My Review of Atlanta

My wife, dog, and I took a trip to Atlanta this past weekend. All it took me was one weekend to understand the city of Atlanta completely.

Before arriving, I needed to find a hotel. We wanted something close to the stadium, but since the dog was coming, needed something pet friendly. Hotwire had a deal on a 4-Star hotel less than two miles from the ballpark that was pet friendly. That sounded perfect, so I booked it and found out it was the downtown Sheraton. I went to their website, and found that although they are pet friendly, it is only for dogs up to 40 pounds, which is about 20-25 pounds too light for my pup. Also, they make you pay $100 deposit, and you only get $65 back. That is not pet friendly; that is pet exploitation. They are basically just trying to wring $35 out of you with no extra work on their end of things.

I was not having any of that, so after our 6.5 hour drive to get there, I snuck in my dog through the backdoor after I checked in and continued to sneak her in and out through the back doors of the place, so I didn't have to answer any questions from that nosey front desk.

But this hotel drama was far from over, as this supposed 4-Star hotel does not have free WiFi. They were trying to charge like $9 a day to use internet. What kind of hotel charges for internet in this day and age? I have stayed in some absolute shitholes, but even those would at least give you free WiFi. Don't stay at the downtown Sheraton. It sucks.

Saturday was a day of exploration in order to obtain food and wear out the dog. The morning was uneventful, but business picked up in the afternoon. We went to Cook Out for lunch on Saturday, because it delivers a lot of food for very little money. I got walking directions from Google, and luckily Google knew of a shortcut that would save us three walking minutes. I live my life with the motto of, IGWT, In Google We Trust, so I had no issues following Google's directions. Did the neighborhoods that we walked through get sketchier and sketchier? Did we most likely walk by a drug dealing operation? Yes, that seems quite likely. Was my wife happy about Google's directions? Honestly, she wasn't. She wasn't too pleased with me at all. We took the long way back home, and honestly, when you're not walking around in fear of being murdered, the walk does seem quicker.

But maybe the most disappointing part of that story is that Cook Out was not nearly as good as I remembered it. The caramel cheesecake shake delivered, but the burger, nuggets, and fries left a lot to be desired.

That night, we went to the Braves/Cardinals game, as it was the main reason for our trip. The old lady used to work for a Cardinals affiliate, so she knows a lot of the players. I am a lifelong Cubs fan, so I could give a shit about the Cardinals, but whatever, I figured I could root, root, root for the home team.

This plan would have worked, but Atlanta got rain that just would not quit the entire night, and the game got postponed, so we would not be seeing a baseball game on our 13-hour round trip drive to go see a baseball game. But hey, that's the way it goes sometimes.

And had the game not been cancelled, I would not have seen what I assume is the most Atlanta thing possible. While driving back to the hotel around 10:00 PM, I saw two pitbulls trotting down a busy street. I thought there owner would be following closely behind, but nope. There were just two pitbulls trotting down the street in the middle of downtown Atlanta. They just took up the far left lane on a one way and looked like they knew where they were headed. I would have adopted those pups, but they were so badass that it would have made more sense for them to adopt me.

Our trip ended with a dinner with friends, and then breakfast with another friend the following morning. They were both very pleasant experiences but unless I want to reveal secrets about the persons at these meals, they were rather uneventful.

So what is my overall review of Atlanta? If you like Waffle Houses, drug deals, and pitbulls running the streets, then Atlanta is the place for you. Personally, I'll take the tamer streets of Clearwater, where the only real concern is Hulk Hogan's racism getting totally out of control.

Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura is Awesome

Flipping through channels can be one of the most depressing endeavors a human has to undertake.  Sometimes, you will find yourself searching fruitlessly for anything that has a semblance of entertainment value.  To speed up the process, you will skip certain channels as you know they never have anything even halfway decent on.  This used to be the way I treated TruTV.  It seemed like they had somehow made a channel out of "World's Most Shocking" Police Chases, Animal Attacks, Bungee Jumps, etc.  That is not something that will ever make me stop the surfing for more than 30 seconds.  But I was flipping through one day, and I saw something that surprised me.  It was former governor, Navy SEAL, and professional wrestler, Jesse "The Body" Ventura.  Yes, he tried to be known as "The Mind" later on, but after watching Conspiracy Theory, you will know that he did not earn that name.

The premise of this show is that Jesse Ventura investigates a conspiracy theory (hence the title of the show).  By himself, Jesse probably wouldn't have the abilities to expose these problems with the government, but he assembled a team that gives him the edge that he needs.  The government underestimated Ventura's ability to create an All-Star team of helpers, and that will be their fatal mistake.  My favorite member of his team is a black woman with an accent whose sole purpose is to use Google Maps.  She helps them track anything the government might be hiding.

The key to this show is not his team though, it's definitely Ventura, and the fact that he believes EVERYTHING he hears.  The other great thing is that he also believes everything that he doesn't hear.  Here is a conversation you could expect to hear on Conspiracy Theory:

Random Guy:  And that's why I have worries about our government.
Jesse Ventura:  So the government is trying to kill us?
Random Guy:  I didn't say that.
Jesse Ventura:  You didn't have to.

This is when he breaks into a narration telling you how the fat cats in Washington want to make as much money as possible from special interest groups while your children die.  But Jesse doesn't want to let that happen.

When Jesse speaks with people, he speaks with the most indecisive people on the planet when they say that there is nothing to be afraid of.  How could anyone trust these indecisive scumbags?  Jesse Ventura sure as hell doesn't.  He then talks to well-dressed, confident people who believe in the conspiracy.  Jesse believes every word they tell him, because they are confident.  The only problem with this is that these people are batshit crazy.  That doesn't concern Jesse, because he already knows the government is trying to fuck him in every imaginable way.

The other brilliant thing that happens in every episode is that there are official looking people trying to stop him.  It'll either be people in suits telling him he needs to leave or police officers making sure he doesn't find the truth.  At least that's what he would want you to believe.  In the "Coming Up on Conspiracy Theory" montages that they show before going to commercials, they showed police officers surrounding Jesse Ventura in the Denver airport multiple times.  When they finally got to the scene, they reasonably just told him that his conspiracy was crazy talk, and then probably asked for autographs and took pictures with him on their camera phone.

But Jesse knows that things are never that simple.  Were those regular cameras on the phones, or were these police officers trying to take a picture of Jesse's soul?

Find out on the next episode of Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura.

-Joe

P.S.  You can find the episodes on YouTube...at least until the government finds out about it.

P.P.S.  Here's a video of Danny Woodhead trying to sell Danny Woodhead jerseys: