For the holiday season my parents and I got out from Florida and like last year did something different by visiting family in Kansas and doing so via a roadtrip.
Like last year my parents and I drove out from Florida to Kansas-to haul presents, you see-and visited one of my two sisters, her husband and twin nephews, who are now 2 years old. This time my other sister was also there. The drive on this day was from Florida to Conway, Arkansas, a little bit northwest of Little Rock. The traffic was pretty brutal there and there was a lot of rainy weather. Turns out that it's not just Florida drivers who become real stupid when there's “sky water” on the road. I don't mean to stereotype here but we stopped for lunch at a fast food joint in a random southern Mississippi town known as Wiggins and well, the customers there could safely be classified as “white trash”. Yes, I did go through the area which 24 hours later was hit by a tornado. For dinner we ate at a McAlister's Deli, a place I hadn't been to before; their food is more than halfway decent.
Tuesday, the drive was made from Arkansas to Park City, Kansas, just north of Wichita. I won't say much about my time at my sister's house (she may prefer it that way) but it was great to finally see my nephews again. They just turned two and they provide plenty of entertainment and except for naps they also provide a lot of commotion. They are pretty perceptive and usually they do get along with each other. From Tuesday to Friday not too much happened that I'll recap here, except that the twins did enjoy all the Christmas/birthday presents they received. The Christmas meal of ham was also pretty nice. Friday night we ate by Wichita's airport in a joint known as Hangar One Steakhouse. There is an aviation theme and the young boys loved that as they love airplanes. As for the food, it seemed to be either undercooked or overcooked; if it wasn't for that... I'd give the place nice reviews.
As nice as it was to hang out with family and all that, I started to feel rather terrible on Friday, and the feelings didn't really go away until today. So, even though I won't get to see all those family members for at least another year I still had the itch to return home. Like the last time the drive back was made all in one day; it wasn't my decision to do that! The “highlights” of that never-ending day:
Some A-hole in Arkansas changing lanes and almost crashing into the car; not even honking the horn stopped the lane change. I certainly saw bad driving during the vacation; nothing like what I deal with on a daily basis in Florida, though.
The way back was different. We went through the southern part of Memphis. There was a light that had turned red and someone was obviously not paying attention (they were probably on their damn phone) so on wet roads-yes, more rain-they slammed on their brakes and thankfully instead of wrecking multiple vehicles he veered right and crashed into a curb.
Like last December we ate at a Hardee's in the middle of nowhere Alabama, this time in Luverne.
Despite being too amped up from arriving home and only getting a few hours of sleep, I did go out and about on Sunday, which wasn't the wisest decision; there's still holiday traffic and plenty of rude behavior. I wasn't in the mood for it so I made it known what I thought of their atrocious driving. I did not go out to see the final game of this season for the Chicago Bears. I figured they would lose... and I was right. No surprise then that after a 5-11 season their coach got fired today. As said before no way should they have been that bad. Anyhow, what I did was visit a few stores on the east side of Orlando and I also filled up the gas tank as I found some stations selling it for pretty cheap.
When I return next Monday to type up my first post of 2015, I have a few ideas as to what I'll be talking about. I won't be doing anything exciting for New Years Eve, but I rarely do anyway.
Monday, December 29, 2014
Sunday, December 21, 2014
The Blog Of Activities I Did Before Going On Vacation
As I mentioned last time, the reason why this is a special primetime Sunday night post is that real early Monday morning I am leaving and I'll be out of town for almost a week. When I return on the 29th I'll give all the important details about the trip. So for now, a real short blog as this past week was even less exciting for me than usual.
Once again this isn't the most exciting blog but I am alright with that. This past Monday the only thing I did was return to the library to drop off what I got the week before... oh yeah, and there was also the Chicago Bears game against the New Orleans Saints. The Saints aren't a great team themselves but they handily defeated the pathetic Bears. I don't even know what else to say besides that.
Onto Tuesday, where me and someone I know went to a new restaurant that opened only a few miles from where I live, and yet that chain I had been to a number of times in the past: the Texas Roadhouse. As it had only been open a few days at the time, it was still rather popular; thankfully the service was speedy considering the crowd and the food tasted pretty good; I had my “almost always” of a burger and fries, naturally.
Wednesday and Thursday I didn't do a damn thing of note. So, onto Friday, where I thought of going out and about and having a little day trip; but, due to various reasons-including wanting to rest and make sure I am ready for the upcoming trip-I did not actually do that. However, I can at least say I have now had one of the new pizzas that Pizza Hut has introduced; it was their pretzel crust pizza in particular and yes, it was quite tasty.
Saturday I didn't do a thing so Sunday, Sunday, Sunday... I did go somewhere, mainly to have lunch and watching NFL games was a side effect of that. The Bears played against the Detroit Lions and while Chicago lost by only a few points and somehow did well with a terrible backup quarterback even worse than the star quarterback that's been awful as of late and was humiliatingly benched for this game... yet the close score was mainly due to Detroit playing poorly themselves and also, some putrid officiating. At least the other games I paid attention to were a little more interesting. Oh yeah, I should mention that I saw this game at the Ale House Restaurant location in Altamonte Springs. That went fine, although I am not sure why a lady bartender there kept on talking about Cheez Whiz! True story.
