The above is the only photo I have of me, and it’s not the best. It was at the end of the day, I was hot and tired . . . and really hungry!

Below is a slideshow of the photos, with a link to the photo album below.

I just got in, and really am only here to shower, cool down and rest before I go back out. I did Williamsburg with Zan and her girls today. We got a late start so I figured this was the bigger and probably more interesting thing to do (for kids) than Jamestown, which I can do on my own in 2 hours tomorrow morning before heading home. They live here and like I suggested, could do it early one morning right before they hit Busch Gardens again.

We toured the streets of Colonial Williamsburg, saw the houses, etc etc. It was fun and it seems they have a lot more to do than I remember from the last time I was here. Definitely a lot more for kids to do than when I was a kid. I took a bunch of pictures, but not too many. I didn’t want to be too dorky tourist. I’m going back soon for the ghost tour tonight. I’m going to head over early to try and just walk the streets and take pictures at dusk then get some dinner before my tour. They seem to have a lot of night programs there now too, I only remember a few before (the ghost tour being one).

The fun is soon to come to an end. Then it’s back home and back to writing. After seeing all this history I feel re-energized and motivated to get done

Zan and I hit Busch Gardens today, again no lines. Well not true, we waited the longest for the movie ride and Loch Ness of all things, their first and oldest coaster. I did take my camera, but early this morning I realized “Why didn’t I just look that coaster from yesterday up on YouTube?” Of course there were tons of vids, so I didn’t bother making my own. This one sums up the first drop of The Griffon the best. Note the hang time for the front seats. I did it 4 times, all in the front.

Sadly I really didn’t stop to take too many photos in the park honestly. I tried to get some good ones of the coasters, but I was too impatient to stand there waiting for them to come into shot to get the “action shots.” I didn’t think much to take photos of the other parts of the park, which are very pretty. It’s probably the most green amusment park I’ve ever been to, which you can see in a few shots.

1) The streets of “Italy” 2) Gardens in Italy
3) Alpengiest (hanging coaster) 4) The Big Bad Wolf (first ever hanging/inverted coaster)
5) Loch Ness (the yellow), Alpengiest and Griffon (the tallest) 6) The interlocking loops of Loch Ness (which they didn’t have the coasters time on today)
7) and 8 ) The Griffon!

I realized I didn’t get a shot of Apollo’s Chariot, their fifth coaster. Oops! Also, I promise I will do better tomorrow, as we will be in Jamestown and Williamsburg and I will be a snapaholic there. Plus we’ll be in nicer clothes so I’ll take some of us.

The final coaster/ride tally for this trip is as follows . . . .

The Griffon 4 (all in front)
Loch Ness 4 (2 front and 2 back)
Big Bad Wolf 3 (1 front and 2 back)
Alpengeist 2 (1 front and 1 middle)
Apollo’s Chariot 2 (both in back)
Curse of Dark Castle 2 (4D movie ride)
Corkscrew Hill 2 (4D movie ride)
Escape from Pompei 2 (shoot the chute water ride)
Roman Rapids 1 (super soaker round raft ride)
Log Flume 1 (flume ride)

Oh on a final note, the above are the metallic gnomes. I bought two small ones, red and silver, for displaying at Christmas. I took this on my cell phone, so the photo isn’t top quality. They wrapped the gnomes in bubble wrap, so I don’t want to unwrap them till I get them home.

So I got into Williamsburg around 2:30 pm, dropped my stuff off in my hotel room and headed to the park. I got there around three, had 6 hours to kill before they closed at 9pm. I did not expect it to be so dead that I would have done every coaster in 3 1/2 hours! That includes 2 water rides too and 2 of those 4-D movie rides (which made me a bit ill, that combined with a lack of food).

I did not take my camera today, I figured I’d do that tomorrow, which I will. That way Zan and I can have photos together and take them of each other. The problem is my camera is bigger than the norm micro digital camera’s, but it should fit okay into my side short pockets. I will have to locker it for any water rides though.

I browsed shops and perused for souvenir and gift ideas. One thing I saw that I wanted were this funny garden gnome statues, but these are shiny metallic and just uber-gay. But I didn’t want to lug them around with me or be bothered to locker them up. I thought I’d get them tomorrow near the end of the day. Then I found out I could by them and have them held for me at the front gate. Doh! I saw a pink shirt with glitter that just screamed at me to get the BF, but i only saw one in an xtra-large size. I’ll have to look in other shops for it tomorrow.

