This exact thing happened while I was on the new Radiator Springs Racers ride (which is awesome, by the way) at Disneyland/California Adventure Park a couple weeks ago: an entire family had their smartphones and iPads out, recording the ride from beginning to end. I don’t think they actually saw anything that was going on during the ride beyond what they could see from their screens. I can see taking a couple snapshots of the cool stuff that was happening, or facial expressions of family members during some surprising moments, but to record video the entire time? Are they really going to watch those videos at home and re-experience the ride from the point of view of a jumpy, jangly, handheld phone and tablet? Hopefully, they’ll add some motion simulation like bot and the Cornfather did in today’s strip, otherwise, I fear for the friends and relatives who have to sit through those home videos.
How ’bout you BOTreaders? Do you use your smartphones and tablets to record every moment of your life? Or do you wait until your friends or family are about to do something crazy or dangerous before you pull out your cameras? Do you record concerts? Roller coasters? Bathroom habits??? (Okay, if you record that last choice, I really don’t want to know.)
See…for me as a photographer, i have a hard time putting my cameras away, BUT, doing so while on a ride like that to record the whole thing seems a bit obtuse. At least go through once with your own eyes to get some personal enjoyment out of it! Sheesh! :p
if nothing else, i’d be afraid my camera/tablet/phone would drop out of my hand, DC! i wonder if they did the same thing on a more extreme ride, like California Screamin’?
and, hey, check you out – you just achieved the Shades of Firsting! wear them well: these have a camera built in, which records your life 24/7 and uploads the data to a cloud for all to see:
😎
It’s like those people that go to concerts and record the whole thing with their tablet or cell phone, but they’re watching it in their screen the entire time. Not like they’re “directing” and trying to line up a shot, since they just stay in one spot, but like they wanted to watch a concert on TV in a really loud room.
Kinda like what that woman with the tablet is doing. Or maybe that’s an e-reader, and she loathes that ride so much that she’s going to read a book and block out the whole experience. Yeah, that’s less annoying. Let’s pretend it’s that.
yup, this happened to me at a concert recently, E. A. – i basically had to look over a sea of cellphones to see the band! while i did think about pulling out my own phone, when i thought about re-watching and (more importantly) re-listening to it at home, i declined.
ha! the ride was pretty fun, so let’s hope that’s not an e-reader. 😀
EVERY moment? No. I take a TON more photos than video (my camera or smartphone is ALWAYS out). But while I was at Disneyland this last August (first time for our kids, 10 & 7), I have to admit to doing this on a ride or two. haha It was fun to watch later, though no motion simulation went on – kinda hard to do that on the Dumbo ride. 😉
i do the same with photos, Richtpt – it’s fun to capture moments – and i can see recording reactions of your kids on rides (especially tame ones like the Dumbo ride) but when i see people recording entire rides like Radiator Springs Racers, while they’re missing stuff going on around them (including their kids) it’s going a little too far. 🙂
I totally agree! I took lots of photos up to getting into that ride, then put the camera & phone away so I could just enjoy it. Now if the line wasn’t 2 years long and I could go on it several times a day without missing everything else, I might do that – on like the 10th+ time. 😉
I do spend a lot of time with my phone in my hand, texting away at any given moment. But I’m not one to record video. I take pictures on occasion, but rarely capture vids. I have a grand total of about 10 videos in the entire 6 years I’ve had phones that can record video so that’s saying something.
i’m trying to record more videos, dj, especially since i want to start adding them as a sort of blog supplement to the site! but yeah, i don’t do much of them now, and there are limits. heheh.
Somewhere, I think my dad still has all the tapes of rides from Disney world, many of the rides have since changed, or have been removed completely, so it makes a nice bit of memory…
well, i can’t argue with that, Felinius – if your dad captured some fun memories, i’m all for it!
If said rides allowed them I’d use a camera like the kind bicyclists do to record while attached to a helmet or a chest harness. The one time I went to an amusement park I didn’t take any pictures or video, cellphone or otherwise, because I was too busy enjoying that I was there.
something like that – where a camera’s attached to you while you enjoy the ride on your own – seems a good compromise, Descolada. and experiencing the ride without having to worry about that stuff sounds even better!
I had a teacher who would show us rollercoaster videos from YouTube on free days. It was cool, but not as fun as being on the coaster itself. There was no simulation:(
ha! what was she trying to teach you by showing those videos, GeekGirl11?? was she just showing you home vids to pass the time?
