Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Fast & Furious 6, The Mellow Mushroom, & Trashy Denny's Patrons

Here's a recap of what I've done since Monday the 20th. On that night, I went to Best Buy and I did make a purchase, including a card for more Microsoft Points. I then went to the nearby Planet Smoothie and I got The Last Mango drink; I've had it before and it's good stuff. I am greatly amused there's a drink named after The Last Tango In Paris.

Tuesday, the action happened real late, to where you could say it was Wednesday morning. I dropped someone off at the Orlando-Sanford Airport as they had a red-eye flight. I was happy to do that for them. I decided to eat somewhere on the way back so I chose a Denny's, as they were one of the few options available. Boy did I choose a good one to go to! It was on the east side of Orlando. It's the type of place that has cameras all over and you can't even leave a tip at the table; you have to write down on the receipt how much you want the tip to be. Lovely place, and I shouldn't have been shocked when some scumbag people came in and caused some crap while I was trying to eat a Grand Slam Breakfast. I don't know what their deal was but loudly I heard them yell and complain to the poor waitress who was serving them. Real punks. The dude even got out of his seat and it looked like he was going to walk back to the kitchen and his lady had to yell at him to “sit the f*** down”, so he did. I see who wears the pants in that relationship! But yeah, real scumbags. I am glad that I did not have to try and stop anything, as I was the only other customer in there ar the time and for all I knew, those punks were carrying some sort of weapons. I know now not to go back to that location anytime soon.

Wednesday the only thing I did was go back to the dentist; this time it was a simple teeth-cleaning and that went without incident so I don't have to return there until November... barring any more tooth infections or anything like that, but that better not happen. Thursday was dull so let me skip ahead to Friday. I went and got a haircut as I needed one. That went well, especially the post-haircut shampoo and washing. Also...

I was bored so I decided to return to good old Ghost Bar & Lounge. The last time I was there I had two different drunken women grind up on my shit and it was a grand old time. I was hoping for more of the same but it didn't happen. Still, it was fun as I was able to enjoy the usual sights and sounds there. The first part of my time there, they were showing the Miami Heat NBA playoff game against the Pacers. In an upset, the Pacers won. I wasn't sad by the result, and there were some guys there who were real trolls and they were cheering on the Pacers; I laughed. Not too much else to say except that I had a good time.

Saturday I had a long day, but a great one. I went up to Jacksonville for the day. I've only been around that area a few times as to be honest there isn't too much up there in terms of unique experiences and events for me to partake in. However, the reason why I went up there was that the cool cats of the BMFCast podcast (they review bad movies but try to find the “good bad films” that are still fun for people to watch. I met them once before, when they were in Orlando last July for Gamewarp, the event where a bunch of old arcade and pinball games were set up for people to play. They were all pretty nice and friendly dudes so I figured I would drive up to see them and make a surprise appearance as they put on a get-together where a bunch of people would go and see Fast & Furious 6, as they all enjoyed Fast Five, as I did. There ended up being a little more than a dozen people overall. The Cinemark location in town was chosen so that's where I went after I had lunch at the nearby Larry's Giant Subs. There's only one location of that mainly Florida franchise around Orlando and it's like an hour's drive away so I peeped that when I was in Jacksonville. That location was pretty fancy, with a giant gorilla doll in the lobby.

While I wish they'd have more people working concessions at the theatre (what, you didn't think that the Saturday afternoon of a 3 day weekend would be a madhouse?) overall the movie-going experience was fun, as the movie was on a big-ass screen (and they have an even larger screen there) and if you loved Fast Five and the over the top bombast and insanity it presented, the sixth one presented more of the same, even if the stories in the two are completely different. If you go see it, you only have to wait a short bit during the end credits to see the teaser for Fast 7, and it is pretty glorious.

After the movie the gang decided to head on over to the nearby Mellow Mushroom restaurant. I had never been to one, despite there being two locations around Orlando. As you can probably guess from the name it's mainly a pizza place that is laid back and sells other sorts of food items and has a big beer selection. Most of the group was drinking beer so I had to have one myself. I chose the Sweetwater Blue as it was from a small brewery in Georgia and it was blueberry ale. It was good, and so was the pizza I had. After that the group split up and everyone went their separate ways. I had a real good time as all of those people are cool dudes in my book.

After that I ended up at the Regency Square Mall, a place that I remembered once I got there that I had been to the last time I was in Jacksonville, which was December of '11 to see my only live NFL game ever of the Jaguars vs. the San Diego Chargers. I got a smoothie there so that I'd have something to drink on the way back. And I tell you, on Saturday I came across plenty of reckless crazy drivers. I mean, they were acting like they were Dominic Toretto or Brian O'Conner from the Fast & Furious films! Meaning, they were driving like real loons and real A-holes but without their precision skill, so I was surprised I did not see any wrecks or the aftermath of wrecks.

