Housington Blog Xbox Gamerscore Leaderboard

I've created a custom leaderboard for Xbox gamerscores, open to anyone interested in joining. For the moment, I'm the only gamertag on the list, but just let me know and I'll add you to the list.

Please note: I might just add you without waiting for your request.

Rock Band RPG

I've been spending some time thinking about what I would really like to get out of Rock Band. I mean, of course it's a great party game, good fun for the whole family, and it's got all the personal challenges you could get in the Guitar Hero series. But now that Guitar Hero came out with World Tour, and there's at least one other game in the genre (Rock Revolution, which sounds like it's the ugly step-brother of Rock Band and GH:WT), it's time to explore what else this type of game can be.

And for me, the logical progression makes the next Rock Band game (or more likely, Rock Band 4) a role-playing game. Now, before you run off and talk about how Joe wanted to add swords and dragons to Rock Band, take a minute to realize what a role-playing game is. Fallout 3 is absolutely a role-playing game. To an extent, so is Grand Theft Auto IV. The basic concept is that you control the existence of your character(s) and march them through some sequence of challenges. If that doesn't sound like the path to stardom for a band, you're out of your mind.

(This is gonna be a long-ass post, by the way, so grab a cup of coffee, some Girl Scout cookies, and pull up a chair).

I've come up with some basic ideas about what a Rock Band RPG would entail. Below, I'll go into some of the features I think could be really exciting. And hopefully, I'll flesh out the concept enough for you to tell your friends about it...especially if your friends work for Harmonix. At the very least, if you think this idea has some legitimate merit, talk it up wherever you talk things up. A decent place to start would be the Rock Band 2 forums. I've looked on there, and the only thing it seems like people say about Rock Band 3 is the songs they want in it. I think bigger. The way I'm going to write this is as if the game already exists, and I'm describing its features to you as someone who's played the game.

Preview

The most noticeable and pervasive addition to the Rock Band RPG is the concept of "style." This concept draws from the function of the same name in the Saints Row series, where you earn bonus respect by completing tasks with stylish outfits. Winning a race while wearing a sport coat and slacks gets you more respect than winning a race with a tank top and ripped jeans. The same concept applies to Rock Band RPG.

It starts right from the get-go. When you create your band, you create a band member for each instrument, and declare your band as focusing on a particular genre. You can play all songs, of course, but you'll receive a style bonus for playing songs of your particular genre (to provide a similar variety of songs for each genre, multiple genres are encompassed by one umbrella category: hard rock/metal/industrial, punk/emo, etc). What do I mean when I say "bonus?" When you play a show in Rock Band and Rock Band 2, you earn two performance-based rewards: fans and money. In the Rock Band RPG, your band receives a slightly larger bump in fans by playing a song in your band's genre. As a result, the songs that your fans will appreciate the most won't necessarily be the overall most difficult songs in the game; they'll be the most difficult songs in your genre. Think Everlong for the alternative genre, Next To You for the punk/emo genre, Green Grass And High Tides for the southern rock/country genre.

But that's just one part of the equation to determine how successful a performance was. Obviously how well the song was performed (# of stars) would be the main determining factor. In addition to the song genre bonus, you get bonuses for matching up apparel genres, instrument genres, and venue genres. There's also be a built-in standard benefit, even if an item doesn't match your genre (playing a gold-plated guitar would be beneficial regardless of whether you're playing Pink Floyd or Pink).

Now on to the actual gameplay. You're still playing songs, building your song library, and accumulating money and fans, but the mechanism is more complex. For example, before you can play a song in a show, you have to practice it to a certain level of expertise (something fairly low, say 3 stars, basically just completing the song). And in order to acquire new songs, you have to actually "buy" the music using the cash earned from your shows.

