Went to another Dodger’s game during the weekend, and this one was full of goodies. It was my brother’s birthday gift to go to a game and I came along for the ride.
We went to a different spot again, with this one probably being the best angle I’ve seen for watching a game. We were on the top deck right up front on the edge with the fence so no obstructions were in the way of us viewing the field. Last year when we went to the right pavilion, it was a terrible way to watch the game due to 1) you can’t see the jumbo screens 2) you are facing the direction of the sun set (which btw takes forever to set) and 3) all the players are facing their butts at you except for the batter and catcher. The only major benefit for pavilion seating was the free all-you-can-eat meals.
With this new spot, however, there was one catch: the height.
Eek! We were really high up with a view almost showing what was directly below us. With a fear of heights, this was a terrible place to sit. I was terrified for the first few innings, fearful of accidently dropping something over the fence which is very short, only being about eye’s height when sitting down. On top of that the wiring mesh was spaced large enough to where something as large as a cell phone could slip through. So while it was designed for viewing the game with the least amount of obstructions, the safety aspect seemed skimpy (at least to a scardy cat like me). But after a while I got used to it and all was good.
Being right behind and above home place was really cool. Not only do you have a great view of the field, but the jumbo screens as well, and just the whole park in general. And since we were at the top deck, we were a short climb upstairs to the snack bar and the main store.
This game had a promotion gift at the gate entrance and this one was a model replica of Dodger Stadium. Although it was really detailed with colors and the overall shape of the stadium, it was lacking on quality. When inspecting up close, it looks rather cheap. To me, the box it came in looked better than the replica itself. Oh well, it’s better than the dumb bottle opener I got last time I was here. Still a neat freebie, though. (The pic below makes it look like it's a cake)
Snack wise I kept it simple with a Dodger Dog and a soda. Well actually it was a Super Dodger Dog, which I think is just a longer version of the Dodger Dog. For the drink I got the one that comes with a collectors cup with Clayton Kershaw embossed on it. This will go well with my Adrian Gonzalez cup that I got from a previous visit.
Whenever I go to the merchandise shop, I always look around but never actually buy anything, but this time I was determined to get something. I wanted to finally get a hat. And this time I succeeded in accomplishing that goal. Check it out!
Pretty rad, right? This one has a classic, old-school style look to it. Rather than a new hat that has a dome type of shape with the front flattened a bit for the team name, this cap is more rounded with a low profile build. The LA logo is large with an effect that looks like its been brushed to I guess age it, and the color blue is vibrant with the color under the bill being a kelly green that most caps used to sport. If anything, it reminds me of the cap Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez wore in The Sandlot. Now I just need a loose #30 jersey and a pair of P.F. Flyers and I'll be set!
In all, good times were had by all. The Dodgers won, the game wasn’t too short or too long, the weather was great, and I got a lot of stuff.
It’s been over 20 years since I last played this game and I’m happy to say nostalgia’s rose tinted glasses weren’t covering my eyes because this game is still as good as I remember it. Few know about this game, so click the link above to get the deets on it. But don’t tell anyone because that’s the first and second rule of our little club.
Back on Friday Google celebrated Sigmund Freud’s birthday by making a doodle of him and slapping it their homepage as they normally do for iconic names throughout history. And whenever I looked at the doodle, I saw this:
Back before their breakup, I loved listening to Blink 182, but weirdly enough I never bought any of their albums. I referred to these types of banks like Blink as “radio bands” -- bands with songs I love to listen to on the radio, but not enough for me to buy an album. The same can be said for Sublime, along with a few others.
Back last year in early 2015 I was surprised to hear the news that Mark and Travis booted Tom out of the band. That was kind of surreal for me because this meant there is only one original member of the band that’s left. While it is a bummer that Tom is now out of the group, I don’t really feel too bad as he seemed to be the one blocking the group from making another new album (based on what Travis said during a radio interview). On top of that, Tom apparently phoned in his part while they made their 2011 comeback album, Neighborhoods (which I noticed right away as that album was NOT good at all).
Last week is when the group dropped their first single of their new album California, which I feel is a perfect name to an album from a band that started in the golden state. To me it’s a sign that they are looking back and seeing what made Blink, Blink. And to show that, the first single titled “Bored To Death” reflects this well by having the song sound like something that could have came out from them around 15 years ago. Mark does a great job with the lyrics and Travis does what he does best by banging on the drums and giving the track a fast, high energy feel. Then add in what Matt Skiba is doing with the guitar and adding harmony vocals to the song and you have something that Blink fans should love to hear again and again.
