Micah D.'s Profile

I remember the very first time my step dad took me to a video arcade.  I must have been about six years or seven years old.  It was the early eighties, and I was all about Defender.  Sure, I loved Missile Command.  Ultimately, I remember thinking Pac-man was "kind of dumb" but I never was much for maze games.  I wanted to press buttons, fly spaceships and shoot things.  Oh sure, I had an affair or two, Tron, Donkey Kong, the games with lots of pretty colors and such.  Nothing quite matches the magic of those days for me.  Perhaps it's the misty rose colored filter of childhood nostolgia, but arcades seemed like something different then.  Something magical.  Pitch black havens for the disenfranchised where a quarter was enough to win you fame and glory, provided you had the skills to back it up.

Fast forward some 2 decades later.  Video games have jumped the shark in a lot of ways.  With dedicated consoles, online gaming, and PC gaming,  most people don't leave the house to get their digital freak on.  A person doesn't get good at "video games' They learn the survival skills for FPS, or RTS, or MMORPGs, Sports simulations, Music simulations, fighting games.  And they do it at home, or at a LAN party.  So what's the appeal of a place like Gameworks?

Well you get to hang out with the highly annoying teenage crowd at "The Mills".  But for me it's all about the latest developments in Arcade stand alones.  They have some interesting "immersion" / VR type games, like Sky Pirates (steampunk hot air balloon aerial combat baby!), Afterburner Climax (with a servo equipped cockpit designed with some help from Boeing and Northrop Grumman, you will soon find your ego writing checks your body can't cash, and loving it!), Of course they have the old skool stuff upstairs. But hey, I got plenty of that action 20 years ago.  Or Let's Go Jungle, a dose of safari madness where you and a friend can hop into your utility vehicle and unload on mutant frogs, leeches and lots of other unpleasant things.  The 50" screen, 5.1 surround sound and kick back motors on the guns  help with the fun factor.

So when you get tired of listening to your best friend's girlfriend murdering another REM song on rock band while you hammer out a beat on your flimsy toy drum controller, when you've played with your wii so much that you can't lift the controller anymore, come down to Gameworks and try out some of the new developments in stand alone games.  The arcade is still fun, I promise.  But leave that Dio t-shirt everyone thought was so cool in the bottom of your closet.  Nobody really thought it was cool, we were just being nice.

(See Also Golf Land and Dave and Buster's.)

I like the bread with olive oil and spices.  The food is okay.  I'm spoiled though.  My lady's from a big Italian family.  Once you've had her grandma's cooking, there's really just no going back.  The service is a little slow at times, but they are very accommodating with odd / special requests.  We started with the Mozzarella Fritta, which are as close to mozzarella sticks as you get at the RMG.  Wedges of cheese breaded and fried and served with a red sauce on the side and basil pesto over the top.

For the entree we split the Shrimp Portofino - sauteed shrimp with mushrooms, pine nuts and spinach in a tangy lemon butter sauce with angel hair pasta on the side.  The sauce is all in/on the shrimp spinach side, and we got a side of asiago cheese sauce (closest to alfredo they've got) for the pasta.  It was all pretty tasty and all in all we were happy with the food, the portions and the prices.  Nothing was mind blowingly good, but the Mama's Trio (lasagna, chicken cannelloni and chicken parmesan) looked pretty damn good from across the table.  It looked better than the Tour of Italy thing at Olive Garden, definitely bigger portion wise and I heard it was tasty though I didn't have room to try any.

If you ask, they will bring you garlic butter for dipping your bread in instead of olive oil.  I prefer the olive oil, but if you're feeling indulgent and garlicly, sometimes it's nice to have that option.

I come here for the Produce.  Sprouts is about equidistant from my home, but for whatever reason, the stuff at Sunflowers just jingles my bells.  Yeah they have tons of other good reasons to shop here, but I don't get into it that much.  To be honest, I hate soy cheese.  And tofu pups.  Hell I'm not likely to be seen wearing open toe shoes any time this century.  It's just now how I roll.

Despite my inherent un-hippie-ness, The prices on fruits and veggies here can't be beat and I'll gladly make a special trip here just to load up on "the good stuff"

When it comes to Pet-centric megamarts here in the valley, you have two choices that I know of, PetSmart and Pet Co.  For my money, I tend to find better deals at PetSmart and they carry a better selection of the oddball stuff that I tend to care most about.  

When I was moving into my new place, I was concerned about both the new furniture and the light colored carpet.  I have 2 longhair cats who shed like it's going out of style.  One is black with a reddish undercoat, the other is soft tortie / grey tabbie.  Between the two, we have enough colors to show up badly on any type of furniture or carpet you can imagine.

Employing my internet research superpowers, I discovered the Furminator, which is hands down the BEST shedding tool I have ever seen.  I was able to pick one up at my local Petsmart, along with a bottle of Simple Solution Allergy formula cat cleaner.  And it turns out they even stock the softclaws brand kitty nail caps that I have to keep on my Maine Coone to prevent him from destroying every fabric surface in existence.

