• Had fun today telling Mrs. Brichler's first grade about designing wooden coasters. #
• ACE Winter SOAR is tomorrow at EnterTRAINment Junction in West Chester, OH. We hope to see you there! #
• @coastermom2 Today I drove 10 minutes. We try to visit schools when we can. It depends on our schedule and the proximity of the school. #
• A first grader today proudly wore his "I survived The Voyage" T-shirt during my presentation. He passed "Coaster Shirt Friday." #
• A quick history of The Gravity Group from @NewsPlusNotes: http://tinyurl.com/ycppfcj #TGG #

• @barrymoltz Of course, we can talk about roller coasters. in reply to barrymoltz #

We were hoping to go to Eastcoaster 2010, the regional American Coaster Enthusiast event in Eastern Pennsylvania or Skype with the guests like we did with the No Coaster Con a few weeks ago.  We were to be part of the live Holiday World presentation as they discuss what is new at the park in 2010 including the upgrade of the Voyage to the Timberliner cars.  However, we weren’t able to make the trek so we prepared this video that gives a behind-the-scenes look at the all-new Timberliner cars at the Center of Gravity (the office of Gravitykraft Corp. / The Gravity Group, LLC).

Pop some popcorn and enjoy the show!

• Hey everyone at Eastcoaster, we hope you made it through the weather! Enjoy our exclusive Timberliner video! #TGG #
• @SchlitterTweet bummer about the flight. Are you in the mood for snow cones? #TGG in reply to SchlitterTweet #

As technology develops, so does the lingo to utilize it.  Every few years new phrases or  technology languages have been created.  Text messages and Twitter certainly have started getting us used to a different kind of English where symbols are everyday words and acronyms are more common than actual words.  Of course one can’t leave out the advent of the use of emoticons (aka smilies) in typical messages as well.

Regions have typical phrases as well that take a little translation to confirm their meaning.  For instance, “ding my mob” can be translated from British lingo as “call me on my cell phone” and “snap me” has nothing to do with breaking anything, but does say, “take my photo” in Africa.

view from Chicago (courtesy of Jeffrey Siebert/Schlitterbahn & Holiday World)

Fortunately, in the international language of technology, “Skype me” is easy to understand once the technology is understood.  Like the science fiction movies of the yesteryear, video conferencing is commonplace.  One of the most prominent ways of live communication utilizes the data through the internet which can be free.  Skype is one such method, and the program can be one’s window for video, voice and text chatting with your friends around the world.

We’ve used Skype extensively on our Fireball project in China where we had to keep in mind the 12 hour time change.  A few weekends ago we were able to Skype with a regional event of ACE (American Coaster Enthusiasts) dubbed No Coaster Con as it doesn’t involve riding roller coasters.

Held in Chicago every year, the event hosts many speakers from the industry and other enthusiasts sharing any and everything about amusement parks and particularly, of course, roller coasters.  Our frequent accomplice Paula Werne from Holiday World shared about the 2010 excitement at their park including the addition of the all-new Timberliner trains on the #1 roller coaster in the world, The Voyage.  Her coverage of this time can be found on the Holiblog.

It was great seeing people and discussing our fantastic new cars in real-time almost as if we were there.  The above photo shows the view of the folks at No Coaster Con in Chicago, while the following photo shows off the other end of the communication, the Timberliner car and it’s three passengers.  We would like to extend special thanks to Bob Prentki and all the folks in ACE for pulling off this wonderful demonstration of technology.

view from Cincinnati - Chad, Mike & Holidog in the Timberliner

Postscript: TWAIN is my personal favorite technical name known as Technology Without An Interesting Name – no kidding!