Meteornotes

Bruce Dickinson - Accident Of Birth dt

As long as I can continue to take a nap on it, it is all good. Dave "i've slept on SE the last two times I've been to Epcot" Thomas

Fates Warning - Pale Fire dt

Ratt - You're In Love We played this song at our wedding reception. dt

Yes it was. In an interview I read the other week, Tarantino basically decided to do that shot one morning while driving to the set. dt

Europa park is among the very best parks I've ever visited. Only good things could come from SF being inspired by this place. dt

Cheese is tasty. dt

I believe I was wearing one of my Prog Power shirts. Metal rules. dt

That Pro Choice shirt is awesome! Glad you guys had fun. dt

It was indeed colder yesterday than it was in December. And it was 80 degrees here earlier in the week! Die stupid winter! Ah well, we had fun, even if we froze. dt

Good to see some parks can run most of their coasters in the cold. And I still don't have that Batman credit... dt

OK, the photo of the random person hanging off the roof of the building was awesome. What the hell was going on there?!? I too was greatly disappointed with the Topple Tower we rode in Europe. I expected it to be so much more exciting than it ended up being. I still have not made it to Dollywood. Perhaps this year... dt

Neal Morse - What is Life? dt

ERT stands for Exclusive Ride Time. Basically a time during the day (usually before the park opens or after it closes) where one or more coasters is open exclusively for trip participants. It's a great way to get plenty of extra rides in, especially on these trips, as the number of participants are so small. As far as your other questions, all I can say is that these trips are really well organized, and as long as you follow the schedule and make sure you're where you are supposed to be, you won't have trouble with the bus. And I honestly don't think anyone remotely dangerous goes on these trips, so I don't think you (or your parents) would have anything to worry about. dt

Enchant - Monday dt

Heath, I used to work/live over in White Marsh, and have spent a lot of time at Red Brick. It is a cool place with tasty beers. And I was at that same theater on Friday morning for Grindhouse. Which did indeed kick much ass. dt

Disturbed - Land Of Confusion dt

As someone that's been to all but one of those Europe parks, let me say that this is a great trip. All of the parks are fun, very different from US parks (you will NEVER see anything like the obstacle course at Toverland, or practically anything like at Klotten in the US), and have interesting rides. And Expedition GeForce is the real deal. Well worth attending if you have the time. dt

Balance Of Power - Higher Than The Sun dt

If you have a late evening arriving flight, do not use Enterprise. Their office closes at 10 PM, which is insane for an airport like LAX with many flights arriving late. The company line on this is "we can't get people to stay until midnight". Um, yeah, way to manage people... dt

"Don't kill me, horse" is among the funniest things ever uttered on television. dt

Sorry, I worked at Hersheypark for five years. You were only allowed to use the phone on your breaks. Rides can be very dangerous, especially if people are not paying attention because they're too busy yammering on the phone or whatever. Most places of employment frown on people making personal calls during work hours. Get used to it. dt

I forget the name of that particular Fox show, but it is seriously a train wreck of amazing proportions. You really need to watch it and marvel at the stupidity of everyone involved if you're ever in the LA area. And yeah, that's not much of a story. A group with no credibility takes complaints from random people that they don't investigate in any way. Wow, way to do research. How many of these complaints were actually made to SFMM? Who knows, because these statistics were put together with about the same amount of care a pre-school class does on their daily coloring assignments. Anyone with the slightest amount of journalistic integrity would have rejected this story outright, but then again, look at the source of this report. I will say that SFMM really needs to crack down on the cell phone use by ride operators, as it is totally insane that this is a tolerated behavior. And I've harped on how this park (and most other corporate parks) really need to beef up security and eject troublemakers. People are not going to come out and spend their money if they don't feel safe, no matter what silly phrases ("Clean Safe Fun") your PR department comes up with. dt

Good thing he had the crowbar in hand at all time in case of headcrab attack. dt

Did we really need an acoustic version of perhaps the worst song in the history of recorded music? I think not. dt