You start in the city of your choice, which has several small venues that don't require any sort of special credentials, just a willingness to play for peanuts. The calendar function is a good addition, where you can schedule individual shows as well as "tours," for which you can produce T-shirts, hats, stickers, etc, to try to bring in some more cash. You still need a van/bus/airplane to expand the area in which you could play shows, but instead of just playing a gig and getting them, you pay for each as your band needs them. And logically, you aren't able to do a tour until you at least own a van to transport your band and equipment around. Additionally, you need to hire a sound guy and lighting company to play a gig in large stadiums, and different lighting companies provide higher or lower bonuses to your performance ratings.

One of the most exciting concepts of Rock Band RPG is your agent. You start out and they just let you know about potential gigs, give you some tutorials on how to book shows, and tips on how to increase your style. But as you grow, they become your one-stop shop for making money and booking shows. Your agent looks for opportunities, such as a chance to tap into large audiences by opening for bands who have songs the game (but of course, preventing you from playing any songs by that band in your set). They also arrange for the creation of CDs, DVDs, and merchandise. The agent also handles advertisements for said CDs and merchandise, and when you get big enough to do your own tours, handles finding bands from the game to open for you.

(end preview)

There would have to be a suspension of critical thought, since your band would just be a cover band, which would never make it very big. But we're video game players; we've learned over the years to take most games at face value. The potential for this Rock Band RPG to be fun is, I think, immense. Among my Rock Band-playing friends, I've received only very positive feedback about the idea. And of course, this doesn't have to be the limit at all. You can integrate costs for everything that your band has to work with, such as rent, fuel, hotel accomodations, and the costs associated with making T-shirts, CDs, etc. It's really up to the game maker to decide how complex the system will be.

I simply can't get this idea out of my head now. I get disappointed every time I play Rock Band 2, because I find myself hoping what future versions of the game might offer. So I'm going to try to spread the word about this idea and see if I can't get some steam rolling on the idea. Any comments, ideas, questions are more than welcome. I love talking about this idea. Comment away.

Games For Sale or Trade

I'm clearing out some of my personal inventory of older games, and passing the savings on to yooooooou!

The following Xbox and PlayStation 2 games are up for grabs. I'd like some money for them, but I'm open to interesting trades as well. I'm not looking for huge money or big trades, but I'm much more interested in moving many/all of the games rather than individual games. We'll say $5 for any single game, with dramatic decreases for each additional game.

Xbox
Battlefield 2
Call of Duty 2
College Hoops 2k6
Freedom Fighters
Jaws Unleashed
Madden '08
NBA 2K5
NBA 2k6
NBA Live '07
NCAA Football '08
NHL 2K7
Scarface: The World Is Yours
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

Playstation 2
Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends
Gran Turismo 3: A-spec
Gran Turismo 4
The Getaway
Tony Hawk's Underground
Tony Hawk's Underground 2
Winning Eleven 8

I'll update the list as people lay claim to games. I'll also be posting one of these for movies in the next few weeks.

Rock Band/Rock Band 2: Top 10 Drumming Songs

I was going to separate these lists, but as Shakespeare told us, brevity is the soul of wit. So, instead of two Top 5 lists, I've got one top 10 list. (Also, there are more great drumming songs on Rock Band 2 than on Rock Band). All of these are evaluated based on the "Hard" difficulty level. I can't play most songs on Expert, and Medium just doesn't have enough notes to be that fun.

10. Mississippi Queen, by Mountain (Rock Band)
9. Alive, by Pearl Jam (Rock Band 2)
8. Foreplay/Long Time, by Boston (RB)
7. E-Pro, by Beck (RB2)
6. Black Hole Sun, by Soundgarden (RB)
5. Everlong, by Foo Fighters (RB2)
4. Lump, by Presidents of the United States of America (RB2)
3. Go Your Own Way, by Fleetwood Mac (RB2)
2. Spoonman, by Soundgarden (RB2)
1. Detroit Rock City, by Kiss (RB)

Boring, right? I had initially started to write little blurbs about each song, but then I realized they were all pretty much the same: "Sweet fills, started out really challenging but once I got the hang of it, it was really fun." Spoonman and E-Pro have drum solos, those are cool, though Spoonman's is a lot more crazy than E-Pro's. The hardest thing about playing the drums on Hard is hitting the bass at a much higher frequency than Medium.

