Tag: ohatlanta

I wish airport theory were around 10-15 years ago

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

NYP: dumbasses of today theorize the redundancy of airport policies, makes “challenge” of trying to traverse an airport prior to a flight in as short as time as possible

Honestly, I’ve long since thrown in the towel at trying to rationalize the dumb shit that the people of today do.  Go ahead and call it me getting old, but I’m seldom ever surprised at the things that become trends, so much as I’m always just like “ehh, that’s a thing now?  Fucking ok”

So not only am I not surprised that the trend labeled airport theory is a thing now, I’m more surprised that it’s taken this long for it to have been given a name, because people have been testing airport theory for as long as I’ve been flying, especially in the post-9/11 days where the TSA came to existence and the obnoxious policies that are mostly in place today came to fruition.

People have been testing the boundaries and limits of what they can get away with, with airport policies since 2001, but the only difference really is the existence of TikTok, and the gradually sheep-herder mentalities of the people today who see something and immediately want to mimic it en masse to where it rapidly picks up steam and becomes yet another dumbass trend that’s quick to be labeled a Gen-Z thing, which I don’t always agree with, because I’ve seen people of all ages testing airport theory over the last two decades-plus.

My only real thought is that I really wish airport theory were a thing back 10-15 years ago, when I had a Delta flight pass and could basically hop on any flight to anywhere in the continental United States, as a standby, which I obviously utilized to tremendous effect, contributing towards me crushing a large portion of my 30 MLB baseball park journey.

I always played it smart, monitored conditions and kept abreast of as many variables as I could to optimize my chances at getting on all the flights I wanted to, but I wasn’t without my share of failures too.  I’ve been stuck in places like Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland and failed to get out of Reagan-National countless times, and more times than I can count, I was unable to get out of Atlanta for the start of a trip, regardless of how much things seemed possible beforehand.

If travel theory were a thing 10-15 years ago, my success rate at getting on planes would have likely skyrocketed, because when airlines actually adhere to policy, the dumbasses who are testing airport theory and trying to get from airport entrance to the jetbridge giving themselves 15 minutes would have forfeited their seats eons ago in comparison, and for every idiot that insisted on testing airport theory there were, would be one more standby passenger cleared to board the aircraft.

In fact, some of my worst stories involving standby travel probably involve dorks who were testing airport theory, inadvertently, before it was even coined as being airport theory.  Like me getting cleared to board an aircraft but then being bumped at the eleventh hour and 59th minute because some fuckwit managed to bitch and complain and eke their way to the gate, and reclaim their forfeited seat because the squeaky wheel always gets the grease.

But yeah, if airport theory were a thing 10-15 years ago when I was jetsetting and traveling nearly twice a month, I would’ve not only had a way easier time in traveling, I probably would have traveled more and explored the country if I knew it would be so easy to travel.

The funny thing is, and I don’t care enough about it to look it up, but I’m really curious to see how much of all these airport theory videos are occurring in Atlanta.  If there’s not a lot of evidence of airport theory being tested at ATL, then I can comfortably say that if there was, the trend would undoubtedly come to a screeching halt.  Fewer airports are staffed with as many people who relish and take sadistic, arrogant satisfaction at ruining the days of travelers than Atlanta Hartsfield Latoya Jackson Intergalactic Spaceport and Nail Emporium. 

The irony is that they don’t do it by being incompetent, they do so by being as procedurally bullet proof as possible, adhering to every single bulleted rule there could be in airport, airline, TSA policy, with the express purpose of fucking every single person who tries to skirt protocol, test airport theory and try and get one up on system.

I’d love to see one of these TikTok dorks make a video where they’re like “uhh hey what’s up guys, I’m at ATL, I’ve got 15 minutes to board my Delta flight at T7, and I just got to security” and then it cuts to them having moved up maybe 7-8 people and then they’re like “welp, looks like I missed my flight” or they get to their gate, the doors are closed, and the gate agent is smugly finishing their outbound report, as they calmly tell the camera “sir/ma’am, procedure dictates that you be present at the gate at X time OR we will forfeit your seat” and then airport theory is basically defeated.

