New Vision for BenThoughts

It’s been a while since I’ve had any thoughts, so in order to have a more alluring reason to post them, I have decided that all posts (well, a great majority at the very least) will be in the format of which I live much of my life –> RANKINGS.  I’m gonna rank every possible thing you can think of because I assure you, I have done it before.

BenThoughts Returns — Cedar Point’s Roller Coasters

We return to BenThoughts nine months after the previous post, which to my bewilderment came in August before my senior year of college had begun.  Now that is all over, and we start to talk about things that really matter, namely Cedar Point…

To some people out there, all roller coasters are the exact same – a wild ride and an invitation to vomit all over the place.  But no, my friends, not all roller coasters were created equal.  This is especially true at Cedar Point, a place of hope and wonder.  We have 17 roller coasters to choose from at America’s rocking roller coast, so I give you the thumbs-up to read, and critique, my rankings of the best roller coasters at Cedar Point…backwards to front…

17) Woodstock Express – It was cool when I was 8.  Actually, I never rode it when I was 8, but I’m sure it was cool then.  I don’t know anything at all about this ride; I have been to the park twice and I have never seen it.  I would make it a goal to ride it this year, but that would waste ten minutes of my life and, more importantly, my time at Cedar Point.

16) Jr. Gemini – I guess Gemini got so big for them that they had to cut it down a bit.  The result is the second worst roller coaster at Cedar Point.  In any case, Jr. Gemini goes into the ‘Woodstock Express’ category of ‘I’ve never seen the coaster and I don’t expect ever riding it.’  But stranger things have happened.  Oh, I’m assuming this is a wooden “coaster” because its Daddy is as well.

NOTE:  The following 15 roller coasters I have indeed ridden.  I should be considered the ultimate expert on them and my authority should not be questioned.  But I encourage discussion.

15) Wildcat – Straight out of the carnival, the herky-jerky Wildcat sits in the shadows of other monstrous coasters of which we will discuss later.  But this is a fun option if you are heading out of the park and want a last, cheap thrill.  Seriously, it is a fun ride, but it doesn’t compare to the others we shall see.

14) Cedar Creek Mine Ride – Well, Wildcat might compare to this one.  In the mold of Wildcat, Cedar Creek employs that distinctive mine car feel that takes you up and down and all around.  It is cool that it’s suspended over a pond and it inevitably rains while riding it, leaving you with a cool sensation on your face.  I don’t know, that sounds lame, but it’s a good time.  The line is short too.

13) Blue Streak – This wooden roller coaster is a thrill – if we lived in 1960.  In any case, the scenery is cool as the coaster is located right on the lake, or the ocean…whatever it is.  It is surprisingly rough, but I guess that’s not surprising at all given how old the track is.  Good warm-up ride though.

12) Mantis – In the mold of Chang at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, this track would probably be in higher regard to many fans out there.  But I’ve never been a huge fan of the stand-up roller coasters, and this one isn’t even as good as Chang.  The trick is to keep your feet off of the cart floor, or your legs will explode.  Also, bring Advil for your head pain after the ride.

11) Iron Dragon – Think Top Gun, or at least what used to be Top Gun at Kings Island before Cedar Point bought it and had to be gay and change the names (I know, Paramount’s names couldn’t stay, but whatever).  Anyway, this isn’t much of a thrill.  It’s worth one ride, as all coasters are (except #16 and #17).

10) Corkscrew – Located right beside Mantis and Iron Dragon, Corkscrew is blue and white (which plays to the UK bias in me), but it doesn’t really pack a punch.  It does corkscrew you around and takes you directly beside the patrons as they watch you ride the #10 roller coaster at Cedar Point.  It is an acceptable use of 5 minutes of your day.

and 9) Gemini and Mean Streak – The two wooden roller coasters of any merit, I honestly cannot remember the difference between these two, not to say these aren’t enjoyable wooden roller coasters.  But if there’s one things that Kings Island does better than Cedar Point, it’s the wooden roller coaster.  Perhaps the goal of this journey is to decipher which wooden coaster is better, and maybe figure out which one is which.  That’s a good goal I feel.

7) Disaster Transport – OK, first of all, this is a terrible ride.  It cost a zillion dollars for Cedar Point to build, and I’m not sure what possessed them to think that an indoor roller coaster would be a good idea.  It’s only 45 seconds, and you will yawn every moment, but there’s not an experience in this world like “riding” Disaster Transport.

NOTE:  Then there are six that stand alone.  You could call them the SUPER SIX, or the SPECTACULAR SIX, or the SEXY SIX…it’s whatever.

