arrowfanman

Great photos! I really love the one of the topple tower, with Thunderhead in the background! That "Nana's House" shirt reminds me of something from the movie "Grandma's Boy". Oh, and BTW...Arrow didn't shape up the "last few years of operation". They were always that great! -Jahan

Hey guys, It's my turn to be "moderator" Jahan and not "Jahan", Jahan. When this thread was created, we had no idea how popular it would eventually become! If you would have told me that it would grow to become nearly 500 pages long, I would have laughed at you! And as a result, I have to thank everybody for their contributions to this thread over the past few years! I don't know how to 'nicely' say this, so I'm going to be straight-forward. I think that the SFMM Updates thread has lost its purpose and gone off track. I'm not just saying this because it's "my thread". It's not "my thread". I made it "SFMM Updates" and not "Jahan's Updates" for a reason. It's just, there was a day and age where someone would post an update and the topic conversation would center around that update--because it's the "Updates" thread. When all had been said, the thread sort of died until the next person came along and posted an update. People are now posting for the sake of posting. More often than not, people are not talking about ACTUAL things that are going on at the park, but rather getting sidetracked with random conversation. And it's leading to unnecessary arguments, member-problems, and general conflict that could have easily been avoided if we just stuck to what we know and can see going on at the park, rather than rash hypotheticals. I'm ecstatic that people seem to be so relatively enthusiastic and opinionated on ideas for Magic Mountain, the policies in place, the pros, the cons--ANYTHING and everything that one could potentially talk about a single theme park! But our request is simply to keep conversation in this thread centered around the updates and the material discussed in the updates. I'm afraid that moderators will employ the right to pull any posts that are off topic. I hope I am being fair. I want this thread to be welcoming to people who have actual information, that's all. And I hope to see some more SFMM Updates from you folks! Thank you, -Jahan (arrowfanman@yahoo.com)

Thanks for all of the comments guys! LOL Robb...didn't even realize I look like a Lt. Dan partial-amputee in that photo! Honest question.... you say new ending. We went on it about 6 months after it first opened and I remember an ending fairly similar to the one you mentioned. Was there a different one at first? Anything has to be better than the ending we experienced... It was pretty bad. I recall the ride having a "finale" scene, with a "fire effect" as well as an eclipse effect or something. The whole room was bright, orange, and there was fog accentuating the effects. What is now is just a dark room with a bright light. Here's a photo of the effects test of what used to be, from Robb's hardhat tour of the ride in 2004: -Jahan