Either way, I wish this shit existed 10-15 years ago.  I would’ve thrived as a traveler, getting on more flights at a way higher clip, and seen more of the country before it completely went to shit.

New cars are useless without improving the infrastructure

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

ATL Urbanize: MARTA’s train cars of the future unveiled in a ceremony full of people acting impressed who will probably never ride them again

It’s funny, among the things that I try to do on the regular, is that I like to look back and see the posts I made in previous years, and not that long ago, I came across a post I made back in 2022, writing about a proposed train car redesign MARTA had in the works.  I chuckled a little at my own analogy about how it looked like a cross-breed between a Daft Punk helmet and a Mass Effect Cerberus shock trooper, with its prevalent colored light in the front, but mostly allowed myself to have a thought about where the fuck these supposed train cars of tomorrow were, considering the post was from three years ago.

So it wasn’t that distantly past in my brain when I found out that MARTA actually just unveiled the supposed train cars of the future in recent ceremony, filled to the gills with press, bureaucrats and a bunch of people who have never actually used public transportation in their adult lives, all applauding and congratulating mostly themselves at the unveiling of a singular shiny new train car, with supposed promises that they’ll be operational and ready for the pleebs public in July.

Like I opined three years ago, as much as I had my clowning shoes on and I am always ready to get ready to criticize and textually rip MARTA apart for what is usually most likely misspent funds and poor operations, the new cars really aren’t that bad.  The current trains are all dated as fuck, and it’s like they literally transported the Washington DC’s old Metro cars to Atlanta, while they dumped their even older cars into the ocean, so some fresh new train cars are actually a great idea in the grand spectrum of running a transit authority.

From what I have been able to see, the new train cars are like, one gigantic car, with no portioning or separation between them.  I’m sure there’s a good reason for doing such, but at the same time, I’ve seen criticisms about how this will enable train trash like bums, grifters, panhandlers, and other knuckleheads to kind of have more freedom to roam and troll the entire train, instead of being portioned off into a singular car, and give riders a chance at avoiding them.

I used to snidely remark about how I’d donate $100 to a charity of anyone’s choosing if I were ever able to ride MARTA without having to hear someone else’s music, which is to say that such never happened in all the times that I’ve done such, but now that cars will be open and accessible to all riders instead of single cars, I have a feeling that dickhead behavior isn’t really going to change so much as it’s going to evolve, much like a variant of the flu.

Which leads to the very obvious observation that new train cars are nice and all, but if the general infrastructure of MARTA itself doesn’t improve, it doesn’t matter how many shiny new rail cars with interactive screens and fancy lights up front to avoid confusion on what line you’re on is.  If riders don’t feel safe, or have confidence that the trains will work, be on time, and not break down, nothing is going to change from how things are today.

MARTA still has a piss-poor reputation, remains the butt of jokes for the city, and faces an uphill battle as endless as Sisyphus.  Keith Parker was the last guy that managed to actually improve things, but it was clear he was pushed to his patience’s limit before he cut and run, and the guy that followed him was drained by MARTA so badly that he killed himself.

I don’t pay attention to the minutiae of MARTA like I used to in the past, but I’m not sure new train cars are going to really solve much if the perception and infrastructure of the authority hasn’t improved at all.  New cars are one thing, but the fact that MARTA itself hasn’t added any real new stops, showed any expansion whatsoever, and is still going back and forth on the same mostly useless cross-shaped map, nothing has really changed.

But hey, at least the trains are going to look cool.  I wonder just how much pocket lining every single train is going to make a bunch of shadow investors?  All I know is that if I ever find out, I’m sure there’ll be a brog post about it.

Thoughts on my first GCW live event

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Despite the fact that I don’t really have the time to watch nearly as much wrestling as I would like to, whenever there’s a show at Center Stage in Midtown Atlanta, I typically make a conceited effort to go, regardless of the promotion that manages to book the venue.  It’s simply one of my favorite venues to watch live professional wrestling at; it’s a small, intimate venue that lends itself perfectly to watching wrestling, tickets are usually reasonable, there’s no bad seat in the house, and because of its size, Center Stage is perfect for yelling at performers and knowing that they can probably hear you.

