Tower of Terror / I can draw!

I was at Disneyland and California Adventure Park in the past 2 days (the Disneyland blog post may or may not happen because it was just too awesome and will take very long to blog out my thoughts and thus I'm too lazy to begin on it), and one of my favourite rides was the Tower of Terror.



On the exterior, it's called the 'Hollywood Tower Hotel', and it sticks very well to this theme in the exterior and interior decor, as well as the ride staff managing the people inside.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="544"] 'Hotel' lobby[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="545"] Staff dressed as bellboys (or whatever they're called)[/caption]

The queue begins in the lobby, and then they'll let in about 20 people at a time to enter this room they call the 'library', where the lights suddenly go off and a small TV flickers on to play the introduction video of the place. The general idea is that this hotel was zapped by lightning and then the people disappeared into the Twilight Zone (the narrator has an emphatic pause at the end of the video: "... where they were all transported to... -pause- ... The Twilight Zone" and those who were riding this ride repeatedly would enthusiastically say it together with him haha quite funny. After this video, we are then directed out of the library to the 'service elevator' where the ride takes place.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="620"] Elevators![/caption]

Now, I actually headed to this ride the moment I entered the park, because it sounded like the most fun one. It was a freefall kind of ride - the kind they raise you high up and then drop you, rinse and repeat. I wasn't prepared for the whole scary theme!

I was genuinely nervous as I was waiting to begin the ride; my heart was thumping in my chest and I was trying not to look too nervous lol. The whole setup was pretty good and awesome (though on repeated rides I begin to realize that the plot is a bit irrelevant and stretched.)

Once you got loaded up in the elevator, the staff then checks your seat belts and gives the final  brief about no flash photography etc, and I LOVE how they keep up their acting here and deliver some sort of eerie farewell when they step out of the elevator to keep up with the whole haunted hotel / twilight zone elevator thingy. I will recall as many as I can.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="647"] My maiden ride! I didn't know there was a picture taken at this point so I was not prepared for it :o[/caption]

Staff: "... Enjoy your stay." -angles head downwards while looking up and gives a super creepy evil grin as the door closes in front of his face- (my fav actor haha)

The Ride

The elevator descends quickly about 1 floor and opens again, with a large mirror, and the narrator says to 'wave goodbye to your real world self', and then the mirror becomes some screen which shows distorted silhouettes of ourselves. The elevator descends further another 1-2 floors and we see some of the ghosts from the intro video earlier (some kind of hologram or sth, really ghost-like looking).
They disappear and then reappear far in the distance in an elevator, and the narrator says something like their story was of the past, but today, the story... is YOURS. And you see their elevator DROP away into oblivion and there is a brief 'oh shit' moment of realization when suddenly your elevator suddenly drops quickly (I think it actually accelerates quicker than 9.81m/s2 (Gravity) because I tested by holding a coin in my hand - the coin actually hits the ceiling)

After the initial drop, it accelerates upwards and then the doors open when you're at the top of the hotel, showing you this awesome sky-view of the park, which is also when they take your picture, then the doors close as you drop again, and this repeats about 2-3 times. Really awesome stuff haha.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="572"] Enjoying myself a lot better the second time[/caption]

Staff: "... It was nice knowing you." -evil grin-

I actually walked right back in for a second time after the first ride was over. So fun! I love freefall rides. My favourite one was this ride in Taiwan where they raise you damn high and you can actually see the ground getting further and further away as your legs dangle... and then you DROP like 15 stories or something (this one maybe drop about 5-10 stories only)

After going around the whole park and taking the fun rides, I was left with time to kill, so I decided to ride this a few more times to camwhore hahaha.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="509"] Look at the little girl in front of me - she was actually quite scared before the ride and the 3 girls in the front row was trying to assure her it was ok.
After the ride, the little girl was SOBBING like mad. The poor little thing was probably scared sick![/caption]

Staff: "This elevator has been known to have some technical difficulties and failure, but we heard it only affects the first 3 rows, so don't worry about it." (there are only 3 rows in the ride LOL. This dude is funny)

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="499"] I'm doing Shrek ears[/caption]

Staff: "... if you have any comments or questions about safety, do feel free to - " -elevator door closes as she's talking and shuts before she can finish- (I LOVED this one haha. They're so creative!)

