04-20-98 Scott's brother scored us some tickets to Islands of Adventure, the new theme park built alongside Universal Studios here in Orlando.  the place isn't even officially open yet and we got to get tickets.  This was on Tuesday, the tickets would be good for Saturday. Scott got home from West Palm on Wednesday with a toasty little sunburn.  It was especially bad on his ears where it developed into 3rd degree burns.  He's peeling like crazy now and had his hair cut extra short hoping to keep the incident from happening again.  My poor baby... Remember those scanner problems I mentioned in the last Journal?  I attempted to remedy them this week by going ahead and buying a new scanner.  First I got a parallel port scanner like my last one but it was no good, something seems to be wrong with my port, not the scanner.  I sold my old scanner to John and it seems to work perfectly for him, foo.  I think the problem might be something besides the port, but whatever it is I haven't been able to put my finger on it. I returned the older scanner and purchased a USB scanner instead.  Unfortunately I lacked a USB port and had to get a card.  I got home, popped open the case and installed the card in the last available slot left in my computer.  I installed things, started 'er up... and it crashed. I try again.  Crash.  And again... crash.  By this point I was entertaining the notion of smashing the computer into teensy little bits.  I restart in safe mode and everything works just dandy.  Just for an experiment I turn hardware acceleration off and try again.  It works fine.  I try some other things as well... I noodle with the BIOS, reinstall WIN98, reinstall the cards.  Nothing works except making sure one of the two cards is disabled whenever I boot up.  If I want to play with my  games I have to disable the USB card, if I want to use the scanner I have to turn hardware acceleration off, reboot, reinable the USB card, boot again... and then scan stuff.  It's frustrating but nothing else seems to work.  When I get the time I'll probably take it in and get it seen to, but for now I need to let my wallet recover. Scott got his own computer back on Thursday, the cache memory had blown on the motherboard as had something in the sound card.  Fearing that it might have gotten struck by lightning because of the things that blew out he bought a new UPS.  So, money blown on a new motherboard, new soundcard, some RAM, a new UPS... bleargh. There was some good news though.  When I went into work on Thursday I noticed that my check was a bit higher than  it usually is.  Because I'm a honest person I called in my main office to make sure they didn't flub on writing my check.  Turns out that I've gotten a raise!  I'm getting paid $2 an hour more than I was before.  Quite a jump!  One I'm rather pleased with though.  I met Jordan for lunch and treated him to Chinese food to celebrate. On Friday Scott played Half-Life.  He played, and played... and then he played some more.  I think he rather likes the game.  After watching it I have to say I'm rather impressed as well.  There's little details like bugs skittering across the floor, and the weapons you use act realistically.  If you fire a shotgun the shell it ejects makes a plastic clattering on the floor while a handgun or rifle shell makes a metallic ring when it ejects and bounces.  Some of the enemies are  intelligent enough to take cover and dodge and use tactics against you.  Some of the enemies are also brainless monsters that leap at your face too... but there's variation.  Some of the enemies are alerted by visual cues, scent, or sound.  Scott's having a blast.  Saturday came and it rained, it rained for the first time in weeks.  It rained on the one day when I wanted  to be outside most of the time.  We waited as long as we could hoping that the rain would ease off but it never did, so instead we decided to brave it out.  The tunes of Chagal Gueverra rang in our ears as we drove to the park.  Once we got there we explored the new Universal Citywalk (A rival for Downtown Disney... and they take Discover card!), grabbed lunch at Jimmy Buffet themed restaurant and then headed inside.  Considering that I don't care for Jimmy Buffet the  restaurant was rather boring... and I think I've gotten my fill of Jimmy Buffet music for the next five years.  I managed to snag a blue poncho to keep the rain off and we hit the park, mindless of the rain. Islands of Adventure is divided up into several sections.  There's the Marvel Comics area, the cartoon and comic strip area, Jurassic Park, an Arabian Knights/Sinbad area, and a Dr.  Seuss area.  I was too cowardly to attempt to ride either of the featured rollercoasters (maybe next time) but there was still plenty to do. First we hit the Jurassic Park raft ride.  