Not surprising, but still sad

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I found out recently that the Hooters Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas is going under, and I can’t help but feel a little melancholy at the thought of that.  It was definitely not the most glitzy and must-see destination of all of the Las Vegas casinos, but it was still one of the casinos that seemed like it might actually have some staying power, based on its fairly decent location at the south end of the Strip and just the general fact that they were Hooters, a company powered primarily on one of the staples of Las Vegas’s commerce: boobs.

Then again, the south end of the Strip hasn’t always been that advantageous, especially looking at the sad state of properties like the Tropicana, Excalibur, and the revolving door of identities that Hooters was before it was Hooters, and it shouldn’t be that big of a surprise that even the mighty titty-centric Hooters is even failing.  Especially considering that in comparison to the many casinos that employ go-go dancers and lingerie dealers, Hooters’ signature uniforms have become somewhat tame and daresay conservative, and their business model has grown stale in a city that’s always changing, in the name of making money.

It was a few years ago in which I went to Hooters last, when mythical wife was still mythical gf and it was her first trip out to Las Vegas ever.  We were staying at the neighboring MGM Grand, so we wandered over to Hooters, just so she could get the full gamut of casinos, seeing as how the night prior, we had wandered around through bougie joints like the Cosmopolitan, Aria and City Center, so now it was an opportunity to see some of the more tired and less-than-glamorous joints.  And walking into Hooters, it was the very definition of tired and defeated, with carpets that looked like they haven’t been changed since 2000, the odor of stale cigarettes, defeat and desperation, and barely any dealers working the floor.  Granted, it was a little earlier in the day, but it was still kind of a reminder of the harsh reality that not everything in Las Vegas is glitz and glamour.

Ultimately, it’s of no consequence to me that Hooters Casino & Hotel is getting shut down, because I’ve only ever stayed there once, and I don’t always go there whenever I go out to Vegas.  When the day is over, the emotion I feel is mostly based on the simple fact that it’s a change to something that I’d grown accustomed to, and there’s no secret that change itself is one of the chief evokers of emotion these days.

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No good deed goes unpunished

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I feel like I’ve written this exact post before, with very similar context, and I know for certain that I used a picture of Poison Ivy the Batman villainess when I did.  But long story short, I did some manual labor for Habitat For Humanity on behalf of the company that I work for, which is a good thing.  But in doing so, I managed to get some nasty poison ivy on my arms despite the fact that I barely spent any time outside, and even when I was, I did not come into any contact with any poison ivy, oak or sumac, which is very much, a bad thing.

I don’t regret participating because of the eventual results of the work I contributed towards, but I do regret participating in the fact that I’m apparently very allergic to poison ivy and I’m basically receiving punishment for having done a good thing.  I abhor the existence of poison ivy, and in my idle bitterness, I googled “why does poison ivy exist,” and aside from some bullshit fluff at how every plant has some potential for medicinal purposes, I frankly didn’t find a single fucking justifiable reason to why this shitty plant and its urushiol-producing relatives exist on this planet other than to troll humans who are susceptible to them.

What really aggravated me was the fact that when I got to the house in question, I didn’t have to look at the property for more than two seconds to know that I should probably work indoors.  The front yard was pretty overgrown, and the back yard looked like Tarzan’s jungle.  I could already see poison ivy, and the vines that were growing on the side of the house was very likely sumac.  And in spite of the precautions I took and the avoidance I exhibited, I still have arms that look like raw hamburger, weeping liquid endlessly no matter how many caladryl or calamine I spread on them.

So I have to suspect that the culprit in question has to be the gloves I used, which came from a generally communal bucket full of gloves, provided by Habitat.  Obviously, I’m not going to accuse and proclaim Habitat For Humanity for maliciously and deliberately supplying urushiol-slathered gloves for their volunteers to use and get afflicted by, but it’s no secret that ivy oil can stick to things for months if not cleaned, and agencies like Habitat have a lot on their plates already, so making sure gloves are kosher doesn’t seem like a likely high priority for their volunteers.

Considering the vast majority of my rashes are on my wrists and arms, precariously where the gloves would have been, it’s an easy guess to believe that I had to have been using some gloves that at some point had done some handling of brush removal or landscaping work, and had come into some pretty significant contact with poison ivy or sumac.  Just my luck.

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Mindhunter is a damn good show

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Over the last two weeks, I’ve watched all of Mindhunter on Netflix.  That’s as pretty close to binge watching from me as things are going to get these days, as by the fifth hour of anything, I’m usually apt to passing out in my recliner, no matter how good of a show it is.

But after watching both seasons of Mindhunter, I have to say that it’s a pretty excellent show from beginning to end.  Often times, I feel that shows tend to start too slowly, and as I get into a show by the midway point, I have one of those revelation moments involving something seen at the start of the first episode that I might have to go re-watch to remember.

That wasn’t the case with Mindhunter, which starts off with a metaphorical and literal bang, and establishes characters quickly and begins their development immediately, that it’s easy to become interested right away.  And it’s the characters that I think are the strength of the show as a whole, because there are three core characters, and it’s really easy to become fairly interested in all of them, whether it’s collectively as the Behavioral Sciences Unit, or their own personal lives.

