Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Which Wich & Ouroboros

The preceding week has been so unexciting (for the most part) that I'll bring up a term that has become popular online as of late... ouroboros is basically a fancy way of saying “a snake eating its own tail.” There may be a new fact you learned today... but yes, I really only had two interesting days. Monday and Tuesday I relaxed as I knew I would have to be out on Wednesday, and I was. I had to go to the airport again, this time to pick someone up. If you think that is over for me, when I return a week from today I'll have to talk about ANOTHER airport trip I am making, that one another long one. Anyhow, before making it to the Sanford Airport, I stopped at Total Wine & More to make a cheap purchase then I ate at a Which Wich, a joint I only rarely go to yet their sandwiches are fine. Now, let me take the time to mention... I haven't brought it up as of late but as it should go without saying, traffic in Florida is still horrid. Even around town I see people driving way too fast or otherwise acting like jackasses; it's worse when you are on the highways.

Thursday, I went and saw Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. As I've mentioned in the past, the first Jurassic Park I've loved ever since I saw it on the big screen as a 12 year old in the summer of 1993. The first two sequels were meh although I can't say they were bad. Jurassic World, I saw opening night and thought it was bad. Then again, that was a terrible day in general so months later I did watch it again... yes, still bad. Honestly, the main reason why I saw Fallen Kingdom was so I could give my opinions to someone I know who did love Jurassic World. Fallen Kingdom made me realize that perhaps I was too harsh on Jurassic World... Fallen Kingdom is a stinker. What a tremendously stupid film; it wasn't until I started watching it that I realized... why is the island that the first film and JW took place at... why did John Hammond choose an island that housed a long-dormant volcano? What sense does that make? It gets far dumber from there. If you thought the nephew characters were tremendously aggravating in JW (as I did), wait until you view two new characters who were awful for entirely different reasons. There's a cute little girl character who was far more tolerable, although there are big questions I have surrounding her. The two JW flicks remind me why I avoid most modern Hollywood blockbusters... they are just too darn dumb, and in cases like this, the movie was really boring.

Friday through now, the “highlight” was going to Redbox, so there is nothing to talk there. I was happy to stay in and watch things like LivePD; it was nice to avoid the poor drivers and not possibly have to deal with fools at random locations. When I return next Monday, I promise I'll have more to discuss.

Coca-Cola California Raspberry, Joysticks Arcade Bar & Who's On First?

This past week was another one where only a few days were interesting, but in this case they were quite interesting. Last Monday, I went somewhere in town to pick up a few items. Tuesday I did nothing until real late at night; I had to make another airport run. I dropped someone off at the airport in Sanford and on the way back I stopped at a Denny's for a late night meal; that went as expected. Wednesday I did nothing but Thursday I returned to Universal Studios CityWalk for dinner. I hadn't eaten at NBC Sports Grill & Brew in ages so I had my “almost always” of a burger & fries as I consumed a drink and watched TV. That led to some great comedy; some clowns came in and I soon realized they were so dumb... what an exercise it was in frustration to see them try to figure out what beer they wanted and I felt so bad for the bartender as she had to repeat things over and over again. It was like a bad Who's on First routine. Them attempting to order food wasn't much better.

Friday, I went to downtown Orlando and I went to a place that sounded pretty cool... and it was. A place called Joysticks Arcade Bar where you get to drink alcohol in a joint filled with 70's through 90's bric-a-brac and there's even small themed The Goonies & Star Wars rooms and there are vintage arcade machines from the 80's and 90's... heck yeah to that. Thankfully the place was as fun as I expected it to be. They had a DJ spinning tunes so as I placed my drink on the provided drink stands I could play Galaga or Rampage as tunes from the likes of Billy Ocean, New Order, the song that played during Kickboxer as Van Damme danced, and Eddie Murphy's Party all the Time were heard over the sound system. While there, an incredible moment happened. I was in the men's room... as an aside, the bathrooms are Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man themed. As I left, a woman came out of the ladies room and asked for toilet paper, as somehow the club did not have enough of that in there. I was then told to tear off enough to... well, I don't want to use the colorful slang she used, but after that comment was made, the girl then made the obvious (and correct) assumption that I would not know how much toilet paper was needed for a woman to wipe! Thankfully I apparently did tear off enough.

The weekend wasn't too terribly exciting, although on Saturday I went into my town as they had a special food truck event to celebrate Father's Day. It was larger than the city's usual food truck nights they have during the first Friday of each month. I had a tasty dinner so it was a wise decision to head out that way. Before I close this out and mention I'll be back next Monday with some adventures I know I'll be discussing, I did recently have Coca-Cola's limited edition California Raspberry flavor. I don't know how raspberries from California are different but at least it does taste pretty good.