A friend of mine gave me the heads up that GCW (Game Changer Wrestling) was coming to Center Stage, a week before a TNA show that I had earmarked, and since I don’t like to leave my house too much I quickly pivoted to plan on going to GCW instead of TNA since I’ve watched TNA (when it was still Impact Wrestling) at Center Stage before, but more importantly, that I’d never seen a GCW show in person before.

GCW is primarily known for their hardcore style, proclaiming to be the successor to ECW, with bleeding performers and penchant for weapons, primarily fluorescent light tubes, but they’re also known for putting on entertaining shows.  I’ve only seen one of their pay-per-views, as well as hundreds of random video clips and I’ve always found them entertaining, but the fact is they’re still like 4th or 5th tier in the current standing of notable promotions out there.  The fact that they still call themselves independent wrestling is amusing, but they’re also nowhere near the big leagues, but regardless, they still put on entertaining shows, and I was looking forward to it.

To cut to the chase, GCW was an awesome show and a fun experience.  Leaps and bounds better than MLW, not nearly as polished as TNA, but nowhere near as raw and amateur as any of the indy shows that I’d been to in the past.  There were no major names with WWE/AEW/TNA experience beyond guys like Joey Janela, Fuego del Sol and a rando booking of Jimmy Wang Yang, and Matt Cardona was only shown in video packages and highlights.  Nick Gage, the supposed heart and soul of the promotion, I don’t even know if he’s even still alive, or incarcerated or whatever, but he wasn’t there either.

In a way, I felt like it was better that way, since there were little to no preconceived notions on any of the talents I got to see.  In a way, it felt very refreshing to come into a show with hardly any knowledge of any of the talent, because it was like a rare chance to feel like a new fan again, to be amazed or surprised at the various levels of talents to which there was plenty of, on the GCW roster.

So the guy that captured my imagination the most was Jack Cartwheel; obviously with a name like that, it was obvious that cartwheels were going to be a part of what this guy did, but to what extent was unknown.  I figured he probably did the top-rope cartwheel DDT that Jake Atlas put on the map during his time in NXT, but as his match against Fuego del Sol progressed, it turned out to be so much more.

Cartwheels to celebrate.  Cartwheels to evade clotheslines and other attacks.  Cartwheels to get in and out of the ring, jumping over the top rope, coming off of the top.  There’s a reason why cartwheel was in his name, and as much as I admittedly thought his whole persona was lame as shit, and assumed he was going to do the job, seeing as how Fuego was the guy that came from a Top-3 promotion, as the match soldered on, and Jack Cartwheel kept spamming more and more cartwheels, he began to win me over.  I began yelling out for more cartwheels, and for the rest of the night, I was yelling at other guys I had little to no clue to whom they were, to do cartwheels.

Jack Cartwheel is a perfect example of a wrestler who appears to be aware of how silly his gimmick is, but has committed to it 100%, owns it and lives it, and spams it so hard, that it’s hard to not get won over by his sheer commitment and dedication to his gimmick.  After his match, which he thankfully won btw, all I wanted was to see more cartwheels.  More Jack Cartwheel!

Otherwise, like I said, the GCW show as a whole was fun and entertaining.  The lineup was a little wonky, and I can comfortably say that after the Jack Cartwheel vs. Fuego match, the card kind of went downhill, not just because I was so high on Jack Cartwheel, but because the paces of the match started to get slower, relying more on hardcore and danger spots, and by the time the main event rolled around where it was GCW Champion Mance Warner vs. some old bald guy who bled like a stuck pig and could barely move, the night had come to a crawl.

But overall, GCW was an awesome show.  If their journeys bring them through Atlanta again in the future, I’m definitely on board to go see them again, especially if they’re booking Center Stage.  And hopefully, Jake Cartwheel will still be on the roster then, and if he’s not, I certainly hope he’s in a better promotion, making good money and getting cartwheels even more over.