After that I stopped at a Walmart on the way back to get some last-minute items for the trip. As the trip is all about seeing family members I rarely get to see anymore, it will be good times and I definitely am looking forward to it.
Once again this isn't the most exciting blog but I am alright with that. This past Monday the only thing I did was return to the library to drop off what I got the week before... oh yeah, and there was also the Chicago Bears game against the New Orleans Saints. The Saints aren't a great team themselves but they handily defeated the pathetic Bears. I don't even know what else to say besides that.
Onto Tuesday, where me and someone I know went to a new restaurant that opened only a few miles from where I live, and yet that chain I had been to a number of times in the past: the Texas Roadhouse. As it had only been open a few days at the time, it was still rather popular; thankfully the service was speedy considering the crowd and the food tasted pretty good; I had my “almost always” of a burger and fries, naturally.
Wednesday and Thursday I didn't do a damn thing of note. So, onto Friday, where I thought of going out and about and having a little day trip; but, due to various reasons-including wanting to rest and make sure I am ready for the upcoming trip-I did not actually do that. However, I can at least say I have now had one of the new pizzas that Pizza Hut has introduced; it was their pretzel crust pizza in particular and yes, it was quite tasty.
Saturday I didn't do a thing so Sunday, Sunday, Sunday... I did go somewhere, mainly to have lunch and watching NFL games was a side effect of that. The Bears played against the Detroit Lions and while Chicago lost by only a few points and somehow did well with a terrible backup quarterback even worse than the star quarterback that's been awful as of late and was humiliatingly benched for this game... yet the close score was mainly due to Detroit playing poorly themselves and also, some putrid officiating. At least the other games I paid attention to were a little more interesting. Oh yeah, I should mention that I saw this game at the Ale House Restaurant location in Altamonte Springs. That went fine, although I am not sure why a lady bartender there kept on talking about Cheez Whiz! True story.
After that I stopped at a Walmart on the way back to get some last-minute items for the trip. As the trip is all about seeing family members I rarely get to see anymore, it will be good times and I definitely am looking forward to it.
Monday, December 15, 2014
The Blog Where I Met People Calling Themselves Rocky and Mayo
Unfortunately this is yet another brief blog from me. Those are the breaks. Last Monday, I went out and about and sad to say it was a dreary cold rainy day. Still, I pushed on. It was of absolute zero shock to me that I saw the aftermath of a 2 car car crash on the way back. I went to Trader Joe's to pick up a few items and ate at BurgerFi as I hadn't eaten there in too long and I do like their burger & fries.
Tuesday, I went to the local library and that was as thrilling as the day got. Wednesday, I didn't do anything but Thursday I went to Walmart in order to pick up some miscellaneous items, such as soda. I know that I am boring now but that's how things have turned out. At least I can announce that on the 22nd I'll once again be out in Kansas for the holidays, getting to hang out with family and getting to see my twin nephews again will be quite great also.
Friday, I finally did something a little more interesting; I had to deal with some brutally bad traffic and some real rude drivers but it's Florida so that is expected. At least I went to a particular location I hadn't been at before: the World of Beer in Dr. Phillips; I'll always laugh at the wacky name of the town. I also laughed at the wacky name of the lady bartender that served me, as she wanted me to call her Rocky. I decided to have dinner there and as it's me I had the burger and fries, which were good. The beers I had were:
Beerlao Lager: I thought it was wacky to drink beer from Laos. It was fine.
As it was in the limited release section I decided to try out a brew from Lexington Brewing in Kentucky and it was known as Kentucky Honey Barrel Brown Ale. I did not know what to expect but it was actually good.
Also good was Hitachino Nest XH, a darker ale from Japan. I don't know if I've gotten older and more mature or what but my beer tastes are more varied than they used to be and I am glad it's the case. If you can find both beers (likely only at a place like World of Beer) I say they are worth a shot. My time at the joint was fine. Sure, I could have done without the creepy weird customers around, but alas; I tried to ignore them the best I could and while most of the jukebox music was newer tunes I did not even recognize at all at least they played some older ditties once in awhile.
Saturday and Sunday were more lazy days for me. At least on Saturday night I was able to watch parts of the UFC show that was free on TV (it was fine) and Sunday I went to the grocery store king in Florida known as Publix to get their sandwiches as they are a cult favorite around these parts, for good reason. So it made for a nice meal. Hilariously, there was a guy working there who must have a first name he hates if what he put on his nametag was MAYO. Yes.
Because of my trip and how I am leaving real early on the 22nd, I'll actually post my next blog primetime on Sunday the 21st; I know I'll talk about a few things, such as two Chicago Bears games and going out to see at least one movie.