Hey everybody! Ok!—so lately I’ve been doing nothing but work, and with my nieces down, I figured I could use a good excuse to take a break and spend some family time. With a Universal Studios Hollywood Annual Pass about a month away from expiring (despite me only using it once), I decided I was due to finally take a visit and check out the Simpsons Ride. So on Wednesday myself, my sister, and my niece all departed from Santa Clarita to take a quick tour of Universal Studios Hollywood! Our story today begins at Starbucks. I used to hate this stuff. I was all “blah, blah, blah, corporate America, blah, blah, blah”, but one day Mike just got me hooked on the stuff! Yay! We’re there!! The drive wasn’t bad at all, considering it’s LA. Parking was $12 but we at least got a good spot. After a quick tour of City Walk, we purchased one adult ticket (got a free kids ticket with a coupon, because we’re just that cool), and made our way into the park. Technically, I just got 3 people into a Universal park for a value of $70. Not bad, even for USH! In the park only about 40 minutes after opening, we thought it would be wisest to hurry over to the “new” Simpsons ride to get that out of the way before the lines get any longer! Though the building shape cant change for obvious reasons, they did a good job of changing the appearance from Back to the Future. It honestly brought life to the area. Just as planned, we arrived to an only 5 minute wait, despite the fact that they were only boarding about one-fourth of the ride’s capacity. This would all fill up later in the day…why you should make sure to go to parks early! As a theme park guy, it was fun to get the Simpsons’ parody of the theme park in “Krustyland”. The preshow video was all pretty good. I like this grouping area, as it started to “surround” you with different jokes. BTW…those blue lights are totally the ones used in the Anglerfish scene in the subs! LOL. Totally appreciated reading the stats for this ride, again parodying any park these days. The ride itself was actually very fun! I would even argue that it is better than Back to the Future! I agree with Robb that the 3D-ish animation was unnecessary and probably hurt the ride, but I did feel immersed in the Simpsons experience. Though we all felt jolts every now and then, it wasn’t painful. We even had an elderly couple in our vehicle find the shakes to be just fine. The “sequence of events” within the story weren’t always linear or relevant, but at the same time—it’s a cartoon! That being said, it was just a simulator. So I’d give the ride a 30 minute wait, tops. It was fun, there’s no arguing that. It just didn’t do much for me as a ride. Why you go to the “new attraction” first! Homer totally ran over a little girl trying to hug him! This is him trying to apologize as his handler contacts the Universal legal team. After the Simpsons ride, we went into the Kwik-E-Mart hoping to get a Squishee, or Icee, or something, but was shocked to find that the Squishee machine was a fake! Laaaaaaaaaaaame! And now, for the most badass photo you have ever seen. We’re talking proof that I’m a real G. The backside of the Kwik-E-Mart reminded me of the type of hood that I grew up in. Brought me back to my roots. And thus… Yes, that is a TPR chapstick in my mouth. Man I’m cool. After the Simpsons ride, we had two options—Hit up the Tram Tour, which had no wait, or hurry down to the Lower Lot for the attractions down there, before the lines fill up. I decided to go to the Lower Lot, my logic being I wouldn’t mind waiting 10-15 minutes for the tram as it’s a 45 minute ride! I’d hate to have to wait more than 10 minutes for anything in the Lower Lot! Alexa totally giving me a “God damn, I’m tired of my uncle taking a bunch of stupid photos!” look as we ride down to the Lower Lot! For those who don’t know, Universal Studios Hollywood is built on the side of a mountain (almost a cliff!). It has two halves to the park (one on the top, one at the bottom) with a giant span of escalators combining the two halves. That’s what I mean by the “Lower Lot”. Noted? When we arrived at the bottom, we decided to ride Mummy: The Ride first, again my logic being it’s the ride I’d least like to wait for! I guess we might as well give it a pity ride! Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride is a state of the art attraction, featuring dark ride elements, roller coaster elements (both forwards and backwards track sections), a launch, switch tracks, animatronics, projections, fog, seamless lighting effects, and even a water element! Too bad it sucks. The ride just does not do much for me. The queue sets up a story, quite well. When you get to the loading dock, you are efficiently loaded into a single-car unit that dispatches into a series of dark-ride show scenes, continuing that story. The load area, complete with a couple people wondering why I’m taking their picture! But once you launch and enter the “ride” portion of the showbuilding, you simply meander around a series of turns, occasionally bobbing your banking, staring at the occasional “cardboard cutout” of a mummy warrior blacklit. You then come to a stop in a scarab beetle room with a pesky water-squirt effect, before taking off backwards through a series of even more shallow turns. Don’t get me wrong, it’s “cute”! My niece even shrieked on occasion. But for me, it really is just an indoor kiddy coaster with “scary” effects. Oh, the worst is the new ending! It still gets to me—what used to be a logical conclusion and finale to the story the ENTIRE queue and ride has set up, has been reduced to a dark room, with fog being blow in your face, an occasional strobe, and a bright, blinding light. Even my sister and niece thought it was dumb, without me saying so. Now for the other major ride in the Lower Lot… Yay! I like this one! Jurassic Park: River Adventure was also doing its second summer of it’s “Wetter than Ever” campaign, which features several different effects designed to get the passengers soaked. I experienced this last summer when Lou was out, and let’s just say it really IS like, the wettest ride experience ever! They have random water jets, water drips, and my favorite, water cannons, added to the ride for no reason other than to wet the riders! Here, let me