Places I’d Like To Go

I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about places I’d like to go.  Some of them would be vacations, some day trips, and some are just places to eat.  Here’s a list of some of those places, in no particular order.

• Dollywood: This is the first time in several years that I haven’t bought a Dollywood pass.  My friends that I usually go to Dollywood with all decided not to get passes this year, and I don’t want to buy one unless I know I can make at least 2 trips to pay for it.

• Bonanza: The nearest Bonanza restaurant to where I live is close to an hour away, but we used to take regular trips there to eat.  It’s been too long since we’ve been.

• Myrtle Beach: My family used to take a vacation to Myrtle Beach every summer, but I haven’t been to the beach (Myrtle or any other) since the mid 90s.  I’m still sad that the Pavilion and the associated amusement park were torn down a couple of years ago.

• Cherokee, NC: This is a beautiful part of the country, and the scenery between here and there is awesome.  The area is rich in history, and it is a very interesting place to visit.  The Native Americans there allow you to play many fun games that they have prepared for you.  Sometimes they are so grateful that they even give you money.

• Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH) and Busch Gardens (Williamsburgh, VA): Of the amusement parks I’ve never visited, these are the top 2 on my list.

• Branson, Mo: Branson sounds like an interesting place to visit, and from what I’ve heard about it, it reminds me a lot of the Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg area of Tennessee.  I’d be particularly interested in visiting Silver Dollar City, which is the sister park to Dollywood.

• Atlantic City, NJ: I’d love to go to Las Vegas, but I don’t like to fly, and it’s really too long of a drive.  I figure Atlantic City is the next closest thing to Vegas.

There you have it!  I don’t get to travel as much as I’d like, so I’m not sure if I’ll get to any of these places any time soon.  At least I can enjoy thinking about it!

The First Bi-Annual Bristol Nascar Jellybean Challenge

While shopping for snacks to take to the Food City 500, my friend Chris and I decided to get some assorted Jelly Belly jellybeans.  I don’t eat many jellybeans and I generally don’t like them, but Jelly Bellys are good.  The different flavors actually taste like they’re supposed to, instead of all tasting the same like cheapo brands of jellybeans do.

Food City sells their Jelly Bellys by the pound (yes, we appropriately bought our snacks for the Food City 500 at Food City).  Apparently we went overboard in judging how many jellybeans to put in the bag, as it wound up costing $10.

I thought of an idea to use the jellybeans in a sort of Fantasy Nascar contest.  Chris and I would each pick two jellybeans out of the bag, and we’d pick cars that were the same color as the jellybeans.  Whoever picked the highest finishing car would win the contest.  The winner would have a choice of prizes – they would either get all of the remaining jellybeans, or they could force the loser to eat all of the remaining jellybeans before we got back to Kingsport.

I picked the first jellybean, and it was solid red.  I chose Tony Stewart as my driver, as his Office Depot car is mostly red.  Chris selected next and got a yellow bean.  He chose Clint Bowyer, not realizing that Bowyer’s paint scheme was only about 30% yellow.  The second bean I picked was yellow, and I picked Jeff Burton, who is driving the Caterpillar car this season.  Chris got a red bean with his second pick, and he made the surprising pick of Juan Montoya!

Just after the green flag flew is when the controversy began.  Chris noticed that the primary color of Bowyer’s car wasn’t yellow, and he tried to change his pick to Mark Martin.  I contended that you can’t change your pick after the race starts, while Chris said that wasn’t specified beforehand.

You can probably guess what happened.  Burton finished one spot ahead of Montoya, so I think I won.  But Martin finished ahead of both of them, and Chris says he won because he changed his pick to Martin.

Although the First Bi-Annual Bristol Nascar Jellybean Challenge ended in controversy, there were no hard feelings.  I intended to give the remaining jellybeans to Chris’ daughters, but I forgot and took them home.  So, I ate some of them, but I’m going to take the rest of them and give them to Chris.

What Have I Been Up To?

As usual, not much has changed in my life since my last post.  However, I thought I’d post a quick update on what I’ve been up to lately.

One thing I’ve noticed lately is that I have an overwhelming urge to buy some kind of new tech gadget.   That happens from time to time.  I’ve looked at the IPod Touch, new monitors, the Amazon Kindle, Blackberries, and Touch Screen PCs, to name a few.  So far, I’ve come to the conclusion that these items are very cool, but I don’t need them.  For the sake of my wallet, I hope my willpower holds out.

