Invertalon

I never took the SAT... Most colleges do not really care so much about the SAT as they do the ACT (at least when I applied). The two colleges I applied for (one being highly selective, private, and one of the best in the country) was Case Western Reserve University and the other Cleveland State. I was accepted into based on my ACT and GPA only. But I chose my other option, Cleveland State University just because honestly, the people at the other college drove me nuts. I can't stand people with "smart egos" all around me... Sounds silly, but it is true. I would rather go to school with normal people. The education is just as good. Those tests were terrible though. I retook the ACT once and improved quite a bit the second time... People went nuts taking them so many times though (4+).

I mean honestly, people go by the bus full to McDonalds and other terrible "food" establishments without giving it a second thought. You can go to the supermarket and buy something as basic as "heavy cream" and see that is has 4-5 ingredients in it... Hmmm... Does anybody else really watch what they eat? I really have educated myself lately on the quality of food (or lack of) that really is all around us. I have been striving to go to my Whole Foods weekly to buy organic vegetables, fruit, eggs, yogurt, milk and even potato chips (I strive for quality of my food, not always the healthiest!). I must say it is nice to see that the ingredients in my organic heavy cream contain only one ingredient... Heavy Cream! You run into this same thing with so many other basic ingredients we buy. Why do people want to buy this stuff? I mean for example, a chicken nugget from Mcdonalds by volume only contains about 50% of chicken... Seriously. Normal fried chicken should only contain some salt and pepper, flour, eggs/buttermilk, and chicken... A handful at most. Check out the Chicken Nugget ingredient list from Mc’Ds... White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning (autolyzed yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid, rosemary), sodium phosphates, seasoning (canola oil, mono- and diglycerides, extractives of rosemary). Battered and breaded with: water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, whey, corn starch. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent. Yum... And of course you have those people who complain that organic prices are too high.. Yet will drink endless amount of soda or other junk that they buy, versus using that money to buy superior ingredients for themselves. My eggs may cost $2.50 or $3.00 a dozen, but at least they are not housed in a cage where they can't move, injected with antibiotics and hormones, are free-range and able to eat what the should be eating and have a much better quality of life. The free-range organic eggs I buy are also visually superior to the ‘normal’ eggs you buy in the store... Firmer whites, more robust yolks with a brighter color... Just a superior egg. Same goes with chicken meat as well... They grow chickens for Tyson and other big meat processing name brands in ½ the time of a normal, farm raised chicken yet still weigh the same. They can barley walk or move around because their organs and bones can not keep up with their quick weight gain. Luckily, there is some hope in the fast food world with some places, an example being Chipotle, using organic ingredients and free range chicken, beef and pork whenever possible. At least some places care about the quality, and it shows here. Chipotle burritos are incredible… Not perfect as far as ingredients go, but miles better than ‘McFactory’, where your single burger patty can contain beef ‘parts’ from dozens and dozens of cow in one single burger. I highly suggest watching Food Inc, Food Matters and Food Fight if you really want the low-down on what you really eat. It will really change your perspective. It is terrible what is really in the most basic of food. I admit I still eat "bad" things, but I am at least trying to change my diet to all natural whenever possible. Which is quite hard considering I am not living on my own and live with a family that feel the need to buy whatever is cheapest... Which is what 95% of people end up doing, versus caring about the quality. Still trying to get my parents to change their ways though. People will always be ignorant to the truth, and have the whole "life is too short to care" mentality in which you cannot fix stupid. However, if you want facts just look around. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease... All on a incredible rise throughout the world at younger ages. Also notice how fast food sales are increasing just as fast? Luckily, people are starting to care about what they eat to an extent. Organic sales are on the rise with double digit growth per year. Hopefully it will catch on even more and bring down the bad food practices and industries just like big tobacco years ago. It is sad when a handful of food companies control 80%+ of the US food supply... About 4 meat processing facilities process most of the meat (which are the reason for the insanely huge recalls as well) and companies like Monsanto that are destroying farming because of their genetically altered soybean seeds, suing out small farmers just because they can. Basically I posted this just for open discussion. Not to preach or change anybody, but just try to inform some that may be open minded and care enough about themselves. Keep it civil with discussions please… Just curious about how other people really view what they eat.