It was just a free day thing in band, not really educational.
I recorded a ride on the Top Thrill dragster when I was at Ceder Point in Sanduski Ohio a few years ago. After riding it twice, I decided to do it one more time and record it to show my friends back in AZ what I was talking about when I told them about the coaster that accelerates you from 0-100mph in 4 sec over flat ground BEFORE going up the tower. Other than that, I do not really record anything that is not “A spectacle to behold”
Oh, and I was holding on to my phone for dear life. and correction. It is 0-120mph. Here is a vid from a mounted camera on the front of the coaster.
ooh! i want to ride that, jeff135729a! we have something similar in L.A. (the Superman ride at Magic Mountain) but it’s not as intense. glad you were able to keep a grip on your phone during the recording!
Oh, wow, there’s only a few comments here. Might as well say something.
TBH, I never saw any similar happenings at Disney World whenever I went there. Probably because they’re a lot more strict about the recording devices, or because people aren’t stupid enough to risk losing them over such inane shenanigans.
And if you want to know why I didn’t respond last time, look at my response on the previous strip. God, corneal abrasions are freaking PAINFUL.
yeah, i got this one up a bit late due to a doctor’s appointment i wanted to be well-rested for, NeoD! anyway, thanks for the comment.
and i thought it was weird that they allowed recording during the ride – at the end, there’s a race with another car during which it would be very easy to drop a phone or camera.
and, aaaack! “corneal abrasions”!? that even sounds painful. hope you’re healing up quickly.
Yeah. It hurts like HELL for about 3 days. Then it’s just uncomfortable the next day. After that, you just gotta deal with blurry vision until it’s fully healed. Also eyedrops.
It seems you missed the post on the previous page, so basically I’ll just summarize it here- Disney showed a pilot episode of a new Star Wars kiddy show to George Lucas where it follows a bunch of padawans, and nobody gets lightsabers until they are full adults. George didn’t like the series itself, but he seems interested in the idea of a Star Wars series targeted towards young children itself. All I’m saying is- keep your eyes open. Something is gonna happen that is going to make us wish we had never even laid eyes upon Episode IV.
awwww, man! i thought he was trying to hit the kid market with The Clone Wars series. at least it started that way by centering it on Ahsoka. now they’re making something even more kiddie? yikes. 🙁
I don’t use the phone cam very often, but when I do it’s because of wackiness that’s happening.
same here. that’s probably my #1 reason for recording video, 52pickup. 😀
I don’t have a smartphone or a tablet. I have a piece of crap cell that is in deperate need of upgrading, and I much prefer the physical book too reading off a screen, but I do see the appeal since I’m having to sleep on the couch as my room is filled to the brim with books. It’s like a second hand bookstore in there.
Welcome to the club. Luckily enough, my bookshelf is sufficiently deep for two to three rows of books, making it look like not THAT full, but it begins to be crammed in there.
On today’s strip matter, I don’t really see the appeal to capture every moment of a trip, but I can see one advantage: you don’t need to wait for an hour before reviving your favorite ride…
yeah, bookshelf cramming can be a problem, dralou – i’m now using my bookshelves mainly for hardcovers, and have had to store my softcovers in boxes in the closet.
i’ve just recently gotten into reading on my iPad, Noramil – i still prefer reading physical books, but when you have nearly eight bookcases stuffed full of books, the appeal of having a digital library increases. heheh. but, yeah – there’s nothing like the feel, smell and heft of a real book in the hand.
Yeah, holding a book is usually all I do when I first buy it. Just th feel of the familiar. Though I did get one of the first Nooks a few years ago, but it just never seemed to work right. I’m hoping I can trade it in for a newer one, but I don’t have a local Barnes & Noble. We don’t even have a book store.
I don’t take a lot of pictures of anything. But I do have a bad habit of recording snapshots of my moods on Facebook. I do at least try to stay off Facebook when I’m in a bad mood, but if I’m feeling strongly about something, I feel like I need to record the moment. Kinda weird, when I stop to think about it…
I do like the idea of simulating the roller coaster, though! I love roller coasters, even though I have this…thing…about heights.
I don’t take many pictures either, which is weird for two reasons. 1: I’m a new-ish father (3-year-old son) in the digital age, where cameras are in everything, and we’re expected to make animated gif flipbooks of our children’s first everything. 2: Like you, I’m also a writer. You’d think I’d document things a little more closely instead of relying on memory and conversation.
heheh. i like the idea of capturing snapshots of your moods, T – that actually makes more sense to me than recording entire theme park rides!
and i love roller coasters, too. not too many at Disneyland, though, but Magic Mountain and Knott’s Berry Farm more than make up for that.
