Red Lobster & gluttony

Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster may seem like a good idea when you see the commercials on TV, but when all is said and done it is ultimately a grave mistake. Restaurants like Chili's and Red Lobster are one of my guilty pleasures, I hate that they are big corporately run chains and that they hurt local economies but boy do I love their cheese biscuits.

Today was a pretty successful day for me so when I got text message from a friend seeing if I wanted to eat at Red Lobster tonight I decided it would be a nice way to celebrate. The day finished and by eight I found myself seated at the location of S. Lamar. Myself, and three other friends, decided to order the limited time only endless shrimp. After enjoying a salad and some biscuits the waitress arrived. We each had our own little army of dead shrimp looking up at us.

Three hours and around 100 shrimp later I found myself here on my bed clutching my stomach hoping the pain will end soon. In all seriousness though the shrimp tasted fantastic. Each time we ordered more we got to choose from teriyaki, cajun, coconut, garlic, and hand battered. I tried all but hand battered and was, at the time, happy with my decision to spend the $15 on the special.

Do I regret my decison? Yes. Would I do it again? In a heart beat. What can i say, I'm a glutton for...well...gluttony.

Another sweaty house show

A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I went and saw one of our favorite bands play at a dirty sweaty house show, this weekend we went and saw one of our favorite friends play with his new band at a dirty sweaty house show.

My friend Justin was the first friend I made here in Austin and the dude is awesome. He’s a really great friend so when he invited us to come see his new band at a house show we where onboard. Cut to Saturday night as we walk up to a house a few blocks south of campus and are greeted by some acquaintances that I knew from school.

One of them, who I had had a couple of classes with last year, was really excited to see us and told us that it was some guy’s birthday and the party was western themed. I thought that was strange seeing as he was wearing nothing but a few plastic grocery bags and some duct tape…but I went a long with it.

We hung around in the house for a while and chatted with some friends until it was time for the band to play. The music was pretty good; in fact I was surprised by how well they played for it being their first performance. I would go into more detail but this isn’t about the music, it is about something I never thought I would see.

Towards the end of the performance things started getting weird. There was a few guys collecting money for another keg and they where barely clothed. There was the very drunk birthday boy dancing around with nothing but a “Come and Take It” flag wrapped around his waste. And there was someone flinging glow sticks around on strings.

In a matter of seconds all of these things combined into one of the most insane moments of my life. The band started jamming louder and the glow sticks where flying when all of sudden the birthday boy fell on to the ground and exposed himself to us. The band kept playing and the glowsticks kept spinning…but the genitals didn’t move. They just stayed there on display in front of everyone to see for what seemed like minutes. The flashing probably only happened for 3-4 seconds but for those of us in the front row it is an image we will never forget.

Review: Halo ODST's Fire Fight mode

Last week the newest game in the Halo franchise was released for the Xbox 360 and so far gamers are having mixed feelings about the game. Halo: ODST, which was originally just going to be a small downloadble side story, takes players and puts them in the shoes of regular solider instead of the franchise’s main hero Master Chief. The game also includes a new mode called Firefight. I haven’t had to opportunity to play through the main story but I did spend a lot of time playing Firefight.

It is fairly obvious after playing Firefight that the developers of ODST looked to last year’s Gears of War 2 when designing Firefight mode, as it is almost identical to the Horde mode that was included in Gears. Players team up in a certain area and fight off wave after wave of computer-controlled enemies. To succeed the players must work as a team and find the best places to defend and what weapons to use.

Firefight is simple enough to be able to jump right into, but with every wave ads more and more complexity. It is the perfect way to kill half an hour with your roommate/brother/a perfect stranger on the Internet.

More Highland Mall love

I actually wound up at Highland again this afternoon and saw these posters that pretty much summed up why I love the place. It feels like the past.

The Death of a Robot

This semester I'm taking a class on sequential art (comic books) and I had to make a flip book for a project. I opted for the digital option and made this little jewel.

My unnatural love for Highland Mall

Life's rough for Highland Mall. In the last couple years things have been pretty bad, JCPenny is gone...Dillard's is gone...and there really isn't much of a reason to go there.

Even without reason though I love going there, in fact I went this morning. For some reason I love this mall. I think a lot of it has to do with it's age. Walking down past the different store fronts and kiosks you can see that the mall has been there for a while. It has been through a lot. The mall opened in 1971 and was Austin's first suburban shopping mall.

It smells like a mall is suppose to smell. It has elaborate stair cases and escalators that come down on cheesy fountains and shrubberies. The food court isn't cluttered with fast food chains like every other mall but it's instead full of goofy little food places that you've never even heard of. There's even an ice cream shop with a giant fake ice cream sundae on top. Highland is a sad empty piece of history that for some strange reason makes me very happy.

And I don't dislike Barton Creek Square, I just feel like it doesn't have the soul that Highland has. Highland feels like a mall that Zach Morris and the gang would come to, and I love just being there. A lot of analysts are predicting the mall will be demolished sometime in 2010. That's too bad.

Movie Review: Away We Go

I’ve always loved Maya Rudolph but have never really had a reason for doing so. She was alright when she was on Saturday Night Live, and until very recently I never saw her in any films that I liked but thanks to a free screening at the University of Texas I can now say that I have seen her in a great film.

The film is Away We Go and Rudolph stars along side The Office’s John Krasinski. The two play an unmarried and rather quirky couple that is about to have their first child. Early on in the movie they decide to move to a new place and the film follows as they travel the United States and spend time with old friends and relatives as they try and find the perfect place to raise their child. The story is nice, and something different that we don’t often see in movies.

All the acting in the film is lovely, and there is a lot of it. Each person that Krasinski and Rudolph meets or revisits stand out, and some almost seem like too much, but they also all retain something real. They all seem like people that I’ve met or seen in real life. Krasinki rock a beard and some black plastic rim glasses as if to add a little more distance from his usually smirky Jim Halpert like characters, but even with out the visual help he does a great job creating and being this new character. Rudolph blew me away. The rest of the cast could have been played by anyone and Rudolph could still carry this movie. She is sweet, sincere, and beautiful.

Away We Go is something a little bit different, and something very very good.