explain… They have about four of these giant water cannons distributed among the drop runout. They actually launch before the raft even splashes down. They turn this… …Into this! It really is crazy. The purpose of launching the cannons before the raft lands is so that when you do splash down, you get battered with water raining down on you! Another shot, where you can see the water raining down onto the boat! Due to those kinds of levels-of-wetness, it was decided unanimously to get ponchos! We’re the cool team! Again, the ride was a walk on. Look who we found!!! Cue the John Williams! Pointy-lips McGee back there is trying to bite Javaneh’s head off! “Will it be two immortals locked in an epic battle until Judgement Day and trumpets sound?” I’m helpless! The problem with ponchos, is they make your face disproportionately wet, compared to the rest of your body! …now I’m just complaining to complain! Might as well finish off the Lower Lot before heading back up! Backdraft is just one of the SFX stages where they blow something up in front of your face and call it a day. “Hi, I’m Ron Howard…when you see a firetruck, get out of the way. It’s not going to the movies!” Fire. With that, we were done with the Lower Lot. It was time to head back up and check out the Tram Tour. I dared Javaneh to run the stairs. …bad choice! The Universal Studios Backlot tour is actually the staple of the Hollywood park. In fact, it could be argued it’s the staple of the Universal parks chain, as it is what started them all. The Universal Backlot is the largest and one of the most-used film production backlots around, so it’s unique to the park to get to tour a production studio that is real and predates the park (rather than simply built as a park attraction!) That all being said, I’m sure a lot of you heard that the backlot recently suffered a major fire, burning a bit over 2 acres of some of the most famous building facades in the “New York Street” lot areas. The wreckage was clearly visible from the attraction entrance and was acknowledged at the beginning of the ride (no way to hide it, so they might as well!) The damage, as seen from the entrance. Note, the concrete “U” shape to the right of the tractor is where Kong used to be. By nature of geography, the wreckage was one of the first stops on the tour. They even stopped, so as we could take photos. Note, also, that the famous “Back To The Future” courthouse was touched a bit, but did not come down. As everybody was looking left to take photos of the fire damage, I happened to glance right and take a photo of the retired collapsing bridge. I found it interesting that the lake was drained, there were trucks around it, and people working on it. I just figured they were prepping it for a scene or something, as they have used it in the past for film. Little did I know, as I would find out today, that they were actually working on it to re-add it to the tour! A look at the bridge and the new GE Solar Panels above it. If you look below the bridge, you can see some workers doing work to bring it back. After that, we entered the “cars” portion of the tour. Hi Ryan. After that was the stupid “Fast and the Furious: Toyko Drift” scene. Which begins promising!... (this photo makes it look too cool) …But immediately gets stupid when “car on a stick” decides to dance. “We then recycle all of the water by pumping it into the park’s drinking fountains. Just kidding…we send it to Disney. …Yeah, not much going on over here... I wonder what is going to happen? That same effect has been redressed, like, 5 times over the years! It was currently, “Check out how Peter Jackson used miniatures in King Kong”. Yeah, not terribly impressed with the Earthquake experience. Old and stupid. Oh yeah! They now also have a Norman Bates character, making a little “scene” out of the Bates Motel and Psycho house, whereas before it was just “Hey look—the Bates Motel and Psycho house.” I haven’t decided if I like it or not yet! The tram stops and you see Bates go into Room 1, extract a body, and stuff it into the back of the car…. …He then recognizes the tram and slowly begins proceeding towards it with his knife, sporting an evil little grin. In the end, the Tram Tour is still one of the neater attractions at USH, despite the fact that it’s a bit dated. But efforts to update it, like the Bates thing, are neat. Still feel like it has too much Whoopie Goldberg, however. …whoopee. We aren’t the most lively bunch, but we’re doing better than the Asian zombie, in the background! Lol. At this point in the day, it was about 1:30 and we were all getting pretty hungry. We decided to eat at the El Pollo Loco with the patio that tried to simulate rain. I cant say that the rain effect worked, but the noise made a nice atmosphere. Pretty decent lunch. The green was my favorite of the salsas, BTW. In case you were wondering! After lunch, we all had only one thing we all cared to do, and that was Shrek-4D. Shrek-4D is actually one of the nicer 4D shows out there, in my personal opinion! Really! I find it to be funny, the effects are cool, the seat movements (the seats move a bit) accentuate the film, and the pre-show is great! The pre-show is honestly my favorite part! I could watch it, and walk out satisfied. I feel like I needed another Shrek 4D picture, so here it is! After the show, we walked over to the wait-time board to see if there was anything else we wanted to do… …nope! That’s right, at 2:25 we were done with the park! Now don’t get me wrong, there was actually a whole selection of shows that the park offers, that we didn’t watch. Didn’t really care to see any of them today, though I have before and do like them. But as far as attractions go, we were done. That’s not to say we didn’t have fun! We did! In fact leaving early was our way of finishing on a good note, rather than blowing a good day on forcing ourselves to be happy. That being said, I do believe the park really does need more. I find that Universal knows how to make “major attractions”, but the park doesn’t add any substance between those. Flats, kiddy rides, perhaps some dark rides—that’s what the park is missing. Anyway, that should do it for today! Thank you all for reading! Maybe next week… Until then, thanks again guys! Hope you enjoyed it! -Jahan