Exactly! I can't stand those old-person 'hang-outs'. They always chose terrible places anyway that serve extremely cheap meals that are poor quality. Honestly, if you can get eggs, toast, bacon, hashbrowns, etc... For $1.99 I would think about the quality... .

The reason for that, is LOYALTY. Notice, how once old people invade a restaurant they never leave?? They go multiple times and week and drop dime. I tell the truth...

Or [stratosaur] was not for this year...

How is CW "neglected" exactly? Please... That is probably one of the most ridiculous things I have read on this site in a long time.

2pm tomorrow

Hmmm... 1.) Great Bear 2.) Dueling Dragons - Fire 3.) Raptor 4.) Montu 5.) Talon Something like that... I really love Great Bear. Most think it is boring, but I just really enjoy it everytime I ride it for whatever reason. Maybe it is the chocolate pumping through my veins when I am at Hershey... But I also want to give notible mention to Alpengiest, Dueling Dragons ICE and the BTR's out there!

I got one of those creampuffs in my fridge right now waiting for me... Schmidt's (spelling?) as an awesome place. The autobahn buffet they have is incredible! It was featured on Man vs. Food at one point, and has a loyal following. It gets busy! I really like the place though... Parents went Sunday there for dinner and brought me home cream puff and sausages... They are heaven, for sure! I could pile a few of them away, im sure

Rode Shoot the Rapids last night for the first time... Front row at night, walk-on (it just reopened after down-time)... I was surprised on how much I really loved the ride! The tunnel was excellent at the beginning with extremely dense mist, pitch black. One area had a cutout with a themed truck behind it. First drop was excellent with a nice splash at the end. I really love those shallow, long drops. The runout at the end was fun and I really prefer this to the instant-splash at the end of the drop. The back area is quite nice with the themed areas and canyons which splash you a little bit. Second hill was awesome through the "rapids", reminded me of Dudley Do Right at IOA to be honest. Was great fun! I really enjoyed the geysers on the back half of the ride. I felt the ride length was perfect, pretty long ride (which I like). Another plus was that they let you remove your shoes/socks prior to boarding. Otherwise, your feet would be under-water due to lack of boat-drainage until you reach the lift. Seriously, there is about 10" of water in the boat after the drops. Don't wear your shoes/socks. I had little to no expectation for this ride but ended up loving it. Next weekend I plan to wear some swim-trunks and flip-flops and enjoy the ride many times. The length was great, the ride was fun, and I really had a blast. I feel bad I doubted this ride so much, to be honest! I loved it. Much better than Pilgrims Plunge (if you don't mind me comparing!), and is superior to the old log-flume at CP. Sure, you get soaked... But at least the water is clean, chlorinated and the water temp was perfect. Everybody on the boat seemed to love the ride as well. Hopefully it is just as fun during the day as it is at night, because it really was beautiful. The views from the lifts, the excellent lighting throughout the course... It was great fun. Thumbs up from me... I just hope they can fix the reliability issues! Look forward to riding more!

I think most people who love coasters will want to design them after college (I admit I did when I started my mechanical engineering degree... but has changed). Once you really see how un-glamorous the work is and what it entails, the hope of such an 'awesome' job kind of go out the window. It is a LOT of work doing an insane amount of boring calculations. Much of the fun work to me is done off-site with a subcontractor (steel fabrication, erection), along with many designs being contracted as well (Stengle, for example, does plenty of work for Intamin... Stengle also does force calculations and such). It takes years to go survey land, brainstorm a design, draft and calculate the design, fabricate the steel, etc... More to it than meets the eye, and much of it is extremely boring. The best part is coming up with new ideas and designs, the terrible part is turning those ideas into endless amounts of drawings in Solidworks/CAD. Sure, I would still love to someday enter the field somehow... But I think as an Engineer, there is more 'interesting' work out there. Down to basics, the job is really not all that exciting. But really, at the engineering level, not much stuff is exciting I have evolved to more aerospace engineering while currently getting my mechanical engineering degree, and currently at my third Coop/Internship.. Two of which have been with companies involved in aerospace specializing in civil and military aircraft. I am currently working at a company on a project involving the second largest forging press in the world (50,000 Ton Press) which forges aluminum for the joint strike fighter military jet. They also do aircraft fuselage ribbing for civil aircraft, as well as wheels, fasteners and other stuff for Boeing and Airbus. Pretty awesome stuff. Oh, and right here at the plant they forge and machine wheels for Ferrari, Porche, etc... Quite amazing to see. If it is something you really want to do though and you fully understand the basics of that type of business, go for it! Hopefully you will be successful and be building some incredible rides for us in the future! To answer your question though, get a Mechanical Engineering Degree. Civil would work as well, but mechanical will give you an edge, for sure.

