Allyn Fratkin's Home Page
[IMAGE: Allyn's Face] Welcome to my home page.

If you're looking for my web sites on Roller Coaster Images, Disneyland's Lion King Celebration, Digital Cameras, or Hoover High School, check the top level of this site.

I work in San Diego, California for a large computer peripherals manufacturer that wanted to remain nameless.

But I don't actually design any products myself. I'm a UNIX System Administrator. My business card says my title is ``Systems/Networking Engineer''. What that means is that I install file servers and operating systems on UNIX boxes (servers and workstations), handle web activities (web server, proxy server, searching, etc.) and have a passing knowledge of networking. I've been doing more-or-less the same thing since July, 1988.

Listen to a sample of my voice in wav (141K) or mp3 (39K).

My wife, Teri Fratkin and I bought a house in June, 1996. Here is a photo of our house.

We were married on May 20, 1995 on board Royal Caribbean International's Sovereign of the Seas (cruise ship).

Wedding photos:

Here are some of the things I am interested in...

Roller Coasters

[IMAGE: Batman: The Ride] This is Batman: The Ride at Six Flags' Great America in Gurnee, Illinois (outside of Chicago). It is the original Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) inverted roller coaster. There are identical copies of this ride at Six Flags' Great Adventure in New Jersey, Six Flags' Magic Mountain in California and a mirror image version at Six Flags over Mid-America in Missouri.

I've taken several photographs of roller coasters, which I have on display on my Allyn Fratkin's Coaster Images web site. You might see my images on the various coaster WWW sites mentioned below, and other places around the web, too.

A sampling of coaster links:

And you can read the on-going roller coaster discussion on the USENET news group rec.roller-coaster.

The official rec.roller-coaster ftp site, elvis.rowan.edu has over two hundred roller coaster images (including some of mine) and also includes park reviews and user-contributed track layouts for Disney Software's Coaster program.

Disneyland

Disneyland is one of my favorite places to visit. I also enjoy visiting Walt Disney World, but with Disney World on the other side of the country and Disneyland 75 minutes away, you can probably guess where I spend most of the time. My wife and I visited Disneyland Paris back when it was still called EuroDisneyland and we made it to Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea in 2003. This means we have been to every Disney theme park except Disney Studios in Paris.

Disneyland Favorites:

  • Food: Bengal Barbecue's Banyan Beef Skewers (spicy)
  • Attraction: Indiana Jones
  • Parade: Lion King Celebration

The official Disneyland WWW site has lots of great information not easily obtainable elsewhere.

For Disneyland recorded information, call +1 714 781 4565. To talk to a live operator, call +1 714 781 4560.

Extensive (unofficial) Disneyland information is also available on the WWW.

I have a cyber-tribute to Disneyland's Lion King Celebration parade with lots of images.

I also highly recommend visiting Yesterland, a tribute to Disneyland attractions that are no longer with us.

Walt Disney World in Florida, Tokyo Disneyland in Japan and Disneyland Paris in France also have extensive, official home pages.

Cruising

[IMAGE: Sovereign of the Seas] Cruising is a great way to take a vacation. It's like staying for a week at a hotel that goes from place to place! And the food is fabulous and the service is excellent. Contrary to popular belief, cruising is not outrageously expensive; in fact, cruising compares favorably in price to land vacations (when comparable food, lodging, service, etc. are factored in).

Cruising is a relaxing way to spend a vacation and cruise ships go to all parts of the world. There is an endless supply of activities available on cruise ships and at the ports of call (cruising is more than just sitting around stuffing food into your face). Cruises vary in length from 3 night weekend cruises to over 100 nights on a world cruise. If you haven't cruised before, give it a thought for your next vacation. Almost everyone that tries cruising really enjoys it. (Six out of six first-time cruisers surveyed on one of our recent cruises said they were now ``hooked on cruising'').

Teri and I have taken ten cruises: Premier Cruise Lines' Star/Ship Atlantic; Royal Caribbean International's Sovereign of the Seas, Radiance of the Seas, Adventure of the Seas, Vision of the Seas, Viking Serenade (twice) and Nordic Empress; Disney Cruise Lines' Disney Wonder, and Crystal Cruises' Crystal Harmony. Our most recent cruise was a 7-night cruise to the Mexican Riviera aboard Crystal Cruises' Crystal Harmony. We don't have another cruise planned yet, but we hope to someday visit Alaska and the Panama Canal.

Sovereign of the Seas (shown above) was the largest cruise ship in the world when it was built (1988) and set a new standard for the ``mega'' cruise ship. In the last few years, new ships much larger have been built, including Carnival Cruise Lines' Carnival Destiny, Princess Cruise Lines' Grand Princess, and the world's largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean International's Voyager of the Seas. Each of these ships has several sister ships.

Our favorite ship is Royal Caribbean International's Radiance of the Seas followed closely by Adventure of the Seas.

Here are some cruising related sites:

Cruising... It's not just for old people any more.

Net Surfing

Here are some cool pages I've spotted in my net surfing. These are sites that amuse me or reflect my interests and you can learn a lot about me just by looking at the list.

Thanks for stopping by my home page. As Apu would say, ``Come again!''

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allyn fratkin <allyn@fratkin.com>