RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile is here

RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile version was announced after years and years and years. Disappointingly, it's only a mobile versions (and only i-things at that). Fans were really hoping for an RCT1 or 2 style game. Seriously, they could take the EXACT SAME GAME, add a few extra rides and features, release that and fans would go crazy. Instead, go look at their Facebook or YouTube comments. They're getting railroaded.

Find out more about RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile.

Disney Cruise Montage Video

We went on a cruise ot the Bahamas aboard the Disney Dream last week. Below is the video montage I put together. Would love to hear what you think about it!

Albert Miller Model Train Display

I put together a short slideshow of the Miller Train Display, an amazing and detailed model train and city that my late grandfather built in his basement. Many of the structures and buildings were custom built by Albert and he named them after his children or grandchildren, like the Keegan Railroad company and the Weisenberger Mall.

I believe up to four Lionel trains could race around the track on different routes at one time. The longest route makes a giant loop around the entire perimeter of the table. Another route  just inside of the outer one goes up and down a hill. The mountain contains two tunnels on two different levels. A working waterfall feature was planned for the mountain but never built. The third route circles around the residential area while the other route stays in the industrial section of the display where the train cars could be loaded with logs, ice, cows, coal, grain, and milk. The layout included 29 track switches!

The train display had a little bit of everything. One cool feature hard to see in the pictures was the monorail/skyride (not sure what you call it) that rode along a wire above the train table. As you can see in the pictures the city included an airport (complete with runway lights), campground, mall, and more.

Using a CAD system and a free railroad layout creator software I found on the internet I was able to made a recreation of the train set. Pictured is the overhead view of the train’s layout I assembled based on the pictures and my memory.


Sadly, the train display no longer exists and all the train engines, cars, buildings, track, etc. were all sold and the table disassembled. I regret that this happened before I owned a video camera so these pictures are all we have left of this amazing display. Thanks for the memories grandpa.

Disney World Trip Recap

The wife and I went to Disney World for a long (though much too short) weekend the week after Thanksgiving. I wrote a bunch of review posts on my various blogs so I figured I would post a link to each here.

• New Fantasyland Review
• Kilimanjaro Safaris Review
• Port Orleans Riverside Resort Review
• Walt Disney World Holiday Celebrations
• Animal Kingdom Pictures

In addition I also created two short videos I think are worth watching, embedded below:

If you’re one of those adults who think you’re “too big” or “too old” to visit Disney then you’re really missing out.

California Coast Video Montage

I finally got around to finishing up my short montage video from our July vacation to the San Francisco Bay area. The footage starts off with some shots of us passing under the Golden State Bridge while heading twenty four miles out into the ocean to look for blue whales (we spotted two but didn’t get any pictures). The rest is mostly shore shots from Point Reyes National Seashore, including some endangered elephant seals fighting. And that is the theme song of the Uncharted video game series if you were wondering.

$1000 per Month

Learn how to make a residual income from the internet in your free time.If you’re not making any money off the internet – why not? You very well could be. It’s extremely easy to make some extra cash. Through my own experiences, I’m going to show you how to make a residual (and hopefully somewhat passive) income from the internet including:

• The secret to making money online
• 7 easy steps to building and monetizing your own website
• Optimize your site for search engines
• Internet marketing lingo
• Tools and resources

Do you want to learn how to earn 1000 a month? Do you want to know what is passive income? Download my free report and I’ll tell you ways to earn passive income and give you some of the best passive income ideas I’ve used to earn over a $1000 per month all in my free time!

Content Creation

I've been a content creation machine this week. I created a ton of content for my blogs and websites since coming back from a week of vacation in California. In the past week I have updated multiple websites, wrote numerous blog posts, conducted an interview, published over 100 vacation pictures to Facebook, and am editing three video segments from the trip. I thought I would use a post here to summarize all my recent content creation with links to all. Ok, here it goes. 


Blogs

I recently interviewed a zoo interpreter and photographer. I wrote up a review of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and uploaded a video of it to YouTube. I added an 2012 NFL helmet schedule to my Excel Spreadsheets Help blog downloads page. I explained part of the process of writing my roller coaster design book on Amusement Authority.


Mini-sites

I recently started a new online money making experiment which I’ve decided to share with you today. I’ve built four mini-sites to test out my idea to see how it works. People are always going for release dates for movies, book, and video games. If you can get traffic you can make money online. Thus, I have created a few sites based on possible future sequels for some of my favorite movies and video games. Looking for the Uncharted 4 release date? How about the Avengers 2 release date? Modern Warfare 4 release date. RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 release date.


Web Properties

I updated my recreational therapy exam site with a few new pages of great content.
My Apartment Search Spreadsheet website is up and running. My CATIA Macros tutorial site is humming along quite nicely.

Emails

I got some interesting email this week, from looking for quotes for a magazine to a casting call for a Food Network show, it's been quite the interesting week.

Don’t Put Me In Coach Book Review

I just finished “Don’t Put Me In, Coach: My Incredible NCAA Journey from the end of the bench to the end of the bench” by Ohio State walk on Mark Titus. Mark was a bench warmer on the Ohio State basketball team from 2006 to 2010. His Club Trillion blog launched him into the media spotlight and his career took off from there. The book is a funny journey into the locker room of the Buckeye basketball team. You will learn things you never knew about some of the most famous Ohio State basketball players of all time. I’ll never look at college basketball coach Thad Matta the same way ever again (the part where Mark describes the first time he met Thad is unforgettable). Get the inside scoop on the personality of players like Greg Oden and Evan “the Villain” Turner. Find out what really goes on in practice and overnight away game trips. 


