Chris Saribay

His Irrelevant Ramblings at chrissaribay.com

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Parasailing Over Bay Lake

Sunday, August 23, 2009

My family really wanted to go parasailing during their vacation at Walt Disney World, so we headed down to Sammy Duvall’s Watersports Centre at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. Unfortunately Allison and myself’s tandem flight was cut a bit short due to weather, so we re-scheduled to go again on Saturday. This is the full video from our second flight above Bay Lake, just about a mile or so away from the Magic Kingdom. And just for fine viewers of this blog, it comes with captions!

Labels: PersonalDisneyVideos

A Brief Tour of Bay Lake Tower

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

About two years of anticipation have culminated in the opening of Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, a new 16 story, 428 room addition to the Disney Vacation Club. The resort offers stunning studios, one and two bedroom vacation villas as well as two story three bedroom grand villas, all just steps from the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Suffice it to say, the accommodations offered at Bay Lake Tower are sure to spoil any traveler; sleek modern design with al the comforts of home, including full kitchens, whirlpool tubs and a washer and dryer right in the room.

As a Cast Member here at the Contemporary Resort, we’ve been anxiously awaiting opening day, which was yesterday, to “Welcome Home” the first guests to Bay Lake Tower. Among the guest list that day was myself, and I have a bit of a tour of the resort (albeit a little shaky on the camera work) including a walk through of the one bedroom villa I stayed in.

Labels: Disney

In the Crossroads

Thursday, October 23, 2008

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The truth is the hardest pill one can ever swallow. This doesn’t make it any less important; quite the contrary—the honest to goodness truth is often just what the doctor ordered.

When we take a look at ourselves, we often reflect back on our previous experiences, what we’ve learned from them, and how we’re going to take what we’ve learned and apply them going forward. We also look at the people we surround ourselves with, as we can find out a lot by simply by looking at who associate with. We finally look at what’s really center, our own values, what we’re willing to compromise on, the battles we pick (things that we’d live and die for), and where we feel we’re headed.

The truth is the hardest pill to swallow.

That doesn’t make it any less important.

The crossroads of a decision making is where self reflection, honesty and brevity meet. It’s okay not to have all the answers (and it’s rare that we ever do), but to have the truth, and to be able to base the important decisions in your life upon those truths, that’s what makes all the difference.  Decision making is difficult, especially when it comes to things that will forever change your life.

“...I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “no” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important thing I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. ” (Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech)

At the same time though, we have to be honest with ourselves; in trying to make decisions, we should have one true underlying goal: finding happiness. Days that aren’t the greatest help us to appreciate the better days, but when we have more downs than ups, then it’s quite clear: changes need to be made.

What’s this irrelevant rambling for? I’m in the midst of trying to make a number of important decisions. We’ll leave that one for a later time.

Labels: Personal

Aloha ‘Oe

Friday, April 4, 2008

Aloha Airlines, after over 60 years of serving Hawaii, unexpectedly ended all passenger service on Monday. After several last ditch efforts to save the carrier to no avail, there was little choice left but to call it quits. While there’s certainly some hope that Aloha may one day emerge and take to the skies again as a passenger airline, most of its 2,000 laid off employees have moved on. Aloha’s shutdown marks the end of an era, one once marked with great triumphs and success, and as of late, great challenges and hyper-competitive moves by entrants into the market.

 

Aloha’s ad agency and several partners have started running this spot on local television. The spot, based upon Aloha’s last ad “Anthem”, is a certainly a fitting emotional memorial for the defunct airline. I’ve flown Aloha in the past, and I will definitely miss the spirit and service that this company and its employees embodied. It is a shame that this had to happen.

Mahalo nui loa, Aloha. A hui hou!

Labels: TravelVideos

Wall•E Trailer

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

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Wall•E, Andrew Stanton’s latest film from Disney/Pixar, is inching closer to its June 27th release. What appears to be the full-length theatrical trailer has been released, and it looks really great. Be sure to check it out.

Labels: Theatrical MoviesVideos

iPhone SDK/2.0 is going to be huge.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

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Apple had their press briefing on the iPhone SDK Roadmap today, and I think it’s going to be pretty tremendous. There’s a lot of power, especially with what they’ve demo’ed so far- some pretty intense apps were shown by developers who had just two weeks to develop their apps on the iPhone, including AIM and Spore. Along with the SDK, Apple announced the 2.0 version of the iPhone software, which includes real enterprise support for Exchange servers- I’ll be able to access my corporate email now! Goodbye Outlook Web Access, and good riddance!

Unfortunately it won’t be out until mid-June, but when it hits, the iPhone is going to be a huge player in the enterprise telecommunications department. I can’t wait for this to drop.

Labels: AppleiPhone

YOU are your own brand!

Monday, March 3, 2008

Gary Vaynerchuk is a 32 year-old self described master of wine. Recently speaking at Strategic Profits 08’, he talks about the power of branding and marketing, and the most important concept that any one person could take away: your own brand. His speech is a powerful lesson of what is, and is not important in today’s landscape. You are own brand; and you need to differentiate yourself from everything else, and everyone else’s brands. Check out the video below for an excerpt from his speech.

A lot of the public communication devices that I have are synchronized- that is, they all match each other within some varying degree. This video is the ultimate explanation of why things like personal branding, what I attempt to accomplish this website and most other things I do publicly, are important.

Labels: PersonalMarketingVideos