I know, now much enticement to read this, but at least this is a short one. I really did not do much of anything this past week, aside from a week ago today. I really can't say too much about the new Racetrac gas station that opened about 2 miles from where I live, or how it has a nice convenience store attached to it. Why bother griping about how I honked at a dumbass driver who was acting like a real idiot, even if it happened close to home? It's not even worth it to talk much about how the C key on my laptop was sticky, making typing a real pain, before I finally fixed it last night. I won't even say much about the “steelhorsing” phenomenon that was popular for a few days before dying down, although I think it was amazing that former WWE wrestlers MVP (who I saw wrestle locally before being signed by them) and Matt Hardy knew about it and mentioned it on Twitter.
At least the next blog should be much better, as I plan on going out Saturday night to watch the latest UFC pay per view (the free show they had on FX and FOX this past Saturday was pretty good) and then the next evening I'll be somewhere to watch the Super Bowl; I do not know yet where I'll be watching either.
So, let me talk about this past Monday. I had free time so I was planning on doing something. Unfortunately, due to things beyond my control, my plans had to change. I tried to make the best of it and I went on over to the east side of Orlando for the first time in a few months. I stopped by a MovieStop to look at what new and (mostly) used DVD's they had. I indeed got some as I always do. After that I returned to good old Friendly Confines for the first time in about a month. It was the same old same old there, which is fine by me. I had banana bread beer, which was indeed tasty.
Unfortunately, that is it for me for this blog. I do promise the one I'll post next Monday will be much better, barring anything major negative event happening.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Monday, January 21, 2013
Manti Te'o, Catfish, & Steelhorsing
I'll explain what “steelhorsing” is; basically, a green wrestler who calls himself Steelhorse Vachon here in the Orlando-area CALLED THE COPS on the veteran guy (Tommy Taylor; he used to be in the WWE developmental program) he wrestled in a match on Saturday night because the veteran was pissed at the greeny for being disrespectful so he hit him hard and the retaliation by Steelhorse was to call police. This is all legit, by the way. I'll elaborate more about it later but now I wish I would have been at that show to see the birth of “steelhorsing”, which to put it real nicely is when a wrestler acts like a coward. Except for a few things the week was pretty dull. However, the weekend was rather colorful, as you'll see in the latter half of this entry.
Monday was boring, Tuesday I only went to Winter Garden Village to have dinner at a freezing cold Bojangles (at least their chicken fingers are good, if rather spicy) and then stopped off to get a peanut butter/banana drink known as Hanz & Franz from Planet Smoothie (no girls half my age flirting with me this time), Wednesday was blah, Thursday I went to Blockbuster to rent something and I also got Domino's Pizza (it was good), Friday I returned the movie. Saturday I stayed in to watch free UFC on TV, and Sunday I went to Graffiti Junktion right in Clermont to watch the latter football game on. I saw the first one at home but I wanted to watch the second and also see the ISU basketball game against my dad's school (SIU) and I was able to see both at the same time. ISU kicked some ass, it turned out. It's now brothers coaching against each other and I don't really care either way if Baltimore or San Francisco wins. My time at the Junktion was fine-enough. I just wish the burger wouldn't have come with multiple toppings I did not ask for AND be burned to almost a crisp when I asked it to be medium rare.
Now, let me talk about a few other things.
Wednesday, the news broke about the star college football player who says he was caught in a Catfish-like scam where he was fooled into being in an online relationship with a “girl” who actually wasn't a girl. As it's an MTV show now, I suppose it's fine to spoil things and say that the movie Catfish is a documentary (the validity of which has been questioned; I have no idea if everything you see is 100% legit or not) about a filmmaker who gets into an online relationship and he begins to question things so he drives to where the lady lives and turns out, it's a middle-aged dame roleplaying to forget her crappy life, pretty much. It wasn't quite what I expected when I watched it on DVD and managed to be spoiler-free amongst all the coverage of a movie that perhaps was overhyped by the douche-y Internet movie-watching and reviewing universe, but it wasn't bad by any means. Now it's an MTV reality show and yeah, without having watched a second of it I feel free to question its validity.
Before I forget, at the end the movie does explain why it has the title it does. It's a metaphor and I'll leave it at that. As for the Manti Te'o thing where he told the world his online girlfriend died and it became a huge deal before people discovered a few days ago that the online girlfriend never existed... I have no idea what to think, how much Te'o was in on the scam, or what have you. He looks like a real dumbshit and/or a jackass depending on which version of the story you believe. And people wonder why I am cooling off on sports in general... when it's filled with terrible people like this, it's rather easy to feel that way, you know.
