Blair Russell V The Rest Of The World: Dawn Of Justice

Here's a recap of what I've done in the past week, and sad to say there were too many days filled with crappy events. I won't even state what all of those things were as I don't want to be morose and a major Debbie Downer. There were several days in a row that were meh at best. Last Monday the 21st, I ended up in Orlando. The one place of note I went to was Total Wine & More as it had been too long since my last visit. I got a wide variety of different single cans and bottles. One of them was IRON MAIDEN TROOPER BEER; I had that on Saturday night and it was fine.

One of my parents had a friend down here for a week. They arrived here on the 21st and will be leaving early tomorrow. It is a yearly event. They decided to go to Carrabba's and as I hadn't been to one in years I decided to tag along. Their food was tasty; I had the spaghetti. Wednesday, we went to the local restaurant Lilly's on the Lake. I had talked about it a few times before last year, and that place isn't as good overall as it used to be. It's not really the food but it's other factors that make me say this. Thursday, we ended up at McAlister's Deli; I had been to one before, back in late '14 in the middle of Arkansas while on the journey to Kansas. The food tasted fine, although I wasn't too happy that my sandwich had mayo on it when I made it pretty clear that I only wanted a few things on it and that was not one of them. It was that kind of week for me last week.

Friday, I was off on my own and I had my pick of what to do, although it was limited by it being rainy weather. I decided to go to the Mall at Millenia as I hadn't been there in awhile. I took the back way there that involved going through the ritzy town of Windemere. While on a busy 2 lane road on a double yellow, a lunatic behind me passed me! I don't know if he was just a reckless piece of crap, if he was impaired, mentally ill, or what but I actually called the cops on him (or maybe it was a her; the windows were too dark for me to see in), although I have no idea if they nabbed that Georgia driver or not. What a “Good” Friday indeed. I walked around Ikea for a bit-I did not get anything-then at the Mall I did more walking around and this time got some miscellaneous items. Needless to say it was busy there but it wasn't outrageously bad. I had dinner there and thankfully the drive back home was a lot less eventful, although it did not mean the traffic was peachy.

Saturday and Sunday I was happy to stay home. Besides it being rainy weather, not dealing with the crowds is a fine idea with me. Easter Sunday, a parent made ham for dinner (as has been done for years now) and it was a fine, fine meal. When I return a week from today, not too much is planned as of now but I'll stumble upon some adventures, I am sure.

Western Society, Pop Culture And The Cacophony Of Social Media

No, I did not come up with that title myself; I ripped off the title of a messageboard thread, as I had nothing better to use here and it sounds like something I'd come up with on my own. Here's a recap of what I've done since last Monday; on the 14th, I was able to go to Walt Disney World, Epcot in particular. The annual Spring event known as the International Flower and Garden Festival was going on so I walked around, looked at the scenery and ate food there, including a tasty lemon scone. As always, during that and the Food and Wine Festival, alcohol can easily be purchased so there are always clownshoes ridiculous tools who can't hold their liquor and act like A-holes. I had to be in a store with some D-bags who were having a CON-BRO-SATION about how one of them just broke up with their girlfriend... I got out of there as soon as I made my purchase.

Tuesday, that was different. I ended up at a Macaroni Grill-a restaurant I have not been to in years-and it was with both a parent and a sister. That sister was down here from out of state for a few days due to work-related reasons. They were usually busy but they had a few hours free so that's how everyone ended up there. I had a simple cheese pizza, yet that was really good so I am a fool for not going there much more often. At least I can fix that mistake now so I don't do it again. It was also nice to see that sister. Wednesday and Thursday, nothing happened either day so let me skip ahead to Friday, which turned out to be a not so good day.

I was thinking of what to do on Friday as I had free time; I decided to return to the World of Beer, as I hadn't been to one in awhile, so I went to the location right in Clermont. I had a pair of hard root beers I hadn't had before, one from Abita and another from Wild Ginger-out of Tennessee-and both were good in their own ways. Then again I haven't had any bad hard root beer, and that started to become a trend last year. Unfortunately, the service there was bad (both with me and the customers in general; getting food from the kitchen was a very low priority) and said food I thought tasted alright, but it did a number on my digestive system... I won't be to any WOB anytime soon and who knows when I'll feel like going to that particular location.