Sure, the song is serious and that is what Blink is half known for, but the other is their dumb, ridiculous side that gives songs goofy titles or lyrics to a track. Well, to contrast “Bored To Death,” they also released another song from California called “Built This Pool.” I don’t want to spoil it, so listed to it with your own ears to see what I mean. ;-)
All of this Blink news had me go back and research how the band was like back in the ‘90s when they were still relatively unknown back during their Cheshire Cat days. There’s a photo of them playing in Corona, CA at the Showcase Theater, a small venue where bands both big and small played for many years until it got shut down in 2008. In it you can see the scene was bursting with punk vibes and looked like fun time to be in the club listening to them rock out. But in examining the photo I noticed something interesting. Let’s zoom in on what I’m talking about.
Holy crap! That’s a cup from Del Taco! Don’t know whose drink it is, but seeing that it’s near Mark I’d have to assume it’s his. If that’s the case, then the dude has good taste in food as well, adding some bonus points for himself.
Everything appears to be lining up for this to be a great album as it harkens back to their old stuff, has the familiar two faced appearance to their song crafting, a feel good album name, and is going to drop on July 1, 2016 -- the 182nd day of the year. Clever.
It’s an unknown game to most, but Trap Gunner has to be one of my favorite games of all-time -- top 5, in fact. That’s a bold statement to make, I know, but ever since I played its demo shortly before its release, I knew I had to snag a copy of it before it disappeared from store shelves because of its obscurity from being mentioned by the gaming press. Boy, this is sounding very hipster-ish for liking something that’s obscure, but if liking Trap Gunner sounds that way, then you can call me the biggest hipster doofus of them all.
I noticed a few weeks back there was a spike in activity from Europe where all of my Guilty Gear related pages were hit. What news came from the series that caused that spike in activity? Did a popular gaming podcast give a heads-up on some important GG info? I checked around and didn’t see anything to cause this surge in page hits, but it’s cool regardless of the reason, but I am curious to know the source of it, though.
A tradition lasting for about a year straight, I would always make a lunch that was so tasty, so good, but eventually had to stop due to some problems. I present to you: homemade french fries and meatballs.
Well, the image above just shows the french fries, but that’s the only thing I have to prepare for the meal as the meatballs -- being turkey meatballs -- are the type you find in the frozen aisle of a supermarket and only need to microwave them when you’re ready to eat.
I found the recipe for the french fries years ago on YouTube, but I can’t for the life of me find the original video. Maybe she took it down? Anyways, it’s delicious and takes a minimal amount of effort to make them. I start off with a raw butt potato, and the end results are the tasty fries you see in the image above. As you can see, I’m still getting used to this oven as it appears to work way better than the oven at the previous place where I lived as that one took forever to cook with. The special ingredient for these fries are adding a good helping of Lawry’s seasoning salt, which give the fries a mild kick and masks the starch taste of what potatoes have.
I had to stop making this meal because we were constantly buying those frozen pizzas at Costco where no pan is needed: just slap the pie on the oven rack and you’re good to go. The problem was that the oven was never cleaned when we were done. Meaning, the next time we (I) would use it, all of the cheese and meats that fell off the pizza would burn and create enough smoke to where it was always setting off the smoke alarms, and once that happened it was difficult to get the smoke out, so I was always waving off the smoke away from the detectors during cooking and for a while post cooking.
But now that this oven is sparkling clean, I can start making this meal again. Here are the end results:
Yummers! I love dunking the meatballs and fries into ketchup. It’s the best ingredient for items like these as it brings in sweetness to these salty tasting dishes. I’m not going to say this is a healthy meal, per say, but one that is a healthier alternative as the meatballs are turkey as opposed to traditional ground beef, and the french fries are baked in the oven as opposed to being deep fried.
I’m planning to keep this as a weekly tradition for lunch for the foreseeable future, so whenever it’s Wednesday, know that I’ll be chowing down on this wonderful little slice of heaven.
It was a rough middle patch, but I’m beginning to like Dimension W. The first episode started off well, but the couple of episodes after that was starting to get annoying as it was focusing attention less on the main guy Kyouma, with his awesome ninja-like skills, and was focusing more on his partner Mira, a mysterious lady robot.
What I didn’t like about it was the fact that it was getting too moe for my taste. It seemed like some of the story was just focusing on her so she could keep making confused looks, staring at the camera, and wiggling her robot rabbit ears up and down. No thank you!
The story is now picking up speed, turning attention back to Kyouma, and drawing on his past about why he doesn’t trust the -- almost mandatory -- technology called coils. I think we’re around the mid-point of the season, so here’s hoping the remaining episodes are a solid bunch.
As a companion piece for the UEP Systems feature, I uploaded the soundtrack to Rising ZAN. It’s an awesome OST that has some great electronic tracks in it. These were recorded from the game itself running on a PS2. This was my first time recording a game soundtrack and I learned a lot. But enough jibber jabber, just listen!
