Ignorance.

Hello everyone,

A little story that sort of shows the importance of having a passion for something.

I work at Sun Splash Family Waterpark, a twelve acre park in Cape Coral, FL (they are expanding immensely, future for it is exciting). I am on the managing staff. Some friends and I were talking about theme parks in general yesterday (the park wasn't busy at all) and all the sudden one of the lead lifeguards, who around the park is sort of known for being a bit snobby, brought up Iron Wolf at SFGAm.

She said, "Iron Wolf, at Six Flags, is the largest standing roller coaster in the world." Of course I HAD to interject, as any of us would. I said coolly, "Actually, Karie, Iron Wolf was the first modern standing coaster, but the tallest, as well as holding other records, is Riddler's Revenge in California."

She says, "Nu-uh. Iron Wolf is the tallest at 130 feet. They said it on the Travel Channel."
I reply, "Karie, I don't want to argue, but you need to get your facts straight. Iron Wolf is around 100 feet tall while Riddler's Revenge is at 156 feet. Maybe I am crazy but Revenge seems a bit taller to me." Sorry I love sarcasm.

But the next thing she said is what made me mad. She asks, "How do you know that?" and I reply, "Well, roller coasters have been my "thing", along with auto racing, for quite some time now."...and she just has to say, "What a waste of brain space. What a stupid thing to love" and walks away.

Point is, I don't really care if she thought Iron Wolf is the largest, but the last comment almost set me off. I can control my temper quite well but inside I was fuming, because that is an insult to something I love. What do you think? Do you think she has a passion for anything?

You said she's a lifeguard, right?
Is she hot? If so, tell her that one day gravity will be mericless to parts of her body, but you'll still be able to remember stats on racing and coasters.
Then again, if you're in management, don't say that. It's probably sexual harrassment.
;)

Trust me don't let it bother you. Your right she wrong and it upset her. What a super great come back by her. Just ignore it man! We love ya here for you knowledge!

Your company must not provide diversity and inclusion classes lol. She is clearly in violation!

I think she owes you an aoplogy. *IF* she ever does apologize, you can kindly refer her to RCDB.com. Otherwise, shake it off and just count it as your post is titled "ignorance".

In the global scheme of things, what a person believes about a roller coaster is so far from being important to me.

^^^Exactly. She obviously cared about it enough to want to talk about it in the first place and only pretended not to care when she found out she was wrong. The next day, she was probably going around telling people how the Travel channel is giving out mis-information.
*** Edited 6/13/2007 4:44:00 PM UTC by Jason Hammond***

She's probably a compulsive liar or was trying to impress you. She figured you had her pegged so she weaseled her way out of it, hence belittling you.

I think it's sad when people do that to make themselves feel better.

FYI - I LOVE roller coasters! I'm the only one in my office that's a little over the top about them (pictures on my desktop and screensaver and always talking about them). Some people consider that I'm a dork, some think I'm just plain crazy. But, you know what! I don't care what they think. Being at amusement parks and riding coasters is what I enjoy doing and it makes me happy. The one thing I'm looking forward to at Coastermania is actually feeling like I'm not crazy because there will be other people there that feel the same way. :)

Hope that's not TMI.

To be honest, there are much bigger things out there, and I just had to laugh at the whole situation. The last comment, as I stated, did make me angry, but I didn't show it.

I am an extremely sarcastic person and I often win arguments with it, so the whole conversation had a light air to it.

Like I said, I don't care if she thought Disaster Transport was the fastest coaster on Earth, it's just the principle of insulting people because they love something. We all do it, partly because we are all hypocrites. (By "we" I mean humans in general).

And FlyingScooter, she is rather attractive. Tall tan blonde if that's your thing. But she is snobby and her personality kind of ruins it. But in the insensitive way, I don't mind her being around.

Hatham and his Freedom Falafels's said:

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I said coolly, "Actually, Karie, Iron Wolf was the first modern standing coaster, but the tallest, as well as holding other records, is Riddler's Revenge in California."

