Monday, February 25, 2013

Ooops, long time no blog Texas: big ol' ten gallon hats, boots, and other things I've never owned as a city boy Oct 17, 2012 10:23PM PST

Whoops. You know, if I had and knew how to work with (the irony being that as a Magna Cum Laude RTV graduate, I could probably figure it out pretty quick, I jusy have never seriously looked into cost/operations, cause I probably can't justify the expenses)  the recording equipment used in Let's Plays, I could easily have a daily retro blog to fill in my retrospective blogs. Oh well.
In the meantime, I managed to go to Austin a week or so ago with the girlfriend (her birthday was around then and her dad lives in Austin). Here are some conclusions I've made after having visiting/living in 3 of 4 major Texas cities. Those cities are my hometown-ish of Dallas, the "ish" being that I live in a suburb to the southeast of the city, Houston, and Austin, but not San Antonio. I have visited San Antonio as a kid for much the same reasons I visited Austin as a kid: boring museums and statues dad wanted to see that taught me absolutely nothing about the cities themselves. And now that I'm older, I'd probably love those same museums. Go figure. Anyway,
San Antonio:
I don't remember it incredibly well, but I definitely visited the Alamo as a kid. I feel like I'd have had a much more spiritual experience if I had known and seen the exact location where Ozzy Ozbourne  had urinated on it. That was a joke by the way. It may not have been funny to you, and feel free to point that out, but please don't spam me with comments about how disrespectful I'm being, I appreciate the actual history, which was a big chunk of college History for me.
Austin:
- Really needs to be renamed "People's Hipster Republic of Texas"
- That being said, I appreciated that every place we ate apparently required its owners and employees to be either under 35 years of age, casually dressed, or in the instance of appearing over the age of 30, have an epic hippie beard. The service and food were pretty excellent, and it just goes to show as long as the guy behind the counter is friendly, helpful and behind a counter, I'm pretty sure I can figure out he works there without him dressing as a human Skittle, as Outback required of me. 
- On that note, the trailer food craze in Austin that I hear is spreading to Dallas is the best idea ever. Having the clearly high, or maybe just "really happy" blond girl from the Coolhaus trailer give me a vanilla bean ice cream scoop between two red velvet cookies with an thin, edible paper wrapper was a cool experience. I mean I'm still not sure if that wrapper was actually supposed to be edible, or if she just thought they were cause of her munchies, but it tasted delicious either way.