What's funny is I took a picture of them doing "work" on the bridge when I was there yesterday. Totally didn't know that's what it was for! -Jahan

Yes!...I've been reading your thread regularly and must say that I'm enjoying every bit of it! -Jahan

Yay! A Cameron PTR! If you find a way to cut the ride in half, the next time I make it out there, I'll join you on a ride! Ok, ok, who am I kidding? Cut the ride into a quarter!

My understanding is the middle coaches never have had air conditioning. The Disneyland Monorail is about 1/2 the size of the WDW Monorail--vehicles and all, so they originally couldn't fit an A/C unit in, discounting strapping it to the roof or something. They've always simply rolled down the windows to allow for fresh air to enter the cabins. The problem now is that DOSH and the DL safety people dont want the windows to be opened beyond 2 inches, with all the low clearances beside the track and such. Hence the problem. I'm glad they were able to figure out whatever they did! -Jahan

^ Not trying to make this any more depressing, but there are typically long lines of people waiting to get an opportunity like this. And once they've signed that contract, they're pretty much yours. Sounds like they're taking advantage of that limitless supply of labor. -Jahan

I honestly was expecting to work (traditionally the most crowded day in theme parks), but have the day off! I don't know what to do with myself! -Jahan

-Silver Bullet -California Screamin' -Ninja ...and I can't believe I'm saying this... -Mummy at USH. All of them seem like a "big coaster", only to provide smooth, graceful rides (for lack of a better word). You want him to walk off of the ride saying, "Wow, that wasn't as bad as I thought!" Another part of me says just go with the Xcelerator idea. I wasn't a coaster guy until my brother tricked me into riding Viper at SFMM. It's just best to send him straight to the big leagues--if he can perform, he's in. If not, we might have a problem on our hands. -Jahan

And who says B&M's never kill people. There are incredibly low clearances in the Batman track areas. Adds to the fun of it all. I'm just glad that nobody onboard the train got hurt. Physically, at least. -Jahan

^ Disregarding that I know for a fact that guests are generally very happy with X2, my point was just that--both X2 and Thomas are new. Therefore, how come X2 was pushed by the park and not Thomas? What I was saying was regardless of whether or not it will stay that way--X2 IS the most popular ride in the park right now! You cant argue that. I don't think that the intent was ever to "copy" the 1976 trains, but rather create a train inspired by that design. I personally think the stars are an improvement over the dots. As I said, the vibrations have been eliminated. The trains "glide" around. But the main "jolts" that throw your head into the restraint is still there. Those will never go away. The sign atop the restraunt recieved a repainting (it desperately needed it) and it's open on weekends this summer.

