shepp

The downside to your lens of 'charity as the ultimate good' to me is obvious. You automatically pre judge people as being withholding, and if they don't pass the bill (which they invariably don't) you shame those who don't discipline themselves as much as you do because you broadly paint humanity (outside of yourself) as being withholding. Which is a curious thing -- because its a vicious catch 22 that perspective/assumption. What's sad is that your faith in good works or charity is actually so extreme, its unkind (to those who you deem inadequate) -- which isn't love. So, I question your faith (in good works as being the ultimate good). .... Are you seeing how your attitude keeps you in a loosing streak? enough preaching -- Rant Off. Well, yeah...like I said, you don't know me, so it's really the height of presumption to assume I'm on a losing streak. Neither did I say I had "faith" that charity was some sort of ultimate good. I'll leave it to the Catholics and Protestants to argue whether salvation by works trumps salvation by faith - if memory serves, they've even killed one another over such arcane issues. But y'see, I made a few off-hand comments about faith-based park events, and you, in good Christian fashion, put words in my mouth and decided I'm a loser. I happen to know quite a bit about religious faith and spiritualty: I majored in philosophy in college, did meditation, and am pretty widely read. (Including the works of the Jesus Seminar, which in its scholarly way points out how much of the NT is Just Made Up.) I've also traveled in Moslem, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist cultures, and have read many of their respective texts. I have nothing at all against sprituality, buit when it comes to organized religion, I'm considerably closer to Bill Maher than Pope Benedict Whatever. However, this is all way off-topic. Veering back on topic, I reiterate: it's hard to imagine wizened ol' Saint Paul getting excited about seeing T23D, and I really find it offensive when (as often, often happens) I see some guy in a park wearing a shirt that reminds me I'm damned to eternal hellfire and he's not, nyah nyah nyah. And I still don't get what the connection between the Beatitudes and Six Flags might be. But I've gassed on more than enough, I guess. If you'll pardon me, I'm going to go sacrifice a virgin to Satan...

You first Shepp. Cancel your plans. Be the model human being that you are. My gawd you're baggin on someone half your age but won't put up and lead by example . Well, a) we're talking about a gathering of people who adhere to a faith in which charity is the ultimate good. Therefore, one would expect that they would above all Do Good Works, even if it meant giving up a ride on Jaws. I'm quite aware, though, that many (not all) Theme Park Christians are part of the fundy-ish Salvation By Faith crowd, and they figure what they ride or don't ride doesn't affect their chances of salvation, just what they believe while they ride it. and b) With all due respect, you have no idea what I do or don't do. I'm not a Christian, though, and so feel as de facto exempt from Christian do's and don'ts as Christians do from Levitical dietary laws. I will say, though, since I done been challenged, that in my life I've put in literally thousands of hours of volunteer work for organizations I've believed in. And I didn't vote for the ostentatiously Christian fellow in the White House who put waging war over building levees. Also, c) As I've said before, folks: please keep it in church. Christians who insist on wearing "You're going to Hell unless you believe in Him"-type T-shirts - complete with gory pix of the crucifiction - to theme parks are making themselves every bit as pushily offensive as I'd be if I wore my "Jesus Lives - Vampires Never Die" T for a day of coastering.

I have to confess being both puzzled and put off by Christian days at themeparks. I'm sure that blood-sacrifice spirituality and "Blessed are the peacemakers" has something to do with shooting MIB aliens and enjoying the obviously pagan hoop-de-doo of ROTM, but for the life of me, I can't imagine what it is. (Aside, that is, from competing definitions of "airtime.") I mean, if you guys were really putting "faith 'n action," wouldn't you have canceled the trip and sent the money to New Orleans? Oh well, I'm sure your youth leader loves the references to LSD in your TR. Going to SFGAdv to ride KK - now that's an act of faith.

Front row of the GL Villain in a pelting rain...ridiculous, painful fun.

^ I've been to PGA and PKD, and I thought the theming at both was desultory at best. The finest theming? In ways big and small - from the tiny details at Port of Entry to the grand sweep of Poseidon's Whatever - IOA. Of the other parks I've been to: parts of DAK are as cool as IOA...but not all of it. And I thought the theming at BGW was overrated.

