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For those missing the blantantly obvious reference in Robb's OP, here's a link. Matt

He was in a boy band, people. Why are you acting as if this is some big shock? This is about as much news as David Bowie admitting to prior drug use would be. Matt

Not this urban legend again... The reason for the suit is because McDonald's kept their coffee's temperature about 40°F hotter than normal and that at 185°F, a liquid will cause full-thickness burns in a matter of seconds. She originally only sought medical expenses from McDonald's but they refused to settle so it turned into the ginormous case that has been passed throughout the misinformation chains of public culture ever since. EDIT: I see that the McD's case was already covered. Alas, I believe this is the beginning of the end for SOB. I hate to see a coaster destroyed, but somehow I'll manage not to shed a tear. Matt

Concrete City: Matt

I'd honestly like to ride an SLC made with Vekoma's new outside-guide wheel track. I'm of the opinion that virtually all inside-guide wheel is rough while outside-guide wheel is smooth (Although Morgans come close to invalidating this hypothesis). Matt

Looks a lot better on a weekday! We'll be giving it a second chance next Summer on our way to Dollywood. Glad to hear X-coaster is a good ride. Matt

No... Universal is NBC (which, in turn is GE) and partially Vivendi. Matt

Are there any restrictions on USH's "Front of the line pass"? My wife and I are considering doing the VIP tour and it comes with a front of the line pass. (I know they also offer this level ticket without the VIP tour). Matt

Astroworld also had an original 1st Gen: "Sky Screamer". I remember at one time they were even counting it as one of their coasters. Matt

Just because my wife doesn't look like your sister doesn't make her ugly. As for that fat-crosseyed guy, I resemble that comment. Matt

I seriously should have taken pictures of half the people I met there. The only reason i didn't is because I'm not sure I would be able to catch the full slack-jaw even with my wide-angle lens. Matt

That's freaking sweet. When were you in Hot Springs? Matt

I wouldn't. Time travel's dangerous. What if I ran into my Doppleganger? Matt

Bush was born in Connecticut. He didn't even buy his famous Texas ranch until he ran for President. I won't claim him. We have a wide selection of rejects actually from Texas, however, if you're in the market for one. Matt

Yes, obviously stereotypes are not to be made fun of on TPR. Never. Ever. What was I thinking? Listen, I don't want to muse over how various shades of black look on kitchenware, so let's just let bygones be bygones. You're under no obligation to hear about the civilization-impaired residents of your otherwise beautiful state, but I'll freely admit to the citizenship-status-challenged denizens of my flat expanse of humid concrete. Matt

Arkansans are obviously also without any sense of humor.

North Texas's geology is hardly comparable to Coastal Louisiana. Matt

I've uploaded the videos. For the POV of the Twister, I once again apologize for the compression artifact, but I don't have any tools available to resize the video so I was left with compressing it down under the cap. As I mentioned above, I can send the higher-quality one to whomever is interested. The other two videos are short clips of Plummet Summit and the wild mouse. Matt P1010181.MOV Twist n' Shout Fly-by P1010193.MOV Plummet Summit's splash twister.rar Twister POV

Interesting enough that image verification was mentioned. I help run a rather large forum (twice the posts/members as this board) and so I follow all sorts of forum tech news. I read an article today about two new types of image verification scripts http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/3277 The first has you choose a kitten out of an array of mammals, the second has you choose three hotties out of an array of 9 people. That's just awesome! Matt

I've yet to date had the (mis)pleasure of being stuck on a coaster, and it's not for lack of riding them either. Matt

