Sohcahtoa's Ramblings
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "DJ" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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02:17 am
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Holy crap its been 9 months
Eh...its been 9 months since my last entry, and so much has changed.
Bianca and I broke up back in October, and she's now living in an apartment near mine with a girl from work. I was living on my own, but recently my brother broke up with his fiance, and he's moved in with me until he figures out what he's going to do. Could be a couple weeks, could be a couple months. I don't mind at all though. We both like to stay up playing World of Warcraft, and we play on the same server and have characters very close in level, so for the most part we should get along just fine.
I went to my first LAN party a few weeks ago. It was a blast. We mostly played Dawn of War and Tribes 2, but everyone got tired of Tribes 2 because we always played Rabbit on it, and I always kicked everyone's ass on it because I'm so damn good with the jetpack on hilly terrain, and Tribes 2 only comes with 3 Rabbit levels, and 2 of them are very hilly. We also played America's Army, but I honestly didn't like it. Friendly fire was a big issue because it can be so hard to tell if someone is a friend or a foe.
I've also gotten a new video card. I've replaced my dying GeForce FX 5600 Ultra 128 Meg for a GeForce 6800 GS 256 Meg (AGP). I'd like to have gotten a PCI-Express card, but then I'd need a new motherboard, as well as a new CPU, since there aren't any Socket 478 motherboards with PCI-Express slots, as far as I know.
I took some benchmarks, but I just realized that I had Vsync forced to be enabled through my drivers when I took the tests on my new card, while it was application controlled (And disabled through 3DMark) when I took the other benchmarks. That, of course, invalidates the use of the two sets of benchmarks for the purpose of comparison. But I suppose those are just numbers. All I know is that now I can play World of Warcraft in 1024x768, all details set to maximum (Including anisotropic filtering), and still get average over 20 fps with 4x FSAA.
Next month I'm going to California again for the annual Knott's Berry Farm Winter Coaster Solace. Probably going to be just me and Chris this year.
That pretty much sums up everything. I'm sure I'll think of something later. But I wanna go play WoW.
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05:19 am
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Selling a Japanese PS2
I'm selling my Japanese PS2 on ebay if anyone wants it.
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02:18 am
[Link] | I went to Wunderland today...it's been months since I've been there. Played some Dance Dance Revolution...man I am SOOO out of practice. I've gotten so out of this game. I can still pass the songs that I did before, but they wear me out so much more. And I don't know what it was, but play the game gave me a headache. My first game and it was an annoyance, so I stopped and played other games. When I came back later, I played two more and just had to stop. I finished my visit with a long game of Time Crisis 3 with my brother. Ended up pumping $3 in that machine...I think that's the first time I've ever been to Wunderland and spent more money on one game than I did on DDR.
...
Nothing really new...my WoW character is now lv 31, almost 32. I think I'm gonna go play after I finish this post.
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12:33 am
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Another month, another entry
I've recently become addicted to World of Warcraft. I play on the Cenarion Circle (RP) server, and have a Human Paladin named Redner, who at the time is lv 30. I've also moved my PS2 from the living room and it is now hooked up to my TV tuner card (An ATI TV Wonder that my dad gave me). I would have done it a long time ago, but I didn't have any good software to use for games. The ATI TV software worked odd in that it buffered everything by a fraction of a second. This caused my sound card to do funny stuff with the audio, as well as creating a tiny bit of lag. If I had the TV tuned to the same channel as the TV in the living room, then my computer sounded like an echo of the living room TV. It made gaming impossible, as any button I pressed took that fraction of a second to register. Anyways, I'm now using a program called DScaler to play my games with. No lag, and it has some beautiful de-interlacing features in it. Now I can play Gran Turismo 4 when Bink wants to watch TV.
In somewhat-related news, now that my PS2 is next to my computer, and that PS2 is modded, I have no use for my Japanese PS2. The two are sitting side by side on my computer desk. I plan on selling my Japanese PS2 on ebay, and I'll be burning copies of all my J-PS2 games and selling the originals on ebay to make a couple bucks. I'll post the URLs to the auctions here when I do that.