The hardest thing about Expert is getting digitally punched in the face by a video game.

Let's Stop Driving: Traffic

Perhaps the most noticeable and most convincing piece of evidence that humans shouldn't be driving is the existence of traffic. Traffic represents a breakdown in the flow of the system. While a properly running transportation system should be bereft of bottlenecks, the Washington, DC area is a veritable bonanza of traffic jams.

It stands to reason that there was a time in human history when there were no traffic jams, probably for the first five, ten, maybe even twenty years of the existence of the automobile. And then, at some point, there were so many cars that people had to start waiting in line to drive from point A to point B. What was the solution? Widen the roadways. So crews were assembled, the ground was broken, and the roads were widened. And when the dust cleared, the traffic jams were gone.

Sure enough, though, as time wore on, more and more cars were being used, and traffic jams started popping up again. This time, however, maybe widening the roadways wasn't an option, because you'd have to tear down buildings. So what did we do? We built more roads. With more options of which road to use to get from point A to point B, fewer people would be on each road, and that would lessen traffic. And it did. The traffic jams disappeared, and everyone could drive without being hindered by the existence of other cars on the roads. But what happened next was really amazing, and was something that no one could have predicted.

More cars showed up, and traffic jams formed again. The same strategies were employed: more roads, wider roads. And they helped for a while, until the traffic jams cropped up again. This cycle has continued for decades, and continues today, except for one noticeable difference: we don't get rid of the traffic jams anymore.

It reminds me of Tetris. You start building up, leaving that one-block-wide spot at the end to drop the long pieces in to get the "Tetris," the four-line completion. And it works for a while; you drop in the long pieces, knock out four lines, and keep going. But as time wears on, the blocks next to the hole accumulate and get closer to the fatal top of the screen. And at some point, you say, "Alright, I'll just drop this one piece in there and get a couple of lines, then I can get back to working on Tetrises. But of course, you don't. You catch another bad piece, and have to cover up the hole, "temporarily" you tell yourself. And before you know it, it's a race just to stay alive.

That's how it is with traffic. We're no longer working to prevent traffic jams altogether. We're just trying to mitigate their impact, and spread them out over a larger area. But they're completely beyond our ability to control at this point. Am I the only one who finds that worrisome? We've created a monster that we can't control. This is like Jurassic Park; traffic is the velociraptors. It's only a matter of time before it gets out of hand and we're running for our lives...alright, maybe that analogy isn't as good as the Tetris one, but you get my point.

The reality is that every day you'll see work being done to expand roads, add a lane here, build another highway there. But no one has any hope of actually eliminating traffic as a time drain on all of us. We're willing to settle for a slight reduction in backups, and saving 5% off our daily commute.

If we're going to spend money, lots of money every year, expanding and "improving" our road system, shouldn't we start to look at other options that might dramatically increase the efficiency of our transportation systems?

One last point that I didn't really make clear in my first post: I don't have an answer. I think a top-flight mass transit system is a good idea, but it's certainly not going to eliminate our dependence on motor vehicles altogether, which means it's not going to solve the traffic problem completely. The intention of these blog posts is not to try to sell a specific transportation idea; it's to sell the conversation. I think people should be talking about this as a real problem.

This post is running long, so I'm gonna cut it here. But if any of what I've said has given you pause, take the next step. Ask someone you think is smart what they think of the situation. Like I said, all I want is the conversation.

Walt Disney World Trip: Day 4, Part 2 (Monday PM)

We got back to the hotel at around 2:00, and my mom left for her massage at about 2:40. When she left, she said if we wanted to head to the park before she got back, she would just meet us there. Initially, I didn't expect to do this, but as time went on, it became more and more of a plan. I can only watch so many episodes of Disney Channel shows before I get antsy. So Kevin and I headed to the park at around 4:15, and left a note for my mom.

