the ghost

^^ Beautiful! Awesome work! Glad I inspired you!

As you guys remember this was a design... but then I lost inspiration and decided to make this a park instead. Story: Medieval Times, one of the most popular family entertainment companies has decided to try their hand at theme parks. The park in question is known as Camelot Gardens and is a theme park that is themed similarly to medieval times. The small park is filled with three roller coasters, two coasters for the family and one for the older kids, but other themed rides and attractions are on the way. SCR4.BMP Outside the entrance, nothing too special! SCR5.BMP I am VERY proud of the inside however. SCR6.BMP Joust(colors subject to change. I am planning on hackiung it so there is no fence so I can build a wall or something when it goes up and down. It's hard to describe what I want, but I know what to do... lol. SCR7.BMP I am not entirely happy with everything in the surrounding area, but here is a little teaser of Ryu. SCR9.BMP I don't want to show the full layout up close because it is not ready to be shown, but this is a progress shot of the entire "park."

Great taste in music IMO! Mines made by... I believe his name is Taytig when he used to make these. It's Apollo and Tatsu. Apollo is my #2 and Tatsu was my #1 but my #1 is now Riddler so it's a little inaccurate, but I don't believe he takes orders anymore so I figure I'll keep it my avatar, at least for a bit since it's sort of rare. I know this is a little off topic, and I may be the only one, but does anyone else have a previous avatar they are now a little embarrassed about? I used to have the Slipknot symbol, and although I do still listen to the unholy 9 I am nowhere near the slipknot super fan I once was! I need to change my interests on my profile at some point... lol.

Ghost is back, back again! Ghost is back, tell a friend! Ghost is back Ghost is back Ghost is back Ghost is back! SCR2.BMP Not too much to show, but the entrance to Wagon Wheel Theme Park! It's named after a local park near my house! This is a WIP... more detailing and stuff will be added, but I have not had a park in a while so I want this to be my best!

I like the color and it looks like it will use the terrain! Very cool looking!

Best: Matterhorn(especially Tomorrowland side) The splash is such an iconic as well as unique ending for any coaster... very cool and still my favorite of the splash elements just because I like the waters placement around the mountain. I will give Tomorrowland side the edge because there are two small drops that are steep... one of the 2 is right before the water splash and one is a bit before it. Monte(if it counts): Really easily for me the second best ride at the park... and pretty close to Accelerator as best ride in the park. I love how there is amazing airtime in both the front and back and how both the front and back pack a serious punch. That moment of airtime in the back as you fly through the station is pretty easily my choice for the most insane ending I have ever experienced. It is aggressive and at the same time COMPLETELY INSANE! Full of awesome! Riddler, Space Mountain, Silver Bullet for reasons everyone said... also Ghostrider if it were smoother. Worst: Ninja: Need I say more? Accelerator: Not a bad ending per se, but the tophat is the best part of the ride by far. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the speed and all that, but I like airtime and that's what the tophat does for me. Possibly BTM: I like the front seat for the airtime and both the other lifts provide air and descent drops, the final one does not. HOWEVER this is just a grade based on the ride experience! I LOVE the dinosaur canyon and theming after the lift, it is just the least interesting part of the ride.

For years I have been anti Cedar Fair making fun of trashcans and what not and the lack of themed attractions and crews and at the same time was pro Six Flags. Honestly West Coast Bash showed how wrong I was and I am now COMPLETELY reversed in my original opinion. Literally the only complaint I had at Knotts was the Ghost Town music, but the park is looking better, the staff was great... etc. Both parks are still pretty far from perfect, but Six Flags is declining fast and Cedar Fair is improving greatly!

I saw The Avengers. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't what it was hyped up to be either. I like super heroes and felt Loki's army was kinda dumb. I liked all the scenes with Loki though. The movie was entertaining... just not necessarily what it was hyped up to be. I would give it a B... maybe even a B+, but Cabin in the Woods still got an A and is still my favorite movie of the year.