Other than that, nothing else new that I can think of right now. I recently reached Journeyman at work, so now I'm making $13.25/hour. w00t!
Link of the Day: Have you ever seen the flash animation titled Posting and You? Well, now you can buy a T-Shirt that says "OMFG STEAM ROXORZ TEH BIG ONE111!"
Current Music: The Hunt for Red October Theme (Hymn for Red October)
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02:30 am
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I finally have an icon!
 I don't know why I never had one, but I finally made one. My own LJ icon. At first, I was considering the bunny icon to the right, which is the logo for The Freenet Project, but no one would get it. Besides, I don't run Freenet anymore anyways. I haven't run it in over 6 months.
So I decided that I should use something more fitting of me...a roller coaster. I decided that I wanted an animated corkscrew, looped in such a way that it looks like it goes on forever. So I went to Cedar Point's website and downloaded a video of Corkscrew. Then I used QuickTime to trim just the corkscrews out and saved to an uncompressed AVI and then used Jasc Animation Shop 3 to trim it down even more, and found the perfect spot to make the animation loop. In case you can't see it, its while the sky takes up most of the scene.
Now...LJ has a damn strict size limit on images...40k. 40k is more than enough for a single 100x100 image (40k can store a 200x200 uncompressed image), but when you have a 32-frame animation, thats only 1,250 bytes per frame. Even with GIF compression, that's not much room. I had to cut out 4 frames and put it down to 7 colors, and even then its BARELY under 40k.
On to news in my life...
I'm once again making the trip to Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain this month, for the same annual events I went to last year. This time, it's going to be me, my brother, my friend Steve, and my dad coming along for the trip. We're going to pile into my mom's car, a 2000 Ford Focus ZTS, and make the drive down there. While we're gone, my mom is going to borrow my car to do her everyday driving.
Don't have much else to say, except that
GRAN TURISMO 4 ROCKS
Seriously...Gran Turismo 4 just blows away all the other Gran Turismo games. From the improved graphics, to an incredible selection of cars and tracks, GT4 is just awesome. There are a couple new tuning options now, including increasing the rigidity of the body and adding nitrous oxide. I put nitrous oxide into my Toyota Sprinter Trueno which I've turned to 241 horsepower. When I hit the nitrous, even in 3rd gear the tires will start spinning. If I'm exiting a corner in 4th gear and hit it, the tires spin then as well. I can't wait until I've scored enough money to buy my favorite car, the Mazda RX-7 Type RZ.
Link of the Day - I've given you enough links in this post...but I suppose I could always lead people over to GTPlanet.
Current Mood:  hyper
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03:56 am
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Uh-oh...DJ got to the keyboard again...
Yeah...I guess I should post or something...considering things have happened.
So I got a mod chip for my PS2 now, so I can play backups and imports (*COUGH*and copies*COUGH*). Now I have no use for my Japanese PS2 and I'm considering selling it. The only reason to keep it would be to play all my Japanese Bemani games on my computer, which I'm already doing anyways. I could really use the money.
What else has happened...I did my taxes. I'm getting $337 back from federal taxes, and $127 back from state taxes. w00t! I'll be throwing it all at my credit cards though, minus some to buy my plane ticket so I can visit my girlfriend's parents with her in Virginia.
In other news, a friend of mine hooked me up with a 10-day trial key for World of Warcraft. I've been wanting to try it out. I actually really like it. Though I'm having a hard time justifying spending $50 for the game and then having to spend another $15/month for it. I mean, sure I can afford it, its no problem. But that's still a lot of money when you add it up. If I were to play this game for a full year, I'd have ended up spending $215! ($15 * 11 months (First month is free) + $50).
So...nothing else new to report that I can think of right now.
Link of the day - The most painful "0wn3d" video ever (Note that you have to scroll down a bit to actually see it, and wait for it to finish loading)
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04:35 am
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OK, normally I don't do these, but...
