Since the earliest days of roller coasters, the name Giant Dipper has been used for wooden coasters across North America. Between 1924 and 1930, five roller coasters opened under this name; today, only two are still operating, both in California.
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I found the very interesting (but rather incomplete) Google Hacks page, and the Google Talk hack looked like fun: “Ever wondered what Google would say if it could talk? Wonder no more. Enter three or four words and Google will finish your thoughts by searching for what comes next after these words.” So I went to Google Talk and entered my first three words as do you think. Here is the result, click to enlarge:

Bwahahaha. This happens every day around the world, but rarely do I get to see it. This was on a mailing list from the linguistics department at George Mason University.

From: So-and-So
Subject:Subject: Master’s/Doctoral Student or Prof needed to share townhouse
I need a second person to share a townhouse in Herndon. This is a 3 level townhouse in great neighborhood (quiet, safe) in Herndon just off the Dulles Toll Road and Fairfax County Parkway, [etc. including pictures]

From: Somebody Else
Subject: Re: Master’s/Doctoral Student or Prof needed to share townhouse
For me or for you?

From: Complete Bozo
Subject: Re: Master’s/Doctoral Student or Prof needed to share townhouse
for you, silly! i already got a house.. actually, i looked at the photos and am thinking the person who posted this is a dumbass. might want to clean the kitchen before you take those pics, asswipe.

From: Complete Bozo
Subject: Re: Master’s/Doctoral Student or Prof needed to share townhouse
biiiig whoops!! sorry!
i take it back! didn’t mean it! christ..

One of the things I have decided to get with my Blingo gift card is a new computer game. I don’t play games too often - I am usually more interested in the web - but I do enjoy them and I will go through periods where I spend a lot of time gaming. I play computer games more often than my PS2 games, but I enjoy both. For now though I’m looking at getting new computer games. I think these would all work with my computer, although I don’t know that I have the right video card for The Sims 2 so that might not work.

Anyway, I’m not sure what games to get, so I’m taking a poll. Bear in mind that I already have The Sims Deluxe Edition plus the Vacation expansion pack. I also have RCT2 and its first expansion pack - Loopy Landscapes, or whatever it was. Now for the poll! (Please feel free to leave supporting evidence in the comments.)

Edited: Fuck polls. Fuck all polls. Please choose from the following options and leave a damn comment.

• Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 ($33)
• RCT 3 + Soaked Expansion Pack ($59)
• The Sims 2 ($45)
• Playboy: The Mansion ($30)
• Sims Expansions: Unleashed + Hot Date ($20)

I seem to have stumped a number of my geek friends with this question, so I figured I’d pose it to a broader crowd. There is a guy at work who is completely bald, and he has a big square band-aid on the back of his head. He could be an instant substitute for Marcellus Wallace from Pulp Fiction, but that’s not what I think of when I see him. Instead I think of one very specific episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. So my question for you is: what episode does that remind me of? I can think of several hints but I’m going to hold onto them for now.

Also, I got to see both Tricia Helfer and Steve Bacic on their respective shows tonight! That reminds me, I should mention what happened with Steve Bacic. He was really hard on me, trying to get me to sign things like “Meredith likes monkeys” and so forth. So I tried to tell him that he couldn’t top the time somebody said constipation in front of a large audience (who all immediately looked at the terp), but the only word he heard was “constipation” and so he joked about my bodily functions throughout the hour. The next day, he made sure my bodily functions were running smoothly, and then actually got me to sign “I like small furry men!” I didn’t even pick up on what he was doing until I realized I was trying to come up with a sign for “furry” - the thought process was something like okay, need a sign for furry, he’s talking about something like a bear, so I’ll just use bea - hey wait a minute! - oh well, I’m halfway through the sign, might as well finish the sentence. So basically he was just thoroughly tough, but even though my face was bright red, I was laughing the whole time!

I sold my recreational kayak last Thursday, a little over a year after I bought it and paddled it for the first time. The second time I took it out, my mom took pictures. I don’t think I ever took it out again, and it was taking up space in the garage, so A wanted me to sell it. I had paid about $350 for it, plus $35 for a manufacturer-made sprayskirt when I couldn’t find one that would fit properly. I ended up getting $240 for both, which is more than I expected. So now I have $240 - in cash! - and I’m trying to decide what to get. I welcome your suggestions, and will add the good ones to my list! (No, I’m not adding a pony to the list.)

