Chris Saribay

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: Personal • Disney • Videos •

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 •

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: Personal • Marketing • Videos •

I’m off to the city by the bay for a week to attend the all-things-Apple tradeshow, Macworld Expo. I’ll be back in Hawaii next Sunday. If anyone needs to get ahold of me in the meantime, you can give me a ring at 407-361-0274 or email me at my first (chris) and last name (saribay) at mac.com.

Labels: Apple • Personal • Travel •

This blog post has been a long time coming- I simply have just not had the time to get my thoughts down on this blog. Disney likes to keep people busy, and I am no grand exception to this rule. I’ll post three items today, and some additional things later on down the road.

Item one: Moving up in the world. I’ve been working as part of the podium cast at ‘Ohana, a family style feast at Disney’s Polynesian Resort for the past couple months. While I’ve had a blast, there really hasn’t been anything hugely dynamic or differentiating about my experience- it’s an average role with average interaction (...and even though I work my tail off and make the magic happen everyday, somethings can get a little stale after a while). No more, however. Upon a visit to the training office (so I could, myself, take a trainer’s course to become a bonafide, certified trainer), I was coerced into becoming a facilitator for Disney’s Aloha Day class. In short, I’ll be training new hires coming in to the resort on one of their first days about Polynesian culture, the resort itself, and the excellent guest service we pride ourselves on. I sort of took the bone begrudgingly in a way; I accepted the role only in passing, but now I can see that I’m honestly very satisfied with the decision I made to become a facilitator- it’ll be something to distinguish my time at Disney from most others who have done this program.

...and best of all- no costume!

Item two: the big move. In the midst of having almost two sets (!) of roommates terminated over at Vista Way, I had gotten a little fed up with life over at Vista. Those who are familiar with the situation know that I had tried to move over to Chatham Square, only to meet strong resistance from the program housing team back in February (”...we cannot move you to Chatham, it is not compatible with your program. If it was my choice, I would move you… but it’s not my choice to make, and there is no one person that can make that decision). I got on the horn in June, and low-and-behold, they’ve decided that they’d grant my request to move after the last original roommate I had was terminated.

Chatham is a much, much nicer complex. Even though I rarely see my new roomates (Mike, Parker and Rodney), life is good.

Item three: Disney. I’ll have to expand on this in another post, but I love the company that I’m working for. Disney represents a lot of great things, and I don’t personally think that the extent of all that I can do here, all that I can take advantage of, is complete. I’ve chosen to extend my program up until January 2008. That probably marks some insanity on my part, but I’m insane to begin with.

Item three and a quarter: my iPhone rocks. More on that in another post.

That’s about all for now, I’ll post more soon.

Labels: Personal • Disney •

I’m now part of the cast at ‘Ohana, a family-style restaurant at Disney’s Polynesian Resort. ‘Ohana of course means family, and in that spirit, all of our guests and cast members are cousins throughout the course of service. The neat thing about ‘Ohana is that it in itself is a minority at the Walt Disney World Resort- our meals are served family style, meaning that you could have as much as you’d like (ala buffet), and we bring it all to you. It’s all very cool. If you (or anyone else) happens to stop by, you’ll see me either checking in guests at the podium, or guiding them to their tables.

Curious about our menu? Take a look.

I’m sure it took much thought and deliberation to put someone from Hawai’i at the Polynesian Resort, but I’m proud to be part of the team over at ‘Ohana.

Labels: Personal • Disney •

I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while now- and having gone through the application and interview process, I’ve now come to the grand conclusion of the scheming and the realization of utter realities. You, the reader, are probably questioning what on Earth I’m talking about at this point, despite the massive hint in the image above. Shame on you for not being so observant, and shame on me for not being any more god damn obvious.

In order to get where we are now, we have to go back all the way to June, when I had come to the decision that I would take the year off from school and just lounge. Translation? Sit on my ass and twiddle my thumbs all day long. Not exactly, but you get the point- aside from the occasional miscellaneous side-job and ongoing projects, I haven’t been doing much these past few months. Back in June, I had toyed with the idea of doing the Disney College Program, but alas, forewent that opportunity.

Earlier this month, I had thoughts of doing this program again, and without the slightest bit of apprehension on my part, submitted the paper work and underwent a short interview. Nothing spectacular, but I figured I at least hadn’t bombed it. In the mail today came this lovely little packet from Disney Worldwide Services, Inc. stating that I had indeed been selected to participate in the program, and was extended a role as a FSFB Host. There’s a certain excitement to be sure, and at the same time, some apprehensiveness still on my part. What, exactly, is the experience to be? Only one thing is for sure- it must be better than sitting here on my tuckus most of my waking hours. If nothing else, this is an excuse to get my foot in the door over at Disney, which surely isn’t a bad place to get a proverbial foot in someone’s proverbial door.

That’s a stroke at brilliance, surely. I’ll be arriving in Orlando February 5th, and will stay for about six months.

Have a magical day. Strike that- have a magical new year.

Labels: Personal • Disney •