6) Top Thrill Dragster – OK, so it’s a top favorite of many, many people out there, but in my opinion, a two-hour wait is not worth the ten exhilarating seconds that this ride provides.  For newbies out there, this ride shoots you off in a dragster at 120 MPH and you power straight up a hill, come to rest at the top (barely), and tumble straight down toward the earth.  Of course, if I was ever riding and the car didn’t make it up the hill, therefore coasting back toward the ground backward, then I think this ranking will improve quite a bit.

5) Wicked Twister – It’s very similar to Top Thrill actually, but not really.  The ride shoots you off up a slope as you twist around, then you come flying back toward the earth, through the station, and back up a slope going backward and facing the group.  This process repeats about five times, and I’m yelling and screaming the whole time and it’s awesome.  It’s also located right on the lake, and that gives it a cool feeling I guess.

4) Magnum XL-200 – After my first visit to Cedar Point, I was not impressed with Magnum at all.  But for round two, it stepped up to the plate and blew me away.  It’s not gonna flip you over or take you at extreme speeds, but it will knock ribbons out of your hair and allow Brandon McNeil to make spectacular catches to save it.  Of course, last year, the experience was made more glorious when I saw Maverick’s cars running from the top of Magnum, as the then-new coaster had been closed all day.  It was a special moment.

3) Raptor – It is the first coaster we will ride, and it’s certainly no pushover itself.  With your legs suspended, you get a great first look at the park flipping through the air and praying to God that your shoes stay on.  Even though this coaster has always had the potential of making me a little woozy (a rarity for a roller coaster), I guess it comes from being the first coaster we ride.  But it’s a solid, if not spectacular ride which is a perfect start to our day…and half-day.

2) Maverick – Slick and smooth, Maverick came out two summers ago and I got my first taste of it last summer from the front row.  It’s darn good.  You take off at a 92-degree drop, so yes, you are going more down than just straight down.  There’s a massive speed boost in the middle of the ride, which is cool.  There’s not one bump on the track, so get ready for the smoothest ride of your life.  It is a very, VERY good roller coaster, but come on friends, it is no match for…

1) MILLENNIUM FORCE – It is the best roller coaster in the world.  I haven’t ridden all the roller coasters in the world, but I know I’m right when I say this.  When you combine the fact of the cool techno theme music, and the mighty climb, and the AWESOME first drop by the lake, and the banked curves, and the tunnels, and the place where the camera takes your picture, and the fact that I rode this ride seven straight times at the end of the day last year, and the fact that I sang Marvelous Light while climbing the hill one time, you get the best thing in the world.  It is pure awesomeness.

Well there you go.  Draw your own conclusion my friends when you go to the park.  Until then, blindly accept my opinions.

Charting the coming semester

My friends, it starts so soon now.  A week from today (today being Monday), the madness officially starts when I roll down to Pigeon Forge.  But there’s many reasons why this semester shall be memorable.  Here’s a quick taste of ten reasons why this semester, the fall of my senior year, will be quite extraordinary…

–Finally, the education major will get a taste of education.  Completing 100 hours of observation in a local high school (please God, Lafayette or Henry Clay) might seem to be a bear of a task, I am pumped about getting out in the field and seeing how things go from the other side of the desk.  It’s been a while since I’ve made my presence in a high school…I wonder what things I have forgotten?

–BCM Round 4, and from the perspective of the Oval Office, should be nothing but a good time.  Right.  I know there will be headaches, but I will hopefully realize that the BCM shall be fading away from my life soon and all the “pains” of being the chief executive will be well worth it.  And it will be, as I’m looking forward to the memories that the Baptist Campus Ministry gives me this senior year.

–Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings will be nothing short of spectacular.  It can be argued that there’s never been a better collection of professors in a three-hour span of time.  At nine, we kick off the morning with Mark Summers and early 19th-century American history.  Summers is a proven winner and will bring the theatrics to wake me up.  At ten, awesomeness.  Alan DeSantis, who many feel to be UK’s greatest, will lead a communications charge against myself, Alyssa, Kyle Craft, and Molly…perhaps Kelly Henderson as well.  Glory in its finest, and to think I was considering dropping that class.  The morning closes with Voss, a professor well respected but never takes, and our Civil Liberties.  Should be a class that is well relevant to things I will one day teach.

–Josh Rasor, myself, and 22 of our closest friends will lock horns in the Bluegrass Premier Football League, which will likely drive me insane trying to manage but will result in many a good time I feel.  I need to get to work on many things for the league, yet I cannot summer the organizational skills to find where to start.  This will be a challenge, but I feel up to the task.  Hopefully Josh Rasor does as well.