6/26/08 SFMM Update! Hey guys! How have you been? What?—I’m not trying to play off the fact that it’s been a long time since the last legitimate SFMM Update! I feel like Robb and friends have been doing a great job at keeping you up to date. And at the same time, there hasn’t been all that much to report on. With the summer season in full swing, there is very little time between breaths to do much other than operate the park. But enough excuses, let’s not delay any longer and actually get to the update… X2 v. Thomas Town Both of SFMM’s 2008 attractions have arrived and are welcoming guests to ride. On one end of the park, you have X2, the arguably meanest and most-thrilling of the park’s coaster collection. On the other, Thomas Town, the undoubtedly most quaint, peaceful, and family-friendly of the park’s offerings. Welcome to Thomas Town! Thomas Town features two main attractions, the smaller being the coaster formerly known as Goliath Jr. It has since become Percy’s Coaster and looks much nicer than before. I love how top-heavy this thing looks! The larger of the attractions is Thomas the Tank Engine himself! His eyes look like little Pac Mans! Thomas is pretty much your average diesel-powered amusement park train that occupies the space where Granny Gran Prix used to be. To be honest, it feels even less like a “ride” than Gran Prix used to, but it does add modernity and atmosphere, two things that Magic Mountain really lacks. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Thomas Town is the nicest “atmosphere” in the entire park! …Knapford Station really felt like a cute little train station. The tour itself is “cute” and enjoyable. More set pieces creating a setting along the track. An exit through the most “blue” gift shop I have ever seen! And towards the Cranky the Crane water-play area. More set pieces underneath Cranky. There is also Thomas “Storytime” entertainment, at select times, for the little ones. I *love* the little chairs! I can fit like, one butt-cheek on them! Obviously designed for the little ones. I’m going to be perfectly honest, despite all of the atmosphere and scenery to see, the attraction did lack in some areas. It didn’t quite feel like a “ride”. More like a tram-tour around the “Island of Sodor”. But some parts of “Sodor” were rather bland and boring. …Yeah. Not much going on over here. Oooooh…and lovely speaker-tree forest over here. …Sodor is a whacky place. That all being said, the ride is still cute. But I haven’t even mentioned the biggest problem with Thomas Town yet. It’s something visible in each and every one of the photos I just posted. Here…let me help you… Where IS everybody? That’s right—there’s nobody IN Thomas Town! One of the nicest new areas Magic Mountain has created in the last decade and there’s nobody enjoying it! Where did everybody go? Despite it being both a new attraction and a pleasant family experience, Thomas Town is more like a Ghost Town throughout most of the day. And this is how it has been every day! In the morning, there is a “rush” and the line will fill up to about one-train’s worth. But it will soon cycle out and by an hour after park opening, that is what you see—a completely deserted land. Perhaps guests don’t like a quiet little train ride. It would seem that more guests prefer… FIREEEEEE! …Looks like I found all of the missing guests! X2 has instantly become the most popular attraction in the park. One Saturday in June, Tatsu’s line never left the station for the first 45 minutes of park-operation due to everybody running to X2 instead! Running 2 trains on weekdays and 3 trains on weekends, the line reaches from 1 to 3 hours, depending on the time of day. People wait forever for this ride and walk off happy that they did! The entrance sign is still going up (and is nearly complete). The line is also visible, almost to the ride entrance—this is with full switchbacks. Part of me wants to say, “Well, people just like X2 more than Thomas!” And I have to argue, X2 is a far better “ride”. But I do hold a fair bit of hesitation in just saying that because, let’s face it, have you seen a commercial for Thomas Town? A billboard? Paper ad? The park is virtually ignoring the existence of Thomas Town while X2 gets a commercial spot every time So You Think You Can Dance cuts to commercial break! Frankly, I don’t even know if the general public is aware that the ride exists. So why isn’t the park advertising it? Is it not large enough to advertise? Is it some sort of licensing issue with the Thomas brand? Or is X2 just what the park is trying to focus on right now? I don’t know. I understand that X2 is the crown jewel of the park’s coaster collection. But part of me thought that wanting to appeal to a family-crowd meant not just building family-friendly attractions, but letting the families know that it’s there. The park-maps now list the “family-friendly attractions” and there is a sign identifying them at the rides. The park IS making an effort to step away from their “teenage”-oriented past and promote good, clean, family fun. So where’s that message? The only message you see on TV is “Come to Six Flags Magic Mountian if you’re bada$$ enough to ride the ALL-NEW X2.” This was my metaphorical, “What happened to Thomas Town?” picture! I only hope that a completely deserted Thomas Town gives the message that unless there is a transition to market the park as a family park, the park can never become a family park. Jay made it clear at West Coast Bash that Disney’s image as a great, family park allows it to remain king of family parks, despite whatever the truth actually is. Well, Six Flags Magic Mountain needs to reshape its public image to become a family-oriented park before it can every pretend to be, no matter how many family-friendly attractions it builds. At the very least, find a happy medium. No more of this, Our rides are so thrilling, “You should check your pants for deposits”, as they spiel on the TV’s in the X2 queue line. My rant is over. You Know It’s Going To Be…All Right A beautiful day at Revolution. Well, as it has been previously reported, Revolution has received some new paint…Not on the track this time, but on the trains themselves! There’s also a rumor that one of the