What I promised earlier, if you forgot about it or you never read it, back in early April of last year in a blog I wrote about the adventures of some people who happen to be pals with someone I know on Facebook. I know nothing of those mysterious people except what I heard about them. Basically, it was another Catfish scenario where the guy developed an Internet relationship with some dame and incredibly, it got to the point where they were going to move into a house together and go on a cruise, EVEN BEFORE THEY HAD EVER MET IN PERSON. I kid you not. The link to that is here: http://blairsweeklyblogs.blogspot.com/2012/04/exotic-snakes-people-of-walmart-creepy.html
Saturday, like I said I watched free UFC programming and overall it was entertaining. In the evening at a local wrestling show near Orlando, something strange happened which I had never heard of at all, let alone had seen in person. A greenhorn wrestler who I only seen wrestle live in a multi-person match wrestled a bout against a veteran British wrestler who I've seen many times before and he's quite good. From multiple people talking about it on Facebook, I know that the greenhorn acted like an ass backstage then in the ring he hit hard at one point to be a dick, so the Brit hit hard right back (this is not a rare thing at all at any level of pro wrestling); the rest of the match went alright but the greenhorn was so mad at getting hard, HE CALLED THE COPS. This is not a joke and not part of some bad wrestling storyline.
They had to come by and from what I hear, even they laughed at the situation. Well, a lot of people are now pissed, and for good reason. I don't think that kid is going to be booked on any show worth a damn any longer for the rest of his career. It's just embarrassing to be mad for being hit hard, first off, then he gets butt-hurt and thinks that police involvement is the right way to handle the situation... at least since then various people on Facebook have made many hilarious comments and posted funny pictures concerning the incident. There even is a #steelhorsing tag on Twitter. Like I said, I wish I could have been there live in person. I've seen some rather odd things at these small indy wrestling shows throughout the years, but never anything like this; hell, I've never even heard of such a thing and I've followed the wrestling industry closely for years now. Pretty incredible.
I already talked about what I did on Sunday so let me say that I hope everyone has a nice day today no matter what you do. When I post my next blog a week from today, I don't know if I'll have any wild tales about pals of pals being Catfish'ed or local pro wrestlers becoming a laughingstock across the entire wacky strange community due to their cowardice. Still, I imagine I'll stumble into something strange that I think could only happen to me.
Monday was boring, Tuesday I only went to Winter Garden Village to have dinner at a freezing cold Bojangles (at least their chicken fingers are good, if rather spicy) and then stopped off to get a peanut butter/banana drink known as Hanz & Franz from Planet Smoothie (no girls half my age flirting with me this time), Wednesday was blah, Thursday I went to Blockbuster to rent something and I also got Domino's Pizza (it was good), Friday I returned the movie. Saturday I stayed in to watch free UFC on TV, and Sunday I went to Graffiti Junktion right in Clermont to watch the latter football game on. I saw the first one at home but I wanted to watch the second and also see the ISU basketball game against my dad's school (SIU) and I was able to see both at the same time. ISU kicked some ass, it turned out. It's now brothers coaching against each other and I don't really care either way if Baltimore or San Francisco wins. My time at the Junktion was fine-enough. I just wish the burger wouldn't have come with multiple toppings I did not ask for AND be burned to almost a crisp when I asked it to be medium rare.
Now, let me talk about a few other things.
Wednesday, the news broke about the star college football player who says he was caught in a Catfish-like scam where he was fooled into being in an online relationship with a “girl” who actually wasn't a girl. As it's an MTV show now, I suppose it's fine to spoil things and say that the movie Catfish is a documentary (the validity of which has been questioned; I have no idea if everything you see is 100% legit or not) about a filmmaker who gets into an online relationship and he begins to question things so he drives to where the lady lives and turns out, it's a middle-aged dame roleplaying to forget her crappy life, pretty much. It wasn't quite what I expected when I watched it on DVD and managed to be spoiler-free amongst all the coverage of a movie that perhaps was overhyped by the douche-y Internet movie-watching and reviewing universe, but it wasn't bad by any means. Now it's an MTV reality show and yeah, without having watched a second of it I feel free to question its validity.
Before I forget, at the end the movie does explain why it has the title it does. It's a metaphor and I'll leave it at that. As for the Manti Te'o thing where he told the world his online girlfriend died and it became a huge deal before people discovered a few days ago that the online girlfriend never existed... I have no idea what to think, how much Te'o was in on the scam, or what have you. He looks like a real dumbshit and/or a jackass depending on which version of the story you believe. And people wonder why I am cooling off on sports in general... when it's filled with terrible people like this, it's rather easy to feel that way, you know.