It does help when I’m trying to remember what happened on a certain day, especially with all my days running together at the moment with massive amounts of overtime being logged (51 hours in two weeks…BUH!). I go back through my timeline and track down the day I have in mind, and can usually piece together the day’s events from what I posted.
You and Drew from lefthandedtoons both ended your comic with “Whee!”
I’M.
JUST.
SAYING!
ha! more geek hive mind at work, E. A.. i nearly went with “WOOOO!” but “WHEEE!” was funnier to me. 🙂
My phone has a Camera in it. I dont remember ever using it.
I use my phone to call and message people.
heh. i wish i had your discipline, Maryz!
I sometimes have to do this with something that I really want to watch, but instead have to film. Perfect example – tomorrow is the kids’ piano recital. I usually video them so my parents (who live in NC) can see. But that means that I don’t get to enjoy it as much as if I were just watching it! But yea, occasionally I have to remind myself “Why are you filming/photographing that? Are you ever gonna look at it again?”
See? That’s different though. That’s family type stuff and it’s important.
yup.
yeah, there’s no way around that, Shanna – you’re obligated to record that stuff for posterity! and i, too, wonder “why am i filming/photographing that” instead of just “experiencing it” all the time!
The only time I really saw much use of recording video at a theme park was at Puy du Fou in France – which isn’t what you might think of as a theme park, there being no rides! It’s a historical themed experience, with shows (naturally you would record video there) and mock up historical towns with pretend inhabitants, which I could definitely see the attraction of recording!
The other time was when we went to a theme park here called Camelot, which recently closed down permanently, and my friend took video on most of the rides on the last day as a memory, because he can’t go on them again now. I see that one. I wouldn’t understand doing it as a matter of course, though.
that sounds supercool, Maia! it’s like a whole town full of historical cosplay! if i make it to france anytime soon, i’ll have to remember to put that on the visiting list.
and, yeah – i totally approve of recording video as a historical document. i think that’s pretty cool, especially to upload on the web so everyone can enjoy and re-experience it.
Williamsburg, Virginia is like that too. I loved being there and feeling like I had stepped back through time into the Revolutionary War time. 🙂
I will say this…I do like the people who put those videos on YouTube in case I never got a chance to go on the actual ride.
Of course, I bought the Back to the Future Blu-Rays almost exclusively for the included ride footage, so maybe I’m not exactly the target market for this particular comic…
you buying a professionally recorded video to experience the ride makes sense, JOE! i’d rather see the ride that way than seeing it from the POV of someone’s cellphone. 🙂
I don’t do rides or theme parks because, you know, PEOPLE. I’ve had an iPad for almost a year now and the camera has been used almost exclusively to photo/videograph my cats and the rare notable weather event (I have friends in Hawai`i, and I love to freak them out when it snows here in Portland).
If I have a reason for a decent still camera, I’m 1) Admiring the view 2) trying to set up a shot that conveys the depth of said view 3) quacking about low light/too much light/people in the shot/etc 4) Eventually taking a halfway decent picture.
I would never try to record a ride in any way, though. I’d be terrified of losing the device on an unexpected turn or smashing it against the car or something.
i’d fear that, too, Lusus Naturae – just one bad turn could send your smartphone, tablet or camera, flying! and i’m sure i’ll get used to it as i see it more often, but when people pull out their iPads to record things, it still looks ridiculous!
I work at Luigi’s across the way and at Tower of Terror. I have literally watched a woman drop her ipad out of the elevator trying to reach out and take a picture….People are silly where I work. 😀
ha! i was wondering how often this dropping of gadgets happens on rides, ThatRandomChibi! glad to hear that you’ve seen this first-hand. 🙂
as a side note: i’m happy that Disney has made DCA a worthy place to go, now!
I’ll take your replays and up you with actually enjoying the ride for what it’s worth. I whip out the phone for carousel rides with the kids and pictures of us doing something silly or just hanging out. I’m not going to record a ride when I can have my hands in the air and screaming like someone who’s getting stabbed to death. 😛
heheh. exactly, TCG – sometimes you just gotta enjoy the ride! it was funny, i could see the family missing all sorts of stuff on Racers – like the tires getting changed in the mirror, or tractor cars farting – cuz they were myopically focused on their screens!
