Scaparri

Awesome TR! I past by a lot of billboards for this thing on my way to and from Florida last week. I love marine life so I definately hope to check this place out! I'm just stunned they have a whale shark... two for that matter. I'll have to drop by next time I'm in town.

A really big donkey petting zoo.

Being single is really lonely.

UPDATE: The night we got into Orlando, we went and checked out Old Town. This was nothing like what I expected. For starters, the place was packed! I think we ended up parking in the lawn of a hotel. I never imagined this place would be so popular. It wasn't really a park. More like a miniature town filled with novelty shops and a permanent carnival. Because it was a Saturday night, they had a massive car show which was actually pretty cool. It was definately a neat place, just nothing like what I imagined. The following day, I headed over to SeaWorld. I hadn't been to SeaWorld since I was like 6 or 7. I forgot how much I love the place. I was really impressed. The animal exhibits were great as always, the Shamu show was great, the rides were stellar, and the park was just really clean and well themed. It's not your full blown rides theme park, but nevertheless, it's one of my favorites. It was a great day at SeaWorld. Stay tuned tomorrow for IOA! I finally lost my Carrabba's virginity! Sorry for the blurriness. Stay tuned for IOA tomorrow! One more shot of the awesome Kraken. This is the real reason I came to SeaWorld. The Shamu bar. My was it tasty. Feeding and petting a dolphin was definately a highlight. Dolphins always look so happy. I definately don't remember SeaWorld being so nice. I mean, it was by no means a craphole before, but I was really impressed this time. The manatee is pretty much my favorite animal. The Shamu show is so awesome. This animal that weighs more than my car is jumping completely out of the water. I wonder if it hurts when they land? I like to call this the money shot. Kraken was incredible. And yeah, the zero-g roll was righteous. Kraken definately set a pretty high mark for the rest of the Florida coasters to match. How would they fair? The Main Event! I was pretty pumped to ride this bad boy. Up until this point, I had never experienced a zero-g roll outside of inverts. I had heard it was a completely different experience. Yeah, San Diego got the shaft. Atlantis was pretty cool. Definately my favorite wet ride of the trip. SeaWorld!!!! I was really excited to finally go back to this place. Partly because marine animals rock, and partly because of two awesome looking rides. Never in my lifetime will I bring myself to pay $40 to ride this terror contraption. Maybe if it were $20. G-Force was quite impressive looking, but once again, not forking out $30. There she is! If the Shelby Cobra was a woman, I'd make sweet sweet love to her all night long. I kind of hoped Windstorm would be similar to Runaway Mountain at SFOT. It had it's moments but didn't really compare. That near vertical drop is wicked awesome though. Wow, the picture actually turned out decent. Because the shutter speed is so slow on night mode, my pictures are generally very blurry.

I'm really getting irritated with constantly getting called in to work. It happens all the time, and usually at really bad times, but it's not like I have any legit excuse not to go in. I know they don't have much more help and generally really need me. It's just getting frustrating when I'm trying to catch up on sleep or am looking forward to having a night off and I get called in. It's a great job and they are really lax about letting me off work (in advance) whenever I go somewhere, but it's just starting to get a little ridiculous.

Alright, so I originally had this big plan of a crazy solo cross-country road trip that was to take place in March. Well, that was until my mom and I were offered to use a friend's timeshare for a week. I've been to Florida as many times as years I am alive, but have only been to MGM, Epcot, MK, and SeaWorld. Not to mention, the last time I went to SeaWorld was 1992. How could I turn down the offer? So for the next few days, you'll see my week in paradise that was filled with theme parks, coasters, and lots of really funny lookin' critters. Segment 1 After a long drive down to Valdosta, GA on the first day, I was finally able to visit Wild Adventures for the first time on the second day. I was really surprised by this park. For what it is, it's a really clean and well themed park with a nice collection of rides. Unfortunately, a lot of those rides were closed, including Boomerang and Power Surge, despite being a Saturday. That was quite disappointing, but you can't get everything you want. I did finally get to try out a Screamin' Swing, which was a lot of fun. Nothing stellar, but a solid ride. I would never pay extra for it though. Overall, it was a fun couple of hours. I definately recommend a stop if you're ever in the area. Stay tuned, for tomorrow (and by tomorrow I really mean later today) will be Old Town, X Games-worthy whales, and much much more! Holy crap! Is this actually our room? I mean, I know these time share places are supposed to be nice, but wow! The tv is more expensive than my car! How many times do you walk into your hotel room and suddenly feel like you're rich? Normally, I'd smile a bit more, but I guess you could say I'm still bitter. Either way, it was nice to visit the campus again. Go Gators!! After a couple hours at Wild Adventures it was time to head home... kinda. I love this state. Hooray for another Vekoma! The ride op actually threatened to kick me off the ride because I was wearing a UF shirt. I like to pretend I'm a good photographer, when in all reality, I just take a crap-ton of pictures and every once in a while one isn't too bad. I'm a cheap skate. I just picked up the spilled food near the dispenser. I was also just too lazy to go break a dollar. Llamas are cool. I made some new friends at Wild Adventures. Crikey! What is that over yonder!?... Wild Adventures sure likes Vekoma. That right there, is a giant friggin' alligator. I had never actually seen a full sized gator in real life. Now I was staring one down 5 feet away. Sure there's a fence between us, but wow, that thing is a beast. They had some guys welding the loop or something. Whatever it was, it didn't look like it was going to open within the next hour or so. Dang it! First missed credit of the trip! Boomerang was closed. If you ever need reassurance that Gerstlauer trains suck, just go check out Cheetah at Wild Adventures. It could be an awesome ride if it weren't for those trains. First up was Hangman, which actually wasn't bad for an SLC. By no means smooth, but still the smoothest SLC I've ridden in the last several years. Yay! First park of the trip! Wild Adventures. My momma and I at the Nickajack Reservoir near Chattanooga, a family tradition when driving to FL. Yes, driving is the only way. You miss all the fun and excitement when you fly.