Kevin and I weren't really sure what we wanted to do when we arrived, so we wandered around Fantasyland for a while to ponder our plan. We stopped by Mickey's Philharmagic, but sadly it was closed for refurbishments. This might mean they're adding to the show, which is cool, but it sucks that we missed one of the better attractions. My mom called as we were wandering around and let us know she was leaving the hotel. Not having any other plans on what to do, we hopped on Mad Tea Party, which had virtually no line (this would sort of be the standard for the evening). Kevin and I then hit up Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin again, and met up with my mom as we were leaving this ride.

As it was getting to be nighttime and the weather was cooling off, my mom wasn't crazy about going on Splash Mountain, so she waited and watched the evening parade while Kevin and I went on the ride. There was no wait. And I don't mean there was a short wait. There was no wait. We followed the queue right up to the ride boat. And after the ride, we could've just stayed in the boat for another round; there was no one waiting to get in. Apparently the parade is a big hit, but also, the park switched to Extra Magic Hours around this time, so it was clearing out a little bit, too.

One of my mom's favorite rides is the Haunted Mansion, so we headed over there next. We probably waited all of five minutes for this ride, three of which were because the ride stopped briefly and the line didn't move forward. As we were exiting the Haunted Mansion, we heard the booming of fireworks, and tried to find a good spot to watch them. It's a nice show with some Disney music to go along with it, and there's something that gets me about seeing the fireworks with "When You Wish Upon A Star." What can I say, I'm a sap.

After the fireworks, we stayed in Fantasyland and hopped on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, the last of our favorites from the 2008 trip that we hadn't ridden yet. At this point, we were once again in a wandering mood, and we headed over to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority for a night ride (separate review below). Kevin and I made the Tomorrowland Speedway our last ride of the trip, while my mom went to the Carousel of Progress, which I've still never been on.

We stopped at Cosmic Ray's, which is a diner, for some horribly unhealthy food (they got burgers, I got a chili cheese hot dog), and set out for home, satisfied that we had a great trip, but a little sad that we'd be flying home the next day. We took a few pictures with a view of Cinderella's castle that came out pretty well, and would be a good Facebook album cover if I ever get around to posting these pictures on Facebook...don't count on it, though.




The next morning was fairly uneventful. We rode Disney's Magical Express back to the airport, and encountered no difficulties at security (it was stunningly fast, actually). We took off from Orlando where it was 78, and landed at Dulles International Airport, where it was 28 degrees and snowing. Welcome home, vacationers. And that was the trip. I'm already organizing our next trip in my mind. More time at the Magic Kingdom seems to be a no-brainer. Oh, and we've got to go back to the Yak & Yeti restaurant at Animal Kingdom! And I'd like to try out Soarin', and eat in Norway, and...



Ride Reviews

Haunted Mansion (4/5) - The ride itself is more like a 3 star ride, but my mom is such a little kid when it comes to Halloween and ghosts that going on the ride with her was a lot of fun. It's a slow-moving ride through, well, a haunted mansion. There are ghosts and ghoulies at every turn, and I could see little kids either having fun or being terrified...both of which could make the ride more enjoyable.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (5/5) - This is one of the most fun rides in any park if you've got the right group on it. The Pooh theme is one that most people know, and the characters are a little more interesting than those in Peter Pan or Pirates of the Caribbean. Probably the best part of the attraction, though, is how your ride changes in each section. You hop-hop-hop along with Tigger, you float down the river, it adds to the environmental feel of the ride, rather than the unchanging rides of the aforementioned.

Tomorrowland Transit Authority (5/5) - The difference between this ride at night and during the day is like...well, it's like the difference between night and day. The outdoor parts of the ride are the same, but the indoor parts are just great at night. There are shooting stars, and you get to see Space Mountain much better than during the day. It's the same fun ride with noticeably better scenery.