What I promised earlier, if you forgot about it or you never read it, back in early April of last year in a blog I wrote about the adventures of some people who happen to be pals with someone I know on Facebook. I know nothing of those mysterious people except what I heard about them. Basically, it was another Catfish scenario where the guy developed an Internet relationship with some dame and incredibly, it got to the point where they were going to move into a house together and go on a cruise, EVEN BEFORE THEY HAD EVER MET IN PERSON. I kid you not. The link to that is here: http://blairsweeklyblogs.blogspot.com/2012/04/exotic-snakes-people-of-walmart-creepy.html
Saturday, like I said I watched free UFC programming and overall it was entertaining. In the evening at a local wrestling show near Orlando, something strange happened which I had never heard of at all, let alone had seen in person. A greenhorn wrestler who I only seen wrestle live in a multi-person match wrestled a bout against a veteran British wrestler who I've seen many times before and he's quite good. From multiple people talking about it on Facebook, I know that the greenhorn acted like an ass backstage then in the ring he hit hard at one point to be a dick, so the Brit hit hard right back (this is not a rare thing at all at any level of pro wrestling); the rest of the match went alright but the greenhorn was so mad at getting hard, HE CALLED THE COPS. This is not a joke and not part of some bad wrestling storyline.
They had to come by and from what I hear, even they laughed at the situation. Well, a lot of people are now pissed, and for good reason. I don't think that kid is going to be booked on any show worth a damn any longer for the rest of his career. It's just embarrassing to be mad for being hit hard, first off, then he gets butt-hurt and thinks that police involvement is the right way to handle the situation... at least since then various people on Facebook have made many hilarious comments and posted funny pictures concerning the incident. There even is a #steelhorsing tag on Twitter. Like I said, I wish I could have been there live in person. I've seen some rather odd things at these small indy wrestling shows throughout the years, but never anything like this; hell, I've never even heard of such a thing and I've followed the wrestling industry closely for years now. Pretty incredible.
I already talked about what I did on Sunday so let me say that I hope everyone has a nice day today no matter what you do. When I post my next blog a week from today, I don't know if I'll have any wild tales about pals of pals being Catfish'ed or local pro wrestlers becoming a laughingstock across the entire wacky strange community due to their cowardice. Still, I imagine I'll stumble into something strange that I think could only happen to me.
Monday, January 14, 2013
The Wild & Crazy Tales of Bartholomew Suarez
The “Bartholomew Suarez” in question is the name of the 'bot that sent me a spam e-mail; the name is so preposterous it made me laugh and I had to use it for the title of this. Now, Monday the 7th I went to the Sweetbay supermarket to get some items. I also went to their deli section to pick up a sandwich; there was a real Honey Boo Boo-esque family around. Their sandwiches aren't as great as in part they don't use Boar's Head products; still, it tasted good. In the evening I watched the college football national championship game; I didn't really care which team won. At least this year's game was more exciting than last year's. To everyone's surprise the game was not close and instead was a laugher of a blow-out.
Tuesday, the real highlight... I got hit on by a girl who was almost half my age! I went to Planet Smoothie and I got a limited edition beverage there; it was based on apple. There's another one which I'll try the next time I am there. It is peanut butter and banana and oddly enough it's called Hanz & Franz, after that goofy Saturday Night Live sketch from many years ago. A pass was made to me by a girl working there, but not the lady I mentioned last month who works there that had on microscopic shorts and was showing off cleavage. She was there, but had on more appropriate clothing. Instead it was another lady working there; judging by her looks and her braces, I am quite confident she was under 18. She complimented me on my shirt and I thanked her; I left it at that as of course I am not a pervert.
Wednesday I went to Walt Disney World as I had free time and I wanted to try out their new attractions. At Epcot they have a totally redesigned Test Track which reopened last month, and also last month the latest part of the new Fantasyland opened. What a day of ups and downs. I talked about it on Twitter but I won't spent much time on the idiots I encountered there. Sure, you always see dumb people there, but on this day... having to sit on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride while you have Troglodytes right behind you YELLING AND SCREAMING constantly when they're sitting right next to each other... I wanted to throw them overboard!
