Photos: Birthday Happy Hour

Now that I’m back from Denver, I’ve got a little bit of a backlog as it pertains to pictures and things to write about… so with that in mind, it’s time to get cracking, and start catching up with all of the events before and after my trip.

I’m not really that big on birthday parties, but one thing I like do to do every year is simply get my local buds out for good food and drinks in honor of my birthday.  This year, I invited those who wanted to come and drink and eat good barbecue out to Moe’s Original Barbecue, which is like my current favorite BBQ restaurant in Atlanta, because they have the greatest wings in the city, seriously.

I was honestly nervous about the weather, since there were some dark rain clouds looming up above throughout the afternoon, but fortunately for all of us, it stayed put, and it turned out to be a pretty relaxing evening of good food, drink and company.  And I would be remiss if I did not say that I am very grateful and thankful to those who showed up to give me a little bit of their time all because of my silly birthday.  You guys are all awesome.

So anyway, I’m 31 now.  Old as shit, and feeling it in my back and shoulders these days.

Continue reading “Photos: Birthday Happy Hour”

The best ironic holiday of the year

You know who’s not working today?  Me.

You know why I’m not working today?  Confederate Memorial Day.

Yessir, a day that only a handful of states actually acknowledge, and really that’s only privy to state workers.  A lot of my co-workers often say that it’s embarrassing that Georgia acknowledges it, but I don’t hear them complaining about the paid day off work that comes with it.  Personally, it’s funny in an ironic way, but I’m also of the mindset that it’s best to embrace and acknowledge all history, good and bad.  It’s what makes things what they are, and it’s what makes Georgia, Georgia.

Either way, I’m glad that I have today off.  Having spent the entire weekend in Denver was fun, and I was happy to catch up with my homegirl Amy, as well as knocking one more MLB park off of my list, and getting to go see a minor league park in Colorado Springs additionally.  But after a weekend of lots of food and drink indulgence, with not enough sleep, high altitude effects, and even less sleep after taking the redeye back to Atlanta, today being off is a little bit of a godsend, even if it’s for “embarrassing” circumstances.

Why can’t things like this happen to me?

Long story short: Korean woman makes transaction with CVS, CVS enters her name as “Ching Chong,” woman sues CVS for $1M dollars.

No seriously, why can’t something like this happen to me?  I would love to make an easy $1M on something so foolish and silly.  If I went to CVS, and this happened to me, and I busted them right on the spot, I would be laughing myself to tears at seeing Ching Chong written on the receipt.  I would laugh for at least three straight minutes, and try to gauge the reaction of the people behind the counter, the perpetrator likely amongst them.

And then with an amused smile on my face, I would simply ask them if they’d ever been sued, and regardless of what the answer would be, I’d simply retort “well you’re about to be!

Continue reading “Why can’t things like this happen to me?”

The real SMB3 MARTA map

There’s a guy fairly recently that has been enjoying a few minutes of e-notoriety, because he’s producing recreations of particular cities’ public rail transportation maps, themed with Super Mario Bros. 3 sprites.  At a quick glance, he’s done SMB3-themed maps for Portland, Washington D.C., and a few Canadian cities like Calgary, Montreal and Toronto.

I’ll admit that they’re cute, it’s kind of a creative idea, but the fact of the matter is that he’s still using someone else’s properties as its theme.  Regardless, despite the fact that they are aesthetically pleasant to look at, the one glaring flaw in all of them is the fact that they’re all pretty general and standardized.  Every single one of them is based on the SMB3 map of World 1, which is all pleasing, happy and green grassland.

I get what the guy is doing, and that he’s clearly going for consistency in his productions.  But this is where I state that I live in reality, and the truth of the matter is that the world is not this happy-go-lucky, bobbing-in-the-wind green grassland.  I can’t really speak most of the Canadian cities, but I have been to Portland, and I used to live in the D.C. area enough to have an opinion of his Metro map, but I didn’t really bother other than a few cursory snide, curmudgeon remarks with the latter.

Continue reading “The real SMB3 MARTA map”

Why do bad things always happen around this time of year?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, the news of the world currently is that two bombs were set off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and at the time I’m writing this, three are confirmed dead as a result, and hundreds of people are injured and hospitalized.  Additionally, there is no clue to whom is responsible for the bombings, but it’s being perceived as a probably act of terrorism, and the scary thing is that it purportedly could have been worse, as there were claims that additional bombs were found undetonated, also along the race path.

Obviously, this is a horrible incident and leads to the path of thinking of whom in their right mind could perpetrate such a heinous act, why they would want to target innocents at a major gathering event.  I really do feel for those affected by this horrible incident, and I’m easily someone who really wishes the absolute worst on the person or persons responsible for the act, and wouldn’t mind hear of them being put to justice with some extreme prejudice.

But I could seemingly inappropriately change gears a little bit, I have to say that it’s really not that surprising that something so horrendous happened.  But it’s my brog, and I write what I want to.  Yes, it’s going to sound selfish, conceited and certainly making it about me, but if there was ever one occasion where I think I could be given just a little bit of leeway for doing so, it would be my birthday, which is just days away.  The bottom line is that as long as I’ve lived, there’s been this odd propensity for horrendous events to happen near or around my birthday.

And as far as I’m concerned, it’s kind of not fair, and it really upsets me.

Continue reading “Why do bad things always happen around this time of year?”

I now possess a jar of legal moonshine

Over the weekend, some friends and I made a day-trip up to Gastonia, North Carolina, which is about thirty minutes south-ish from Charlotte.  It’s sort of an annual trip that we make so we can go to Mary Jo’s Cloth Store, typically to get fabrics and materials needed for Dragon*Con costumes.  Despite the fact that I don’t really need any substantial fabrics for what I plan on doing this year, I still committed to being driver.  Regardless, while on the way up I-85, a particular billboard had caught my eye.

LEGAL MOONSHINE AVAILABLE EXIT 19B

Moonshine?  As in the nuclear race fuel that farmers and rednecks made on their fuel that was usual like 200 proof and could get a human being drunk as easily as it could strip the paint off of an automobile?  And it was being sold legally?  Oh man, this I had to check out, and since I had the almighty power of being driver, everyone else was at my mercy to indulge in this crazy notion that I needed to acquire said legal moonshine for myself.

Continue reading “I now possess a jar of legal moonshine”

Photos: The Color Run

The Color Run was pretty much everything I had expected it to be – non-competitive, more relaxing and recreational, fun, and messy as all hell.  It took place at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which to anyone who isn’t aware, is actually practically 50 miles south of the actual city.  But the 3.1 mile 5K course essentially was a gigantic circle around the parking lot of the track, with portals of people throwing and squirting colored, corn-starch based powder everywhere, which at the end made most people this grayish-greenish zombie color.

Regardless, it was a lot of fun, the weather couldn’t have possibly been any better on this particular day, and the fact that there was actual good company to spend it with made it all the best.  Even if we were all filthy and were blowing odd colored stuff from our noses for the rest of the weekend.

Oh yeah, it should be worth noting that I kept my camera out pretty much the whole time, uncovered.  As a result, it was obliterated with powder, and the resulting pictures have a lot of them hazy, dust-covered, or pretty grainy.  I did what I could, but only so much can overcome actual lens interference.

Continue reading “Photos: The Color Run”