Honestly I kinda would rather spend my money at Jamestown at the glass house or in Williamsburg, but I can’t remember what you can buy there aside from kitchy historic crap like books aimed at kids and tin whistles to drive adults batty. I might have to just splurge and get some things at Busch Gardens, which has nice stuff in a lot of their gift stores. Then if i see something at Jamestown, just get it too. Birthday’s and Christmas will be here before I know it!

If you’ve never been, the park in Williamsburg is modeled after Europe, well kinda. That’s the meaning behind the title of this and the previous post. Just as Disney divides its parks up into worlds, Busch Gardens divides theirs into countries. I’ve been going to Busch Gardens for a loooong time, I remember when they only had England, Scotland and Ireland actually. They’ve since added Germany, France and Italy. France I think might have actually been original come to think of it, because of the log flume there.

Scotland has the classic Loch Ness Monster coaster, which I still love. It turned 30 this year, I can’t believe I’m older than it! I rode it 3 times today, the third a fluke as we pulled into the station and 2 people were left waiting to ride before the park closed; so we all got to go again. One thing I was disappointed with, okay two . . . . first they took the lights off the side of the coaster, which looked really neat at night. There are of course now two new coasters behind it, which don’t have lights, so maybe this is why they did it. Second, they took the projection of the Loch Ness Monster off the wall in his cave you go through near the end of the ride. It was cartoonish and silly, but it has always been there. Why? Maybe it was a fluke and he’ll be there tomorrow, otherwise I’m asking

France’s new coaster, the only one added since I had been there last, was The Griffin. Holy hell is this one monster of a coaster! It really puts almost all the other ones in the park to shame, except maybe Apollo’s Chariot, which is a close second. I’ll have to take a movie of this sucker tomorrow for you all to see as word’s can’t really describe the insane vertical drop it does, after it dangles you at the top before letting you go.

Other changes have been made since I’ve been too. For example Germany got a 4-D movie ride called Dark Castle, which in fact works exactly like the Spiderman 4-D ride at Universal if you’ve ever done it. This replaced the old Draken Fire coaster, which I think was set up where this new ride is. That coaster was great, but gave them so much trouble because it was a rough ride and you got jerked around, some people were actually hurt on it (neck injuries and stuff). After a few years of tinkering, adding pads, even taking one loop area out; they just closed it. In England the old simulator ride Questor (which was like Droid Wars at Disney), got a complete upgrade to 4-D as well and isn’t confined to a small enclosed box, it’s in a large area and has more movement.

The classic Big Bad Wolf is still there, but this one is really showing it’s age. It was one of, if not the first, suspended coasters. Compared to the new relatively new Alpengeist, it doesn’t compare. However if you are at the park when it hits dark, it’s still one of the best coasters to do in the dark because it’s set back in the woods and you can’t see a think except when you get to the final drop.

Okay, I’m tired, I’m going to bed. Pictures will follow tomorrow, since I should be taking some. i’ll definitely have photos on Thursday when we hit the historic stuff.

So I drove to my mom’s in Virginia today, and am driving down to Williamsburg tomorrow. I really hope I do not run into (not literally) anymore people driving with those attached trailers to the back’s of their cars, cause the ones I met today couldn’t drive fer shiat! I was afraid I was going to get smacked by one, as was everyone else on the road. Everyone was afraid to pass this one car, and later a second felt the need to drive down the middle of two lanes . . . on the interstate! Where were the cops when they were needed?

I’m officially not meeting up with my friend till Wednesday, but I did not want to get up at 6am to drive 3 hours Wednesday morning, then be dead tired by afternoon and possibly end up with a migraine with my luck after being at an amusement park all day. The extra money for an extra night at the hotel was worth it to me

So tomorrow I will get up not too early, get ready and make my way down to Williamsburg. I’m hoping the hotel will have a room ready since I expect to arrive before official 3pm check in time (aiming for 1-2 pm). Then I think I will actually spend a few hours at Busch Gardens on my own. I haven’t been in years, as I’ve said before, and it’s one of those parks there is so much to do. I could spend all day in the stores there alone. You could also spend a day just taking photographs because the park is so beautiful.

On Wednesday I’m meeting Zan (and her family) and we are spending the day at the park. I figured I’d get my shopping and other stuff done on Tuesday so I don’t bore them, though they have season passes and can also come back at any time. Pictures I’ll do on Wednesday obviously, plus I’ll have people to hold the camera while Zan and I do the rides (we will be the only ones doing the big coasters).

On Thursday we are doing Jamestown and Williamsburg. Two more beautiful places, and I can’t wait to see what’s been dug up since my last trip there. I am planning to do the Williamsburg ghost tour on Thursday night.

Friday the fun ends and it’s back home . . .