Tomorrowland Speedway (2/5) - I didn't give it a 1 star rating because it was a little fun, but it was generally a bust. The line was among the longest at Magic Kingdom, but I have trouble figuring out why. You drive your car on a track, but you're limited to your lane, which means you don't get to really race anyone, which is good, because your car goes pretty slow. Probably the best part was the trash talk that Kevin and I threw at each other beforehand, even though it was obvious we weren't going to be able to race. Probably would not ride this one again, especially if the line is as long as usual.

Five Thousand Points!

Last night, after cleaning out the last of the Vice Kings in Saints Row, I earned enough achievement points to surpass five thousand, a milestone I've had my eye on for a while now. Is it meaningless? You'd better believe it's meaningless. And yet, I'm still delighted to have gotten there. I've got a long way to go before I can catch up to Patrick (who at last check was at 14,875 and keeps racking up achievements), but I'm headed in the right direction.

Our next target? Marcus, at 6,920 points. I'm comin' for ya!

Walt Disney World Trip: Day 4, Part 1 (Monday AM)

We took a few minutes Monday morning to briefly decide where we were going to go before going to the Magic Kingdom in the evening (the Magic Kingdom was the beneficiary of Extra Magic Hours that evening, and I've found that it feels right to end a Disney World trip at the Magic Kingdom). After a short discussion, we all decided that we hadn't really seen any of Epcot in our previous trip, so we'd head over there for a few rides and lunch.

Epcot doesn't have a ton of great rides, as its main attraction is the World Showcase. And because the World Showcase brings a lot of traffic with only a few rides, most of the rides have fairly long queues. Because of this, we didn't end up going on Soarin', probably the most popular ride at Epcot. Instead, we headed for Test Track, which had been recommended to Kevin by one of his friends (and which made me think that it was going to be pretty hazardous). I did survive, but I selected a gentle ride as a follow-up, Living with the Land, which sported a five-minute wait. I assumed it would be a lecture about taking care of the environment, but it was a boat ride, so I was willing to take the chance.

For lunch, we decided to go to the U.K.'s sit-down restaurant, the Rose & Crown Pub and Dining Room. I wasn't crazy about a lot of the stuff on the menu, but the burger I got was pretty good, and I had some of my mom's fish and chips, also pretty good. Additionally, I got a beer sampler which had Guinness, Harp, Boddington, and a couple others I don't remember. They were all okay, but I've found that I'm more of a sweet drink kind of guy. The bitterness of the average beer just doesn't sit that well with me. Still, it was a fun experience and a good meal.

We finished lunch around 1:30, and it was time for us to head back to the hotel. My mom wanted to take advantage of the fact that Saratoga Springs is a spa, so she set an appointment for her first ever massage at 3:00 PM. Kevin and I were up for a break after a very filling lunch, so we all headed back and got ready for our final park visit of the trip: the Magic Kingdom.

Stay tuned.

Ride Reviews

Test Track (4/5) - The introduction video was pretty funny (and starred John Michael Higgins), and the ride itself was sort of as expected. It was a little bit chaotic, and boasts the fastest speed of any ride at Walt Disney World. It gives you a better appreciation of how fast you're going when you drive 65 miles per hour. It was Kevin's favorite ride of the trip.

Living with the Land (3/5) - I was pretty surprised that this was as enjoyable as it was. We checked out a movie called "Circle of Life" when we came last year, and it was basically a lecture on taking care of the Earth. This ride started out that way, with pictures from around the world of how people were working to be more efficient and conserve resources, and I was a little suspect of the rest of the ride. But it ended up kind of cool. You pass through a fish farm (all you eco-freaks can shove it, breeding fish to be eaten is no different from breeding corn to be eaten) and a horticulture lab (with a Mickey-shaped pumpkin). The whole ride is on a boat, which I believe I've mentioned I enjoy. On a warm day, it was a nice, cool, soothing ride.