This ride looks nothing like Xcelerator, to be honest... I can see some "similarities", but they are so far off it is not worth a comparison. This ride looks incredible to me... The first element looks like a blast and the little hops here and there should be great fun. Tracking looks interesting in terms of banking and "flow", but sometimes those can make it that much more fun. I am sure it will be great. Sucks about the location!

I really like this series... The guy can be a little over-the-top at times being on the verge of annoying, but he also has great energy and his reactions are quite funny. I have to remember to set the DVR for all the episodes... I like how he was cutting everybody in line at Dragster... I guess we should all hire film crews to follow us around to be able to line-jump

Hey thanks! My girlfriend and I spent a good twenty minutes trying to capture the crazy lightning storm over MF that night... Luckily, I got one. Pretty happy with it! Appreciate all your comments! There will be updates throughout the season and I will just add to this post (so bookmark it!)... I will update the main post with direct links to the pages as needed. My next plan is to capture the Starlight Experience in the next few weekends... I don't think I am this weekend though with it being close to 90*... The last thing I want to do is carry around the extra weight and have it be that hot!

Sure... Just let me know your email and screen resolution via PM if you can get to work or just post it here. I will try to send it tonight to you.

Here are some few pics from this past Sunday at the Snoopy on Ice show... I also got a nice shot of MF during the crazy storm that went on from about 9pm until close. Crazy night! Enjoy, Performer Snoopy Part of the Gang Viola! Performer In the air Silhouette The Cast Performer Clapping Millennium Force Maverick with Storm Clouds

Harsh... Harsh...

Ahhhh, I see now! Makes MUCH more sense, hahah. When at SFoG I kept my stuff in a lock.er at one point but it makes me quite nervous to be honest. Just due to the fact I was afraid if somebody saw me put my stuff inside the lock.er and they claimed to "lose" the key and were able to identify it was a camera and such, I am sure attendant people would easily give in to them. One thing I like to do is make sure it is put away entirely in the bag for a while before putting in a lock.er, just to be sure nobody saw exactly what was in it. Especially when I carry $5,000+ of equipment around with me at times. Not a risk I want to take, honestly! I have stored my stuff away at SWO and BGT without a problem as well, but they felt less "risky" to me... I really like the fingerprint variety myself at Uni/IOA for storing stuff away. I saw what they put somebody through when the lock.er would not read their print and they basically drilled them for contents in the purse that was inside. Makes me feel better. SFoG may of done the same, but the attendants did not look as sharp... Regardless, I highly suggest a personal items insurance policy if you/your girlfriend plan to carry expensive gear around. I have mine insured through State Farm against theft, misplacement, damage (such as dropping a lens) and anything else except for mechanical failure due to age. No deductable either. Its very nice and like $1.49 per $100 insured I believe per year. So in the end, I will put it in a lock.er if I have to… But I try to be very careful as best I can. -Steve

Not bad, but I really do not like most of the B+W photos though... An amusement park to me is fun, vibrant and colorful... Sure, some B+W can look good but for most of those shots it just looks 'off' to me. "They are all natural black and white as well not just desaturated in photo shop" Maybe that is the problem... If you let your camera do the B+W conversion (there is no "natural") that may be the reason the B+W photos look off to me. By doing it in post via photoshop or lightroom, you can control many aspects of the contrast within the B+W photo to make them pop more. Just a suggestion for the future. I have yet to see the All Wheels show this summer yet... Might have to stop there this weekend and watch it! Good TR, I would just prefer color

I don't understand your fluffy, fluffy bunny filled question about goo and medicine? Could you please explain?

