Kegan L. Inman

This week I got a call with bad news. One of my ducks was dead and the other couldn’t get up. I promptly came to the rescue, trying to fix the problem but it was too late. We got the surviving one to the vet but he still passed away; he had gotten an infection that wasn’t correctable.

I still don’t know the cause but suspect a wild animal is to blame. I wish now that I had done more to make sure that nothing could get to them but hind-sight is always 20/20.

To this, I pray that they rest in peace and have gone to that big pond in the sky!

I will always love and miss you Donald and Quackers!

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In recent years, more so in the last year, I have grown much fonder of roller coasters. I have made it my personal mission to explore as many parks as financially possible. I think it’s more than physically possible for me to do it, the wallet is a bit tight though.

I really enjoy the Cedar Fair parks near home (Cedar Point – 8 hour drive and King’s Island – 4 hour drive) and am a Platinum Pass Holder which allows me to enter both as many times as I like for only $160 a year! Another favorite is the family friendly Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari. They have three of the best wooden roller coasters in the world, all have been award winning and there is nothing like feel of a true wooden roller coaster.

There are parks in the area that I feel the need to explore in the coming summer. Within 3-5 hours of driving time, I can be to Six Flags – Saint Louis and Six Flags – Kentucky Kingdom. I have been to both parks but my age at the time allows few memories and I wasn’t a ride warrior at that period in my life. Another park that I have never visited but plan on patronizing is Indiana Beach. I was told that they are primarily a water park but from looking at their website, they have a variety of thrill rides including a few coasters.

I am always asked what my favorite roller coaster is and that is hard to decide. I try to split them into three categories, steel, wood/steel hybrid and wood. Below is my insight on the best of the three worlds.

Steel

With all ones ridden considered: Diamondback, Top Thrill Dragster, Millennium Force, Magnum XL200, Maverick, Vortex, and the list goes on.

I must say that Millennium Force at Cedar Point wins, especially if it is ridden in the dark on Halloweekends. Looking from the lift hill to the left over the lake and Sandusky or to the right over a foggy park is just amazing!

Steel/Wood Hybrid

These are a unique breed of coasters. You have the track layout and design of a wooden coaster but the ride of a steel coaster. You don’t get the thrill and I’ve only ridden one that I am attached too. That is Gemini as Cedar Point and its not because of the thrill of riding the coaster but its character and energy level. Gemini is a dual coaster that races two cars (red and blue) through the course. When both sides are running, competition between the trains can get tense and everyone on a train gets concerned with winning and will start paddling the train along! You can also clap hands with the other train though please remember to keep all arms and legs inside the train at all times.

Wood

This category is the hardest to make a decision on. My true favorite wooden roller coaster lost its dignity and is now closed indefinitely without what made it the worlds best wooden roller coaster. In loss of it, I chose another favorite as a small park in Indiana called Holiday World.

Son of Beast

The Son of Beast was easily the worlds best wooden roller coaster; it was the tallest, fastest and had a loop. It was also the second longest, behind its parent, The Beast. The Son of Beast was a great coaster but it is a bit temperamental and likes to injure, or cause accusations of injuring, guests. The loop was removed after an accident occurred a few years ago and another early in the 2009 season has caused the ride to be closed without any word from the park on its fate. Below is a video when with the loop present.

The Voyage

Since the passing of Son of Beast, I have moved my #2 favorite coaster into the top spot. The Voyage is a wooden roller coaster owned by Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari. It truly has a style of its own built in the hills of Southern Indiana. I personally suggest that if you are around South-Central Indiana, you be sure you include Holiday World on your to-do list!

Honorable Mention: The Beast

Opened on April 13, 1979, the Beast become the worlds longest roller coaster, a title it still proudly holds today. It even still ranked by the Golden Ticket Awards as #7 for Top Wooden Roller Coaster in 2009. Any coaster that can stand the test of time by holding longest wooden coaster status for over 30 years must be good! It sits at the back of King’s Island and weaves in and out of the trees, leading rides on a almost 5 minute adventure through twists, turns, tunnels, two lift hills and a double helix. It is a must of any coaster enthusiast.

Thank you for reading and as I explore new parks and experience new coasters, I will gladly pass along my thoughts!

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Today I had a throw back to just how far we have come with technology. I was born in 1989 and had my first taste of technology around 1993-1995 when my parents acquired an old computer system which I played Lion King and Wheel of Fortune on. I also have memories of playing Doom at a young age on a laptop that was provided by my dad’s work.

My next memories are of playing a flying game on my cousin’s computer at my aunt’s house. My parents soon bought this computer for me and I was able to have it at home to play with. It didn’t take me long to discover the wonders of SimCity for Window’s 3.1. I was also able to talk my mother into purchasing a new fad called Dial Up. Wow, how far we had come, by 97 or 98 we were techies!

In there of course, my dad had built my grandpa and I identical computers running this great new operating system called Windows 95. Its graphical interface was improved upon and was much faster than Windows 3.1 (which I still don’t know how the name came about). I never had the latest and greatest technology but it was always a steady upgrade.

I don’t have many memories through these years but I do know I was upgraded to Windows 98 and then this nice operating system called Windows ME! I remember computer upgrades during this time but don’t recall much until 7th grade when I was built a new computer to run Windows 2000! I never have figured out how ME (millennium edition) and 2000 (the new millennium) weren’t the same thing but that’s not important.