I parked at Epcot and I used the monorail to go to the Magic Kingdom and back. Test Track, the design of the ride surprised me. It was 80's-riffic! It was all dark in there with bright neon colors... it was awesome. It was as if someone drank some brightly colored liquids and vomited all over the Tron universe... the original 80's film, not that crappy sequel from a few years ago. The interactive aspect, though... FAIL. While waiting in line there is a touchscreen where you pick one of four traits you like the most in a car (like power or efficiency) then you pick one of eight differently-colored cars. Sounds simple, right? Well, they went out of their way to make it a confused mess. You get a plain white card you swipe; it's blank on both sides, which helps muddy things. All along the way things that should be explained/clarified were never explained or clarified; I was disappointed in that as you expect much more from Disney, you know... it doesn't help that the first time I did it, it did not work; I went on it a second time and finally it worked, but despite the ride looking cool as hell, I felt let down as the advertisement I heard for the reworked ride was definitely more than it actually was; after all, what you get for picking out a certain vehicle... a few times, bogus stats are put up on a screen on how your car did! That's it.
The new Fantasyland... the new circus area only added the moved-over Dumbo ride, a circus tent that actually is a den for selling merchandise, and another tent for character meet-ups. But hey, the whole theme is well-done and cool. There also is a new area based on The Little Mermaid and Beauty & The Beast. From what I saw it looked fine. I had dinner at a random eatery in the Magic Kingdom but I had something to drink from the new area; I haven't had Universal's “butterbeer” based off of Harry Potter but I presume this apple juice (and other ingredients, like marshmallow) concoction is similar. Overall, even with the ups and downs, at least it was a really nice day on this day with perfect weather.
Thursday, the only thing of note I did was go to Burger King. What a foolish thing for me to do as in the past year or so I had several problems at different Burger King's. But, mainly I wanted something from their Coca Cola Freestyle machine (it ended up being strawberry Sprite mixed with a little bit of vanilla Sprite) so I was a fool and went to one. The food itself tasted good and the order wasn't screwed up; it's just that it took forever to make. Even the manager was yelling at his staff for being so damn slow. That place, it really fell off in recent years; I will never get over them changing their tasty chicken tenders and instead serving poor-tasting wannabe Chicken McNuggets. Why did that whole franchise turn to crap in the pas few years?
Also, late that night I tried to go to bed but I then woke up and I channel-surfed for something to look at on TV while I listened to something on the computer. On WGN was The Bill Cunningham Show. It's a standard talk show a la Maury where couple argue with each other and what have you. The host is an older gentleman who looks kind of goofy to begin with but the way he acted I swore at first it was a parody talk show, a la Night Stand with Dick Dietrick. Now, that I hadn't thought of in years and I had to look it up to get the title right, but I certainly remembered it being on in the late 90's. Of course, most talk shows like that are as phony and staged as Night Stand was, but that's another topic for another time. Anyhow, The Bill Cunningham Show is apparently legit, even though these days there needs to be a return of a parody trashy sleazy talk show.
Friday was nothing-happening so let me skip ahead to Saturday. In the evening I returned to Splitsville to watch more football, have some more food, and enjoy their beverages. I stuck around long enough upstairs to hear some music spun by a live DJ. It was the standard mix of older and newer songs, mashups, and remixes. It was cool, at least while drinking alcohol. At times it almost reminded me of good old Mako's... sigh. I can say via some patron at the bar admitting they know this song, for the first time I heard a One Direction song in full. It was catchy, at least, and certainly less offensive than most “popular” music these days. The Humpty Dance was also played, and this made me happy.
Sunday, I watched more football and that was about it. As for the next blog I'll be posting a week from today, I should finally be going to a theatre at least once, so that is nice as I haven't been to one in too long. I should have enough to talk about for what will be posted on Martin Luther King Day.
Tuesday, the real highlight... I got hit on by a girl who was almost half my age! I went to Planet Smoothie and I got a limited edition beverage there; it was based on apple. There's another one which I'll try the next time I am there. It is peanut butter and banana and oddly enough it's called Hanz & Franz, after that goofy Saturday Night Live sketch from many years ago. A pass was made to me by a girl working there, but not the lady I mentioned last month who works there that had on microscopic shorts and was showing off cleavage. She was there, but had on more appropriate clothing. Instead it was another lady working there; judging by her looks and her braces, I am quite confident she was under 18. She complimented me on my shirt and I thanked her; I left it at that as of course I am not a pervert.
Wednesday I went to Walt Disney World as I had free time and I wanted to try out their new attractions. At Epcot they have a totally redesigned Test Track which reopened last month, and also last month the latest part of the new Fantasyland opened. What a day of ups and downs. I talked about it on Twitter but I won't spent much time on the idiots I encountered there. Sure, you always see dumb people there, but on this day... having to sit on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride while you have Troglodytes right behind you YELLING AND SCREAMING constantly when they're sitting right next to each other... I wanted to throw them overboard!
