Neural Fraud

Well, since when did popcorn suddenly start costing $7 per bag? This better be some good goddamn popcorn! And soda! In a society where $5 can get you a six pack of cheap beer how the hell did we end up paying ** FIVE AMERICAN DOLLARS ** for 64 ounces of Coca-Cola .. In fact.. No, not even 64 ounces. When you take into account the massive displacement of the ridiculous amount of ICE they fill your cup with, you probably get 28 ounces of soda!

Of course, you know it, I'm talking about the movie theaters!

My wife and I spent $25 last night -- on a movie. It's my fault for being dumb enough to go to these places, but I don't think I ever recall seeing prices this ridiculous. It has been at least 6 months since I last went out to see a movie, and I can honestly say, the prices have skyrocketed. It's bloody fucking murder and these places get away with it.

How is this any different from price gouging hurricane victims an extra 150% on a pack of batteries? The retailers know the products are in high demand therefore they raise the prices to take advantage of that, of course, people know they need the stuff so they'll still buy it either way.

Movie theaters know people can't just sit there sucking their thumbs for 2 hours, so they offer refreshments -- if you'll call them that...

The problem is, this is the very same process! They know you want to eat and or drink something, and they know that there are a lot of people coming through the doors and they milk their customers for every cent their parents are worth!

Large Popcorn: $6.50
Nachos: $5.50
Large Soda: $6

We got a medium drink -- no ice, a box of rasinette's and a box of sno-caps and the fucking total was 10 dollars. That is approximately $3 per candy and $4 for a medium drink.

Where does the price gouging law draw the line? Convenience? Convenience stores are already more expensive than grocery stores or mega marts, and when a crisis appears, god forbid they raise prices! Oh my god that would be terrible... but Carmike Cinemas can charge 700% gross-profit on everything and get away with it?

The fact is, Movies have gotten too big budget and the only way for these places to make any money is to fuck you up the ass at the refreshment stand and it's absolutely pathetic how much we'll pay for the luxury of having disgusting and unhealthy shit streaming into our throats for 2 hours while we sit in these uncomfortable stiff auditorium seats and stare at a movie screen that's not even fucking straight and watch trailers and commercials for 20 minutes.

I can't stand it anymore.

Has anyone around here taken notice to the "new" online magazine which focuses on the "User Experience" aspect of web design and development? Well it seemed like a really good project, and some of the articles were worth the read, but lately, as I occasionally check up on the site, the same thing always shows up to disappoint me - NOTHING NEW.

WTF? IT's been 2 bloody months since anything signifigant and the featured article has been on the front page since the site's inception.. Not a great way to launch a magazine...

And here I am getting excited over something geeky like this only to have my hopes and dreams crushed by the cruel hammer of apathy.. Seriously WTF happened over there? Did everyone just die? Did they stop giving a shit? What about the contributed articles? Nothing!

Ever plan to visit Sarasota? You know - where all these supposedly famous people come to retire and DIE... Well don't eat at DaRuMa - a trendy Japanese Restaurant in trendy ass Sarasota Quay. What a misake. First of all, I reserved 15 seats for my wedding party - I asked if they had any sort of private seating areas.. why? Well, back in New York - in Schenectady -- where I am from, there is a very nice Japanese restaurant there - Hiro's. This place makes you feel like you've just landed in the Japanese countryside and wandered in a nice restaurant, with the exception of the tableside cooking, I'm not Japanese so how do I know they do all this fancy shmancy shit over there? Hmmm..

Either way, the tables are all separated in a nice area, there is no foot room since the seating area is all tatami mats - therefore they require you to remove your shoes. You sit cross-legged and there is just enough room and its enjoyable.

Not here. Not in Sarasota. No - People are too goddamn UPSCALE for anything like THAT.. The "Tatami" section was in fact nothing more than a cheap imitation and with no privacy whatsoever. What is the world coming to? Not only this, but the cooks aren't even Japanese. WTF? Do you go to a mexican restaurant to get served by white motherfuckers? white people can't make mexican food because white people aren't fucking mexican, just like these imposters aren't Japanese. WTF is the point of going to an EXPENSIVE restaurant to have some fat american guy cook for you? The whole thing that makes it Japanese is the experience of having an authentic, trained Japanese cook do the magic.

Oh well, I guess it's too much to ask for authenticity in a city like this.. My bad, yo.

If this wasn't annoying enough, We could not even order a regular sushi order.. Why is this? Are we in some kind of special zone that makes it that much more difficult to get sushi to? No. The fucking sushi bar was 12 feet away. Any other restuarant I can go sit at a teppan-yaki booth, and order sushi until my stomach explodes. Not at DaRuMa.. No - they have a LIMITED SELECTION - and some of it is as vageuly worded as a software patent.. For example - one of the items was simply called "Sushi - $8.95"

What? Rice? I get fucking rice for nine bucks???? are you kidding me?

"Hey - can I get a sushi menu?"

"Uhh, Normally we can't order sushi over here"

"Well why not?"

"It takes time to make"

"So?"

"Well" .. stops, looks at the fact that there are 15 fucking people infront of him .. "I can do this for you, but what ever you order from the regular sushi menu has to be charged under this item here -- It's more expensive but you usually get a little more sushi too."

