Blogging Buffet & Nerdly News

It's video game stuff, a new Steampunk creation, and coaster ramblings in this installment. Enjoy!

• My friends Luke and Jake have really gotten into Rock Band. I mean REALLY. Guess who else got hooked? Since my buddy Steve in Kansas had already gotten me into Guitar Hero uno and dos over a year ago (has it been that long?), the dust shook off pretty quick. I have no mad skills and rock timid and meekly on easy, but it's fun. Even sang Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf. Though I got a flawless (on easy) my first time ever singing in the game, and I do have prior music training, a singer, I am not. Oh, I can really wail, I just can't sing. Karoke? Forget it! ;)
• Reinstalled Flight Simulator 2002 in my laptop this past weekend. FSX just barely runs on my 1.8 ghz single processor machine, so 2002 is the next option. Even so, nice to have some helo time over Orlando Florida using the real-time weather data. Translated: If it's 65 and sunny in Orlando, it'll be 65 and sunny in your game. Hmm...gotta find blimps/airships to add on. All the better for buzzing Magic Kingdom and Epcot. (For the literal among us, buzzing ok in game. Buzzing not ok in Real Life.)
• Got a Mio 500 GPS as great surprise from the folks the weekend before last. Finally got it programmed and tested it out Saturday night. The British female voice setting was a must. Was hoping for an Aussie voice, but didn't see one just yet. Either way, it'll be nice to have an international companion saying "You're doing it wrong!" while I'm traveling the "motorway" this summer. As a side note to my Brit friends, I'm not totally daft. I DO know what "proper football" is after all. ;)
• In the quiet time on Sunday, creativity called and I fashioned another Steampunk gear necklace out of leftover parts. It'll go well with the antique store gas masked I picked up last week. Also modded a set of welder's goggles with some parts for the fun of it. Brilliant!
• Track work for King's Island's new Diamondback is done, finishing, oddly enough, on my birthday, January 26th. Very cool, especially since I'm a fan of B&M Hypers. Can't ride them because of the motion sick thing, but still love them. Hoping to see Diamondback either this summer or next.
• Track work is also done on Sea World Orlando's Manta. Now it's down to décor, themeing and fishies. Kudos for routing it over the walkways akin to Alton Towers' Air, another B&M flyer.
• Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit is ripping along. The posters over at ThemeParkReview who've seen it in person say it towers over Universal Orlando...and that's just the mid-course breaks! Honestly, I was meh about this whole coaster, but now that it's taking shape, I like the idea more, and think it adds a lot to USO. Granted, I'd hoped for a Hollywood Dream (B&M Mini Hyper) clone, like at Universal Japan, but R3 seems to deliver just as much visual punch. It also gives more of an individuality to the park, even if the idea of having an attention grabbing coaster is the same as USJ.
• While it's still very much rumor, I would like see Carowinds get a B&M Hyper in 2010, simply because it would add a lot to the park. Naturally time will tell, but still a fun thought.
• Yes, that is a new banner at the top of the page. Like some songs need more cowbell, a Rapids Blog needs, well, more Rapids. The pics, from left to right, are of Roman Rapids at Busch Gardens WhateverIt'sCalledThisWeek, The Dollywood Express, and Alabama Adventure's (or Visionland's) Wild River Gorge.