A New Job at KLAS Research

At the end of April I started a new job as the Director of Software Engineering at KLAS Research. It is a far cry from Sony PlayStation but a nice change. My new company researches medical software used by hospitals and health networks. It then makes it's findings available to medical providers to help them decide which to buy. My job is to manage the software engineering for all of the company's internal tools that help them gather and publish this research.

Working at KLAS is very different than working at PlayStation. I miss working in the video game industry and I also miss the excitement my job used to generate. One nice thing about the new job is that my work is much more serious. I also am at the director level again. I also work with some amazing people that are incredibly smart.

The best thing about my new job is that I am working with a bunch of new technologies. I always enjoy learning new things and we'll see how my existing knowledge translates. So far it has been pretty smooth but I am just getting started.

Thousands of Views on YouTube

Something special happened over the past week with my YouTube channel: I started getting over a thousand views a day on my skiing videos. I was happy to get tens of views and the rise from that number to the thousands only took about five days. I wish I could tell you what happened but I can only guess.

My first guess is based on what happens with sports video games. When the regular season comes to an end, people still want to get their sports fix. In video games they will go back to playing a football game like Madden once the Super Bowl is over. As most of the ski areas in North America have closed down for the season, skiers and snowboarders are left wanting more. They resort to watching ski videos on YouTube. Again, it is just a guess.

Another guess is that I met a popular YouTube personality with around two thousand subscribers. He subscribed to my channel and a lot of his followers might also like my content and so they are viewing my videos based on him subscribing. Again, it is just a guess.

Finally I have spent a lot of time responding to every comment to each of my videos. I am guessing that lots of comments translates into YouTube recommending my content more. As each comment results in my response, the algorithm may see two comments for every user leaving a message. This would indicate that creators responding to viewers helps drive more traffic and it makes sense. All I know is that I am spending about an hour or so each day responding. It can be flattering but I have to find time to get back to everyone. I also discovered that not everyone likes my videos. While I expected people to disagree with ski areas that I list as favorites, I didn't anticipate avalanche nazis telling me I am promoting unsafe backcountry skiing. Don't worry, I'm not. They just want disclaimers all over the place.

Ultimately I am happy with the overwhelmingly positive response and requests of locals to show me around the next time I am at their ski area. Unfortunately I am still a long ways away from being able to quit my job and become a full-time YouTuber. I still need about 650 more subscribers before I can even monetize the channel. Once I hit that mark I expect my monthly income to be somewhere between being able to afford a gumball or a can of soda. In other words, I am not quitting my day job.

Is Genie+ Worth it at Disneyland and Disney World?

For the past year I have been planning a family vacation to Disney World for all of my kids and grandchildren. The trip happened last week and I have to say we had a great time. We did a few things different on this trip than in other vacations at Disney World. One change is that of Genie+ and I thought I would weigh in on if it is worth it or not.

In January I visited Disneyland with my oldest son and his family. It helps to compare and contrast that experience with Disney World as the service is available in both parks. My hope is that it will help you as you plan your summer vacation as both parks seem to be very crowded now that COVID seems to be slowly going away.

If you go to the Disney parks to ride the rides and money is not a concern, then by all means add the service to your ticket. It will save you long lines for at least a couple of rides. If you are a little more discerning with your cash then you may want to pick-and-choose when you pay for the convenience.

I opted not to pay for Genie+ for any of the days at Disney World last week but then I wasn't concerned with riding rides. I really went to hang out with my grandkids and have fun with them. None of them had Genie+ and so it didn't make sense for me to pay an extra $15/day. I will confess that on our last day in the parks, I got stuck on the Pirates of the Caribbean for 30 minutes. Disney immediately gave us 2 free lightning lanes that we could use on half a dozen rides. Naturally I couldn't use it on any of the thrill rides like Space Mountain or the Seven Dwarf's Mine Train. I did enjoy being able to skip to the front of the line for Thunder Mountain Railroad and The Little Mermaid ride. Then we loaded up our car and headed to the airport.

My son opted to pay for Genie+ while at Disney's Hollywood Studios where he used it judiciously. My philosophy was to get to the parks early and save myself long lines and I got to ride a lot of attractions in a short time.

Ultimately my recommendation is not to add it to your ticket every day. There are some parks that don't have a lot of Lightning Lanes that allow you to jump to the front without waiting. At Disney World, it is only a $15/day addition (it is $20/day at Disneyland). You can add it in the Disney World app on your phone and then immediately schedule your first attraction. As you can only have one reservation at a time, make sure you don't sign up for a ride that allows you to jump lines at the end of the day. That can be expensive for a single use.