ytterbiumanalyst

Those are the correct priorities. But yeah, living in Tornado Alley, where we have weekly tornado warnings all summer, sometimes even multiple times a week, these things aren't nearly as scary as people seem to think. Most of the time they don't actually touch down, and when they do, the area of effect is very small. A tornado can destroy one building while missing the adjacent one entirely. Once every few years there will be one a mile wide, like the one that leveled half of Joplin a few years ago (that's a city of about 100,000 on the border of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas). But those are very rare indeed.

^ That's not really how construction works. Construction companies generally have a good idea of the scope of a project. Unusual weather can cause the timeline to shift by maybe a couple of weeks, but no one is out there saying "It"ll either take 20 weeks or 72." Someone who says that doesn't know what they're doing, and you should find another construction company.

I have been, and finished grad school. Did seven eat nine?

And I did it! At Knott's on Ghostrider, Sept.11,2016! EeeeeeeHAH! A worthy coaster indeed. As for SDC, Holiday World, and Dollywood, yes, you need to get to those. The drive is pretty easy. I-44 between Springfield and St. Louis, then I-64 from St. Louis to Santa Claus. It's around 5-6 hours, and there's not much but farmland in between, but that's the Midwest! Dollywood's a little farther out, but you'll go right past Kentucky Kingdom on the way there, so you'll want to stop. I-64 to Lexington, then I-75 to Knoxville is the way to go. Depends on how much you want you do. You seem to take things slower than I do, so maybe make that a trip over a couple of weeks. It's a lot like the trip I'm planning for next summer: Start in Springfield, Mo. Memphis, Tenn. Birmingham, Ala. Chattanooga, Tenn. Pigeon Forge, Tenn. Nashville, Tenn. Bowling Green, Ky. Louisville, Ky. Santa Claus, In. Back to Springfield, Mo. Hope that helps for route planning.

Maybe not to you, but to most of us this is a serious issue and 100% precision is of the of the utmost importance. Personally I think you need to follow ytterbiumanalyst's method with the truncated cone, but make sure you carry the 2. If you don't carry the 2 it f**ks everything up. See, this guy knows what's up. Personally, I take every opportunity to measure things and figure out the answers, especially when there are tools available so you don't have to do the actual math. I come from a long line of engineers. But yeah, Larry's method totally works too.

I'm sorry, no. Acting as if criticizing trusted sources of information for doing a horrendous job somehow means we don't understand the severity of the situation or feel sympathy for those involved is ridiculous. You can understand the severity of the situation, praise the firefighters, police, volunteers and all first responders for their heroic efforts and sympathize with everyone involved while still being critical of the fact that trusted news sources got just about everything wrong and reported things that were entirely wrong as fact. If you don't have quality sources for information then you don't report the story as fact. Period. To be fair to the news agencies, it seems like they were getting a lot of this information from TEMA which really should have been credible so the blame may be more on them than the people who reported on what they were saying. TEMA has no obligation to rush to release information without verifying anything, they're not a news agency. It's not their job. The fact that people want information does not give them any obligation to provide it when they haven't verified their claims. You can't excuse legitimate sources of information getting just about everything wrong just because people are desperate for information. People have been way too forgiving of complete bullsh*t being passed off as news lately. I've been following this closely the last couple of days, mainly because we are planning a trip here next summer, and it's just been impossible to find out what really happened. "We don't have that information yet" is a perfectly acceptable answer, but everyone seems to have gone to great lengths to avoid saying that.

I don't have a problem with the religious aspects of the festival. The train always has a reading from the Gospel each year, and there are plenty of religious symbols around the park. Even the name "Christ Mass" is a religious term. You know that's what they do, and I feel that religious or not, you can appreciate the festival. I was just amused that at the end of the parade the only religious symbol was a stained glass window, which is about as bland a religious symbol as possible. It stuck out as an anomaly in the Rudolph parade. I don't like the magic act, though, because it's a bait and switch. He does a couple of illusions, then completely switches gears. The religious story is not even an illusion; he just pulls cards off a deck in a preset order as a pretense for preaching. It's just disingenuous.

I don't have a Six Flags sports bottle myself, so I can't do these calculations. Assuming you do, though, here's a handy tool you can use to calculate the volume of a truncated cone: https://rechneronline.de/pi/truncated-cone.php Now if you enter radius 1, radius 2, and height all in inches, you'll get an answer in cubic inches, so you'll need to convert that to fluid ounces: www.convertunits.com/from/fluid+ounces/to/cubic+inches

Planning to be back there this weekend. I'll see what I can do.

THIS. Also, at this time of year the park has always been completely closed, with no rides running at all. So this is more rides running than usual. But if people can't be arsed to read, thinking is right out.

I love this park. It's small, but they pack so much in that it feels like a full sized park, just with less walking. The building stage is over, and they're going to proceed a little more slowly now, but it's good enough now that I wouldn't mind going back with nothing new at all. I tried out a Larson Super Loop (Brain Drain at Frontier City), and I wasn't all that impressed. So if I do get to go back (that was the original intention, but I'm concerned about the economy, so we may take it easy next year), it'll pretty much be like there's nothing new. And that's perfectly fine with me.