–Hockey will return in grand fashion.  Although the team has been stripped of much of its talent and awesomeness due to graduation, and although I will miss several games in the fall due to weekend events (all pertaining to the BCM I believe), each and every game will provide thrills unlike any other.  There will be many Junior Mints eaten, and much ‘f’ words yelled.  Well, by everyone else.

–Also returning will be Billy Gillispie and his basketball Cats.  With a buttload of non-conference games on the schedule, there will be good times at ticket lotteries and in the Erruption Zone.  It’s hard to believe that I won’t have $5 access to basketball tickets coming here soon, so I better soak in all the fun while I can.

–Well friends, I don’t know about you, but I love the music of Steven Curtis Chapman.  And wouldn’t you know it, he’s gonna be in Cincinnati with Michael W. Smith on October 10th.  This is a Friday, and there is a UK hockey game that night…I just discover this.  Now, if the concert would start at say, 8, and be over at 1030, I could totally be back to Lexington by midnight.  Oh my goodness, there’s not two more opposite things than Steven Curtis Chapman and UK hockey, but combine them together, and that’s a magical combination!

–Of course, you wouldn’t have your fall semester without the traditional BCM events.  This year, there are some changes.  Focus has been ReFocused to Jonathan Creek (on the worst weekend possible too sportswise…UT-Florida, LSU-Auburn, first hockey games, Ryder Cup…way to screw my life up Keith Inman), and it should be a nice weekend break a month into school.  Of course, you have the staples in the hayride and Fall Retreat, two events I hold most dear to my heart.  But wait, where’s the Barn Dance?  Aha, that’s right…THE BARN DANCE IS NO MORE!  YAHOO!!!  My legacy as BCM President shall be the elimination of the Barn Dance, and I am perfectly fine with that my friends!

–Last fall, Guitar Hero exploded into my life and culminated with the release of Guitar Hero III in October.  All hail the majesty of Knights Of Cydonia!  In any case, we shall walk down that glorious road again this October with the release of Guitar Hero World Tour.  And even though GH went pansy on us by including the mic and drums with this, it still shall have all new songs to conquer on guitar, at the medium level of difficulty of course.

–And you can’t have a fall semester at UK without the awesomeness of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  This year, unlike the past two years, the event will fall in December, on the last day of Finals no less.  We shall all celebrate the conclusion of the seventh UK semester by rocking out in Rupp to TSO.  I cannot wait.

But yes friends, perhaps the most exciting thing about the new semester will be the new faces that we shall discover.  At this point last year, I knew little of Matt Scoggins, of Julia Wilson, of Allen Tate, of Tiason Lockridge, of Ally Smith, of Laura Leavall, of Grace Collins, of Austin Linton, of Kelly Poston, and so on and so forth.  You can’t help but wonder who are gonna be the new people that intrude into my life and force me to develop a wonderful and rich relationship with them.  I feel like there’s never been a time in my life when I was more open to creating and, more importantly, maintaining friendships.  This semester will take a life of its own, as did the previous six semesters before it.  I shall live every life to the fullest and fully appreciate that there will never be another senior year of college.  If college holds true to high school form, the senior year will make me forget the previous three years.  We shall see friends, we shall see.

But for now, a week more of summer.  Quite a shame, as I am finally settling in and enjoying the life of having nothing to do.  But it shall end, and I will be thrown into the storm…but the growth will be unmeasureable.  Come along with me as we start the adventure.  You will be glad you did.

Thursday thoughts

Really not much going on my friends on this Thursday morning, now well under a month away until UK: Round Four kicks off.  For days such as these, we move to random thoughts.

–It’s ironic I think that this summer, unmemorable as it has been, would produce a Vintage CD which I cannot stop listening to.  Vintage CD XLVI is solid my friends, and I have made it a bad habit to proclaim new CDs to be the best ones ever made, but I may just do it again.

–I realized the other day that I have not been to 608 since early May.  Working nearly every Sunday night will do that to you I guess.  However, I am not scheduled to work next Sunday (August 3rd), so it looks good that I will make a triumphant return to 608.  Come to think about it, I have not been to a contemporary worship service in a couple of months.  This hasn’t been a bad thing I feel though, as I may write about in an extended piece soon.

