Shamu of Seaworld Orlando is HUGE!

This is a repost with minor edits of my vacation to Orlando, Florida with my Malaysian college-mates. We went for the trip in the summer of 2006, while I was still an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

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Orlando Day 1 - Seaworld

We arrived in Orlando from Detroit at about 10 am, rented a car, checked in at a hotel, and out to Seaworld that very morning. The weather was really hot and humid, which kinda reminded me of Malaysia... that first day I think I sweat gallons. By the time we went home my shirt was almost entirely soaked.


Took a picture right after the entrance gates. On the 'lighthouse' at the back - there's a drawing of Shamu - the bigshot celebrity orca at Seaworld.



Shamu is really BIG. That killer whale didn't look as huge while swimming around in the water and tossing the trainers around. Once it 'whaled' itself onto the stage right in front of us we could see how big this mammal is compared to us humans.



I expected to be soaked by Shamu's tail splashing but we were seated too far back to be splashed on by the orca. The audience who sat on the first 4 or 5 rows were soaked. I wouldn't mind the soaking; it was just too hot, I'd love it if a whale would splash cold water to cool me down.



Shamu was everywhere... and almost every time we see the whale's representation (sculpture, statue, mural, etc etc) we would stop and take a picture. I guess it wouldn't be Seaworld without Shamu.



A shark was flying around in a dark room... nah. This was taken while we waited in line to see some sharks in an aquarium. That shark on the wall is of course fake.



We ended the day petting some dolphins. Earlier we petted some stingrays... they are cold, soft and slimy to the touch. These friendly and cute dolphins however, are hard and smooth to the touch, reminded me of a shiny motorcycle gas tank or helmet.

We did a lot more than just watching Shamu and petting dolphins, but I just want to make these entries short and simple, so tell me if you want to know more (which I'm sure nobody does).

Next day, our next destination - Animal Kingdom.

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I have been browsing my old Xanga entries and stumbled upon the Orlando posts, which brought back a lot of memories. Seeing that I used to have zero readership back then (and some small amount today) I decided to reshare the experience again here with the fairly recent readers.

Has anyone else here been to Seaworld Orlando? If you have, please do share your experiences as well, it'd be fun to recount and relive the moments =)

I shall repost Day 2 of the Orlando trip in the next post.

Wanna Hear What I Sound Like Talking in English?

I stumbled upon an old blog entry from way back when I used to exclusively blog on Xanga. This was the one and only blog entry that has my voice in it, talking (in my most casual accent) to the blog readers. Since I know there are readers here who has never heard my talking voice, I decided to repost this here on Blogger so that you may know what I actually sound like.

The old entry is between the two sets of three asterisks (***).

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I don't get to speak English much at work here in Malaysia so my English has probably deteriorated with time, but anyways I stumbled upon Southernlass's accent challenge and decided to have a go...

A copy-paste of the list of words:

Syrup
Cement
Route
Rural
Town
Oil
Juror
Lafayette
Havana

Tournament
Oregon
Water
Drawer
Idea
Wash
Terrible

Nine

Five

Park

Caramel

Car

Now

Tire

Thing

MOOOOOO!

This is the accent challenge for my blog of d00000000000m


And my boring voice(s):

Alright there you go. I should probably do a Rojak / Manglish / Singlish version since I speak that too, but I'll stop at two accents.
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EDIT: Suddenly I am thinking of doing it in a couple of other different voices/accents. Please tell me if you really want me to do so and I'll do it!


EDIT2: Firda and my sister requested some more so here goes. Two other voices I did included below.
This one is an attempt at a movie trailer narrator voice




This one is some kind of American accent I used once or twice for my puppet performances in the past




Shameless plug: Please star and/or recommend if you like the audios, I might do more audio stuff in the future if people like it!


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What do you think of my voice(s)? Do I sound boring? Haha.

Oh, and if you want, you can have a go at the challenge too. Do tell me in the comments if you are trying. It'll be fun to know how everybody sound like!

 

The Innocence of Youth

"The young cannot be blamed for not knowing what it's like to be old, but the old is guilty of forgetting what it's like to be young"

Or something of the sort. Guess where the quote came from, for bragging rights.

Innocence. I can't help but notice how little children emanate their glow of youthful innocence whenever they have fun.




They are honest and frank. They do not deviously insult nor flatter. They speak their minds and express their honest opinion on anything, without fear of being judged.




Kids don't wear a mask on their faces. They cry when they are sad, and laugh when they are happy. They don't pretend to be excited when they're not, and when they do become excited, they honestly are.




When they do things to make you happy, you know they're not doing them because they had to. They do them because they want to. And seing your happy face, in turn, makes them happy as well. And that is enough for everyone, both you and them.




I long for the same youthful innocence, for I feel like it has left me for quite some time.