Jew

^Yeah...Stanford v. Oregon will be the next "game of the year." Until that Saturday, which then is LSU v. Alabama. That's going to be a fun week of football!

^That's not going to happen because USC is going to beat Oregon in the PAC-12 title game!

Has anyone brought up the possibility of this being arson? Like, someone who didn't get what they wanted from their flood insurance possibly taking another route to cash out?

Glow in the Show is great when lots of guests have them. Looks weird when only a few guests have them. But it is definitely a brilliant way to get annual passholders to spend more money! Also, MNSSHP is my favorite Halloween event. Love the fireworks, parade, and all the crazy costumes you see throughout the night! Such a great atmosphere.

USC threw the ball to a tight end! In the middle of the field! And to the fullback! ...And in other news, the PAC-12 refs gave a game to ASU (or was it Wisconsin trying too hard to lineup for the perfect kick instead of just kicking a FG?), Nebraska got their butts kicked but did so in a classy manner honoring the deceased UCLA player, and Alabama just punched its ticket to the final BCS game already.

Don't hold your breath.... When the museum was being developed, it was sad to see how few items were kept from the past years. Only a few surviving items were in a presentable condition. The only reason the Troll costume survived was because it was forgotten in a back room of the old Cyclone Bay employee break room. (And still, it's hat was missing.) The amount of work that was spent on putting that museum together, while being given virtually no budget was amazing. It happened to be at a time when the park was lucky enough to have a few great Ride Supervisors who not only cared about the park in its current state, but also wanted to celebrate the parks rich past. The main reason the museum closed was because the few nice items that were on display became sunbaked and no longer presentable. No money was allocated to maintain the museum, so mostly everything was pulled out. The park does not seem to care about its past. Every big ticket item that would be great to hold onto, ends up being sold to Dog Mike (the owner of the dog kennels south of the park on The Old Road) to make money off the item, or give it to him because it is cheaper than paying for someone to come haul it away from the park. Too focused on the future to care about the past. If that is where they want to place their focus, then good for them. Better than nothing > history and memories. Holy crap, that costume was there when I worked there 10 years ago! Also, that kennel has become an SFMM museum in its own right. I believe he was evening restoring the 99 train to run around the property?

^You can't buy through the U.S. website? That site says it is operated by an authorized ticket reseller, which is probably why the express passes for HHN are not for sale.

^That's pretty poor planning on their part then. I've worked on my fair share of ride openings in California, and there really isn't a lot of surprises---everything is scheduled in advance, which gives plenty of time for the park to do its training to get everyone ready.

^I agree. The one year I went without a VIP or express pass, I barely made it through all the houses. And that was with a friend working helping us out at the maze he was working.

Regardless, the phone would still need a hardware way to turn off as a failsafe (read: not tied to the software).

What would you do if something is wrong with the fingerprint scanner? Plus, when iOS 7 is launched, the phone can't be reset without logging into the owners apple ID. No more factory resets. I am sure hackers will find a way around this, but the average "snatch and grab" thief isn't going to be a hacker.

It is very rare for a park to NOT have staggered openings for their food venues. For example, I just looked at Disney's website today, and Award Wieners didn't open until an hour after the park at DCA. And that is right at the entrance to the land that is the gateway to a major ride (ToT) and a popular family dark ride (Monster's Inc.). Bengal BBQ in Disneyland? *Gasp* a whole TWO HOURS after the park opened (11:00am on a 9:00am opening time). There are 5,000,000 other reasons why SFMM is a crappy park, but staggering food venue operating hours to allow them to actually make money is *NOT* one of them.

Oh boy...more clip shows on water screens! I hope this version of the show has more action. The only parts of the show I enjoyed were the Pirates and Toy Story segments, since they did more than just fountains and video.

^They had restaurants open. The problem was crappy employees who didn't want to direct him towards those restaurants.

No, of course they make money off superstars in college. But that money goes back into funding all the programs without superstars. Not even the pros get everything from their jersey sales---it goes into a pool split between the entire league (save for rare exceptions, like Michael Jordan and Barry Bonds who opted out of the union deal). The stipend should definitely be increased, but trying to compensate college players like pro players for merchandising is a very slippery slope... However, once they leave the school...that's when the player should be eligible for more money if the school continues to market their likeliness. Which is what Ed O'bannon's lawsuit is about.