The results of it just cracked me up so bad...because its probably all true (Except for one of them...and I'll give you a hint...aprilstarchild is my sister). While I don't know if oualum2004 really thinks of me as their BEST friend, I'm pretty certain she sees me as a good friend. I don't really talk to kunzite1 much anymore...not since we went to Westview. And of course, silverrose79 is my girlfriend so all of those results make sense. Hell, the very last one has to be true to some extent.
I've always wondered how those little quizzes work...do they just randomly select people on your friends page using part of your age and username for a seed? Or does it analyze the entries in some way?
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04:05 am
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I am the Micro-Origami master
Surely, everyone at some point has seen the classic origami swan. Well, I took it to a new level. I tried to make the smallest origami swan that I could, and eventually made a swan out of a piece of paper smaller than a dime. Don't believe me? See for yourself:
(Click for the full-sized image)
The piece of paper used was about the size of my middle finger nail. To do some of the folds, I had to use the end of a paper clip to seperate layers of paper within a fold.
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12:49 am
[Link] | Happy New Year!
I celebrated the new year by staying home. I prepared by going to the liquor store and picking up a bottle of Goldschlager and Kahlua, to add to my already existing liquor collection of Bacardi Light Rum, Bacardi Gold Rum, 1800 Tequilla, Stolichnaya Vodka, Jack Daniels, and Bol's Triple Sec. Bink bought some Peppermint Schnapps.
Goldschlager is pretty good. Its a cinnamon liqueur, with little flakes of gold in it. 43.5% alcohol, making it the strongest liquor in my cabinet. Kahlua tastes sort of like really dark chocolate, but is relatively light at only 20% alcohol.
I really didn't drink much. All I had was a shot of the Goldschlager and a White Russian, which is made with 1.5 oz Kahlua, 1.5 oz Vodka, and Milk. It tastes like chocolate milk, but with alcohol. Personally, I'd leave out the Vodka for a glass of chocolate milk with just enough alcohol to just calm the nerves without inducing the sleepiness I get from alcohol.
Oh yeah...other stuff that happened that day...
I went to Costco and picked up my new glasses. Yes, I have rejoined the four-eyed world. I'd take a picture and post it here, but I honestly don't feel like it right now. My sister took a picture with her new digital camera while I was at her friend's house and their new years party. Maybe she'll post a link to it in her LJ. Oh yeah...the party. Bink and I went there and joined in for about an hour from around 7-8 PM. I was wearing my Cheat shirt, and a girl there (I think her name was Hailey) was wearing a Trogdor the Burninator shirt. BTW, if anyone reading this knows her, tell her to contact me. She was interested in acquiring a copy of a CD from me.
On a completely unrelated note, I've gotten ahold of 3D Studio MAX 6. I've been messing around with it, and have made a simple model of what could eventually become a roller coaster. I've also been messing around with motion blur. Check out the two videos:
Without motion blur - 12.5 Megs
With Image Motion Blur - 8.8 Megs
I don't like the result of the image motion blur...it just doesn't look right. However, using object motion blur is horribly slow. It took about 12 hours to render one second of animation. Not worth my time. I could easily cut the render time in half by using a lower quality setting, but you can really see the difference. It creates a "banding" effect. Maybe later I'll render two images to show the difference. Its painfully obvious in a picture. Though maybe in a video you might not notice it as much.
-DJ
Link of the Day: How Much is Inside Goldschlager?
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05:25 am
[Link] | Today I woke up, did a bunch of stuff, and soon I'm going to go to bed.
-DJ, taking the minimalist approach today
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02:36 am
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Some people just don't get it
How come some people don't realize how obsolete their video cards are?
Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 is a very graphically intensive game (but what games aren't nowadays?). The box says it requires a GeForce 2 or Radeon or higher. Then, on the forums we get people with SiS graphics chips, S3 ViRGEs (One of the very first 3D cards ever, released long before the first Quake ever came out), and people with Intel motherboards with integrated 3D chips, which are NEVER any good. Then they complain that the game won't run.
Then you get people who think that because they meet the requirements means they can run the game in full detail. I'm sorry, but just because your GeForce 3 runs Quake III in 1024x768 and full detail settings doesn't mean you can do that in Roller Coaster Tycoon 3.
