"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." -- Thomas Paine

I am a proud wife of an Army Reservist Combat Veteran (Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Joint Forge).  My husband (a.k.a. "Chrome Dome") is an MP (Military Police) and is just beginning his 21st year.   Here is hubby in the Sandbox (he's back home now).

Some soldiers from the unit were invited to a local Iraqi wedding celebration.  I included this image so Cindy Sheehan can see that they are all SMILING.

While in Iraq, the unit took thousands of photos.  Here is a link to a slideshow I created of just some of those photos to honor the unit's service.  It contains 120 images and runs 9 minutes and 40 seconds long, featuring music by Iced Earth and Toby Keith. 

While my husband was in Iraq, I ran a popular blog that got up to 3000 hits per day at it's peak (chromedomezone.com).  This slideshow was the last item I featured before closing the site.  Hope you enjoy, and please let me know if you have any technical difficulties. The video is an embedded windows media file, so it should run smoothly on most systems.

This is me.  I've been Hannitized.

 

More about me. 

I am 38 years young, and live in Silicon Valley.  I love this country, I love patriotism, '24', Hockey, computers, Harry Potter, guns, off-roading in my Jeep Rubicon Unlimited, music, and just about everything Disney.  I try to go to Disneyland at least once a year. I am also a gadget freak who is easily distracted by new shiny things that go 'ping'. At the moment, my goals in life are to make a career change and escape from Kalifornia.  I work mostly as a Senior Executive Assistant and have worked at companies such as IBM and VISA. 

A word about Disney...

Being the HUGE Disney fan that I am, I believe some defensive action is in order when it comes to some FReepers and their wild venomous hate for all things Disney.

Let me begin by saying that I am sick and tired of some of my fellow FReepers trashing everything Disney because they don't like one or two films, or because some of the liberal executives occasionally made stupid liberal minded decisions.  I like to think that over time, executives come and go (Eisner, and the Weinstein brothers for example), and that the Disney company, like ever other company, has its case of the Ups and Downs. The idiocy of a few passing executive fat heads does not warrant a blanket boycott of all things Disney.  At least to me, anyway.  Walt Disney was one of the most patriotic Americans ever to walk the earth.  The history of Walt and his company is too rich with patriotism and the American dream to simply ignore, and it irks me that people allow themselves to be so negatively effected by a few mindless transitory liberals in high places. I equate it to hating America because Clinton was president.

"If you could see close in my eyes, the American flag is waving in both of them and up my spine is growing this red, white and blue stripe." - Walt Disney

One of the BIGGEST misconceptions about Disney is that they organize and endorse Gay Days at their theme parks. 

This is not true.  Gay Days are only organized by independent gay and lesbian groups that infiltrate many different theme parks across the USA every year.  They are keenly aware that many of us regular folk mistakenly believe that Disney is the 'evil culprit', and relish the idea that people mistakenly boycott Disney as a result.  They have no intention of going out of their way to make the truth known, and in fact, count on that misconception to keep people away.  Disney neither organizes, nor do they endorse in any way, Gay Day.  You can read more about it here.  And unless gay patrons do something to actually break the law while at the park, they cannot be ejected simply for being gay. There is absolutely nothing Disney, or any other theme park, can do about an organized homo invasion.  Frankly, I don't really care if people are gay, in general, but it is a rather ridiculous idea to celebrate one's adult sexuality by visiting a family theme park.  I too do not wish to see fags and dikes making out behind the bushes in Critter Country, so before I visit the park I take two seconds to visit the Gay Day site to see what days not to go on.  Rest assured, people who are inappropriately dressed are not allowed access to the park, and those caught doing indecent things do get ejected.

Problem solved. 

Here are some other interesting factoids about Walt/Disneyland you may not know...

• Walt left school at the age of sixteen to become a volunteer ambulance driver in World War I for the American Red Cross (he was too young to enlist in the Army)

• The US Army contracted Disney to make many short war films for WWII (both public and classified training films)

• Walt worked with the FBI in its investigations of communists in Hollywood

• In 1940 he was recruited as an Official Informant. He was later designated as a Special Agent in Charge

• Walt's biggest hero was Abraham Lincoln

• In the fifth grade, Walt memorized the Gettysburg Address for fun.

• Walt was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. (The Nation's highest civilian award)

• Disneyland actively sponsors and promotes "Night Of Joy,", a special park event just for Christians

• During the Christmas season, though Disneyland does indeed use the phrase "Happy Holidays", they also use "Merry Christmas" and have "Christmas" themed shows and a "Christmas" parade - a very remarkable thing considering that Disneyland is visited by virtually every country and religious group around the world on a daily basis.

• Christmas Day is their busiest day of the year.

• At Christmas time, the Haunted Mansion features 'A Nightmare Before Christmas' theme (Also called "Haunted Mansion Holiday").  The word "Christmas" is spoken 18 times on the ride.  Jack Skellington cries out, "It's Christmas Time!", and "I like this Christmas thing!"  The carriage you ride in is called a "Christmas Slay" (or Sleigh - a play on words).

• Disneyland featured "Great Moments with Abraham Lincoln" at the Main Street Play House all year round (this attraction has bee discontinued, but Disneyland tends to rotate the show back in every few years).

• Disneyland is situated in Anaheim, CA which is in Orange County - one of the most conservative counties in the US

• People from all over the world visit Disneyland, including Tibetan Monks. Check out this photo from Splash Mountain: (click to enlarge)

I like to call this one "Freed Tibet".  Does this guy look free and happy or what?  That's me sitting right behind him, and hubby right behind me.

 

Believe it or not, the values and standards of the old Disney and the values of the Disney company of today are still remarkably close.  Over the many years of its history, times were not always good, and sure they've put out some real flops and some horrible movies that I'll never watch, but the dream is still alive and well.  I am excited about the Pixar acquisition, and I think it is a good merger. As quoted by MacNewsWorld, Disney needs Pixar to put more life back in the Mouse House, while Pixar needs Disney to grow into what it should become.

A quick note about Roy E. Disney.

Walt's nephew Roy E. resigned in 2003 over differences of the direction of the Disney company regarding the role of the studio's animation division and the stuffy 'soulless' Corporate structure that the Disney company was becoming under Eisner. Roy launched his savedisney.com campaign which ultimately resulted in Eisner's resignation, which became effective September 30th, 2005.  Roy was then made Director Emeritus and now serves as a consultant to the company. Eisner resigned both as an executive and as a member of the board of directors, severing all formal ties with the company.  You can read about the rest of it here.

This page will continue to be updated.