New Year Update

Donald Trump also wants the election cycle to end as quickly as possible. He prefers that it ends before all of the votes are even counted!

There are a lot of people who pay pretty much no attention to politics except for a month or 2 every four years near presidential election day. And many of them also pay a couple week's attention in non-presidential election cycles. But its more challenging now because the election cycle has expanded such that its approaching never ending.

Had you told me 40 years ago when I first started voting we would have Clinton--Trump, Trump--Biden and Trump--Biden I would have never believed it. And I likely would have drank more. Those are the only elections my kids have known in their adult/voting lives.

Problem with saying you can't wait until this election cycle is over is that the next one starts pretty much right after this one is over.

^The truth hurts.

GoBucks89:

There are a lot of people who pay pretty much no attention to politics except for a month or 2 every four years near presidential election day.

And that's a lot of the reason that we are where we are today. And it's at all levels, even down to the local level where things affect you the most closely. I've been on my HOA board for five years because we can't get more than two people, let alone a quorum, to show up to vote for a new board.

You should go around the neighborhood and put up flyers: "Vote Me Out!"

Having people with limited interests in politics predates the Republic. And there are fewer of them now (given the 24 hour news cycle and never ending election cycle are relatively new). So saying their existence is any of the reason we are where we are today doesn't make any sense in terms of reality.

In my experience, most people who are on HOA boards never got over being on student government in high school. We turned ours over to a professional management company years ago.

Jordan_Vanichek:

You should go around the neighborhood and put up flyers: "Vote Me Out!"

But if he did that, he'd probably be in violation of the HOA bylaws and the HOA board would be forced to hit him with some kind of huge fine. Which he would then have to appeal before the board and it would end up being a huge local circus...

But hey, maybe that would make people willing to vote for a new board just so they wouldn't have to put up with Jeff's attention seeking antics anymore!

--Dave Althoff, Jr. (where I come from most people can't even spell "HOA")

Isn't that where CP is located, Sandusk-i Hoa?

Jeff:

And that's a lot of the reason that we are where we are today

And a lot of the reason we are where were at today is due to the biased media on both sides. If I watch Fox all I hear is a right wing agenda and if I watch MSNBC all I get is the left wing agenda. CNN recently seems to be giving both sides. They ran Trumps speech the ither night after winning the Iowa caucus. MSNBC did not and of course Fox did. Wish the media in this country would just give the facts and let us all make our own opinion. But this newer generation can't think for themselves and need someone else to tell them who to vote for. Example last election Fox ran a story and it was one of the top stories "J-lo and A-Rod endorse Biden". Who cares who they endorse, good for them. Just run stories on every candidate, both sides and let us make our own decision.

Back when Trump was President he came to my kids school and they wanted to see him since he was a sitting president, so we took them and told them pay attention to everything you see and hear then we will watch the news outlets later that night and see what story they tell. They were shocked at how each outlet had a completely different story. Every media outlet is guilty of this, Fox does the same damn thing with Biden. Only show his mis-haps and only really show parts of his speech that make him look terrible. Watch the same speech of his on another outlet and it's completely opposite of what I just saw on Fox.

All I know is being president is a job I would never want. I think most Americans agree because seriously, these are the two best people we can find to run for President of this great country? Pick your poison....

All cable news is trash, but it's notable that one, and only one, "news" network paid nearly a billion dollars to make a defamation suit go away. The two "sides" are not the same, and that's especially true over the last 8 years. In fact, there are many examples of the likes of NYT and WaPo "both sides-ing" issues that have absolutely no equivalence, in an effort to avoid being labeled "liberal".

But yes, it's been my unilateral experience that consumers of any cable news are among the least informed, but the level of misinformation is vastly more broad on one side compared to the other, and it's getting worse at a frightening rate, while at the same time expanding to other mediums, i.e. Twitter.

GoBucks89:

In my experience, most people who are on HOA boards never got over being on student government in high school. We turned ours over to a professional management company years ago.

That's a pretty ignorant thing to say. I just didn't want some of the yahoos who post ridiculous things on Facebook in charge of my fees, not to mention the very large lawsuit we inevitably would have against the developer. It's a horrible volunteer job that I'd much rather trust to someone else, if anyone would even show up. All associations use professional managers, but they still need boards.

Cousin Eddy:
biased media on both sides.

First off, there is not moral equivalence here. Second, this is the free market at work. It's not that truthful journalism doesn't exist, it's that people don't choose to pursue it. If you're looking for neutral journalism, that isn't a thing, nor should it be. If you're covering ethnic cleansing in China against the Uyghurs, or Neo-Nazis in the American south, you don't need to report on their perspective to be fair or balanced. It's pretty clear they're the bad guys.

Jeff:

It's not that truthful journalism doesn't exist, it's that people don't choose to pursue it.

Very valid point.....well said...

Jeff:

That's a pretty ignorant thing to say.

So you know my experiences better than I do. Seems like an ignorant statement. Arrogant as well.

All associations use professional managers

Not true. Many do. Maybe even most. But not all. And some just have professional advisers (attorneys or accountants) but are managed by board members.

but they still need boards

Never said or suggested otherwise. But what having an outside professional manager does (as can having competent professional advisers with a board managed associations) is open up the universe of potential board members who are willing to run/serve. People who lack the competence/confidence to sit on a board or who don't like confrontation or are worried about being sued. A good professional manager has the expertise to run an association, provide guidance to board members, revolve issues/disputes, etc. Being well managed/run reduces chances of successful litigation. Competent advisers can do the same thing with board managed associations. More people running for board seats decreases the likelihood the high school student government/safety patrol types are on the board.

An issue I have seen though prevent people who otherwise would be willing to serve from running is one or more other board members with whom others have no interest in serving.

You can't possibly know the motivation of me or the tens of thousands of people who volunteer for a thankless job that is rarely recognized or appreciated. So yeah, I stand by what I said. Your generalization based on your anecdotal experience is ridiculous.

And are you really lecturing about how HOA's work to me, after I've done it for years? Jesus Christ, and I thought I sucked at reading a room.

I'd say this room is pretty readable to English speakers. It's only 34 posts or so. Not sure how the forum handles multilingual if at all?

On an unrelated note going back to TT2, I'm interested to see how much this new version of the ride will sway the launch track on that 3rd pass. Although you could never feel it on the ride, there was a visibly large amount of sway on the last 1/4 of the launch and most of the way up the pull up on their original iteration of TTD, and now that the train is going to be going over 100MPH the whole length of the launch I'm wondering if it's going to have a lot of shimmy the whole way down that straight away.

I wouldn't think there will be a discernable difference. The track and supports haven't changed, and you're not hitting 120 until the 3rd launch gets you there. Given that the magnets run a considerable amount of the straightaway, I would venture a guess that it will be very similar.

That said, the 3rd launch isn't going to be nearly as violent (in a good way....giggity giggity) as the single launch on Top Thrill-Episode One, so maybe it will be even less of a shimmy.

Looks like we may have a slightly better look at the TT2 queue configuration based on the new Cedar Point app. This is in-line with what we have already seen, but shows a better look at the lines merging at the front of the station, as opposed to the middle as previously.

Will be interesting to see what barriers are in place (if any) at various parts on the track where trains are traveling at high speeds.

Re: track shake... I understood some of the lateral shaking on the pull up to be the result of the braking of the catch car. I swear we had a discussion about it once, and it seemed plausible that some of that energy resulted in a wave along the track. After all, if the only forces acting on the track were the train, supports in line with that force would be fine.