stormrider

I've found some new things to rant about. For one, the idiots at my school district didn't allocate 800 minutes to account for seniors not coming to school during Standardized Testing (the school actually said they didn't have to) so now the state says they'll cut funding and charge the district two million dollars if they don't account for a loss of 800 minutes of instructional time. So guess what? Even though I, a Sophomore, have no minutes to account for (I went to tests all the days except one), the whole blunder is forcing our breaks to be shortened (to add more "instructional time"), the finals days are no longer minimum, our usual short Thursdays are now full days, and the last day of school is a full day. This is all beurocratic crap!!!!!!!!!! We won't even learn more. During the elongated days, they invented "study time" which equals an excuse to keep us in longer. I bet the seniors won't even show up, leaving the rest of us to spend "their minutes". And three-ring binders tear up my paper when the rings are even a mm misaligned. That makes me angry as well!!!!!!!!!

People who put up nonexistent walls between others. Why do video games cost $50 when the material is so cheap? I mean, why would Happy Feet for Wii cost $50 when Zelda or Wario Ware, for that matter, are much much better? And cost the same? Oh, I remember the times when they said that N64 cartridges were $60 (maybe even $70) because of material, but I know that discs are cheap. And yeah, I hate not being able to sleep as well.

Looks like it's a great ride that doesn't let up. I saw no "slow" moments, just speed all the way. Now I've got one more coaster to add to the list of "must ride but I'm too young to take a trip to " One of these days [sigh]. Great video as well

I thought other companies, like B&M for instance, attach directly to the bottom of their cars as well. And as for the railing, I believe that when the designers designed the ride, they intended it to act like it should by staying together, not falling apart. The railings did their job for evacuation purposes, but if I were to do clearance testing, I don't think I'd assume that the trains are well maintaned and wouldn't act abnormally.

Here's a little more in depth article: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070506TDY01004.htm It's just sad, this problem might have been found (actually, it better have had been found) if the inspection came sooner.

I understand that it's a tragedy, and it really does go without saying that it is. I choose not to say "it's a tragedy, I feel sorry" because I thought it could be assumed that that's how we all feel about it. I'd be surprised if somebody thought it wasn't a tragedy. She had no control over the incident, no way to get out, and the accident itself was not caused by her. So, I think it's a given that it is a tragedy and I hope the park will find a way to repair its image and repair the ride's image as well. And peace be with the woman and her family, and I hope those who witnessed the accident aren't physchologically damaged.

Ugh, it's painful to imagine seeing the walkway coming up ahead and then slamming into it. With the problems on Windjammer and the roughness of Manhattan Express, there obviously is "something" with the engineering of some of TOGO's rides, I think. But this one may have been an maintenance issue as well, like on Big Thunder Mountain. It's just too easy to pick on TOGO though.

Simply stunning. I remember seeing pictures of just dirt and some track at first last October and now it really looks huge and the ladscaping is great. I never noticed how high up the second immelmann is and they've done such a great job with the station and even covering up the transfer track shed (I'm used to seeing I-beams and corrogated steel as coverings for those areas). Thanks for taking those pictures!

So SFDK still has those short lines? I guess that's good for me, but I was hoping more people would come. BTW, that first picture of yours (Medusa) really should be submitted to RCDB because it's so clear and is an angle that is rarely photographed of the ride. It's your property, though. When I went to Marine World, I never saw the shark exhibit, so I'll have to check it out some day. And I like that mailbox

I hope to get to Discovery Kingdom soon, since I haven't been there since 2005 even though my location is in Sacramento. It's all up to my parents, and I hope that maybe changing things around the park will convince them we should go back there. I also saw a huge box of season passes in a Costco store, so next time I go to Costco, I'll ask. The commercials I've seen definately seem better than the generic footage from Magic Mountain, but they still use video of the Medusa from Great Adventure I just noticed that Intamin supports look like toilet paper roll tubes thanks to that last picture BTW I've been to SFDK, SFMM, and SFOT, and I definately liked SFOT better, so hopefully more of the Six Flags parks become like SFOT. The atmosphere there was really upbeat, which made me forget about rides for a moment!

Kumbak seems to have done a good job on the rest of the track though. I'm still not sure why Efteling chose Kumbak instead of Vekoma, except for giving a new company a chance and having worked with them on making new trains . That's how it is, though, since every company has to start somewhere.

Finally, they made the entrance to Kong easier to find. Whether that causes more people to want to ride it, however . . .

I thought that too, but rides like Hollywood Dream don't have that. It seems like only the Japanese companies, Arrow, and Morgan (which happens to have Steve Okamoto on their team) used the side platforms the whole ride. Maybe they saw that wooden rides had them, so the Japanese customers would request the side paltforms (just a guess).

Well, since people like to call coasters with track bent like that as "looking painful", I'm just going to say that, for the first time, I think an Intamin coaster looks painful (I'm being sarcastic) Let's not be discriminate as to which company's coasters we say look painful . Just kidding. Intamin has a reputation of smoothness on most of their rides, so I'm going to expect that this one will be smooth.

That's exactly how I feel about them doing something above the off the shelf B&Ms. It's nice to see that they were able to get B&M to do things they haven't done before (even Vekoma has made more cusom modifications to trains/themes) with the trains, even the supports are a change. I especially like that mysterious feeling that happens when the train charges into that dark tunnel near the end of the ride (like when the train of Expedition Everest comes down and turns around into the side of the mountain).

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster's speakers aren't filled with gum...

That ride was magical for me when I went in 2003. It was my first night ride ever and I felt like it was going really fast (I also didn't feel pain) so for me, it's RIP Psyclone

Yeah! I love that B&M roar that it produces. And that box around the MCBR is something is a nice touch to make a boring section of track more interesting.

That's why I hope to apply any mechanical engineering skills to more things than roller coasters when I (hopefully) graduate college. After getting skilled in the field, and being maybe fourty years old and saving money, that's when I want to start my own roller coaster company since it'll be so darn hard to get into one that already exists. If that fails, then I'd still have the skills to do other jobs. I honestly think that I have a large chance at failing, but at my age it's okay to dream. When I enter the real world, that's when I'll reevaluate whether it is worth pursuing a career designing rides. But I'll always have a heart for riding roller coasters, and would like to travel around riding them. So, I don't have to design roller coasters to enjoy them.

Eww, they repainted Venus like DeJaVu! I'm watching the video of it right now. Yep, those are nice videos of some of the rides in Japan. It's just four pages though, but I hope this person is able to document more of the rides he or she goes on.

That ride slightly reminds me of Neptune's Knot in RCT2.

50% Filipino (not the native kind, but the ones that came and invaded the country from Spain) 25% Scotch-Irish 25% Norweigian At school, people didn't know what I was, so they'd say I was Canadian It feels weird to be a part of what could be a new "United States race" that could appear in 1000+ years.

I have finished finals and for the second semester I get to be a counselor's office assistant. That may sound boring, but it sure beats the boredom that was computer class. I don't understand why there is a computer class when software comes with manuals...

Sorry Maybe all the cats and rats are happy and coexist in the afterlife. Well, such is life. So, it's the memories that matter. Think of all the fun times you had with your cat. I don't really think that much about my pet rat who died, but that's probably because he died two years after I got him. I'm glad I never had to "put him down" though.

That's excellent news for anybody who were excited to ride this. I would (if I were the park) be annoyed I had to delay an attraction and contract another company to help "fix" it. At least those boats are looking good