Randman's World

Charlie’s grandma and grandpa drove down here for a visit, and got home last week. While there is much to tell about the visit, and how much Charlie loved having them around, there was something that happened on their trip home that I felt was very blog-worthy.

Keith (grandpa) is a Korean War veteran. It’s one of those things he never really talks about, but he does have a license plate frame on his car with his former military company on it. He got it a few years ago when he went to a reunion of his fellow soldiers.

While driving home from Florida last week, they stopped in a small town to get gas (I think it was in Tennessee). A young man walked up to Keith and asked if that was his car. Keith replied it was. The young man then thanked Keith for his service in the military.

Keith said that this was the first time this had happened to him. Of course, he tried to downplay it, saying it was a privilege to serve. But I could tell it meant a lot to him to have this stranger say it to him.

You know, thanking military for their service had almost gotten passé for me. Every time a military person comes on talk radio, the host seems to make a big deal of thanking them. I had forgotten that there are veterans out there from other wars who may have never heard this.

This truly disgusts me. I've spent time in Russian orphanages, and seen the kids there. The Russian people need to take care of the kids they have, rather then trying to create new ones to win a car.



ULYANOVSK, Russia (AP) -- Make a baby. Win a car.

Irina and Andrei Kartuzov drive away in a new SUV, after winning last year's baby contest.

Don't be surprised if the streets are empty and curtains drawn in this central Russian region Wednesday as residents take up an offer by the regional governor to help stem Russia's demographic crisis.
Ulyanovsk Gov. Sergei Morozov has decreed Sept. 12 a Day of Conception and is giving couples time off from work to procreate. Couples who give birth nine months later on Russia's national day -- June 12 -- will receive money, cars, refrigerators and other prizes.
It's the third year that the Volga River region, about 550 miles east of Moscow, has held the contest. Since then, the number of competitors -- and the number of babies born -- has been on the rise.
"If there's a good, healthy atmosphere at home within the family, if the husband and wife both love each other and their child, they will be in good spirits and that will extend to the workplace. So there will be a healthy atmosphere throughout the country," he told AP Television News. "The leadership (of the country) is interested in the family."
Russia's population has dropped since the 1991 Soviet collapse, fed by declining birth rates, a low life expectancy, a spike in emigration, a frayed health care system and other factors. The country -- the world's largest -- now has just 141.4 million citizens, making it one of the most sparsely settled nations. And experts estimate the population could fall below 100 million by 2050.
Just 311 women signed up to take part in the first competition, in 2005, and qualify for a half-day off from work. The next June, 46 more babies were born in Ulyanovsk's 25 hospitals compared to the previous June, including 28 born on June 12, officials said.
More than 500 women signed up for the contest in 2006 -- resulting nine months later in 78 babies, or more than triple the region's daily average. So far this year, the region's birth rate is up 4.5 percent compared to the same period last year.
"I don't think people get pregnant just to get a prize on the 12th (of June) but if the dates coincide and they give you a ... car there's nothing wrong with that," said Yuri, a 28-year-old father-to-be who declined to give his last name.
Last year, President Vladimir Putin called the demographic crisis the country's most acute problem and announced a broad effort to boost the birthrate, including cash subsidies for couples giving birth to more than one child. Women who give birth to their second or third child receive $10,000 vouchers to pay for education or home repairs.
In Ulyanovsk, everyone who has a baby in a local hospital on June 12 gets some kind of prize. The winners of the grand prize -- a locally made SUV called a UAZ-Patriot -- are couples judged by a committee on criteria such as "respectability" and "commendable parenting."
Perhaps not surprisingly, the effort has drawn snickers. According to one joke circulating on the Internet, regional university teachers -- after being ordered to draw up special activities for Wednesday -- proposed covering the floors of school gymnasiums with mattresses and dimming the lights.
Andrei Kartuzov, who won the last "make a baby" grand prize along with his wife, Irina, said they had been planning to have another child anyway.
The campaign "is a good help for people, especially for those living in villages," he said. "If they hold such actions every year, then maybe we will have (more children) growing up and Russia will be bigger."

