The Happiest Guy on Earth

This past week has been another fun one!  My Development class was canceled on Monday, so that was nice.  I still got up around when I normally get up on Monday mornings.  I messed around on my phone and watched GSN for a while.  I made myself some lunch, and soon after that I registered for Jeopardy! online testing!  I can take the test at 8:00 p.m. on April 14, 15, or 16.  I tried the Teen Tournament test when I was in high school, but it was so hard that it scared me off for a while.  I'm going to try again and see if I feel any better about it.  I read a little more of the script we have to write a paper about in Development, and then I went to my How Hollywood Works class.  After we had our usual weekly discussions, the last two groups presented their pitches.  We talked about certain clauses and guarantees that come in most contracts for several positions - producer, writer, etc.  After that, Phil told us the stories behind the two scripts that were pitched that day.  The script I read had the most interesting story - when Phil worked at Disney, he tried over and over again for many years to get it produced.  Eventually, he just had to give up on the project.  However, some good did come out of the situation - he met his future wife and brother-in-law in the process!  His wife is the one who wanted to produce the movie, and his brother-in-law wrote the script!  Once that was done, I walked down to Gate 8 of the Warner Bros. Studios to make sure I knew where I'll be going when I see a taping of "Clipped" this coming Tuesday!  "Clipped" is an upcoming TBS sitcom set in a hair salon.  One of the main cast members is George Wendt, who played Norm on "Cheers"!  When I figured that out, I had to get a ticket!  That'll be so great!  When I found Gate 8, I turned around and walked back to the apartment.  I relaxed for a while and made some dinner.  Monday is my laundry day, so I got a couple loads of laundry going.  I believe I finished reading the script for Development that night.  On Tuesday, I started my day at Glassman Media.  It was another day of organizing and sorting stuff.  We got most of the equipment in order, and we started putting together boxes of stuff to throw away.  At one point in the day, my supervisor called my mom and told her what a great job I've been doing.  She likes to call the parents of her interns and let them know what's going on.  She said she only calls the parents of the good interns!  She had a lot of good stuff to say about me.  Near the end of the day, I didn't have much to do.  My supervisor figured out about the upcoming UTLA event - later that night, we were going to ask questions to a panel of cast and crew members from "Brooklyn Nine-Nine"!  I told her I had never seen the show, so she let me watch an episode on my laptop!  I watched the pilot episode, and it was pretty good!  After that, it was pretty much time to leave.  I went back to my apartment and relaxed for a short time, but then I returned to the same building.  Down in the UTLA center, there was pizza and other food for us to eat.  I got my food and then settled in.  Just after 7:00, the panel came in.  We got a e-mail with the list of people who were coming, so there were no surprises.  Most of the main cast members (Andy Samberg, Terry Crews, etc.) weren't there, but Melissa Fumero (who plays Detective Amy Santiago) was there.  The other two cast members were the guys who play Hitchcock and Scully.  The crew members on the panel included the director, the line producer, two staff writers, the editor, a casting associate, and others.  It was really neat!  They had really great answers for all the questions, and they were funny!  That was one of my favorite events this semester.  After that was done, I went back to the apartment and did my homework for New Media.  I didn't do much after that.  Wednesday was another day at Glassman, and I got to come in half an hour late because my supervisor had to run some errands in the morning!  I started off the day by scanning a bunch of papers and making a bunch of copies.  I did that for the whole morning and the first part of the afternoon.  After that, I got back to organizing the equipment.  I think that I'm pretty much done with that after all the work I did this week.  Thankfully, I got a little more help this week.  I assisted my supervisor with a few things, and everything went well.  When I was done, I went back to the apartment.  I bought one item at the convenience store in the south clubhouse, and then I made dinner.  Later on, it was time for New Media class.  It was a really fantastic class session!  We had a guy who works in virtual reality come in and show us some stuff!  He showed us a video, and then he gave us a little introduction to virtual reality and what's going on with it now.  He had a virtual reality headset with a regular phone as its screen!  Everybody in the class got the chance to put it on and watch a short video of 360-degree virtual reality!  It was a great experience!  He also showed us some useful apps that relate to virtual reality.  Within the next year or so, it will be pretty easy and cheap for regular people to experience it!  All that we learned in that class was so cool!  We also heard a little bit about the field trips we'll be taking over the next couple weeks.  That class is just amazing!  After I returned from that, I didn't do a whole lot.  On Thursday, I went out to Karga Seven.  This week, I actually got a ride to Hollywood and Vine because I didn't sleep in late!  I spent the whole day working on more character bios.  