Bradley Robertson dot com - Bradley Robertson

What are you doing?

Bradley Robertson — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:09:33 +0000

As many of you know by now the micro-blogging site Twitter asks the simple question, "What are you doing?" You might have also noticed I haven't been so good about talking about what I have been doing lately because of my lack of posts. To be quite honest there is really no one reason why I haven't posted an entry in over two months. However, even though I haven't been actively updating entries on this site, I do still "tweet" a couple of times a day. Below, I have listed my 10 favorite tweets I have sent over the last two months. I hope you enjoy them and it prompts you to follow me on twitter along with reading my site.

Happy Star Wars Day everyone! May the 4th be with you.. @ The Dagobah Swamp 2:12 PM May 4th from Brightkite
We just sold our car to a random dude on the street. We were planning to donate it, but the cash is nice too. @ The Dagobah Swamp 7:38 PM May 5th from Brightkite
The neighbors across the street are smoking pot on their front porch. Seems like a surefire way to get arrested. @ The Dagobah Swamp 8:22 PM May 10th from Brightkite
Ugh. Someone got my debit card info (again). $700 unauthorized charge. Glad we always have back-savings... @ Career Education Systems Inc 9:37 AM May 15th from Brightkite
I don't understand why people have the AC on already. Only been 82F the last several days, and will be 70's this week. @ The Summer Cabana 3:03 AM May 25th from Brightkite
Got an estimate for the damage done from someone rear-ending my car: $977 @ Bud Brown Chrysler Inc 3:26 PM May 28th from Brightkite
Anyone know where to get empty 55 gallon steel drums in the Kansas City Metro area? @ The Summer Cabana 8:27 PM Jun 1st from web
Hope the weather around here changes soon. All the rain in the last 2 months has caused my arthritis to be horrible. @ The Summer Cabana 7:59 PM Jun 10th from Brightkite
I really need to write something soon. I feel like a major part of who I am is slowly dying because I haven't done so. @ The Summer Cabana 2:43 AM Jun 14th from Brightkite
Your musical talent will be greatly missed Michael. @ The Summer Cabana 4:59 PM Jun 25th from Brightkite
Having a bit of an arthritis flair-up today as a result of the rain. @ E 163rd St & Addie Dr 3:17 PM Jul 4th from Brightkite

(Okay, so I lied. There are 11)

Prowler Media/Season Passholder Preview Day

Bradley Robertson — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:00:24 +0000

Today was a day that I had been looking forward to for well over a year. It had been rumored for quite some time that Worlds of Fun was going to be getting a new wooden roller coaster for the 2009 operating season. Clues gradually started showing up last year with survey flags, construction materials, and labels indicating the manufacturer. On Labor Day last year the press announcement was made confirming that Worlds of Fun was going to be getting a new world-class wooden coaster. I lieu of doing a full on report of the event, I would rather show you everything that was going on. Click on through to see my photo report.

Entering the park to Ride Prowler

Always cool when you get a chance to attend these

General Banks and his team were here to make sure we were safe

Folks from Cedar Cove were here with some real kitties

Kitties!

More Kitties!

This is no little kittie

The photo booth

A DJ was on hand to soothe the guests and the beast.

An almost full queue

WE'RE UP NEXT!

Climbing and clawing in to the sky

The return run

AWESOME!

Time to wave goodbye for the day

Valerie and I both thought this was a fantastic coaster. We are so glad that we will be able to ride something this awesome so close to home. We took a ride in both the front and in the back. The air-time in both is great, but the view in the front can't be beat. This may be the first woodie that I will ride more often in the front. Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind and I have the whole summer to decide. If you are hungry for more pictures you can check them out in my Gallery.

Worlds of Fun Opening Day 4/18/2009

Bradley Robertson — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Since we knew the weather was going to be nasty in the morning, but nice in the afternoon Valerie and I decided to sleep in and planned on going to the park later in the day. We weren't planning on making a full day out of our visit. Mainly we just wanted to ride some of the coasters, see some of the off-season improvements, and get as good of a look at Prowler as we could without treading in to forbidden areas. We ended up arriving at the park around 3:30 pm, and our first stop was Patriot The wait for the front row was about 20 minutes, and the rest of the rows seemed to be no more than 10 minutes. One thing that always bugs me is when they don't have the front line open. When they don't open up that line it usually ends up blocking the turnstile for the entrance to the rest of rows. Because it was blocking the view of rows 2-4 more folks were getting in line for rows 5-7, and as a result we saw several trains leave with a much lower capacity than it could have handled causing longer than necessary waits for rows 2-7. As to the coaster itself, it is still just as fun as the first time I rode it. It was running really well, and I heard very little of the clanking that I noticed during some of my rides last season. I have always tried to compare Patriot to Silver Bullet because my first rides on both occurred within a week of each other. I used to think I liked Silver Bullet a little more, but after my most recent ride on Silver Bullet a few weeks ago I can safely say I think we have the better coaster.

Next, we headed over to the coaster I was looking forward to riding again the most over the off-season,Timber Wolf. Last year I probably rode Timber Wolf more times than any other coaster in the park. I had also become somewhat of a cheerleader for it because I felt it got a lot of unwarranted negative criticism. The improvements they did in the previous off season really helped smooth it out and breathed some new life in it. On our one and only ride on it for the day we waited about 5 minutes to ride in the 3rd row from back. While the sections of track that were replaced this year were noticeably smoother, it seemed to be running a bit slower overall. Valerie was actually the first to say something that it seemed slower than last year. This confirmed to me that it wasn't just my imagination. I don't know if the trims are on too high, if the new track needs to broken in, or if I just had my expectations built up too high over winter. Either way, I am hopeful the speed will improve over the season.

Since Valerie hadn't seen any of the Prowler construction progress in person, we took a ride on the Worlds of Fun Railroad. After we boarded the train we ended up just sitting for 10 minutes before we started moving. It wasn't an issue of a bunch of people coming through turnstiles and waiting for the train to fill up. The line cutoff 5 minutes before we left the station. I think old Eli was having some issues. When we did get going the highlight of course was taking a loop around Prowler. I hadn't seen it in person for about 5 months and it looks like it is going to be fantastic. I think I will probably ride Eli just as often as I did last year just to get some fun looks at Prowler while it is running.