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For the record it was KI's King Cobra (as first)

From RCDB - Roller Coaster: King Cobra
Status: Operated from 1984 to 2001

But as for the rest - RCDB shows this:

Rank Speed Roller Coaster Amusement Park
1st 65 mph Riddler's Revenge Six Flags MM

Rank Height Roller Coaster Amusement Park
1st 156' Riddler's Revenge Six Flags MM

Rank Drop Roller Coaster Amusement Park
1st 146' Riddler's Revenge Six Flags MM

Rank Length Roller Coaster Amusement Park
1st 4370 Riddler's Revenge Six Flags MM

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Hatham and his Freedom Falafels said: "Actually, Karie, Iron Wolf was the first modern standing coaster,

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It was the first Beemer, but I don't see how you can say it was the first modern one. Are the Togo's somehow prehistoric?

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Hatham and his Freedom Falafels said:

"...and she just has to say, "What a waste of brain space. What a stupid thing to love" and walks away.

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You could have said "At least I have brain space to waste."

But, if she is all the typical Florida blond life guard, it isn't bad to have some vapid eye candy around.

Having a passion for roller coasters is no more ridiculous than any of the other million or so things human beings care about. There are people who spend their whole lives dedicated to mirror re-silvering. My father has one of the best Washington Taylor flask collections in the country. Needlepoint, motorcycles, Gilligan's Island, hermaphroditic octogenerian paraplegic skindivers . . . name your poison. If a thing exists, there is a community of dedicated fans out there.

Unfortunately, any one such community is always dwarfed by the larger community of ignorant morons wandering the globe . . . ;)

Actually, I'm pretty sure SFMM had a Beemer via Intamin or something of very similar design before SFGAM had Iron Wolf so that makes me smarter than allayou WAIT WHAT AM I SAYING you're all a bunch of sad pathetic dorks with no lives or girlfriends. LOSERS.

PS: For those of you who need a hint...:)

-CO

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Jeff said:
In the global scheme of things, what a person believes about a roller coaster is so far from being important to me.

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It's not what someone thinks about "A" roller coaster, but rather the idea that it's a waste to be interested in coasters that's wrong. No matter what a person is interested in or passionate about, they don't like to have someone tell them it's stupid or a waste of time or brain space.

I've had friends and co-workers tell me about things that interest them that don't interest me. So what. I don't consider it stupid, and sometime's it's a good story anyway.

If it were me and she told me that, I would just reply "I wouldn't expect you to understand anyway."

Maybe she was referring the the auto racing. That is a waste of brain space.

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Hatham and his Freedom Falafels said:
And FlyingScooter, she is rather attractive. Tall tan blonde if that's your thing. But she is snobby and her personality kind of ruins it. But in the insensitive way, I don't mind her being around.

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Not my type, but with being snobby, she makes an easy target for headgames. (benefits of an education in psych.)
;) *** Edited 6/13/2007 6:19:11 PM UTC by FLYINGSCOOTER***

LMAO! I never take things like that seriously. I always have friends, one in particular, that makes sure I know about every single accident. ;) She would never get on a coaster simply because she believes half the crap she hears about on TV or otherwise. She scares easily. ;)

I think it's fun listening to the GP while standing in line. Sometimes you want to correct them on things and then sometimes you just have to shake your head and make fun of them quitely. ;)

-Tina

Haha.

Well, pretty much all the lifeguards at work have this "we save lives" ego and it gets rather annoying after a while.

Like I said before, the Iron Wolf thing really doesn't matter, it's the insult that mattered.

And I stand corrected, I mentioned Iron Wolf being the modern to just stay general and not go into the whole B&M/Togo thing. She would really think I am a waste then!

But it is fun listening to what people say.

And Raven, she is a race fan herself, so the insult was not directed towards that. And what's wrong with loving racing? I go to Indycar races all the time.

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Hatham and his Freedom Falafels said:Do you think she has a passion for anything?

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She could have a passion for helping the homeless or doing crack or eating stinky cheeses for all I know.

I have a passion for fashion! No wait, that's Bratz dolls. Nevermind.

I wish I cared enough about coasters to correct people and create confrontation, but I don't. I've overheard, been told and talked at with a million and one pieces of coaster info and never once have I felt the need to correct someone. In the example situation of the first post, I'd have left the hottie just keep yapping.

I think the real question is whether or not you flashed your ACE card as a signal of authority. ;)