Sunday and Monday and today so far have been pretty dull. I've chilled and relaxed and only gone out to get items such as pizza and fast food. Even then I deal with A-hole drivers of a different sort, but sad to say just about every single time I get on the roads of Florida, I deal with stupid rude ignorant drivers, as I've said what has to be hundreds of times by now.

I'll be back to my usual time of Monday afternoon to post my next blog. The next 6 days won't be as action-packed, I know; I'll try to find things to do for me to write about.

Monday, May 20, 2013

The Blog That I Am Posting On The Day Macho Man Randy Savage Died

Yeah, it was on this day two years ago that the former pro wrestler passed away. It was definitely shocking at the time; when I found out I was somewhere else and was at an Apple store looking at a website when I saw the news.

To be honest, I really only had one interesting day out of seven in the preceding week. I was hoping for more action but I ate something bad and it riled up my stomach so I stayed in on Friday and Saturday night instead of going out and doing anything.

Last Monday, I went with someone to the local Beef O'Bradys restaurant. They heard about how they were offering several different burgers and they wanted to try one. Me, I had boneless wings and fries as the special burgers were too fancy for my tastes. They have always offered decent food. It reminds me that the week before that I had dinner one night at the local Bob Evans restaurant. They also have decent food, although it took longer than expected for the food to be made. I wondered if at the time they had to kill the cow first before the burger was prepared.

Tuesday was dull so let me skip ahead to Wednesday. That was the one day of real excitement. In the late afternoon I went to the Festival Bay Mall at the north end of International Drive in Orlando. I have zero idea how that mall is still open. It never has been close to having all its spaces occupied and in the past few years it's gotten worse and worse. If it wasn't for a few big stores and the Cinemark theatre they have there, I imagine it'd be long gone. I did go to the discount book store they have there (I know, I know) and then ate at Fuddruckers before seeing a triple bill of movies. I picked the Cinemark as for the past few weeks, on Wednesday they have been showing some older films. This time was Blazing Saddles. The crowd to see that was larger than expected, and it was nice to see a hilarious movie with a crowd and hear everyone laugh at all the funny moments, you know.

I then saw the double bill of the '09 Star Trek and the new one, Into Darkness. Don't worry, I won't be like what seems to be half of the Internet and spoil major plot developments in the movie. I definitely won't reveal the truth of whether or not the greatly named Benedict Cumberbatch is old Star Trek foe Khan. I had seen the reboot a few times before and flaws aside it's still a real entertaining and fun film that seems to work at least fine enough for the Trekkers (formerly the Trekkies) and the casual fans. I was hoping to see people dressed up in Starfleet Uniform, as when I saw the midnight debut of the Star Wars Episode I last February (remember when they were going to convert all those films into 3D and release them once a year? That idea got dropped pretty quickly) and various people were wearing costumes, including Jedi robes. I saw no such costumes while I was there, although there were plenty of people who looked on the nerdy side; that was of zero shock to me. As for Into Darkness, it wasn't awful; I just thought it was disappointing. There definitely are good parts... but also bad parts and some really bad decisions that were made. The movie has gotten a mixed reaction from people so who knows what you'll think if you-the reader-go and see it. It wasn't awful, at least, but in the next blog I do I will have seen Fast & Furious 6 and I'll be shocked if I don't enjoy that film. The first four films in the franchise are only fine overall, but Fast Five (while maybe the most ridiculous film I've ever seen) is ridiculously entertaining and just fun to watch.

The rest of the week, nothing really happened. The weekend ended up rainy so maybe it was a best I did not go out Saturday night. On that night I watched a free UFC event YouTube, FuelTV then FX. It was an average show, but that was almost expected so it wasn't a massive disappointment. Sunday, I did go out, mainly because it was raining at the time and there still are the messy remnants of dead lovebugs on the vehicle. Oh, and I stopped and got gas too. It partially worked, so I can't really complain. Late last night I did see the clip from that awards show (and it's the only part of that crappy program which was more about random performances than actually giving out any awards) of the Hispanic singer leaping from stage to stage but landing short so he pretty much delivered Bad Ass Billy Gunn's pro wrestling finisher The Fameasser to that random lady fan; I hope she ended up alright. As he lives around Orlando, I have seen Mr. Ass wrestle in the past at several local independent wrestling shows, and another time I actually saw him at a local movie theatre; it was back in '08 and I know he went to see the movie Wanted with his lady. I have no idea what he thought of the movie, though.