Walt Disney World Trip: Day 3, Part 2 (Sunday PM)

At the hotel, we relaxed for a bit (I spoke to my cousin Mike briefly on the phone), and we geared up for Hollywood Studios. After all of the hype that Plundo built for Toy Story Mania, I was looking forward to a pretty fun evening, and for the most part, I wasn't disappointed.

When we arrived, we checked out the big board that has all of the rides' wait times, and saw that Toy Story was an hour wait with the Fast Passes depleted for the day, so we opted instead for Star Tours, which was a 5 minute wait. The alleged 5 minute wait might have been all of 2 minutes, and we quickly and happily rode one of our favorites from last year. After that, we hit up another favorite of ours in Muppet Vision 3-D (again with no wait), before deciding to try out the line at Toy Story. It was listed as a forty minute wait, and even though it would be the longest wait of the trip, the line didn't seem to be getting shorter, so we hopped into the queue.

(It bears mentioning here that the camera batteries ran out at this point, which is why there aren't more pictures of Hollywood Studios).

After enjoying Toy Story, we contemplated getting in line again, but the wait time was back up to an hour, despite being after 7:00 PM, and thus into Disney's "Extra Magic Hours" (the last and perhaps greatest advantage of staying in a Disney resort). So, we headed for Rock n' Roller Coaster, one of Kevin's favorite rides. I didn't end up going on the ride (I'm wary of how my girth is handled by coaster seating systems), but Kevin had virtually no wait, and enjoyed it. Choosing instead to embrace my heft, I grabbed a Flavor Blast ice cream cone, which is soft serve vanilla ice cream with some sort of syrup lining. I had a banana split flavored cone, and it was tasty.

We looked around for a few places to get dinner in Hollywood Studios, but by this time, most sit down restaurants were closed, and the ones that were open were diners, which are okay, but not worth waiting in line for. So we headed back to the hotel and ordered pizza and breadsticks from Disney World's delivery service. The pizza was surprisingly excellent, I'd say better than Papa John's or Pizza Hut (though still miles behind Zio's). I curled up with Moneyball and finished it, and went to bed, looking forward to another day full of rides on Monday.

Ride Reviews

Star Tours (4/5) - The ride is pretty fun, but the best part is all the little Star Wars lines and characters and such. I'm a sucker for Star Wars. There's also an AT-AT outside the ride that makes laser blast noises at night, and a whole themed area around the ride. They have a life-sized replica of the Ewok village toy that I have about six of in my basement, but unfortunately, it's not designed as something you can go into. Hopefully they'll consider adding that...or creating an entire Star Wars theme park...man, I would go to that.

Muppet Vision 3-D (3/5) - As Plundo said, the best part of this show is the two old cranks who make fun of the show. "Hey, how did you get such good seats?" "There was a contest. I lost!" I feel like I should go back and try to find some episodes of the Muppet Show, because I'm pretty sure I would appreciate the old guys more today than I did back then.

Toy Story Mania (5/5) - It wasn't my favorite ride of the trip, but it was a damn fun ride. Like I said when I talked about Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, I do like the mission concept a little better than just the general shooting gallery style of Toy Story Mania. But there's no questioning that the technology is superior here, and while it was essentially a video game in a ride car, I like video games, so it was a blast.

Walt Disney World Trip: Day 3, Part 1 (Sunday AM)

We woke up a lot earlier on Sunday than we had on Saturday. The early start was mostly my doing, since I wanted to make sure we had enough time to spend at Animal Kingdom (which closes at 5:00). I had gone there last year early with Eddie, and while we saw a couple of things, there were definitely some things on the park map that I would've liked to have caught but we didn't have time for. I had some Frosted Flakes for breakfast, and we were ready to hit the park by 9:30 AM.

