Board 8 > How many prizes can I win at the fair?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Bottle Up -- day nine of ten.

Buddy and Duwana are there -- again, they appear aggrieved when I arrive. You know the pattern pretty well by now -- call me Mr. Green, ast like they don't want me to play but will then encourage me to give demonstrations and encourage me to come back when there's a bigger crowd, etc. -- but there was a fun moment during this.

A dad and two boys of his were playing the game, and the older of the two boys was doing better than the other two people. Now, sure, he was holding the string and breaking the one-hand rule so he could get the ring onto the bottle more quickly...but he had the lift and push pretty well, which is kinda hard for someone his size. I tried to coach him a bit about how to keep the rod pushed forward, but I stopped after a bit because I needed to be mindful of a balance here. I would have loved to help this kid win, but also I would have felt bad about this coaching opportunity pressuring his dad into spending significantly more money than they intended in pursuit of this tough game for beginners. I give him a few pointers and try to show by example a few good steps to take, but I realize I'm doing this at the risk of appearing like a plant or something and step away. Similar situation with another woman wearing tiedye -- try to show a few pointers and advise a moment, but it's not my moment they're playing with and I want to be mindful for them in that way too.

So, I get asked to come back later and I oblige -- I'll help them in that way and I recognize I'm playing both sides a bit on this issue. I don't mind showing people it's possible and encouraging people to play the game and win, but I also don't want to white whale anybody. There's a line here somewhere.

Anyway, I take a little walk around and talk to other local vendors and game-runners to pass a little time.
---

Maybe you mentioned it earlier but is there like a weekly pass for the fair or have you been paying $10 a day every day to go?

ShatteredElysium posted...

Maybe you mentioned it earlier but is there like a weekly pass for the fair or have you been paying $10 a day every day to go?

Thank you for asking -- this was a learning opportunity I forgot to mention a day or two ago when it was mentioned to me.

Yes, they do have passes. I never knew these existed before, so no I do not have one -- it has cost $10 per day for most days, with the exception of the time one of the people at the entrance gave me a $3 coupon to discount my entry. I asked them when they sell these passes and they didn't have a clear answer. I asked them how much it would cost and they didn't have a clear answer for this either.

But I want one next year.
---

Here are a few people I spoke with in my little stroll:

There's the guy who ran Break the Bottle.-- you know, throw baseballs at upside-down beer bottles and win a prize. This guy looked as callous as a guy cleaning broken glass all the time should look, but I got to talking with him and he's alright. I see he keeps a tarp on the ground and I ask him if that helps him clean each night, and he's like oh yeah. Good idea. I was going to play to try to win a Squirtle plush -- miedium-'ish in size, eighteen inches tall or something -- but that counts as a large prize and I know I ain't getting it. I ask about these little plush flowers nearby if they count as the small prizes, and he says nope -- large. I ask him what the small prizes are, and he points to a blue tub full of book covers -- BOOK COVERS. Plain, green, wordless, humorless book covers wrapped up like they're Pop Tarts. I was already done at this point, but then two kids came up and one of them paid for one throw. The kid hit a bottle pretty good, enough to spin the bottle around and lift it up from its holder for a split second...but it didn't break. The kids walked away and so did I.

There's the guy who promises kids 99 years old and younger are guaranteed to get a prize...already forgot what the prize was, but I didn't want it and I didn't want to pop enough balloons with darts to win the Sonic toy either. He was telling me he used to work the Big E, which is supposed to be one of the biggest fairs in the nation. By my memory of his description, basically it hosts 2,500,000 people when it's around since it's basically an epicenter for a lot of the northeast states at once. Sounds pretty rad!

There's the guy and woman running that air-rifle-shoots-out-the-red-star game. The woman compliments my Mega Man religion shirt but she's working harder so I'm mainly talking with the guy. He's new to the game and has been running it three weeks. I ask him if anybody won so far today and he says a kid won earlier today. I ask him how many people have won in the three weeks he's run it and he acts like he's counting in his head before saying twelve winners. I watched that video about carnival game scams -- I don't trust this guy for a second. I ask him if these pellets hurt and he tells me yes. I ask him if they could kill me and he shrugs. "Maybe, if it hits you in the Adam's apple." I tell him I ain't getting involved then since I have a big Adam's apple . We laugh and I walk away.

There's the guy who has you throw balls at three blocks standing up on each other. He offers me a free throw and then he takes about a minute to explain his suggestion of the best spot to throw -- between the bottom and middle block -- and how I shouldn't throw too hard to keep my toss manageable. I throw once -- drilled the top block. He gives me another throw and I knock those bottom two off. He's emphasizing how easy this is, but during this time he's also adjusting the blocks in a way that I don't think was very natural of the blocks. It's hard to describe...but okay, I get if you rotate the bottom block that the above blocks will rotate too, but something about the way they rotated, wobbled, and returns to their same place in a slightly-weird way made me not trust it. He tells me it's $5 to play and I say I'm good. His face drops to a skeptical scowl and goes "Oh, of course." Boo this man, boooooooooooo.
---

There's the new guy who replaced Jury for a night at Toss the Ball in the Bucket. We talk a second but really I don't remember the conversation so much as the kinda-sorta-teardrop mark on his face -- I can't tell if it's an inmate's tattoo or a birthmark.

There was another game of throwing darts at balloons to win. I'm mainly noting this game because the woman running the game was the cutest of the women I've seen running games that were in a fairground uniform here..Aaaaaaaaye.....

There's the guy running the cork gun shoot-out game. This guy was my favorite of the night. Allan drives trucks for the fair and this is just his third day running a game. Basically, you fire corks at beaten up cans -- some move, some don't, and you get bigger prizes if you hit a popsicle stick-looking thing instead. He's excited to be out here and he seems to like the prizes he's got -- there was a decent-looking Joker plush that would have been fun to win. My aim with guns are worse than me drunk with a thumb on a waterhose, so I ask him dumb questions awhile. "Do you need a gun license to play this?" "Does the Second Amendment forever guarantee my right to play this game?" "Things like that. Eventually, I tell him I'm gonna see if I can win a prize but I'll try to be back.
---

We're back to Stand the Bottle. I pay, I win a prize my first try, whatever.

I've eyed this sloth all week -- it's one of my favorites, but also it's the smallest prize there. I finally caved in though and got it.

New thing I noticed from this evening: like Duwana did the other night about swinging the bottle around, Buddy can straight-up spin the bottle around to do 360s. What?! I spun it successfully for a 180 once before standing it. They also play a lot faster than I do, and while I can go faster I'd rather be safe with my money -- it's why my accuracy's roughly the same as theirs. Still, these people are good in some ways this game doesn't allow them to show. If they were playing this 180-version of the game, I wouldn't be having this topic right now. Whew!

I go back to Allan at the cork-game and he laughs. I try to hit something and fail on all counts. He throws a snake my way for playing -- a tiny one, not like the other three monsters I've won. I guess everybody gets a prize at this game.

As I'm leaving for the night, one kid went "WHOA, COOL SLOTH!" and asks where I got it. I tell him and his friends know about Bottle Up, and he asks me if it's actually possible to win. Uh, yeah, you see my sloth brah? I take it further and show him all the prizes I've won at it this past year. They're stunned. I leave saying "Give it a shot if you want to!"
---

TONIGHT IS THE LAST NIGHT

What's left to do guys, help me out. I might have some people with me this time.
---

Time to show off by winning while imposing some silly handicap on yourself.

---

I'll tell you an idea I had but didn't prepare properly for and would have been too hot for.

I have a fat suit I've wanted to use for something for years. I wanted to shave and use the suit to see if I could fool them into thinking I was a new player. However, I'm pretty sweaty just carrying these animals and I would have been soaked or dead if I wore that here. I'm not making my friends or an ambulance carry me back like that.

But it would have been sweet for a picture.
---

redrocket posted...

Time to show off by winning while imposing some silly handicap on yourself.

Make sure you throw out some line about only using 1% of your power before.

