Cameron

^ NBA Jam is before my time in the industry .. In fact I was still living in Australia when it came out. I worked in an arcade, and played that thing to death! Anyway, more than the likely the port to SNES was done by an outside firm .. so they're the ones whose brake lines you should be cutting! Cameron.

I am just speechless.. www.collegehumor.com/movies/1698959/ Cameron.

I signed up for Vonage a few weeks ago and am so far very happy with it. Loud, clear voice, etc. When you pick out the voice-terminal, make sure you get one that sits between your router and DSL/Cable modem .. that way it can do "Quality Of Service" and give priority to the voice traffic. It means that up/downloads will be slower while you're on the phone, but the quality of the call will not suffer at all. The perks are nice (having voice-mail emailed to me), along with all the free stuff. Although the virtual phone numbers are great .. I can't wait until they offer that in Australia. I still have my 'real' phone, as I wanted to try out Vonage before switching for good .. but I will likely soon get my old number transfered and have my land-line disconnected. Cameron. ps: PM me if you want and I can give you my number so you can call and hear the quality.

AAww see, now I have to buy you a present! During "game-hell" it certainly can get that nuts. On Ballers I worked 14-18 hours a day, seven days a week from before New Years, until mid-March (including several all-nighters). It was absolutely insane .. but it's the far extreme, and was only necessary because they hit the reset button in Auguest, and we only had 8 months to do an entire game. However that was followed up with several 3-day weeks, and an extra two weeks vacation time (which I used in the UK!). Now that I'm starting on the next game, we're back to regular old 9-hour days, and no weekends! The game industry is a lot of hard work, but it is also a great deal of fun (go and watch the movie Grandma's Boy!). Cameron. ps: Pinball was the same way, too. In fact working on Pin2000 was 8 months of the most intense, long/hard hours I've ever done! But yeah, it was worth it..

Thanks! It really was a lot of fun .. probably because I am so completely not-redneck! It's nice to occasionally step out of the rut of everyday life. One of the perks of working for a video-game company, it makes the 120 hour work weeks a little more tollerable! WOO HOO! Umm, I have to run out to the bathroom for a few minutes...

This is my first trip report .. and I'm dead tired .. so be kind! I went with some friends to this fair to see the combine harvester demo derby .. and it's as insane as it sounds. Here are some select photos, but if you're really bored you can see them all here... Now THIS should be Australian for beer! Wanker, artistic photo number 2. Wanker, artistic photo number 1. After each heat, these fork-lifts were used to drag the carcasses out of there. That'll buff right out! Monster Trucks .. how very, very lame. This was the only bad part of the show. Smokin'! This is apparently called "belt smoke". Early in the first heat, thus guy got rammed so hard it busted his drive wheel right off! Classy Indiana fashion.. This is a combine harvester doing donuts..! Anyone want a giant, coiled sausage? "Hi, I have some mobile drugs. Can you test them?!" Pretty! This is a 1001 Naughts (or however the heck it's spelt..). Why doesn't Elissa ever dress like this? This was down when we walked by .. then I forgot to go back and ride it. Sadly, no crazy idiots screaming their a$$s off! I wonder if this is an official licensed product?! Swingers, baby! This was fun, if a little short. I showed them my business card, but they just wouldn't give me a discount! Welcome to the Porter County Fair! The pretty Chicago skyline, as we headed south on the Dan Ryan. While waiting for our ride, Graham and I relaxed in the break room at work. The gold cabinet is the 100,000 Asteroids machine!

I don't have any photos, but I was there a few weeks ago and it was running. Not my cup of tea, but it seemed very popular and is a good fit for that end of the boardwalk. Cameron.

Long ago back when I worked on Pinball, the factory workers went on strike. On the second or third day the teamsters brought out a giant inflatable rat, with a sign that said "Honk If You Hate Scabs!". A Scab being a worker who either isn't in the union, or is in the union but not joining the strike. So you can imagine my surprise the other week when (almost 10 years later!) I saw this colourfull little character on the side of the road. He's mounted in a pickup truck now, which I found amusing.. The things I do for TPR .. some teamsters in the truck were watching my every move as I took photos .. I genuinely hope they lost track of me as I returned to my car, I don't want them to track me. Seriously, these guys don't mess around .. this is Chicago after-all! Don't you love how his cute little feet peek over the side of the bed?!

Shame you didn't have a great day at Six Flags Great America. Viper has been running like ass since early last season (no idea why). It's weird, it's not rough at all, just way too slow .. no, there aren't any brakes. Eagle is always really great early in the season, and late in the season, but braked to hell in the middle of summer. I really like Iron Wolf, but I know it's rough and many people share your opinion. I hope you rode the back seat on Bull! If you're ever back in the area let me know! Cameron.

It's all about my duel-screen Donkey Kong Game-N-Watch .. yeah, baby! Cameron.

I gave my PSP away to a friends kid in February or March .. after not switching it on for about 6 months, I figured it was pointless to keep it. Cameron.

I took this in Melbourne when I was there last year for my Brother's wedding. Yarra river, through downtown Melbourne, Australia.

White Water pinball machine .. I started playing it when it first arrived in Australia in late 1993, and I've been playing it ever since. Of course now I own one! No game can match what White Water does when you get the Vacation Jackpot .. it's complete Siqness! Cameron.

This is one of my all-time favorite games. When I first picked it up I played, and played, and played .. totally losing track of time. I finally snapped back to reality when the battery died, and I realized it was 3am! It was the night before starting a new job, so I had to go to work the next day with just four hours sleep... But, yeah .. it rules! Cameron. ps: I don't know how Old School it can be, it's not even a year old!