This upcoming week... it should be more eventful. I doubt I'll do anything on Memorial Day but just in case, the next blog will be going up on Tuesday the 28th instead of the day before. Besides seeing the 6th Fast & The Furious movie, I have some ideas in mind in terms of things to do but nothing is confirmed yet.

Monday, May 13, 2013

The Toronto Blue Jays, Drive-In Theatres, & Yogurt Mountain

Concerning the past week, there were really only two days of note, but they were definitely interesting and fun days, so at least I have content to write about. That includes seeing a barefoot redneck in a public bathroom, and it was NOT Britney Spears...

As Monday was dull, let me skip ahead to the next day and I had free time on Tuesday, so for the first time in months I went to the Silver Moon Drive-In in Lakeland. Yes, some are still around, and that one in particular has been in operation since the 40's. I decided to go there as it's been so long, and while one of the screens showed Iron Man 3 twice, the other one had a double bill of Pain & Gain and the Evil Dead remake, I figured it was best to view those movies that way, as I wasn't sure about either and the total for both movies... 4 bucks! No kidding.

Turns out, I really enjoyed the wild over the top bombastic dark comedy known as Pain & Gain and I was always interested as it's based on a true story and I am biased towards those, and I did not know anything about the case beforehand but now I need to read the epic-long Miami New Times article from the late 90's about the case. It is a REALLY weird case, for sure, and I hear the movie is mostly factual as to what actually happened, which is a relief to someone like me. And I am someone who usually despises Michael Bay films. Evil Dead, though... oh boy did I not like it at all. I always thought it was stupid it even got remade, as the original film is awesome. I don't really care for Evil Dead 2 or Army of Darkness but I know I am in the minority there. I did keep an open mind, but besides a lot of gore the movie was just crap, with a terrible nonsensical story and four of the five main characters you spend almost all your time with being complete A-hole asstagonist douches. The only one that was fine was the long-haired bearded hippy dude. I have no idea why so many have gone wild over it; the original is SO much better.

By the way, it was in their small cramped bathroom that I saw a redneck at the urinal and he was barefoot. Gross. Then again, at least that guy wasn't at the drive-in acting like an idiot, as I always see and hear when I'm there. There are always a few Troglodytes and jerks around doing dumb annoying things. But onto better things... before I went to Silver Moon, I was at Lakeside Village, an open-air mall. I ate there and I went to their Books-A-Million, where I did make random purchases. Inside that bookstore is a joint known as Yogurt Mountain, one of many different self-serve yogurt places all across the country. They all seem to be the same so I imagine the trend will die off eventually and only a few will last for any length of time. Anyhow, while I was there I had the cherry amaretto, as hey I enjoy drinking amaretto sours when I'm at the bar. It was good.

Wednesday was boring so let me skip ahead to Thursday. I was originally thinking of going to the Tampa Bay Rays game on Saturday, as I hadn't been in Tropicana Field since May of last year, and I was itching to see some action. Plus, Saturday home games in the summer, the Rays have an older performer there to perform a short concert. I presume it's about a half hour long, but I've never been to one. Well, the performer there on Saturday was... KENNY LOGGINS. I was greatly amused for the 80's-tastic nature of getting to hear 65 year old Kenny sing his famous hits from the decade of excess and cocaine. Due to various factors, though, I decided to go to see them play on Thursday against the Toronto Blue Jays rather than Saturday against the San Diego Padres. I've seen them play live against both teams before. Turns out, both Thursday and Saturday's games were rather exciting. The Jays game went into the 10th inning, so I got some bonus action, and the Padres game had the team be up big before San Diego came back, and in the bottom of the 9th the Rays won it with a home run, so both were quality and at least I got to watch Saturday's game on TV.

As for the Jays game, my time there was about the same as usual, meaning that while I was hoping some fans around me would have rested their vocal chords more often, overall it was fun times and it was one of the most exciting Rays games I've seen live. The only thing I remember from the time I saw the Jays at Tropicana Field was that for about an inning some random old bearded dude who reminded me of Kris Kristofferson came to me and started babbling on about how he was running for some local office position and mentioned some of the odd jobs he had in the past, and I had no idea why he did this as I did inform him I did not live in the area so it's not like he won my vote with his rambling on. Yet again, something that I think can only happen to me and no one else.

Before I made it to St. Petersburg to watch the game, I went to Sarasota and for the second time I went to Trader Joe's. No, I am not a hipster! I just enjoy their products and some of it is unique and hard to find anywhere else. Going there once in a blue moon is fine with me. Thankfully there is one a little bit closer to me than in the city billed as the home of Macho Man Randy Savage... oooh yeah! There's one in Gainesville. If only they had one in Orlando...

