Thoughts on Disney World

During the brog’s layoff, one of the things that I did was what’s apparently been somewhat of an annual tradition in recent years, which was a trip down to Florida to visit Disney World as well as Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights.

It’s something I enjoy greatly, because I enjoy Halloween-themed events, roller coasters, and ultimately most of the evenings result being spent in Epcot’s annual Food and Wine Festival, which is pretty much one of the greatest events in the world to me, since by the time I’m done with it, I can typically claim that I’ve eaten the entire world, and lots of the countries’ kiosks brings out some excellent quality grub and booze to begin with.

Except for South Korea, which is pretty much the biggest disappointment since like the 2007 New England Patriots. Seriously, just about every booth in the park has people indigenous, or at least of the ethnicity of the country’s booth they’re working for, except for South Korea’s. Furthermore, the food is about as good as one might expect from a place that says “Korea” but has a bunch of white people working it. When your options are the disappointing “Asian” pork taco from last year, and a “Kimchi Dog,” it’s like offering a Mexican person visiting from Mexico, Taco Bell or Del Taco.

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Thoughts on New York

Over the weekend, I went up to New York. The reason for the trip was to visit Yankee Stadium, and take it off of my list of MLB ballparks, which I can happily say that such was mission accomplished. Otherwise, the rest of the trip was more or less a whirlwind of cabs, trains, booze, chicken fingers and cash flying out of windows.

I guess it could be said that I had a pretty New York experience, and I have no regrets about anything. I look back at the weekend fondly, and naturally I’m writing about it now, which says something too.

As for Yankee Stadium, I’ll get more in depth of what I thought about the place as a whole when I write about it for my ballparks page, but when my friend and I had planned the dates out for this trip, we didn’t even think for a second about the fact that this was the start of Derek Jeter’s final homestand. Not that either of us are remotely close to being Yankee fans, I have to admit that is something cool about having been there for a little bit of what people are perceiving as somewhat historic. Needless to say, tickets were pricey and the crowds were massive, for what essentially were games between two non-contenders, and I thought the vaunted Yankee Stadium was pretty okay, overall.

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Thoughts on my first Yelp Elite event

Not a lot of people are aware of this, but I’ve been writing reviews of things on Yelp.com for like five years now.  Primarily restaurants and the occasional business, but for the most part, it’s something I’ve done that conveniently acts as something of a chronicling of my dining experiences in my travels or general living, while indulging in my general enjoyment of writing.

Obviously, there’s often discussion about the ethics of review sites like Yelp and how there are always conspiracies of sites holding small businesses hostage with bad reviews, small businesses altering their behavior at the knowledge of known reviewers, etc, etc., but all that stuff doesn’t concern me, nor do I really care about any of it.  For the longest time, I’ve been content to keep my Yelp identity hidden, behind a faceless avatar, that wrote reviews of places completely anonymously, save for the customary first name and last initial.  Something about doing it like that made me self-righteously believe that there was more integrity in doing it that way, as I thought those people who revealed themselves and under the banner of “Elite status” felt subliminal pressure to pander from time to time.

I also thought Yelp was kind of cliquey in some regards, no more apparent than when someone writes a review of a place that’s literally no more than the phrase “omg I really luv this place <3 <3 <3 !!!!”  and it’s nominated as a city-wide “review of the day,” as voted for by local peers.  Doesn’t seem like there’s much integrity in “reviews” like such.

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Why do avocados other than Hass exist?

I like to think that I make a pretty decent guacamole.  I’ve received pretty positive feedback from those people who have indulged in the guac that I’ve made in the past, and I’m typically pleased with it myself when I make small batches for the house.

Over the holiday weekend, I volunteered to bring some tortilla chips and some of my homemade guacamole to a party I went to.  Prior to the date, I went to the store to purchase ingredients for the dip, and was disappointed when I got to the produce section, and found out that every single Hass avocado available was not yet ripe.  I know there are ways and methods to accelerate the ripening process of Hass avocados, but even those typically take a day, and at the hardness of these particular avocados, probably two.  I did not have two days.

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That’s the American way

Since there was no work today, I turned on the television and looked for something to watch.  Because I’m kind of a jock, my default destination to begin searching typically starts with the sports block of channels, and immediately, there were two things that caught my eye.  On ESPN, was the annual Fourth of July Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest, and one ESPN2, was the World Cup, with a quarterfinal game between France and Germany no less.

With the US National Anthem softly playing in my head, I chose the hot dogs.

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Photos: Minor League Baseball in Asheville, North Carolina

So, Asheville.  I was looking forward to visiting this place more than about any other place I had thought about visiting throughout the 2014 baseball season, because to my understanding Asheville was a town known for interesting dining, lots of local breweries, and it happened to be a place within reasonable driving distance that had a minor league ballpark I’ve never visited, AND they just so happened to be giving out a bobblehead, AND they were also playing against an Atlanta Braves affiliate.  Needless to say, it was the no-brainer of no-brainers that I would be looking forward to this particular trip.

Much to my expectations, Asheville was a lovely place that I enjoyed a great deal.  The drive to get there wasn’t the least bit difficult, and it frankly just felt good to get in my own car and drive somewhere I’d never really been to before.

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The carnage continues!

Another day, another truck full of food overturns, crashes, and dumps its contents all over the place.  First, there were hams, then there were chickens, and then beer, and now we’ve got eggs.

I’m not sure why this fascinates me as much as it does, but I guess I think it’s hilarious to see the roads and surrounding area covered in food.  I know it’s horrible that so much food goes to waste, and that these incidents have tons of collateral victims from the drivers themselves, the GDOT people who have to investigate and clean things up, and the thousands of commuters who get slammed in traffic as a result, but the visuals amuse me regardless.

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