WTF? So because I'm sitting in a fucking booth not only can I not order sushi from the sushi menu, I have to pay nearly DOUBLE for the privelege? And my order of spicy tuna looked normal to me, 8 peices - or ONE ROLL. NINE DOLLARS FOR ONE ORDER OF SUSHI.

To be comparitive, I can go into ANY OTHER Japanese restaurant in sarasota/bradenton and order teh same thing for $4 to $5 TOPS.

There is NOTHING about this restaurant that makes it special other than the fact that it is in a trendy spot of town .. BFD.

If I go to a fancy restuarant I expect FANCY RESULTS, not bullshit, fat american cooks, and ripoff sushi prices simply because we're not sitting in a normal table.. Fucking sushi chef too lazy to work? Well fuck him, He could have gotten a nice tip.

I've been to many other Japanese restaurants in Sarasota/Bradenton, and I honestly cannot explain WHY - of all the better options around me, that I decided to waste not only my precious money, but everyone elses at this disgrace of a restaurant..

For your reading enjoyment - here is a list of much better japanese restaurants:

Utamaro - St Armands Circle - not as expensive as DaRuMa - certainly in a more upscale area though. Very nice experience and delicious noodles.

Hana Japanese Steakhouse - right in the middle of town, good food, japanese cooks, excellent sushi ,, all around good, decent prices too.

Saga Japanese Steakhouse - South sarasota, the traditional seating area is good, but the tableside cooking area sucks, you sit on regular shitty old chairs.. kills the experience, however the food is great.

Sam Oh Jung - Korean joint but the owner makes fantastic sushi, and it is the least expensive place to get sushi. Very nice sushi bar, family run, very casual atmosphere.

There are more but I haven't gone to those places yet.

Moral of the story is - You get what you pay for.. oh, wait, no you don't - not in Sarasota anyway.. noo. The more expensive it is, the lousier the quality, go figure. Damn I'm pissed off. ARG!#

This goddamn "American Family Restaurant" bullshit has pissed me of way too much, and I've finally lost my grip on the whole fucking thing. I think I'm going to just go insane..

Why do these poor quality 3rd rate "American" restaurants feel the need to throw roughly .5 million dollars of worthless, ugly, cluttery decorations all over the place, scattered in a hideously disorganized manner? Do you ever ask anyone on the street "Hey, What do you like about Applebee's?" Do they ever say "The Decorations!!"? OF COURSE THEY BLOODY DON'T.

If all of these stupid ass shitholes stopped spending so much money on worthless decor and -- I don't know, MAYBE started spending it on educated kitchen and bar staff, then who knows, MAYBE you could get a decent steak and a drink that's PROPERLY MADE. Hell, even the damned menu has a picture of a well-done steak on the front of it.. Anybody who LIKES steak NEVER orders it well-done.. What kind of idiocy is this?

Is it really too much to ask for? Why should I have to go to a specialty restaurant just to get a steak and a cocktail that's properly made?

Now, All of these restaurants are all alike, some being slightly worse than others of course, but for the sake of storytelling, I will stick to my recent (and last) experience at my neighborhood Applebee's restaurant.

They ACTUALLY have a drink - an "Applebee's Martini" with Vodka, Vermouth and Olives .. only the olives are stuffed with bloody Slim Jim pieces!!! Of all the white trash shit in the world, Slim Jim olives? WTF is wrong with America?

Aside from that, they have sissy ass mixer drinks which are sweet enough to cause diabetes on the first sip - Drinks are supposed to taste like alcohol, NOT high fructose corn syrup and citric acid.

My nightmare began when I attempted to order a "traditional" martini - that is, one made with gin, and for Christ's sake, a NORMAL olive. - Everybody knows how to make a bloody martini, right? Not this restaurant! no way!

You know what I got? Gin on the rocks in a highball glass. Where were the olives? SITTING ON TOP OF THE FUCKING ICE!!

Well, normally I like my drinks a little on the "balanced side" as pure gin does have a tendency to taste like, oh I don't know, SOAP... But this was outright dumbassery. What kind of brain dead mindfucked zombie was behind this grotesquery of a drink? Noone who deserved to be, that's for sure.

After a minute or so, the very special waiter came back to check up on us, and I said to him "This isn't a martini, what is it? This is gin on the rocks with an olive on top"

"Sorry sir, how should we make it then?"

"First of all, in a MARTINI GLASS, mix about 1 part vermouth with oh say 3 parts of gin. Put the olive in the glass and pour the mixture over the olive, stir and serve"

That's what SHOULD have happened.. but here is what actually happened.

The dumb ass says to me... "That's a martini. This is how we make them here"

9842890238DSJFIOJSKFJASKLF THIS IS NOT A FUCKING MARTINI.. GOD I WISH I COULD KILL PEOPLE AT WILL.. DF3@$dgfdsgdf

I'm just speechless at this point, I just wanted to jump out of my seat and attack this fat ass with my table knife.. I was so pissed off that I couldn't even remember the rest of my dining experience, or what I ordered for that matter, but I do remember not tasting much of anything..

We spent $30 on lunch, thirty goddamn dollars. PLUS tip.

Of course, I could always rant about my recent experience at Sarasota's hippest Japanese restaurant.. What a fucking shame that was..