...Now That's More Like It!

GREAT GAME YANKS! NOW LET'S TAKE GAME ONE IN PHILADELPHIA!!!

It's Time for #27..............

LET'S GO YANKEES!

Halloween in Atlantic City....

Be here or be square on Saturday night as The Chelsea Hotel, Moodswing 360, and Vine Nightlife present... The Haunted Hotel at The Chelsea designed by Steve Lewis of Blackbook Magazine. Four rooms of fun, live performance by The Chelsea's Angels DJs, guest DJ set by Jockmo Beatz, and Resident DJ LOS in C5, DJ Adi, Supermodels Cassie Steves & Kelly Munz $5,000 worth of give-aways, celebrity DJ's, models, and more... don't miss it!!!!!

I'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!

I booked a well deserved winter vacation to Orlando, Florida for myself this February on my lunch hour this afternoon. It will be my first time back in Orlando since graduating college in 2006. It's gonna be so nice to be enjoying myself in the Central Florida sun for six days while everyone else is freezing in South-Central Jersey.

Thanks to a GREAT promotion Southwest Airlines is running, I'll be flying roundtrip to Orlando for less than $200.00! Plus, BOTH OF MY BAGS FLY FREE!

I fly out of Philadelphia International at 10:25am on Thursday, February 4th and I'll touch down in Orlando at 1:15pm. After spending an amazing six days hitting Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Sea World, and the Universal Orlando Resort I'll be leaving Orlando at 3:50pm on Wednesday, February 10th and arrive back in Philadelphia at 6:25pm.

Now.. what to do about theme park tickets and... where to stay....

What's Happened to the New York Giants?

This was supposed to have been the Giants' get-right game. Sure, New Orleans beat them up last week, but the Saints are an undefeated team that was coming off a bye week *and* they were playing indoors, at home. The Giants spent the week shrugging off that loss and promised to be better this week at home against the Cardinals. The defense promised more blitzing and less trepidation. The offense promised to be sharper. To a man, the Giants were certain they'd come up with a big win Sunday night over the reigning NFC champs.....

and then they lost.

The Cardinals, who, for those playing along, have won the NFC title more recently than the Giants have, beg to differ. And the Giants' next six games are against the Eagles, Chargers, Falcons, Broncos, Cowboys and Eagles again -- teams whose combined record is 20-9. The Giants suddenly look vulnerable. They've succeeded in turning the NFC East into a real race when they didn't have to. And they enter Week 8 of the NFL season with just as much to prove as any other team in the league.

Through five weeks, the Giants stood 5-0 and appeared to be in control of the division. Preseason predictions about the Eagles as a serious threat and the Cowboys as sleeper faded. The Giants weathered injuries, showcased their depth and simply crushed second-rate opponents such as Tampa Bay, Kansas City and Oakland. Safety Kenny Phillips went down. Defensive end Justin Tuck played hurt. Brandon Jacobs dealt strangely with some confusing an undefined emotional issues regarding his running style versus Ahmad Bradshaw's. But it was all okay, because the Giants looked like a team built to handle all of it.

But with Week 7 in the books, the picture looks a lot different. The Giants are now 5-2. The Cowboys are 4-2. And the sad-sack Redskins loss last night at home in Washington to the Eagles puts Philly at 4-2 and ready to host the Giants next Sunday in the first game of a NY/Philly football/baseball doubleheader that is sure to set records for profane Northeast sports fan trash talk.

"Am I concerned?" Tuck asked. "I'm not the kind of guy who gets concerned in Week 7. The last time we lost two games in a row this early in the season, we ended up being Super Bowl champs."

The problem is, this year's Giants team has yet to prove anything. The 5-0 record was a mirage. They opened with a shaky win over a terrible Washington team. They gave up 250 rushing yards to the Cowboys in Week 2 and would have lost but for a couple of dumb late Dallas decisions. And then they rolled three of the worst teams in the league. Now that they're playing teams like New Orleans and Arizona, the shortcomings are showing up:

-The young receivers, Mario Manningham in particular, still drops too many passes. Teams continue to crowd up front to stop Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw, daring Eli Manning to beat them in the passing game. Sunday night, Manning couldn't do it. Sometimes he struggled with his reads with safeties in the box. Sometimes he hit a guy in the hands and saw him drop it. Three times, he couldn't get the play off in time and got called for delay of game. Other than a miracle play on which rookie Hakeem Nicks caught a deflected pass and ran it in for a 62-yard touchdown, the passing game did nothing Sunday night. And the running game, thanks to an aggressive Arizona defense that was determined to stop it, remained stuck in the mud.

-Teams are able to gain yards down the field against the middle of the Giants' defense. Phillips' absence is being felt, as are those of defensive tackle Chris Canty, linebacker Michael Boley and cornerback Aaron Ross. The defense made more plays Sunday than it did the week before in New Orleans, but it didn't do enough to stop the Cardinal receivers and, perhaps more distressingly, rookie Cardinals running back Beanie Wells.

