mightypotato

^ For what it's worth, I really liked Riddler's Revenge. Probably the only stand up I'd want to ride more than once. All the others though? Not so much.

My next park will either be Canada's Wonderland or Knoebels in mid-July, depending on if I feel like driving to Toronto or not.

As much as I heard it was terribly rough, Ghostrider really surprised me with just how bad it was when I was at Knott's last week. It's not quite Hades 360 rough, but it's damn close.

Wait...people got off Maverick during ERT? I managed to stay in the same seat without getting off for the whole session. I had one hell of a bruise on my arm afterwards. This was 2 days after ERT. That'll teach me to ride with my hands up.

I've only been on the DHS (MGM or whatever) and DCA versions of the ride, but the original completely blows DCA's out of the water. Don't get me wrong, they're both good rides, but the DHS version just goes that extra mile (and dimension) to make it unforgettable. Plus...DCA has the "hallway of doom" to get to the elevator. That's lame.

I received a surprise donation yesterday that blew me away. Thank you so much for your unbelievable kindness and generosity. Everyone involved in this is amazing.

Always nice to see another TR from Great Escape. It was probably my favourite park of the 2011 Northeast Trip. I love the place and Comet is all sorts of awesome.

In August, the park will be packed no matter what day you go. Fast Lane is an absolute must if you want to get in all the credits and other miscellaneous rides. Like Elissa said, make a bee-line for WMG as soon as you get into the park. It's the new hotness this year and doesn't have the best capacity, so a 2+ hour wait in peak season is more than likely. I don't think it's on Fast Lane either. The rides that you'll see a line for will be The Fly, The Bat and Backlot. Time Warp never seems to have a line, for obvious reasons. The B&Ms devour people and even with a full queue, you'll only be waiting for 30 minutes max without Fast Lane. Try to take advantage of the extensive collection of flats that the park has to offer if you have the time. Their top scan, Shockwave is one of my all time favourite rides.

I've been on a bit of a binge lately and have gone through a number of books. Some good, some not so much. Here's what I've been through in about the last month or so: Blake J. Harris - Console Wars Adam Resnick - Will Not Attend Andy Weir - The Martian Greg Sestero - The Disaster Artist Douglas Coupland - Worst. Person. Ever. David Shoemaker - The Squared Circle: Life and Death in Professional Wrestling Brendan J. Koerner - The Skies Belong to Us Victor Cha - The Impossible State If I were to recommend any of those, I'd go with The Martian, The Disaster Artist and Worst. Person. Ever.. All great and funny reads. At the moment, I'm re-reading A Confederacy of Dunces for what seems to be the millionth time. No matter how often I read it, it still makes me laugh out loud. If I ever get down to New Orleans, I must have a photo taken with the Ignatius Reilly statue there.

Timber Falls was a blast. Most of the group had been drinking and was in good spirits (no pun intended). When we got to the park, what did they have available? Beer! It just made things a bit worse/better depending on how you look at it.

I was able to get a couple of rides in on Saturday and I was generally pleased with what I saw. Calling it a coaster is a bit of a stretch as the outside part of the ride is really the only "roller coaster" part of the ride. I count it as a credit, but your mileage may vary. I was a bit disappointed in the length of the ride. It definitely feels a scene or two too short. Pretty much right as you're getting really into the ride, you're in the final room. Also, it was all screens and no practical dark ride effects. However, the ride/game/whatever itself is pretty well done and you're so occupied with shooting stuff, you don't miss the missing practical effects. It really felt like a ride version of House of the Dead or something similar. I managed to ride both sides and the long screen side is far and away the better one. On that side, you see everything in an unbroken chain. On the other side, there are noticable screen gaps that kind of take away from any immersion. The final surprise? That was definitely the best part of the ride.... *HERE BE SPOILERS, YE BE WARNED* All in all, I enjoyed the ride and for only $10 million, Wonderland got their money's worth. It's not Men in Black or Spiderman quality, but I wasn't expecting that. I'll probably continue to enjoy the ride (especially zombies at Halloween) and I'm interested to see where the technology goes from here.

They let us ride Little Titans? Does that count?