^They said you can have up to 5 fingerprints on there. So unless you have 5 people you want using your phone to be able to unlock with their fingerprint, you can always just program 2 of your fingers.

What irked me more was the fact that there was no kind of help whatsoever, no direction or info on if there were any shops or anything open up front. I don't know this park inside out as I don't visit the place often...so I wouldn't know which places do cup refills and such. I asked if there were any places nearby that would be open when the lady happens to walk off...as soon as I finished asking, SEFK passes by overhead and just as that happens, the lady ditches us. Frustrating for sure! That's an entirely different issue than simply not having the venues open. SFMM deserves crap for that. Not for keeping places closed that are guaranteed to lose money if they opened early.

That goes for every single school in the country. A lot of the money made from basketball and football goes right back into paying for the costs of travel and the other sports at a school. Boosters make donations for facilities, coaching salaries (and firing coaches...), special scholarship endowments, and just about anything else the school can convince them to write a check for to put their name on it... Oklahoma State & Oregon are fortunate enough to have one booster who is able to fund all those things on their own. Most schools have to scrape together that money from lots of boosters. Will Lyles never paid the kid. Oregon paid him to steer LaMichael James and Lache Seastrunk to Oregon. Basketball and Football fund the entire athletic department. So while I agree the stipend for players needs to increase, it's not like the money from basketball and football are making athletic directors billionaires. That money is going back into the athletic department to pay for the costs of operating all the sports, which is not exactly cheap (scholarships, books, dorms, travel, equipment, medical, training, food...for every sport).

^You do realize that every major school in the country has a sponsorship from an apparel company, right? Oregon just happens to be the alma mater of the founder of Nike, so of course they have more (usually ridiculous) uniform options.

The guest service part is typical SFMM and unacceptable, but I don't entirely fault the park for not having anything open at the back end of the park in the morning. They ARE a business. No point in opening a venue that you know is not going to have enough sales to justify the cost of opening early. If you were the head of the foods department, you would do the exact same thing---because your job depends on it. The same thing happens at every single park in the country, with the only exceptions being the extremely busy days.

I'll just leave it at this: the poll serves its purpose in the industry. Amusement Today gets to sell lots of congratulatory adds to all the parks, all the industry people get to have another place outside of IAAPA to get together to hang out, and the winning parks get a nice marketing tool to add to their arsenal. When you compare it to Mitch's poll, I don't think there is any question the voter poll is skewered towards enthusiasts who are not very well traveled (my personal opinion is that many of the voters are ACEr's who think it is cool to be a voter and have only been to parks for enthusiast events or done trips to the midwest and/or east coast because the close proximity of so many credits). I also want to say that Holiday Park advertised Expedition GeForce's ranking in Mitch's poll, and I think some other parks did as well.

I'll definitely be getting the 5s. I actually really enjoy using Android, but there are two things I hate: battery life and newer android phones going towards larger screens. I'm using a galaxy nexus now (with Cyanogen rom), and the 4.7" screen pushes the limit of comfortable one hand use. The only competing android phones are the Moto X/Droid mini (which have a crappy camera) and HTC One (which is presumably nearing the end of its life as top of the line, but still features a top of the line price), so my decision is easy.

It will be interesting to see if his team can even keep up with that pace for an entire season. It's a lot easier to run that offense with a roster of 85 than it is with a roster of 53. USC wouldn't be able to outspend Phil Knight if it came down to it---there is absolutely no way he would allow it. He'd pay Chip Kelly $10 mil/year to be AD or something just to keep him away from USC. I've never understood the infatuation with James Franklin. He has yet to win a big conference game in the SEC, but I guess if you are Vandy any sign of progress makes you the best coach they've ever had... As for Kiffin? He needs to hang 60 on Boston College or he's done. He out thinks himself. If he opens up the playbook (or lets his QB coach who is up in the box and a former OC with Memphis actually call plays...), with the talent available...USC could feasibly win out now that the defense is actually coached well. The chances of him actually doing that are very very very very very very very very slim, but the potential is there.

From what I have heard, the voter pool is skewered towards enthusiasts who have only hit the "big" parks, which is probably its biggest flaw...

Do we even know if the Golden Ticket has more voters than Mitch's poll? Millennium Force finished 14th in that one, so I think it is safe to say there are plenty of people out there who don't list it as their favorite coaster.