trains is new or has new mechanical components, which is believable. One of the trains has a mighty-freshened up version of the teal/silver scheme that the ride has been utilizing since the ‘90s. Not a great shot at all, but you can tell that there’s a certain “freshness” to the coaches, even down to the wheels. What caught my eyes more while approaching the ride, was the other train. Red. White. Blue. The Great American Revolution…once again. The train has both a patriotic feel, with a retro 70’s throwback. All without feeling “old”, but rather looking new and fresh! The front coach has the retro-“Magic Mountain” lettering, a great throwback to the days that people so reminisce about Revolution. Little details are found everywhere, including my favorite, the bumpers! I have to be honest, the very first time I saw this new Revolution train, I was walking out of the Tatsu exit. I was soooo mesmerized by it, that I actually ran into a bench while staring at it!—I even have bruises to prove it. At least the nearby guests thought it was funny. The ride is even slightly improved. I rode in the patriot-train and noticed that the vibrations were nonexistent! The train seemed to glide over the track. That being said, the jolts that throw your head into the ungodly restraint were there. I’m convinced that the trains are as good as they will ever be. Therefore, if Revolution is to ever be perfectly comfortable again, the park will have to reprofile those terrible over the shoulder restraints. May I recommend the soft-harness OTSRs, like on Tatsu or the new family SLC’s? Look into it. A beautiful train, riding off into the distance. *cues background music* Entertainment, Advertisements, and Randomness, Oh My! We’ve now arrived at that “end of the update” part of the update, where I throw together all of the things that weren’t big enough to have their own part of the update. First up, the entertainment team at SFMM are working in full swing and to bring entertainment to the guests. Right at the entrance, you can find the “DDR Challenge”, where guests can compete against each other, in front of an audience, to see who is the Dance Dance Revolution master. Simple, but it’s actually quite entertaining. Bow bow….chicka chicaaaaaa. Bow bow… Oh yeah! Up next, is Kid Karaoke, which has replaced the bird show in the Carrot Club Theater. It isn’t uncommon to be walking through Bugs Bunny World and here scratchy girl’s voices attempting to belt-out their favorite Hannah Montanna songs. I should be arrested for taking this photo. Both of these offerings seem more focused on allowing the guests to entertain each other, than be entertained by the park. It’s partially clever, for what it is. As far as park entertainment, there’s the awesome Batman Begins stunt show, the daily parade, and then there’s CSI: LIVE. This is CSI: LIVE. It’s in Magic Moments. Though I have yet to see the show myself, a few of my friends weren’t entirely too thrilled by the show. I still will watch it and find out for myself though. If anything, for the air conditioning! (Last weekend, it was 110 degrees F at the park!) There has also been a vast array of advertisements to pop up throughout the park. They don’t obstruct the park experience at all, but are very noticeable. You have high-tech ad signs… …Car showcase displays… …High tech ad signs AND car showcase displays, and my personal favorite… Trash can imprints advertising for the Consumer Products division of a company that also happens to have a Parks and Resorts division in indirect competition with Six Flags Inc.! More lockers are being installed at Tatsu. Here, let me save you the effort— *bitch* *moan* *outcry* *rant* *groan* *protest* *snarl* *complain* …there! I just saved us all 15 pages of complaining! In other news, the Magic of the Mountain Museum at the SkyTower has received a few more upgrades, proving that the it will never be complete, so as long as there is imagination left in the world….I mean…erm…Just look at the pictures… The models are no longer hanging around wherever they feel like, but have been properly placed on stands as they deserve. “Dead space” in the center of the floor has been filled with some very neat photo-collages. There’s even a test seat up here! Which is actually really disappointing to me, as now that the test seat is in the park, there’s no real excuse to why the others can’t be used at their respective rides. Yes, the Goliath Jr. sign HAS been removed. In fact, it’s currently sitting behind Psyclone’s footprint. The 2009 Coaster I do not have information on the 2009 coaster for you. I very much enjoy my job and would like to continue doing it. So why dedicate a section of the update to it? For two thoughts: One, be careful guys. I don’t know what Shapiro “slipped” last week. What I do know is there is still very little information about this project out there. I’ve been reading through the nearly 10-pages of gossip already produced about the coaster and can’t help but notice a bunch of fallacies in logic. People are drawing conclusions far too soon and filling in information that hasn’t been confirmed. And that’s human nature, I understand. The brain is able to merge two planes of vision (one for each eye) into a single image by essentially “guessing” what goes between the two! We are designed to fill in the gaps. That being said, be careful. People are already jumping to conclusions that are remarkably wrong. And I don’t want anyone to be disappointed by an element of this coaster that was never on the drawing board to begin with! Secondly, show some patience. After all, it was late-June of 2005 that I began doing updates for Tatsu, which opened in Spring of 2006. If it’s safe to use that same construction timeline, then it would be safe to say that markers/markings may begin appearing within the next few months! So patience. The ride will begin to come together soon enough and before you know it, you’ll be on the thing! Well folks, that should do it for today! Hope you enjoyed the update. A bit short, but as I said, not all that much is going on right now! Check back over the next few months as more updates on what will be happening at the park occur! I couldn’t resist! -Jahan (arrowfanman@yahoo.com)