After our ride on the Railroad we went over to the Africa section to ride our last coaster of the day, Mamba. We waited for about 20 minutes for the back row of car two (row 6). The Mamba crew seemed to be lacking some enthusiasm compared to last year, but hopefully our friend Matt at Coaster Community can fix that. The ride itself was awesome as always. After going after about 5 months without riding this hyper it felt almost like a new experience. I had forgotten just how much air-time there is. Additionally, the mid-course brake run didn't seem to be slowing the train down too much which made the bunny hills on the return run more fun than usual.

After riding Mamba we realized we were indeed holding on tight (to our stomachs) and that we needed a bite. As such, we headed over to Coasters Drive-In and grabbed a vanilla shake. The rest of the day was spent walking the park and checking out other off-season improvements in addition to the ones made to Timber Wolf as well as adding Prowler. The most notable improvement I could see was the new paint for the Le Taxi Tour building. This has made it look like it is a new addition to the park. Norseman's Nicities has been given a makeover and is now The Lift. This store seems to be geared towards teens by selling brands such as Hurley, but it also has a nice mix of Worlds of Fun branded items as well. Since I smoke I also noticed that there were a few more smoking areas added to the park. This seemed a little odd to me since most parks are reducing how many smoking areas they have, and I never felt the park was lacking in this department. Additionally, I have been informed that the midways and the entrance plaza will receive a new layer of asphalt sealant over the course of the next couple of weeks. There were some "behind the scenes" improvements as well that can be seen on the Unofficial Worlds of Fun blog.

Overall, we had a nice time on our short 3 hour opening day visit. I look forward to many more visits this season. My next visit with be on May 1st for the Prowler Season Pass holder/Media Day preview. Until then, take a look at my pictures from my visit in my Gallery, or on Facebook.

Schlitterbahn Construction Tour 4/16/09

Bradley Robertson — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:16:21 +0000

Back in October of 2008 I took a tour of the Schlitterbahn Vacation Village construction site. At that time the only major projects that had be done was the pouring of most of the conrete for the Torrent Tidal Wave attraction, and the installation of a large portion of the plumbing system. Since the latter was already buried, there wasn't a lot to see. Flash forward 6 months and the site has changed drastically. A lot of the dirt moving and leveling has been completed, there are concrete footers for some of the water slides (which should go vertical any day now), the concrete for Henry's Hideout (an adult hot tub with a swim-up bar) has been poured, and some of the play equipment has been installed in a few of the kiddie pools.

In addition to seeing some of the attractions in place, this tour gave me some perspective on how large the development is. The Phase I development that will open sometime in June, is much larger than I expected. When the entire development is completed in the next couple of years there won't be any attraction in the region that rivals it in regards to the amount of things there will be to see and do. In some regards, it reminds me of Downtown Disney or CityWalk with a massive waterpark attached to it.

Finally, I want to give a big Thank You to Chris Ozimek, Marketing Director for taking the time out of his schedule to give myself, and Jason Hazel a tour of the site.

You can see HDR versions of my photos in my or on Facebook.

Life Travels On

Bradley Robertson — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:29:52 +0000

A few months ago I talked about what my plans were for my novel. Since that time I have finished editing it, and I even printed off a few manuscripts to send for submission. However, like most of the stages of this project that's about as far as I got. I did some thinking and I realized that I really don't care if I get published. I simply want to share my work with others. Initially I was going to put my entire book on this site so that people could read through it page by page on my site. You would then have the option of paying a small few for the .PDF version, or you could buy the paperback through Lulu.com. I got through the first couple of chapters and realized that probably wasn't the best approach. It was taking too much time to convert the text to an reasonable page by page format. Instead, I decided to put just the Prologue on my site with a link to the paperback and the free .PDF. I feel I have already written enough in the past about this novel so without further ado I am throwing my work out to the interwebs. I hope you enjoy it.

Prologue

“Lawrence!”

“Lawrence?”

“I’m upstairs”

“Can you come down here? I have something to tell you.”

“Can’t it wait ‘til later?”

“Lawrence please come downstairs.”

“I’m in the middle of writing something. I’ll come down when I’m done.”

“Jeffery Lawrence come down here now!”

Since his mother used his first name, Lawrence realized it was important. She was the only one who called him Jeffery and no one ever called him Larry.

Grudgingly he replied, “Aw right I’m comin.”

He put down his notebook and stashed his pen in his pocket. He got off his black metal futon and made his way to the door. As he walked around the piles of clothes strewn on the floor, he desperately hoped his current train of thought would not escape him. He turned off his black light, snuffed out the burning incense, and closed the door behind him.

He walked down the narrow staircase wondering what he had done wrong now. He loved his mother, but every time she needed to talk to him he felt like he as the key witness at a congressional hearing. Their talks would start out peaceful, with him and his mother talking about current events involving them. But somehow their chats almost always turned into a battle of rhetoric.

When he reached the bottom of the steps his mother was not in sight. “Mom?” he called out.

“I’m in the family room Lawrence.”

Lawrence noticed that the tone in his mother’s voice had changed. It had transformed from a demanding urgent tone, to an alluring peaceful one. It was not one that he heard often, but he immediately knew what it meant. Lawrence could count on one hand the number of times he had heard his mother speak to him in this manner. None of those conversations had ended well.

His intuition was further confirmed when he saw his father and sister along with his mother, in the living room. It was a little after 2 p.m. and his father normally did not get home until after 4 p.m. and usually not before 5 p.m. on Mondays. After seeing his father, Lawrence realized this was not going to be a typical Monday.

Lawrence looked at the scene in front of him and tried to process what was going on. The only thing that came to his mind was that there was something tragically wrong. He didn’t know what it was but he knew whatever he was going to hear was not good.

“What’s wrong?” he inquired.

“Nothing’s wrong,” his mother emphasized.

“We just need to tell you about something,” his father added.

“It’s actually quite exciting,” his mother said cheerfully.

Lawrence didn’t doubt the news was exciting. He did, however, doubt the validity of there being an absence of a problem. He gazed at his sister to see if her expression had any insight on the current situation. Shauna, his sister, looked just as confused.

“Sit down Lawrence,” his father said. His voice was stern yet calm. It reminded him of his gym teacher.

Lawrence retreated to the couch and sat next to Shauna.

“Like your mom was saying, nothing’s wrong; but I do have some exciting news. You all know I have been taking a lot of business trips to Norfolk”. …Oh shit here it comes… “…cess of working with my clients at Data Stream, I have become an integral part of their company. Because I have been seen as an indispensable resource, they offered me a position. I am now the Vice-President of Accounting.”

“Isn’t that great kids? We’ll be living on the East Coast,” his mother added.