Oh, South Fulton #47

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

WSB: South Fulton taxpayers ‘livid’ because mayors wants to give himself a raise

It was 7:10 am and I was in the kitchen groggily pondering my life while getting ready to start preparing breakfast for the kids, when I saw the headline for this article pop up on my Echo.  My brow furrowed, and my knee-jerk reaction was what, fuck that when I pulled out my phone to look up the story to find out more.

I’ve said it many times that despite the fact that I’ve long bid good riddance to South Fulton county, I still have a casual interest in the goings over there, because I do believe that in spite of all the corruption and ironic bad behavior that will always render the place a swampy swirl, I do feel for those that are good, that still live there and believe in the place, even if I don’t, and want good for those people.  And my knee-jerk reaction was that a mayor giving himself more money for a region that seems incapable of improvement, doesn’t sound like a very good idea for those people.

But then I read the context behind the headline, and my attitude changed fairly quickly.

Turns out the Mayor of the City of South Fulton was making a paltry $47,676 a year.  The caveat to it is that for whatever reason, it was in a part-time capacity, and there are all sorts of easy jokes about how it’s possible or why it’s just part-time explains why South Fulton is such a wasteland, but in terms of numbers, the mayor was making a wage that frankly I don’t think is necessarily livable in the Metro Atlanta area.

It should also be mentioned that one of the former mayors of Atlanta once was discovered in an audit to have spent upwards of $20K doled out to employees as prizes and bonuses for holiday parties, to give a barometer of how much reckless spending there is in this general region.

But yeah, the mayor of the City of South Fulton is currently making $47K and wants to bump himself up to $85K; the article states that it’s a 78% increase presumably to increase outrage, but it’s really 55%, and frankly, for doing the thankless job in a wasteland, even if it’s at a part-time capacity whatever that entails, I don’t think is an unreasonable amount to propose.  It’s not like he’s asking for six figures to do the seemingly nothing that all the politicians in the Metro area do, and frankly it’s not like he hasn’t earned some money for all the efforts he’s tried to put into his jurisdiction.

For context, after being elected, he deliberately moved himself into one of the sketchiest apartment complexes in one of the most sketchiest parts of town, to try and prove to his constituents that he was one of them and was a man of the people.  He eventually had to bail because unsurprisingly a place like that had tremendous mold problems and it was threatening to the lives of him and everyone who lived there (the complex has since mostly burned down, “accidentally”), but this is the kind of guy that he tried to be, as a politician.

Regardless, there are many in South Fulton who are deemed as livid because he wants a little bit more money to part-time reside over them, and after seeing the numbers, I’m not opposed to it anymore as much as I think a lot of it should be past-services due. 

It’s like that scene in Ocean’s 13 where the dice factory goes on strike, and Andy Garcia as Terry Benedict hears the number $30,000, and is all like $30K for every employee?  And then is informed that it’s just $30k is what they’re demanding in total, and everyone’s just basically like.. that’s it?

That’s how I feel about this guy asking for a little bit more money.  It’s not an egregious amount, and it’s frankly too modest in my opinion.  I know it’s easy for me to say not being my tax dollars and my money, but if anyone were to offer me a 55% raise to go live back in South Fulton County, I’m not doing it.  Not even for a 100% raise, because there’s no way I could afford to live in a secluded fortress away from all the bullshit, not to mention the agony commute I’d be putting myself into again.

Man is just asking for a modest raise to continue living in a part of town that mostly everyone has given up on and doesn’t believe in, and even if he is one of the many Metro Atlanta politicians blowing smoke, $85K a year seems like a rounding error in comparison to some of the flagrantly irresponsible spending going on around the rest of the Metro area.

Stop trying to make Saudi Arabia happen

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

One of the best parts about the largely mid Bad Blood PPV PLE was when Triple H came out to make an announcement, which turned out to be about one of the Saudi Arabia shows that pretty much nobody in the Western Hemisphere gives two shits about let alone recognizes as being remotely canonical in the WWE storyline ecosystem, and there were noticeable boos coming from the crowd.

Atlanta, it’s times like these in which I am proud to be one of us.

Seriously though, to top it all off, they unveiled a brand new blet, dubbed the Crown Jewel Championship, that would be awarded to the winners of the respective champion vs. champion matches between the men’s champions and the inferior gender Arabs hate but pretend to tolerate and give rights to in order to futilely gain acceptance from the rest of the world women’s champions.