I must say, I find the ads to be annoying. VERY annoying. I hate that man. I want him to die. So if these are the emotions the commercial is bringing out of me, maybe they are racist. -Jahan

Great update Lou. I've been reading every installment--but naturally this one was my favorite. It was a pleasure to meet you! Hope to maybe see a Europe report. -Jahan

Great update Robb! BTW...no matter how much I hate penguins, I can never hate Wheezy! -Jahan

^ Because they very much DO look like a bow! (Think bow, in bow and arrow). Why do people naturally cause drama?

^ I personally love Signs. I think it was marketed to be a terrifying thriller because that's what sells, but it wasn't a thriller at all. It has a scary moment or two, but the story is really a simple one: About a former reverend regaining his faith. Aliens, in my opinion, were literally no more than a catalyst or vessel for making that change. In fact, that was one of the many problems with the Happening. There was no real change in the characters. It was really just, "Let's watch Mark Walberg try not to kill himself" for 90 minutes. That's it. No growth as a character. No change with the audience. It was just 90 minutes of watching him running through fields, with intermittent cutaways to people killing themselves. A weak plotline, in my opinion. -Jahan

The Happening - I'd give it a D. -Jahan

Well TJ, the name "QWERTY" for our typewriter keyboard comes from the first six letters in the top alphabet row (the one just below the numbers). It is also called the "Universal" keyboard for rather obvious reasons. It was the work of inventor C. L. Sholes, who put together the prototypes of the first commercial typewriter in a Milwaukee machine shop back in the 1860's. For years, popular writers have accused Sholes of deliberately arranging his keyboard to slow down fast typists who would otherwise jam up his sluggish machine. In fact, his motives were just the opposite. When Sholes built his first model in 1868, the keys were arranged alphabetically in two rows. At the time, Milwaukee was a backwoods town. The crude machine shop tools available there could hardly produce a finely-honed instrument that worked with precision. Yes, the first typewriter was sluggish. Yes, it did clash and jam when someone tried to type with it. But Sholes was able to figure out a way around the problem simply by rearranging the letters. Looking inside his early machine, we can see how he did it. The first typewriter had its letters on the end of rods called "typebars." The typebars hung in a circle. The roller which held the paper sat over this circle, and when a key was pressed, a typebar would swing up to hit the paper from underneath. If two typebars were near each other in the circle, they would tend to clash into each other when typed in succession. So, Sholes figured he had to take the most common letter pairs such as "TH" and make sure their typebars hung at safe distances. He did this using a study of letter-pair frequency prepared by educator Amos Densmore, brother of James Densmore, who was Sholes' chief financial backer. The QWERTY keyboard itself was determined by the existing mechanical linkages of the typebars inside the machine to the keys on the outside. Sholes' solution did not eliminate the problem completely, but it was greatly reduced. I hope that answers your question. Q: Would it have been more appropriate to site my source for that information, or does it not matter because this is just "dumb question/answer" thread on a public forum for fun? -Jahan

