Entries this day: astroworld_pics astroworld_sneak_preview soml_13-mar-1998

astroworld pics

These were taken while I was at Astroworld during Season Pass Sneak Preview day on 13 March 1998

There are 9 pictures about 74k each, so chill for a second.
If they don't come up, you can click on an image to view it.
These images are all available here

This shows the first two loops of Taz's Texas Tornado. The white one is first, and then the black one immediately after. When you ride, be sure to sit up straight through these loops, as the shoulder harnesses ratchet down pretty tightly.
I estimate these two loops (plus their entry and exit) give 800 degrees of loop. The train completes both loops within 15 seconds after it completes the initial ascent. They are so fast and smooth that I could not tell where I was when I rode with my eyes closed.

On the left of this image are the other two loops on the ride. They are much more evenly spaced, like at 30 and 45 seconds of the full 60 second ride time (not including ascent).
The second of these loops (smaller and further away) is pretty much a corkscrew and jerks toward the left as it exits.

Clyde Drexler and friends before riding. Before she got on, the woman was asked (off camera by someone in line) "who are those kids?" She said, "um, well, I think... um.. I have no idea."

Clyde and them after riding. After the obvious questions, Clyde said, "it was good," and "no, I think once is enough."

This is near the very beginning of the ride, between the lift and the first drop, which is visible just to the right of the right hand rail.

I have no idea where on the ride this is.

I think this is taken from within one of the first two loops. The "top" of the picture is toward the right. That white rectangle is the roof of the station.

This is one of like 30 universal joints on the drive shaft that drove the booster wheels to pull the train to the top of the first drop.

This is the Tornado next to the initial drop of The Viper (with a tunnel around it). I loved Viper when it first came out, and I still do. But Tornado is like Viper times 4.
The rides are literally right next to each other.

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astroworld sneak preview

11:11pm Friday 13 March 1998 (full moon and lunar eclipse)

I went to Astroworld today for the Season Pass Sneak Preview and rode Taz's Texas Tornado 21 times. Twenty-one. I rode the very first time it ran that night because I was the very first one in the park and first in line with Jennifer and Karen, who I met while we waited for the park to open.

I rode it essentially 9 times in a row (had to get out, go around and get back in line each time) and then the line was longer than waiting for 1 train cycle so I got my season pass processed.

During those 9 times, I was next in line for the ride when none other than Clyde Drexler (*) got to glide in front of everyone and do a photo shoot with two kids in the front seat. After the pictures, he squeezed his tall self into the seat and rode 1 time.

I took pictures from my side view of him and all that. Then I got to ride in the seat that he rode in. I'm not a huge fan, but there was some implicit prestige with that spot.

I took pictures from on the ride and got in trouble with Kevin and I'm sorry about that but I'm glad I got the pictures. Maybe (just maybe) I'll get some scanned and put them on here.

So I went and got my season pass processed and came back but the ride was temporarily closed during rain so Jennifer, Karen and I chilled and rode the Mayan Mindbender 3 times consecutively (did not have to get out). I took a picture while inside that ride (I'm a slow learner); I hope it comes out! (It's an indoor ride and I used a flash).

Then we rode Dungeon Drop once and wanted to ride Excalibur, but *no one* was there to ride it and the operators said we had to get 25 people before we could ride!! How ironic that there were too few people in the park!!!

Back to the Tornado where we rode 4 times consecutively without changing seats and then Jennifer and Karen left and I switched seats between each ride (did not have to leave the station) for a total of 21 rides. The last ride was full of park employees and I was in the front left seat, exactly where I started that night. It was the last time the train ran that night! Awesome.

(*) Clyde "the Glide" Drexler is a professional basketball player for the Houston Rockets.
He has just signed on to be the head coach for the University of Houston Cougars.

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soml 13 mar 1998

12:30am Friday 13 March 1998

Some years ago I heard the President's State of the Union address and I thought it would be cool if I wrote State of My Life addresses in my diary.

They go something like this:

Friday 13 March 1998
STATE OF MY LIFE

1. I am flat tired of living with Wende but I'm too fucking scared to tell her because I don't want to break her heart.
   (This is probably the 1 thing I needed to get off my chest; how ironic that I can tell the whole world but not Wende. I'm not really telling the world, though; almost no one visits my page anymore. Well, except for you, and I appreciate it.)
2. I have been King of my I-Group for the past 4 weeks. This coming Monday we will be meeting at Dave and Buster's instead of at our normal place.
3. I learned that Manda, one of my ex-girlfriends, and actually the one ex-girlfriend I think about most, was in a major accident, but walked away physically unscathed. I haven't actually talked to her about it, but heard about it from her mom.
4. The disk drive on my computer goes into sleep mode every minute or so, even if I'm working on it and typing and stuff. If I'm in a bad mood, it further pisses me off to have to wait for it to cycle back on. See? it just did it again.
5. I have just gotten back into gymnastics class; I think I wrote that in a previous entry. The first night I started, I was able to do round-off back flips. Big tall ones.
   The next week, I was able to do round-off back flips and punch fronts (front flips).
   The next week, I worked on the runway trampoline on back handsprings and was able to do them pretty well, and I even did some back handspring back flips. Cool.
   Currently the gym is closed for 2 weeks so they can move to a bigger facility next door.
6. My stretch in I-group was to spend some money on myself. That week, I purchased an Astroworld Season Pass, and I am way excited about it.
   The coolest thing is they just built a new coaster that has 4 loops!!! I am so excited that I might go on opening day, which is tomorrow!
7. I need to get some new glasses.
8. I would like to spend more time on myself... more time writing on my webpage, more time meditating.. but for some reason I just haven't been doing that. I cite Wende living with me as the reason I don't, but I'm not sure that's a good reason. I don't know what the deal is.
9. At work, I just finished the latest version of invoice_lookup_server, and I am really proud of it. The main addition I made allows it to read information from an RDB (Relational Database) using SQL (Structured Query Language). I have designed it so any query can be made on any database, and the format of the output is pretty darn flexible. New queries may be added, and existing queries may be changed without a coding change. All of the queries and formatting are defined in text files and can be changed no problem.
10. At work, I am supposed to begin working with Allen on a project, but I'm not looking forward to it because Allen is a dork and the project requires changing some old old old crappy crappy crappy code. It's a monster program written in PL/1 and I'm not happy about working on it.
11. It's 2:34am.
    I wrote the above 10 entries and just now spent almost 1 hour separating my 1997 and 1998 journal entries into two directories. I feel good to have gotten that cleaned up.
    My next goal will be to rename the 1997 entries. Realistically, I may never do that.