Changing topics completely . . . the hair issue. I’ve actually gotten used to the blond, and am starting to like it. That’s frightening, because this isn’t something I can keep up. The comments from those who said it takes a lot of upkeep weren’t kidding. I did it Saturday night, this morning I noticed I could see my dark roots coming in. Are you serious? I’ve always had fast growing hair, but that’s ridiculous! I also got to thinking, if I ever do this again then I’m grabbing a red highlight kit and doing some red highlights for the top. I’ll look like Firestorm from the “Superfriends!”

So before I actually went on real vacations with the BF (which is debatable since I’ve basically taken work on every vacation with him), I used to go to Williamsburg, Virginia almost every summer during undergrad for my vacation. I went once when I first started grad school too. I would always take a day to do Busch Gardens, which was my favorite theme park at the time (I guess in a way it still is because it’s so pretty). Then I’d take a day to do Jamestown and Williamsburg.

It’s probably been 8 years since I’ve been to either. I’m not sure how much the area has changed, ie been developed. It used to be such a beautiful area and I used to always think I’d love to move down there and work some day.

I now have a friend living in the Virginia Beach area, so I’m planning to go down to Williamsburg the last week in June. We are going to meet up and do Busch Gardens one day, then Jamestown and Williamsburg the next. I’ll probably do a ghost walk in Williamsburg on my own later one night.

The following are photos from the last time I was down in the area . . . (I apologize for the quality, this was the pre-digital camera days)

It’s that time of year again! Time to get serious about trying to lose some weight and shape up. Of course this is brought on by the fact that we booked out cruise for next January. We are once again going on Royal Caribbean because we had such a good time on the last one. It’s 8 nights on the Independence of the Seas. Before the cruise this year we’ll be doing Universal Studios in Orlando. I’m so excited and I can’t wait, though obviously I have to. This is going to be my first real cruise, even though it’s my 7th (I think). I’ll have no soaps to watch, no pages I feel I have to get updated and God as I my witness I WILL be done with school! I am expecting a carefree vacation damnit!

Back to the topic at hand. Every time I book a cruise I get on the “get fit” kick, which usually I try to kick up in November (the worst time of the year because of holidays). I’ve actually been doing fairly good about food and getting to the gym, but I have to get a bit more serious and stop cheating with what I’m eating. To help I plopped down a down-payment to reserve a Nintendo Wii Fit. It comes out later this month and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. It does strength training, yoga and aerobics as well as “balance games.” I know it can’t replace the gym, but it’s been getting good marks. Plus I know first hand that playing “Dance Dance Revolution” for 30 minutes gives you a damn good workout. So I’m expecting this to be as good if not better. I also know Yoga can be but kicking, but it’s not something I would want to do at the gym in front of others

We are here in Vegas and getting ready to go out. Just a post to say we got here safely, in spite of an interesting plane ride. Oh do I have stories!

This is a multi-functional update post with no one topic

With a week to spare I finally got my taxes done. For once I’m actually getting money back and a lot too! However before you curse me, it’s my money, I just paid more in estimated taxes than I needed to. I’d prefer the government give me a lot more back than they are, but something tells me they need it to spend on pointless crap like vibrating chairs for the Senate and GT Xpresses and Magic Bullets for the oval office.

I’m currently busy throwing together and editing chapters for the dissertation, trying to get as much done as I can. I have about a month to pull a whole lot together. Of course a the trip to Vegas is also coming up, grrrr, not the best timing. I expected to be done by then (actually I expected to be done by last fall), but it won’t happen. Shhhhh, don’t tell Emily but school is coming to Vegas! I’ll be editing on the long ass plane ride (as much as I can on the plane before I get fed up with the person in front of me deciding to recline their chair into my lap, which ALWAYS happens to me), when she’s passed out drunk, when she’s getting her massages and facials and basically anytime she’s doing something that I don’t have to be present for. She doesn’t know, it’s a secret. Let’s not tell her okay?

I’m headed home this weekend as I have tickets to see the one and only Margaret Cho in concert. I can’t wait as I love the Cho! I’m taking my mommy to see her with me. Then I have to pay Keith a visit to see his new apartment and his new puppy.

Finally I’ve been trying to turn my web cam on a lot more recently. I try and put it on in the afternoon when I’m working and often have had it on at night. I used to have a link to a bigger version of what’s in the side bar, but that’s getting reworked at the moment. I hope to have it up again soon, for those who get their kicks watching me sit at my PC I plan to take the cam to Vegas, so maybe you’ll get to see the inside of our hotel room! Yeah, I know you just can’t wait for that. I could be sneaky and leave it on and let you watch the maid clean, or I could point it out the window should we actually get lucky enough to have a room with a view.