Good calls. I've decided on a handicap: I'm gonna do it while balancing on one foot.
---

HaRRicH posted...

TONIGHT IS THE LAST NIGHT

What's left to do guys, help me out. I might have some people with me this time.

We need photos of the Bottle-Up team obviously.
---

I think you should tell them about this thread.

I might be able to get a picture with them...but realistically I think a lot of workers in that occupation can feel too seen, so to speak, so I don't know if it's gonna be a particularly nice move from their perspective. Think of that three-block guy I mentioned from my day there yesterday, for example.

I'll play that suggestion by ear and see if it seems like an okay move.
---

Oh, one funny thing from yesterday: turns out this fair is going to Georgia next. I asked Buddy where at in Georgia and he didn't really know it by town. I asked him if it was north or south and he guesses south. Then I say it: "Great, I'll tell my brother about it. He's better than me."

The response went something like "NO! NO! NO NO NO! NO WAY!"
---

About that time.
---

http://imgur.com/a/j0AMdRe
http://imgur.com/a/Dewtpgv
http://imgur.com/a/sjubPJD

Last night.
---

Are all of these still hanging out in your house or have they already been dispersed? Because if you still have them all obviously a pic must be taken with them all.
---

I eagerly await the tales of your one-footed opus.
---

mnkboy907 posted...

Are all of these still hanging out in your house or have they already been dispersed? Because if you still have them all obviously a pic must be taken with them all.

I've still got them.
---

My friend Maggie stops by the house to carpool. I casually invited her Friday by asking if she wanted to come along today because "I'm trying to win some prizes." Nothing more, nothing less. When she came over today, however, and saw an entire room full of huge prizes staring her down...well, she was stunned. She started to question why I invited her over, but only for a minute. She laughed and talked about how weird this was to see -- partly because of the collection, and partly because some of their eyes seem drugged all the way out. She's a good friend and we riff all over this situation.

We stop for food and parking first, and this place is the busiest I've ever seen them. I can't park in the back and have to resort to side-parking. We order, eat, get free hush puppies -- the works -- but then when I ask about parking passes they say they're too busy for a free one today and they'd have to charge $5 again for it. Whoa, hold on, that wasn't what Melinda or Bosseck said before, but I didn't get to speak to the manager today and had a friend with me so I left it alone. There's five extra dollars...bah.

We walk to the fair and they scan us for dangerous weapons -- they can't check me for the way I destroy Bottle Up though, so we're good. As we get past that part, one of the fair-workers stops us and asks if we'd like two free tickets. We look at each other and are immediately like "Uh, yeah, that's be great." We skip the purchasing line and zip right into the fair, saving us twenty dollars.

Next up: finding two other friends.
---

Greggory and Michael are brothers -- I never met Michael before, but he seems like good people.
Greggory and I go back and it's always fun to cross paths again. It was his idea they join Maggie and me tonight -- he's heard about my stories and was like "I've GOT TO see this."

We have to find each other since we arrived at slightly different times. Greggory calls me and says they're at Bottle Up now and don't know their way around. I tell him I know exactly where he's at and we're on our way from the other side of the fair. I was thinking he would hear "I know exactly where you're at," but instead he heard "we're on our way from the other side of the fair"....so we end up crossing paths at the middle point between us. It worked out, whatever.

Michael is a golfer Reddit might call an absolute unit. He got some undetermined-food-on-a-stick from a vendor, and then he ate it faster than I could see him pour sauce on it. He's cool -- we talk high school sports awhile and how he's enjoying living with his sister.

While Michael gets his food and Greggory gets a drink (Orange Julius...?), we all see this rope ladder-game. Greggory talks about how impossible that game is and I chime in about how online videos express how difficult this game is to the point of fitting a scam. Maggie then insists she's ready for the challenge and she's ready to overcome the odds. Now, she dances and I trust she's god a sense of balance and core strength about her, but I also know she doesn't recognize how much the game's set up to be against her. Still, I walk with her to watch her play while Greggory and Michael get their food.