1. Another corset (in addition to the one I already bought)
2. Thule saddles (so I don’t have to borrow Woody’s)
3. a Healthy Back Bag
4. GPS device
5. get the crack in the car fixed (cosmetic issue only)
6. splurge on wishlist items

I have spent several hours today playing on Second Life. I got the $10 one-time-payment account because I certainly wouldn’t pay $10 a month for it, but I’m having fun so far with what I’ve got. I’ve met several interesting people and I got back in touch with two friends that I’ve known for seven years (through LambdaMOO) but haven’t spoken with in a couple of years because they’re not on Lambda anymore. One of them invited me to an Asian-themed “party” - I guess that’s how geeks who don’t actually go out still manage to have a fun, social Saturday night! (And yes, I include myself in that set.) Actually, now that I think of it, I haven’t read blogs at all today…I’ve been obsessing over SL! This could be dangerous.

I realize I haven’t been saying too much lately - either in comments on others’ sites or in my own journal. I’ve even started memes and then not finished them! (Mom and Suzanne, yours are coming.) But I’ve been basking in the glow of my three new geek toys:

• New laptop (including new OS for me to experiment with)
• New Sidekick (I can browse porn on this thing! or, um, news.)
• Katamari Damacy (it does make my thumbs hurt after a while)

So please forgive me for being somewhat out of touch. Once I get used to these toys I will be more aware of the outside world again!

I’ve been playing Katamari Damacy like crazy, thanks to Chris-O, and A has been watching me this whole time. She’s had the main theme in her head thanks to Eclipse and Malcolm pooling their resources to send me the soundtrack, and so she knows basically how everything works. I’m quite pleased to say that she’s picked it up herself now, and she’s completed Make a Star 1 and she’s working on Make a Star 2! We’ve been discussing KD a lot on MOO, so I posted about her playing and had the following exchange with P7:

A has just completed Make a Star 1 for the first time. This woman almost *never* plays a video game. Mwahahaha.

How sad that the holy grail - a chick who plays videogames - still has problems finding a mate who plays videogames.

Heh! Well, at least it means we’re not fighting over it. And now I have somebody to try two-player KD with.

I really am happy that she’s playing too. I like it when we can share fun things.

I rented a couple of PS2 games from Blockbuster tonight and I was surprised that they are $7 per rental. Videos are only $4.75, so that’s quite a difference for games! There were a lot of games I could have gotten, but I managed to walk out with only two. Because I also paid an old $4.22 late fee, I got a coupon for a free movie or game rental that expires at the end of February, so I’ll be back for another game soon.

Athens 2004 is the official video game from the Olympics, and the first sports game I’ve seen to have women’s gymnastics as an event. I actually do enjoy the sports games, from the old California Games with footbag and roller skating to another Olympic-type game that had a diving session I got pretty good at. I was very eager to try the women’s gymnastics event in Athens 2004, especially because the picture on the back showed it works the same way as Dance Dance Revolution. I did pretty well even on the hardest setting, but I was disappointed that the music and (performed) routine is always identical no matter what difficulty level or country you pick. The girl does the same stunts and dances no matter what, to the same music every time, so this gets old very fast. I’ll have to try plugging in my dance pad to see if I can do anywhere near as well that way; it’s not like I ever use the thing for DDR anymore. I figured out the rest of the gymnastics events and played them for a few minutes, and then I ventured over to one of the simple swimming events. There’s some minor button-pounding with the gymnastics, but the swimming (and probably track events, too) is entirely button-pounding. The controller isn’t designed for a lot of this kind of thing, so I got a cramp before one 100m swim was over and promptly switched games. (The codes for Action Replay MAX weren’t automatically in there, but when I checked there was nothing worthwhile in there anyway.)

The Sims: Bustin’ Out was a lot more fun. I didn’t bother entering the AR:MAX codes because it would have taken too long and I was eager to jump in and play the game. I played the “Bust Out” part of the game for a good hour and a half before I discovered the “Free Play” section of the game, and by that point it was time for bed anyway. But the graphics on this game were awesome…I’m so glad I have a PS2 now! The zoom/rotate function is a little hard to use, and both gameplay and navigation are nowhere near as convenient as they are on a PC, but I really like having goals to achieve. The most amusing part was seeing a goal of “Visit Dudley and use ‘SIGN LANGUAGE’ on him” - I couldn’t believe it! Of course it didn’t turn out to be quite what I was thinking, but the game was favorably rated by DeafGamers.com just the same. I’m looking forward to exploring the Free Play mode tomorrow night!