After a short yet uncomfortable pause, Shauna asked, “You mean you already took the job?”

“Yes and you guys will love the house. It has a nice sized yard, it’s close to-“

“You already bought a house too?” Lawrence interrupted.

“Honey we’re moving in two months. We had to find somewhere to live,” his mother interjected without her previous jovial tone.

“What about school?” Lawrence asked.

“Well. Like I was trying to say the house is four blocks from-“

“No that’s not what I mean. I’m supposed to go to ESU in the fall. I’ve been accepted and already made my living arrangements. I’ve been looking forward to this for almost a year.

“Lawrence…”

“Dad don’t do that.”

“Honey, do what?” his mom asked

“That. Exactly what you’re doing right now. Pretending that this is the greatest thing that could happen to us. Pretending that everything is okay. Yeah life is just peachy-keen.” He paused briefly and continued, “And this. This right here is the damn pits!”

“Lawrence don’t talk that way in my house!” his mom shouted

“Amanda let-“

“No Ron,” she said looking at Lawrence’s dad, “We have tried to do everything possible to give them what they deserve. You receive a promotion and he’s complaining because he can’t go to some state college. He’s an ingrate,” Amanda finished furiously.

“Mom that’s not fair. He’s wanted to go-“

“Shauna you stay out of this. I thought you were better than your brother, I thought-“

“Amanda stop right now,” Ron interrupted. “You have to look at this situation from their point of view.”

“From their point of view? From their point of view they should realize that you have just taken one of the best jobs possible in your field. But instead all they can worry about is where they are going to go to school.”

Shauna, no longer able to maintain her reserved demeanor, voiced her opinion, “Mom I don’t like this anymore than Lawrence does. You don’t understand what it’s like.”

“Like you even understand Shauna!” Lawrence shouted. “You’re only 13 years old. Do you realize they’ve been going behind our backs for the last 6 months? Dad’s probably known about this job for the last month. Their supposed trip to Vegas a couple of weeks ago was probably a bunch of B.S. They went to Norfolk to look at houses. Why do you think they didn’t bring back anything? It’s because they didn’t want us to know where they were.”

“Okay Lawrence calm down,” Ron said.

“No you calm down!” Lawrence shouted as he rose from the couch.

“I’m not the one yelling.”

“Damn right you’re not!”

Lawrence approached his father who was slightly taller than the 5’8” Lawrence stood. Ron was skinnier than Lawrence. He had not passed down his brown eyes and hair, or his calm demeanor. Lawrence’s blond hair, bright green eyes, and his searing temper had been passed down to him by his mother.

“It’s not your dream being flushed down the toilet. You’re not the one who has been looking forward to a teaching career for most of his life. Now you’re telling me to calm down? Screw that!” Lawrence finished as he pushed his father.

“Lawrence!” His mom screamed.

“Shut the hell up mom! Like you understand? All you do is sit around all day watching soaps and bidding on Internet auctions. At least I’m trying to achieve something. All you are, is a mooch. Dad makes the money and you spend it.”

“Lawrence please stop,” his sister begged.

“I can’t believe this! You’re on their side? If you can’t beat-em, join-em? You’re gonna play that game.” He paused to survey his family. “Aw right. Then if that’s how it is I hope you all rot in hell!”

With that remark he started to walk towards the stairs.

“Jeffery Lawrence Huff! Come back here right now!

Lawrence ignored his mom and proceeded to his room. Once he was inside he locked the door. Lawrence walked over to the heating vent in the middle of his room. He stood on his zebra printed footstool and took off the white painted metal grate. He stuck his arm in the opening. Once his hand hit the top of the ventilation shaft Lawrence hooked his arm 90? and unfastened a bottle from a strip of Velcro he had put there a little over a year ago. He opened the bottle and took 4 pills and instantly felt better knowing what they would do in 30 minutes. Lawrence replaced the bottle and the grate and stepped off the footstool. Then he stepped over to his dresser and turned on his black light, turned around, and walked over to his bed to cover the windows behind it; in the process he shut out all of the June sun.

The room was now basked in a purple glow. His posters of aliens, Darth Maul, and fractals looked like neon signs instead of wall hangings. He sat down on his bed and leaned towards the desk next to it. He opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a stick of Jasmine incense. He grabbed his lighter off the top of his desk and lit the stick. Once the flame went out and the tip produced a deep amber glow, he placed it in his tie-dyed incense holder.

He pushed the power button on the stereo sitting next to the burning incense and was greeted with, “…plant a house; We can build a tree…” he laid down on his bed and stared at his ceiling. It looked like a radioactive night sky with glow-in-the-dark stars illuminating his ceiling. Finally feeling relaxed; he began to think about what had just happened. He hated it when he couldn’t control his temper.

Lawrence looked across his messy floor from his bed and saw his notebook lying on the floor. The sight of the notebook reminded him that he had been working on something before his mom had called him downstairs. He tried to remember what it was but he realized his thoughts had indeed been derailed. Damn it! I should have known better than to not write it down.

He continued to mull over the news in his mind wondering about the future. “What if” questions circulated in his head for a long time. Gradually, he beganto feel drowsy. He was floating on the music and the words coming from his stereo. “…Underneath the bridge…” The music continued to drift over him and he fell deeper and deeper towards sleep. “…okay to eat fish; cause they don’t have any feelings…” As if it was a cue, Lawrence went unconscious after the last word.

Disneyland and California Adventure trip 3/24/09

Bradley Robertson — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:17:43 +0000

Valerie and I's plan for this visit was to get to the turnstiles a few minutes before park opening. We left the hotel around 7:30, but ran in to traffic on our way in. Since I was on vacation I forgot it was Monday and I would have to deal with rush hour traffic. Between traffic, parking, and riding the tram to the entrance we didn't arrive at the gates until 8:30. When we got to the turnstiles we handed the cast member our Walt Disney World Park Hopper tickets with the no expiration option on them. The cast member called someone else over and that person took our tickets and said he would be back in a few minutes. Ten minutes later he came back with our original tickets and a set of Disneyland/Disney's California Adventure 1 day Hopper tickets. This was a tip I found on MouseSavers.com. The difference in cost between what we had paid for our WDW tickets and what the 1 Day Disneyland Hopper tickets would have cost saved us around $100.