Surprise -- didn't go well! To her credit, she had a weird ladder that had weird spacing on its rungs...but also, she didn't get to the weird spacing parts of it either. She blames the ladder and I laugh at the excuses. Good effort at least.

I ask them what they want to do at the fair tonight. Maggie shares she never liked fairs or rides, but she wanted to get away from work awhile and is glad to be on this unexpected adventure. Greggory and Michael are just like "Dude, we're here to see you win."

So we go to Bottle Up.
---

The fair is the most packed I've seen it. It's a hustle to get through the crowd -- we're stuck behind people, slipping between people, getting caught up with other people my friends know -- it's a lot of people. I realize along the way I've become the de facto fairground tour guide. "May here makes deep-fried Milky Ways, can you believe that? Yeah, she even sprinkles them with powdered sugar!" "Check out Allen -- he drives their trucks. Funny guy." I've come to realize that I don't know that I've made friends per say, but I've heard a lot of their stories here and have enjoyed a lot of the people here. Go to your local fairs and talk to people!

So we arrive and Bottle Up is crowded. They don't notice us for awhile. I tell my friends Duwana and Buddy are likely to throw some shade, so be ready for it. Duwana, as expected, acts shocked that I would show up. Buddy straight-up ignored me when I was talking to him face-to-face twice. As Greggory was telling some mutual friends later, "I can confirm. HaRRicH is that dude. They were ghosting him. It was amazing."

Eventually, Duwana and Buddy get me to demo some bottle stands with them synchronized swimmer-style. Both times we tried this, we each missed it the first time but got it the second time...so in a way, we really were synchronized.

I let some more people play a few minutes while we figure out what prize to get. I told Greggory a few days ago he and his pregnant wife will get one of my prizes since she's about to have their first kid in about two weeks. He sees this giant dog and he asks if I can win him that. I nod -- "just let me take it home first for some pictures, then I'll deliver it your way later in the week." Greggory agrees, understanding the bounty-business I'm collecting here. He gives me $10 in cash...but I don't know if he knew the prices or more likely was trying to tip me, but he's about to have a kid and I want to show them I can do it with just $5 so I give him $5 back. I'll let him buy my try for this though -- muchos gracias.

Maggie tried to pull a Stamps-move and trick them into letting her play while I then go up and take her place, but they were too busy to care much this time. They've seen this trick before too. I go up and chicken out on the one-foot challenge -- other people's money was on the line and I couldn't get the game-runners to pay attention long enough to see me stunt on them. After I stood it up and won on my second try though, I then did a bonus stand. This time, I stood on my left foot and balanced myself while I balanced the bottle. First try -- mission accomplished.

It was fun to notice they were just going to let me and my friends play on the side as much as we wanted to. We had a corner of the booth to ourselves and we each took some turns with it. They've stopped people from doing this in the past, but they're with me. I'm showing people how to stand it and they're holding a giant prize, so I think between that promotional opportunity for them and how busy they were with the other sides of the booth, they didn't care.

We take pictures and laugh awhile. We've got a little more walking before this evening ends.
---

We walked around awhile and we found Ring the Bell. You know the game -- you take a hammer to the base of this device and try to hit it so hard it rings a bell at the very top.

Greggory challenged Michael to give it a go, and he was immediately like "Really? Yeah, I'll do it." He walks right up and pays $5, then goes to the biggest adult device to play on. He takes his hammer, banishes this device with this hammer, and rang the bell evry single tine he hit it. Michael says the trick is to use your abs in the swing, but while that may be true the probably has more strength than the three of us other people combined. Michael then gives Greggory the prize available: an inflatable blue hammer. They could have better prizes here!

We eventually split paths and go home. Maggie and I go back and fit the new doggo in for a group picture of me with the animals. We make Harry Potter innuendo jokes awhile, but then I remember I barely know anything about Harry Potter...so I have a drink and write my first update about this night while she and my roommate continue these jokes.

Life is good.
---

http://imgur.com/a/lRc13H8

Amazing grace,
How sweet the sound.....

Hi, I'm HaRRicH. Each year, your state hangs about thirty animals every time there is a Bottle Up booth.

