Weekends are for working

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

No lie, ever since I moved into my house, I’ve worked more during each weekend than I have been at my actual job.  At least in the sense of doing things that physically tire me out versus my cushy office job that I do almost entirely while sitting down in a chair.

But ever since I moved in, just about every single weekend has been marathons of painting, moving things, assembling things, installing things, unpacking boxes, taking trash out, and other time-consuming tasks that have me scratching my head wondering where the days go, and why is it 10 p.m. already?  I am so over painting now, and I hope to not have to do any more painting for several, several years, although I can already think of areas of my house in which builder beige will not be tolerated in the long run.

Weekends fly by with me scarcely getting any substantial computer time, and by the time I do mundane things like checking my email or looking at Facebook, I’ve usually got a lot of new email and my Facebook feed has several days’ worth of peoples’ mundane status updates and inconsequential humblebrags and notifications.  Aside from the shit I can play on my phone, I haven’t touched a video game in weeks, and I haven’t played League since my desk and my desktop were still at the old apartment.

The thing is though, this isn’t me complaining at all about it.  It’s entirely factual that I’ve been busier on weekends than I am during the week, but ultimately, there’s a sense of gratification and reward with every task I finish and progress made towards the ultimate completion of moving in.

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I really dislike it, but I kind of respect the trolling

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Football fans love to waste money: group of New Orleans Saints fans want to troll the Atlanta Falcons and its new Mercedes-Benz Stadium by renting billboard space across the street, mocking the 28-3 lead the Falcons had in the Super Bowl before suffering the biggest collapse ever

I often say that I’m ambivalent towards football, and that I’m not really a fan of the Atlanta Falcons.  To some degree, I do stand by such claims, but I’m not going to lie that I felt absolutely crushed, heartbroken and completely demoralized by the result of the 2016 Super Bowl Lee, when the Falcons had a gigantic lead, and choked it all away, suffering the mother of defeats to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

I chalk up my frustration and disappointment not so much because the Falcons lost, but the City of Atlanta lost, an opportunity to shed the notion that as a sports town, it’s full of teams that always choke, and actually win a major sporting championship.  Instead, they swing the pendulum full retard and go from having victory all but guaranteed, to being defeated in the most gut-wrenching, most-Atlanta way ever.

Needless to say, I do admit that the Falcons’ loss really upset me, and thinking back to Super Bowl Lee isn’t the easiest thing for me to do as a sports fan.

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Why is this a surprise?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It shouldn’t be a surprise: retired NBA great Tim Duncan kickboxes to stay in shape, and is apparently very good at it, according to his coach

The insinuation is that this is somehow newsworthy because there’s a modicum of surprise that a man like Tim Duncan, who was best identified as a stalwart basketball player, has the audacity to partake in something not-basketball, like kickboxing.  And that he’s actually pretty good at it, almost good enough to be “a legit competitor in MMA” according to his coach.

But if anyone who followed Tim Duncan’s career as a basketball player shouldn’t really be at all that surprised to find out that he’s also good at kickboxing, because he’s pretty much good at everything once he gets a grasp of the fundamentals.  After all, he wasn’t nicknamed “the Big Fundamental” without just cause.

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This would make me a Rays fan for the remainder of the season

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Worth watching baseball again: relief pitcher Jonny Venters continuing journey back to the big leagues, pitching for the Tampa Bay Rays’ Class-A Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs

Jonny Venters is one of my favorite pitchers to watch, like ever.  Formerly a relief ace on the Braves, I enjoyed his ascent from AAA to the majors and watched him for the better part of three seasons, make hitters look absolutely foolish with a mega-power sinker thrown from the left hand and often at speeds in excess of 96 mph.

He was derailed when he blew out his elbow, requiring the dreaded Tommy John surgery that salvages careers, but effectively knocks guys out of action for at least a year.  To make matters worse, upon the return trail, something went horribly awry and he ended up blowing out his elbow again, requiring a second Tommy John surgery before he even made it back up to the majors.  So back under the knife he went, and another year lost to surgery and rehabilitation.

