Monday, November 21, 2011

Casual Racism, Minxes, & Raging Against The Machine

Before I get to talking about what I did during the middle of this month, here’s some things saved over from the last blog which I wasn’t able to fit in there.

• If you’ve seen the Mitsubishi ad talking about Normal, Illinois (where they have a big auto plant), yes I do recognize some of the shots from the days when I was there, mainly the downtown area which is right by the ISU campus.
• For a few days there my Internet was acting strange. Some sights loaded at the usual speed, but others wouldn’t. Thus, one site in particular I wanted to download podcasts from and I wasn’t able to as the download speeds were so slow. I got mad so I complained about my Internet provider on Twitter. They actually found my tweet and replied! That wasn’t expected. I told them things were fine and indeed, eventually things returned to normal. At the time, I was pretty aggravated, though.
• While I was driving to see the Bears vs. Lions game, I was on 436 and I came to a stoplight. I noticed the light was green but one lane of cars wasn’t moving. I was able to pass by that blockage and saw that a minivan had its front hood up; I presume engine problems. The people behind that minivan weren’t able to figure out that car was broken down? It was quite a bit away from where you’re supposed to stop for the stoplight. Typical Florida idiocy, I say.

Now, onto the events of this past week. Monday was dull-aside from me getting a much-needed haircut-so I’ll skip ahead to Tuesday. It was actually a day of note. Much of that day was pretty terrible. I won’t go into the details why, as it was nothing serious. It was just a day that wasn’t good. Not even a great new treat from Planet Smoothie could keep me in a cheery mood. They have a new peppermint drink there and it’s da bomb, yo. I highly recommend it.

Things did manage to improve once I got to the main location of the evening, which was the Brick & Fire Pizza & Pasta Parlor, the Casselberry location. I unfortunately got there late so I only participated in parts of a big trivia contest; if I had gotten there in time AND been in a better mood, I know I would have crushed it and helped my pals win it all. One of those pals had a birthday on that day and as they don’t live around Orlando I only get to see them once in awhile. It managed to be a fun time there, especially when the trivia contest ended and conversation was had between the group and the trivia host, a gentleman who is a local independent wrestler by the name of Simon Sez. If I would have been in a better mood I might have been more willing to go to a karaoke bar located near Kissimmee. No dice on this night, though. Maybe one of these days I will. No matter what I know I won’t have to sing, so that is a positive.

Wednesday was dull but Thursday I was able to do some things. No, none of them involved that new Twilight movie. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… the popularity of that franchise will always be a mystery to me. Instead, I was able to have dinner in the Sand Lake Road area. For the first time in a long while, I ate at O’Charley’s restaurant, which has good food. I just hadn’t been there in ages because the last time I was there, it was with someone else and the service we got was dirt-slow and just not good. This time I was solo and the service was fine. The lady bartender had an interesting personality but at least she was nice. A British chap who was also at the bar referred to her as a “minx”; I don’t know about that, but I had their cherry limeade, which was pretty great and better than the overrated one you get from Sonic, which is an overrated place in general. I also had their chicken tenders, which were pretty darn good. After that I stopped at the nearby Pinkberry, where I had their new peppermint yogurt. That is also some great stuff.

Friday, nothing happened so I’ll mention the highlight of Saturday, which was returning to the local Buffalo Wild Wings for the first time in a month and a half. I went there to watch the latest UFC pay per view. The first two bouts on pay per view were fine, but the final three… pretty great in their own ways. The entire show was quality stuff, and I say that from watching the pay per view fights plus the four fights they showed on Spike TV. That main event was an all-time great fight, and I’m not exaggerating. The final two fights in particular the crowd there at BWW was into. I manage to have a pretty good time there, consuming Pabst Blue Ribbon and watching the fights *and* the college football action. If only I could have enjoyed things better… but I had to deal with Troglodytes most of the time there.

A variety of people ended up sitting by me during the time I was there. Some of them were fine (despite them being smokers; then again I do expect that because I sit outdoors at BWW; I am able to accept that but I will NEVER accept having to deal with dumbass idiots, no matter the circumstances); others were real bores. For example, there were some loudmouth UCF fans who were griping about how their football team was playing. Then again, I guess I DO understand how UCF fans would be angry with their football team. The way they’ve played the past few years, it’s understandable to be pissed off by how inconsistent they are and all the stupid mistakes they make. They left long before the game was over with. It was good on their part as they ended up losing. Soon after they left the seats were filled by some real bro types. One guy just didn’t sound intelligent and he proved my initial impression. He seemed to be anti-Brazilian, as the final two UFC fights were Brazilians vs. non-Brazilians, and he didn’t care for the South Americans. The semi-main was Wanderlei Silva vs. Cung Le, and he was rooting for the guy he referred to as “Chinaman” and “Jackie Chan”! Those are direct quotes, by the way. Of course, Le is Vietnamese, but who cares about that, as to that redneck, all Asians are Chinese. Unfortunately it’s not the first time I’ve been in Florida and heard some white trash refer to any sort of Asian as Chinese! Typical. Like I said, I’m never going to accept having to put up with people like that.

Sunday, I went into Orlando and stopped at a Barnes & Noble in the area before going to Friendly Confines to watch the Chicago Bears play against the San Diego Chargers. I wasn’t sure how the game would turn out as San Diego is so inconsistent. It turns out, it was another exciting game. The Bears were able to win 31-20. It was an uneventful time at FC. No griping to do about idiots there. Awhile after I got home, though, I found out that the Bears star QB, Jay Cutler, got hurt during the game and he’ll likely be out the rest of the year. That was news which made me sad. Hopefully they’ll be able to win games with another QB in there.

I’ll be back next Monday, the 28th. For the upcoming week, besides the obvious on Thursday there will be such thing as me going to see the Bears play against the Raiders, a team that I thought they’d beat before the injury but now things aren’t as certain, and my annual trek to the Central Florida Auto Show in Orlando. Thus, I should have plenty to write about for the next blog.

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