^^ Thank you very much! I really appreciate comments and feedback. I do not blame you for taking a P&S into parks versus a larger camera... The bulk and weight can get tiring quickly! At a given time I usually have at least three lenses in my bag, along with filters and other miscellaneous equipment. However lately, I have been trying to cut back to only a lens or two and make those work throughout the day. On vacation, I usually bring everything with me because I never know exactly what I will need though. At the same time, the weight and effort can pay off big at times! For example: Like Saturday night at CP, we had amazing storms roll in at around 8:30pm... It was a crazy lightning storm with extremely heavy rains. I took some HD video walking through Starlight in that thunderstorm, during which, silhouettes of MF would flash in the background when the lightning would strike across the sky, it was crazy! Not a person in sight as well which made for excellent, unbothered video. Sure, it is nothing show-worthy, but at least I can replay the moment. This is what makes it worth it for me! I do not understand why people will not shoot in RAW, especially with how easy programs like Lightroom make it easy to process them... I have used Canon's DDP software, Photoshop CS3, Adobe Bridge and Lightroom. Especially since the recent release of Lightroom 3, there is no competition. V3 has incredible noise reduction and sharpening algorithms that SMOKE anything the camera could do for you (as well as the other programs). The software is so clean cut, easy to use and powerful. I highly recommend you try it out! You can for 30-days free from Adobe... If you plan to buy it, if you are a student you can get it for only $87 or something through Adobe's student center. You just need to prove you go to school and you are set... Beats the $299 price tag! The 300 f/4L IS prime I used was a little awkward to use at the park at first, mostly due to its long telephoto range. Mounting to my 7D which has a 1.6x "crop factor", the 300mm ends up with an 'equivalent' focal length of 480mm... It really does make you think more about yours shots and their composition. I really like the ability to take the 'nerd' shots and grab candid’s though from parts of the ride most people simply cannot reach. Shooting at CP is fun however as you have so many large rides with excellent views all over. The challenging part is trying to get new ideas and perspectives that others have not used a million times already. But even small tweaks in similar photos many other people have taken (such as the focal length) you can really change how it looks and ‘feels’. I just find it awesome with this lens that I can go home and check out the photos I took of Dragsters top hat from Shoot the Rapids, and be able to see the proxy sensors at the top of the hill. I just love detail like that. It is what makes carrying that 2.6lb lens around the park for a few hours worth it! I love using wide angle lenses... When I took my trip down to ATL in the spring, it was mounted to my camera almost the entire trip. It is the perfect city/museum lens. You will have a blast when you get it! So much fun to use! That is one bad part of photography... It is VERY expensive. But honestly, you just cannot put a price tag on memories! Right?? Thanks again for your kind comments! -Steve

It has been like that plenty of times for morning ERT ^ Hell, even after the park opened last Sunday MF was only a few train wait (down the ramp). In July/Aug though, ERT can be quite busy.

They are all fine... Unless you are intolerable to any vibration, don't worry. You have to be very weak to find any of those rides, rough.

