Sgt. Fox

I've got a silenced Ruger .22 with your name on it. (lol. After reading that it sounded more like a threat than an offer.)

Probably not. I work for the prosecutor's office, so it's pretty high security. There's a parking structure though just east of the Federal Courthouse (the glass building you photographed) thet you can get on top of and they have some pretty good views from height.

Hey, you can see my office in that pic! Wells Fargo Tower, third building from the right. Fourth window down from the top, on the far left hand side. Right above the streetlight.

Oh, I'm in Scottsdale, AZ. The video was taken in an area called "Four Peaks". It's just outside of town in the desert. Next time you guys come down for some ghetto fun at Castles N' Coasters, drop me a line and we'll go blow stuff up with machineguns and binary explosives.

Like it says, I bought a new toy this weekend and boy does it rock! You can't really tell from the video, but that black speck out there is a 19" monitor meeting its maker. http://www.reflectionsoflife.com/50caliber.zip For those who don't know me from Westcoaster, here's the video from when I retired my laptop with extreme prejudice. http://www.reflectionsoflife.com/video/xpshooting.zip

You guys still looking for The Cartoons - Day Oh (Echo Song), e-mail me at steve@reflectionsoflife.com - I'll give you info on where to get it.

Bah! I sifted all the way through the ordering process and they won't let you use a normal Visa. You have to have some kind of crazy Danish Visa with the DK symbol. :?

Are you sure it's "Cartoons" ?Exuse me (and my arrogance, and my english, master), but I can't find any reference about this title for thes group, anywhere Yes I'm sure: http://musik.tdconline.dk/servlets/2452306090224Dispatch/19/call?htmltemplate=./album/viewalbum.htm&albumid=1061475 --Robb Anyone know what language that site is in and where there's an online translator? I'm trying to purchase the song but can't understand anything on the pages. lol!

^ Nope. The guy I saw kicked out was just in a public area taking his photos. Like I said though, I didn't hear what they said to eachother. Maybe they had previously told him not to use a tripod or something. I think any given park's tripod policy is going to be as strict as how bored the nearest security guard is. I've been hassled myself in several parks that completely allow tripods. I actually had to go to Guest Services at DCA once to get a security guard to stop following me around and hassling me.