Also, most people just don't quite understand that, unlike most games, the farther you go, the more processing power its going to take to run your park. A park with 30 rides and 3,000 people in it is going to take a LOT more power to keep the framerates up than a park with 5 rides and 500 people. Eventually, your CPU ends up being the biggest bottleneck when its gotta make decisions for a thousand peeps or so plus animating all the rides.
However, RCT3 was certainly released before Frontier was done with it because Atari is a bunch of dickheads who just HAD to make it out before Christmas. I'm sure there is a lot of room for code optimization.
Link of the Day - Greg's Digitial Portfolio - This guy has some talent.
Current Mood:  annoyed
Current Music: Andrew W. K. - It's Time To Party
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01:59 am
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This might turn into a habit...
Wow! Three entries in one week! Might I actually get back into the habit of posting here again? Wait a minute, did I ever have a habit of posting?
Anyways, my previous webhost for my domain, sohcahtoa.net, Kytec, seems to have sold all of their accounts to some host named Oh Host Power Web Hosting. This may be beneficial, but they don't really look trustworthy. I mean, if you look at their site, they don't look at all professional, unlike Kytec. Plain, boring grey background plus "too-good-to-be-true" host pricing. But I went ahead and signed up anyways since I really didn't have much of a choice. My Kytec bill was due on the 1st and I didn't pay it, so any minute I could lose everything I have there. So I went and signed up and downloaded a backup of my data at Kytec and am ready to transfer everything once the new DNS settings are set and everything begins pointing to my Ohhost account.
If it wasn't such short notice, I'd look around and try to find a decent host. Oh well...we'll see how it goes.
Link of the Day - Hoyle Games - Come here and play some Poker online with me. You start with $5,000 of play money and can play 5 card draw, Texas Hold 'em, and many other forms of poker, as well as a few other casino and board games. If you see Sohcahtoa there, that's me!
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03:51 am
[Link] | If only it was true...
Now, before everyone goes "OMG!!!!11" I would like to point out a couple things:
-The domain for that article is world-cnn.com, not cnn.com.
-Every link on the page points to cnn.com
-cnn.com has NOTHING about the "arrest"
-If you go to http://www.world-cnn.com, every link points to cnn.com (Except those reguarding the "arrest")
-The URL for CNN World is http://www.cnn.com/world, not http://www.world-cnn.com
And if you still believe it, read this:
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_14050.shtml
(And for those that don't have a clue, that site is SATIRE)
I'll have to admit though, the site is very convincing.
In other news, so far I've had 13 people click my banner (1 from a guy looking at one of my friends's friends page, 12 from clicking it in my DDRFreak.com forum signature), but no sales yet. Meh. I don't expect to really earn much money for it, if any at all. Hell, as a matter of fact, I have to earn $50 in commissions before I even see a dime. That's 12 1/2 shirts!
But hey, if you think you can do better and get people to buy shirts from your own links, why don't you register to be a tshirthell.com affiliate? By registering under that link, you'll be one of my affiliates, and not only will you get $4 for every t-shirt sold by one of your links, but I'll get $1 as well! Help a guy out and register and sell some shirts!
And now to spam yet another offer into my LJ:
Click the link, register, and complete one of the offers. Then refer 10 other people and get them to do the same thing and you get a free PC! Of course, none of the offers are free, but they're all really cheap and inexpensive. WARNING: You will get LOADS of spam if you sign up for this offer! Use a throw-away e-mail account!! You have been warned!
And before you ask, yes, they are legit. They are run by the same guys that run freeipod.com, and they are legit. I know several people on DDRFreak that have gotten their free iPods, and have the pictures to prove it.
Link of the Day: I've given you several links already...do you really need another? OK, alright. I'll give you The Snowflake Maker.
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01:38 am
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I've sold out!
I've become an affiliate at tshirthell.com. Click on the magical banner below that changes every time you view this page (Thanks to a nifty PHP script I created, try it! Refresh this page and you'll see a different banner!) and every shirt that gets ordered by one of my referals, I get $4! So with out further adieu, I present to you, the banner:
Link of the Day: The youngest mother on record was a five-year-old Peruvian girl.