Once we were in the park I took advantage of the relative emptiness that you only see the first hour after opening, and I took the obligatory pictures of Main Street and Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Originally I was going to try to follow the touring plan that was in the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland, but when I reached for my photocopied version in my back pocket it wasn't there. When we got back to the hotel I found it sitting on the desk. Without the plan we just decided to wing it and I tried to re-create the plan as best I could from memory. We decided to head over to Space Mountain first, and it was a short 15 minute wait. I had remembered this one being better than the WDW version, but honestly after having just rode that one 3 months ago I am gonna have to change my opinion. Even without the upgraded visuals and music the Alpha side at WDW is much better than the Disneyland version. Valerie and I both were a little disappointed by this. I have since read that the effects are different at night, but I didn't take a night ride on this trip so I'm not sure what the differences are. I know that most people will disagree that the WDW version is better, but for the time being I am sticking to this.

Since Matterhorn Bobsleds was just a hop, skip, and a jump away we decided to stop there next. Unlike Space Mountain, I was not disappointed with my experience. It was about like I remembered. It is nicely themed and you never really know what to expect is coming up next. While there are better coasters out there, it is always nice to enjoy what is probably the predecessor to Everest. At least I would like to think that had the technology been available Uncle Walt would have designed it that way.

Next we took a short walk over to It's a Small World. While we were waiting in line we got to see clock strike 10am. It was kind of neat to see the giant animated clock with the children walking across the front. This Disney classic ride recently just finished having a major, and controversial refurbishment done to it. It was controversial because it was one of the few remaining rides left at Disneyland that was the same as when Walt commissioned it. To be perfectly honest, I was a little worried on how it would turn out after seeing what has been done to Pirates of the Caribbean. I don't like how a ride that inspired a movie franchise has been changed to better reflect the movie, but enough about that. With the refurb It's a Small World looks like a brand new ride. The colors are vibrant again, and the animatronics seem to be in better shape. One of the additions that worried me when I read about it was that several classic Disney characters have been inserted into the ride. However, the way it was done was very clever. As an example, Woody doesn't look like he would fit in Toy Story any more because he has been stylized to fit in with the other characters of this ride. Because of this it actually made the ride more fun to try and spot all the new characters. This has definitely breathed new life in to the ride and it will continue to remain popular for years to come.

Once we exited Small World and tried to get the tune out of our head we headed in to Toon Town to check out a few rides. Valerie really wanted to ride Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin. Standby was 20 minutes and FastPass was 45 minutes so we grabbed FastPasses and got in line for Gadget's Go Coaster. Like Goofy's Barnstormer in WDW, Gadget is a fun kiddie coaster. However, Barnstormer has a little better theming, is a little longer, and has a better layout. Gadget's Go Coaster is one I will skip in the future unless I am with kids. After our ride we still had about 30 minutes left before we could get ride Roger Rabbit so we decided to go ahead and wait in line to get out pictures taken with Minnie. Even though we tell ourselves we aren't going to do character pictures anymore we always seem to come home with at least one. Once we had taken pictures with Minnie we still had a few minutes to kill so we explored Toon Town a little more. When we finally got on Roger Rabbit I ended up being a little disappointed. This ride is similiar to A Cat in a Hat at Islands of Adventure, but on this ride you can control the spinning. The story is okay, and the Benny the Cab themed cars were neat. However, the spinning aspect of the ride ends up detracting from it. Because you can control the spinning you are often facing the wrong direction if you leave it alone, forcing you to spin your car so you can follow along. Because we basically left the car alone we felt like we missed a lot of the key scenes.

We left Toon Town and headed in to Fantasyland to get on a couple of rides that don't exist at WDW. Our First stop was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. It had been about 20 years since I ridden the WDW version which has since been closed. The ride is a weird tour through London and the English countryside. The storyline didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me considering that you survive a massive TNT explosion, but when you get hit by a train you die and go to hell. The later part would make me think twice about taking little ones on the ride as it could be a little scary. Definitely some suspension of disbelief is needed to follow along with this story. Also because of it's age it is a little jerky compared to some of the other dark rides in the park and can make you a little dizzy. Unless you are feeling nostalgic (like I was) you could probably skip this one.

The other Fantasyland ride we wanted to go on was Pinocchio's Daring Journey. This ride basically takes you through the movie with a few surprises. Valerie and I had just watched the re-release of the movie a few weeks prior so the story was fresh in our minds and I think that helped with the enjoyment of the ride. However, we also thought that had we not seen the movie recently we might not have liked it as much. It's hard to say either way, but this is a gem that seems to be ignored in Fantasyland since the line for it was empty most of the day. Also, be sure to take a look at the ride vehicles. Pseudo wood-carved benches add a nice element to the theme of this ride.

Next we headed over to Frontierland to grab a FastPass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We took the jaunt over to Critter Country to see what the wait was like for Splash Mountain, but it was 80 minutes so we decided we would come back later. Instead, we headed over to New Orleans square to ride Haunted Mansion. As usual the stand by time was listed as 13 minutes. Just as when I rode the WDW version a few months prior, I once again noticed new items. I think a large part of this due to just how much there is too see in the attraction. You can only remember so much of each individual ride you take that unless you ride it frequently your mind will always find something "new" to see. Even though this ride never gets old, I will have to say I was a little disappointed with the seance scene. There seemed to be too much light in that room and you could see the strings attached to the floating crystal ball. This was definitely not the case at the WDW version. This is just a minor nitpick, and there are plenty of people out there that think this version is the best.

We were allowed to get more FastPasses at this point so we went ahead and grabbed them for Splash Mountian. Next we headed to Frontierland to use our now active FastPasses for Thunder Mountain. Like most of Disney's non-kiddie coasters this was a fun and long ride. I will say I enjoy it more in the back, but like most Disney rides you don't really have a choice where you sit and we were in the third row of the first train. It didn't seem as intense as the times we were able to ride in the back. I realize that this is a way to maximize ride capacity, but it is also frustrating to not have any say in where you sit. In the past I have been able to get people to switch seats with me to getter a slightly better spot for on-ride photos (the first row in each car usually makes for the best photos). I haven't tried that trick to go from row 3 to the last row and I'm sure it would annoy the cast members if I did.

After our ride on Thunder Mountain we still had a lot of time before we could go on Splash Mountain so we decided to go over to Adventureland and see what the line was like for the Indiana Jones Adventure ride. The wait was 55 minutes and we couldn't get another FastPass for over an hour. When were trying to decide if the wait was worth it we saw that there was a single rider line and Valerie decided that was our best bet. Most of the time when you do single rider you end up on the same vehicle, but in different rows. This time we were in separate vehicles, but it only took a total of about 10 minutes to get through the queues and get a seat on a ride. Saving ourselves 45 minutes in line was definitely worth splitting up for. This is one of the must visit attractions at Disneyland. I enjoyed it as much as the first time I rode it. There are some great effects on this ride, and it is easy to understand why it always has a 45+ minute wait.

