is smarter and better looking than the otters and walruses.
I also saw Squeak, a very active one year old Sea Lion. He likes to jump in and out of the pool and slide up to the door to stare at you for a few seconds before doing it again. I'll upload the movie and link to it - it is quite funny.
I found out a few things about the show that were interesting. First, all the performers are actually animal trainers - there is not a separate crew of entertainers. Sarah recently switched to Sea Lions/Otters from Dolphins so she is also learning the lines to play the Pirate. Second, and this seems obvious in retrospect, they switch off animals constantly backstage - the sea lion that greets the crowd, the one that dives off the ship, the one that slides down the ramp, are probably all different ones. All the animals have their own names, but in the show they use stage names and the trainers can switch off their mic if they need to call the animal by the name the animal recognizes more.
This was a really cool glimpse at the work behind a show! Sarah had to get back to work since there was one more early evening show, so I wandered off to ride the Kraken, Sea World's roller coaster. This was a fantastic coaster - loops, horizontal rolls, below-ground dips including a dark area, plus no floor in the car so you can look down to the ground. Oh yeah!! I'll make use of my Fun Pass this year.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Corporate Challenge 5K
Orlando has a Corporate Challenge 5K where hundreds of companies form teams and compete. I ran, but not on behalf of my company... that's because I only found out today at 12:45 pm that we had a team! My company registered late and wasn't listed as a corporate participant on the official website. There was an email thread going around, but since I didn't do it last year, I wasn't on that list. And due to a policy of not mass-emailing non-related requests around, I just flat out didn't hear about our team until I happened to talk to a running worker who asked what time I was leaving for the event. Oops!
I wound up running as a guest of Amy's employer, but since I am not a full-time employee there, my time couldn't be counted towards their team standings.
Anyway, my employer Symantec did pretty well in the Communications/Electronics/Computers division. The standings show the women's team finished 1st place in division, and the men's team placed 7th. Nice job ladies! I am so bummed because I ran a 22:14, so my time could have replaced the 38:26 on the men's team, which would have dropped our cumulative 2:23:01 down 16:12 to a 2:06:49 where we would have finished in 2nd place in division! Oh well.
I wound up running as a guest of Amy's employer, but since I am not a full-time employee there, my time couldn't be counted towards their team standings.
Anyway, my employer Symantec did pretty well in the Communications/Electronics/Computers division. The standings show the women's team finished 1st place in division, and the men's team placed 7th. Nice job ladies! I am so bummed because I ran a 22:14, so my time could have replaced the 38:26 on the men's team, which would have dropped our cumulative 2:23:01 down 16:12 to a 2:06:49 where we would have finished in 2nd place in division! Oh well.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Airboat Ride
My favorite "Florida" thing to do with visitors is an air boat ride. It's fun, low hassle, and on a warm day you can easily spot plenty of alligators. Krisanne and I drove out to Lake Harney, where we took a 30 minute airboat ride.
One location had half a dozen or more up on the bank, eyeing us.
Gators
I tried to get a pic of a flock of birds flying in front of the airboat, but I wasn't fast enough. Instead there is this small sandy area where a few birds are standing.
Sandy Spot
One location had half a dozen or more up on the bank, eyeing us.
Gators
I tried to get a pic of a flock of birds flying in front of the airboat, but I wasn't fast enough. Instead there is this small sandy area where a few birds are standing.
Sandy Spot
Airport Codes
Krisanne told me of a fun website (World Airport Codes) where you can look to see if your initials are assigned to an airport. As it turns out, KLB is the airport in Kalabo, Zambia, near the border with Angola. I'm not sure if I'll ever make it to visit "my" airport. ;)
Friday, April 14, 2006
Busy Week at Work
It has been crunch time at work, where we are trying to hit some dates for the beta of our next project. In software this is usually scheduled by bug counts: by a certain date, the team should have less than X "major" bugs. So management has ordered lunch in for us all week long, and we've been busier than average.
Crunch time is a familiar concept to nearly any software company. Mine is pretty good about realistic scheduling, because this is only the 2nd or 3rd time in the four years I've worked here where we've had a crunch week. Contrast to my previous employer which was in crunch mode for... years. Yes that is correct, years. Week after week and let me tell you, that really grinds you down when it goes that long.
Normally I try to get away to swim once or twice a week, during lunch. But it wasn't possible this week. However, today things wound down a little early - it helped that many people took today off since this weekend is Easter - so I left a little early to get a late afternoon swim in. Which felt great even though it was only 1000 yards.
I was back in time to welcome Krisanne, visiting this weekend and finishing up her skydiving class at Skydive Deland. Last time she visited I went on a tandem jump. I decided to pass on that this time around. ;) We had a very filling meal at Uno's Pizza, and then called it an early night: I wanted to get up early to ride my bike, and she had to get up early to make her class.
Crunch time is a familiar concept to nearly any software company. Mine is pretty good about realistic scheduling, because this is only the 2nd or 3rd time in the four years I've worked here where we've had a crunch week. Contrast to my previous employer which was in crunch mode for... years. Yes that is correct, years. Week after week and let me tell you, that really grinds you down when it goes that long.