This week at work has been a lot of fun. It's the annual Disney Leadership Conference. A 3 day conference for leaders at the theme parks worldwide, allowing almost 14,000 of us to get together, network, learn and play.

To say I've had a good time would be an understatement. Here are a few of the highlights:

1. Marty Sklar : I listened to and shook hands with Marty. I met Marty a few years ago on a Disney cruise, and was amazed to hear that this was the guy who wrote Walt's speeches and scripts, and then, he took over Imagineering and led it for 30 years, overseeing the construction of Walt Disney World and specifically Epcot. He's a truly amazing man, very gracious, and a lot of fun to hear speak. Marty wrote "Mickey's 10 Commandments" several years ago, and was back to present, "Mickey's More 10 Commandments".

2. Bob Matheison: Bob was one of the people who helped start Walt Disney World, and eventually went on to run the place. He retired in 1994. He spoke about his memories of WDW, and his feelings on leadership.

3. Tony Baxter: This was cool. A very small, intimate presentation by Tony on creativity. Tony is the Senior Vice President of Imagineering. Truthfully, Tony is an ideas guy, who has helped make Disney what it is today. If you've loved attractions such as Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Star Tours, Indiana Jones, all the way on up to the recently reopened Nemo's Submarine Adventure, you can thank Tony. He helped design these rides. He's frequently the guy that's interviewed when it comes to the parks, and he has a great love for good storytelling and rides. To listen to Tony pull no punches was quite refreshing as well ("How did we go from The Lion King to Home On The Range?")

There have been other sessions as well, from panels with the heads of Disney Vacation Club, Disney Cruise Line and Adventures by Disney, on to keynote addresses.

As we are fond of saying at Walt Disney World, this has really recharged my pixie dust. I love working for a company with this much tradition, and one that is a leader. And, talking with and learning from these kind of people is amazing.

This is an amazing 4 minute, one continuous shot fight scene, shot with a steadicam. I've pasted the information about it underneath. It's really worth watching.



From the movie "The Protector", featuring Tony Jaa (of Ong Bak fame), this stedicam shot lasts over 3 min. I wonder how many times it took to get this shot right! Simply amazing! After watching the behind the scenes extras on the DVD, here is some additional info that filmmakers and martial arts film fans may appreciate: The director calls this "the most dangerous long take scene ever." A 4 minute stedicam shot featuring a variety of martial arts. The crew spent over 1 month preparing and choreographing before they were able to get a perfect shot. When it came time to shoot, they could only do 2 takes per day because of the set repairing and prop replacement that needed to be done. It took 5 takes to get it right. A foreign cameraman was needed because the stedicam mount was built for american / european operators who are typically much larger than asian operators. The foreign operator they hired could only do two flights of stairs at a time and simply gave up. They decided to use a Thai stedicam operator who physically prepared for a month for this job. The reason the shot is 4 minutes is because reels of 35mm film are only about 4 min in length. They shot the first take which had a number of problems with stuntmen cues, and even a stuntman bumping into the stedicam operator. After choreographing more dynamic action, an increase of extras and improving the set, the next take they did was 17 days after the first take. The second take was better but when the stuntman was supposed to be thrown from the 3rd story, the safety mattress was not completely in place yet so Tony Jaa stopped the shot and saved the stuntman's life. The third take was just about perfect but just before Tony Jaa was supposed to bust through the last doorway, the film ran out. The director finally decided that instead of simply cutting there, they would try again for perfection. They thought the fourth take was perfect but after review there were some parts that weren't as good as the pervious takes. They decided on one more try. On the fifth try, it was almost perfect. But there were 2 miscues. On the 2nd floor, Tony Jaa slams a door into the head of a stuntman and the small glass window on the door was supposed to break. It failed to do so, so they used CGI to fix this. The 2nd issue was the fight just before the sink gets thrown. The timing was off as planned but the end result looked natural so they decided this was the take to use in the final film. Simply amazing.