Next we decided to hit up the Jungle Cruise. This is an attraction that the guide makes all the difference. A few months ago at WDW our guide was not good, and as a result the ride suffered. Of course, it probably didn't help that it was also raining cats and dogs at the time. This time we had an older gentlemen and much better weather. It was obvious from his name badge that he was a seasoned cast member since he had a few different anniversary pins on it. He was definitely one of the better guides we have had on the Jungle Cruise. Now that I have ridden it twice in the last 3 months I think I am good going without another ride for several years. You need time to recover from all those puns after all.

We still had lots of time before we could use our Splash Mountain FastPasses so went back across the park to Tomorrowland to ride Star Tours. I do still enjoy this ride, but I really wish that they would upgrade it to the long rumored version 2.0. If they created a new story and changed it in to a 3D motion simulator this would once again be an excellent attraction. Otherwise, this ride has become just a time-filler for me and I'll skip it if the wait is over 30 minutes.

Finally, it was time for us to use our Splash Mountain FastPasses. I had never ridden this version of the ride and the story is not only different from WDW version, but it is also a little shorter. One thing that is different is that it feels like you are experiencing the story in medias res. As a result, the story doesn't flow as well. The boats are also different from the ones at WDW since you sit in a single file like a typical log flume ride instead of in rows like the Shoot-the-Chutes style boats at WDW. Based on how wide the canals are at the Disneyland version this is unlikely to change without completely gutting the mountain and starting over. This most likely explained why the lines were long all day. The ride capacity for this version has to be considerably lower. Another drawback of this ride is that at one point you could see another part of the story/ride on a lower level through the current scene. This definitely decreases the immersive theming that is extremely important for the suspension of disbelief that is needed for this kind of ride.

With most of our touring done for the day it was time for a late lunch/early dinner. Earlier in the day I had requested priority seating at Cafe Orleans for 4PM. We started out with the highly recommended Pomme Frites. They were basically garlic fries with a tasty remoulade sauce on the side. For our entrees I orderd the Monte Cristo sandwich and Valerie had the Seafood crepe. The Monte Cristo was excellent, and I think it was better than the ones I usually get when I eat at Bennigan's. Unfortunately, Valerie did not hold the same high opinion of her crepe. We both agree that if you want some place to sit for a little bit and just snack on some Pomme Frites this is a great place. Keep in mind during peak times there will be a wait so your best bet is to get priority seating or come well after the lunch or dinner rush.

After dinner we did some shopping on Main Street to let dinner settle, and so we could avoid the park closing rush as well. With our shopping done we headed over to Disney's California Adventure to get in a few rides before closing time at 8PM. First we took a look at the Blue Sky Cellar attraction which showcases all the changes that are planned for DCA over the next several years. I had read about all of these beforehand, but it was nice to see the artwork and models in person. Valerie and I both agreed later that these changes really are necessary for Disney to justify charging the same for admission as they do at Disneyland. Currently, the only two attractions that we care to visit at DCA are California Screamin' and Toy Story Midway Mania. DCA's version of Tower or Terror is sub-par compared to the one at Disney's Hollywood Studios, and neither one of us likes Soarin' Over California.

Because of all the new things that are being worked on it appears as if half the park is under construction, and to a certain degree that isn't far from the truth. The bridge to Paradise Pier has construction walls setup on both sides, and the lagoon has been completely drained for the World of Color construction. The wait for California Screamin' was about 30 minutes and we were lucky enough to sit in the second to last car. Overall, this is just a fantastic coaster. It has a fun LIM launch with a countdown that comes from the speakers in your headrests. During the ride the speakers play decent music that fits well with the ride. Even though this is a steel coaster, they have done a great job at designing it to look like a classic wooden coaster. Since it is the 8th longest coaster in the world this coaster definitely can't be called a short ride.

After we were done Screamin' we walked over to Toy Story and ended up waiting 45 minutes. The only difference I noticed between this one and the DHS version is the queue. Otherwise, it was just as fun as the one at DHS. I scored 138,200 points which is far lower than the 500,000+ point range that made up the daily top scores. A lot of folks thought the Buzz Lightyear rides were some of the best that Disney has ever done. I never really understood that. I always felt they were lacking in some way. It wasn't until I rode Toy Story that I realized that adding 3D to a similar ride and changing how you use the gun for the game makes all the difference.

Once we got off Toy Story it was decision time. It was 10 minutes before park closing and we needed to decide whether we should we get back in line for California Screamin', Toy Story, or go get some ice cream. We opted to go to the front of the park at get some ice cream at Bur-r-r Bank Ice Cream and look for souvenirs when we were done eating. We had ice cream here on our last trip as well and it is some of the best I have ever had. We didn't really have any plans to get any DCA branded souvenirs other than a magnet for the fridge. We went in to the large store at the front of the park and had a hard time finding anything branded with DCA, let alone just a magnet. After walking through the store a few times and only seeing Disneyland stuff I asked a cast member where I could find DCA branded items. He took me to a very small wall that only had a handful of items with the California Adventure logo on them. Apparently DCA gear is so unpopular they found they really only needed to have two different shirts, a mug, and key chain. After seeing this Valerie and I were glad we bought the shot glass we have on the last trip.

After failing to procure a DCA magnet we went back to Disneyland to try to take a ride on Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. On our last visit to California we missed being able to take a ride on Nemo by 10 days. From what I had read in books and on blogs the lines for this ride continue to be 1-2 hour waits 3 years later. The Unofficial Guide recommended going during the afternoon parade or during fireworks. Since there was no parade we opted to miss fireworks. The closer it got to that time the shorter the end of the line got. Valerie and I figured that the same folks that would want to ride Nemo wouldn't skip the fireworks. This also seemed to be backed up by the length of the line for Matterhorn. It was the longest I had seen all day. We ended up waiting 45 minutes, and to be blunt and to the point I liked what used to fill this lagoon better. I haven't seen the movie so I am sure that has something to do with it. However, I wasn't as awe-struck with the effects as I thought I would be. Now that I have ridden it I know that I don't have to worry about missing fireworks or a parade on my next visit to Disneyland.

