Mechanic

Thanks for the media day pictures and video. I hadn't spent a great deal of time comparing the differences between the Florida and California versions of the attraction, so I had just assumed that since WDW's TSM had FastPass, so would this one. I guess that's not the case. Or, did I just miss pictures of FastPass machines? I checked Disney's site and they don't mention anything about FastPass for it either.

From the youtube POV, no, I wouldn't wait an hour and a half for that ride. I'd ride it just to say I did if the line was a half hour or less. Unless I'm missing something, that ride just doesn't look like it does much at all.

NFL: Dallas Cowboys in the NFC and Oakland Raiders in the AFC. NBA: LA Lakers MLB: Oakland A's NHL: San Jose Sharks NCAA Football: USC Trojans

I guess they're considering those "inversions" on Afterburner because it lists the ride as having 2 inversions. That seems a little odd to me after having seen that they list SFDK's V2 as having 0 inversions. Oh well. By the way... Did anyone notice the nice legs on the girl near the bottom left corner of the first picture? I did.

Hopefully Gasol's balls will drop between now and next season.

The flames on the trains add at least a couple style points.

Wow, that was really hard to watch. Although I hate to say it... Congratulations to the Boston Celtics and their fans.

^ The guy from S&S at WCB said the cushioned arms would give the ride a "floating" feeling, like you were flying. I'd also imagine it would help smooth out the ride. I don't think it looks like an engineering nightmare at all. The concept is relatively simple. There's not anywhere near as much going on in these trains as there is on a 4th dimension ride like X2. I honestly don't understand the negative take some people have on this idea. Maybe it's not the next great thing, but at least they're promoting new ideas. With a nice terrain - hugging layout, I think this could be a great ride.

^ Yeah, what he said. That game looked liked the Lakers were just delaying the inevitable rather than taking charge. Although... If they can somehow squeak out a win on Tuesday... (Tries to keep hope alive)

Between the bouncing arms that the ride vehicles are attached to, and the over-under flips that they'd do on the inline twists, I think it could be a great ride and possibly more thrilling than it looks. I don't understand the comment about serious lateral Gs. Since the ride vehicles pivot on the arm of the train, they would swing and therefore create positive Gs around corners.

What? You mean there's no conspiracy theory that the league is going to order the officials to stretch this to 7 games by any means necessary? Seriously though... I realize I'm dreaming here, but just imagine that somehow the Lakers can push this to a game 7, and they seem to be aided by "timely" calls from the officials. What a shite storm that would be!

It was pretty fun for a little while, but I became bored with it fairly quickly. The slow loading was a little off-putting as well.

Incomprehensible.

Very nice PTR. Thanks for sharing. By the way, has it ever been mentioned to you that you bear an uncanny resemblance to Beau Bridges? I'm not kidding either. Take a look: Beau Bridges... And Beau Bridges again! Anyhow, thanks again. I enjoyed the pictures and the witty narrative.

I find her occasionally funny, but never really - gasping for air because I'm laughing so hard - funny. She comes across with a little too much of that - I'm smarter than most people - attitude that way too many comics have already. She is semi-hot, but I just don't get the people that think she's OMG-hot. Different stroke for different folks I guess.

I actually do know just exactly how long Kings fans waited for that year. I went in with 5 other friends and/or co-workers on a pair of season tickets for about 10 years, starting with the first year the Kings moved to Sacramento. Eventually, for several reasons, I decided to no longer go in on the season ticket deal, but I did still attend at least 2 or 3 games a season. I almost always go to at least 1 Kings/Lakers game at Arco, although I didn't this season. Yes, I'm a Lakers fan first, and was long before the Kings ever came to Sacramento, but over the years I've done more than my fair share to support the local team as well. Some small part of me may have actually even wanted to see the Kings win that series and go the finals, but deep down I knew it probably wouldn't happen. It didn't. And like I said before, the Kings had plenty of chances to win that series. If they really want to find who's to blame, they only need to look in a mirror. Or, they can just come to grips with the fact that destiny has chosen them to be perennial also-rans.

^ Any of them. Maybe start with the Purple Mickey at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom park. Do be sure you have updated to the newest version Google Earth first though. Here's the Disney web page that describes the feature: disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/special/flashPages/index?id=GoogleEarthPage&CMP=OTC-3dparksVanity

I fix things that are broken.

Donaghy is nothing more than the douche de jour. I wouldn't believe that guy if he told me the sky is blue. Think about it for a minute... If the NBA really wanted the Lakers instead of the Kings enough to "fix" the series, then why didn't they also "fix" the Eastern series that year so it would have been Lakers/Celtics instead of Lakers/Nets? Kings fans can, and probably will, cry forever about that Western finals loss to LA, but the fact of the matter is that they had plenty of opportunities to put the Lakers away but just didn't get it done. The way they played the end of game 7 was pathetic. They deserved to lose. Officiating in the NBA is what is. It generally favors superstar players and home teams and has for as long as I can remember. Everyone knows it and everyone deals with it. It all balances out in the end and the best teams still win.

1 down, 3 to go.

Google Earth has a new feature as well. Get the latest update, 4.3, then type in "Disney World". Once you zoom in close enough to see the Mickey ears, click them and let the magic begin.

Although I've never really noticed anyone bash it, I rarely see Roar at SFDK getting much love from coaster enthusiasts. I'm not going to try to claim it's the be all - end all of coasters, but I think it provides a very good ride with a nice fast pace and it isn't excessively rough or shaky.

In the case of this incident, no big deal at all. It's great to see that the system did work as designed to prevent anything more unfortunate from happening. However, from what I've read about the SFKK accident, the key element that failed in that ride's safety system was an operator that didn't know what to do. Had the SFKK ride been equipped similarly to the one that's the subject of this thread, it seems likely that accident could have also simply been a relatively harmless incident as well.

Ok, I'm a little worried now. 3 in a row at home would make me feel a whole lot better.

Perhaps RRollergod is a prophet?