Day 1257: The Martian

One of my goals this summer was to read more. After all, for an English major, I really don't do much reading at all, and that's probably not beneficial to my overall education here at St. Norbert. I suppose some of it has to do with the fact that what I read in class is more than enough for my attention span per day, but as I've picked up a couple of books already, I've remember just how much I really miss reading. Just the simple act of sitting down on the balcony outside and reading is really calming, and drastically different from all the binge watching of The Office I've been doing recently.

After getting back from Florida and finishing the last book I read, an easy read about a road trip, I knew exactly what I wanted to read next. The last time I happened to be looking around Barnes and Noble I spotted a copy of The Martian, the film that everyone loved so much a few months ago. I intended to see the film, but since I didn't actually get around to it yet, I figured that reading the book first was probably a fair plan, and I'm happy to say that after three days of reading here and there I'm almost finished...and I bought the movie today so I can watch it when I do finish.

If you're not familiar with The Martian, it's basically the story of a man stranded accidentally on Mars after a failed mission, and about his struggle to both survive and get home to Earth. It's a great read for sure, definitely witty and suspenseful all at once, but it's also made me think of a particular Disney attraction, which I've never actually been on.

To be fair, I've been in the after show area of Mission SPACE, but my motion sickness paired with an intense simulator sounds like a prime recipe for disaster. So instead of risking it, I've just avoided it, and now it's actually the only attraction at Walt Disney World I've never been on. I do know what it's about though, and the fact that it's a mission to Mars offers more than enough of a connection to The Martian itself, but it's actually the game in the exit area that really reminded me of this book.

If you're unfamiliar with the area, like if you just walk by it after the ride every time, there's numerous games and a play area for the kids, and actually it's often not all that busy, making it a great place to cool off or take a break. Inside, you can play this video game, which I'm playing in the picture above, that sends you on a mission to rescue fellow astronauts on Mars. Now, if that's not like The Martian, I don't know what is (although in the book/movie, he's the only one there...no one to save him but himself). Either way, sometimes while I'm reading the book I just sort of picture the video game, although the game has a lot more sunlight than the picture in my head does.

I highly recommend The Martian, at least the book. I'll let you know about the movie once I watch it. And if you haven't stopped to play the games at the end of Mission SPACE, check them out sometime! They're pretty entertaining and a lot of fun!

Have a magical day!

Day 539: Blastoff

I've been to Disney World a ton of times, and each and every single time I go, someone always ends up asking me about other popular Orlando attractions that I just never seem to go to. Or Florida stuff in general. You know, like the beach or SeaWorld or Universal. I don't go to those places, in fact I sometimes have rules against it. If I'm going to travel all the way to Florida, I'm going to spend my time at home at Disney.

Which is one of the reasons I loved this trip. While I would have much rather spent all my time at Disney, at least the trip gave me excuse to head to some of the other locations that I normally don't visit without wasting a day of my regular vacation to go to them. Waste is sort of an awful word to use though.

Despite our traffic jam troubles that put us in Florida much later than originally intended, we DID make it to Kennedy Space Center, a detail my brother is surely thankful about. I'm not really into the whole NASA and space thing personally. The most I'm into it is the references in the Disney parks or the occasional night I spend looking at the stars. And there's the fact that the space race is one of the most interesting periods in our nation's history, if you ask me. But my brother? He LOVES everything to do with that kind of thing, and a trip to the Kennedy Space Center was a highlight of the trip for him.

He was a bit angry (ok, more than a bit) that we were only able to spend around an hour and a half there, obviously not enough time to see everything the center has to offer. I've actually been there once before, and while I don't remember much of it, I remember that like my favorite thing was seeing the Bald Eagle Nest while out on the tour. Yeah, obviously I'm not into NASA.

However, we did see a great IMAX 3D Film on the Hubble Telescope, which was super interesting and literally almost made me cry, if only because I was having some intense "I'm almost at Disney" feelings and for some reason the movie just reminded me of home or something like that. I can't really say now because it's a bit fuzzy, but I do remember sitting there watching and thinking about Space Mountain and Spaceship Earth, so that's something, right?

My brother, of course, wants to go back, and while I think I'd like to spend a bit more time at Kennedy, I couldn't see myself spending a whole previous day there. Too much for me. If anything, I'd like to take more pictures. As you'll hear in the final post about the band trip, I didn't have too much time to do my usual Instagraming, and I certainly missed it. Kennedy Space Center is a great place for taking pictures, with all the bright blue sky in the background.

Plus I suppose I wouldn't mind actually seeing a launch sometime. But don't tell my family that. Even though I know mom reads my blog and is sure to see it sooner or later. I'll stick with Disney for now, thanks very much. =)

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on August 1).