Sunday, October 16, 2005

Enthusiast Thinks He Catches Sister Snoring

According to coaster enthusiast Dan Wise, 36, there is widespread suspicion afoot that his sister Rebecca, 34, might have been snoring while he was describing his coaster exploits to her over the phone.

"See, I called up Rebecca last night to tell her about my awesome trip to Pennsylvania to go to PPP and Dorney," said Wise. "She seemed a little surprised to hear from me, since I forgot to call for her birthday, and my nephew's birthday, and went to ride coasters in Florida instead of going home last Christmas, but whatever. So she asked how I was doing, and where was I living since she hadn't heard from me in a year, and naturally I told her about how many rides I got on Phoenix, and how hard I bashed some kid on the bumper cars, and how Hydra's Revenge was a lot more rattly than most B&M's and therefore kind of disappointing, and then...."

At this point, Wise scrunched his face up before continuing:

"And then right around the part where I was describing how much better the fourth row of Steel Force was than I expected, because of that cool shelf where you can rest your feet and all, I heard this odd sound. A relaxed rumbling sound. I called out Rebecca's name four times, and every time the rumbling sound continued, until the last, when she said 'Wha? Huh? Oh, yeah.'"

According to Wise, his suspicion that his sister was uninterested in his exciting and important coaster conquests led him to brusquely hang up on her.

"I'm not talking to her again until something really important comes up," said a disgusted Wise. "Like if one of us ends up in the hospital, or if I think that new Intamin at Six Flags Great Adventure rules and I absolutely have to share it with someone right after I get off it. No one disrespects me like this and gets away with it!"

--JCK

Monday, October 10, 2005

Deal of a Lifetime

It's not every day you come across an offer like this.

The New York New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas is currently offering the following spectacular online deal:

-An all-day ride pass for the loathsome Manhattan Express coaster
-An all-day pass for the Coney Island games area nearby
-A Manhattan Express souvenir photo that you'll ever view again out of fear that they it will remind you of the seizures the ride caused after it bashed your brain to smithereens
-Something the New York New York website calls a "Manhatan Express" t-shirt; we aren't sure whether the webmaster is unable to spell or if all the shirts have "Manhattan" spelled wrong, but rest assured that even one ride on this horrible coaster will most likely leave you unable to mentally process any written language ever again, so it probably doesn't matter what the thing says)
-A meal that consists of small fries and a coke, along with one hot dog or a slice of pizza
-And finally, for no apparent reason whatsoever, a clown doll

All for the low, low, low, low, low price of a mere $40.00!

Dang, why would you want to go to Islands of Adventure for another ten or fifteen bucks, or Cedar Point for another five, or maybe Holiday World, Knoebels or even, if it came to it, any random Six Flags park for less?

Anyone with the balls to advertise this "deal" online with a straight face deserves our respect, our admiration, even, yea verily, our Site O' the Weak award.

--JCK
DAFE Hard at Work on 2006 PPP Costumes

There is no rest for the weary. Two days after taking home another first-place award at the annual Phoenix Phall Phunphest, this time for their costume as the Knoebels' Shooting Gallery, the D.A.F.E. (Dark Ride and Funhouse Enthusiasts) started work on next year's get-up. Founder Steven Suggs said, "This is all that really matters. I don't go out socially, I don't exercise and if need be I am celibate. All of my time and energy is focused on one thing -- winning."

The D.A.F.E. have racked up a number of awards since first entering the contest several years ago. Whether dressed as rooms from the Knoebels' dark ride or as Whispers regulars, the group has constantly taken home the blue ribbon. Suggs said a large part of their domination is due to the lack of competition. "Sure, we work hard," he noted. "But, look at what's out there. Cute kids, Medieval Wenches, Fascination?! You have to be kidding me. Those chumps in black shirts and Devo hats can't hold a candle to us. They obviously haven't spent every Saturday night since July focused upon costume completion."

Tina Yothers, the only woman in the Fascination gang, defended her design efforts and her group's lack of nerdiness. "Yes, I only spent one day shopping on the costumes, but is that really such a bad thing? Don't brag to me about your utter lack of a life, Suggs."

Yothers is quiet about her groups plans for next year, but promises that they will blow D.A.F.E. away. Suggs insists that is not the case and said that his group will again remain supreme. "We will win. If that involves me not blowing up Sally, my inflatable woman, from December to February, then my God, that's what it will come to."

--FMB

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Bandwidth Thieves!

The kind folks at the ECC have declared us bandwidth thieves for linking directly to their pictures. Actually, we're using less bandwidth than their requested alternative -- linking to the full page, which will load every single one of the pictures for the day -- and we weren't including the images themselves in our stories (which would genuinely be bandwidth thieves).

In any event, we really don't want them to have to block all referrers, so we've changed the links below to those of the full report pages from the relevant days. ECC folks: we won't link direct to your pictures again, so you can unblock other referrers if you like.

Monday, October 03, 2005

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Friday, September 30, 2005

Buck-Fifty Spent

No, ladies and gentlemen, the website for Go-Karts Plus Action Park is not a child's website design project that received a failing grade. It wasn't created back in 1995 by someone and forgotten. And it (probably) wasn't created by accident when chimps escaped the zoo and banged randomly on a computer in an internet cafe before being tranquilized.

Nope. This appears to be the actual, real site for an actual, real amusement center that is currently operating. Yikes.

Oh, we love all the spinning things. We love all the tender care that must have gone into building the site, all three or four minutes of it. And we sure love crappy spinning clip art, yes we do. Especially when the website draws attention to the crappy spinning clip art by thanking someone "for the 'cool' animations he has available for free" and claiming that "[w]ithout his 'stuff' our site would be a snooooooze!" And we also love that the website advertises that the management have the idea that someday they might offer some sort of web discount, but, just to clarify, they aren't doing it right now.

By the way, we also love lots of professional-looking swarms of exclamation points and scare quotes. IT'S ALIVE!!!

And hey, if 867,456,235 Visitors (and counting!) have seen this site, then it must be awesome.

In short, we think this is the best corporate website ever designed for a buck-fifty. That's why it's the ARN&R Site O' the Weak.

--JCK

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Enthusiast's Friend's Wife Knows a Little Too Much About Amusement Parks

According to local coaster enthusiast Kirk James, 33, he recently grew very suspicious of his friend's wife. The reason for this newfound suspicion was a conversation he had with the couple, Ricardo and Donna Neywitz, while staying at their house.

"Ricardo and I had just spent the whole day at Knoebels," reports James. "We came home and joined Donna for a glass of wine. Everything was normal at first; we talked mostly about the morons we all have to work with, and I asked them why they keep insisting, against all evidence and taste, that Roadhouse and Red Dawn are actually decent movies. The usual. But then, Donna started asking questions about Knoebels."

This was where, James asserted, things got "freaky."

"I sort of assumed Donna was just being polite and feigning interest so we'd be excited," said the enthusiast. "But then after the general questions about how the crowds were or did we have a good time, she asked if we'd managed to snap the cables on the Flyers. I think I actually spat some wine on myself."

And it only got more creepy from there, he notes. "The Flyers question was weird enough, but it got stranger! She asked how the airtime was on Phoenix, and said 'I hope you rode in the orange train's third seat, right?' And when we told her that Whirlwind had been removed, she said she had hated that coaster because it was 'such a damn headbanger.'"

James has apparently already alerted local authorities to the fact that Ricardo Neywitz's wife has obviously been abducted and replace by an alien or a deadly robot.

--JCK

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Role Playing a Failure

Tim and Amy Fitzsimmons have been married for five years and are looking to start a family soon. To spice up their love life, Amy recently suggested the couple engage in role playing. They agreed to trade off being responsible for each week's theme, choosing the week's concept as well as any necessary props.

Amy says that trial run went very well. "My idea was that Tim was a knight and I was the damsel trapped in the castle. He had on some naughty chain mail while I let my hair down and wore some revealing lingerie. It was some of the best sex we have had in some time," she blushed.

However, the highs reversed themselves when Tim took charge. "Oh yeah, I was ready!" he said confidently. "I knew I had to come through with something special. That's why I felt we should be the hot coaster operator and the enthusiast that wants space at his lap bar. I got her a Beast thong from some coaster site and a Mantis t-shirt I wore when I had my summer job at the Point. All I wore was a patch jacket. I thought it was going to be as hot as California Screamin's LSMs!"

Amy was not so amused. She said that an old t-shirt was not sexy and seeing Tim's gut push apart the vest made her dry up faster than a waterpark after Labor Day. "It just wasn't hot. We could have been lost in the woods, he could have been my pool boy Pepito, or we could have had a threesome with Tammy next door. Instead he chooses to pretend we're banging below a B&M coaster. That's great."

As of this printing Tim and Amy have done some further role playing but she has chosen all of the concepts. She mused that she might let him start choosing themes after Phun Phest, but even then they will have to be approved.

--FMB
Japan Trip Breaking News Recap, Part II

We continue here with our special limited edition collector's leather-bound presentation of the entire ACE/ECC Japan Trip breaking news. If you enjoy the collected headlines here, be sure to read the article directly below this one, which contains the remainder of the recap.

Ed. Note: Those fun-loving folks at the ECC have blocked all referrers. We really don't want them to have to do that, so we've changed the links below to those of the full report pages from the relevant days. ECC folks: we won't link direct to your pictures again, so you can unblock other referrers if you like.


Scandalous Photographic Evidence Comes to Light: Signature Move Not Done Back on Day Three

Richard Nixon Spotted During Browse of ACE/ECC Japan Trip Archives

ARN&R Writers and Editors Constantly Hit Refresh, Praying For Day 14 Pictures

Telly Savalas Replaced as Spokesman for Player With Yourself Club Card

ECC and ACE Members Now Keeping Track of Number of Times They Jack Off to POV Footage

Mysterious Odor Overwhelms Ride Attendants

"That's very funny. Now tell us why you really came all the way to Japan. Our viewers will never believe this 'roller coaster' business."

"What's this stuff all over the lap bar?"

Because Paying $5,000 For One Shithole Wasn't Enough

On Day Thirteen, Signature Move Interferes With Ride Restraint

The Spirit Of Ace, Part III

...And They're Strangely Painting The Stairway to Heaven

Nothing Like Traveling Halfway Around The World To Visit A Shithole

Day 12 And The Signature Move Is Still Going Strong

Who Would Have Thought Shoes Could Get That Worn Out With No Physical Exertion Besides Standing In Line?

Japanese Parks Learn From Six Flags Theming and Landscaping

Steel Dragon, Roped Into Group Picture, Tries to Pretend it Doesn't Know Enthusiasts

Buffet, Lacking Gravy, Sits Untouched

James Woods Falls Asleep On Japanese Coaster

Ratt's Drummer Enjoys New Look

Friendly Local Provides Enthusiast With Sign Reading "I Am A Huge Nerd."

Hulk Mad. Hulk Smash Japan.

"It's Day Eleven, And I'm Totally Committed To My Signature Move."

--The ARN&R Staff
Japan Trip Breaking News Recap

Due to the volume of fanatical support (well, three adoring emails and a girlfriend of one of our writers actually sort of chuckling, or perhaps involuntarily grimacing, at something on the site for once) we've received over our series of ACE/ECC Japan Trip breaking news reports, we've decided to take the unusual step of reproducing that entire series in more permanent form here at ARN&R. Although some of the Japan news will remain in rotation until replaced within the usual Breaking News section, those headlines will also be collected here in two parts for your pleasure through the rest of eternity.

Additionally, the Japan trip breaking news will also be made available in a breathtaking special limited-edition encyclopedia version, in three volumes handsomely bound in rich Corinthian leather and hand-signed by the ARN&R staff. Each set will sell for the low, low short-time offer of $1,345,222.03 per set, so hurry and get this amazing family heirloom while supplies last.

Ed. Note: Those fun-loving folks at the ECC have blocked all referrers. We really don't want them to have to do that, so we've changed the links below to those of the full report pages from the relevant days. ECC folks: we won't link direct to your pictures again, so you can unblock other referrers if you like.


Japanese Parkgoer Puzzled By Presumed American Custom Of Long White Socks With Dark Shoes

"OMG I'm In DDR Mecca!!"

A Sea of Tools

Japanese Park Installs Blinders In Effort To Protect Patrons From Sight of Enthusiasts

So Many Cameras, So Little Worth Photographing

Why Ride This at Wild Adventures When I Can Ride It In Japan?

This Credit Is So Worth $5,000

The Spirit of ACE, or We Travelled All the Way to Japan to Ride Your Kiddie Coasters

The Spirit of ACE Part II

ACErs Ask Buddha Statue For Directions To McDonald's

ACErs Curse Absence of Duran Duran, Metal Ballads on Japanese Radio

ACEr Spends Eighteen Dollars Calling Mom From Japan To Have Her Set VCR To Record Discovery Channel Special

Japanese Hotel Staff Puzzled By Volume Of Sweat, Other Excretions On Sheets

English-Speaking Enthusiasts Quickly Pick Up Japanese Words for "Tool," "Bad Smell," "Loser," and "Annoying" After Hearing Them Constantly During Trip

Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, Gamera, Ghidora, Mechagodzilla, Iron Chef Italian Lay Aside Differences, Launch Full-Scale Attack on Invading Coaster Enthusiasts

Japanese Scientists Report Unusual Increase in Seismic Activity This Week

In Unrelated News, ACE and ECC Arrive in Japan This Week

ACErs Arrive in Japan, God Sends Rain To Deter Them From Staying

In Related News, Japanese Authorities Report Pork Supplies Low

Godzilla Recoils in Terror at Sight of ACErs

Sushi Restaurant Rejects Request for Gravy

Japanese Kiddie Park Goers Puzzled By Wacky "Rowing" Motion While On Kiddie Coaster Lift Hill

Also By Presence Of Grown Adults On Kiddie Coaster

ACErs Refuse To Stop Singing Mr. Roboto

--The ARN&R Staff