With only a little more than an hour left before park closing Valerie and I only had one more item on the agenda and that was to tour Sleeping Beauty's Castle Walkthrough exhibit. This attraction re-opened in November after being closed since October of 2001. I wasn't really sure what to expect out of this attraction as I didn't know much about it. More than anything I was just excited to be able to walk through the castle! However, I was pleasantly surprised with what I found inside. As you walk through the castle there are several murals from the movie. These murals have been enhanced with CGI effects allowing each part of the story to come to life. One of the coolest parts of the exhibit is where a moving shadow of Maleficent greets and laughs at you as if she is standing around the corner. Although there are plenty of pictures on the web detailing this experience, I didn't take any. I felt this was an attraction that you really have to experience in person to appreciate it, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

I want to point out that even though I was fairly critical of Disneyland and made several comparisons to Walt Disney World I had a great time and I will go back. Part of my reason for the critiques is that Disneyland has the 2nd highest annual attendance of all theme parks, with the Magic Kingdom taking the top spot. For that reason I felt it was prudent to make a comparison of the rides when applicable. Disneyland is a great park and is worth visiting at least twice in your life. Once as a newcomer, and a second time after a visit to Walt Disney World so you can appreciate the differences between the two parks.

Hopefully you have enjoyed reading this as much as I did experiencing it. For the rest of my pictures from this trip, as well as full size pictures of the thumbnails above please visit my Gallery or visit my Disneyland Part I, Disneyland Part II, and California Adventure albums on Facebook.

Knott's Winter Coaster Solace X

Bradley Robertson — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 03:46:30 +0000

Ever since my last visit to Knott's Berry Farm in 2006 I have wanted to make a return visit. Over the last couple years I have wanted to go to their Coaster Solace event for coaster enthusiasts. Mainly, I have wanted to go so that I can get an early start to my seasonal riding. If you live in Kansas and want to ride coasters December-March you choices boil down to going to California, Florida, or Texas. Unfortunately, flying to Southern California is expensive where I live. It doesn't seem to matter whether I try to fly in to Long Beach, John Wayne, or LAX. Most of the time round trip tickets usually run about $300 a person. However, this year we have this great thing called a recession/depression and Valerie and I were able to fly out to John Wayne for less than $400 round trip. We also already had Cedar Fair Platinum passes so our tickets to the event were only $25 a person.

Morning Exclusive Ride Time (or ERT) started at 7am the day of the event, March 21st. Valerie and I had both already decided that there was no way we were going to try to get there that early so we decided we would shoot for 8am. We left the hotel with enough time to get to the park close to 8am. I had my GPS search for the location of Knott's Berry Farm, and clicked on the first result that showed up. I thought the address seemed weird at first but I disregarded it. When we got to our destination it ended up being the the corporate office for the food division. I re-searched for "Knott's Berry Farm" under the amusement park heading and remembered that the correct address was on Beach Blvd, not Boysenberry Lane. After selecting the correct address we got to the park around 8:30 and checked in for the event.

The coasters scheduled for morning ERT were Boomerang, Jaguar!, Montezuma's Revenge, Timberline Twister, and Xcelerator. Of those I hadn't ridden Montezuma, Boomerang (this particular one at least), or Timberline Twister, so morning ERT was going to be a nice way to get these credits without having to wait in long lines. The first coaster we hit was Montezuma's Revenge. This was coaster number 80 for me. Montezuma is a launched shuttle coaster that has one loop that you first go forwards through, then backwards. It is similar to a Boomerang without a cobra roll. It's a short coaster, but it was fun nonetheless. I could foresee riding this again. I usually can't say the same for Boomerangs.

Next we headed over to Jaguar! since it was closest. Valerie and I had ridden this before and it was like we remembered it. It is a slow and relaxing ride with a top speed of 35mph. However, even though the coaster itself isn't all that exciting the layout is interesting. You go through the loop on Montezuma, and you crossover Silver Bullet's track as well. For those reasons it is worth taking the time to go on a ride.

Valerie and I decided that if we were going to ride Boomerang we might as well do it at this point while we were both fresh. Boomerangs are one of the few coasters that will make me sick so I have to ride first thing in the morning or not at all. This particular one was almost as smooth as the one at Elitch Gardens. It also had the newer padded restraints and this helped keep me in place a little better. Unfortunately, Valerie wasn't as lucky and got her ears boxed a little bit, and she may have also suffered a brownout based on the symptoms she experienced.

After our Boomerang experience it was time to knock it down a notch. At Knott's there is no better way to take it down a notch (or 5) than to take a ride on the Timberline Twister. This is a kiddie coaster that felt like a bucking bronco with how close it had it's bunny hills. I still think that Shamu Express is my favorite kiddie coaster, but this is a close second. Timberline had a few operating quarks that I hadn't noticed on other coasters before. The first being that it uses a manual had brake for the station. No pneumatic brakes for this baby. Also, since there are no station shuttle wheels the ride-op has to pull the coaster into it's loading position. At 26 years old I think this is the oldest kiddie coaster I have ridden, which probably explains the lack of modern ride technology.

After we had ridden Boomerang earlier we were told by the ride-op that testing on Xcelerator was going on. When we came back after riding Timberline we saw a rush of people making their way to the ride entrance. I knew in advance of the event that Xcelerator had been down since 2/20/09 and I had heard various rumors regarding whether or not there was going to be morning ERT for Xcelerator. The original flyer for Winter Coaster Solace X showed there would be ERT, but the most recent flyer (and the one still there if you are willing to look for it) did not have Xcelerator listed. Even with a late opening of 9:45am this was definitely a pleasant surprise. We both had a fun ride on this and neither one of us were as terrified as we were the first time we rode it. Even though this coaster has lost some of its flair with me, it has a special place in my heart as being the coaster that turned me in to an enthusiast. When I took my first ride 3 years ago I realized if I could ride this I could ride any coaster. Not only that, I wanted to ride as many as possible.

Since we had gotten a chance to ride the coaster that brought us to Solace we decided to ride what we thought was our other favorite coaster in the park, Silver Bullet. As we walked up we noticed they were still doing morning testing and we figured the line wouldn't be too bad. However, there was already a plethora of folks waiting in front of the ride entrance. Based on how many were in line it was probably going to be a 30 minute wait, once the line actually starting moving. We opted to skip this since the wait was so long and we were going to have night ERT on it anyway. Instead, we headed over to Pony Express which is the most recent addition to the park. I had never been on this kind of motorbike coaster before. It has a shuttle launch system that takes you a blistering 0 − 38 mph in 3 seconds. The restraints are more comfortable than I expected them to be with still feeling safe. Other than the restraints the ride is a good family coaster. I think some little ones might be scared of the restraint system, but otherwise I see this as being a continually crowd pleaser. It's not too intense, but it's also short which is its only drawback. With such a small footprint I imagine more of these will be showing up in parks (if there aren't already).