I parked at Epcot and I used the monorail to go to the Magic Kingdom and back. Test Track, the design of the ride surprised me. It was 80's-riffic! It was all dark in there with bright neon colors... it was awesome. It was as if someone drank some brightly colored liquids and vomited all over the Tron universe... the original 80's film, not that crappy sequel from a few years ago. The interactive aspect, though... FAIL. While waiting in line there is a touchscreen where you pick one of four traits you like the most in a car (like power or efficiency) then you pick one of eight differently-colored cars. Sounds simple, right? Well, they went out of their way to make it a confused mess. You get a plain white card you swipe; it's blank on both sides, which helps muddy things. All along the way things that should be explained/clarified were never explained or clarified; I was disappointed in that as you expect much more from Disney, you know... it doesn't help that the first time I did it, it did not work; I went on it a second time and finally it worked, but despite the ride looking cool as hell, I felt let down as the advertisement I heard for the reworked ride was definitely more than it actually was; after all, what you get for picking out a certain vehicle... a few times, bogus stats are put up on a screen on how your car did! That's it.
The new Fantasyland... the new circus area only added the moved-over Dumbo ride, a circus tent that actually is a den for selling merchandise, and another tent for character meet-ups. But hey, the whole theme is well-done and cool. There also is a new area based on The Little Mermaid and Beauty & The Beast. From what I saw it looked fine. I had dinner at a random eatery in the Magic Kingdom but I had something to drink from the new area; I haven't had Universal's “butterbeer” based off of Harry Potter but I presume this apple juice (and other ingredients, like marshmallow) concoction is similar. Overall, even with the ups and downs, at least it was a really nice day on this day with perfect weather.
Thursday, the only thing of note I did was go to Burger King. What a foolish thing for me to do as in the past year or so I had several problems at different Burger King's. But, mainly I wanted something from their Coca Cola Freestyle machine (it ended up being strawberry Sprite mixed with a little bit of vanilla Sprite) so I was a fool and went to one. The food itself tasted good and the order wasn't screwed up; it's just that it took forever to make. Even the manager was yelling at his staff for being so damn slow. That place, it really fell off in recent years; I will never get over them changing their tasty chicken tenders and instead serving poor-tasting wannabe Chicken McNuggets. Why did that whole franchise turn to crap in the pas few years?
Also, late that night I tried to go to bed but I then woke up and I channel-surfed for something to look at on TV while I listened to something on the computer. On WGN was The Bill Cunningham Show. It's a standard talk show a la Maury where couple argue with each other and what have you. The host is an older gentleman who looks kind of goofy to begin with but the way he acted I swore at first it was a parody talk show, a la Night Stand with Dick Dietrick. Now, that I hadn't thought of in years and I had to look it up to get the title right, but I certainly remembered it being on in the late 90's. Of course, most talk shows like that are as phony and staged as Night Stand was, but that's another topic for another time. Anyhow, The Bill Cunningham Show is apparently legit, even though these days there needs to be a return of a parody trashy sleazy talk show.
Friday was nothing-happening so let me skip ahead to Saturday. In the evening I returned to Splitsville to watch more football, have some more food, and enjoy their beverages. I stuck around long enough upstairs to hear some music spun by a live DJ. It was the standard mix of older and newer songs, mashups, and remixes. It was cool, at least while drinking alcohol. At times it almost reminded me of good old Mako's... sigh. I can say via some patron at the bar admitting they know this song, for the first time I heard a One Direction song in full. It was catchy, at least, and certainly less offensive than most “popular” music these days. The Humpty Dance was also played, and this made me happy.
Sunday, I watched more football and that was about it. As for the next blog I'll be posting a week from today, I should finally be going to a theatre at least once, so that is nice as I haven't been to one in too long. I should have enough to talk about for what will be posted on Martin Luther King Day.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Mass Effect, Splitsville, & Rejects From The Jersey Shore
Here's what I've done the first few days of 2013. It hasn't been real exciting, believe me, although at least Saturday night provided something new to talk about. New Years Day I did not do anything besides play videogames (more on that later) and watch football. I did watch in the evening the Orange Bowl between big bad Florida State and the big underdog known as Northern Illinois University. I discussed it before but I was hoping NIU would do well as a lot of people gave them crap for stupid reasons and I did grow up not that far away from their campus. Well, the game was rather atrociously played by both teams; in fact the game itself was so bad I did not finish watching it as I figured playing the addicting as crack-filled donuts Mass Effect. The score was close until the fourth quarter, when Florida State opened the game wide open and they won by a comfortable margin. That whole deal was disappointing, mainly because the troglodyte haters were given an opportunity to crow about how NIU shouldn't have been in the game and all that crap.