When we arrived, we weren't really sure where we wanted to go, so we defaulted to my favorite ride last year, DINOSAUR. We briefly debated getting Fast Passes, but the twenty minute wait seemed reasonable enough. Then, it turned out it was more like a five minute wait when we actually got in line, so Fast Passing it would've felt foolish. Next on our to-do list was the Kali River Rapids. Kevin and I were both eager to do this one, but the warnings of getting wet were enough to make my mom shy away from it. The line wasn't too long (a legit 15 minutes), so we waited in line and my mom watched from the concourse (a picture of us on the ride is down with the ride reviews).

Kevin hadn't eaten anything all day, and as usual, I could eat, so we went to get an early lunch at the Yak & Yeti, a "pan-Asian" restaurant that is as advertised. It's got Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, and Thai cuisine. My mom ordered the crispy honey chicken, Kevin got the baby back ribs, and I got the tempura shrimp. Additionally, we shared an order of pot stickers and an order of wok-fried green beans. Everything was AWESOME. Without hesitation, this was the best meal we had all trip. Every dish was flavorful, different, and delicious. We ended up sharing pretty much everything, and amazingly, everyone liked everything. Animal Kingdom isn't amazing when it comes to rides and such, but this restaurant might push it over the edge as a park I'd recommend.

After our fantastic meal, we grabbed Fast Passes for the Kilimanjaro Safari to ride it in about an hour, and walked around looking for ways to kill time. This first manifested itself in a couple of photo opportunities:



When I went to Animal Kingdom last year, I went on the Maharajah Jungle Trek. It's basically just a path through a zoo, but it's much smaller than a normal zoo, and only has animals from India and southeast Asia. It was interesting the first time, so Kevin and I set out for that. Meanwhile, my mom watched a show called Flights of Wonder, featuring exotic birds. She said it was cute, a little cheesy, but enjoyable. We then headed off to our safari, our last ride of the day at Animal Kingdom.

At about 2:30, we had done most of the stuff at Animal Kingdom we wanted to do, and since it was a warm day and we'd done a lot of walking, we decided to head back to the resort. We were planning on hitting up Hollywood Studios later as well, so we didn't want to exhaust ourselves at Animal Kingdom.

The day continues in Day 3, Part 2, which will be posted this evening.

Ride Reviews

Dinosaur (4/5) - Would've gotten a 5/5 last year, but the surprise factor is pretty important when it comes to the thrill rides. Also, last year I was in the front row, which is a little more scary when those giant dinosaur jaws are coming at you. Still, very fun.

Kali River Rapids (4/5) - The four stars say a lot about how much fun this ride is at its best, because generally it's very tame. You ride around at a slow pace, go up a few lift hills, have a few decent drops, and one great one. And you get very, very wet. The warning signs they have are appropriate: "You will get wet. You may get SOAKED."





Maharajah Jungle Trek (3/5) - It's really more of a two star attraction, but while we were watching the tigers, one of them stood up and sauntered over to the glass. The beast was maybe three feet away. That was a thrill. Pictures from the trek below (mostly of tigers...they're awesome):

















Kilimanjaro Safari (2/5) - One of the more disappointing rides. The safari vehicles you take are so rigid, and the path you take is so bumpy, that most of the time I couldn't get good pictures because I was too worried that I'd lose the camera. The Jungle Trek was better because you got to see a few animals really close. The Safari was mostly viewing from a distance, which I get is safer when there's no glass wall, but makes for a less impressive experience. Here are the pictures that didn't suck too much:

Walt Disney World Trip: Day 2 (Saturday)

(With regards to rides, I'm going to use the same strategy that Plundo did, waiting until the end of the post to rate the rides, and using a 5-star system).

Friday night was nice, but the reason you go to Disney World is to ride rides (or at least, that's the reason I go to Disney World). And when you want a lot of rides, there's no better place than the Magic Kingdom. Kevin slept until about 11:00, so we didn't start our day until around 11:30.

The sit-down restaurant at Sarasota Springs is called the Turf Club Bar & Grill. I had a good burger (not a Goodburger), and Kevin and my mom both got the yellowfin tuna per our waiter's recommendation. They seemed to enjoy it, and I enjoyed mine, so we started our day's activities on the right foot. We hopped on a bus to the park and arrived in ten minutes or so.