When it comes to gaming, I’ve recently completed both Fallout 3 and Fable 2 on the XBOX 360.  I’ve also been playing WWE vs. Smackdown 2009, and I finally got around to starting Mass Effect (I didn’t have a 360 when it came out).  I was disappointed that MLB 09: The Show, which is getting excellent reviews, is a PS3 exclusive.  Meanwhile, Major League Baseball 2K9, which is available for the XBOX 360, is getting horrible reviews.

I haven’t seen many movies lately, but I did watch Lady in the Water for the first time, and liked it.  I’ve also been spending a lot of time the past few days starting to catch up on TV shows I’ve gotten behind on.  As in, several seasons behind.

If you live in Kingsport and like japanese food, I’d recommend you try Tomoko, which recently opened in the old Wendy’s building in front of K-Mart.  I’ve also become a fan of Chili’s recently (even though they fired their best waitress).  Their Buffalo Chicken Fajitas are outstanding.  Of course, China Wok remians my favorite Chinese buffet, and I eat at Chik-Fil-A often as well.

I’ll try to post some detailed reviews soon of the games, movies, and restaurants I mentioned in this post.  Hopefully, my series where I rank the episodes of each season of the Andy Griffith Show will make its much-anticipated (?) return as well.

Favorites of 2008 – Additional Details

Over the past few days, I’ve posted my version of  year-end awards in the form of “Brent’s Favorites of 2008″.  I wanted to share some additional comments about some of my choices.

Restaurant (National Chain): Cheddar’s

The food and service are usually excellent at Cheddar’s, but what really sets it apart is that the prices are less expensive than other similar restaurants.

Restaurant (Fast Food):  Chick-Fil-A

I usually eat lunch at Chick-Fil-A 3 or 4 times a week, so that pretty much made it a shoo-in for my favorite fast food restaurant of the year.  The reason I eat there so much is that I discovered many of their menu items contain significantly less fat than other fast food places.

Restaurant (Local): China Wok

China Wok doesn’t have the biggest buffet among Chinese restaurants in the area by a long shot, but the food is so much better that it’s a great example of quality over quantity.  That’s not to say that there isn’t a good selection, because they still pack a lot of variety into their buffet.

Video Game: MLB Power Pros 2008 (PS2)

It might seem a little surprising that I picked a PS2 game as my favorite video game of the year, but I have PC games as a separate category, and I just bought my XBOX 360 a few weeks ago.  MLB Power Pros 2008 is a game that I would have dismissed without a second thought if not for the great reviews I read about it.  The players have a very cartoonish look, similar to the Miis on the Wii.  The player creation system plays out like a minauture Role Playing Game.  But, if you get into it, you’ll find that it plays a much better game of baseball than most “serious” baseball games.

PC Game: TrackMania Nations Forever

It wasn’t until I picked TrackMania Nations Forever as my favorite PC game of the year that I realized I must not have played many PC games that made a lasting impression on me during 2008.  That’s because I didn’t start playing TrackMania until the last week of 2008, yet I already thought it was better than any other PC game I could remember playing during the year.

TrackMania Nations Forever is a free racing game that is loads of fun.  The graphics are sharp and the gameplay is outstanding, and I understand that it will run well even on lower-end PCs.  It includes around 65 tracks, but there is also a track editor, and when you play online, if you choose a server that is using tracks you don’t have, the game will automatically download them for you.  There are also websites where you can download additionl tracks and car models.  I’ve read that there are literally thousands of user-made tracks available.  And yes, all of this is free.

For $40, you can upgrade to TrackMania United Forever, which adds 6 additional racing environments and vehicle types.  I’ll probably do that soon, because the amount of content available for the free version of the game is nearly infinite, with more coming every day, and I figure $40 for “nearly infinite” times 6 is a pretty good deal.

Card Game: Rage

I’ve only played Rage once, but that’s as long as it took for it to become my favorite card game.  The basic rules are similar to Rook or Spades where you make a bid on how many points or tricks you think you’ll win, and then try to win tricks by playing the highest card.  Rage includes some special cards that spice up gameplay, however, such as cards that allow you to change the trump color in the middle of a hand,  eliminate trumps altogether, or cause whoever wins the trick to lose 5 points from their total score.  I just hope I get to play it again, because it got very mixed reviews from my friends.

Board Game: Scattergories

I didn’t actually play Scattergories very much in 2008, but when I think about all of the board games I like, Scattergories is still my favorite after all of these years.  Some readers might be shocked that I didn’t pick Sorry or Oh What a Mountain!

Website: Facebook.com

I seem to spend as much time on Facebook as I do on all other websites combined, so it must be my favorite.

Favorites of 2008 – Part 2

After I posted my Favorites of 2008 list a couple of days ago, I thought of several more categories I should have included. In particular, I failed to include any musical categories in my list. Also, Rich posted some additional categories he’d like to hear my opinion on. So, here are my Favorites of 2008 – Part 2!

