USCoaster

The DVD Wii has been confirmed by Nintendo as coming to the USA and Japan in Jan. or Feb. They did the smart thing and sent out a press release a week before the Wii hit the streets so that people couldn't complain that Nintnedo was releasing a better version just months after the initial release.

I've been to Pahrump and I would rather move to Tijuana than get on the same page as those people.

I know there have been some comments about the decline of the theme between the versions of JTA, and when I first saw the renderings for the San Antonio ride, I was a bit disappointed. After thinking about it some more, I think I almost like the new design better than the San Diego version. After all of the work they put in the Florida version, the San Diego version looks like a bunch of painted grain silos with some coaster track. I think the are trying a different approach here because the San Diego version wasn't as successful as the designers had hoped. Instead of paying to theme up, hopefully the rest of the surrounding area will get some nice theming.

Great pics. Glad you are having fun. Its interesting seeing all the buildings that were under construction in Berlin when I was there. I know that we saw the new train station under construction. I think they had the structure for the vaults up at the time. And we made a special detour to check out the I.M. Pei museum because the Berlin Architecture guide we had listed it and so we assumed it was complete. When I was there, they had all of the steel for the stair up, but no glass. Berlin wasn't part of our semester, so it was just 3 of us wandering the city for 3 days. (Our trips were Paris , a Garden tour, and Barcelona and Bilbao, Spain.) Enjoy the rest of your trip, and try to spend a day or two in Paris before you leave. Christmas in Paris was absolutely stunning.

I had missed Python during my first visit to BGT in 2000 so I was glad I got to ride it when I visited BGA last Friday. I was very impressed with the ride's surroundings. Very scenic and good at distracting you from the slightly painful ride.

I am going to Universal Studios and IOA on Thursday the 26th. We are planning on trying to wipe out both parks with our focus in the Studios being MIB and Mummy. I was wondering if we should buy the Universal Express pass to get all the major rides in or should we be fine without it? I am thinking that it might be worth the extra money if we can make sure we get on all of the major attractions and then we can head back and re-ride anything we want to later. We are skipping HHN because it doesn't fit in our schedule and since both my friend and I have never been to either park, we are focusing on the rides this trip.

I went to my Gamestop and they had 12 pre-orders available. And I was #14 in line. Of course, I got there right at 10 when they opened so I didn't waste too much time waiting. I would have been there earlier, but I had a meeting at work I had to attend. Does anybody know when/if Best Buy is doing pre-orders?

Gerald was awesome. He's a very cool person and great to have involved in the program. He was always the person who held the program together with all of the visiting professors we had over the semester. Every time someone new would come, we would start over with site analysis because they thought we hadn't done it right. Gerald would just sit back and shake his head. I would tell you to tell him I said hi, but I haven't talked to him since I was there in 2001 so I feel like a bit of an .

All those pictures of Saintes make me sad. I miss that town so much. I'm glad you are enjoying your trip. It was probably the most fun semester I had during my stay at USC.

If I was still in SoCal, I would love to do this. Maybe its a death wish or something, but I would be there.

If the child didn't have something wrong already, this guarantees she will be more messed up than her parents.

I thought they named it after Richard Gere....

I assume the gerbil in one of the picks is named Richard for a reason...

Just so everyone knows, if you take your Animal Crossing to Toys'R'Us this week, they are giving away 6 special items from the Mario Bros. theme. Instructions are on nintendo.com and should be in store too. Imagine my suprise when I found out a Monkey moved into my town today. It turns out that along with the Mario Bros. items, one of the special monkey's will move into your town after you get your gift.

It really doesn't suprise me that Roar! derailed last fall. I only made it down to Marine World once last year, but both of my rides on Roar! were absolutely brutal. I think they were getting very close to Psyclone levels of roughness. As for the GCI trains vs. the PTC's that Roar! East runs... I think I might like the PTC's slightly better. The GCI trains track too nicely on the curvey track (last year was an exception) while the PTC's have this insane shuffling that make the ride feel out of control. Sure its rougher, but I think it ups the thrills on the ride.

I'm sure they would if they could get more Americans to watch pro-football. (The real kind...not that American crap). But very few people watch it here so I guess its not worth making up our own world championship. Instead, we send our players, do lots of news reports about how big it will be if we win the World Cup, then be all dissapointed when we get outclassed on the field. Its a fun life!

A miracle would be nice, but I think I will settle with them playing some decent football. And to flyby208. My last post was more harassment than anything else. After your comment about the US team, I just had to rub it in. I highly doubt America could win the World Cup anytime soon. And if they play like they did against the Czechs, I doubt we will make it out of the first round. The team just doesn't seem to have the ability to play at the same level as the powerhouse teams.

USA's loss was sad because they are able to play so much better than that. There is a reason they were ranked so high in the FIFA poll. Unfortunately, that team wasn't on the field today. As for that little jab by flyby208... Let me remind you that the only reason England has 3 points is because the player from Paraguay scored for you guys. Back to the pathetic performance by Team USA today... Does it bother anyone else that coach Bruce Arena just sits there with his mouth hanging open for the whole game? I was just waiting to see some drool hanging out.

I always thought of it as one of those shows that you watch partially because you couldn't find anything else worth watching, and partially because you really didn't want to change the channel and stop watching.

^ Is that a bad thing?

After my previous post, I started thinking about the wording in the press release... From the way it is worded, it sounds more like a full time ride instead of a new experience at night like Rock-it Mountain was always rumored to be. (Was Rock-it Mountain ever confirmed in any of the pre-50th press releases?)

I think they need to rethink the whole switching over process. I assume the new computer system was designed to run both without causing problems and the shut down is more a way of keeping the effects from switching while people are riding. If they can just switch the light/music programs with the touch of a button, they should start doing "pre-concert hype" type announcements for the hour before the switch. Have each one state the amount of time before left so guests aren't too shocked when it does happen. The could even take it outside the mountain and make it a Tomorrowland countdown with lighting effects and maybe some random pyrotechnics around the mountain. As for the riders inside the mountain, I assume the soundtrack is started when the train leave the station. (Does it sync with sensors on the ride, or just play through under the assumption that unless the ride stops, it should always take the same amount of time? Anyone know for sure?) If thats the case, let the riders in the mountain at program switch continue with the original soundtrack but start turning on some of the Rock-it effects. In the end, if it makes visitors mad, it will only affect the 5 or 6 cars on the ride at the time instead of the masses of people waiting through "scheduled techincal difficulties."

"Forget the PS3, Play with your Wii!!!"

Goldfrapp at the Wiltern on March 11.

I guess this is further proof that I should be shocked my high school diploma got me into USC. Its always nice to see a local school make national news over a really stupid mistake. All I have to say is I didn't go to that school.