Tuesday, I went to the local library and that was as thrilling as the day got. Wednesday, I didn't do anything but Thursday I went to Walmart in order to pick up some miscellaneous items, such as soda. I know that I am boring now but that's how things have turned out. At least I can announce that on the 22nd I'll once again be out in Kansas for the holidays, getting to hang out with family and getting to see my twin nephews again will be quite great also.
Friday, I finally did something a little more interesting; I had to deal with some brutally bad traffic and some real rude drivers but it's Florida so that is expected. At least I went to a particular location I hadn't been at before: the World of Beer in Dr. Phillips; I'll always laugh at the wacky name of the town. I also laughed at the wacky name of the lady bartender that served me, as she wanted me to call her Rocky. I decided to have dinner there and as it's me I had the burger and fries, which were good. The beers I had were:
Beerlao Lager: I thought it was wacky to drink beer from Laos. It was fine.
As it was in the limited release section I decided to try out a brew from Lexington Brewing in Kentucky and it was known as Kentucky Honey Barrel Brown Ale. I did not know what to expect but it was actually good.
Also good was Hitachino Nest XH, a darker ale from Japan. I don't know if I've gotten older and more mature or what but my beer tastes are more varied than they used to be and I am glad it's the case. If you can find both beers (likely only at a place like World of Beer) I say they are worth a shot. My time at the joint was fine. Sure, I could have done without the creepy weird customers around, but alas; I tried to ignore them the best I could and while most of the jukebox music was newer tunes I did not even recognize at all at least they played some older ditties once in awhile.
Saturday and Sunday were more lazy days for me. At least on Saturday night I was able to watch parts of the UFC show that was free on TV (it was fine) and Sunday I went to the grocery store king in Florida known as Publix to get their sandwiches as they are a cult favorite around these parts, for good reason. So it made for a nice meal. Hilariously, there was a guy working there who must have a first name he hates if what he put on his nametag was MAYO. Yes.
Because of my trip and how I am leaving real early on the 22nd, I'll actually post my next blog primetime on Sunday the 21st; I know I'll talk about a few things, such as two Chicago Bears games and going out to see at least one movie.
Monday, December 8, 2014
Natty Daddy, French Fry Heaven, Nightcrawler & Lazy Weekends
This will be another blog on the short side. That is just how it worked out.
Last Monday was pretty dull so let me skip ahead to Tuesday. On that day I had a dentist appointment; it was just a check-up and teeth cleaning. While there something quite out of the ordinary happened. I do not know who was the gift-giver but someone gave the dentist office a large cake, and they admitted they'd never be able to finish it on their own... so they asked me if I wanted a piece to bring home! At first I thought it was a joke due to the irony of that place giving me something sugary and sweet but it wasn't, so of course I accepted the offer and brought it home; it was good. The appointment went fine, also.
Wednesday I didn't do anything so let me mention that on Thursday I went with someone to the local Steak 'n Shake for dinner. The food tasted fine and I enjoyed their limited edition white chocolate shake, but I wasn't pleased by all the stupid ogre people there, especially the ones that refused to control their extremely loud kids. Sigh... and I don't even want to talk about the Bears game, except that they once again lost, although it was another loss I expected. What a crappy team they are.
Friday was another interesting day; I drove down to Lakeland to have some fun. I could have done a few things on that day and with information I found out after the fact maybe I should have done something different; I shouldn't complain though as my Friday was still a decent time.
The only part of Lakeland I went to was the Lakeland Square Mall, which is connected with the real nice Cinemark Theatres I always enjoy going to. This time I saw Nightcrawler, as I heard a lot of strong praise for it. While the movie is very dark, it's pretty great and I rate it rather highly. Jake Gyllenhaal just looked creepy as hell and he was tremendous as the lead. After that I walked in the mall for a bit and I had dinner, which was eating fries from a joint known as French Fry Heaven; it was indeed pretty tasty. I also had food to eat once I made it back home. I also got another shake-this time peppermint bark from Haagen Dazs. Yep, it was good also.
The weekend, I didn't do a thing. Part of it was that I “did a favor” for someone so I didn't go out and about on Saturday night and I didn't see the latest UFC pay per view. In hindsight it may not have been the worst thing from what I heard... I was happy to do the favor. I just stayed in and relaxed both Saturday and Sunday. So, let me mention how during this weekend I saw an online advertisement for a new beer called Natty Daddy, a strong brew sold in a 25 ounce bottle. If it tastes the same as Natty Light and Natty Ice, I am not sure if I want to try it! I've had both way back when in my college days and the former was beer-flavored water and the latter was like liquid bread.
When I return a week from today... I hope to have more to talk about. I do have some ideas in mind, as always.
Last Monday was pretty dull so let me skip ahead to Tuesday. On that day I had a dentist appointment; it was just a check-up and teeth cleaning. While there something quite out of the ordinary happened. I do not know who was the gift-giver but someone gave the dentist office a large cake, and they admitted they'd never be able to finish it on their own... so they asked me if I wanted a piece to bring home! At first I thought it was a joke due to the irony of that place giving me something sugary and sweet but it wasn't, so of course I accepted the offer and brought it home; it was good. The appointment went fine, also.