At this point, I was getting bored of the whole intro video and the 'buildup' before the ride, so you can see my increasing stages of boredom in the next few photos:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="672"] Falling asleep...[/caption]

Staff: "This elevator has had its ups and downs, so... I wish you guys all the best." (so punny haha)

 



Reading something else because the ride is boring.
(I -think- the couple in front of me are acting-posing.... I can't be sure though lol)

 

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="537"] camwhoring on my own, don't care the actual camera already hahaha.[/caption]

 

Yup, that was the last ride of the Tower of Terror.

Overall, I felt Disneyland was better than California Adventure Park - the rides were about equal, with CAP maybe SLIGHTLY better, but Disneyland was obviously more magical. I'm not sure how I would spend more than 2 days there though, don't know why some people get 5 day passes, unless you really go for EVERY SINGLE thing.

---

I was walking around burning time at CAP when I walked into an animation class. Check out my first drawing!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="560"] When I finished this, my first thought was 'WOAH. Did I really just draw this?? '[/caption]

The rest of the drawings I did weren't as cool, but oh well.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="469"] Mickey![/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="495"] Pooh bear! I actually drew something else before this but I don't even know what it is so I won't post it (Agent P? K?)
Dedicated this to my gf haha she likes poohbear[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="505"] I asked for the teacher's drawing too so I could give it to my gf. The teacher's name is Katey. I thought she may end up being some famous Disney artist or something so should take haha[/caption]

Not bad eh, my sketches?

Okok this post has gone on forever, bye!

Adventures in USA - My First Casino Experience

Today, I stepped into a casino for the very first time, in Las Vegas. To be more precise, I stepped into 192812 casinos. To be even more precise, it's probably about 8? I don't know.

The one which I chose to play at was the MGM Grand though, because it's like the most famous and all.

I really wanted to play Poker (Texas Hold'Em) but the poker section was kinda cordoned off into a very exclusive-looking area, and the youngest person there was probably 60 or something. Yes, I think everyone besides the dealers had white hair!

Thus I ended up circling the Blackjack tables and the first thing I thought was - WHY ARE THE STAKES SO HIGH. Ok fine they are actually very low, but to a noob like me it's very high. The lowest minimum bet was $10 -_- So that's $10 for every hand you play. Mad right! Ok sorry la poor boy here.

I began to have second thoughts about gambling, but then I thought if I came all the way here and I didn't try it would be such a waste. So after a long time of circling and standing around, I saw someone leave a table to leave it empty, and I quickly sat down and exchanged $50 worth of chips (my budget) and asked the dealer some questions to learn the casino style of playing.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300"] Photos were not allowed at the casino so I have to use stock images[/caption]

The Actions

The first thing I learned was the actions in Blackjack. I never knew they existed! But basically there's a standard way of signalling whether you wanted to hit or stay: tapping the table meant you wanted another card, and doing a hand swipe parallel to the table meant you wanted to stay.

Beginner's Luck

I stayed at that table for a while, getting quite lucky on many of the rounds but went through some losing streaks. Some other people joined the table and being the super noob I am, I apparently made some stupid moves!

Like there was one hand where the dealer's open card was a low card (4) and I had a 12, and I made the signal for another card. Then this Asian woman next to me burst out: "BUT THAT'S A FOUUUR?!!!!"  (When dealer has a low card, it's a high chance he will bust, so you're supposed to stand if your cards are decent) (HOWEVER, after further research, I found that it's not always a bad move to hit in this situation when I had a 12)

She immediately apologized for her uncontrolled outburst and I just gave a sheepish look that said 'sorry i'm a noob'. She lost like $50 before renewing her chips anyway so ... GUESS WHO'S NOOBER. hahahaha nah I'm kidding. I was lucky.

Strategy

I quickly left the table at one point when I was $15 up, deciding it was enough. I cashed in my chips, looked at my watch, and decided I had way too much time left. Time for another round.