Okay so since I’ve got a lot of incoming links to the blog because of the soap site stuff, I figured I’d use this post to talk about myself. It will let people who might be new to the blog get to know a little about the guy who ran that page, but they may not have really known aside from his name and that he watched soaps.

First off, let’s just talk about the elephant in the room shall we? I am a 32 year old man who for 14-some years ran a website dedicated to soap operas. In case you never figured it out, yes I’m gay. It wasn’t something never outright addressed by me on the soap page, but if someone really wanted to know the answer they could have easily found out with some exploring. I tried to, but a few times failed, to keep anything political in nature off the page and keep it a neutral place, with only soaps being the issue.

So yes, I’m gay. Now contrary to what some might believe, I’m not here to molest your kids, statistically your straight relatives are more likely to do that. I’m not here to ruin your holy sanctity of marriage, statistically you along with Britney Spears are doing a damn good job of that on your own. I was not molested, I was not abused, I did not chose to be this way anymore than you chose to be straight. If you want to argue whether or not it’s a choice, please go down to your local zoo and argue with the animals there, as some of them seem to make the choices too.

If your still with me, I’ve been in a monogamous relationship with my boyfriend for over 6 years now. We live in New Jersey and in our very own haunted house! Yup, I’ve made several postings about it, you can read about it on the blog in the paranormal section. I’ve seen, heard, felt and yes been touched by the ghosts. I’ve always loved ghosts and the learning about views of and beliefs in the afterlife. I never expected to actually end up living in my very own haunted house. Growing up I always wanted to be either a parapsychologist or an archaeologist, because I also enjoyed learning about how different people buried their dead, which by the way IS what I’m studying now. Seeing a theme here?

We share our house with two dogs and five, yes five cats. I know, it’s a virtual zoo here. The dogs are my terriers Princess Bumbles and Nikko. Princess is a westie and I got the Bumbles part from “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” Nikko is a cairn and is named after the captain of the flying monkeys from “The Wizard of Oz.” The cats are Lance(alot), Galahad, Moo Kitty (real name Gawain), Percy (Percival, also called Orange Kitty) and Grim (short for Pilgrim, finally breaking away from frickin Arthurian names!).

Many people might who might have read my pages always noticed I went on my vacations in January. Yes an odd month to go. That is because it’s when my boyfriend was off work. He works on a farm, yes a farm. It’s a family business, so they are closed in the winter months and it’s his only chance to get away. So for the past six years we had our vacations then, which were always cruises. Oh and yes, I kept running the page as much as I could while I was on a cruise ship. Talk about obsession!

Seriously though, I made some amazing friends through the page, people I know I’ll be friends for with life. One of my oldest internet friends Ive probably known for ten plus years and we till try to see each other at least once a year when her job brings her anywhere nearby. Other friends are a few years old, but they are whom I would take weekends to see in New Orleans or what not the past few years. Two also just came to stay with me, they are who I went to New York back in February with. We all talk almost every night online.

A little other fun facts about me. I love horror films, I have since I was a kid and rented out the local video store’s selection the summer between 4th and 5th grade. I’m more into the old school slashers and anything supernatural. The new horror flicks I find to either be really bad remakes of 80s stuff, Japanese movies or basically just a guts and gore fest that is too much for me to take. Growing old, and advances in film make-up, has made me a bit squeamish.

I also love videogames and have since a little kid. The first videogame system I ever had was the Intellivsion, followed by various Sega systems. Once upon a time I used to run a fairly popular Sega fan page, but gave it up a long time ago. I still love videogames and have pretty much every system out there. I’m just now finding the extra time to start playing games again regularly. I have been trying to stay away from on-line gaming until school is done, that’s just another distraction for me!

I also love Broadway shows, something I really didn’t get into until more recently and thanks to various friends. The odd thing is, growing up I was in the band and orchestra and we always, I mean always, did an Andrew Lloyd Weber show at least once a year. Well we played a medley of the music from one show. So I don’t know why I didn’t get into them earlier. I’ve seen Mamma Mia, Phantom, Hairspray, Xanadu, Wicked, Evita, Scrooge, La Cage, Aida and . . . umm . . . I think that may be it? I am sure I’m missing some.

I guess that is enough for now. I was going to try and link to various posts in the blog that I’ve done over the years, but I never got around to searching and choosing the ones I liked. I guess if any fun fact here sparked your interest you can peruse the various categories on the side bar or the linked ones in this post for more info.

-Dustin