There was absolutely no line at all and we piled into our raft.  The timing was perfect on that ride... at first it's a boring raft ride past some animatronic dinos that don't look all that impressive... and next thing you know you're accidentally sent off onto the wrong track and surrounded by spitting lizard things and listening to screams all around you.  I won't spoil the rest... just make sure you leave your stomach behind. There was a corny 'pteranadon flyer' ride which we waited in line for half an hour to try... and found it to be highly unappealing.  Maybe for the  kids, but I won't be trying it again.  Ain't worth the wait. From there we went to the Arabian themed area.  The first thing I saw was a really cool statue that looked like a cross between a gryphon and a hippocampus that was 'guarding' the gateway into the area.  the shops and restaurants in this part were really cool, and I think that visual wise anyway it was my favorite section of the park.  They had a talking 'oracle stone' there that harassed tourists as they walked by and would randomly squirt jets of water at people.  I'd love to have that guy's job. The Seuss theme's island was a visual treat.  I have always been nervous about seeing someone's 2-dimentional artwork turned into 3D costumes and sets, but this was done very well.  We rode the 'Cat in the Hat' ride that spun you around and nicely portrayed the story, and then wandered around past the Seuss-go-Round (I'm sure I have the name wrong) and several other rides.  Now if only you could get Green Eggs and Ham there... We circled back to the Marvel area where the Spiderman ride had opened up (The park was not 'officially' open yet, and were only going through rides off and on to work the bugs out.).  The lines were incredibly long, but they at least shows some animation to keep you occupied along the way.  The voices weren't the same as what was on the TV series, which I was a bit disappointed with since the character designs seemed almost exact.  the premise was that Dr. Octopus, Hydroman, some electric guy and a Venom-type woman with nasty hair had an antigravity ray and had stolen the Statue of Liberty with it.  Rather flimsy, but hey... this is Marvel.  The ride required you to wear 3-D glasses but was also situated in a moving car.  I had no earthly idea how they did it, but the ride was a blast.  Easily my favorite in the park and the one I'd like to go again on as soon as I can. About this time my feet were killing me.  I have bad feet to BEGIN with so I noticed it a bit more.  We stopped by an Italian  bakery near the exit gates, I got Scott something to drink and we let our feet cool off.  From there we drove home, listened to more Chagal Gueverra, and had dinner at Quincy's. I spent the evening furthering a plot with Galand online in some roleplay I'm running while Scott played more Half-Life.  At around midnight I tumbled into bed and prepared for Church the next morning.  This time I hit 8AM services which is the 'short' version of church, no choir or singing.  The Bishop preached -- I really like our bishop, he radiates happy beams if that makes any sence. On the way home Scott and I hit McDonalds and got a bunch of McMuffins and hash Browns for brekkie.  after inhaling the bag we both konked out and took some rather lengthy naps.  I staggered out of bed  at around 3:30PM and plopped in front of the computer while Scott hammered on his paper.  A few hours later he left for classes and I did more plotstuff online.  I also sat down and did some arty type stuff after getting my scanner going (and disabling the graphics card... grump)  I think I pulled something in my right foot because it gave me nothing but agonizing pain for all of Sunday.  I need to eventually go see a podiatrist and get some new shoes.  Although since I'm not growing anymore I'm not sure what can be done for me. I never went to sleep Sunday night, I was too wired.  Instead I scanned in artwork, worked on my web page, photoshopped, and chatted until about 6AM when I finally crawled into bed and konked out until 11AM. Most of Monday was spent trying to stay off my hurt foot, although I did get a few more bits of artwork scanned.  I probably could have done a whole flood but figured I'd best pick and choose gradually.  I also started work on a picture of the Captain-Astromancer and the Priesthood Candidate from one of my plots.  As much as I like computer coloring I think I'm gonna hand-color this one just to stay in practice. Wednesday I go to the main office in Umatilla again.  The stereo in my car died and I need to get it replaced.  I miss my tunes. Until next report!  Hasta! Click here to go back!