Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Oreo, Southeastern Fire Football & Primark

Now I am finally caught up to the randomness of my life and what I've done as of late. Recently, I viewed Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. In fact, the original was viewed by me both as an adult and a kid; it's always remained enjoyable. The entire era where Tim Burton has made bad movies-it's entirely been avoided by me, as hearsay was enough for me to stay away. There was skepticism as to if the sequel would be like most of the bad, needless, creatively lazy sequels/reboots/whatever of recent years. Of course the original is better but Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice was still pretty good. While not all the humor hit nor were all the weird new ideas successful, some of them did work and it was REALLY appreciated by me that the movie wasn't full of fan-service, fell into the modern tropes or had the title character act politically correct. Instead, it felt in the spirit of the OG property and thank goodness it wasn't “safe.” Even the musical choices I approved of-it was different from the Harry Belafonte heard in 1988. By the way, the limited edition Haunted Apple from Fanta—it has a mixed reception yet the flavor is good to me.

As a random aside, the new Oreo flavor for Coca-Cola Zero Sugar was tried. The regular Zero Sugar was never tried before, mind you... nor will I ever try that! There are good reasons why I don't drink diet or zero sugar sodas—the taste is like sewer water, to borrow a phrase. Sorry, even w/ the taste of Oreo, it was not a taste preferable to me.

Recently I drove to the Florida Mall where the new Primark store was visited. I have it on good authority that their location at the Sawgrass Mills Mall near Miami is huge & has a great selection. The Orlando location of this famous Irish chain is small, has a bad layout and the selection was rather poor. What a massive disappointment. Otherwise, no new places have been visited as of late that weren't mentioned recently. This includes restaurants... although for the first time in at least 15 years, I ate at the California Pizza Kitchen restaurant at the Mall at Millenia. They've been open as long as I can remember and their food is fine, so might as well go there, right? The quality of their food hasn't changed, thankfully.

A few days ago, I went to the AMC at Disney Springs to see The Killer's Game, a film starring Dave Bautista, some other people from Marvel movies, various B-movie actors and even Ben Kingsley. It was Great Value Guy Ritchie, Tarantino and John Wick stuck in a blender; nothing more needs to be said about it.

Finally, I'll mention that last Saturday I went to Lakeland to see an NAIA football team play—the Southeastern Fire. I've been there before to see games as they have a nice stadium which is great compared to some other teams on the same or similar level who typically play in random municipal stadiums. Albeit, those previous two games were in 2015 (against a college which would soon then close its doors) and 2018, so my return was long-overdue. This time it was against Reinhardt, located north of Atlanta. It was a muggy night and during the game, there were flashes of lightning in the distance. Suddenly those came closer... yes, there was a delay, which ended up lasting two hours. No, I did not stick around to the end. The delay began late in the 3^rd quarter w/ Southeastern leading 21-10. Plus, the heavens opened up and it started pouring; waiting around in the car for an indeterminate amount of time wasn't going to happen. I saw enough where it was a satisfying experience at the stadium. There have been changes in college football in recent years—to an old goat like me, most aren't for the better but plenty can argue about that. While this also applies to NAIA football it's not to the same degree so I can view those games without feeling conflicted.

On the way back I did stop at a Harvey's Supermarket; they are owned by Winn-Dixie so the products are the same. As I left, a couple best described as “derelict” were arguing w/ each other to an uncomfortable degree. They were ignored the best that I could and thank heavens they paid no heed to me.

My return will be sometime in October.

Gochujang Sauce, Alien: Romulus, Coraline, Afraid, Sid Vicious & James Earl Jones

Around this time next week I'll make my next post & finally I will be caught up. For now, discussion of a few theatrical movies plus several random tidbits. First, just why my opinion of Alien: Romulus was lower than that of most people. Alien is a classic & Aliens is one of my personal favorites. Romulus was just dumb from the beginning, was even more dimly-lit than most modern movies, had insufferable characters, the inclusion of a certain actor & the size of their role was just a horrendous idea and by the final act it seemed like a fan film... a bad fan film. Why many people liked or even loved it is beyond me.

Coraline in comparison was much more appealing to my tastes; while it was something I should have watched when it first came out 15 years ago, at least my initial viewing was on the big screen. Between the stunning stop-motion animation, the macabre story and the score, it was a delightful experience. Not as delightful was viewing a movie I suspected would be bad, and Afraid was indeed that. At least it was at the AMC at Disney Springs. Afraid has John Cho and his family receive an AI device that runs the house-as they constantly remind you, it's much more advanced than Alexa. The movie was just a dumb mess which did at least try to be modern but it was so disjointed and the final 10 minutes became so hysterical, I can't give it a passing grade yet at the same time it can't be rated as terrible. It was viewed in one of their 10 Dine-In auditoriums, meaning a dinner of boneless wings was had by me. For the first time I tried it with gochujang sauce, not knowing for sure what the taste would be. You know what, it was actually pretty good; it's a sauce that should have been tried by me in the past.

As a pro wrestling fan of course I have to mention that Sid Vicious (i.e. Sid, Sycho Sid, Sid Justice, etc.) passing away recently was sad news. Sure, he was eccentric-that's why he never stayed in one federation for too long-but what a million dollar look and million dollar charisma he had. People I know who haven't watched in ages still remembered him. I did see him wrestle live once: at a WCW Nitro show in Rockford, Illinois. For a show in a minor market like Rockford they went all out with surprises and big matches. Besides getting to see a match in the perennial feud between Sting and Ric Flair, Sid wrestled against none other than Hulk Hogan.

Finally, like everyone else I was saddened to hear that James Earl Jones died. Yet I shouldn't be too sad—he lived to the age of 93 and for decades was beloved by millions around the world. It's a voice that will be missed as it's literally been heard by me since my childhood.

To reiterate, sometime next week I shall return.