Wednesday, I had free time and I needed to get out of the house so I went to the Florida Mall for the first time in a few months. That place was largely the same it's always been but I was able to go into the Microsoft Store; their goal was obviously to be better than an Apple store and well... it does look real fancy and there is a few areas to play Xbox360 games on a big screen. It's difficult to compare as it's really personal preference.
Thursday and Friday, totally uneventful. I mean, nothing to write about at all. So let me skip ahead to Saturday. I did not remember it until recently but back in December of '09 I went to Channelside in Tampa (it's a place I rarely go to) and I ate dinner there before going to St. Petersburg to Tropicana Field to watch a college bowlgame. The restaurant I ate at was Splitsville, a fancy bowling alley/restaurant/bar. It was a real cool place. Well, last month at Downtown Disney a two level version of Splitsville opened up but as it was during holiday season I figured it would be chaotic around that area and it would be wise to wait until things calmed down to check it out.
Turns out, it's a great place. It was still busy on Saturday night but I was able to get a seat at one of their bars. Besides 10 bowling alleys on the first floor, on the second they have like 20 additional lanes scattered all over amongst pool tables, bars, an area to dance, and this is amongst a mainly dance/pop soundtrack. Hearing a remix of Gangnam Style followed up by the Stones and Satisfaction... unique, but pretty cool. The food and drink wasn't cheap but I was not surprised by that, and not just because of where the restaurant was located at. It at least was good; I had my almost always of a burger and fries, and to drink I had a frozen tropical drink that they called Miami Vice; yes I chose it because of its name. They described it as a mix between a rumrunner and a pina colada (getting caught in the rain). I am glad it was a tasty drink. Sure, there were some loudmouths around but I tried to ignore them. Interestingly enough the candidates for a Jersey Shore 2 if they ever did one weren't the worst ones there. You know, tanned, buff-looking, ugly Ed Hardy shirts, gold chains, fancy watches, constantly using “bro”... talk about living up-or down-to stereotypes.
By the way, on the way there and on the way back I had issues with people pulling out in front of me or almost doing so, and both times I definitely used my horn to tell those drivers what I thought of their poor driving skills. Sunday I did not do anything so let me do some more plugging of the great game known as Mass Effect; I already mentioned in the past how it's awesome that the game gives you many different choices and you can import your save into the sequels so it's really one giant story; I also have to mention that besides the all the action you get involved with, there's also plenty of story and it's all good; there are also many chances for you to chat with the characters you team up with and you get to find out all their backstories and as it's sci-fi it allows for epic stories and it's all tremendous. I started the game originally and got partway in it but then realize I had been doing some things wrong so I started over and it's now all great. I haven't really felt like playing any other games, it's so addicting.
I'll be back a week from today. Not a whole lot is planned for the upcoming week but I am sure I'll be going out more than one night so that will provide entertainment for me to write about.
Wednesday, I had free time and I needed to get out of the house so I went to the Florida Mall for the first time in a few months. That place was largely the same it's always been but I was able to go into the Microsoft Store; their goal was obviously to be better than an Apple store and well... it does look real fancy and there is a few areas to play Xbox360 games on a big screen. It's difficult to compare as it's really personal preference.
Thursday and Friday, totally uneventful. I mean, nothing to write about at all. So let me skip ahead to Saturday. I did not remember it until recently but back in December of '09 I went to Channelside in Tampa (it's a place I rarely go to) and I ate dinner there before going to St. Petersburg to Tropicana Field to watch a college bowlgame. The restaurant I ate at was Splitsville, a fancy bowling alley/restaurant/bar. It was a real cool place. Well, last month at Downtown Disney a two level version of Splitsville opened up but as it was during holiday season I figured it would be chaotic around that area and it would be wise to wait until things calmed down to check it out.
Turns out, it's a great place. It was still busy on Saturday night but I was able to get a seat at one of their bars. Besides 10 bowling alleys on the first floor, on the second they have like 20 additional lanes scattered all over amongst pool tables, bars, an area to dance, and this is amongst a mainly dance/pop soundtrack. Hearing a remix of Gangnam Style followed up by the Stones and Satisfaction... unique, but pretty cool. The food and drink wasn't cheap but I was not surprised by that, and not just because of where the restaurant was located at. It at least was good; I had my almost always of a burger and fries, and to drink I had a frozen tropical drink that they called Miami Vice; yes I chose it because of its name. They described it as a mix between a rumrunner and a pina colada (getting caught in the rain). I am glad it was a tasty drink. Sure, there were some loudmouths around but I tried to ignore them. Interestingly enough the candidates for a Jersey Shore 2 if they ever did one weren't the worst ones there. You know, tanned, buff-looking, ugly Ed Hardy shirts, gold chains, fancy watches, constantly using “bro”... talk about living up-or down-to stereotypes.