I actually watched Jonny Venters practice throwing again in the spring time of 2014, when I made a trip down to Orlando to watch some Spring Training baseball.  He was on a distant backfield of the Disney Wide World of Sports facility, practicing long toss with a catcher I couldn’t identify.  I was happy to see that he was back to performing baseball actions again, and had high hopes that the old Jonny Venters would be back to bolster the Braves’ bullpen.

But because life can sometimes be a harsh and cruel mistress, before the season even started, somehow Jonny Venters blew out his elbow a horrific third time.  Once again, he would need Tommy John surgery, and be knocked out of the third consecutive season.  To nobody’s surprise, by this point, the Braves had no choice but to release him, considering he was very much damaged goods, and unintentionally was a drain on payroll.

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Happiness on conveyor belts

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It’s not often that I will point out a single business on my brog that nobody can read, but it’s not often that I come across restaurants that bring me such enjoyment and hope for future visits.

KULA is supposedly Atlanta’s first ever conveyor belt sushi joint, and I had been looking forward to this place as soon as it was announced to be coming to the area.  Since I’d never been to Japan, I can’t say that I’ve ever had conveyor belt sushi before in its native land, but I have had it before a long, long time ago when I was out visiting Seattle.  I really loved it then, so it wasn’t a surprise that I would enjoy it in my own home city.

Needless to say, after my first visit, I’m completely smitten by the place, and I’m already looking forward to my next trip.  It’s a place that is a fun atmosphere, the quality of the sushi is pretty good, and all that shit is served to you on conveyor belts from the convenience of your own table. 

It’s dangerous in the sense that it’s very easy to lose track of just how much you’re eating, but at the end of the meal, my company and I demolished 39 small plates of sushi and rang up a little over $100.  We cleared them pretty furiously at the start, but I think it’s safe to say that everyone was well full by meal’s end, and honestly, at like $25~ a head for a good sushi meal, it’s not out of the ordinary.

Needless to say, this is a place that easily lifted my spirits and made me extremely pleased.  I know that I will definitely be back in the future, and now that I’ve been there and experienced the joy myself and don’t feel the need to keep to keep quiet about the place, I implore everyone in the area try this place out.  I know that this is going to be a definite go-to option for friends and visitors alike from now on.

This kind of makes me sad

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Short story shorter: Six Flags Over Georgia says goodbye to the Georgia Cyclone rollercoaster, after 27 years of operation

Ultimately, it’s just a rollercoaster, but as many of my non-existent readers know I’m just reluctant to change.

Anyway, I do have fond memories of the Georgia Cyclone, because it was the first roller coaster I rode in my first-ever trip to Six Flags Over Georgia.  This was long before the Batman ride, even longer before Goliath, before amusement parks all across the country weren’t in this perpetual rat race to see who could churn out the tallest, fastest, scariest and/or most grandiose rides, to attract would-be riders to stand in 60 minute-long lines just for 60 seconds of thrill.

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A bad mental health day

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

A while ago, the internet was abuzz over a story about a woman who took some sick days off and cited that they were to “focus on my mental health,” which was then personally responded to by the CEO of her company, applauding her for doing such.  Bringing the all-important “awareness” to the issue, and then people all over the internet collectively went “awww” over it, because mental health is a legitimate issue in today’s world.

Personally, I didn’t buy it.  My knee-jerk reaction was that the woman was feeling burned out and didn’t want to go to work, and called in sick, which is a common practice all around the world pretty much.  I’m more impressed that she was so honest in the sense that she didn’t make up some phony excuse, phantom sickness, cite a fake death in the family or use food poisoning as reason to take two days off.

But mental health?  Yeah no, I don’t buy it.  I don’t think the mental word trigger should be so quick to be pulled when people are getting burned out by their jobs, or are just really exhausted and don’t want to face their work for a day or two.  And if they have the sick time, why not use it?

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