I think Elissa meant Drayton Manor: http://rcdb.com/id2926.htm Matt

Hi all! My wife and I just returned from Hot Springs, Arkansas for an anniversary mini-getaway. As it was for our anniversary, amusement parks were not a priority in this trip, so our time spent at Magic Springs was limited. I'd first like to highlight Arkansans. I live in Texas, so I don't have particularly high standards when describing a civilized society. However, when one thinks of Arkansans, one usually thinks of imbred backwater hicks straight out of Deliverance. As much as it pains me to say it, this stereotype was largely true. Hot Springs felt like one big happy trailer park, not the resort town we were expecting. Most of our trip was spent partaking in the tourist-trappy, qaint, and/or romantic offerings the area had. We weren't able to make it out to Magic Springs until late Saturday Afternoon. On the way to the park, a thunderstorm broke out. For this, we were delighted: We both knew that thunderstorms tend to keep people away from parks and draw many more to leave. As I will soon describe, this effect was short lived. Upon arrival, the storm had fizzled to a mere sprinkle, however large church groups were gathering at the entrance to leave. We made our way inside and to the immediate left: As all the rides were currently closed, we wanted to get prime position on the woodie, Arkansas Twister, when it restarted. This park has a very unique layout: It is essentially a big U. Arkansas Twister was the sole attraction on the left arm of the U, with everything else to the right. In the middle- seemingly the crown jewel- was the water park, Crystal Falls. We weren't here for the water park, although with the temperature pushing 100 degrees, it didn't sound bad at all. Nevertheless, we made it to the Twister, which is actually an out-an-back. Within a few minutes, it started test-cycling and we were able to ride it twice within half an hour. The second time around, I was able to get a point of view using my new digital camera- you can find it at the end. Anyhow, the (out-and-back) Twister was a fairly decent ride, if a bit short. The recent rain had it running fast, which resulted in mostly ejector air over several of the hills. Moving on, we headed toward the rest of the park, located in the right arm of the "U". This park is absolutely gorgeous. Located along a hillside surrounded by natural foliage and with foothills in the background, we were very impressed. I know very little about the state of the park before it was closed and sold, but whomever is running it now deserves an applause for the care and maintenance of this place. Down the hill, we pass what I call "Flat Row". It seems as if nearly all the park's flats are located one after another here. However, as our time was limited flats were not our goal. At the bottom of the hill is one of the newer attractions, Plummet Summit. This dip-the-dips created quite a large splash and due to the heat had one of the longest lines in the park (you can catch a video of the splash at the bottom). We were happy with our relative dryness, so we moved on. At this point, it had been a good hour and a half after the thunderstorm, yet the new 2006 X-coaster (appropriately titled X-coaster) wasn't even testing yet, so we headed for the wild mouse, Twist-n-Shout. This is a right good mouse. No brakes are used anywhere throughout the course, so each turn yields an insane amount of lateral G's. You know it is a great mouse when it feels like the car might rip from the wheel assembly each turn. X-coaster still not operating, we headed to their midget S&S Space Shot. It's name is quite possibly longer than the ride: Dr. Dean's experimental rocket machine. It's relatively petite stature did have it's advantages, however: My wife, Lauren, had never elected to ride an S&S tower until now- mostly out of fear. She now can't wait for her next one. Still no X-coaster. Right next to the S&S tower is Big Bad John, a veteran-in-its-journeys arrow mine train. I was pleasantly surprised with this one: It rivals SF Over Texas's in my opinion, even without the (cheap 1960's) theming. X-coaster is finally up!!! ...And there's a 2 hour wait. Needless to say, we didn't get to ride it. We had already planned to stop by Magic Springs on our Southern USA tour next Summer so it isn't a big loss, although I wish I could report about the experience. The ride cycle itself is somewhere between Wicked Twister and Greased Lightnin' with an inversion thrown in for good measure. It goes up the funky lifthill, hangs you upside down, does a little twist into a dive, fly through the station, go halfway up the lifthill, back through the station, all the way up the spike into the twist, back through the station, and back up the lift hill. You are actually braked on the lifthill while perpendicular to the ground, and then slowly returned to the station. Next summer, for us. What's left? Ah yes, Gauntlet. It was an SLC, so...yah. After Gauntlet, the park was filling up at a rapid pace. It turns out that Foreigner had a concert here and thus 40,000+ screaming redneck fans were in force to see them. As the humidity was quickly draining what made us human, we decided to leave a bit early. All in all, a good visit. We'll do a proper one (on a weekday) next Summer. A few negatives: -Arkansans. -One train operation on all coasters, despite huge crowds. -Inefficient ride ops. After every cycle, some minor incident delayed the next cycle. -Arkansans. -Poor enforcement of park rules. Rather, no enforcement. Everyone smoking, despite the park being non-smoking, rampant line-jumping, etc. -Concessions: Only one person in each booth, slow, one attendant talking on cell phone not even greeting customer, etc. -Arkansans. Now, the photos and videos: I have the point-of-view video of the Twister filmed in 16:9 480p30 (DVD Quality) but the original is over 100MB. If you want it, let me know and I'll send it to you some alternate way. The one below is compressed to fit below the 40MB limit. The other two videos are kept in their original quality as their file size is small. edit: It's late, so I'll upload the videos tomorrow evening after work. Matt Everything at Magic Springs is powered by Magic, including this swing. Magic Swings at Magic Springs! This pirate was by far the coolest person we met here, which isn't saying much considering he's inanimate. The Hawk is a fun little floorless inverter. By "fun" I mean "vomit-inducing". This park is quite beautiful. Certainly beats our (now-defunct) Astroworld. We had a couples massage session before coming to the park. Something tells me we should have waited until after our Vekoma "therapy" session. How can such a little boat have such a big splash? Here's the funky upside-down lift hill in all its glory. Recipe for a long line: 1 Brand-new ride, shuttle-like design, 1 12-person train, long load/unload time, long cycle, inefficient ride ops. Bake at 100° and 90% humidity and it's one line I'm not about to stand in. Interesting Fact: Despite its petite stature, this Space Shot is actually triple the size of Disneyland's castle. The car-themed cars fly about 5 feet over your head while in the queue. No brakes= Truely "WILD" mouse! It twists, you slam into the siding and shout. TPR Exclusive! POV of the Twister. Video forthcoming. Exclusive lifthill shot! Arkansas Twister: It's an out-and-back coaster. Don't ask. These fountains might look like spring water, but drink this and you'll die from amoebic dysentery. Just in case you've forgot where you are after driving here and handing out $8 to park, this friendly sign reminds you. The Mountain Tower in downtown Hot Springs might offer a scenic view of the park, provided you have something better than a 3.6x zoom. This is the only photo we have of me considering my hand was attached to the camera most of the trip. No, I don't know why I look cross-eyed. Hot Springs is home to Mean Jesus. Mean Jesus gonna git you (Seriously, doesn't he look pissed off?). Come to scenic Hot Springs: It's like Gatlinburg, only with nothing to do! I didn't know Derek was coming to Texas this weekend!

^ What he said. Keep in mind that a passport will make things easier for you in general. We didn't need a passport to go to Mexico last year but having one saved us time at customs. Matt

Back in 1997 or 1998 (before the whole homeland security initiative) I played an online game tournament in which the winning team was given some first-generation mp3 players (32mb, baby!) from Rio, the sponsor. Our team won, and they collected all our personal information to mail the mp3 players. Mine came in the mail addressed to "stealth bomber" (my screenname from a time long past, a.k.a. junior high) instead of my real name. Somehow I doubt anything addressed with "bomber" in it would be delivered today. Matt

What do you mean there's 0 results for "niiicolaaah"? Yes, privacy is good. Matt