I don't really have one favourite, but rather a list of them. Here they are (though I'm guaranteed to be missing a couple) Amon Amarth - With Oden on Our Side Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out Eluveitie - Helvetios Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta! Jimmy Smith - The Cat Korpiklaani - Manala Metric - Fantasies Miles Davis - Kind of Blue Quo Vadis - Defiant Imagination Rammstein - Mutter Stereoscope Jerk Explosion - La Panthere Pop Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue - Orleans & Claiborne Volcano - Mythology

^^ Silly North Korea. That is not how roller coasters work. On the plus side though, the ride's capacity must be through the roof now.

So...does that make Robb the World Television Champion?

Oh, La Ronde. Is there anything you don't do wrong? Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/la-ronde-under-fire-for-scanning-visitors-fingerprints-1.2649510

Zippers rule. I remember taking my first ride on one and being nervous as all hell when they closed the cage. I ended up flipping so many times and fell in love with it. Man...I haven't been on one in years.

I'm reasonably sure we spent most of the day at the indoor arcade. That Deal or No Deal machine was better than any of their coasters.

On Thursday, I was back at it in Toronto for this year's Paganfest. This is the show I always look forward to the most each year, being completely obsessed with folk and pagan metal. This year, Korpiklaani and Turisas were headlining. Like any good folk metal show, the entire night is pretty much a giant party with your fun though slightly insane extended family. I had a great time and eagerly look forward to Paganfest 2015. Or whenever the next time a folk metal band comes to town. Whatever comes first. Here are some pictures! Winterhymn! Varg! Chthonic! Turisas! Korpiklaani!

At passholder preview night on Friday, I was able to get a peek into the mountain entrance for WMG from the Vortex lift hill. Luckily, they had the lights on, so I could see a little bit of what's inside. After coming back into the mountain, the train hits a small brake run, then takes a tight left. More importantly, there seems to be a ton of work left to do in the mountain. The screens are up, but still wrapped in plastic. I also saw a lot of framing, but nothing else. Looking into what appears to be the station platform, it's more of the same. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if WMG doesn't open until June.

Hamilton, ON. For all it's faults, I can't help but love the place.

So, I was back at it last night and went to go see Iced Earth, Sabaton and Revamp in Toronto, thus filling my power metal quota for the year. Despite it being a Monday night, the sold out crowd was red hot and was definitely ready to have a good time. A great crowd elevates an already good set to another level. It was like that all night. The bands fed off the crowd which in turn made the crowd just that more excited and happy. It was a positive feedback loop of awesomeness. It's nights like these that remind me why I love going to metal shows so much. Here are some pictures! Revamp! Sabaton! Iced Earth!

April's been a busy month for me. I've been to three shows thus far, with another three coming up. Hurray hearing loss! The first show was Kataklysm just last week. I'm a huge fan of theirs and for some reason, haven't had the chance to see them live. It was a great set and the crowd was very physical and very brutal. Made for a great night. Special mentions go to Aborted who were in support of Kataklysm. They put on a great set. On Friday, I crossed a band off my bucket list by seeing Black Sabbath. Ozzy looks 200% healthier and happier from when I saw him in 2009. Geezer and Iommi are freaking gods. That's all there is to say about that. Last night was a thrash night, having gone to see old school thrashers Destruction. They put on a great fast loud set that had everyone very happy. In fact, the entire night was awesome with Exmortus and Krisiun being in support. Exmortus, even though they were the third of five bands for the night got called out for an encore after their set. I've never seen something like that happen before. It was well deserved though. Here are some pictures! Kataklysm! Black Sabbath! Destruction!

Yup. I'm a casualty adjuster working in corporate risk management. We see this sort of thing all the time. Chances are, this won't even go to Discoveries and will be settled out of court for a nominal amount, likely medical costs plus general damages (pain and suffering) which Knoebels' insurer will cover. There is a duty of care on the park to ensure the safety of the guests, including landscaping and maintaining tree roots. While there is certainly going to be some contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff, it typically doesn't exceed 15% (and that's a best case scenario). The easy part will be determining the extent and value of injury as full medical histories will be the first thing they get during their investigation. The interesting part here is loss of consortium (i.e., he's stopped getting laid). There's not really a "dollar value" you can apply to that I doubt you'll see much if any settlement on that part. Then again, I deal with stuff in Canada...things might be wacky down in the US.