That faithful computer (well, maybe one or two pieces of it) is still running today with many hardware upgrades and a copy of Windows XP. Around 2004 or 2005, I also received my first real laptop, a Toshiba Satellite, which I used up until 2008. It also ran XP and ran it great. It was the laptop that I formed GreeneCountyIndiana.com and Kegan’s Kandy Web Services, now known as New Deal Multimedia, LLC, on.

As I said, I had to replace my faithful Toshiba laptop in June of 2008 because during our family vacation to Myrtle Beach it shorted out and went from a faithful computer to a toasty mess of burned circuits. I replaced it with an Acer Aspire, the one I am typing on currently, and it has continued to work for me as a faithful digital companion.

In this month, I plan on becoming the proud owner of a Netbook, making my job easier and in October I plan on receiving a Blackberry (or equivalent piece of equipment). I am trying to stay up-to-date on my technology to make myself and my businesses as efficient as possible.

Now, we usually don’t stop to look back at how far we have come with technology until we have to. Today was one of those days that I was forced to do so. I received a call to help a business get their records from 2006 to present off a computer and into a print form. They didn’t of course have a printer or it would of been a piece of cake.

I was warned the computer was old and when I arrived I realized they were being generous to it by just call it old…it was an antique. I had grabbed some stuff up that I hoped would help me move the files quickly and easily. First, my jumpdrive wasn’t at all recognized by Windows 98, the cd-writer in the computer had since stopped function as had the floppy drive. All this left me wondering what I could do.

Not willing to give up on my task, I drove back home and starting searching my arsenal of collected technology. I finally was able to dig up a laser printer that was manufactured in the Mid-90s but amazing it wasn’t made in China and still works to this day. I researched and found a driver on the internet that would make it work with that system and after a bit more fighting with the old computer, I was able to print off all of their records.

I guess no matter how far we have come, there will still be those older systems out there and being able to work with them is important. It just goes to show that my parents providing me with a computer at an early age did pay off.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

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Last night I attended the An Evening with Roy Clark and Friends scholarship concert at the Linton-Stockton High School gymnasium. For any of you who have never been to this show, I must highly recommend it. The night consists of a few hours of some of the most popular country music stars. This was my 5th year attending the show and its never disappointing.

Some of the stars include:

Roy Clark is a versatile and well-known country music musician and performer. He is best known for hosting Hee Haw, one of the first nationally televised country variety shows in the United States, from 1969-1992.

Justin David was a top five Nashville Star, a member of Roy Clark’s band (Roy’s Toys), and a star in the making!

Woody Woodbury known throughout the land for his “fun, foolosophy and a frantic piano for frisky adults only.”

Johnny Lee is a Legendary American Country Music Singer. His 1980 single, “Lookin’ for Love,” not only spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard country singles chart in the second half of 1980 (and, by the way, became the #1 country song for that aforementioned year) but also went to the Top 5 on the Pop charts, and Top 10 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary survey.

Mickey Jones is an American musician and actor. Jones’ career as a drummer had him backing up such artists as Trini Lopez and Johnny Rivers.

Jan Howard is an American country music singer and Grand Ole Opry star.

Holly Lynn Raised in Linton, Indiana, Holly began cultivating her musical talents at an early age. With piano lessons and a Fisher-Price radio with microphone in hand, it was evident that Holly was on her way to becoming a vocal performer. Emerging on the Nashville music scene as a promising country vocalist, Holly has performed at the French Quarter Café, The Nashville Palace, Edgehill Studios, The Five Spot, and Long Hollow Jamboree. Holly has also appeared as a guest vocalist at The Sutler, The Second Fiddle, and Otter’s on Demonbreun Street.

Jack Shelton and Band is a group of Linton natives who are absolutely amazing at playing a jazz style music. If you ever have the opportunity to see this group perform, I highly recommend it.

This show would of not have happened without the generosity of all of the stars and I want to thank each and everyone of them for coming to Linton for this great scholarship festival. This is definitely the best way to kick off the 2009 Linton Freedom Festival.

I also want to thank my mom, Vickey and Connie for letting me go with them to this great show!

I will most definitely be at the 2010 Roy Clark and Friends show and I hope to see you there!

Roy Clark playing his guitar.

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I don’t read a whole lot but do enjoy books about business. It must be in my genes. Anyways, I got what I normally would of past off as a “spam” email the other day but it was one of those that for whatever reason, you open. It was entitled 9 Proven Techniques to Double Your Sales and after opening it, I see an offer for a free e-book. I think “what the heck” and go to download it. I had to fill out a simple form and it gave me my copy.

It’s a 57 page book entitled The Edge and I read the entire thing in about four sittings spaced out over two days. It does have 9 techniques that could very possibly double your sales. I really liked the concepts and they make great food for thought.

If you have a few extra hours, I suggest that you go to http://www.infusionsoft.com/edge/?ls=addme-29May09, fill out the form and download your copy. I must give you fair warning though that the fellow does follow his techniques and gave me a follow up call, the number came up private, and I was occupied at the time so I wasn’t able to answer. He left me a nice message thanking me for downloading the book, offering his help in any way he could and impressing me greatly with his kindness. I really suggest looking into this and the book was worth having a message left on my phone.

While I am on odd emails, I have two quotes that I really like that came in strange emails that for whatever reason I opened. I am going to put the title of the email so you can see how weird they were and then put the quote. Enjoy!

For your information.

“Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

~Confucius

Requested update. (This is my personal favorite quote.)

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

~Mark Twain

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This is my first blog post. I will be writing things more meaningful later but I wanted to post a few pictures near and dear to me!

Mautumn

Donald and Quackers

Me!

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