This time round I tried to employ more strategy. There were two types of tables - single deck tables and shoe game tables (4-5 decks). I avoided the single deck tables because those seemed less likely for multiple winners - if someone else has a picture card you're A LOT less likely to have one.

I lingered at multiple tables to check out how the hands were going. There are actually complex systems of monitoring tables like the Hi-Lo Strategy which was popularized by the (awesome) movie 21 (WATCH IT if you haven't!), but I just used a very basic primitive system - if I saw several pictures/blackjacks/high cards being played on that table over a few rounds, I would just skip it immediately (since that means less of those in the deck) and move on to the next table. If the dealer was winning many and the previous red flag was not met, I would hop in shortly, because the players' cards can't continue to be that bad!

Using this, I rotated around 3 tables, and I pulled out after I won another ... $45!! Woohoo!

Ok fine this seems very small to you regular casino-ers I know, but it's a lot for me! And I ALWAYS played minimum bid, too scared to play more haha. If I was at the single card table I may dare to play more if I was card counting. (e.g. increase bid if the deck was hot)

Overall

[caption id="attachment_1753" align="alignleft" width="300"] my winnings :D
Poker chips included in illustration for fun[/caption]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I won a total of $60 :) Happy happy. And I had the thrill of playing/gambling too, which was what I wanted to try out. After doing some Googling, I realized there was a wealth of information out there that I had yet to learn about Blackjack. It's actually a very complex game and not the simple 2 card game I learnt when I was a little kid! Strategy charts, card counting etc. So interesting :D

If I had a chance to play again, I would probably do it. But smaller odds please? I don't mind not winning that much, I just like the whole strategy bit ^^

 

Adventures in USA - Day 4!

Ok I will do a standard format for my Adventures in USA blog posts from now on to a) save time b) make it easier to read. The format will be - one liner outlining what I did, 3 highlight photos, then my random thoughts for the day, and a link to my facebook album. Short and sweet.

When I arrive in Boston and settle down then I blog about other stuff k! When travelling quite busy ah!!

Today was the start of our Yellowstone tours! So the whole day was spent on a guided tour, which was basically looking at scenery and spotting wildlife. The wildlife part was probably the more fun/interesting part haha.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="533"] Bison (also known as (American) Buffalo) crossing the road while we were on the bus! Damn cool cos we actually saw it at the other side of the river of the bus so we stopped to take pictures, then it began crossing and then came out of the water then crossed the road.
They are extremely powerful and charge faster than an Olympic sprinter so we had to maintain our distance. Took this with my awesome zoom :)[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="479"] Beautiful scenery which photos will never do justice to.[/caption]

 

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="534"] sup[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1747" align="alignleft" width="500"] bald eagle! Super majestic looking can!! It was sitting in the tree like a boss, and the thing is we were super far away so the tour guide set up his scope for us to see! This picture was taken through the scope![/caption]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more boring lovely nature + wildlife photos, head over to my Facebook album to see them all! :)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150998729771356.416188.701936355&type=3

Random thoughts of the day:

• In West Yellowstone, all vehicles give way to passengers! It's like they will deliberately slow down even it's clear they can pass first and you are not crossing but waiting for them. And in those crossings with no traffic lights, the vehicles always stop and wait for us to cross. They're all super nice drivers!


• Yellowstone National Park is beautiful! I'm not even a nature person but when I was there I just can't help but be awed by how vast and amazing everything looked. And also how small Singapore was haha.


• Every motorbike in West Yellowstone seems to be a Harley Davidson for some reason. Every. Single. One.


• Why does Singapore not have microwave dinners!! Imagine a full meal of steak + entrees + dessert in a microwaveable container for just $5-7!


• The options in Singapore's supermarkets are SO limited. Here there's so much more food and stuff you can make easily from the readymade cans , etc. E.g. mac and cheese, lasagne, etc etc. Very clearly labelled instructions. I just love the supermarket in the US. (I didn't say 'supermarkets' because I've only been through one... maybe I'm speaking prematurely but I doubt so)


• I miss gymming. One of the things I'm most excited about is actually bulking up lolol. I'll be eating tonnes with the mealplan with US portions, so with the right exercises I will be bigger for sure when I return.

Ok that's all folks! Take care and thanks for reading as always :)