Friday and Saturday I relaxed, so let me get to yesterday. I went to Walmart, mainly to pick up some soda. That went fine, although you can imagine the sort of people there on a Sunday afternoon. I've never seen anyone there with bare feet-amazingly enough-but there certainly were plenty of misbehaving yelling obnoxious little kids around; good job, parents!

I'll be back as usual next Monday in the afternoon. Not a lot is planned yet, although one evening will be spent almost entirely in a theatre as I watch a few different movies back to back to back. I'll have plenty to talk about, I am sure.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Tales of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon And Oreo & Creme Milkshakes

Alright, so here's what I have done since this past Monday. On that day, after I posted my blog I went to the dentist to put a filling in on the tooth that had the root canal, which is standard procedure. That went fine. Tuesday, I went to Walmart and that was the usual experience of walking around and occasionally seeing the sterotype that most people think when you think “Walmart customer”. Wednesday was boring (aside from what I purchased on the Xbox Marketplace; more on that later) but Thursday I went to Winter Garden Village. While there I went to Best Buy for the first time in awhile and I purchased two random Blu-Ray discs; after that, Planet Smoothie and I purchased a random smoothie.

Friday and Saturday were dull, so before I get to Sunday, let me mention a few things. This past week was rather rainy down here. I was fine with that as the rain was needed. I just did not feel like going out when the weather wasn't great, and I did not miss not having to deal with the awful Florida traffic; as I've said many times before, when there's any sort of water on the ground, driver IQ's become even lower than usual. When I was out while raining, my theory was not proven wrong. Yes, while I haven't mentioned it much as of late, Florida traffic still stinks. It's the usual rudeness and ignorance with no turn signals being used, not following the Keep Right Except To Pass rule, etc.

I forgot to mention it in the last blog but when I was out in downtown Orlando that one night, I saw some real fancy cars parked on Church Street right by the former Mako's. In the time I've been around that area throughout the years, that part of the street always had valet service so there were usually some nice vehicles there, and sometimes the super-expensive iron. On that night, there was plenty of the super-expensive iron. On the way to the bar/club, I saw a matte black Jaguar XF and a Ford GT supercar from the few years in the past decade when Ford built it as their “halo car” to get attention. On the way back to where I parked I saw a Rolls Royce Phantom, a Maserati sedan, and a black Ferrari F430 convertible. It must be nice to have so much money you can afford to own one of those vehicles.

Now, onto Sunday. I was thinking of going somewhere on this day and Saturday, but I didn't do it on May the 4th (Be With You, and I am amused that has become Star Wars Day, and tickled pink that day was chosen because of a bad pun) because I wasn't sure what the weather would be... turns out it wasn't too bad. But it still worked out fine. Sunday I was thinking of going there but I wanted to be lazy so I changed plans. I will go to that unnamed location sometime later, like maybe later in the month. I instead went to the Mall at Millenia in order to walk around there for a bit and I then went to eat at Burger 21, the joint that started off in Tampa and I've been to their Lakeland location twice and now I've been to their Orlando joint twice. Thankfully the service there this time was better than it was the first time. I had the chicken fingers basket and an Oreo cookies & crème milkshake. The latter was pretty damn great so that was a wise selection on my part.

Before I close this out let me mention what I downloaded on the Xbox Marketplace this past Wednesday. It was Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, some downloadable content for that game but you don't need the original Far Cry 3 game to play it. It is an over the top send-up of low-budget 80's action movies where a neon post-apocalyptic version of 2007 is shown and a man/cyborg known as REX POWER COLT (voiced by Michael Biehn!) has to stop a madman. It is great if you enjoy the unique wackiness of 80's action movies in general, especially the low-budget ones. I don't want to spoil too much but it's just a blast to play. Many awesome things happen, and sometimes you get to see such things as a neon colored dragon (basically a dinosaur) attack some of the bad guys and blow their Jeep up just by running into it, and you can do badass things on your own without prompting, such as jumping off a tall cliff and you catch a zipline and slide down it. There's an awesome score from a group known as Power Glove, one of the many acts you can find on YouTube where they are modern but they do the old-school synth sound of the 1980's. It gets my highest recommendation as it hits all the right notes for me.

I'll be back a week from today. I have in mind several things I could do but nothing is set in stone yet. Right now I am enjoying how it's sunny and in the 70's down here. Hopefully the weather stays nice as I'd like to do some activities with no worries.