^ Thank you! I am in an amazing mood in general. We had the debate graduation banquet at Dave and Busters and after a few of us stayed til 11 playing games... that was tons of fun. Tomorrow, however, will probably be one of my favorite days ever! I am getting to Disney at noon. At 3:30 a friend of mine is meeting me at Downtown Disney AMC to see The Avengers, which should be awesome as I am becoming a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The finale to an overall awesome day may be the best part. I am seeing Suburban Legends, an awesome ska band I have seen more times then I can can count, at Tomorrowland Terrace playing four sets between 7 and 11, which is when the park closes! BEST DAY EVER!

Everything looks amazing! If everything goes "according to plan" and I get a job this Summer I may be able to make a reservation in late August before my pass expires.

Gay marriage bans are really starting to piss me off... and this is coming from a straight person. I understand the religious issues people have... but is that really an argument? I can accept the fact that people are against it as the way people have been raised for years is that being gay is unnatural or even wrong... and although those views bother me people can believe what they want. I do, however, find it absolutely revolting that people will choose religion over the potential MAJOR PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE that young people(for the most part)face. People commit suicide, people are bullied, people are terrified of their parents finding out who they really are because they will be disowned. I have nothing against religion, I was raised in a Christian household but am currently agnostic and my parents are relatively right wing conservatives and although they believe in marriage between a man and a woman they have always taught me to not look down on anyone for anything, and despite their beliefs it would not really bother them if equal marriage laws passed.

Wow... that article Dave posted... creepy. I am a "Disneyland regular" going once or twice a week usually, but I don't really collect anything... I buy a pin now and then but my grand total is less than 10 pins and I don't really trade because I only get pins I really like and I don't care about sets. I will occasionally notice things like new planters, but not usually and I have no idea what any plant is anywhere in the Disneyland Resort besides the few behind the winery which are labeled. I should show this to my parents... they think I am a full on fanatic cause I go often... but I never really go for more than a few hours. I will go all day once or twice a year with friends... but that's quite a rare occurrence. I feel a little less nerdy now... and for the record as a Disney fanboy the restaurant and all aspects of the restaurant look good. Now for a brief "TR" because somethings up at Disney. I was at the park this morning from 9am until 1pm and there is some sort of "super glitch" apparently happening nation wide. It's probably fixed now... but it seemed important. They could not scan passes... like they were checking them, but they could not verify it with the scanners. There were also no fastpasses which made lines AWFUL! It wasn't too crowded, but it was crowded for an off season Monday. The lack of fastpasses made it so everyone waited in every line as opposed to coming back later which in turn makes every line longer. Also they were not allowing use of credit cards... which is a pretty big issue. I would have been kind of screwed for lunch if I hadn't been carrying 10$ with me. Is this still going on? I would assume it's fixed... but by the same token it was down the entire four hours we were there, which is not too long but loss of credit cards means a huge lack of sales for Disney as well as a bunch of agitated cashless guests. Lastly in this very long post I went on Mermaid. I kind of agree with Robb... nothing needed to be done, but I appreciated it none the less. The animation additions were my favorite part, but I was still not a huge fan of her hair... I liked the original hair because it was the way it was in the movie. I like how it flows behind her now though... honestly hair didn't ruin the ride, but it also did not really improve the ride.

^ You have the oddest taste I have ever seen. Louis CK is probably my personal favorite, Dane Cook and Kevin James are awful... lol. I used to like Dane Cook though so in a way I have to give him credit, because I started listening to standup after I bought my first Dane Cook CD. Anyway, I am very much into Paul F Thompkins at the moment. I am actually excited for the comedy awards tonight... I also love between two ferns, so that should be a lot of fun. For those who like standup and podcasts I very much recommend comedy bang bang on earwolf.com. It is an amazing show with tons of standups... I have been introduced to so many standups thanks to that site!

Flying insects besides Butterflies, Ladybugs, and even though they freak me out a little(even though they do nothing to you) dragon flies are kind of cool. I know I am not the only one here who has RAN from a wasp or bee terrified... that's some scary ####! Also I can't remember who does this joke, but there is some standup who(like me) gets scared by moths cause they can be huge, but they you get mad at the moth cause it scared you. I remember when I was at camp and there were like a thousand moths in the guys bathroom cause it was the only place with easily accessible lights and they were EVERYWHERE! I also hate Spiders and most other ground insects, but I hate flying insects more just because I have never gotten a spider bite or anything and I have been stung by a bee. I really hate all insects, though!