-The punting game was off! 94-year veteran Jeff Feagles had a rotten game, averaging just 34.3 yards per punt. Coach Coughlin took the blame for that, saying he instructed Feagles to make sure to kick the ball out of bounds and away from Cardinals return man Steve Breaston, but Feagles said he always tries to kick the ball out of bounds and needs to do a better job.

It's all part of a weird and surprisingly substandard vibe that our Giants are giving off the past couple of weeks. After two years as a dominant NFC force, they have looked lately like a team that still has a ways to go before we can call it a Super Bowl contender.

And back, whether they like it or not, into a three-team NFC East tussle where there's no clear favorite -- not even them.

Coastering 101

As I said in my first post, I am a roller-coaster aficionado. I've been actively pursuing the biggest and best, the next far-away thrill since the Winter of 1998. Two years prior, I was dragged onto the Runaway Mine Train at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ for a friend's birthday party and it scared me half to death. I vividly remember clinging onto a friend for dear life in that horrible, jerky whirlwind of a ride.

That first ride was indeed a rough one and it took over two years to recover from the initial trauma of the terrifying Mine Train ride. Over the following two years, I overcame my fears and became more and more intrigued by those looping, corkscrewing, engineering marvels and took my first summer job.

Care to hazard a guess as to where it was? Ironically enough, at the same theme park and on the same ride(!) - The Runaway Mine Train at Six Flags Great Adventure.

Over the next four years, I fell in love with roller-coasters. I climbed to the top of the highest roller-coaster at my home park, I learned the ins and outs of the amusement industry, rode the world's oldest and newest roller-coasters on earth in one day, and eventually left my hometown to attend college in theme park central; Orlando, Florida, for Public Relations & Marketing with my mind on pursuing my career in a theme park, of course.

I've had photos published in roller-coaster and amusement park related magazines, I've done countless school projects on the roller-coaster and amusement park industry, contributed to countless fan and industry fan-sites, and I've even had an article published in the New York Times; which can be read here: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/06/nyregion/for-coaster-fans-the-waiting-is-the-hardiest-part.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/A/Amusement%20and%20Theme%20Parks

Over the past eleven years, I've managed to visit 111 different amusement and theme parks in 3 different countries riding a total of 573 different roller-coasters; 454 of which are steel, and 119 of which are wood.

In November of 2005, my father.. who always encouraged and fostered my love of theme parks and roller-coasters not to mention accompanied me on many a park trip.. passed away after a short battle with Metastatic Lung Cancer. I took a break from riding for a while, but after a move to Pittsburgh the following summer, home to my favorite amusement park anywhere; Kennywood (the park pictured above), it re-sparked my love and I began traveling extensively again.

It feels great to be back out at the parks, and I have posted my top ten personal favorites in wood and steel roller-coasters here. I hope you all get to enjoy at least a few of these rides.. because they are all magnificent. Til next time....

Rob's Top Ten Steel Coasters:

1 Bizarro Six Flags New England, Agawam, MA
2 Maverick Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH
3 Goliath Six Flags Over Georgia, Austell, GA
4 Nemesis Alton Towers, Staffordshire, UK
5 Phantom's Revenge Kennywood, Pittsburgh, PA
6 Nitro Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, NJ
7 Montu Busch Gardens Tampa, Tampa, FL
8 Magnum XL-200 Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH
9 Kumba Busch Gardens Tampa, Tampa, FL
10 Millennium Force Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH

Rob's Top Ten Wood Coasters

1 Hades Mt. Olympus Theme Park, Wisconsin Dells, WI
2 El Toro Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, NJ
3 Ravine Flyer II Waldameer, Erie, PA
4 Voyage Holiday World, Santa Claus, IN
5 Boulder Dash Lake Compounce, Bristol-Southington, CT
6 Legend Holiday World, Santa Claus, IN
7 Rampage Alabama Adventure, Bessemer, AL
8 Raven Holiday World, Santa Claus, IN
9 Phoenix Knoebels, Elysburg, PA
10 Thunderhead Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, TN

Expect to see an Amusement/Theme Park Top Ten to follow soon......

Top of the day, Top of the World, Top of the Morning to Ya

Hi, my name is Rob and this will be my little corner of the inter-webs, my Facebook notwithstanding. I wanted a place to really publish pictures and text from my travels, as well as some casual photography I do, with restaurant and music reviews, and my gloating/bitching about my professional sports teams, and whatever else I feel like. Facebook is great for keeping in touch with friends and networking, but for a long-winded person such as myself.. it falls a little short on content. I always have a lot to say though and I look forward to sharing my adventures.. new and old, here.