Sounds like I'll have to plan another L.A. trip next year...

NBC Universal's theme park division is looking to make some serious "d'oh," pacting with News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox TV to launch a major ride tied to "The Simpsons."

As-yet-untitled attraction will be built at both Universal Studios Hollywood and the Universal Orlando Resort; online reports had said the ride would be limited to Orlando. Both parks are set to open the ride -- which will utilize motion simulator technology -- in spring 2008.

Deal also includes provisions that will allow characters from "The Simpsons" to be integrated into the larger Universal theme park brand. Actors dressed like "Simpsons" characters will start roaming the grounds of both parks, while stores devoted to selling "Simpsons"-themed souvenirs will pop up.

Ride deal marks the second time in as many months that NBC U and News Corp. have teamed up; companies are preparing to launch a viral video portal this summer.

"Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and exec producer James L. Brooks collaborated with U's ride design team on the concept, which will let parkgoers travel through a "Simpsons"-ized version of a theme park, as envisioned by Krusty the Clown.

"The ride is designed to duplicate the Simpsons home-viewing experience, only at high speed and with lots of screaming," Groening said.

"The Simpsons" ride is replacing another Hollywood-themed attraction, the long-running "Back to the Future: The Ride." Universal Hollywood will shutter the latter ride after Labor Day; Orlando's version closed at the end of March.

U isn't providing much info about the specifics of the ride, saying only that "guests will be rocketed along with the Simpson family on a hysterical, almost unimaginable adventure. They'll experience a side of Springfield previously unexplored as they enjoy the new ride's interpretation of the thrill rides, dark rides and 'live' shows that make up a new fantasy amusement park dreamed up by" Krusty.

U said the ride will feature a number of Simpsons characters, with voices supplied by the thesps heard on the series.

Universal Parks & Resorts chairman-CEO Tom Williams said "The Simpsons" ride is a good "complement to our brand of entertainment."

Florida Today, which first reported news of the "Simpsons" ride on April 5, said the attraction is part of $120 million in upgrades U plans to its Orlando resort in the coming year.

Universal isn't saying how much it paid 20th for the right to use "The Simpsons" brand, but a recent SEC filing obtained by Florida Today hints that a big chunk of the company's capital expenditures in 2007 and 2008 would be reserved for "intellectual property rights" related to new attractions.

In addition to the "Simpsons" ride, insiders said U is expected to announce at least one or two other film/TV-themed attractions this year.

From Variety

Ok, so remind me next time to pay extra attention to all those Asian English majors out there. Apparently, they're either your best friend or they need major help before you turn into target practice.

Observations from this weekend:

--I was in SoCal this week to visit friends as Hai needed to attend a panel in the IE. Coming along for the ride were Claire, Jenny, Alex, Steve for a couple of days and Akshay on the last day. For a change, it was actually cloudy most of the weekend, so it wasn't really beach weather.

--Some of these pictures above are from me and others are from Alex and Claire. You could probably find more at their sites.

--American Eagle must be very efficient. They were always on-time for the round-trip but they charged for pretty much everything. The cashews are $2! To add injury to insult, they're always found at the end of the terminal so they're a good 15 minutes away from the security checkpoints. In Orange County, they're actually based out of a portable outside. Outside! You gotta go up and down 4 flights of stairs between the terminal and the plane.

--I sat in Hai's little panel discussion on the poems of Emily Dickinson. The other people on the panel didn't really contribute too much. One freely admitted she poorly analyzed her thesis while another was a little more concerned about the animations on her power-point presentation. Even the panel leader made up the word scannation.

--Steve's bachelor pad is pretty sweet. The star of the show has to be the voice-activated dimmer switch. Yell out computer: low and you get a dimly lit room to set the mood. Apparently, it's only $20 if you want one. We also visited his workplace which was the set of Saul of the Mole Men, finishing up its run on Adult Swim. Okay, so the set is one room with a green-screen, but still.

--Hollywood and Highland is actually a much smaller place than you see on TV. This intersection is home to Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Kodak Theatre (where the Oscars call home), and the El Capitan Theatre (where Jimmy Kimmel does his show). Once there, we found one of those R2-D2 mailboxes people were talking about. Pretty cool.

--Any weekend with me is usually about the food and there was no shortage of that. There was the steak at Gaucho Grill, a good Argentinean steak house, the seafood at the chain Joe's Crab Shack, a bowl of bun bo hue, and of course, the Angus Third Pounder at McDonalds. I didn't take any food pictures...Claire took care of that. The yogurt shop Pinkberry is good, but I don't think it's worth it to stand in some of the lines this place is notorious for.

--Yes, when you're driving with me, I'm gonna drive like an old man. I'm sorry but that's how I'm going to get you from point A to point B.

--Our time with Steves ended with a nice stroll on the beach. With our cell phone lights. In the midst of jumping around, Steves lost his keys, so here it was at 8:00 in the pitch black that we were combing the beach. Lucky for us, Jenny found them or else we would have been there forever.

--Our ulterior motive for being down there was to tour the colleges. Hai and Jenny are choosing from a few and so we visited Riverside, Irvine, and UCSD. Riverside is just how I remembered it. Way back when my brother went there, I never wanted to stay. So cross this one off the list. Irvine is big and quiet with plenty of Asians walking around, if you find people walking around. Even with the scholarships these two schools offered me in 2000, I still chose Berkeley. That's why of the three, UCSD seemed to be the best. Nice campus, plenty of people and parking. During our short time with Akshay, he gave us the grand tour from his Civic. And he knows a lot about the campus...one class left til graduation and his 7 year journey to a degree will be over. I think he's been waiting for me to hit it big.

--So today, here I am at work. Coming back, I got a few messages from IT stating that they should be able to fix the problem I was having with some software yesterday. Funny, I wasn't at work yesterday. Yep, these are my co-workers.

--The rest of my pictures can be found at Flickr.

Before we get to today's post, let's look at this fine apartment in New York City. As written in New York Magazine, this is fairly new at 5 years old without any renovations and located right next to Central Park. Asking price? Just a cool $989,000. That's with a discount since its location at Manhattan Avenue hasn't been embraced by home buyers as of yet. So get it while it's...cool.

My co-worker just can't catch a break. Before I took my present job, she had just returned from a stint on the DL, dealing with a bulging disc in her back. She returned when I started but left a month later after being diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome. During this time, her daughter was charged with DUI and hit-and-run as she hit a motorcyclist, killing him. To deal with that, she needed to sell her home to pay for legal fees and move to the Central Valley while still commuting to Sunnyvale. On a happier note, she got married for a third time but her sibling was dealing with a divorce, so she took care of two more children. Just last month, her daughter was found guilty of two misdemeanors, which sounds bad but it could've been much, much worse. However, just a week later, her car was broken into.

Which brings us to today. She was the victim of a hit-and-run when a Ford Expedition ran into her car from behind. What the driver of the Ford didn't know was that his front license plate was part of the wreckage left behind, allowing police to find his house and charge him. She and her kids in the car are fine, but still, my co-worker's car is totaled in yet another odd chapter in her life.