In one more day of work, I'll have written the character bios for most of an entire season of the show!  Once I was done working there, I came back home and just relaxed.  I could have gone to the Line Producing class that I'm auditing, but I chose not to this week.  I was tired after walking home, and I wanted to eat dinner and enjoy myself.  I was highly looking forward to the upcoming trip to Disneyland!  We got our details about the trip during the day on Thursday, and I was so excited!  The bus was going to leave the UTLA center at 6:30 the next morning, and it was going to leave Disneyland at midnight!  It was going to be a very long day, but Disney days are supposed to be long!  I watched another episode of "The Middle" that night, and I also started on my paper for Development class.  I wasn't entirely unproductive!  I went to bed earlier than I normally do because of the early morning that was coming.  My alarm went off at 5:30 in the morning, and I got up soon after that.  I got dressed in my Splash Mountain t-shirt, and I was ready to go!  I grabbed a granola bar and then headed over to the UTLA center.  They wanted us to check in at 6:15, and I got there a bit early.  I hopped on our bus (which was pretty nice) and waited for the other guys to get there.  A few minutes after 6:30, the bus took off for The Happiest Place on Earth.  Once we arrived in the parking area, we took the tram to the park.  Everybody gathered in front of the main gates, and Phil arrived to give us our tickets.  We got Parkhoppers, so we could go to both Disneyland and California Adventure!  We also got $10 in Disney Dollars to use how we pleased!  Then we set off for the park.  I got with a group that headed straight to Space Mountain.  Before we got on the ride, we got Fastpasses for it so we could ride it again later.  It was a nice short wait because the park had just opened.  After we rode Space Mountain, we went over to Star Tours.  By the time we got off that ride, it was already time to use our Fastpasses!  We went on Space Mountain again, and then we went over to Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.  After that, those of us in the small group who had the Puppetry workshop broke off and headed towards Toontown.  In order for UTLA to get funding for the Disneyland trip, all the people who go have to take a workshop.  Our original choices were puppetry and acting/improv.  At some point, the acting/improv workshop fell through, so the people who signed up for that workshop had to take a tech theater workshop.  I chose puppetry to begin with, so I wasn't affected.  All of us who got to Toontown early went on the little kiddie coaster there.  Then, at 10:00, we headed behind the scenes for the workshop.  It was so neat!  The guy who taught it has been a professional puppeteer for 39 years, and he did the puppetry work for Salem the cat on "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch"!  The workshop lasted a couple hours, and it was a lot of fun!  After it was done, we were free to roam the park as we pleased.  I wanted to get lunch, so I went over to the New Orleans Square area of the park.  After I ate lunch, I went on some rides in that section of the park.  Soon after that, I went over to Splash Mountain.  I discovered that it had a single rider line, so I jumped in it!  It took a little longer than I expected, but it was much faster than the 85-minute standby wait!  After the ride, I got a Fastpass for later.  I continued going through the park and riding all the biggest rides.  I made it a point to go on the Pinocchio ride since I had taken a puppetry workshop!  Once I had ridden everything I wanted to, I went over to California Adventure.  I went straight to the Tower of Terror, and then I wandered the park and rode some other rides.  For dinner, I stopped at a place that had hot link corn dogs.  I had one, and it was so good!  After I rode the most important rides there, I returned to Disneyland so I could use my Fastpass for Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye.  After that, I turned around and went back to California Adventure to see the World of Color show.  As always, it was absolutely fantastic!  The park closed after that, so I went back to Disneyland to see Fantasmic.  It was less than an hour until midnight after Fantasmic ended, so I rode Pirates of the Caribbean one last time and called it a day.  I got to the bus with 4 minutes to spare (my cell phone died during Fantasmic, so I had to estimate the time - I did a pretty good job!).  A couple minutes after midnight, the bus left for home.  I basically crashed afterwards.  It was such a fun, incredible day!  I slept in on Saturday morning, but it wasn't any longer than I usually sleep in.  I actually felt more awake in the morning, and I had to roll over and go back to sleep more times than I normally do on Saturday!  Right after I got up, I Skyped with my family.  Everyone was gathered at my grandparents' house because they were celebrating Easter a day early.  It was great to talk to them!  I can't wait to come home and see them again!  After that, I watched some GSN and made lunch, and I eventually continued working on my paper in the afternoon.  I got roughly half way through it!  After I ate dinner and wrote some more of my paper, I went to the hot tub and relaxed.  Sunday is Easter, and I'm going out to the L.A. campus of Saddleback Church again.  I also need to write the second half of my paper on Sunday.  I went to Disneyland on Friday, and things are going pretty well for me overall.  I might as well be The Happiest Guy on Earth!