–As far as classes go, I am likely doing the unthinkable and keeping my 8:00 class on Tuesday and Thursday.  I signed up for the class, Political Science 212, with little expectation that I would be actually taking it, but I have all but decided to drop Communication 101 (DeSantis and all) in favor of class which may present material I would one day teach.  I have finally realized in my senior year that it will be beneficial to me to take classes which might be valuable for me when I’m behind the teacher’s desk.  Thank goodness I realized this after I took Appalachian Studies.  So, my proposed schedule…

MW
9  American History 1820-1860 (Summers, WOOHOO)
11  Civil Liberties

TR
8  Politics and Culture in Third World
930  East Asia Until 1800

Then my education class…100 hours of observation in a local high school, to be assigned…cheering for either Lafayette or Henry Clay…my luck it will be Bryan Station…

–I have recently become obsessed with Batman villains again, which gets me to thinking, who is the best villain of all time?  Like, every villain that has ever existed?  I’m thinking of getting the top 64 villains that I can think of and pairing them up in a March Madness-like tournament.  Which evildoer is the most evil?  I will likely need help with this one, but it certainly has potential.

That’s about all I’m thinking about right now.

Batman!

 

 

 

 

 
When I was a young kid, I watched Batman: The Animated Series on FOX…and these villians above me were the ones to look out for.  I may look up this show again after so many years because of Batman Hysteria taking over the country.

Random observations from vacation

We return to UK and with it a long-awaited post on BenThoughts.  We have all been clamoring for such an occasion.  Allow me to use this entry to be in bullet form because I just wrote a long article for The Baptists’ Sports Wire (friend of the blog) and don’t feel like taking on paragraph form again just yet.

–North Carolina has the total package.  You have your mountains, your beaches, your sports teams (granted they are yucky ACC teams), and all the NASCAR history you would ever want.  I will be posting pictures from my trip to the Richard Childress Racing Museum shortly on Facebook.

–I made some wonderful purchases on this trip I must say.  I bought a Steven Curtis Chapman CD, a beach shovel, an old American history textbook, and a pirate coconut head (wait until you see this…we’re talking about the new FPTJ).  In total, I spent about $28, so yeah I’m happy with it.

–Speaking of music, the 8th Vintage Performance System was completed and I have posted the results (at least the top ten) on the Vintage CDs page of the blog.  All I can say is that the music from my sophomore year stepped up big time.  Also stepping up was the new Vintage CD — Vintage CD 46.  It’s darn good friends, I mean really good.

–We drove through Wingate University outside Charlotte, which means nothing to you but everything to me.  This was one of the camps of PPK last summer, and while I’ve been in camp exile this summer, I took the five minutes that was spent driving through to reminisce about how wonderful those two weeks at Wingate were.  It really took me back to the complex emotions I was feeling at that time.

–My heart has grown so much this summer.  I can feel my heart in my throat almost daily as it reacts to different things I see in the world.  I am looking at people in a completely different way.  I see people–complete strangers–and wonder about their stories, what they struggle with, and whether or not they walk daily with Christ.  I must say, this summer has helped me fully appreciate Jesus as a friend, not just my Lord and Savior (which is pretty important and all).  As I come to understand that Christ truly walked the Earth and realize Him to be a friend, I am beginning to see people as more than people, but loving creations of God that walk and talk (in theory) as Jesus did.  And my heart swells.

The summer sun is beginning to set.  Vacation served as a nice buffer to split July in half and help usher the quick coming of August.  I am certain that I will learn much more from this summer before it enters its twilight.  In some ways, I have learned more from this summer, which was flawed from the start, than any other summer previously, which is saying something considering the epic levels of some of my recent summers.  If Harvey Dent is correct, if the night is darkest just before the dawn, then the next few weeks may become quite interesting.  But I’m willing to learn and continuting to gear up for a year that I’m quite sure will be unlike any other.

A few other things

Something majestic from today:  I took off from Lexington around 630 and got the amazing opportunity to drive home into the sunset.  Thankfully I never drove due west so I wasn’t blinded, so I was able to witness the amazing sight of a sunset in God’s country, the 270.  When I pulled off I-65 at Smith’s Grove, with the sun setting in front of me and Daughtry’s “Home” playing on the CD player, I figured life could not get more magical than that.

Also, I saw today that Barack Obama is considering sponsoring a car for NASCAR’s August race in Pocono.  Well besides wondering how much Obama has in common with NASCAR, I must say this is a good way for him to get my vote.  People will automatically see how Obama is trying to connect with the southern white voter by playing with NASCAR here, but consider just which race he’s looking to get involved.  Pocono is of course in Pennsylvania, which always plays out to be one of those critical states the candidate must win to become President.  Well played Mr. Obama.  I look forward to seeing how Mr. Stewart and Mr. Colbert react to this news.

Daily post

For the first time ever, I post on consecutive days. I must be getting serious.