I don't really cook, but anything with Ron Swanson in it gets my immediate approval! Well done, sir!

So I posted in say something random how I was nervous for my speech competition that was yesterday. And I got... SILVER MEDALS IN BOTH EVENTS!!!!!! It's no gold, but I was the second best speaker out of at least 20 people! I am happy enough with that!

This actually looks pretty awesome... especially for a value resort. I am quite impressed/happy with the room detail... actually very cool.

Wow! That video... even this entire plan. This is like the most ambitious project EVER! I can't think of a single American(maybe even international) amusement park that offers hiking, fishing, and horseback riding. All three of those activities in an amusement park can get you VERY EASILY sued by sue happy Americans. Then there's the paintball... cause really who doesn't want to wear three layers of clothing(so it doesn't hurt when you get hit) and then enjoy a nice Texas summer day covered in paint. Is this honestly real? It felt like a project or something to me...

My in class read through of the speech I mentioned from a few pages above went pretty well. I do need to work on my memorization quite a bit, but for the most part the people I was giving it to seemed to enjoy it. Now I just need to work on a few basic "fundamentals" of comedy as it is a comedic speech. For example I had not read it in front of a large audience before so others laughter made me laugh which is not good to do in competition. Honestly though I am VERY proud of myself... this is my last speech competition. I went from a rookie debater with no idea how to publicly speak to a junior debater(junior is two ranks up from rookie... meaning I have won four medals) as well as a competitor in Independent events!

^ Congratulations? Lol. I have younger twin sisters so yeah... you'll be VERY busy for a VERY long time... lol.

May I ask what the spinny thing is at the 32 second mark? Is that the (I want to say it's called a fish eye) from Robb's IAPPA coverage? It looks pretty cool!

Yeah... don't like lists like this at all. Fear is VERY subjective. I will ride any ride for the most part besides maybe a SCAD tower... which I also may ride after a bit of self convincing. Measuring a coaster based on height is also dumb to me because in my opinion certain elements of coasters are what add to intensity. For example, X isn't scary because it is very tall, it is scary because it is kinda tall and you take the first drop upside down. However I also agree that as enthusiasts we probably don't get the feel of fear so maybe we can't really say what is scary for the average person. Height does scare some people and is enough to turn them off... same goes with speed... so maybe that is the "scariest" coaster in the world... I don't know. My personal benchmark for "fear" is forcefulness because I appreciate a forceful coaster, but I also know I have to ride Batman a bot more defensively that something like Scream. Another benchmark is roughness... for example on Viper and Revolution I put my head in a specific place to avoid potential pain. Point is everyone has criteria on what makes a ride "scary."

^ Thanks for the advice. We don't write scripts for debate, which is why I am a good debater... I have the ability to think on my feet in the short time we have for prep. A platform speech, however, is structured in a way where a script is necessary. I am following your advice, however, and although I am following the layout and structure of the script I am trying my best not to worry if it is not necessarily word for word. The good part about writing it is I can paraphrase what I wrote. The VERY important part is sources and structure... if I memorize my sources and memorize my structure I should be golden.

I am so nervous right now. I guess this could be viewed as a rant, but in my opinion rants are angry and I am not, just nervous. I am on my schools forensics(speech and debate) team and I am performing my first platform speech, meaning I wrote it almost 100% on my own, I wrote in all the jokes... etc. It's making me flip out a bit though... I am a debater... the prospect of actually giving a speech I wrote and not a case or a point I wrote in less than 20 minutes is freaking me out. Now to memorize, memorize, memorize. Any other speech and debaters out there with tips? I have memorized things before for random school project, and while I realize school is competitive this is a competition with winners and losers. I would LOVE(MORE THAN ANYTHING) to take home a gold medal. I have a few bronze medals, but have never taken gold...

Granted, but this thread may get locked due to being relatively pointless. I wish I was more awesome!