Wednesday I didn't do anything so let me mention that on Thursday I went with someone to the local Steak 'n Shake for dinner. The food tasted fine and I enjoyed their limited edition white chocolate shake, but I wasn't pleased by all the stupid ogre people there, especially the ones that refused to control their extremely loud kids. Sigh... and I don't even want to talk about the Bears game, except that they once again lost, although it was another loss I expected. What a crappy team they are.
Friday was another interesting day; I drove down to Lakeland to have some fun. I could have done a few things on that day and with information I found out after the fact maybe I should have done something different; I shouldn't complain though as my Friday was still a decent time.
The only part of Lakeland I went to was the Lakeland Square Mall, which is connected with the real nice Cinemark Theatres I always enjoy going to. This time I saw Nightcrawler, as I heard a lot of strong praise for it. While the movie is very dark, it's pretty great and I rate it rather highly. Jake Gyllenhaal just looked creepy as hell and he was tremendous as the lead. After that I walked in the mall for a bit and I had dinner, which was eating fries from a joint known as French Fry Heaven; it was indeed pretty tasty. I also had food to eat once I made it back home. I also got another shake-this time peppermint bark from Haagen Dazs. Yep, it was good also.
The weekend, I didn't do a thing. Part of it was that I “did a favor” for someone so I didn't go out and about on Saturday night and I didn't see the latest UFC pay per view. In hindsight it may not have been the worst thing from what I heard... I was happy to do the favor. I just stayed in and relaxed both Saturday and Sunday. So, let me mention how during this weekend I saw an online advertisement for a new beer called Natty Daddy, a strong brew sold in a 25 ounce bottle. If it tastes the same as Natty Light and Natty Ice, I am not sure if I want to try it! I've had both way back when in my college days and the former was beer-flavored water and the latter was like liquid bread.
When I return a week from today... I hope to have more to talk about. I do have some ideas in mind, as always.
Monday, December 1, 2014
Artegon, Auto Shows, Thanksgiving & Long-Awaited Returns
Due to the weather I decided I should go out and about on Monday instead of the next day, where it was all but guaranteed there would be a few inches of rain. Monday was a real nice day in the low 80's so good call on my part.
I decided to go to a place that had a big makeover. In the past I've talked about the Festival Bay Mall a number of times; it's on the north end of I-Drive and for whatever reasons the mall was a flop and eventually it was a ghost town in there with hardly any stores open and if it wasn't for places like Bass Pro Shops and the Cinemark Theatre it would have shut down long before it did; they spent months remodeling it and now it's Artegon Marketplace, and most of it consists of booths that sell local artisan items, like paintings, other art, some food, jewelry, etc. A lot of it isn't really for me but I still hope that this new gimmick ends up working; if it doesn't I will feel bad. I did get some food items and I was fine with buying locally. After that I went down I-Drive to Twin Peaks as I do enjoy the food there. It has nothing to do with the scantily-clad women who work there... or at least that's what I'll tell myself. I had a nice dinner.
Tuesday was dull and Wednesday the only thing I did was get more paper for the printer from Staples, so let me mention that my Thanksgiving turned out fine. It was with my parents and my aunt and it was a tasty meal while we watched the Chicago Bears play at the Detroit Lions. The game went how I expected, meaning that the Bears looked bad for the most part and they lost, by the score of 34-17. That was the highlight of the day. Tomorrow was more interesting, and no I did not engage in any Black Friday shopping; I never do that as it's way too chaotic for me and I'd rather not be around buffoons who are encouraged to act like buffoons all for the sake of “a good deal”.
Instead, I did what I typically do on the day after Thanksgiving, and that is go to the Central Florida Auto Show at the Orange County Convention Center. While there aren't as many manufacturers there as in the past it's still a good time seeing many different model year '15 automobiles, including the likes of the Corvette, Mustang, Camaro, and the Charger; they even had the limited edition Hellcat Charger, which has SEVEN HUNDRED AND SEVEN horsepower; no kidding. There were several very interesting new cars there so I was quite happy to check them out.
Saturday I rested and I was OK with that considering all the walking I did the day before. So, let me talk Sunday, and I returned to an establishment for the first time since the summer, that being the World of Beer. I went to the one right in Clermont. One big change is that it used to be one of the locations that didn't serve food alongside several hundred different beers, but now it does; it made things easy for me as I was able to have dinner there (a burger and fries; of course that's what I would order) while drinking some European beers and watching some sports. The best one I had was from Iceland, of all places: Einstok White Ale. It was quite tasty and now in the future I'll have to try that brand's other beers. I tried to ignore the idiots who were around that joint. There were annoying or just loud people around and that never makes me happy. Still, I had a nice time there and the last week of November was good overall, which I am thankful for as I had some real crap days during the month.
When I return a week from today, I know I'll have a few things to talk about, although it may not be as interesting as the preceding week I had.