When we arrived, we realized that there was a parade scheduled to come through the park shortly, and we weren't really looking to watch it, so we hopped on the Walt Disney World Railroad, which carries passengers to a couple stops around the park. We got off at Frontierland, and picked up Fast Passes for Splash Mountain. If you're unfamiliar, a Fast Pass is essentially an appointment for the ride. You can pick it up at any time during the day (only one at a time, though), and you'll be given a window later in the day during which you can redeem the pass and ride with virtually no line. It's a nice feature, taking some of the waiting time out of your theme park visit.

Armed with Fast Passes for Splash Mountain in 2 hours, we decided to check out a couple other rides. We hit the Mad Tea Party, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. We stopped off for ice cream and headed back to ride Splash Mountain (which I hadn't ridden in our trip last year, so it was a new and exciting experience).

Sufficiently happy (and a little soaked), we basically wandered the park for the rest of the day, hopping on whatever struck our fancy: Pirates of the Carribean, It's a Small World, and Peter Pan's Flight. Tired and pleased, we grabbed a bus back to our resort, and went back to the Turf Club for dinner. Our meals were good, but the real highlight was dessert. They cook some chocolate cake with chocolate from Madagascar, then top it with vanilla ice cream and some raspberry sauce. It was delicious.

Back to the room, I read more of Moneyball and got to bed early for Sunday, which would be our first "park-hopper" day.

Ride Reviews

Walt Disney World Railroad (2/5) - It's a railroad, fairly straightforward, and with surprisingly vanilla scenery. I only gave it two stars because it's functional, and it did what we wanted it to do, which was drive us to Frontierland.

Mad Tea Party (4/5) - It's not at all the kind of ride that you couldn't see at a standard amusement park, but it was a lot of fun. For those of you who've played Rollercoaster Tycoon, think Scrambled Eggs. There's a disc in the middle of each cup that you can spin manually to adjust your level of spinning; Kevin and I went pretty nuts with it.

Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (4/5) - Plundo was right about this being sort of an outdated version of the new Toy Story ride at Hollywood Studios, but the Space Ranger Spin has more of a story to your shooting, rather than the shooting gallery setup in the Toy Story ride. I like being on a mission, what can I say?

Tomorrowland Transit Authority (3/5) - It's a simple transportation ride (as its name would indicate), but for whatever reason, I like it. It's relaxing, it's never in direct sunlight, and it gives you a tour of Tomorrowland.

Splash Mountain (5/5) - I loved the music and the atmosphere of the ride, and the drops are fun. This is my mom's favorite ride at the Magic Kingdom, and when we rode into "Brer Rabbit's Laughin' Place" at the end of the ride, they both laughed loudly and intentionally, which made the ride even more fun. It's also got comfortable seats, something that's particularly valuable for such a giant of a man as myself.

Pirates of the Carribean (3/5) - I like water rides, so Pirates gets a bump there, but really it's not a very exciting or interesting ride. It's essentially a slow river ride through a pirate town. They added a ship and a fort with some cannon fire, but in my opinion, not enough, and not enough explosions and damage on either side. I guess it's supposed to be a gentle ride and they have to maintain that, but I'd like a little more excitement. The Jack Sparrow singing at the end of the ride is pretty neat, though, and it gets the song in your head.

It's a Small World (2/5) - Another first-time ride for me, there was no line and I felt like I ought to do it at least once since it might be the most famous ride in Disney World. It was okay, not as good as some people have told me, but also not as bad as some other people have told me. It was another boat ride as well, so that was alright.

Peter Pan's Flight (2/5) - The line was 30 minutes, but my mom likes the ride, so we hopped in and waited. I remembered not liking the ride at all last year, so I wasn't expecting much, and the ride met expectations. I tried to like it more than last time, though, and that seemed to work, because last year I'd have given it a 1/5.

Next up: A split Sunday between Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios