robbalvey

We should have the design back to us within a couple of weeks! --Robb

Craig, there seems to tbe quite a few brakes in the launch area if it rolls back. Yeah, the lift in the middle kind of breaks up the ride, BUT that drop off the lift is actually very good! Decent airtime on that drop. But it is weird that you go up the lift to basically just do the drop and a turn into the brakes. --Robb

Hey everyone! We've just stopped by the hotel to dump our memory stick to the laptop. Powder Keg was AWESOME! It's kind of hard to describe what kind of coaster it is....kind of like a really big "launched mine trian." Two of the hills have some really GREAT moments of airtime. The launch is good, almost like what Storm Runner's is like. Overall, the ride is great! The park was kind enough to let Elissa and I in before opening so we can grab footage and photos on ride. We had a great day, got on all the coasters, and now we're off to Celebration City. We'll have a full update later, but here's a couple of pics from today: Powder Keg gets blaster over the hill! At the top of the second lift hill... Check out all that mess of structure! We got to go inside the structure of the ride and get some cool shots from the ground! Video camera is all ready for POV! Here are on the launch track!

"This is pure snow! It's everywhere! Have you any idea of what the street value of this mountain is?" The Sure Thing

When did they close the kiddie coaster? And why??!! --Robb "Glad we got the credit in 2002!" Alvey

I have to say I'm pretty surprised that out of 46 voters not ONE vote for Silver Bullet. I mean, I'm kind of glad, since personally, I couldn't imagine anyone thinking it was the best invert they'd been on unless it's either the ONLY invert you'd been on or the only other invert you've been on is an SLC! But still surprised given all the 'pro-SB' talk that was going around 2 months ago. --Robb

Hey everyone! So this weekend we were off to Branson, MO to visit Silver Doller City and check out Powder Keg! We arrived into Kansas City airport today 2:30 and immediatly you can see the culture difference from Los Angeles. People will let you merge when you put your blinker on, they understand the language you are speaking at McDonalds, you get an actual response from someone in a retail business, and overall the people here are just more polite. Since there weren't any parks open today, we made this our day to drive down to Branson and get settled...but of course we had to make a pitstop at the Independance Carrabba's location! We passed by Worlds of Fun, waved hello at it knowing we'd be back in a few days. The drive down to Branson wasn't too bad. It's about 3-4 hours. Weather was clear and so was traffic so it was about 3 1/2 getting down here. All the way down we saw the signs that tell you how close you are to Branson.... "Yakov Smirnof says - 40 miles to explosive laughter in Branson!" One of these days we NEED to see that guys show! Just for the hell of it! So we're in our hotel room now (thanks for the free wireless internet access!) and tomorrow we're off to SDC for some Powder Keg! Here are a few pics we took today: Hi there Kristi, have some bread! And thanks for the gift certificate! Screw the coasters, this is the REAL reason for taking this trip! Right next to the Carrabba's was this AWESOME looking Mongolilan BBQ! We might have to try this place this weekend. Here we are driving our cool Ford Focus.....in Michigan?!?!? Hello Worlds of Fun! We'll get back to you later....

"...PC Load Letter....WTF does that mean?!??!" Orgazmo

^ You are trying to say you live on West 3rd Street, right? --Robb "See...I got it!" Alvey

^ What?!??!!? Didn't you see the movies!?? Spider-Man can TOO shoot webs from his wrists! Of course, I only buy that one because he has a ride made after him. Where's the Jesus ride, huh? When there's a "Jesus rose from the dead" simulator, then I'll believe it! --Robb "If I believe in hell, I'd be going there!" Alvey

A place to host photos was actually the main reason. After we did the video contest last year and hosted all those videos, I kept getting loads of requests for photo contests, but being that photos don't take up THAT much bandwidth, at least nowhere near as much as videos, it seemed to make more sense to have a place where people could post LOTS of photos. Then during the Japan trip when we were posting photos everyday really inspired me. Because at that time I was actually using the kind of feature that everyone had been asking for. I looked into several different ways of doing it, and it just seemed that using a forum with an attachement mod was the best way to go. I never expected the forums to take off like they did. Anyway, that's the story! --Robb

THe chopsticks were just completely at random. We weren't even eating chinese food that day! It started out, as pretty much everything does, as something I did to annoy Elissa...then it just took on a mind of it's own... --Robb "It's better not to ask!" Alvey

We normally go for the best of the 'low end' cameras. Mainly because the abuse we put them through every year kills a camera or two, and it's hard to spend that much money on equipment EACH year! At the moment I am using a Sony TRV-18 as a home DV deck, a TRV-19 for shooting off ride, and a HC-30 for onrides. I am, however, looking at the new Sony DV cameras, especially that 16x9 one. We'll see.... --Robb

Well, sorta. Sorta not. Actually...there isn't any sort this or that here. It's a perfect analogy. People who spend the money to travel more, book higher class tickets, rent cars more often, and pay for the luxury services get the privileges that accompany them. And you're wrong about the coach passengers saying "just slip me a $10 and we'll let you on sooner..." because on Delta, for exmaple, you CAN slip them a $50 and somtimes upgrade to First Class is the seats are available. Paying for a fastpass system is no different. Let's face it, you don't agree with the "pay to line jump" systems and that's fine. It's all a matter of opinion. Everyone is entitled to be able to make that choice to either want or not want to pay for a service, and either be frustrated or not frustrated with those jumping the line in front of them who chose to purchase that option. It's not as though getting to bypass the line isn't something that EVERYONE can do. It's availalbe to anyone in the park. Just like a 1st class seat is available to anyone on the plane. We live in an elitist society, that's just a fact of life. So the person who ponies up the money to stay at Royal Pacific at Universal gets unlimited Express Pass and the guy at Motel 6 doesn't. Why is that a bad thing? If it weren't for that option I would stay at the Motel 6 everytime I go to Universal during peak periods also. But since I know I will get better SERVICE by spending the extra money at the resort hotel, I will go for that option. That being said, Elissa and I must be in the minority here since we prefer to use any 'pay for line jumping' system when it is offered. In fact, we will probably patronize a park MORE that has a fastpass or Qbot type of service more than one that doesn't. I don't mean to sound like we are being elitist or anything, but if we can make it so we don't have to stand in line...we won't. Now we're also not the type of people who show up mid-day through a park and just buy the fastpass because we were too lazy to get there when the park opens, that's not us at all. We show up to parks ASS EARLY, get in as much as possible, and THEN purchase the line jumping option if needed. Basically if a park has lines longer than 20-30 minutes for major rides and they have a pay service available, we are there! Overall, most parks we don't get the opportunity to visit very often, so why spend all that money to travel to far away destinations only to spend most of that time waiting in line? I certianly don't fall within that "rich" category that you've carved out that anyone who buys a fastpass service automatically falls into, but I don't feel the least bad about purchasing such a service or staying the more expensive hotel that offers it. I work pretty damn hard for my salary just like the next person does, and if I choose to purchase a 'first class' option, I'm not going to feel the least bit bad for the person who doesn't. We pick and choose our 'first class' service options. Like Elissa said, we fly coach, we stay in cheap motels when there isn't an Express option, we rent small compact cars, we eat mostly at fast food, but when it comes to the parks, which is the core of our hobby, we want the best service we can possibly get. And if $15 to $25 each is going to make my day better and increase my overall experience, it's a small price to pay compared to the cost of just getting to the park. --Robb "This is just my opinion...nobody is right or wrong for disagreeing wiht it." Alvey

Well, it looks as though I got my first dose of reality that "there isn't a good webhost" out there today. We have been having problems with members uploading .zip files, then some members not being able to download them. The webhost tells me it is due to problems with zip software being out of sync, but my feeling is that the problem lies with the host as I can successfuly zip and unzip a file, but once I upload it, I can no longer unzip it within Windows XP, I *have* to use winrar. This is the response I got from my host: Nice, huh? Good thing they were helpful! I have attached a test .zip file to this post, if you have the time, can you download it and see if you can get it to unzip with any de-compression programs you might have, and post back and tell me if it worked or didn't work, and what software you used to extract it. Thanks for your help! --Robb test.zip

Yeah, it was well worth the $25 to basically be able to "throw the map away, go where you want, and have a good time." It had nothing to do with being "thrifty" or not. Trust me, the way we go through parks we are the most efficient park-goers out there! But at time like HHN, I don't want to have to worry about it AND it meant that if we wanted re-rides, we could. We saved our Express passes for after we were being 'thrifty'. We do the stay and scream, then we made a very efficient run through the park, got on most rides and mazes, then as the lines grew we went through mazes and rode things twice. For just $25 we doubled the experience we would have normally otherwise had without express passes. The longest queue we waited in last year was...um....zero! We didn't wait in any queues! --Robb

^ LOL! I thought you would apprecaite that! There were actually SEVERAL frames I grabbed that would have been perfect for the thumbnail! Here's another one, but it didn't read too well as 'postage stamp' size....

So looking into this .zip file problem more, it does seem that .zip files can be opened just fine using winrar from http://www.rarlab.com/ just fine. I'm working with the new webhost to figure out why .zip files in Windows XP are not working since they worked just fine with the old webhost. --Robb "I really don't want to have to change hosts again, but I will if I have to." Alvey

So looking into this .zip file problem more, it does seem that .zip files can be opened just fine using winrar from http://www.rarlab.com/ just fine. I'm working with the webhost to figure out why .zip files in Windows XP are not working. --Robb

So looking into this .zip file problem more, it does seem that .zip files can be opened just fine using winrar from http://www.rarlab.com/ just fine. I'm working with the webhost to figure out why .zip files in Windows XP are not working. --Robb

Interesting....so both of the above files, as well as Angry Gumball's original file I can open with winrar just fine. But if I try to use winzip that comes with XP it does not work. Even more interesting is that I took the working .nltrack file, compressed it with both XP's zip and rar and was able to successfully extract both of them just fine. But then I uploaded them, then downloaded it again, and it didn't work with XP's zip which worked JUST FINE before I uploaded them. I can, however, still extract these files using winrar. There must be something happening that is corrupting the file when it gets sent to the server. I'm looking into this more.... --Robb

Testing this upload using rar to zip.... Round 1-Landslide-rartest.zip

Testing this upload using XP's winzip.... Round 1-Landslide-test.zip

It was just more a thought at random this morning when I saw we had user #700....Wasn't about any kind of record or benchmark or anything. --Robb "That's why this is the 'Random' board!" Alvey

Congrats Calcajun! You are member number 700!!! To celebrate this momentous occasion you win... YOUR VERY OWN TOPIC ABOUT BEING USER NUMBER 700!!!! YAY!!!!!!! --Robb "And thanks to everyone for helping make the forums a success!" Alvey