I decided to go to a place that had a big makeover. In the past I've talked about the Festival Bay Mall a number of times; it's on the north end of I-Drive and for whatever reasons the mall was a flop and eventually it was a ghost town in there with hardly any stores open and if it wasn't for places like Bass Pro Shops and the Cinemark Theatre it would have shut down long before it did; they spent months remodeling it and now it's Artegon Marketplace, and most of it consists of booths that sell local artisan items, like paintings, other art, some food, jewelry, etc. A lot of it isn't really for me but I still hope that this new gimmick ends up working; if it doesn't I will feel bad. I did get some food items and I was fine with buying locally. After that I went down I-Drive to Twin Peaks as I do enjoy the food there. It has nothing to do with the scantily-clad women who work there... or at least that's what I'll tell myself. I had a nice dinner.
Tuesday was dull and Wednesday the only thing I did was get more paper for the printer from Staples, so let me mention that my Thanksgiving turned out fine. It was with my parents and my aunt and it was a tasty meal while we watched the Chicago Bears play at the Detroit Lions. The game went how I expected, meaning that the Bears looked bad for the most part and they lost, by the score of 34-17. That was the highlight of the day. Tomorrow was more interesting, and no I did not engage in any Black Friday shopping; I never do that as it's way too chaotic for me and I'd rather not be around buffoons who are encouraged to act like buffoons all for the sake of “a good deal”.
Instead, I did what I typically do on the day after Thanksgiving, and that is go to the Central Florida Auto Show at the Orange County Convention Center. While there aren't as many manufacturers there as in the past it's still a good time seeing many different model year '15 automobiles, including the likes of the Corvette, Mustang, Camaro, and the Charger; they even had the limited edition Hellcat Charger, which has SEVEN HUNDRED AND SEVEN horsepower; no kidding. There were several very interesting new cars there so I was quite happy to check them out.
Saturday I rested and I was OK with that considering all the walking I did the day before. So, let me talk Sunday, and I returned to an establishment for the first time since the summer, that being the World of Beer. I went to the one right in Clermont. One big change is that it used to be one of the locations that didn't serve food alongside several hundred different beers, but now it does; it made things easy for me as I was able to have dinner there (a burger and fries; of course that's what I would order) while drinking some European beers and watching some sports. The best one I had was from Iceland, of all places: Einstok White Ale. It was quite tasty and now in the future I'll have to try that brand's other beers. I tried to ignore the idiots who were around that joint. There were annoying or just loud people around and that never makes me happy. Still, I had a nice time there and the last week of November was good overall, which I am thankful for as I had some real crap days during the month.
When I return a week from today, I know I'll have a few things to talk about, although it may not be as interesting as the preceding week I had.
Monday, November 24, 2014
Lionman, Keith McTeeth, Roller Motion & Three Kilos Of Pure Dirt
I am referencing the pinball tables Swords of Fury, The Bally Game Show, Rollergames (the glass art included a guy who sort of resembled James Caan, and that couldn't have been by accident) and Waterworld; yes they made a Waterworld pinball table. I played all those games this weekend.
Here's the recap of what I've done in the past week. I don't even remember doing anything last Monday so I presume it was a dull day. Tuesday, I went to Wawa for dinner; I got a sub sandwich for me and a sub sandwich for someone else. I also got myself a frozen drink, as that was the perfect thing to do on a day where the high was only in the 50's; the day before that it was like 30 degrees warmer than that, so it was real strange. At least their food is pretty tasty.
Wednesday, I went out to dinner with someone. We decided on Chili's as we hadn't been there in who knows how many months. Turns out, that place was remodeled. Well, it could be called a refresh as it wasn't extensive but it was still obvious. The food there was about what you'd expect from a Chili's. My time was there but I saw an odd site as the nearby bar area: a young man dressed as a pro wrestling referee! It was a Wednesday evening and while I do not follow the local independent pro wrestling scene like I used to, I thought I'd hear about a random Wednesday night show happening in the area. I did not recognize the guy either, so it was pretty odd. Thursday I relaxed as I knew Friday and Saturday would be busy days and oh they were... unfortunately the days were pretty terrible aside from the main thing I did.
Late July of '12 and '13 I attended events in Orlando on International Drive in a hotel known as Gamewarp, where a big room holds plenty of arcade and pinball games and by paying a flat fee you get to play them all. They didn't have a Gamewarp this year for whatever reasons; who knows if they'll ever come back. However, on this weekend was a new event (well, renamed from something else) called Free Play Florida and it was quite similar, down to being at a hotel on I-Drive, although one that was by the convention center and I didn't have to spend too much time actually driving on I-Drive; that's a plus as the road's always busy and always full of stupid tourists.