Current Mood:  hungry
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05:10 am
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Dancemania Christmas Speed for auction
I'm selling an unopened copy of Dancemania Christmas Speed on eBay. If any of you end up buying it and live in my area, you will have the option of paying cash instead of PayPal and delivery or pick-up might be able to be arranged.
Link of the Day - What happens when a cat is introduced to a zero-G environment?
Current Mood:  hopeful
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03:04 am
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OH SNAP! AN ENTRY!!
Time for my bi-monthly entry, I guess...heh.
...checks the last entry date
OK, so it hasn't quite been 2 months, but whatever...
Lately I've been considering a second job. Despite working full-time, I'm not quite making enough to keep up on bills. Currently, I have next to nothing in my bank accout and my credit card is maxed, but I currently have around $500 in bills due. By the time I'll have the money to pay it, rent will be due, and I have to pay that as first priority. So I pay then. But then by the time I have enough money to pay last month's bills, the CURRENT month's bills come in! ARGH!!
Meanwhile, my brother has been bugging me a bit lately because I mentioned a couple weeks ago that the Winter Solace event at Knott's Berry Farm is coming up in mid-March, and then I told him that there's no way I'd be able to afford it. Even if he payed for all the gas and the hotel expenses, I couldn't afford to pay my admission. Besides, it wouldn't be fair to Bink if I kept taking all these roller coaster trips, and then come home and say I don't have the money to take a trip that SHE wants.
In the words of Coach Z, I could use a dollar, I could use a couple bucks. Anyone want to gimme a dollar or a couple bucks?
Bink has recently gotten addicted to Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. She's wishing she had a better system now. That old GeForce 2 GTS can't handle it once she gets a decently large park. She tried to show me one of the coasters she just built, but when her entire park is in the view, it drops to about a frame each second. Its like a slideshow. About $500 should be able to buy a decent motherboard, CPU, RAM, and a new video card. Taking a quick look at PriceWatch, $500 could get a 2.4 Ghz P4 w/ Hyperthreading (AMD fanboys can kiss my ass), 512 megs of PC3200 DDR, GeForce FX 6600 256 Meg (ATI fans can join the AMD fans), and still have about $150 left for the motherboard.
Link of the Day: The CB-2000
Current Mood: stressed
Current Music: Eminem - Just Lose It
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03:52 am
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I'm still alive!!
Just wanted to let everybody know that I'm still around. Still working at Freddies full time. Still living in an apartment with Bink. Still doing nothing with my life. But that will change by the end of next year once I have my credit card mostly paid off and I can afford to start taking classes again.
Anyways, I've got a webcam now. It turns out that the Eye Toy for the PS2 can be plugged into a PC and used as a webcam by downloading the driver for a certain model of a webcam from D.Link, and then making a small change in one of the files for the driver.
Well, nothing really new to report...though I just now noticed that I never posted anything about my trip to Ohio...well rather than say everything here, just go read my post to rec.roller-coaster.
I'm hoping that my finances will work out and I'll be able to take another trip to California in March for the Annual Knott's Coaster Solace, which is the event I went to earlier this year. I also hope to be able to take another trip to Cedar Point and the other parks over there again. This time, I want to take my Dad along. He likes coasters, but isn't quite as obsessed with them as I am, but he certainly appreciates the excitement of a good ride.
Link of the Day - Ghetto Delta Airlines
Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: Ascension - Someone (Slack & Original Vocal mix)
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01:13 am
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No...I'm not dead
Wow...I haven't updated this thing in 2 months...Crap...
I'll try to pick up where I left off.
I had a blast in California. You can read my whole trip report by reading my post to rec.roller-coaster. No need to post it again.
On April 1st I moved into my own apartment with my girlfriend. Its a nice 1-bedroom for $565/month. We got a 7-month lease and for the first three months it will be $377/month. Its great because we got in-unit washer/dryer and water/sewage/trash is paid. The previous tenants messed up though because they never canceled their ComCrap service, so when I went to subscribe to cable TV and get a cable modem, they couldn't sell me service until I brought in the lease agreement to prove I lived there now. Eventually got it all sorted out and now I'm flying with my 3 mbit/sec connection (A little under 400 KBytes/sec).