^ Of which only 1 of those three has any real issues with. X2 now loading and unloading from the same spot means there's nearly no time lost to shoes. Scream's open station design makes it very easy to dump your shoes in the cabinents and they seem to be doing just fine with the "shoe problem", as they're running three trains quite well. And as the operations supervisor for Tatsu, I can assure you that we're WELL aware of the shoe issue. And we're getting better and better and dealing with it. So as much as you clearly and quite vocally despise the locker policy at SFMM, as the person who gets access to all the ride daily throughput numbers, I can assure you that the lockers are helping rider-throughput. So while you're expert observations may suggest one thing, I'm afraid my numbers suggest another. -Jahan

Hey guys! Not really an "Update" update, but an update none the less. I joined some friends for a lap around Magic today when I noticed that the Thomas Town walls were down! We're literally in the final countdown on the ride and it's finally starting to look like something. By the way, we also queued for X2. While I had already been on the ride, I was actually interested and excited enough to queue again for it! The wait ended up being an hour, exactly as posted. And the line seemed to actually move! Like, it was tolerable. The TV sets in the queue were actually entertaining (every now and then you would a hear a large, "Oooooooooohh" from the crowd when the TVs showed someone falling off of a scooter or something...LOL.) I rode in the back row, outside seat, and it was still a good ride. I will say the ride is "cooler" at night, but still enjoyed my day ride. Anyway, I'm sure there's been enough pointless opinions about X2, so onto some photos... -Jahan Finally, I'll leave you with a photo of X2's queue, to prove that I waited an hour for something at SFMM! I do enjoy the ride! ...not as cool as Tatsu or Goliath, though. =D Thanks for readin! Now that school is out, there should be more legitimate "Updates" in the future! The SkyTower FINALLY has a sign at the entrance of the ride!!! The "smoking areas" have now been further restricted from "general vicinities" to "stay between the blue lines or else we'll make you watch the 'More Flags More Fun' commercials on a loop!!!". The grave site of Spinout has been fenced off, to hide the utlities and "off limits" area behind it. Also note the new hi-tech advertising platforms on the left. Complete with color scrolling adds and a "ticker" scroll, on the top. The Batman show is back!!! Limited showings during the weekdays, obviously, but packed mulitple-showings on the weekends. Onto a couple of other things, the "Ride the Mountain" skateboard shows are coming back. A terrible shot of Percy on the Goliath Jr. track. I will say, however, that despite the size, Thomas Town is looking like one of the more "clean", "aesthetically pleasing", and "nice, quiet, family-oriented" areas of the park. A welcomed addition, no doubt. The entrance to the "town". The town is admittedly small--probably too small to be considered a "themed land", in my opinion. It's smaller than "a bugs land" in DCA. The station, complete with shameless giftshop...VERY Disney, might I add. =D A look over towards Cranky the Crane and the attraction (complete with the Tidmouth Shed) in the background. Ooooooooh! The walls are down! Check out Thomas Town!

^ How hard can it be when you're just tapping a harness with two fingers instead of actually checking it?! Zing!!!! Just playin Dane! -Jahan

That's great! I'm glad there's someplace I can go and eat in peace, without fear from peanuts, nature's allergy of choice for me! Thanks for posting! Evil little buggers!