Normally I try to get away to swim once or twice a week, during lunch. But it wasn't possible this week. However, today things wound down a little early - it helped that many people took today off since this weekend is Easter - so I left a little early to get a late afternoon swim in. Which felt great even though it was only 1000 yards.
I was back in time to welcome Krisanne, visiting this weekend and finishing up her skydiving class at Skydive Deland. Last time she visited I went on a tandem jump. I decided to pass on that this time around. ;) We had a very filling meal at Uno's Pizza, and then called it an early night: I wanted to get up early to ride my bike, and she had to get up early to make her class.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Mission: Space Woes
I read in today's paper that another person died after riding Mission: Space at Epcot. That is so sad...
I rode it with Francesca and Joe in January, and wrote that it made me pretty queasy. The ride simulates a launch from earth, ride through space, and landing on Mars. Four people ride together as a group, and I think six or maybe four groups go at once. Each group of four specializes in one area during the ride: pilot, navigator, engineer, and something else I forget. What that comes down to is each person gets to push a button at some point during the ride.
The effect is created through spinning, and it is powerful and realistic. Each person watches a TV screen right in front of them which shows a first person perspective view of a launch, flying through space, and of a rough landing on Mars. I was OK through the launch, but the lurching around in space (dodging meteorites as I recall) started to affect me... by the time we were flying through the Martian atmosphere trying to land, I was fully concentrating on holding nausea at bay. After our crash landing I was pretty woozy and it took a while before I felt better. Francesca and Joe handled it a lot better!
During lunch I was joking that the control room for the ride probably had a dial setting that went from "wimpy" to "barf-o-matic", allowing the operators to crank up the spinning effect. I like roller coasters and can usually handle motion in the direction I'm looking, but any side-to-side motion really hits me hard. This ride was my threshhold of tolerance for that. I'm not sure I'd go on it again!
I rode it with Francesca and Joe in January, and wrote that it made me pretty queasy. The ride simulates a launch from earth, ride through space, and landing on Mars. Four people ride together as a group, and I think six or maybe four groups go at once. Each group of four specializes in one area during the ride: pilot, navigator, engineer, and something else I forget. What that comes down to is each person gets to push a button at some point during the ride.
The effect is created through spinning, and it is powerful and realistic. Each person watches a TV screen right in front of them which shows a first person perspective view of a launch, flying through space, and of a rough landing on Mars. I was OK through the launch, but the lurching around in space (dodging meteorites as I recall) started to affect me... by the time we were flying through the Martian atmosphere trying to land, I was fully concentrating on holding nausea at bay. After our crash landing I was pretty woozy and it took a while before I felt better. Francesca and Joe handled it a lot better!
During lunch I was joking that the control room for the ride probably had a dial setting that went from "wimpy" to "barf-o-matic", allowing the operators to crank up the spinning effect. I like roller coasters and can usually handle motion in the direction I'm looking, but any side-to-side motion really hits me hard. This ride was my threshhold of tolerance for that. I'm not sure I'd go on it again!
Sunday, April 09, 2006
1040X
I thought I did so well preparing my tax return early this year. I calculated a refund of $532, so I was kicking myself for not doing it earlier. I already electronically filed and was eagerly awaiting my refund.
But sometimes procrastination pays off. I received an ominous envelope from my company that said "important year end tax information" on the outside. I opened it up and found the important information was an amended W-2 form. Yes, my company miscalculated my income.
How did this happen? The error was in the sale of ESPP (employee stock purchase plan) shares. My company lets employees buy a quota of stock at a 15% discount - a common benefit. However, my new employer bought my previous employer last year, and the merger completed after two ESPP sales from the previous company. Thus I think the new stock people simply overlooked us.
Argh. So for the first time I have to file a 1040X. I filled out the form and this time I owe $458. Not too bad - clearly not as good as receiving $532 but at least the amount involved isn't too large.
So I'll send this off soon, and hope my previous refund doesn't hit before I file my paperwork. Because then I'll wind up owing that refund as well, which is more hassle than I want to deal with.
But sometimes procrastination pays off. I received an ominous envelope from my company that said "important year end tax information" on the outside. I opened it up and found the important information was an amended W-2 form. Yes, my company miscalculated my income.
How did this happen? The error was in the sale of ESPP (employee stock purchase plan) shares. My company lets employees buy a quota of stock at a 15% discount - a common benefit. However, my new employer bought my previous employer last year, and the merger completed after two ESPP sales from the previous company. Thus I think the new stock people simply overlooked us.
Argh. So for the first time I have to file a 1040X. I filled out the form and this time I owe $458. Not too bad - clearly not as good as receiving $532 but at least the amount involved isn't too large.
So I'll send this off soon, and hope my previous refund doesn't hit before I file my paperwork. Because then I'll wind up owing that refund as well, which is more hassle than I want to deal with.
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