Knott's Perilous Plunge used to hold a record or two. Anyone know if it still does? In any case, it was pretty cool, but the post-accident restraints made boarding glacially slow and detracted from the drop. Personal favorites: Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges (IOA) Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls (IOA) Splash Mountain (WDW) Escape From Pompeii (BGW) Splash Mountain (DL) JPRA (USF) And in the water park category, I found those giant-funnel Tornados to be big fun.

Chalk up another one for DisneySea.

^ When I rode S:UF, I was prepared for really heavy Gs in the loop, but I found it nothing much, really, and over in a second. Certainly not up to Goliath. Actually, the most sustained, grueling Gs I've ever experienced on a ride was on Mission:Space.

Going for "Attractions," not "Coasters," I slotted in some "my favorites of their kind," though it was the old apples-and-oranges thingy. 1. MF 2. KK/TTD (they[re really pretty much the same shtick, no?) 3. Nitro 4. S:ROS (SFA/DL, haven't been to SFNE) 5. Hulk 6. Alpengeist 7. Spiderman 8. Drop Zone, PKD 9. Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges (sorry, but I love that ride) 10. T23D, USO

^ Actually, Nitro's helix is pretty intense, though not up to Goliath standards. I asked this on another helix thread, actually: Who really, really enjoys intense-G helices? I mean, I've learned to endure 'em, but to me, the best part (especially on Goliath) is the release of coming out of them...

Yeah, it's almost supernatural how lousy the Medusa ops can be...acting like getting the ride going is something of an afterthought. Sad but true, though, SFMW's coasters are themselves something of an afterthought. When I was there last month, the crowd was mostly smaller kids and their parents, and they're more likely to go to the whale show than ride V2. This year's expansion was hands-on dolphin and sting ray exhibits, while Zonga remains, it seems, SBNO. I happen to enjoy SFMW, but then, I can easily spend a half hour just watching the walruses. I doubt the frequent cruddiness of ride operations is due to official Six Flags policy rather than a matter of local management and the nature of the local pool of hireable teenagers, and I've found most of the employees dealing with animal attractions to be good-to-excellent. And the rides? I hate Medusa's parking lot, but I know that attempts to keep Zonga running were made (unlike PGA, which just ripped out a Schwartzkopf and left it to rot), and it's not really SFMW's fault that SLCs like Kong are crummy or that V2 is, by nature, a troublesome beast. Or, for that matter, that zoning height limits are strictly enforced. That said, anyone expecting SFMW to be a good coaster park is bound to be disappointed. It's more a second-tier version of SeaWorld, and those of us not PETA members can enjoy it for that. More generally, on a recent trip, I found the ops at SFA and SFGAdv more friendly and on top of things than those at PKD, but part of that may just be the luck of the draw. And, really, nothing can match the ops at Disney and IOA...they should send the Medusa ops to do boot camp duty at the Hulk.

IOA, because it's such an amazing environment. I love lingering around Jurassic Park at closing time and then making my way slowly out of the virtually empty park. Strictly for ride walk-ons? Obvious ones: CP and SFGAdv.

Wow, you gotta love it. Wrestling With the Devil singlets, Hail Mary Pass footballs, Sacred Blood paintball gear, and, course, Loaves and Fishing rods...

^ I seem to recall queuing in a single-rider line for Test Track a while back that moved so slowly it didn't save me any time at all...

Have you actually ridden KK? I found the OTSRs really minimal, and certainly not "ride-killing." The giga-rockets are about speed, height, and postive Gs, and I can't see how Ka's rather spacious restraints impinge on any of those...

Well, yeah. I was just too tasteful to mention his name. You can Google your way to, um, well...let's just say "wood" has more than one meaning in parts of the coaster community.

Actually, I was making use of a guest membership at Gold's, just a-workin' out, when who should appear in the weight room but a certain ex-ACE honcho/pornstar...That dude's got muscles...

Y'know, that sounds right, too: a little alternate universe where you have to go through metal detectors at the gate, and the only aim is to have fun. Sounds good to me.