By the way, on the way there and on the way back I had issues with people pulling out in front of me or almost doing so, and both times I definitely used my horn to tell those drivers what I thought of their poor driving skills. Sunday I did not do anything so let me do some more plugging of the great game known as Mass Effect; I already mentioned in the past how it's awesome that the game gives you many different choices and you can import your save into the sequels so it's really one giant story; I also have to mention that besides the all the action you get involved with, there's also plenty of story and it's all good; there are also many chances for you to chat with the characters you team up with and you get to find out all their backstories and as it's sci-fi it allows for epic stories and it's all tremendous. I started the game originally and got partway in it but then realize I had been doing some things wrong so I started over and it's now all great. I haven't really felt like playing any other games, it's so addicting.
I'll be back a week from today. Not a whole lot is planned for the upcoming week but I am sure I'll be going out more than one night so that will provide entertainment for me to write about.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
The First Blog of 2013
Here's the first blog post of 2013, and 2012 did not end in a massive bang for me. That's OK as I was still fine with how I spent last night. I'll also explain why this is up a little later in the day than I had originally planned.
Christmas Eve I did open presents, and they included some more PJ pants (I seem to get them every year, but that is OK) and some giftcards. Works for me. Christmas Day me and my dad drove up North about an hour to visit my aunt and have Christmas dinner at her place. It had been too long since I'd seen her so that was nice too. An older couple was there; my dad knew them but I did not. They were nice people. Different foods were offered but picky me did at least try all of the main items. She was worried about how the dinner would turn out; it turned out fine, I say.
Wednesday was boring but Thursday... I used the cash I got for Christmas to help me finally join the modern gaming world and I got something newer than my PS2. I decided to go with the Xbox 360; I wanted to give them a shot. I do listen to a quality gamer podcast (noquarters.net) so I had some idea what I should and should not get. It was a “Holiday Bundle” so it came with the disc for Forza 4-pretty great-and a free download of Skyrim; I am not sure about that and I usually don't care for RPG's but I haven't played it too much yet. Since then I have gotten a few other games and I should be set for a decent amount of time in 2013. I can say that Red Dead Redemption-a Western-is really good and getting the Mass Effect Trilogy box set was a real good idea; that is a game set in the future in space and its great hook is that not only is it like Choose Your Own Adventure and many different things can happen depending on a large selection of choices you make, but your choices in the first affects the sequels. Pretty awesome.
Friday was boring so onto Saturday. I went to the local Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the latest UFC pay per view and I said some things about it on Twitter. Maybe I should just stop going there. I've had issues with that place in the past and I got mad with their crappy management and in particular, their stupidity in figuring out what should be on their TV's at what time. A shame, as the bartender lady I dealt with for the majority of the time I was there on this night was a nice young lady. Plus, for part of the night I had to sit by some nasty trashy woman; I say that not just because she's a smoker but rather due to her skanky fashion sense and during one of the fights she started to drunkenly comment on the action and that was not what I needed. Thankfully she shut up and eventually she left. As for the show, the prelim fights were fine, the first few pay per view bouts were bad, but the final two were great stuff with some guys getting hellacious beatings.
Oh, and there was no audio for part of the FX prelims; instead it was the jukebox and to show you how out of touch I am with the modern music scene, I did not recognize who sang most of those tunes, let alone be abe to tell you what the song titles were. I recognized Nicki Minaj's horrible singing/rapping voice on one tune (I always enjoy ripping on her), there was a Nickelback tune, and not only was there Gangham Style but there also was the goofy Red Solo Cup. I was glad when the jukebox was shut off.
Sunday, I actually stayed home and used the greatness of NFL Red Zone to check out all the pro football games. The Bears needed to win their game and they had to count on their hated rivals (the Packers) to beat the Vikings in order to get into the playoffs. Chicago struggled but they beat the Lions; the Packers crapped the bed and lost, so the Bears season was done and while that was greatly disappointing, they don't have anyone to blame but themselves for having to count on someone else to get in the playoffs. The next day the Bears coach got fired. That was a surprise as I thought there were other people in the organization that needed to get fired before he did, but there are apparently a number of Chicago fans that disagree with me.