I once was lost,
But now I'm found.....

These are innocent animals, filled with love and joy plus cotton. For just seventy-five cents a day, you can sponsor me to continue saving as many of these gentle creatures as possible.

*sad piano*

Call now.
---

That's a lot of new friends you have!

And to close out this A+ topic... today's highly relevant Pearls Before Swine!
http://synd.imgsrv.uclick.com/comics/pb/2019/pb190917.gif

Maybe you just hacked life...
---

So many giant animals!
---

Nice comic.

And yeah, the most exciting part of the topic's over, but I have another thing planned before we close this bad boy down. It might take until later this week though.
---

How are you distributing the prizes?

---

You saw a few pictures of how I'll be hauling them.

If you mean how I'll be choosing who gets what, there are a few theatres and social work groups thst do auctions each year to raise money. My $20 last year turned into $120 for one of them last year -- hoping to helo a few more like that this time.

For the kids, largely the kids of my favorite parents but I might shake it up somewhere in there if I know a sad story.

There's an older lady I'll give one of these to -- she used to be my landlord and when I gave her one last year she gave it to a kid later who had a broken leg. I may save one for my grandma too if I can't think of a better gift for her in a month...we'll see how it goes for giving these all away.
---

A quick post-mortem:

Cash spent: $260.20* ($26.02* average per day)
*not counting the $1-$11 per day I spent parking and eating at the restaurant nearby...probably a $6 average, so ~$320.20/~$32.02

I expected to spend about $250 at the fair -- eating beforehand every day broke my expectations for budgeting though. Oh well -- I was gonna eat anyway.

Cash just on entry fees and Bottle Up: $147 ($14.7 average per day)

I beat the $15 average expectation ($10 entry fee + $5 for two tries) due to free tickets and Greggory sponsoring me that final night as well as a $3 discount on the entry fee one day.

Total stands with money on the line: 10/16 (62.5%)

Times the bottle stood up on the first try with money on the line: 6/10 (60%)

I used to be able to stand the bottle 90% of the time, but real talk this percentage in a live setting is probably within 10% of the game-runners' numbers.

HOW DO I SAVE MONEY NEXT YEAR?!

I see some ways to improve my numbers next year:

The foolmo technique: just don't go. Not an option, because...

The sponsor technique: ...I think I can find people who'll pay me to win prizes in future years. I have pictures to market this now and can get people to see this is a fine deal in the future!

The frugal technique: don't spend money anywhere else in the fair but the entry fee and Bottle Up. This will be a very good policy moving forward and it will be easy to at least trim down.

The git-gud technique: learn more carnival games and win more prizes per day. Nah, I'm good love.

The season pass technique: find out about this season pass and see how much lower I can get entry fees than $10 a night (though my average this year is really $8.70). I don't know how big the savings for this would be yet.

The confidence technique: I would have saved more money if I would have done $3 for one try every time instead of playing it safe with $5 for two tries every time. $3*16=$48 VS $5*10(+$5*2)=$60.

The practice technique: I really didn't practice much leading up to this -- I waited until more or less the week of the fair opening to get my reps in, and I goofed around some practicing through the week but really I could have prepared better. 62.5% is impressive, but I could do better.

---

Gifting these out beginning later this week.
---

I think you'd enjoy mastering the ladder
---

I just need a spinny ladder and a soft landing spot now.
---

So why did your father pick this game of all things to give you intensive training in?

---

https://worldchannel.org/episode/sfts-rocky-top-remembers/
(about ten minutes in)

Basically, Dad and his friends got demolished by a carnival-worker in the 1980s. They decided to recreate the game at home and train on it the next year to get revenge, which they all successfully did.

Maybe twenty years later, I got wrecked at the carnival over this game and complained to my parents about the experience. Dad knew he still had the game he trained on years ago and gave it to me, effectively creating a legacy to uphold.
---

Here's a video of me telling my dad one of his favorite jokes in recent times for his birthday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLqApxV7xoA" data-time="

COULDN'T KEEP THE RING ON, WHATEVER

He'll also get a gift card or something.
---

Amazing. This is something straight out of an anime.