Hmm..thought of another possibility on the gay thing. Lots of folks like in one way or another to challenge themselves physically, but hypermasculine team sports - a primary outlet for many straight guys - has not been particularly, how shall we say, gay friendly. (I myself hated team sports, but managed to complete a couple of marathons, running only aginst my own goals. 26 miles in under four hours. Hurt worse than a Togo.) So certain other areas of physical exertion, notably dance, are more-than-statistically-probable gay. Maybe coastering also fills that push-your-body-to-the-limit thing, but in a way that gay men don't find as daunting (or closeted) as the NFL. Or maybe not.

Speaking as one of TPR's Designated Homos (and a svelte 6 ft, 170)... I've wondered about the gays/coasters thing myself. And here are some possibilities I came up with: Coaster fans are not all that disproportionately queer, it just seems that way. Which is to say that the rest of the world is a lot queerer than many straights suspect, but that coasters and theme parks permit more out-of-the-closet behavior than corporate boardrooms and Mormon church socials have room for. Or, yeah, perhaps more than our share of us are getting airtime. In that case...maybe... 1) As been noted here before, there aren't many females on this board..and maybe they're underrepresented in the enthusiast community as a whole. (Anyone have a gender breakdown of ACErs?) Therefore, a male/male couple like me and my honey are more likely to agree to travel 3000 miles to ride Nitro and Alpengeist than most het couples. (Just to be scrupulously fair, the first time we rode PGA's Top Gun and SFA's Penguin's Blizzard River, it was by the luck of the draw alongside lesbian couples.) Or 2) Queers are just more likely to be sensation-seekers on the whole. God knows my, ahem, sex life has been a lot wilder than my straight sister's, for example...perhaps affectional adventuresomeness correlates with seeking other forms of physical thrills. Or 3) We're allowed or doomed or lucky enough or whatever to retain a certain charming immaturity. (You know, the Peter Pan syndrome.) Hell, as you can see, I''m ready for AARP, and instead I'm riding Kingda Ka. This is Behavior Unbecoming A Mature, Responsible Man, n'est-ce pas? Corollary 3a) We're more liable to allow ourselves to do silly kid-like things like join coaster clubs or stay up all night writing overlong TPR posts. Or 4) Queers are, as a group, just cooler on average than hets. Excepting, of course, the straight folks on this board.

In sorta fairness to SFMW...Zonga was not only rough, but from the first it was often closed because (I understand) of problems with the lift hill tire thingies. And PGA is no great champion of ride maintenance either, having yanked out a Schwartkopf shuttle loop and a Vekoma flyer within the last few years. Having said that...the choice really depends on what you're looking for. If you're just in it for coasters and prefer steel, I'd say it's pretty much a tie: Medusa vs. Top Gun, essentially. (PGA has more coasters, but a number of them are prototypes for rides later done bigger and better elsewhere.) If you prefer wood, no contest: SFMW. Theming? Paramount has pretty much undone most of the theming from Marriot days, and what's left is pretty weak. I find parts of SFMW very pleasant, especially around the animal areas, but Jesus, couldn't they at least paint over the parking lot lines beneath Medusa? The real difference is "other." I've had a SFMW pass for the past few years in part because I enjoy looking at animals more than watching bad shows at PGA. Once past the rides, SFMW has decent killer whale and dolphin shows, really cool walruses, a good tiger show, you can hand-feed giraffes and dolphins...stuff like that. But PGA has added an inpark waterpark, so if you prefer lazy rivers to elephants, go for it. (Another perk of my SFMW pass is free admission to SF's standalone waterparks. Tornado rocks.) Neither is an unmissable park, but - especially since the closing of SFWOA, which shipped a lot of its beasties to SFMW - MW's combination of rides, aquatic shows, and land animal attractions is pretty damn unusual. And, I think, nice.

Funny, because I had a good time on GASM. I boarded expecting it to be awful, and it was such a torture machine that there was really nothing left to do but brace myself and laugh a lot through gritted teeth. 'Course, I didn't lose any hemoglobin...

Oh, yeah. Forgot about Jaws, which is particularly cool (or hot) after dark. Those people at USF sure know how to blow things up.

Yeah, nobody should go on Steven Tyler right after they've eaten.

I was making a (weak) pyro joke on another thread, and that got me to wondering... What are people's favorite uses of actual flame-type fire on an attraction? I guess I'd go with ROTM and Escape From Pompeii...