My New Years Eve was rather unexciting. I watched some TV, played some Xbox, and did not even have any alcohol. I did go out, but in the afternoon to go to that place which offers liquid nitrogen ice cream; good stuff. Today, I will watch more TV and play more games, and that's as exciting as I'll get. I already put in some gaming time so that's why this is up later than usual. As I mentioned before I am really looking forward to Northern Illinois University playing in by far it's biggest ever bowl game. Due to the system and some teams losing that's how they got in; many people got MAD and said plenty of stupid things about them being in the game... including some people I know, sadly. Besides it being the underdog and it's usually nice to root for one of those, I may be biased in that I grew up like 30 miles north of the school and I know a good amount of people who went there for college. If they did well or somehow even won over big bad Florida State, I would be quite happy as that would make so many look so foolish.
I'll be back Monday the 7th. Besides that game I'll actually go somewhere and write about it, which will help me have something to talk about.
Christmas Eve I did open presents, and they included some more PJ pants (I seem to get them every year, but that is OK) and some giftcards. Works for me. Christmas Day me and my dad drove up North about an hour to visit my aunt and have Christmas dinner at her place. It had been too long since I'd seen her so that was nice too. An older couple was there; my dad knew them but I did not. They were nice people. Different foods were offered but picky me did at least try all of the main items. She was worried about how the dinner would turn out; it turned out fine, I say.
Wednesday was boring but Thursday... I used the cash I got for Christmas to help me finally join the modern gaming world and I got something newer than my PS2. I decided to go with the Xbox 360; I wanted to give them a shot. I do listen to a quality gamer podcast (noquarters.net) so I had some idea what I should and should not get. It was a “Holiday Bundle” so it came with the disc for Forza 4-pretty great-and a free download of Skyrim; I am not sure about that and I usually don't care for RPG's but I haven't played it too much yet. Since then I have gotten a few other games and I should be set for a decent amount of time in 2013. I can say that Red Dead Redemption-a Western-is really good and getting the Mass Effect Trilogy box set was a real good idea; that is a game set in the future in space and its great hook is that not only is it like Choose Your Own Adventure and many different things can happen depending on a large selection of choices you make, but your choices in the first affects the sequels. Pretty awesome.
Friday was boring so onto Saturday. I went to the local Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the latest UFC pay per view and I said some things about it on Twitter. Maybe I should just stop going there. I've had issues with that place in the past and I got mad with their crappy management and in particular, their stupidity in figuring out what should be on their TV's at what time. A shame, as the bartender lady I dealt with for the majority of the time I was there on this night was a nice young lady. Plus, for part of the night I had to sit by some nasty trashy woman; I say that not just because she's a smoker but rather due to her skanky fashion sense and during one of the fights she started to drunkenly comment on the action and that was not what I needed. Thankfully she shut up and eventually she left. As for the show, the prelim fights were fine, the first few pay per view bouts were bad, but the final two were great stuff with some guys getting hellacious beatings.
Oh, and there was no audio for part of the FX prelims; instead it was the jukebox and to show you how out of touch I am with the modern music scene, I did not recognize who sang most of those tunes, let alone be abe to tell you what the song titles were. I recognized Nicki Minaj's horrible singing/rapping voice on one tune (I always enjoy ripping on her), there was a Nickelback tune, and not only was there Gangham Style but there also was the goofy Red Solo Cup. I was glad when the jukebox was shut off.
Sunday, I actually stayed home and used the greatness of NFL Red Zone to check out all the pro football games. The Bears needed to win their game and they had to count on their hated rivals (the Packers) to beat the Vikings in order to get into the playoffs. Chicago struggled but they beat the Lions; the Packers crapped the bed and lost, so the Bears season was done and while that was greatly disappointing, they don't have anyone to blame but themselves for having to count on someone else to get in the playoffs. The next day the Bears coach got fired. That was a surprise as I thought there were other people in the organization that needed to get fired before he did, but there are apparently a number of Chicago fans that disagree with me.
My New Years Eve was rather unexciting. I watched some TV, played some Xbox, and did not even have any alcohol. I did go out, but in the afternoon to go to that place which offers liquid nitrogen ice cream; good stuff. Today, I will watch more TV and play more games, and that's as exciting as I'll get. I already put in some gaming time so that's why this is up later than usual. As I mentioned before I am really looking forward to Northern Illinois University playing in by far it's biggest ever bowl game. Due to the system and some teams losing that's how they got in; many people got MAD and said plenty of stupid things about them being in the game... including some people I know, sadly. Besides it being the underdog and it's usually nice to root for one of those, I may be biased in that I grew up like 30 miles north of the school and I know a good amount of people who went there for college. If they did well or somehow even won over big bad Florida State, I would be quite happy as that would make so many look so foolish.
I'll be back Monday the 7th. Besides that game I'll actually go somewhere and write about it, which will help me have something to talk about.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)