I love the Olympics, especially the winter games. I'm not sure what time of day most of the coverage will air, but I'm hoping to catch a lot of it. I'm really looking forward to the games coming to Vancouver in 2010. I was really disappointed I never got to go out the the Salt Lake City in '02. Hopefully I'll be done with school before the 2010 games so I can go check it out for a few days. As for this year specifically, I'd like to see the U.S. hockey team do well, but I really don't see it happening. I think there were a few bad choices made in the player selection and we just don't look really strong. We don't terrible, but definately don't look like a medal contender to me. I hope I'm wrong.

So, where along the birth canal do they become "alive"? What about C-sections? Premature births? - they aren't fully developed but they often seem to survive! - Joe, who's not bashing anyone, just asking questions This is a very touchy subject, but I have a lot of views about it. I don't really feel it should be completely outlawed. One good point Kerry made during his campaign is that he doesn't think rape victims should be forced to carry the resulting baby. They never wanted it, it never meant to happen, and I personally wouldn't want to be reminded of such an event every day of my life. Teen abortions can really go either way. I don't think it's right for horny, idiotic teens to get their oops erased. They screwed up and they should deal with the consequences. However, I think it's unfair to bring a child into a situation like that. My neighbor had a kid when she was 15 and I watched how he was brought up and I wouldn't wish anything like that on upon any child. Granted, these children don't always have that sort of up bringing, but it seems to occur all too often. However, I still don't know if I could support teen abortion in those instances. For rape cases, I think it should be allowed, especially seeing how the victim generally knows that they are pregnant fairly early. The other cases though, I definately lean toward no. Anyway, I know that's a bit off the subject. Just wanted to say my bit.

Be gone with the wanker. We stand by his side through the entire brawl ordeal and what does he do? Requests a freakin' trade. I could come up with a lot of names to call him right now. Hopefully Peja will step up though. He's a pretty darn good player. It's going to be rough for him starting out though with O'Neal out for 8 weeks with the torn groin.

"Stay (Wasting Time)" by Dave Matthews Band

^Snap! I was there on Tuesday. I know what you mean with the water though. It's such an awesome effect to look at, but you can't see it on the train. Even when I sat in the back row and looked back, I still had a hard time seeing the plumes of water. I must say, the funniest thing to see is a group of people walk into the "splash zone" completely obvlivious to what is about to happen to them.

Just tried out the Starflyer yesterday. What a crazy, scary ride. It was a bit intimidating swinging so fast so high off the ground. Awesome ride though. -Scott "I'm going to deficate in my pants on Insanity in March" Parrish

I just got back from my week long Florida trip and it rocked. Hopefully, I'll get a PTR going in the next day or so. On a bad note, my camera crapped out.

I'm off to Florida in the morning. Talk to everybody in a week!

Between GL and Kennywood, you have to go with Kennywood. It's an enthusiast must. The park is so unique and has an amazing atmosphere. Phantom's Revenge alone is worth the stop.

"You know what, that really grinds my gears. Where exactly in the bible does it say a man can't fire off some knuckle children in the privacy of his own neighbor's living room while his neighbor is at work 'cause I don't have a dvd player. Well, I don't know where it says it because the bible is way too long to read."

This things looks better and better with each update. As the La Ronde's, I think the drop looks pretty awesome, but it looks to me like Walter and Claude lost their imagination when they designed that ride. If you look at the layout, it doesn't really do much besides bunny hops. I don't doubt that it'll be a fun ride. It's just fairly simplistic.

As for the ones I've been on, I'd have to say the Robocoaster when it's on its most extreme level. It'll do anything you can imagine and you never know what's coming next. Robocoaster at Mt. Olympus.

Yeah, I totally understand that, and instances like that, I'm glad they exist. I'm just generalizing as I mainly refer to the girls that come in the store that already weigh like 90 lbs and blatantly tell me they are on a diet.

^Thanks a lot Lou! Hijacking #3 For all you water park goers, is Wet 'n' Wild worth it? It looks like a lot of fun, but i'm also not sure how warm it's going to be when I'm there. Keep in mind, that if I go, I'll probably have to visit this one alone. I'm not sure how many group slides and junk it has. Thanks again.

"Beyond The Gray Sky" by 311. Such awesomeness.

The ProSlide Tornado is the Vekoma Boomerang of water parks. They sell like crazy, look cool, and fit into a small space, but in reality, really aren't that good.

"And I'll take up smoking and then give that up."

Yeah, I find it slightly humorous and sad, at the same time, that nobody seems to really care about this project. After years of rumors and hopes, it finally happens but nobody pays attention. Sure, it has some similarities to Talon, and B&M hasn't been building a great deal of stellar rides in the last year or two, but this thing still looks pretty solid. I hope it turns out to be a really good ride.

"Yes! And I bet you lost your virginity to a mechanical bull. Now change me!"