Brent’s Favorites of 2008 – Part 2

• Band/Singer: Freezepop
• New Band/Singer that I discovered this year: Bat for Lashes
• Album: Future Future Future Perfect (Freezepop)
• Radio Station: WVEK FM 102.7 (Tri-Cities Classic Hits)
• TV Station: Sci Fi
• Laundry Detergent: Abraxo
• Kool Aid Flavor: Didn’t drink any
• Gatorade Flavor: G2 Fruit Punch
• Toilet Paper: Whatever is on the roll
• Leather or Pleather: Pleather

Most Disappointing of 2008

As a follow up on my “Favorites of 2008″ post, I thought I’d do a “Most Disappointing of 2008″ list as well. I know that I sometimes enjoy reading “Worst Of” lists more than “Best Of” lists, because they’re usually more interesting. Again, these are just my opinions – nobody else got to vote!

Brent’s Most Disappointing of 2008

• Restaurant: Taco Bell
• Movie: Deathproof (Might be from an earlier year, but I didn’t watch it until this year)
• T.V. Show: The Price is Right (with Drew Carey as host)
• PC Game: Warhammer Online
• Website: WarhammerOnline.com (For the complete lack of Official forums or message boards)
• Sporting Event: Brickyard 400 (Cautions every 10 laps due to tire problems)
• Sports Team (Pro): Atlanta Braves (For not coming close to making the playoffs)
• Sports Team (College): University of Tennessee Volunteers Football (Poor record, not Bowl Eligible)

If you can think of any other categories you’d like to know my opinion of, post them in the comments!

I’d also like to note that I plan to discuss some of my picks for Favorites and Most Disappointing in more detail in my upcoming posts.

Favorites of 2008

As many other websites do, I thought I’d do a sort of year-end awards on my blog. Of course, these are just my opinion. Nobody else got to vote on these, so that’s why I’m calling them my “favorites” instead of “awards”.

Brent’s Favorites of 2008

• Restaurant (National Chain): Cheddar’s
• Restaurant (Fast Food): Chik-Fil-A
• Restaurant (Local): China Wok
• Movie: The Mist
• T.V. Show: Ghost Hunters
• Video Game: MLB Power Pros 2008 (PS2!)
• PC Game: TrackMania Nations Forever
• Card Game: Rage
• Board Game: Scattergories
• Grocery Store: Food City
• General Merchandise Store: Target
• Electronics Store: Circuit City
• News Source: Kingsport Times-News
• Website: Facebook.com
• Sporting Event: Super Bowl
• Sports Team (Pro): Tennessee Titans
• Sports Team (College): University of Tennessee Volunteers (Football)
• Athlete (Pro): Peyton Manning (QB, Indianapolis Colts)
• Athlete (College): Eric Berry (DB, UT)
• Pro Wrestler: Chris Jericho
• Amusement Park: Dollywood

If you can think of any other categories you’d like to know my opinion of, let me know in the comments!

I’m Still Here!

Hi everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I haven’t abandoned my blog!  It seems like every time in my life that I’ve tried to become a regular contributor to a website, whether it be my own or someone else’s, I wind up apologizing over and over again for not posting regularly.  Then I’ll get back on track and post regularly for a while, but then the next thing I know I’ve let a month pass without posting.  I’m once again going to try to recommit myself to posting on my blog on a regular basis.  I’m going to try to post at least once a week from now on, and more often if possible.

One thing I plan to do is to resume a couple of recurring series that I had running on my blog a few months ago.  One of those is my Andy Griffith Show episode rankings.  I got through the first four seasons of the show, and I hope to rank the remaining seasons soon.  Another series that I want to resume is my Dollywood series.  I made a few posts about Dollywood, but I have a lot more that I want to post.

I’ve also made a few movie and restaurant reviews over the past few months, and I want to try to do more of that as well.  I’ve going to try my best to post a review every time I watch a movie.

Of course, I’m not going to limit myself to the topics above.  Expect to see a wide variety of things discussed as I get back into blogging on a regular basis.

And finally, thanks for reading!

Trip To Indy – Update

As you might have noticed, I wasn’t able to blog during my trip to Indianapolis like I’d hoped.  I had problems with my laptop, and I didn’t get it working until a few hours before we left for home.  I’ll post about our experiences from the trip in the coming days.

Trip to Indianapolis

This weekend, I’ll be going to Indianapolis to watch the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard Sprint Cup Race.  I’m not sure yet if I’ll have Internet access during the trip, but if I do, I’ll try to post a trip journal here on my blog.