Unfortunately, I get no cell phone reception inside the house, so we had to get a land line. Argh.
Other than there, nothing major has happened here. In June I'm planning a trip to Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to visit a few theme parks. If all goes well, I'll be visiting Cedar Point, Six Flags Great Adventure, Knoebel's Grove, Hershey Park, and Kennywood. I'll be going with Doug, a friend I met at Cedar Point.
Maybe I'll get back into the habit of updating this again. We'll see. Until then, enjoy the Link of the Day.
Link of the Day - Banana Phone
Current Music: Norah Jones - Don't Know Why
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12:31 am
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Antici..........pation
Only a few more days until my trip to California!! Chris found out that he actually CAN afford to join me in the trip and talked to our manager, Lydia, and actually managed to get the days off. He made some phone calls and got some people to cover his shifts. Plus, even though he's not a member of any coaster clubs, he'll be able to join me in the events happening at the park, including ERT (Exclusive Ride Time: Time outside the park operating hours where only people going to the event can ride some specific rides) and free lunch. So far, here's the itinerary:
Thursday: Hang out with Bink. Get prepared: Oil change, clean out the car, pack up everything.
Friday: Out of bed by 6 AM, take a shower. Out the door by 6:30. Hit the Starbucks by Freddies for a Latte (I THINK they open at 6!) and hit the road. I should be past Woodburn by 7:30. Somewhere around 8:30 I'll stop for breakfast. Call Bink shortly after crossing the California border (Hopefully by noon). Call again once I get to the hotel, which may be anywhere between 10-11 PM, possibly later.
Saturday: Knott's Berry Farm. Check-In for the Winter Solace event begins at 6, but the real events don't start until 7:30, which is my target time for arrival. I'm staying at a hotel about 45 miles from KBF, so I hope to be out the door by 6:30 at the latest. Knott's closes at 10, but we have ERT on one of their coasters until midnight.
Sunday: Six Flags Magic Mountain. We have ERT on their two largest coaster from 8-10 AM before the park opens, but I'm only 10 miles from that park, so I won't have to really get up until nearly 7. SFMM will be open until 10 PM.
Friday: Same as Monday, but reverse. I hope to be out the door and on the road by 6:30, and expect to get home around 10 or 11 PM.
I just can't wait to go. I've been wanting to ride X @ SFMM for so damn long. It quite truly is a one-of-a-kind coaster (And will probably stay that way, since the company that designed it is nearly bankrupt).
I'll be bringing my Dad's digital camera, and will take plenty of pictures.
Links of the Day: Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain at RCDB (The Roller Coaster Database). There you can find pictures of all the coasters I'll be riding.
Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Six Flags - Riddler's Revenge Station Music
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02:26 am
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Ahh...much better...
So I tried out Firefox and Thunderbird.
Why the hell didn't I switch sooner?! Firefox is faster than I could have ever imagined! All this time Mozilla (and even MSIE) took to load web pages...I thought that my connection just wasn't quite fast enough, or the servers weren't fast enough, or whatever. WRONG! Firefox loads pages so fast it just blew me away. Websites just jump onto my screen. Its incredible.
Thunderbird, OTOH, isn't really FASTER than Mozilla's e-mail/newsgroup reader, but its not slower either. Its certainly a lot prettier though. It just kind of has a more Windows XP-ish feel to it rather than a Win2K feel, though a different skin probably could have created that feel.
Now, I'd like to get started on this one programming project I've been meaning to get to, but every time I sit at the computer, I feel too lazy to start programming. It became work. :-\
I'm actually starting to feel tired, even though its only 2:30.
Oh yeah, my federal tax refund came last night. w00t. Money. A little bit closer to paying off the credit card. If it wasn't for my trip to California coming up, it'd be paid off completely in 2 more weeks. As a matter of fact, right when I finally pay it off, I'll be using it again to fund my trip to CA.
Current Mood:  lazy
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