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To prove I could still do it

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Among the numerous things I did over Labor Day weekend instead of going to Dragon*Con, I ran in a 10K on Labor Day.  Ever since I installed a rod in my office in which to hang all of my running medals from, I was disappointed at how sparse it looked, and decided that I needed more medals.  The Big Peach Sizzler seemed like a perfect opportunity to do something productive in the sense of acquiring another medal, accomplish something that was exercise, but also to prove to myself that even at the ancient age of 37, I could still run a sub-60 minute 10K.

And at 58:44, I accomplished what I set out to do.

Not bad for an old dog like me that didn’t really prepare that much, other than routine maintenance runs, just to make sure that I can run 2-3 miles at the drop of a hat.  It wasn’t my best 10K time ever (54:09), but given the circumstances, I can’t really complain.

I was actually really excited when I passed the 55-minute pacer, and thoughts of possibly beating my best time began to swirl in my head, and the amount of personal gloating and braggadocio I could do if I achieved it.  But clearly I blew my wad a little too early, and around the third mile, I began to hit a wall of not feeling good enough to continuously run for the rest of the run, and had to drop gears and go into a run-walk for the rest of the run.  Not long after hitting this wall, it was only a matter of minutes before 55 passed me, and it became a personal battle to not see 60.

And fortunately for myself, I never saw the 60-minute pacer, nor did I ever take the time to look backward and try and see.  Given the fact that I finished at 58:44, they probably weren’t ever that far behind me at any point after the third or fourth mile.

Ultimately, this overall positive result, and the fact that I want to collect more medals for my display bar, has inspired me to get more back into running, to where I can, not just improve, but have reason to keep up training, and be capable of getting back to making progress and tackling longer runs, where I can start amassing more medals to display.

Hey, whatever it takes to have good reason to continue to exercise and have a good physical habit in my life, right?

Where I really wonder what NXT is doing with championships

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a few days since NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff, and I still can’t really get over the ending to the main event between Walter and Tyler Bate.  It’s not the fact that Walter defeated Tyler Bate to retain the WWE UK Championship, it’s how he won the match that still has me feeling perplexed and amused at the same time: Walter won the match with a clothesline, after everything else in his arsenal failed to keep Bate down for the count.

I mean, it was still a pretty good clothesline that Bate sold like the champion he really should be, but the fact of the matter is that Walter hadn’t really ever bust out a clothesline in general in the WWE until about now.  I guess the question is if he’s going to be using that as his signature move instead of the power bomb and/or big splash, to help reinforce the move, or if it really was an isolated case of an ordinary move succeeding at rendering a guy unconscious enough to end the match.

It reminded me of this classic wrestling match I saw once, where it was Rick Rude before he ever became Ravishing, versus some guy I don’t remember, and with Gordon Solie on commentary.  The conclusion of the match came when the opponent was momentarily distracted by something, leaving him open to an ordinary axe-handle smash from behind, before Rude hit him with an ordinary snap suplex, and pinned him 1-2-3.  All while Solie bemoaned the impact of a regular suplex and verbally sold that the match was over once he hit it.

Walter winning with a regular clothesline made me feel like I was thrown back into the early 80s with a finish that came from what is ordinarily a common move, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this was a deliberate throw back or if it was the seed to something that will continue to grow.

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I heard my child’s heartbeat for the first time

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

And I nearly lost it.  Seriously, I’m totally going to be the overly emotional dad that’s going to bust out in tears every two seconds like Soun Tendo from Ranma 1/2 whenever the smallest milestone or any realization of first-time father comes to pass. 

I thought I got through the first stage of emotions that flooded through upon the realization that mythical wife was pregnant, but hearing the heartbeat for the first time, and the tech’s explanation that it was in fact, the baby’s heartbeat, and tear ducts welled up in an instant, despite the fact that I was able to keep them somewhat in check.

It’s like all the home pregnancy tests in the world confirmed what we already suspected, and it would be the lock of the century to bet on pregnant going to the doctor’s for the official confirmation.  But then hearing the heartbeat for the very first time was still a crashing confirmation of just how real it all is, and that in a matter of months, I’m going to have my very own kid.

I’m going to take a wild guess and imagine that there is going to be a lot more of where this came from over the next few months.

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lol China

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

When I saw the headline to this article, all I knew was that once I read the part that said “China’s First Ever Costco…” I knew that there was going to be some ironic gold, even before I got to the part about the fights over rotisserie chickens.  Because let’s be real here, China isn’t just their own country, they occasionally act as if they’re an entirely different civilization from the rest of world, based on the shit they pull.

I mean, if the whole debacle with Ikea Shanghai weren’t any indication, where people routinely go into the store in order to take naps or just have a relaxing, air-conditioned venue in which to hang out or do chores like picking beansprouts, and Disney Shanghai, where guests would defecate in public places didn’t convince you, then it shouldn’t be a surprise that a Costco opening in Shanghai would also turn into a mammoth clusterfuck of a scenario.

Asians in general are notoriously cheap, so putting a known successful wholesale retailer in the mix with an entire Asian culture is an easy recipe for pretty much every Chinese person within the region to come and try to capitalize on those sweet, sweet savings.

I don’t think I could be paid enough money to go inside of a Costco in China, especially during its grand opening.  Asian businesses are often encouraged to offer deals and discounts and prizes during grand openings to help entice shoppers and new customers to come in, but companies like Costco whose reputation precedes them, then clearly just the idea of them arriving was enough to get pretty much all of Shanghai to show up.

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