- Oh, and at one of the restaurants called Sputnik's, they let you color a pinup girl. I made mine a Simpson, not cause I initially wanted to, but cause she had too much white space, and according to our party looked like an alien already anyway. So there's that. Might upload a picture later. 
- Continuing the food theme, homemade blackened brocooli and mac n' cheese casserole is the best thing imaginable.
- One of my girlfriend's dad's girlfriend's neighbors (you catch all that?) owned goats, which she walked around the neighborhood. What was troublesome to me is that these goats are not mascots for Austin's "Keep it Weird" campaign, cause that would be kind of perfect.
- Alamo Drafthouse may not have the tables like Studio Movie Grill, and its bar like setting makes it hard to eat a burger when I'm watching Perks of Being a Wallflower (which was good, but just know it's exactly what you think it is), but it does have special events and R. Lee Ermee telling you he'll kick your ass for talking before the screening.
-  Finally, having been to Boston my Sophomore year in high school around 2005, "Boston in Austin" only makes sense in terms of percieved liberalism in the area and historical artifacts. Everything else, no. There is not enough emphasis on surprisingly small baseball fields, shellfish, or construction (oh my God, construction) for me to take the term "Boston in Austin" seriously. Also, sprinkles are never referred to in any Texas city as "jimmies," so there's that. 
Houston:
- The highway system, it's... paved and well-labeled. To a Dallas native that uses 35E for everything, this is a strange concept indeed. And there are so many damn lanes. Are the people in the HOV doing 250 or something, what the hell would you need those for with your 20 goddamn lanes?
- The area around Minute Maid Park is a very nice area, sort of like the area in and around SMU in Dallas.
- The downtown areas of Houston are incredibly fucking shady, sort of like the downtown areas in Dallas. I mean it was cool to be in the Destiny's Child building thing for my ex's step sister's art show, but that was where the "paved roads" compliment ended for me.
- ... The city is a bigger and denser, more humid clone of Dallas aside from its superior highway system. They even have a baseball team that' constantly shat on by its own fans, despite having made it to the World Series in recent past. I knew we had a rivalry with San Antonio cause of Spurs/Mavericks before college, but I still don't get the kids who talked up the "rivalry" between Houston/Dallas when I was in college. 
Dallas:
- Theaters in the city are too damn expensive. $9.75 at Studio Movie Grill is seriously the lowest price near my girlfriend. I get DLP for $3 matinee, $5 non-matinee, and I don't care if the Angelika has limited release films I want to see, its popcorn is stale and awful, and way overpriced, just like tickets in the area. Also, non-matinee near me = after 6pm. Non-matinee in the city = after 11am apparently... go screw yourselves with a saw. I'll wait.
- That said, Studio Movie Grill is delicious and amazing. I recommend the half pound burger.
- $15 parking for the fair?!! Parking is $15 and you tell me no credit cards?! What the hell is your problem?! And apparently, had we not figured out that a Cinemark ticket = free admisision Thursdays, we'd have spent $30 to get in. I hate everything.
- Except for delicious fried food, HUGE art museum displays, games, rides, and concerts... one was a side show Irish band I forget the name of, but their fiddle woman and revolving stage were cool. The other being Kansas playing there the Sunday after we decided to go.. which I'd have gladly paid $30 to see. Damn you all. And then OU destroys Texas at the Cotton Bowl game. Ugh. At least I had orgasmic fried cheesecake, fried mac n cheese, fried jumbalaya, fried smore, fried curds, root beer, corn dog, and water in one day before going on the food-heavy Austin trip the day after :) Yeah, I only just now started working out again out of necessity cause my pants do not fit.
- Got the hookup this most recent Monday to see the Mavericks really close up in the first few rows for their pre-season game against the Houston Rockets. Girlfriend's mom and step dad actually get a good deal on season tickets through work and family and such. And we were on the jumbotron, but she hid her face cause of camera aversion. Also, a crazy woman behind us constantly talked to her mom and step dad about their tickets and how she won some herself to get her seat. And to get to our seats, we passed the Mavs Maniacs, whom I think are hilarious overweight male mascots, and am glad my fried food binge has not made me look like.
- And I got the job up north as Production Assistant, with training scheduled the first weekend in November, so I guess I'll have to stop relying on my savings/checkings account and family/friends for entertainment. A mix of hard work and luck have made unemployment for me pretty bearable, and I am grateful for that. Now if shit can stop breaking so I can stop giving my dad temporary financial help out of my savings, which is not going to be a realistic solution to anything once the grace period on my loans expire... well thank God he pays back with interest once able, I'm not paying rent in exchange, and I found a job lol.
- We also went to The Boneyard Haunted House in Dallas. It was amazingly well put together, but went a bit overboard with the chainsaw guy. Also, when I get lost in cramped spaces, I don't get scared, I get pissed. And Sinister was a good movie, but not as great as its hype. I still think The Ring is the creepiest movie I've seen.
What I've been playing:
Android: Word Search, my quickets time being 151 seconds to complete a word search "puzzle."
Also, Fruit Ninja, which I don't remember my score in but I have the Ice blade and Ocean wave bkg whatever that means.
Emulation:
Super Mario World. As it turns out, I got much farther than a kid than I thought. It was the SECOND castle I always made it to... and apparently further, cause I have yet to see whatever level it was with the football players and those damn fire spurting flowers on steps. I hate that level.
Also, Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Really, I've been playing the whole trilogy, being deprived as a kid, and have concluded the first installment is by far the weakest link, slowing its roll and providing a dull color scheme the second Green Hill Zone ends, and Sonic 2 and 3 are close. 2 wins at momentum, being the most accessible, fast, and easy to play, but it doesn't have the amazing production design, depth, length, or save system which is the reason I'm continuing with 3, having made it to Lava Reef Zone. Personally, I tie 2 and 3, and say 1 is a distant 3rd other than historical importance. 
What have you all been up to? And I promise, the color thing was just for this blog, black text returns next time, I just wanted to color code the citites after sport team colors.
P.S.
Grimaldi's, which is the NY style pizza God eats for breakfast that I've had in two different Dallas locations, and every time I get white with garlic, pepperoni, and pesto, I have a foodgasm, is expanding locations in 2013. You owe it to yourself to find one near you. No, I do not work for them, nor plan to in the recent future, it's just that amazing and you need it. Trust me on this.

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