Hotel Artemis, Kettle Corn Oreos, Walmart Imbecility & Hereditary

I had another up and down week. Monday and Tuesday I did nothing, which was hunky-dory with me. Thus, I'll mention now that recently I got the last limited edition Oreos flavor out now, which was Kettle Corn. A bizarre idea for a flavor although it does taste like it should. Wednesday, it did not turn out too well; to think that a simple trip to Walmart would result in such aggravation, but I had to deal with horrendous traffic and buffoons inside the Walmart itself. I know, that doesn't sound too surprising... but note that I thought the person checking me out was so stupid they could not even do the simple act of putting 100 dollars on a Walmart gift card that hadn't been used yet. As I explain a few weeks ago, I use those gift cards both for in-store and to once in awhile purchase gas from the Murphy USA gas stations. Thus, the card was never paid for and instead I only paid for the few grocery items I had. I did blame this person for not being good at their job but a few days later I was proven wrong...

Late Thursday night, I went somewhere to watch Hotel Artemis. I don't know if I ever saw a trailer for it beforehand; the premise made it sound like the Continental Hotel from the John Wick movies so I presumed it would be like that. Again, I was proven wrong. It was more drama than action yet me not liking the movie was because the great cast was wasted and the story was a whole lot of nothing & pointless. Friday and Saturday I relaxed as Sunday I would be at the Barnstorm Theater, a place I was at last fall. It is in The Villages and the place is shaped like a barn. I went and saw Hereditary, a horror film that had a lot of buzz.

That movie is one which many in the mainstream has rejected as it's not conventional. I'll say it's good although not great like many movie fans have. The movie is too long and you have to follow around a miserable, dysfunctional family for over 2 hours. There's a plot point or two I definitely could criticize but I don't want to give out any spoilers. I then had dinner at a nearby Five Guys before I headed home. I happened to drive by a Walmart on the journey so I stopped there for Attempt 2 at the gift card. Turns out, the issue was with Walmart itself and them being incompetent... I know, not a shock, right? Thankfully I did not get mad and yell at the person who checked me out on Wednesday. I felt bad as this held up the line for a bit and I imagine the people waiting were not happy with the delay... at least it was finally resolved.

When I return a week from today, I only have an idea or two as to what I will be talking about.

Clearwater Beach, Diabolique, XPA & Upgrade

The preceding week had some rather unique moments for me. On Memorial Day itself, I had to go to the Tampa area in order to make an airport run; I picked up someone from the regional St. Pete-Clearwater airport. What I did on this day: a place I mentioned recently (the cult/genre movie store known as Grindhouse Video Tampa) was open on the holiday so I stopped in. I did not spend as much as last time, at least. I then drove to Clearwater Beach; the weather was rainy but I was only there to hang out in two different establishments. The first was Frenchy's Saltwater Cafe, which was a small, pleasant place. I had food & drink there. I also had that when I went literally next door to a place with quite the name: Cooters! A cooter is a popular name for a species of turtle but it's also slang for something incredibly lewd I won't repeat here. Cooters was a larger place and yet was still nice for what it was. I then picked up that person and drove home; some fools on the highway were driving way too fast on wet highways... I was not shocked.

Tuesday and Thursday and Saturday I did nothing, which was fine as it meant not having to deal with fools on the road. Wednesday, I went to a local establishment in town for dinner, where I also had a margarita... good choice on my part. Friday, I ate at PDQ right in town and right before that was a trip to Target. I knew that Sunday would be a busy day so I might as well chill on the other days, you know. I had to drop someone off at 12:45 PM at the Sanford airport, then pick up someone else from the Sanford airport a little after 8 PM. Originally, I was going to attend a college baseball game (part of the Division I playoffs, as a matter of fact) up in DeLand; I make it up there and for some unknown reason the game was delayed two hours. I got ticked so I left and I went with Plan B and drove up to Daytona Beach. 

The main thing I did in the city was go to their nicest cineplex and saw the film Upgrade. A hard R sci-fi body horror thing won't be for all tastes, but it was a great B movie and a lot of fun. For those that enjoy such things, I give Upgrade a very strong recommendation. After that I stayed in the same area and ate at a restaurant that was part of a chain; a place named Rock Bottom is a little wacky but it was not bad overall. The food was fine and the beer they made on site was pretty good. One I had was XPA, which was an extra pale ale. I did not have the Belgian Strong Ale known as Diabolique; I mention it as it reminded me how I did not care for one of the bartenders. He was a tool and among other things, he always referred to that beer as “Diabolical”. He must not have known how to pronounce the word. As it was referred to on the menu and chalkboard as Diabolique, that made him look so dumb. As an aside, there's a great 50's French movie with the title which should be seen if you love Hitchcock films.

After that I did some things, including buying a giftcard and a soda at a Best Buy. That took longer than expected due to idiocy and as the person's flight arrived in Sanford early... I was not happy with that or the terrible traffic on this day. Too many blew by me on the Interstate as if they were on the Autobahn; more than one had to be going more than 100. I was not shocked there were multiple fender-benders and I almost got into one myself. A few minutes beforehand, someone flew by me going way too fast. Then, there was a slow-down at an exit as a lane was blocked due to a crash. Suddenly, as it was the exit I was going to use anyway, I moved into the lane, then suddenly that same fool cut over multiple lanes and almost caused a giant multiple car crash as he suddenly wanted to use that exit also. You can see why I am fine with days where I don't have to go far or don't even leave the house.

When I return next Monday, I have nothing planned yet in terms of fun activities or events.