And of course, I fucking hate them, as much as I fucking hate the Saudi Arabian shows that the WWE continuously forces down the throats of its viewers like they have the ability to single-handedly erase centuries of primitive cultural behavior.  Notice that unveiled was only a men’s variant of the Crown Jewel blet, contrary to the week prior where they unveiled a men’s and women’s rebranded NXT championships.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if there were no actual women’s Crown Jewel blet created, but Hunter going on live television and proclaiming that there would be one, forces the Royal Family to shell out a small mint to create a women’s variant of it, lest the almighty accusations of false advertising and poor optics ding their already-fragile reputation to places outside of the Middle East.

On paper, Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther should be a pretty good match, but as is often the case at these Saudi shows, it’s like the talent knows they don’t have to push the gas all the way down, not to mention that they’ll probably be in like Jeddah or Riyadh where it’ll be 104F outside, so they’ll err on the side of caution, and the match will feel neutered and nowhere near as good as people know it could be, if it were at like Wrestlemania or SummerSlam.

But Liv Morgan vs. Nia Jax for the women’s Crown Jewel blet?  I enjoy Liv, appreciate her love for the business not to mention the snack she is to eyes like mine, but there’s no way she’s going to defeat Nia Jax, without a tremendous amount of monkey business from maybe the recently returned Raquel Rodriguez.  Even if Tiffany Stratton cashes in and steals the title away from Nia before the event, Liv vs. Tiffy doesn’t sound as good to me either, because as high as I am on Stratton, she’s still green and I’d rather her first championship reign come when she’s a little bit more ready for it than I think she is now.

So once again, Nia will probably come out on top at a Saudi show, but in a different perspective, I guess it’s good that the E utilizes Crown Jewel to be the place to burn a stinker of a program, so that it doesn’t have to be run in a place that might actually appreciate it.

I’d really love to see both Liv and Nia come out in boring, sterile putty patrol-gray outfits with no personalities, as sort of a protest for the gross second-rate Sharia law bullshit they have to adhere to.  And also, after Nia defeats Liv, she gets blind-sided by Raquel and then Tiffy comes out, cashes in, and basically walks out with two blets, with the Women’s championship as well as the bullshit Crown Jewel blet.

No matter though, I don’t really care who wins what at this bullshit show, because I’m long past over the E tryna make Saudi Arabia a thing.  There’s no way in hell I’ll be able to watch it live, even if I wanted to, in my dad schedule, and if I’m not watching something live, I’m inevitably going to skip through 80% of the show when I watch the replay later, because ain’t nobody got time to watch every single minute when the finishes are just a few clicks away.

Also, what does this new blet mean for Braun Strowman’s ugly-ass Saudi blet he won at the “Greatest” Royal Rumble?  Does this replace it?  Is it a separate title?  Does it matter?  Does anyone actually care?  Nah.

Writing out the quiet part?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been chipping away at FX’s The Bear.  It’s a show that was always on my radar as something that I should see, and there was plenty of reason for me to be interested in it on its own.  After going through all of Shameless, I was high on Jeremy Allen White, and FX has a history of putting out shows that seem to be right up my alley, and furthermore, among the team that was making The Bear reality was Hiro Murai, who directed numerous episodes of Atlanta, another show that I was very high on and enjoyed.

Admittedly, The Bear starts off a little slow, and it did take me a little time before the show clicked and I realized that I did in fact enjoy the show, but I have to also say that it’s a show that’s kind of hard to watch, because how heavy-handed the show feels sometimes, especially from the standpoint that pretty much everyone has their own wars they fight on a daily basis, be it with themselves, their families, from their pasts to their presents, and often times television is supposed to be an escape from the hardships of life, and I find it difficult to instead be watching the hardships of fictional characters instead.

