Evil Archie Andrews

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Impetus: Archie comics are going the route of Spider-Man and announcing they’re killing off their titular character, but really they’re doing it in a less-successful spin-off series and not mentioning that part concisely as not to compromise the impulsive demand from would-be buyers.

Killing a titular character is such a cop-out.  It’s basically saying “we’re out of ideas for this character, and don’t want to bother putting any further effort with them.”  I can’t say that I’ve ever really been a fan of Archie comics, but I’m not going to pretend like I’ve never read them before either.  Granted, my exposure to them was literally when I was in the first or second grade, and I took piano lessons from a lady who had all sorts of Archie comics on her coffee table for the kids who showed up early like me would be able to read to kill time with.  A lot of the stuff was over my head back then, and it took me a while to realize that “Ronnie” was a nickname for “Veronica.”

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The next two months are going to suck

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The Starbucks I go to every morning when I go to work has closed down for renovations.  They estimate that they will be back open in July.

This is pretty much the worst news I’ve heard in my entire life and I am legitimately upset over this recent development.

Honestly, I don’t really know what to do moving forward.  I can handle the interruption of my morning ritual, but I can’t handle the denial of a consistent delivery of caffeine.  As much as I may bitch and whine about all the students and corporate stiffs who get there before I do and plug up the lines, I’ve literally gone to this Starbucks almost every single work day, and quite a few weekend days that I’ve happened to be in the neighborhood.  I can probably count on one hand how many work days in which I did not go to Starbucks.

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We’re number two!

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Source: Atlanta drivers are the second-least courteous drivers in the United States. Such assessment based on a survey claiming statistics of “road rage” characteristics.

Although I don’t refute that Atlanta is a city that most certainly fits the bill of being full of discourteous drivers, and its share of bad and/or idiot drivers, I don’t necessarily agree with AutoVantage’s criteria of what is considered road rage. When I hear the term “road rage,” I’m picturing people demonstrating acts of retaliation when they’re cut off, or people getting so angry with one another that they mutually seem to agree to pull off to the side of the road, and get into an actual physical altercation. Some of the things that AutoVantage surveyed people on, well, aggravating or foolish as they may be, not all of them I’d agree are necessarily acts of road rage. Rage-inducing, sure, to some capacity, but definitely not contextually correct.

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I enjoy reading about car restorations

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A long time ago, when I was way into Initial D and import cars in general, I often dreamed about getting a Nissan 240SX, and doing everything necessary to it to essentially turn it into a Nissan Sil-Eighty, a Frankenstein of a drift car that merged the front end of a Nissan Silvia with the body of a Nissan 180SX.

I thought, and still kind of do think, that it’s an awesome car, and that it would be real peachy if I could ever get my hands on one at any point in my lifetime.

Long gone are those boyhood racer dreams for the most part, although I wouldn’t not entertain the idea of still getting an old Nissan 240SX and restoring it to some degree of hotness, but perhaps without the need for an SR20 turbo engine, or any major super-expensive part that needed to be imported internationally.  Regardless, it’s safe to assume that those dreams of becoming a legendary drifter are long in the past.

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Ballparks: Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas

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Last Sunday, I visited Minute Maid Park, the home of the Houston Astros in Houston, Texas.  This makes #25 of the 30 Major League Baseball teams visited.

As for the ballpark itself, it was nice.  It’s not going to be my favorite, because I personally think baseball is best played in true outdoor fashion, and a retractable roof doesn’t really count.  But it’s also not the worst ballpark I’d ever been to before either.

Read about it, and many, many more ballpark experiences on my sporadically updated ballpark site.

Disney’s Million Dollar Spoiler Alert

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Sure, it’s a nice story, interesting concept, and a legitimately good, plausible idea.  But it would have been an even better one, had the real, actual results amounted to any actual success.

SPOILER ALERT: the two Indian guys that Million Dollar Arm is about didn’t amount to anything in professional baseball.  Neither of them advanced beyond the low minor leagues, and for all intents and purposes are no longer pitching professionally; Dinesh Patel flamed out in 2010, and Rinku Singh may or may not still be pitching, but not for anyone in the United States, and hasn’t since 2012.

Sure, baseball is a beautiful and wonderful game, and it is often hard to not romanticize the analogies and the metaphors that the game provides, which makes it easy for there to be a demand to make movies about the sport.  Regardless, that kind of realistic information isn’t going to stop Hollywood, or Disney from making a film to exploit the story of how such results came to fruition, without actually getting to that part.

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When winning titles is a bad thing

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It was once said that the WWF Intercontinental championship was given to the best worker in the company.  This was a very easy thing to declare when the context behind it was talking about the late great “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig, who is widely regarded as one of the strongest performers in the modern era.  However, in a prior wrestling era, there was some merit to the statement, because when you look at the list of names of guys who held it prior to 2000, it pretty much has been nothing but stars who have achieved success in the business.

WCW’s take on the United States championship was that it was again, for particularly standout talents, but also a means of declaring a potential number one contender for the more prestigious World championship.  And again, like the Intercontinental championship, with few exceptions (David Flair), the list of names of guys who held the US title are pretty noteworthy.

What I’m getting at here is that the Intercontinental and United States championships, the second-tier titles that were once no-less important and prestigious to hold, are pretty much worthless in today’s dynamic wrestling industry.

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