Saturday, the only thing I did was go to Walmart (some of the people there really fit the stereotype). Sunday was looking to be another quiet day, then the evening happened... the most important thing is that someone I know suffered a significant injury. I won't go into details except to say that it's nothing life-threatening at all. It's just an injury that will take some time to heal. I am not even talking about the local independent pro wrestler who was involved in a bad car wreck yesterday with a friend and they are both doing well considering the circumstances.

Much less epochal but still frustrating is how another person I know asked me for help in adding an album's worth of songs from CD, ripped on iTunes then synced up to their iPod Touch. I've done that plenty of times before using an older computer. That older computer is going to be replaced soon and the disc drive doesn't even work anymore so I had to use another computer and I thought it'd be simple to simply download iTunes on there, have everything authorized, rip the CD then it'll automatically sync up... I was wrong! I should have known better, considering the issues I have had with Apple before. Way back when I had to purchase third party software to rip the songs from an older iPod to that then-new iPod Touch; yes, same person and all. After much trial and error I had to pay for another piece of third party software to rip the songs from that iPod Touch to iTunes (because why would iTunes automatically do it and for free? That'd be treating their customers nicely and Apple doesn't do that), delete the songs on the Touch and have all 560 old songs and the 20 new ones sync up from iTunes to the Touch. What a nightmare situation for something that should be easy and done for free as everyone who has music on portable Apple devices has to deal with such issues eventually. That is why I don't have music on any Apple devices I own (i.e. my own iPod Touch) and I still rip music onto discs to use in the car. It was a situation I did not need on this night of all nights, so yeah Sunday sucked.

This upcoming week should hopefully go well from beginning to end.

College Basketball, Bad Hair, Triple 9 & Ford's Garage

Here's a recap of what I've done since last Monday; thankfully this past week was more interesting than the one I had before. Let me mention right away that I'll be kinder and gentler so I won't rail against all the atrocious traffic I dealt with in the preceding 7 days; just note that it was even worse than usual. Some people I know had health scares in recent times (don't worry, everyone is fine now) and it makes me realize that doing my usual complaining about that just doesn't seem right.

On Monday the 7th, I got a much-needed haircut. That was a typical experience, except for a moment that was hilarious to me. As I was getting rid of all the hair I had, a young boy was doing the same; his mom was around and from her talking I know (but sadly did not see) that the son got a haircut with a LIGHTNING BOLT design on the side. I can't speak for any of my family but I am quite confident in saying that if I asked for such a thing when I was a youngster way back when, my mom would have shot that down in 0.2 seconds! Really, a lot of hairstyles these days puzzle me, but I don't want to sound like an old man on his porch so let me move on.

Tuesday, I had free time so I went to the Tampa area, a place I hadn't been to in months. I felt like doing something different. I ended up in Brandon. First I went to the nice mall there. I walked around and it was largely the same as usual; I did not purchase anything there but it was still nice to walk around. I then went to a restaurant that I heard someone I know mention online once. It has a few locations across Florida, but I was at Ford's Garage. There's a backstory as to its name; I won't get into it but they are authorized to use the Ford name, as it was named after Henry Ford. They are known for their burgers... this suited me rather well so I had my “almost always” of a burger & fries. The former was with Kobe beef, aged sharp cheddar and a pretzel bun. It was pretty tasty. After that I went to a Muvico (the Muvico Starlight 20 on the northeast side of Tampa, to be exact) to see a movie, as I hadn't been to a Muvico since like '08. That particular place was nice. At a screening where I was the only person in attendance, I saw Triple 9. That was fine, although with the people involved it should have been better.