Friday, I experienced horrific traffic on the way there and back; there was tailgating, for one thing, and on a road with a 35 mile an hour speed limit a lady driver was a complete maniac, going way over the speed limit. Was she drunk, mentally ill, on drugs... I have no idea; I thought of calling the cops but to be honest if I tried to speed myself to get her license plate, she may have started driving even more erratically. As for the hotel, it was a Doubletree, so it was frou-frou and having to pay a few bucks for parking, I wasn't a fan of that. Having to pay each time you park, that limited food choices; most of the food they had there wasn't “normal” or not priced outrageously. Friday I ate at the bar in the lobby, where I had to listen to two random socially awkward dudes throw a huge stink over one of the employees asking for their credit card after they ordered some food; that sort of thing has become standard procedure now but those fools did not get the memo. I didn't even try to explain it to them as it'd be a futile gesture.
As for the crowds there, Friday wasn't too bad but Saturday was more hectic; it was what I expected. They had a mix of games there I played before and new ones. The number of tables based on 90's films was impressive, from Stargate to the mediocre Jurassic Park sequel. I'll list the ones that left the biggest impressions on me:
Swords of Fury will always make me laugh as the one I've seen is LOUD and a digitized voice screaming “LIONMAN, LIONMAN!” is amazing.
The Bally Game Show is actually a fun table, and the “game” is hosted by a stereotypical host known as Keith McTeeth.
Rollergames is a table I recently heard was good, and it was.
As I did well on it, I'll mention the Spiderman table.
The Twister table was rad, with some nice gimmicks.
NBA Fastbreak wasn't even a table I had ever heard of but I dug it and how you picked a team to start off with and the way you score points is to shoot the ball into the basket.
Baywatch was a table I had played before, way back when.
I did see people there I knew. It was nice to see them and I presume the feeling was reciprocated. There wasn't much time to chit-chat with them but that's expected at such a hectic event. Unfortunately aside from actually playing the games there my Friday and Saturday were pretty bad, between the traffic and other issues I won't get into. I can mention that I was disappointed how there were too many rude/ignorant people around on Saturday. It's a shame as most of the people there were fine, but there was also jerks present. I'll try to forget about all that and how I was dead tired by the time I left Saturday night, and I'll remember the good of playing those games instead of all the bad.
Speaking of bad, the Chicago Bears game vs. the Tampa Bay Bucs on Sunday... I was able to watch the game at home, so I did. It was quite hard to watch, as both teams are terrible and while Chicago won 21-13, for the first half of the game they were getting embarrassed by a team that had won only two times all year, and it was their mistakes more than anything else that let Chicago win. The Bears are playing Thanksgiving Day also, and it'll be while I have the big meal with some loved ones. I am expecting the game to be a loss.
I will return a week from today and while that week won't be as action-packed as the one I just had, there still will be some interesting moments.
Here's the recap of what I've done in the past week. I don't even remember doing anything last Monday so I presume it was a dull day. Tuesday, I went to Wawa for dinner; I got a sub sandwich for me and a sub sandwich for someone else. I also got myself a frozen drink, as that was the perfect thing to do on a day where the high was only in the 50's; the day before that it was like 30 degrees warmer than that, so it was real strange. At least their food is pretty tasty.
Wednesday, I went out to dinner with someone. We decided on Chili's as we hadn't been there in who knows how many months. Turns out, that place was remodeled. Well, it could be called a refresh as it wasn't extensive but it was still obvious. The food there was about what you'd expect from a Chili's. My time was there but I saw an odd site as the nearby bar area: a young man dressed as a pro wrestling referee! It was a Wednesday evening and while I do not follow the local independent pro wrestling scene like I used to, I thought I'd hear about a random Wednesday night show happening in the area. I did not recognize the guy either, so it was pretty odd. Thursday I relaxed as I knew Friday and Saturday would be busy days and oh they were... unfortunately the days were pretty terrible aside from the main thing I did.
Late July of '12 and '13 I attended events in Orlando on International Drive in a hotel known as Gamewarp, where a big room holds plenty of arcade and pinball games and by paying a flat fee you get to play them all. They didn't have a Gamewarp this year for whatever reasons; who knows if they'll ever come back. However, on this weekend was a new event (well, renamed from something else) called Free Play Florida and it was quite similar, down to being at a hotel on I-Drive, although one that was by the convention center and I didn't have to spend too much time actually driving on I-Drive; that's a plus as the road's always busy and always full of stupid tourists.
Friday, I experienced horrific traffic on the way there and back; there was tailgating, for one thing, and on a road with a 35 mile an hour speed limit a lady driver was a complete maniac, going way over the speed limit. Was she drunk, mentally ill, on drugs... I have no idea; I thought of calling the cops but to be honest if I tried to speed myself to get her license plate, she may have started driving even more erratically. As for the hotel, it was a Doubletree, so it was frou-frou and having to pay a few bucks for parking, I wasn't a fan of that. Having to pay each time you park, that limited food choices; most of the food they had there wasn't “normal” or not priced outrageously. Friday I ate at the bar in the lobby, where I had to listen to two random socially awkward dudes throw a huge stink over one of the employees asking for their credit card after they ordered some food; that sort of thing has become standard procedure now but those fools did not get the memo. I didn't even try to explain it to them as it'd be a futile gesture.
As for the crowds there, Friday wasn't too bad but Saturday was more hectic; it was what I expected. They had a mix of games there I played before and new ones. The number of tables based on 90's films was impressive, from Stargate to the mediocre Jurassic Park sequel. I'll list the ones that left the biggest impressions on me:
Swords of Fury will always make me laugh as the one I've seen is LOUD and a digitized voice screaming “LIONMAN, LIONMAN!” is amazing.
The Bally Game Show is actually a fun table, and the “game” is hosted by a stereotypical host known as Keith McTeeth.
Rollergames is a table I recently heard was good, and it was.
As I did well on it, I'll mention the Spiderman table.
The Twister table was rad, with some nice gimmicks.
NBA Fastbreak wasn't even a table I had ever heard of but I dug it and how you picked a team to start off with and the way you score points is to shoot the ball into the basket.
Baywatch was a table I had played before, way back when.
I did see people there I knew. It was nice to see them and I presume the feeling was reciprocated. There wasn't much time to chit-chat with them but that's expected at such a hectic event. Unfortunately aside from actually playing the games there my Friday and Saturday were pretty bad, between the traffic and other issues I won't get into. I can mention that I was disappointed how there were too many rude/ignorant people around on Saturday. It's a shame as most of the people there were fine, but there was also jerks present. I'll try to forget about all that and how I was dead tired by the time I left Saturday night, and I'll remember the good of playing those games instead of all the bad.
Speaking of bad, the Chicago Bears game vs. the Tampa Bay Bucs on Sunday... I was able to watch the game at home, so I did. It was quite hard to watch, as both teams are terrible and while Chicago won 21-13, for the first half of the game they were getting embarrassed by a team that had won only two times all year, and it was their mistakes more than anything else that let Chicago win. The Bears are playing Thanksgiving Day also, and it'll be while I have the big meal with some loved ones. I am expecting the game to be a loss.
I will return a week from today and while that week won't be as action-packed as the one I just had, there still will be some interesting moments.
Monday, November 17, 2014
Interstellar, BurgerMonger, MMA & More Embarrassing Wine Purchases
I do indeed have a more interesting blog post this go-around than the last few I've done. Unfortunately it was an up and down affair. Last Monday I was able to drive all the way to Tampa (the north part, meaning I didn't have to take the dreaded Interstate 4) to see the film Interstellar, as the museum in town as a giant IMAX dome (it's literally shown in a domed building with the screen being projected on the curved side of the building and you look at it while seated in steep seats; it may sound odd but the picture was pretty incredible as it was actual 70mm film instead of the digital that's at most theatres these days. I just wasn't happy with the museum in that constantly you are screwed over if you haven't been there before; you're just supposed to know everything about the place, such as which spot is the best to park at, paying for parking and whatnot. That sort of thing never makes me happy. Obvious things, you don't need to but those things would have been nice for an out of towner.
As for the movie, I've never been a Christopher Nolan fan, which I know is blasphemy to many people but I've thought that way for a long time now. More often than not I don't care for his films. I mainly went and saw this for the 70mm aspect as I had never seen a film that way before. Overall I'll say the movie is average. I can't fault the ambition in trying to tell a serious and mature big-budget tale rather than mindless stupid garbage like the Transformers films or the other atrocious big budget movies of the past few years. There are great images and some nice performances. Unfortunately, the story is a mess and I had many issues with the plot. It's a shame as it's the sort of film I should love and while I often disagree with “the common opinion” it'd be nice if I could agree with the masses more often.
After the film I went home but on the way I stopped in a city for gas and dinner. I wanted to try out a place famous in Tampa (the only area in Florida you can have it) known as BurgerMonger, as I know more than one person who digs the place. Well, to cut the story short I had a strong need to use the restroom by the time I got there... and the men's room was out of order! I was not happy with this as it was not like I could use the ladies room, so I just left and I now will swear off that place without having their food due to that. I had to go so I walked to the nearby Jersey Mike's Subs, which I can get at home and I preferred trying out someplace new but alas... at least I ate there and it included a pair of chocolate chip cookies, which were great.
Tuesday I didn't do a thing which was fine with me. I was feeling down in the dumps anyhow. Don't worry, it isn't anything major; “not understanding people in general” isn't a big deal and besides, I should be used to it by now. I definitely should not complain when I know several people who definitely have had it worse than me as of late with much more serious problems. Wednesday, I just went to Winter Garden Village to visit a few places and you'd think there'd be no problems if I just went to a place that's like 12 miles away from where I live. Well, you and I would be wrong! The issues with traffic were so bad the thought seriously crossed my mind of calling 911, as I wasn't sure if more than one driver was drunk, on drugs, mentally ill, too old/senile to drive, or what. I won't delve into the whole mess but it's a moot point as nothing of consequence happened but even for down here it was a bad day of travel.
