My Best Desktops is in the midst of a Halloween desktop wallpaper blowout! Head over there and download ‘em while they’re hot!

El Toro, the new wooden coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, is simply amazing (Just check out people’s expressions in this shot of the first plunge)… and I’m not even into rollercoasters.

Everything about it screams of a fantastically designed experience. It’s simply the smoothest riding coaster I’ve ever ridden. Its lift is quickly paced leaving no time for regrets, no time for the old-school (and if this ride is any indication) unnecessarily drawn-out moment of anticipation before gravity takes control and no time for nonsense. It just cuts to the chase which is awesome!

From the first nearly 80º initial plunge, to the bucking bull modeled and relentless hills, to the completely expected twisting finally; nothing is superfluous. Nothing pulls you out of the thrill.

And this is the odd part about it: the ride doesn’t seem to try to scare you. It doesn’t allow time for it, so the whole thing is just a massively good time. Just thinking about it again gets my heart rate going.

I have to remember to make it back out to Great Adventure this Summer for another ride!

This is something I’ve been meaning to write about ever since I read the article (and more importantly the comments on the article) “Top 12 Guns for Geeks and Gadget Goons” over at Gizmodo that revealed just how much crossover there is with geek/gadget culture and gun culture.

The funny thing about living in New York is that no matter how many friends you have, you continually have to remind yourself that your circle of acquantances and people you run into on a day to day basis in no way represent the average population of the rest of the country. That means that none of your friends probably have guns. No one I know owns a gun, although at one time I did live with someone who was into guns, but then it was rifles for shooting on a range and not what the article was about: the best handgun for concealed carrying purposes.

I’m not going to get into the debate of gun control (although I hate guns), because the bigger question to me is whether people who run around the internet flaming each other, pwning each other’s grammar, calling the WAHHHHAMBULANCE for each other and generally being loud-mouthed and childish should be packin’ concealed heat. I hate to say it, but it somehow smacks of overcompensating for physical shortcomings.

I dunno… call me crazy, but I’ll now remember to think again next time I’m considering attending any tech conferences in this country. (Especially MacWorld since it seems like some geeks are out to kill them some Finder… I just wonder if they eat what they kill!)

(Image from Geeks with Guns activities surrounding SXSW)