---

Good wrap-up

I also think you'd enjoy mastering the ladder because it feels like there are more ways to get style points on the ladder. You wanted to do a one-foot bottle stand, but I think there are tons of different ways you can do a "challenge run" on the ladder, and I know you are someone who cares about style points.

I do understand that it 100% requires you building a ladder to practice on AND you don't have the legacy of your dad so it's different in those two ways but yeah.

Also IMO try some disguises that you take off after you win. There's a reason "It's me Austin" and "It was me, Dio" are memorable memes. Disguises are awesome. Just don't get your kneecaps broken by the carnival mafia.
---

I almost tried a fat suit! Didn't commit though.
---

Glenn_and_Toad posted...

It was me, Dio

do you know the context for this at all?
---

I barely recognize that meme.
---

Might be giving away the first prize tomorrow.
---

Gave the first gift today!

Meet Marissa. I got permission to take a picture, but I forgot to ask her mom if I have permission to post a picture of her too...so for now, we'll just have to deal without it. She's in seventh grade, and she and her single mom are both cool. I've mainly gotten to know them over the years through my roommate, so I decided to let them come over and have their pick.

What was already set aside was:

Blue snake
Pink snake
Black dog
Gray sloth

They were over before I got home so I didn't get to see their reactions to the room of animals. It is my understanding though that Marissa said some words of shock that got her in trouble from her mom.

Regardless, she loved so many of them but inquired mostly about the snakes. I said the blue one was taken and I have a company in mind for the pink one. She was like "Good, I want the green snake." She then named it Beetlesnake, like Beetlejuice but with snakes.

She then proceeded to curl up with this monster of an animal. Turns out it's not just a body pillow -- if you're not so tall yet, it's a blanket too. She fell asleep surrounded in plush while watching Spiderman: Enter the Spiderverse (it was my first time watching it -- awesome movie). I think she likes it.

Nine more prizes to go.
---

More like nine more chances to feel warm and fuzzy inside. For you, your lucky gift recipients, and your readers - it's a win-win-win!

And yes, Spider-Verse is well and truly awesome.
---

My heart has been sufficiently warmed

---

Another update tonight!
---

Oh, because she thought the world was going to die in a few years, I forgot I asked Marissa to write out a top ten list of things that would kill us off.

Her list:

1) Geese (PREACH)
2) The apocolypse
3) Global warming (original spark for this list)
4) Turtles
5) Our Yorkie named Chauncey (too innocent)
6) Radioactive spiders
7) VSCO girls (apparently they talk annoyingly)
8) The aliens from Area 51
9) Christian white moms named Karen (really?)
10) All the animals my roommate Anton has eaten/killed (he sometimes slaughters his own food)
---

http://imgur.com/a/Ojr2jKd

Meet Greggory and Lauren. If we took this picture two weeks from now, you might have also seen Richard.

Greggory was with me the final night of the fair and also paid my turn to win this prize. He was nice enough not to mind when I asked to take the prize home for a few days so I can photograph all my prizes together.

The three of us have enough mutual friends to keep in touch and always be cool, but we don't always get to hang out lately so it's been nice to reconnect again.

I learned today dude is a yo-yo BOSS. I never knew this about him! He's just slanging strings around with Monster Hunter streams in the background while we talk about the greatest puzzle games we've played in recent years. We might not see eye to eye on rankings (he's on Team Witness > Braid while I'm on Team Braid > Witness), but we like a lot of the same ones when we play them. He didn't know about Stephen's Sausage Rolls, and I just bought Baba Is You after talking about it awhile.

Lauren jumped into the conversation with mad love for Fez...except for one force-lock puzzle late in the game. I never was as much into the game due to its movement speed and control, but it's a great premise and it has a lot to like about it.

Anyway, they have their baby room set up for the most part and they have animal stickers they're about to add, so this doggo's gonna fit right in. All the room's missing now is Richard.
---

Giving a new gift tomorrow...!
---

I just bought Baba Is You after talking about it awhile.

Good choice
---