Thursday was thankfully more sane. I did more driving, but nothing went wrong this time. I went to another Total Wine & More and this time I bought the other kind of 50 Shades of Grey for the person who asked me to do that a few weeks ago from them. After that I don't have to do it any longer... thankfully. I went to the nearby Mall at Millenia and walked around for a bit. I then ate at a restaurant I hadn't been to in months, Burger 21. I had a nice dinner there with food that's typical in my diet... a burger with fries and a shake. Friday, I didn't do a thing but Saturday was more interesting. The UFC returned to the big screen with their latest pay per view. I actually hadn't seen a pay per view in awhile. As many others think they've expanded too fast and they have been destroyed with injuries so many of their shows aren't really worth going out of the way to see, including this one.
Of course, it wasn't until after the fact that I discovered because of this guard getting destroyed by injuries and it likely bombing on pay per view, they will try again and they'll show the next pay per view in a few weeks on the big screen also. I won't complain about seeing the show on Saturday night as it was actually entertaining even if the star power was weak and I saw it at Universal Studios and not too surprisingly the crowd was just me and a few random people.
Sunday, I actually stayed in and did not go out to see the Chicago Bears play; the legendarily bad way they played in their last two contests was great motivation to stay in, even if they were playing another bad team. Chicago won that home game, but just barely, and as I saw in the highlights their field was atrocious which is embarrassing for a major pro franchise... and the game clock at the stadium wasn't even working right. What a joke.
When I return a week from today, I know my week won't be too interesting... except for the weekend, where I'll be doing something different from the norm. You'll find out in 7 days what that is.
As for the movie, I've never been a Christopher Nolan fan, which I know is blasphemy to many people but I've thought that way for a long time now. More often than not I don't care for his films. I mainly went and saw this for the 70mm aspect as I had never seen a film that way before. Overall I'll say the movie is average. I can't fault the ambition in trying to tell a serious and mature big-budget tale rather than mindless stupid garbage like the Transformers films or the other atrocious big budget movies of the past few years. There are great images and some nice performances. Unfortunately, the story is a mess and I had many issues with the plot. It's a shame as it's the sort of film I should love and while I often disagree with “the common opinion” it'd be nice if I could agree with the masses more often.
After the film I went home but on the way I stopped in a city for gas and dinner. I wanted to try out a place famous in Tampa (the only area in Florida you can have it) known as BurgerMonger, as I know more than one person who digs the place. Well, to cut the story short I had a strong need to use the restroom by the time I got there... and the men's room was out of order! I was not happy with this as it was not like I could use the ladies room, so I just left and I now will swear off that place without having their food due to that. I had to go so I walked to the nearby Jersey Mike's Subs, which I can get at home and I preferred trying out someplace new but alas... at least I ate there and it included a pair of chocolate chip cookies, which were great.
Tuesday I didn't do a thing which was fine with me. I was feeling down in the dumps anyhow. Don't worry, it isn't anything major; “not understanding people in general” isn't a big deal and besides, I should be used to it by now. I definitely should not complain when I know several people who definitely have had it worse than me as of late with much more serious problems. Wednesday, I just went to Winter Garden Village to visit a few places and you'd think there'd be no problems if I just went to a place that's like 12 miles away from where I live. Well, you and I would be wrong! The issues with traffic were so bad the thought seriously crossed my mind of calling 911, as I wasn't sure if more than one driver was drunk, on drugs, mentally ill, too old/senile to drive, or what. I won't delve into the whole mess but it's a moot point as nothing of consequence happened but even for down here it was a bad day of travel.
Thursday was thankfully more sane. I did more driving, but nothing went wrong this time. I went to another Total Wine & More and this time I bought the other kind of 50 Shades of Grey for the person who asked me to do that a few weeks ago from them. After that I don't have to do it any longer... thankfully. I went to the nearby Mall at Millenia and walked around for a bit. I then ate at a restaurant I hadn't been to in months, Burger 21. I had a nice dinner there with food that's typical in my diet... a burger with fries and a shake. Friday, I didn't do a thing but Saturday was more interesting. The UFC returned to the big screen with their latest pay per view. I actually hadn't seen a pay per view in awhile. As many others think they've expanded too fast and they have been destroyed with injuries so many of their shows aren't really worth going out of the way to see, including this one.
Of course, it wasn't until after the fact that I discovered because of this guard getting destroyed by injuries and it likely bombing on pay per view, they will try again and they'll show the next pay per view in a few weeks on the big screen also. I won't complain about seeing the show on Saturday night as it was actually entertaining even if the star power was weak and I saw it at Universal Studios and not too surprisingly the crowd was just me and a few random people.
Sunday, I actually stayed in and did not go out to see the Chicago Bears play; the legendarily bad way they played in their last two contests was great motivation to stay in, even if they were playing another bad team. Chicago won that home game, but just barely, and as I saw in the highlights their field was atrocious which is embarrassing for a major pro franchise... and the game clock at the stadium wasn't even working right. What a joke.
When I return a week from today, I know my week won't be too interesting... except for the weekend, where I'll be doing something different from the norm. You'll find out in 7 days what that is.
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