Finally took at trip out to Sandusky and Cedar Point this summer! I'd never been to Cedar Point before, so it was all new to me. And boy, it was a lot of fun. We flew into Cleveland and spent two entire days at Cedar Point before we flew back out. It was plenty of time to do most everything. We stayed at the Hotel Breakers, and while it was a nice hotel, it was really weird. Did the hotel use to be much larger or something? The layout was really funky and it seemed like maybe it was a much larger hotel originally and they had torn parts down leaving only one wing that was converted into the whole hotel. The entryway is a long hall that seems like it used to connect parts of the hotel or something. It was strange. Also, there were some rooms that were marked with different numbers, like "23" instead of the "3505" hotel type rooms. I saw inside one, and it looked like a dorm, with posters up and everything. There were also common hallway bathrooms despite the hotel rooms having their own bathrooms. Do some of the employees live there in the hotel? The weather was hot and sticky, but the park was a whole lot of fun. Rode most of the coasters and enjoyed them thoroughly. Dragster is just amazing! Wow! The park was clean, the employees were mostly friendly, and I really enjoyed my trip. It was also weird for a west-coast person like myself to see Amish teenagers wandering around the park! I kept wondering, is there a horse and buggy parked out in the big parking lot with the cars? The big suprise of the trip for me was Gemini. I wasn't really expecting much from this ride, but it turned out to be one of my favorites. I don't really know why, but I just loved riding that thing! Of course, I also loved the super-scary rides too, like Dragster and the Antique Cars. The only complaint I would have is that the park policies are really camera unfriendly. If you're looking to take a trip to take photos or videos, look elsewhere. First, I started out videotaping my trip. The park has a "no loose articles" policy on their rollercoasters which is understandable since you don't want people getting hurt by flying objects. But they also have a "no photos or videos on the rides" rule in addition to the no loose articles rule. Apparently they're afraid I'm going to steal the souls of my fellow passengers using my magical picture-box. I'm able to secure my HandiCam to myself with a clip and strap so it can't go flying away, so I went ahead and videotaped a few of the first rollercoasters I rode. Then, when I was exiting Dragster, the Unload Op saw me with my HandiCam and ran off the platform and over to the photo booth to check out if I had been taping the ride. (Hey, who cares if the next trainload of passengers safely egresses anyways? ) When he saw that I had indeed been taping the ride, he followed me out onto the midway (since I had already left) and confronted me, chastizing me about taping on the rides. I confirmed with him that taping wasn't allowed even if the camera was secured, thanked him for the info, and went on my merry way. I decided to ride Millenium Force next, and rented a locker to put my camera in since I now knew I couldn't take it on the rides. After a 45 minute wait, I got belted in the train and was waiting to leave the station when three ride ops approach me. "Excuse me, do you have a camera?" "Um, no. No camera." I raise my arms for them to see. "Well, we've had a report of a man matching your description that has been videotaping rides." (I kid you not, that's exactly what she said.) "Well, as you can see. No camera." I again raise my arms for them to see. They stand there for a few seconds staring at me, not sure what to do. Then, the lady gives me the "no photography or videotaping on rides" lecture and dispatches the train. Of course, the three ride ops focusing on me completely missed the guy sitting next to me with a hat and strapless sunglasses on, but hey, who am I to criticize? You also realize of course, this means that the guy from Dragster had to have followed my all around the park until I decided to ride Millenium Force, then gotten a ride op from there and pointed me out to them. There's no other way they could have just picked me out of the crowd of tens of thousands of people. After that, I traded in my HandiCam for my traditional, still camera and equipment. It was starting to get dark, so I headed over to Dragster to take some dusk photos of the sign/ride with my tripod. (You need a tripod to take night shots of big things like rollercoasters.) I was wondering if they'd give me any trouble about my tripod as I walked over there. Every park I've been to allows tripods as long as you're staying out of the way and not blocking traffic or creating a trip hazard, but you never know. As I walked up, I saw another photographer taking the same shot I wanted to take, using his tripod. I was about to walk up and say "hi" when he was confronted by two security guards. They spoke for a few seconds, but I couldn't hear what they said since I was too far away. They then had him grab his tripod setup and escorted him out of the park through the exit by Magnum XL. I was stunned! More importantly, I decided taking tripod photos would be a very bad idea, so the only night shots I have here for you were taking outside of the park. All that being said, don't get the wrong impression since it sounds so negative. I had a really great time at Cedar Point and would love to go back again. There were a lot of fun rides there and it was a neat experience for me, having never been to Ohio before. I really enjoyed Gemini a whole lot more than I expected I would for some reason, and I miss Dragster already. I'll definately have to go back again sometime. How Cool is This Hotel View? Dragster at Night! Ahh, Corkscrew. Haven't seen you in years! The Dual Hills of Millenium Force Just Like the Sign Says Wicked Twister Running up the Spire Closeup of the Wicked Twister I love Stand-Up Coasters! It's Tought to Shoot a Train Going 125mph! And Finally, a Night Shot of Millenium Force. Oh well, that's about it for my trip report. I had a great time at the park and can't wait to go back sometime soon. Hopefully you enjoyed the report. Here's a link to the trip video I made. Enjoy! http://www.reflectionsoflife.com/video/CP0805.zip Oh yeah, and you can see my entire report with a few more photos here: http://www.reflectionsoflife.com/

It must be beacuase I snuck my camcorder onboard when I visited last week. The ride ops were right, I must have stolen the ride's soul by taking that video. Sorry guys.

Hey, I have a couple of questions for you CP veterans. I'm taking my first trip to CP in a week and need your advice. First, I'm staying at The Breakers; where do I need to park for that? My understanding is you park in the theme park parking lot and they just reimburse you or something? Also, is there another enterance to the park from that hotel, or do I have to walk all the way around to the main enterance? Second, when do I need to go to Top Thrill Dragster in order to minimize my wait. At park open, at park close, or do I get one of their fastpass type deelies? Finally, any suggestions on what order to ride things to minimize wait? Thanks a bunch for the info guys!

