One Big Roller-Coaster at Universal Orlando
Straight Up, Straight Down
Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit roller-coaster at Universal Studios in Universal Orlando is hard to miss. Yes, the ride does start off by taking you straight up on the left side of that tower, and then it sends you almost straight down on the right side of the tower before sending you through various loops and rolls. Pretty cool, if you like that sort of thing.
This roller-coaster has a twist, however. Besides all of those twists that the track makes. Before you go, you select a song from their list of songs to hear as you ride. There are several to choose from in several genres of music. I decided to go with the old standard “Devil Went Down to Georgia” by the Charlie Daniels Band. I don’t know why. I just thought it would be fun to hear while zooming around. And besides, I didn’t know much of the new stuff. Might as well stick with a classic.
While you can see some of the track here, you can’t see all of it. The track goes in and out of the building facades, so it is difficult to see it all. But this gives you an idea of what you are getting into before you board.
Before you board, you have to go through a security check complete with metal detectors. They want to make sure that you have everything out of your pockets: cell phone, wallet, keys, spare change, used chewing gum in the wrapper, paper clips, game tokens from Chuck E. Cheese, loose screws, or anything else that might even possibly fly out and hit someone. They are serious about it.
We’re All Going to Die
As we were walking up to the ride, I overheard someone say, “We’re all going to die!” As we were waiting in line, I overheard another person say, “We’re all going to die!” Maybe that should have been the name for this ride.
“We’re all going to die!” Well yes, we are. Someday. But probably not on a roller-coaster. Roller-coasters are designed to thrill, not to kill. Because the latter would be bad for business.
Think about it. Every day around the world, thousands of people ride each roller coaster that is out there. And almost no one dies, except for a few extreme circumstances. But those are very rare.
So while it might be fun to say, “We are all going to die,” if anyone really thought that the would not actually board the roller-coaster in the first place, right?
Yes, we are all going to die. And it is good to be prepared now instead of trying to scramble if you suddenly find yourself at the end. Do what you can now to make sure that your life is the way you want it to be, just in case the end does come by roller-coaster or at some other time when you aren’t expecting it.
We’re all going to die!
See more from our Universal Orlando visit at the 2018 Band Trip to Universal Orlando archive.
Bible Verse
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. - Hebrews 9:27-28
About the Photo
For my first pass of processing this photo, it looked rather ordinary. But I thought that was not all that eye-catching. So a couple of days later I went back and looked at it again, doing some extra processing to make it more bold and impressive. Because who wants to look at a boring photo, anyway?
I would recommend not posting something just as soon as you process it. Let it sit for a few days and see if you might want to do some more to it first.
By the way, this was processed with Photoshop and Nik filters. I used lots of extra filters this time to give it that extra pop.
Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens
Date: April 7, 2018
Location: Universal Orlando, Orlando, Florida