Wednesday, the only thing I did was return to Winter Garden Village; I got some random items from Target, purchased some PS3 games from Gamestop (they had a 4 games for 20 dollars deal. I got 5 in total, including all 3 Dead Space games, as I hear the first two are incredible), and I likely made my last visit to Planet Smoothie... until they get some new limited edition flavors, that is. The last time I was there I had the Orange Push Up, which was really good. This time, I had the PBJ; yes, it did taste like a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and it was also good. I did not do anything on Thursday so let me talk about Friday. I realized that I hadn't been inside of the giant arena in Orlando (the Amway Center) since the UFC on Fox show in late April of 2014. It's a nice building so I figured it was about time I returned there, and that's what I did on this night to see two American Athletic Conference college basketball tournament games. It's in downtown Orlando but the only thing I did when it came to walking the area was going around before the pair of games started and I looked to see if anything was new. More often than not, it's the place I remembered it being. Going on at the same time was the Orlando City SC game at home against the Chicago Fire. Sometime later this year I'll go to an OCSC contest at the Citrus Bowl. Anyhow, a party was going on and plenty of supporters were around. They have shuttles from there to the stadium but I'd rather just walk the mile there and mile back than worry about any shuttles.

The two games I saw were Tulane vs. Houston and Tulsa vs. Memphis. Tulane and Memphis won in upsets, and I was surprised at how easily Memphis won by. Houston couldn't make a free throw to save their lives and Tulsa fell apart in the second half so that's why those teams lost. Both games, they were sparsely attended (as I expected) so I was happy to pay for a ticket and try to help them out. Them can be the conference or the Amway Center. The ticket I paid for wasn't the lower bowl but I got moved down there; I sat in the corner and I was happy with the seat I got. After the two games (I ate in the building beforehand) it was nearing midnight and I was tired so I just headed straight home. I don't think it'll be long before I go back and see if the downtown Orlando nightlife is the same as it was before...

Saturday and Sunday I was happy to stay in and do nothing. When I return a week from today, I have some ideas when it comes for activities to do.

The One Time I Had An Extremely Dull Week

Here's a recap of what I've done since last Monday. As I predicted the last time I wrote, this past week was a lot less eventful than the one I had the week before. I had various things to do, include cleaning my bedroom. So, this will be pretty short. 

Last Monday I didn't do anything, Tuesday I dropped something off at my bank and got some miscellaneous items from Walmart. Wednesday I got food from Chipotle (where I did not get E. coli) and I also got the brand new Rockstar Punched Freeze from Taco Bell (which was pretty tasty, as I think the Rockstar Punched energy drink is pretty good). Thursday, I finished cleaning my room and did other tasks at home and Friday, I had lunch at Wawa (a turkey sandwich, as I always get from there) and dinner at the BurgerFi in Winter Park, where this time I had it with white cheddar and it was tasty. Right before dinner I stopped at the nearby Rocket Fizz to purchase some gourmet soda. Saturday, I had to go out for something; I won't go into details, except that I had to deal with plenty of rude Floridians, both on the road and off. I did not feel like watching any UFC or going anywhere to see that PPV, as not only am I still “meh” on them, the last minute main event only booked to get “the casuals” interested, no thank you. The fact that the main event turned out the way it did and in the long run it'll cost the company at least a decent amount of money, I don't feel bad for them at all. Sunday, I was happy to stay in. So, let me mention one random thing:

When I was at Disney Springs on Friday the 26th of last month, I parked in the parking garage and I happened to park by a BMW I did not recognize. It was a 116i hatchback low to the ground. I still did not recognize it. They used to sell 1 series cars here in the United States, but not anymore. I then looked in the window and saw the steering wheel was on the right side of the car, and realize that the car was imported. Problem is, he shouldn't have been able to do that, as unless you spend a lot of cash to make it comply with federal standards, cars less than 25 years old can't be imported into the United States, and the 116i at its oldest came out 12 years ago. I am a nerd so I've heard (but not seen it myself) stories of this state being like the Wild West-which it is in other ways-and you can bring in whatever the hell, and probably get it insured too. I mean, it had foreign plates but on the back was also a Florida plate, so it's not like it was a tourist from, say, Canada or Mexico, where those rules are more lax.

Really, that's it for the past week. I promise that when I return a week from today, things will be more entertaining and interesting.