The book, while a fun and easy read, is far from perfect. The beginning was laugh out loud funny and quite refreshing. However, the same style of humor and very similar jokes throughout make it increasingly not as funny the further you read into it. Also, a majority of the jokes are bathroom style humor, so if that’s not your thing then I recommend not reading. It’s very hard to tell what is true and what was fabricated for entertainment purposes. You find out how to earn a trillion in basketball stats but I found that segment of the book rather uninspiring (but maybe you other walk ons and benchwarmers will find it inspirational).


Regardless, if you’re a fan of OSU basketball I highly recommend you read  “Don’t Put me in, Coach.” The insight into how past Buckeye team’s chemistry was is something all hardcore fans crave and on that front Mark delivers in delicious doses.


Embedded below is a video Mark “The shark” (yes, that is the nickname he gave himself) Titus created and uploaded to YouTube. As he likes to say, he is “making it rain.” If you do decide to read you should watch Mark’s YouTube videos because he does refer to them in the book.

June Updates

A couple of quick updates from my blogosphere this past weekend.

I created a 2012 NBA Mock Draft spreadsheet and uploaded it to my Excel Spreadsheets Help blog. Check it out and download the mock draft creator for free from my Google docs site.

I posted an in-depth article about the Snow White's Scary Adventure ride which was recently retired from Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. I found a good video of the ride and an over rendering of the layout.

We went to the Columbus Zoo this morning to check out the new exhibit. Embedded below is my video of Stingray Bay.

How to Insert the Degree Symbol in Microsoft Excel

My latest "How To" video captures how you insert the degree sign or other symbols into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

My First Video Tutorial

I created my first step-by-step video tutorial today. I basically used workshop 1 from my new CATIA macro book which I am promoting on my brand new website, www.scripting4v5.com! Check out my video embedded below and let me know what you think - did I do a good job and what can I improve on?

2011 Year in Review

So here's my obligatory blog post looking back at the year that was. A few of the highlights from the past year that come to mind first are:

• ASTM F24 committee meeting in New Orleans
• Winning Cedar Point's K'nex Build Off Competition
• Spending four weeks in Utah for work
• Visiting Dollywood for the first time (and staying in the amazing Dollywood Vacations Cabins)
• Quitting by job as CAD engineer I held for 2+ years and moving to a new city and starting a new job as an automotive supplier engineer
• Staying onsite at Universal Orlando for a few days in July
• Celebrating our one year wed-iversary by doing the Wildside Tour at The Wilds
• Publishing my first book (e-book that is, paperback coming soon).
  

Here's a list of some of the Cyclone Edition's Most Popular Posts from 2011:

• Vintage Lego Airport Shuttle Monorail #6399

• CATIA > PRO-ENGINEER

• More OSU Tweets

• Best "Osama is Dead!" Tweets

• Excel "Contains" Formula

• 2011 College Football Bowl Spreadsheet

• Best LeBron Tweets

Best Black Friday Tweets!

You know it was coming. Here are my favorite black friday tweets that I saw. Please comment any others. I'd love to read them. Be careful, it's anarchy out there!

• Black Friday was so insane last night. There was a lady driving out of the Walmart parking lot with her van door open.. LOL.
• So far, Portland's Black Friday #occupy protests are far more peaceful than Black Friday WalMart. Zero pepper spray!
• We just tasered a shopper at WalMart:
• no need to ask "where the hoes at tonight?" they at Walmart for #BlackFriday.
• How many people have to die or be injured in a scuffle over cheap goods at Walmart before we'll take a good look at ourselves? #blackfriday
• The blood-stained parking lot of a Walmart store in San Leandro, Calif. where a man was stabbed today - http://twitpic.com/7jkmcq via @DeanCSmith
• I find it funny that u give thanks & act #grateful on thanksgiving & the next day u choking a man at Walmart for a 40 inch TV #BlackFriday
• Those people fighting over the $2 waffle makers at Walmart -- how many times do you think they're actually going to make waffles?
• RT @womanonajourney: #blackfriday A day to rush out & buy new stuff the day after you said you were so grateful for what you had. #irony
• I have to call my mom every half hour to make sure she's still alive because she went shopping today.. #blackfriday

Check back for more updates later...

Ridiculousness

Ridiculousness - a hilarious viral video show.

Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom 1979

Conan, Columbus Mitsubishi "Top Dog" Contest

We entered Conan into yet another contest. Here is the video I compiled, including my personal favorite: "would you rather be a Wolverine fan or be a dead dog?" Yes, I got Sarah to say it. Proof:

Please vote for my design

I recently entered CATIA's 2011 design visualization contest, which will evaluate realistic rendering images that use CATIA functionalities. Whether a real-time screen-shot or a calculated rendering, the designer's image will be submitted to a panel of CATIA experts and fans will be able to vote for it via the application. The contest runs from July 21 to September 9, 2011. The two best competitors, selected by the fans and by the CATIA experts, will win an Apple iPad2.



My entry is, of course, the cantilevered coaster- a revolutionary concept pushing the thrill ride to the next level of unpredictability and excitement by utilizing two tracks which follow different courses causing the vehicle to swing in a side to side yaw movement, pitch front to back, and an up and down vertical stroke. Please vote for my design here! Thank you. http://apps.facebook.com/dassault-catia/profile/150.html

May 2011 Vacation Slideshow

Robocoaster 3D CAD Model

Lagoon Park April 2011