Day 174

so today gets a placeholder image, but its an awesome one.


SPOILER THINGY

this story may be long and if you want me to tell it to you in person, dont read on. alan, i imagine you'll want to hear it in person. john yam, if you read on you'll unfairly find out what you will eventually own.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

if you dont care or only skim and missed the warning (and this chunk of text), read on.


that is my sister, stephanie, and myself riding the cyclone for the first (and last) time. the cyclone, for those out of the loop, is a wooden roller coaster built in 1927 on Coney Island in Brooklyn. it may look like its the most horrifying thing of all of time ever, especially a) given steph's dislike of rollercoasters (despite looking the calmest in this photo) and b) the looks of utter terror in the faces of my sister and me, but really it just hurts. as in, it is painful. the drops and curves are great by my standards (ie good belly-flips, distance, etc) but hot holy balls of shit its the most painful and rough ride i have ever witnessed. i was strapped in TIGHTLY and still got air at times which may sound funnish but really its like being tossed around with a box of boulders.

but...dammit...i've done the cyclone before they closed it down. i have the bruises, shirt, and photo to prove it.

fast forward to literally AS we were leaving the park. we ran back to the coney island arcade for steph to buy a thing for her sister (she missed her birthday coming to visit) and walking from the arcade to the train i saw from across the road the biggest damn ninja turtle you've ever seen. Ever. unless you've somehow seen a parade with an inflated on or a float or something. its plush, the height of my sister, and bigger in a few ways than i am. you'll see. so i point it out to my people and we go over there. i get sucked into the game by one of the dudes running it. the premise of the game is there are three pool balls and a little golf tee in the middle of the three and you have to move the tee completely out of circle surrounding the balls. simple. catch is you have to do it 10 times. if you miss, you have to match the pot (it starts at 2.50. if you miss, you give them another 2.50. if you miss again you add five. a classic exponential increase). i was in too deep before i figured out the squirrelliness and managed to go hook line and sinker after he offered me a "sweet deal". he said, after a few rounds of going for it (having completed 9 out of 10 tee-knocks) he said, first, he'd give me my last pot add back since i hadnt shot yet. i shouldve. i walked up to the thing and i think he knew i was about to take him on his deal because he said look take the shot and even if you miss i'll give you the turtle. for some reason i jumped. i took the shot. KNOWING it was bullshit. ignoring that if i took it and missed i paid a gagillion dollars for a stuff turd of a ninja turtle. granted i'd have paid half a gagillion dollars for Nothing had i bailed, but trust me...this is the most expensive damn turtle ever. and i certainly dont mean by its construction value.

its a big sham. if you wanna know why, ask me.


here, in a very rare instance of more-than-one-photo (not since day 3 of electric lion), here is me with the gigantic turtle, courtesy of my sister's phone, as well as one from my phone of my sister and her roomie with the thing on the train. it takes up far more room than a normal person on the subway car.









ps i took photos today with rollei and lomo. only all the lomo ones wont come out because im an idiot. sweet.




[ED]

this is denny the night before at my sister's party