I had a vision today. I was out playing at Ghettobrook Golf Course in the middle of Lexington, and I was playing quite well I must say. I shot +5 and finished the last five holes in -1, but that’s neither here nor there with what I envisioned today. As I was playing, I saw several fathers playing golf with their sons. Most of the kids were really young and were just learning the game, and the fathers didn’t seem to mind how slow their pace of play was going (believe me, i was behind one of them). I witnessed something majestic here: a father spending time with his young son, teaching him the game that the father loves so much.

And I saw myself, oh I don’t know, 10 years in the future, perhaps longer than that. And there I was with my son (unnamed at this point), but he’s trailing behind me fiddling with his clubs and trying to keep up with me. But for me, this is the most wonderful thing that God could do for me. Me and my son, playing golf together. Some of my fondest memories of golf come from when me and my father played so very long ago when he taught me how to play. Yeah, I got so much better than him that he quit, but those memories last and are precious to me. And today, at the wonderful Ghettobrook Golf Course, a little podunk par 3 course, I saw my future and I loved it.

I believe one of the things I shall do with this blog is post daily on something I see in the world that is majestic. I watched The Bucket List the other night, and one of the things on the list was to “see something majestic.” Of course, when I cry while watching a movie, as I did with this one, I have to replicate it in my life. Every day, I shall mention something I have witnessed that proves God’s majesty in the world. It should help convince me that Lexington isn’t a God-forsaken place in the summer after all (joke people).

In any case, let’s finish this post with an obligatory YouTube clip to something else very majestic…

This might look like I’m bragging on myself…

…but I really don’t care. At Sunday school last week, we had a Bible trivia contest and I won, naturally. The prize for winning was a $10 gift card to Starbucks. Now me and coffee don’t really mix that well, but I could have bought several white chocolate mochas or taken out some sweet pastries if I really wanted to. But when it comes down to it, do I really need it? Do I need that gift card to survive? Last week at 608, Jon Weece talked about how many “extra” things he has…he opens up his closet and sees two jackets, four pairs of tennis shoes, etc. We as a society focus so much on quantity and forget about the quality of necessity. Sure, I won that Starbucks gift card and I was proud of doing so (especially the beating Robert part in sudden death), but did I need that Starbucks gift card? Heck no.

So I decided to march down to Phoenix Park, which for you non-Lextonians is a place where many of the city’s homeless like the spend their time, in order to give the card to someone who needed it. I decided to do this shortly after Sunday school, but I never did. I felt like just walking down there and giving out a card would be awkward and I would feel uncomfortable, so five days went by with me storing that card in my wallet along with the rest of my plastic monies. This is not to say that I didn’t look for anyone to give my card to, but I never found a situation where I thought God was calling me to give that card away. So I kept it until I felt the time was right…because I knew that God would show me an opportunity where that card would help someone out to an incredible degree.

I got home from work today, and I picked up a movie I had just bought along with my backpack full of books that I had purchased over the past week. As I’m walking toward the YAK, I approach a woman from behind who looks to be drinking something. At that moment, I make a promise to God that states if she’s drinking coffee, I will give her the card. I catch up to her, but as I do, she turns away to where I cannot see what she’s drinking without looking like a creeper. I keep on walking, but I remember I forgot to lock my car. I run back to Wallace and lock him, but as I pass the woman, I see that she is indeed drinking coffee from McDonald’s. Well then, I say to God, I guess this is it. I come back to the woman and ask her if she’d like to have a $10 gift card to Starbucks. And that smile that swept across that woman’s face was something I will never forget. She slid over to me and gave me a huge hug and introduced herself as Anna. Anna is homeless and is being helped by the Salvation Army right now, but you wouldn’t have known it by that smile.

It’s just a saying, “God Bless You,” but Anna kept saying it to me for the one minute I talked to her. Do we really believe that if we attempt to live as Jesus did, then we can count on God to bless us? Now here’s the tricky part, are we acting like Jesus in order to secure these blessings for ourselves or are we acting like Jesus because we are totally and radically in love with Him that we WANT so desperately to be as He was? That’s the battle I fight when I do acts like these. Is it worse to act selfishly or not act at all? Lord knows we all want God’s blessings.

But the fact of the matter remains: if you are reading this, you have computer access and likely have more things in life than you really need. I want to challenge you to do something today. Find something that you have that you like but do not need, and give it to someone who would benefit much more from it. And don’t just give it to Goodwill or the Salvation Army, but physically FIND someone to give it to. By doing so, God will bless you…at the very least, you will see a smile that will light up the world.