Do both!

Nice report .. of what looked like the worst park every! Looks like you had a fun day though. The Giraffes are awesome! Cameron.

^ A friend of mine is really into older Buicks too .. a little later than yours though (early 70s). They're so freaking awesome! He's also restored a few, and races them as well. Here's my toy: 2004 VW .:R32

Waiting in line for Viper at Six Flags Great America many years ago (spring of 1998, I think). We were in the station, maybe four trainloads away from boarding. The sky outside looked really scary, and then the ride-op stood-up behind the control panel and yelled: "Tornado Warning, everybody run!!". I guess she missed a day or two of training.. Cameron.

I was there on July 2nd, and Deja Vu seemed to be running well. I didn't ride it (not one of my favorites), but I didn't notice it go down at all.. Cameron.

Yousa have a PM!

What a week .. visiting my two favorite parks: Indiana Beach AND Holiday World! So after hearing me blather on and on about Holiday World, Voyage and Raven, a friend of mine (who lives in Kalamazoo, MI) told me that he and his family would be stopping off at the park on their way home from their two week camping vacation. How could I possibly say no?! This was my third visit to Holiday World this year, and it was great fun. A friend of mine on another coaster board recently commented that the atmosphere at Holiday World has changed quite a bit in the last few years. His comments were slightly negative in nature, which I disagree with; but I do agree somewhat that the park doesn't have the same feel as it did in 1999 and 2000. However I think this change is inevitable .. In a log entry from earlier this year, Paula wrote that they hired 1,500 seasonal employees this summer .. three times the number they hired in 1992. I don't think it's bad necessarily, although part of me does miss the "good old days" from before even Legend. Anyway, on to the report... I met with my friend Mike, his wife, and three kids (14, 11 and 9). His wife and the younger two kids spent most of the day in the water-park where they had an amazing day. While Mike, his oldest (Josh), and myself spent our time in the regular park and also had an amazing day! Josh was a little coaster-timid initially (especially for Voyage), but ended up loving all three .. although he likes Raven the best .. smart little man! At about 6pm a huge, (HUGE) storm blew through .. we took shelter under an overhang near an employee break room opposite the glass-blowing shop. For about an hour we stood there and were really part of the storm .. it was so awesome. There was lightning all around is .. often with less than one second between lighting and gut-wrenching thunder. Fortunately we'd met up with the rest of Mike's family just before the storm hit .. and during the storm we convinced Matt (9 year old) into trying Raven. He'd ridden Corkscrew and Zoomer at Michigan's Adventure and loved them both. The rain cleared up at about 7, and the sun started to come back out. Since it would take some time to get the coasters running, we heading down to Gobblers as the younger kids had yet to try it. Gobblers was closed down during the storm, but it opened shortly after we arrived and we hit it up several times in a row. Mike, Josh and myself were a little bored with it after several rides, but the younger kids loved it .. which was really nice to see. Matt was itching to try Raven so we headed up there. They were still walking the tracks, so we chatted with the cool ride-op/gate-keeper. She was in good spirits, even though she had to say "it should be opening soon, but I don't know how long" about 7000 times a minute! However she soon got the word from above, opened the gate, and we proceeded to have three of my best rides on Raven that I've ever had. The tracks were slick with over 60 minutes of rain, after a sickeningly hot day .. plus there was a beautiful, fiery-red sunset to the west, and thick, black storm clouds WITH A RAINBOW to the east. Freaking unreal! Then we broke the ride It seemed that little Raven just didn't have enough air-pressure, and the computer got mad. We sat on the brakes for about 15 minutes, then inched our way into the station. I don't know if the compressor was shut off during the storm along with the rest of the ride and it just hadn't built up yet, or if something was actually wrong. Anyway Matt *loved* Raven (he rode it all three times), and wanted to try Voyage (!). Sadly Voyage wasn't too happy after the rain, and the lovely ops standing at the top of Thanksgiving (near the Rapids entry - thankfully we didn't have to walk all the way down) told us it probably wouldn't open for the rest of the day. It was already 8:20, and the park closed at 9. This left us with Legend .. which we boarded at about 8:45 after a few bathroom breaks and a bit of a line. It was dark by now, and Legend gave it's best rides I've had in years. Matt rode Legend and loved it too .. Even Mike really liked it (he hadn't likeed it too much earlier in the day). We also hit up the Bumper Boats, Liberty Launch, and countless walk-on rides on Voyage (still kicks ass). Matt was bummed he couldn't ride Voyage, but (as Mike put it) they now have a reason to return! This was the second family of five I've dragged to the park, and they've both had a wonderful time. So who cares if the park doesn't feel quite as much like riding coasters in someone's backyard as it used to .. it's still a terrific way to spend a day. Despite the 750 mile round trip drive, I hope to get back down there at least one more time this summer. Cameron.

Robb was obviously conceived in the front seat .. and it's all capured on film, and amusingly edited to snappy pop-music! Cameron.

Don't try and turn it on!! Just let it sit and dry (for several days) and it'll probably be ok. I've seen laptops survive after having bottles of water dumped in them... You can try using a hair-dryer, but I advise against putting it in the oven! (Don't laugh, I know someone who did that...). Cameron.

I must have really ben enjoying that hotdog .. I don't remember you taking the photo at all! Cameron (Ugh .. I think that says more about me than you) Silver

^ Yup, the tank-boats are gone. I mean none of the effects really worked anymore, but it was still a lot of fun. Amazingly I didn't do the Castle on this last visit .. I think it's the first time ever that I didn't get around to it. Oh well, I'll just do it twice the next time! Cameron.