After our Pony Express ride we decided to exit the park and do some shopping in the Marketplace. As we were exiting it was obvious to both of us that it was going to be a busy day at the park. Lots of sports teams, groups, a plenty of locals had come out that day and we knew this meant long lines. At the marketplace I was able to find Knott's shortbread cookies. These particular shortbread cookies have a dollop of jam in the center that gives them a great taste. On my last visit I only bought 2 of each of the flavors I like (Raspberry, Blueberry, and Boysenberry). When I got back home I regretting not having bought more. This time I refused to make that mistake and I bought 5 of each and I plan on rationing them. I also bought some boysenberry tea and some boysenberry coffee. I haven't had a chance to have the coffee yet, but the tea is wonderful. Once we had sufficiently loaded up our shopping basket we checked out using the 25% off coupon that was given to us in our registration packet. That saved us 10 bucks so that ended up being a nice little perk.

Once we were done shopping we checked the time and saw that we only had about 30 minutes before lunch. Instead of going back in to the park and them going back out and across the street to the lagoon we decided to head over early. Lunch consisted of Mrs. Knott's Famous Fried Chicken. I had seen countless specials that featured this on both Food Network and the Travel Channel. The chicken was indeed really juicy, but because it was a buffet format the outside wasn't very crunchy. Valerie had a piece that had some crunch to it and she enjoyed it. Because of the format in which we were served I will hold judgment for the time being on whether or not it is the best fried chicken.

After everyone had polished off as much fried chicken and boysenberry pie as possible, General Manager Marty Keithly held a Q&A. One of the first questions was what was going on with the construction in Ghost Town. He explained that the wood was rotting and the structure had become dangerous. They decided the best course of action would be to re-build structures as close to the originals as possible within current code standards. He admitted that it was a controversial decision seeing as Ghost Town has some of the only original structures left in the park. One of the questions was whether or not they plan to make a parking structure so that they could utilize more of the parks land to make an expansion. He said they had done studies in the past and because of the strict building codes in California that a structure would cost upwards of $11,000 a space. I know some of the folks in the audience were doubting this figure, but I know that the parking structures on the Sprint Campus in Overland Park, KS cost somewhere between $7,000-8,000 a space. Add in a few years inflation, and the necessity to make it earthquake resistant that figure didn't surprise me. Its probably near impossible to make a return on that kind of investment without jacking up ticket and parking prices. The final question he was asked was if he was given an unlimited budget what new attraction would he like to add to the park. His response was a mega-coaster, which of course pleased the crowd. However, I hope if he is ever given such a budget that he instead opts for an E-Ticket type attraction that would rival Tower of Terror or Revenge of the Mummy.

After lunch we decided that since the park was so busy and that the remaining coasters we wanted to ride had night ERT we headed back to the hotel to nap and relax. Once we had recovered from our food coma and were ready to eat again we went in search of an In-N-Out Burger. We had been told on the previous trip we had to eat there, but never got the chance. More recently, I read a blog post on Theme Park Insider touting how wonderful they are. After sampling them myself, I have to agree. I had a Double Double Animal style and it was like a Big Mac only much better. Valerie had a regular Cheeseburger, which she also agreed was great. If you make a visit to SoCal, make a point to add In-N-Out Burger to your meal plans.

With our belly's filled with meaty goodness we headed back to the park and got there around 8:30. The park was still packed but we decided to go ahead and wait for GhostRider. Because the queue isn't very visible from outside of the building it was hard to gauge how long our wait would be. Valerie and I agreed we had nothing else to do so we stayed put even though it was the biggest line we had seen for it. The wait ended up being a little under an hour. We sat in the back and had a great ride. I had forgotten just how intense GhostRider is. You barely have any time to catch your breath, much like Boss at Six Flags St. Louis. During the first half of the ride there are a few spots where you catch some air and just as you touch your seat you are back up again. This one throws you around quite a bit, but not in a painful way.

We figured the lines were going to be just as bad in the rest of the park, so after Ghost Rider we sat down for a bit to let the lines clear up a bit. We headed over to Silver Bullet about 10 minutes til normal park closing. At 10:00pm they made an announcement that unless you were there for Solace you needed to exit the ride. Well, there were several people who were in line and had been in line prior to us even getting in the queue. All the folks that had Solace badges made a point to tell the folks in front of them not to exit as we didn't feel this was a fair way to do this. The line should have been capped. I have never experienced something like this ever. Basically, what it amounts to is whomever was supposed to be monitoring the entrance showed up late so the ride-ops were doing it for them. For the most part the people who should have ignored the request did so, and those didn't were really the ones that needed to leave. While I don't like how it was handled, you do kind of have to expect to be turned away if you enter a line after park closing, even if there is no one there to stop you from doing so.

Now that line debacle is off my chest, lets get to the coaster itself. Unfortunately, it was not as great as I remembered. The first drop is too small, and the last quarter of the ride has too many postive g's for my tastes. After haven ridden Sierra Sidewinder. Our GhostRider ride was just as good as the first. However, Valerie decided she needed to take a break before going on another coaster so we took advantage of Free coffee, brownies, and cookies in the GhostRider Midway. This ended up being mistake number one. Once our snackatites were satiated we walked over to Sierra. There was no wait and we were able to get on the next train. As we were boarding the ride-op asked if we wanted to spin. Apparently, they can control it to some degree. We said sure. This was mistake number two. While it was an incredibly smooth ride it did Valerie and I in. In was a lot harder on us than other spinning coasters likeSpinning Dragons or Tony Hawk's Big Spin After we sat for about 30 minutes I knew I could probably squeeze out one more ride on GhostRider, but I decided to go ahead and call it a day with Valerie.

I had a great time at this event and I am sure I will return in the future. Look for my Disneyland report in a few days. Until then, be sure to take a look at the rest of my photos from this event in my Gallery or on Facebook.

Have you ever died in a dream?