Like, I can’t really binge The Bear.  This truly is a show that probably is best watched on a weekly basis, so you can decompress and digest each individual episode, before your energy bar of watching stressful situations is replenished and the following week’s episode can tax you next week instead.  Every time Carmy and Richie have a knock-down drag-out screaming match, I can feel my own anxiety rising, and it’s a testament to both actors and their on-screen chemistry that they can do that to viewers with having such explosive arguments that feel genuine and stressful just to watch, but it adds to why I have a hard time watching more than a single episode at a time.

But recently, I got to thinking, in light of hearing of all the Emmy acclaim that The Bear has been reveling in, was to compare the sheer volume of Emmy consideration and success The Bear had, compared to Atlanta.  After all, the shows are very similar in the fact that they’re both on FX and considered psychological comedy-dramas, not to mentioned the aforementioned directing by Hiro Murai in both series.

It’s probably not popular, and something that I wouldn’t write out in a public forum, but I would go so far as to say that The Bear is basically the white version of Atlanta, in the way that the show is presented, the style of situational humor, and that both are listed as comedies, but although I do get some laughs from some of the scenarios they present, I usually go to bed thinking about the last episode and how fucking depressing they are. 

Frankly the only differences is that one show takes place in Atlanta with black people revolving around a rap career, and the other show takes place in Chicago with mostly white people revolving around a restaurant business.

Needless to say, it was of no surprise to compare the apples and find out that The Bear blows Atlanta out of the water when it comes to Emmy nominations much less actual Emmy wins, and I feel like I’m kind of writing the quiet part out loud a little bit with the not-so subtle accusation of the overtly white-favoritism of The Bear compared to when Atlanta was tearing up FX in their four seasons.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying The Bear, and I still love Lip Gallagher, and I’m very enamored by the many of the other characters and actors in the show.  I’m not trying to demean The Bear and say it’s not as good as Atlanta, not in the least bit  But I just see a lot of parallel with Atlanta, and feel that without Atlanta, The Bear doesn’t even exist, and I’m more just irked by the obvious racial bias in heaping mountains of praise onto The Bear, when Atlanta was doing the same thing just a few years ago to way less perceptive results.

Oh, Ratlanta #488

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Fox5Atlanta: Atlanta named in the top ten most rat-infested cities in the country (#10)

I’m not even going to try and defend the city, or think of any excuses to why this is.  There have been plenty of times in my life where I’ve thought to myself, or out loud, the phrase, what a fucking shithole when going around and about the city.  Short of any of the areas where the gentrification bombs have exploded, there’s lots of parts of Atlanta that are complete shitholes, that I’m not the least bit surprised to hear that the aggregate of the city breaks the top-10 in most rat-infested cities in America.

What I do find ironically offensive and laughably embarrassing is Atlanta’s ranking in comparison to supposed less-rat-infested cities that I would’ve figured to be way bigger shithole rat-infested places than Atlanta.  Like come on really, Baltimore (#11) is a less rat-infested city than Atlanta?  Seriously?  I find that very hard to believe.  Sure, it’s just a difference of one spot separating the two, but like in any competition, a one-point win is still a win.

I also heavily argue Detroit (#16) and Miami (#22) as somehow being less rat-infested than Atlanta is.  I’ve been to both those cities too, and much like Baltimore, they’ve all seemed like bigger shitholes that would have rat infestations than Atlanta does.

The funny thing is that no matter how long I’ve been down here, walked streets, and been around old Turner Field especially, I’ve actually never seen a rat in the wild.  Dead or alive.  I know they’re out there, and I’ve definitely seen places that have clearly been occupied by rats, but I’ve never actually seen one out in the wild.  I have seen rats in Baltimore and Miami though, with the latter not being more than just two months ago when I was barely in city proper for a few hours prior to the start of my cruise.

Perhaps all these other cities with surprisingly low rankings are just so plagued with squalor that nobody’s just contacting Terminix and boosting their numbers, and the rats are just overrunning these entire cities?  Seems more plausible than being ranked better than Atlanta is.

But metrics are metrics, and as much as I ironically want to cry foul and point out that there seems to be a correlation between rat-infestation and general size of markets, it’s not something worth the effort to debate.  When it comes to arguing over who’s more rat-infested it’s like asking yourself if you’d rather have herpes or the clap, because no matter what side of the argument you come out on, you’re still fucked.