Thanks for the answers - sound like we basically do the same things. I just got the Topaz suite of plugins, but I will also look up Neat Image (actually I think I already did). Actually, they might..... I also shoot RAW. The styles are applied internally as filters to the RAW files. "Monochrome" directly affects the RAW file - it gets rid of the color information and leaves only luminance - so there is proof that the style affects the RAW file. The same filters are available in Digital Photo Professional (DPP - for those that don't know that's the software that comes with Canon DSLRs). In fact, Canon's site says this: "With JPEG files, Picture Style effects are permanently embedded in camera and cannot be changed; RAW files can have their Picture Style settings determined in-camera or during RAW processing in DPP." So, if you're not using DPP and your style setting is not set to neutral, the camera IS doing something to the RAW files, and you may be seeing the effects of that in Lightroom without knowing it. Not sure. I agree that primes give great results (have a 50mm and 300mm prime now, looking at the 135mm), but there is also the learning curve of learning how to use a real camera, how to pick shots, how to trade off f#, ISO, exposure time, etc. For me, that's half the fun, playing with different shots and settings to get the effect that I want. Sorry for the photo-geek-talk everyone, but it's been nice discussing this with you Steven. I haven't posted too many images lately. Maybe I'll process a few from Holiwood Nights if I get some time. -Mike That is true... I forgot that picture styles are "held on" by the RAW file, but not applied unless used with DPP. For other 3rd party RAW programs, they usually are not applied in any way. Thanks for clearing that up, forgot about DPP... And I totally agree with learning the camera... I did not mean to sound like lenses are everything, because that is far from the truth. You can have the best equipment in the world and somebody with an Iphone could make better photographs... That is one thing I laugh at though, when people say "Your camera must take good photos" because the camera is 1% of it, 99% is the person behind the camera. It is just a tool, and like any tool you must know how to use it. Just because you have a paintbrush does not mean you can paint the Mona Lisa, does it? Many people think so with cameras though... I agree, the best part of photography is experimenting. How you can change settings in-camera to get vastly different results. Or how to play with external or off-camera flash to get incredible portraits outside. This is one area I plan to work on next... Lighting is everything in photography. I would love to see your Holliwood Night photos! Let me know when you post them up. If you have AIM/AOL, feel free to contact me (screename: Invertalon) anytime to talk about photography and such. Always nice to have somebody else to talk with and learn from. Take it easy, Steven

Hey Mike, To answer your questions... What ISO I use highly depends on the situation. If I need to stop motion (let's say riders on Dragster, Maverick, etc...) I will use ISO 200-800 to get the shot depending on light. I always shoot in manual or aperture priority modes. I strive to get shutter speeds of about 1/1000 or faster to stop motion. For the more 'scenic' shots, I am almost always on ISO 100 or 200. On the 7D however, I have no problems going up to ISO 3200 or even 6400 if need be to get certain shots during Halloweekends for example (at night/dusk). As long as they are properly exposed, noise is really a non-issue, just depends how much noise bothers you. If I have heavy noise due to ISO 3200, 6400 or even ISO 12,800... I have a program called "Neat Image" which is a plug-in for photoshop. This does an incredible job on reducing heavy noise without ruining all the detail. But I only use this once and a while for very noise photos I want to print for example. Since I shoot in RAW, the picture 'style' does not apply to me. That only applies to JPEG's the camera produces if you are shooting JPEG's. RAW images are not altered in anyway in the camera in regards to color, sharpening or anything else. The RAW file is, well, RAW. I process my files in Lightroom 3 afterward to edit and export as my final JPEG image. In lightroom I have my default values in terms of sharpening, saturation, vibrance, noise removal, etc... I do not like shooting JPEG only (I shoot JPEG+RAW) because they never look near as good as my RAW images... I get sharper more detailed images using RAW, as well as better dynamic range and the ability to really push exposure if need be. JPEG's are just VERY limiting if that is all you shoot. These photos are not heavily sharpened or have excess color saturation. When using prime lenses, you get beautiful results like this with ease. My primes (30mm f/1.4, 135mm f/2L and 300mm f/4L) all produce better images than any zoom lens I have used. You just get unreal sharpness, clarity, color rendition and contrast when using them. This is why I have invested into more prime lenses recently, the results are mind-blowing. You should see the detail in these images at full size, 100% viewing. It would blow you away. When you start with an image like this, your end result looks even better (especially resized). Lightroom 3 is INCREDIBLE processing RAW files... Give it a try... It was just released but I was using the Beta version a few months. If you are a college student, you can pick it up for $87 or so I believe it was. Incredible deal compared to the $299 they usually want! You can download and try it out for 30 days on Adobe's website. Lightroom is a photo-editing powerhouse, it is just so nice to use.