Bradley Robertson — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:48:48 +0000

The night before last I had some sort of fever dream/hallucination that Optimus Prime was next to my bed. I'm not really sure what he said, but I do know that once I shook my head, and re-focused my eyes all that was left was an odd silhouette of his head in the adjoining bathroom made from, a cabinet, a light, and some standard toiletry items. This got me to thinking about many of the odd dreams I have had in my life. Most recently was one I had over the weekend. It has the makings of a great sci-fi novel. I would divulge the details, but I haven't decided if I am going to write the story or even if I am going to give the idea to one of friends whom I consider to be one greatest sci-fiction writers I have ever read.

In the more distant past is a dream that unfortunately I don't remember all the gory details, but I do remember the premise. It took place in a small countryside town, not unlike the shire that Tolkien's hobbits originated from. However this town had been touched somewhat by modernity as most structures where typical of modern wood and concrete structures. The town council had sold-out one of the townspeople as murderer of one of their neighboring enemies. To prevent an uprising of the neighboring town the town council vowed that justice would be served (aka the aforementioned person they sold out). For some reason I was privy to all of this and decided to expose the council. The head council member sought me out for vengeance and wanted blood. As the lynch mob the head councilor had assembled came for me I told the people who had been given me safe haven to flee and that this was my fight alone. After much insisting all complied but one. It was of course the most beautiful woman in the town. She pleaded for me to run with them so that we could have a life together. I told her that a life on the run was not worth living. I violently forced her to leave.

I left the cottage I was holed up in and stood outside waiting for the approaching mob. As I was waiting the sky opened up and started to rain. The mob arrived and surrounded me. Immediately in font of me was the head counselor. He dismounted his horse with a small double bladed axe in his hand. He nodded to one the people and one the members of the mob tossed me my own axe. We clashed a few times, but the councilman was only drawing out the inevitable as it was obvious to everyone that I had no skill with the weapon. Then, at a crucial moment when I was knocked to the ground and my life was but a single axe strike away it was stopped by another's sword. The sword belonged to none other that the aforementioned beautiful woman who refused to leave my side. I sat dumbfounded as I watched her exchange blows with the councilman. She was much more skillful than I, but she was struggling nonetheless.

Once the shock of what was happening wore off I jumped to my feet in an effort to charge and lend her help. But it was to no avail as I was immediately grabbed by the mob and held back. The rain was coming down harder now and the more I struggled to be released the more I was digging myself deeper in to the mud. She was losing and I knew it was only a matter of time before he would strike his final blow. In a lucky parry she was able to drive her sword deep into his left shoulder. I released my tension and stopped trying to fight my release from my captors when I witnessed this as I knew there was no way the councilman could keep fighting and win. But at that moment an arrow struck through the skull of the girl from someone in the mob who must have been loyal to the councilman. She collapsed almost immediately.

I screamed in gut wrenching rage. Somehow I found the strength to free myself. I charged forward and all of the sudden I was out of my body watching myself charge forward. With great quickness the scene in front of me panned out such that it felt like I had been jettisoned in to the sky the cottage, be came smaller, the town became visible and it too became more distant. Then the scene faded to me reading a book aloud and uttering the words the end as I closed the book and woke up.

I want to be clear that what I wrote was not just some poorly developed short story. Had that not been a retelling of a dream each character would have had a name and the story would have been countless pages longer. I haven't had the desire to develop that dream into a full story, but I wanted to re-tell it here. And while that was one of my more vivid dreams it was not the most vivid, nor was it the most horrific.

Unfortunately my most vivid dream is only equally vivid in my memory for the latter half of it. What I do remember involves me going on a recon mission on a foreign planet. This was very similar to how a lot of Stargate SG-1 episodes began. In fact, based on the attire we were wearing I am convinced I was a member of one of the SG teams in this particular dream. We were walking in an open field two by two when suddenly we were under fire. I was struck first in my leg forcing me to collapse to my knees where I was again shot in my gut. This was not a projectile weapon like a gun the fires bullets. It was more like a laser bolt. As such I knew it was a deadly blow. My team came to my aid, but both them and I knew there was nothing that could be done. I began to fade from consciousness. Within seconds all that was there was blackness. Complete and utter emptiness. I couldn't speak, I had no body, and there was nothing or no one else around. This continued for several minutes before I finally woke up.

I am convinced that in that dream I did indeed die. It was unique for me because I have had my fair share of falling dreams where I "landed" in my bed as I woke. This was my first dream where I actually died. I did a little checking around in various forums the days following the dream and I found plenty of other examples that matched my own experience of absolute nothingness. What struck me as odd, is people came from both atheist and religious backgrounds. This isn't to say that I have the answer to the afterlife. In fact, I will be the first to admit that I don't so lets just leave it at that. This dream experience will probably stick with me for the rest of my life. Obviously, the old wives's tale that if you die in a dream you will die in real life isn't true. Which begs the question, have any of you ever died in a dream?

Walking Photographs: Overland Park Arboretum Winter

Bradley Robertson — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:00:33 +0000

A series of 1300 photographs spliced together to make an HD walking tour of the Overland Park Arboretum.

The Double Edged Sword

Bradley Robertson — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:33:42 +0000

When things are going well it is easy to ignore my website. In the last month I have had plenty to write about from a 5 day trip at Disney World to spending some quality time with my in-laws (that isn't meant in a sarcastic tone - my wife's relatives are truly wonderful people). So it seems to be no coincidence that I finally decide to make another blog post after the longest hiatus since I revamped my site about 40 weeks ago. I'm not sure how or when exactly it has happened, but I fear my meds are no longer working. for the last month or so things had been fantastic. I felt like I could do anything and I hoped that I was starting to level out. I wasn't overly happy, nor was I depressed. I was just very mellow and I let things roll off my back like water to a duck.

But now, I feel like I am sliding backwards again. I don't have that "today is going to be a good day" feeling anymore when I wake up. I am starting feel a bit like how Charly felt when he started to lose his mind: cognizant enough to remember how he felt before, but at the same time knowing he won't be able to return. In that same vein the depression that has set in this time feels worse simply because there was a time, not all that long ago, that I was content. But at the same time I also know it means I will be writing more. Not about this per se, but just more often. Which in a weird way makes me happy. I have dealt with depression so long that when it comes back around, it's like an old friend that annoys your at first, but you get comfortable with them hanging around. I know I'm more creative when I'm depressed. The problem with that is sometimes I have no motivation to utilize that creativity.

I know this is a hell of a way to get back in the saddle, but I have a feeling my posts will be coming out more frequently again. I have plenty ready to go in the backlog section of my brain. Look for those awesomely more mundane posts soon.