^ He's one of my favourite ride ops! I don't know his name though. With you on the magic show thing--and that's not just this year. The whole show has always been a front for preaching.

Where?/10 Hamilton

Just listened to the Hamilton soundtrack today (it's on Spotify now!). It's very, very good.

X2 on 9/10. I'm so glad I did it, though. Scared to death, but it was really fun. When was the last time you rode X2?

Dollywood, if only because I grew up with SDC and I've never been to Dollywood. Michael Che or Slink Johnson?

I aim to please.

I still couldn't afford the shipping and handling. What if you were srranded in the Delta Quadrant?

10/10 Wish more people knew about it. Towels

Probably not. But I do plan to visit parts of the US I've not been to before. Are you now or have you ever been a fire hydrant?

All right everyone, here's what you've been waiting for--Old Time Christmas photo TR!!!! Today we went to Silver Dollar City for the Old Time Christmas festival. Every time I go there, I think, “this is the best festival they do”—but the Christmas festival is legit. This is one of the best events any park does anywhere. First of all, they run all the rides except the water rides, which only run through Halloween. That’s right, they run their log flume, rapids ride, and splash battle all the way through October. But I digress. Today we had a high of 60, low of 51, and intermittent rain—perfect day to experience Old Time Christmas in all its glory! We arrived around 2 PM (park opened at 1) and went straight to Thunderation. My son was very excited for “roader coasters” as he calls them, and I wanted to see the construction progress during the day. Photos below—there’s been a lot happening since we were last here a month ago. Two-train operations made it a walk on for the front. That’s right, every coaster today was running two trains. I never really appreciated how good operations are here until I went out and visited a bunch of other parks. Cedar Point and Disneyland are the only other ones I’ve been to that compare. It’s that good. Afterward, we headed to the Grand Expo for the kids’ favourite rides. They love all those spinning things, and I’m just glad they’re tall enough now to be able to go on that stuff by themselves. I’ve done my time on those. Anyway, everyone enjoyed themselves in that area, and we went in search of lunch. Crossroads Pizza was the choice this time around—SDC has some of the best park food anywhere. The supreme is some gooood sh*t. Afterward, it was time for more coasters! Outlaw Run, Powder Keg, and Fire in the Hole, and then it was time to head up to the square for the tree lighting and Rudolph parade. This part of the event has some definite Disney vibes. Well, Disney-on-a-budget vibes. When the parade was over, we walked around and looked at some lights, then settled back in Fireman’s Landing. With the rain (drizzle really), everyone seemed to have left after the parade. The park was just so empty for the rest of the night! The kids had walk-ons on Up the Ladder—and that never happens! The train was the only ride with any line. We’ll be back at least once more before the season’s over, so no rush on that one. We took one last lap on Thunderation to end a great day. Ready for a great day at SDC! Merry Christmas everyone! The incline railway is all decked out! Giant tree--we'll come back to this later. We'll also be making a stop here. This sh*t is real. Hanging out with some raindeer. The Christmas store is jolly all year, but it really gets the vibe during the actual Christmas season. Here's the classic Thunderation shot. And one you haven't been able to see until recently. Christmas tree displays in the Frisco barn. Lake Silver has been partially drained. We'll be back later. Riverfront doesn't have a huge draw with its main ride not operating. Rapids rides look really cool with the water drained. The Cajun Connection donned Santa hats and played the same songs they always do. The Carousel Barn is home to Santa Claus this time of year. And look what Santa brought us! Here's another perspective on the drained Lost River. This is Elvis' favourite tree. He was dreaming of a blue Christmas. *rimshot* We were on the last Powder Keg train before it shut down for rain! Christmas lights really messed with my camera. Some of these are better than others. The tree lighting ceremony began with a pianist. And escalated from there to four-part Dickensian harmony! Starburst! Nice choreographed lights. And followed by the Rudolph parade! Abominable snowman! And Rudolph himself, in his Rudolphmobile! Burl Ives never looked better. Only at SDC would Santa come in the middle of the parade. It's the ornament! Sentient candy canes.... Penguins, because everything's better with penguins. I can't explain this. Woohoo! A train! And an angel to serve as harbinger to the anticlimax! Here it is! Sh*t got real! No better way to end Rudolph's parade than with a stained glass window that proclaims "Hallelujah." Way to be sort of religious there without actually saying anything, SDC! Off to see some lights! First stop, Midtown! This is a beautiful opera house. I wish I knew where this was. Thanks, railroad bridge--I remember now! Thanks for a great day, SDC! We'll be back to do it again!

I also went for the first time this past summer. Cedar Point is a place like no other.

Oh, this is really tempting. Back in 2006, I visited Poland, and went to Warsaw, Krakow, and Oswiecim, and had a great time. Well, I didn't really have a great time in Oswiecim, but it was one of the most worthwhile experiences I've ever had. No other museum is in the same league as Auschwitz-Birkenau; there's just nothing else like being in the place where it happened to make it all so real. The staff there do a tremendous service to the world maintaining that property and providing education on the darkest time of the 20th century. On a lighter note, the castle in Krakow is just beautiful, especially the cathedral. Still have a few zloty from the trip!

No. I think that people are stupid, and I generally hold that opinion of anyone until they prove otherwise. It has worked well for me. Is it the offseason for you?