FUN
yep.
I have only once been to a 5D theatre.. Me and my sister were supposed to watch some cute turtle journey or somthing, but instead it was pirates and battles which scared the shit outta me… Traumatizing for a 9 year old girl… I love pirates now, johhny depp and monkey d luffy!
i always thought the Pirates of the Caribbean ride was weird as a kid, DAS – i just didn’t really “get” it – but now i love it!
I spent a few days in Atlanta in my senior year and we got to go to Six Flags Over Georgia. But three girls in our group couldn’t read a map to save their lives, so we wasted 30 minutes walking in a circle around a giant carasoul until I walked off in the right direction. Oddly enough they were smart enough to follow me. Good strip, and is it bad I can see those 3 afore mentioned ladies doing this? O.O
i think i learned my map-reading skills from video games and theme parks, Anime fan! as you mentioned – you can waste a lot of time wandering about if you don’t figure those things out right away. 🙂
glad you liked the strip!
Um, I was totally one of those people that recorded the entire ride from start to finish. Just instead of a smart phone I used an old fashioned camcorder. I’ll agree that it isn’t as fun watching the videos as it is to actually ride the rides, but I figure that for those people that may never get to go or may never go again it’s a nice way of reliving the memory. Also, in the case of Radiator Springs Racers I only got to go on it once, so I never saw Ramone’s place in person.
If you want to watch my video and make the Cornfather tilt you around in a chair again, here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjm_ERtkke8&list=PL34753FDE7FC20274&index=3&feature=plpp_video
Now if you excuse me, I need to find someone to tilt me around in my chair.
ha! i was hoping one of you BOTreaders would have made a video of Radiator Springs Racers, GB, and you didn’t disappoint – your video actually looked way better than i would’ve expected! and, fortunately, my buddy and i were able to get on the ride twice back-to-back going through the “single rider” lane, and got to see both Ramone’s place and Luigi’s shop. lost the race both times, tho. 🙁
Why thank you!
Are you and Michael as inexplicably awesome as ‘bot and Cornfather?
If so, hanging out with you two must be a blast.
ha! you’d have to ask the Cornfather, Sarah W, but i’d like to think so! heheh. and although Michael (the Cornfather’s real life counterpart) and i have gone to Disneyland together multiple times, i actually went with some other friends for this experience. 🙂
Good Morning BOTIVERSE!
No i do NOT record every single little moment of my life and I think people who do are ridiculous. I do carry my camera with me in my purse just in case but I am not snapping away like a moron so I miss half my life. I do love to take pics while at a party or event (like I will be taking snap shots at Thanksgiving) and I want to see people in the pics, not a bunch of shaky images while I’m people trounced along on a track!
AND WHILE WE’RE ON THE SUBJECT!!!!! One of my biggest pet peeves when people are taking my picture, is when they leave about four feet of blank space above my head! NO! BAD! If you are taking a picture of someone, you fill the picture up with that someone. Not with the other stuff around them. Unless that is the intended shot, a fountain or something.
And Lastly, Just in case I don’t get a chance to say it, Have an HAPPY and SAFE Thanksgiving to all of our US Readers!!!
morning, Pixie!
yeah – i love having a phone that takes decent pics so i can flip it out whenever i need to, but i try not to be obsessive about it! but, yes: lots of Turkey Days pics will be taken of the BOTfamilia. 😉
and thanks for the photo tip! i hate that “blank space” people tend to create, too. i think it’s cuz they think they should put the subject’s head in the center of the picture, rather than filling out the space. anyway, i share your frustration.
yes! happy thanksgiving to all of the U.S. BOTistas and to you and yours, too!
I carry a large DSLR kit with me almost all the time. Superb HD videos are available, but I mainly use it for things like this, my friends, the amazing Segue Sisters, letting rip at a comedy club : http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_hunter/7691110246/in/set-72157630852990472
nice! those Segue Sisters are pretty amazing, indeed. 🙂
and i’ve been thinking about getting a DSLR myself, Gaz! looking at the Canons right now, but will probably hold off until i see how my jobless situation goes.
Let us know how that goes. Also…consider Sony kit too. It is good, and doesn’t carry the brand markup of Canon and Nikon
So true! We live in the past thanks to the iPhone! Oh well, at least we’re living! Excellent strip as always.
Sorry, but based on the pictures I have seen Disney adventure parks make me puke rainbows… However, the use of a camera to replicate a memory is creative.