Took a recent trip to the Disneyland Resort for the 50th and thought I'd share my experience with y'all. Normally I take still photos on my trips, but I've recently gotten into the whole video thing so I decided to bring my video camera instead. I had hoped to take half-decent quality photos with the video camera as well, but the quality really was sub-par, so I apologize for the photos in this report. I'm going back in January and I'll take my real still camera equipment that trip. We drove in from Arizona and spent two days at the resort. Although we were pretty leisurely, we saw pretty much everything. The crowds were big and the weather was hot, but the Disney folks had lots of cast members working and were cycling through the attractions like mad, so what could have been a bad situation really was quite okay. Through effective fastpass use, I think the longest line we waited in was about a half hour for Buzz Lightyear. I hadn't been to the resort in a little while, and the first thing I noticed was that the place looked a lot nicer than it used to. There was new paint all over, and it looked like a lot of the building facades had been renovated. My wife didn't care for the extra pink in the castle, but I was glad to see it looking bright and all spruced up. The new Disneyland 50th exhibit was allright. I enjoyed the pre-show room with all the memorabilia a lot, but the movie itself was ho-hum. The super-huge model of Disneyland on opening day - way cool. I hope Lincoln comes back some day. I really enjoyed that show more than the retrospective movie they have running in there now. Several of the water rides like Splash and Grizzly had huge lines due to the hot weather, but we managed to get on them with little trouble once the sun went down. I noticed a considerable change in the cannon-ball effects in Pirates. They actually got us wet! As for the Splash renovation, I'm not sure I care for it. Is it just me, or do the new logs move through the attraction waaaay faster than they used to? I was trying to film the ride and things were just whizzing by. Pooh was walk-on the entire trip, despite enormous crowds. I can't really figure that one out. Maybe because it's hidden back in that corner? I mean, sure, it's no E-Ticket, but it's not supposed to be an E-Ticket. As far as dark rides go, I think it's better than Snow White or Pinochio, and those usually have at least a 10 minute line if not longer. Oh well, Disneyland's loss is our gain. We were able to walk on several times and ride. Mansion was another spot I noticed big changes after the rehab. The new Leota effect is unbelieveable, and it's nice having "crawl-mode" instead of the frequent show stops for people who are so old/handicapped/fat/insert-disability-here that they can't board a 2mph vehicle. I liked it a lot! Buzz Lightyear was fun. Not much to say about this one. It seemed a little better than its florida cousin for some reason. I made mad points on that thing since we stopped for a while mid circuit (probably to load disabled guests) and I just kept blasting a target a couple of feet away. The only other "new" things we tried out were Space Mountain and the fireworks show. The new Space is way cool. I've never been on a coaster that smooth before. Anywhere. It's like riding on glass. The audio is great, the theming is great, and the new effects are great. I think I would have liked to see the loading station overhauled a little more heavily, but I can live with that. Saw the new transfer table in action, (it's in the video too), and that's a pretty cool addition from a technical standpoint. When we were departing the station, I threw up the horns for the lady working tower, and she busted up laughing and threw them back at me. It was hillarious. We were both going "WOOOoooooooo!" and throwing the horns back and forth before my rocket the scale. I saw the darkened meteor props to my left when you exit the "spinny-tunnel lift" (Lift B?). I think those are going to be lit and used for the "Rocket Mountain" version when that debuts. That would be pretty cool since it would make for a greater difference between the two versions. The electronic sign out front was actually broken and had both Space and Rocket Mountain lit up on it at the same time. Nobody could figure out what it said since it basically said "RSOPCAKCEET MOUNTAIN". Saw the fireworks from the hub, and they were phenomenal. I'm glad they didn't replace Believe with a crappy show. It's kind of ripped off from the Florida "Wishes" show, but it's still pretty good. I tried going on #disney-central on Newnet to look into the soundtrack, but the IRC chatroom seems to be gone. Does anyone know if it's moved to another server? Finally, I made sure to get in a good half-dozen rides on my favorite: The Tower of Terror. This ride suffers from the same mystery-illness that Pooh does. I think it's a phenomenal ride, but there's hardly ever a line for it. We waited less than 10 minues throughout the entire trip. Even though the park was crowded, Tower didn't seem to be drawing any crowds. I'm just mystified. Oh well, that's about it for my trip report. I had a great time at the park and can't wait to go back in January. Hopefully you enjoyed the report. Here's a link to the trip video I made. Enjoy! http://www.reflectionsoflife.com/video/DL50th.zip Oh yeah, and you can see my still photos of Disneyland here: http://www.reflectionsoflife.com/cpg132/index.php?cat=17

That, and working for $8 an hour is simply ridiculous. A man can only eat so much Taco Bell...

Castles N' Coasters 1996-1997 Disneyland 1997-1998

Yeah, we picked it up in a Disney auction. Got a few other vehicles that way too.

Howdy All, We've decided to sell off our Mr. Toad's Wild Ride vehicle and I just wanted to drop a post in case anyone here is interested in bidding on it. It's an original 'Moley' from the WDW version of the ride before it closed. Still has the motor in it too in case you feel like laying some bus bar in your living room. Ha! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6530913527

Here are some photos of the new DL Space Mountain for you all. What do you guys think? I'm a little disappointed that not much seems to have changed structurally. But some of it does look pretty cool, like the silver hallway with what look like windows on the right. That'd be pretty cool if there are windows that look out onto a planet you're supposed to be orbiting. Of course, that's all speculation on my part since you can't see it well in the photos.