Go Team PetSmart!

If I could give it half a star I would.  It's apparently $5 cover for women and $10 for men but we had these "VIP" passes that someone handed us on Mill so we got in for free. (Thank god)  I like that they play Hip Hop on Mill. Score.  I hate the door staff.  I hate the bar staff.  I dislike most of the patrons.  

The layout was fine, except for the fact that it was so crowded it was nearly impossible just to get to the bathroom.  While I was there, 2 complete dumb asses decided to square off for some unknown but obviously unforgivable offense which could only be settled by loud posturing which was obviously meant to escalate into fisticuffs had the bathroom attendant who had to be in his 60s not intervened.  Within moments, bouncer guys with biceps as big as my head were swarming the men's room to take care of "the problem" all in all their little show left me annoyed and bored.

Fast forward, my lady takes a seat while I attempt to bring her a drink.  I manage to elbow my way up to the bar downstairs.  They have 3 bartenders working at this particular station and they all look terribly busy.  I pull some cash out and settle in to wait.  The guy obviously working my section thinks he's god's gift.  He's trying (but failing) to be impressive with some fancy bartending tricks he must have picked up watching that Tom Cruise abomination Cocktail.  The problem was he wasn't really any good at any of it so it was just some sort of lame delay while he tried to serve people drinks.  He noted my presence and must have realized I was out of my element.  Instead of trying to make me feel welcome, he helped everyone in the section, then everyone who came after me making another round of the section and then finally turned to me.  I had to place my order 3 times before frosted tips in a too tight shirt could hear me, and instead of giving me a normal sized cocktail he grabbed some goldfish bowl with a glass stem on it and decided to make it up to me by making me essentially 3 drinks in one glass and charging me for my trouble.  What a prince.  

I made my way back to our table only to find that while I'd been gone my girl had been hit on by a random guy, a random girl and a bouncer. Classy.  The highlight of the evening was getting to meet the U of A Mascot in his street clothes.  A really nice guy, with a great attitude despite the fact that he had apparently gotten punched in the face earlier in the evening during the ASU/UofA football game.  Seriously, he was gracious about the ASU win and seemed really happy to have any Arizona teams go to Bowl games.  I wish there were more people like him out there.

We ended up leaving early because of additional drama with the patrons of this fine establishment and one of my friends.  I would be happy to never go here again.

I'll admit it.  This wasn't the place I thought I was buying a car from, but I'm really glad that I did.  I knew what I wanted and I had been shopping for a couple of weeks when I ran across an ad on CL for a car in this dealership's inventory.  I gave them a call, explained that I was serious about buying, wanted to see the vehicle in question and wanted them to shop financing for me as I was unhappy with what I was able to get on my own (Capital One's Blank Check loan sure is convenient but the interest rates are terrible in my opinion).  I have less than perfect credit.  It's still pretty good but there are some old problems that are near the end of my history that haven't dropped off yet.  Even so, they were able to get me a loan that was 3 points lower than what I was being offered by C.O.

I went down to test drive the car and immediately knew this was the vehicle I wanted.  They gave me a killer price on it right off the bat.  It was way lower than blue book and way lower than dealer prices around the valley for similar vehicles.  I also got a 5 year 100k mile power train warranty from the day I bought the vehicle.

There was a minor cosmetic issue with the car that they agreed to fix before I bought the car.  Honestly I was a little worried that it might not come out "perfect" but I was wrong. It came out perfect and exceeded my expectations.

Not only that! But I took the car in to my semi-expensive mechanic and they let me know the water pump was going and that they would recommend the belts be replaced.  When I contacted the dealer, they said they'd look at it, gave me a loaner car and made things right.  The next time I'm buying a car, I'm going to call Joe and see if he can find it for me.  These guys are the real deal. A small time dealership with heart and integrity and I would happily buy from them again.

P.S.  I love my Z4 convertible!

Ok fine.  I'm gonna admit it.  I haven't eaten the sushi here.  Sure it looks decent, but looks can be deceiving and besides if I wanted Sushi in the area I'd go to Sushi 101 or drive to Tanked Fish.  The real gem here, is that if you order a Sake bomber, they give you a chilled pint glass, a vile (er.. vial) of warm, not overly impressive sake, a sake cup and a gigantic Japanese beer.  You can get about 4 shots out of a seven dollar drink which is probably the best deal going on Mill.  This was right after the U of A / ASU game so it was packed.  Some guys who worked sales for some company I've never heard of in Scottsdale were nice enough to let us share their table outside.  Mr. T, JC and myself stuck to Sake Bombers.  B is apparently too delicate a flower to wipe beer foam off her chin so she settled in with an Appletini which looked pretty and which she said was decent.  

During the two rounds we spent here, some guy was acting the fool over by the Mission Palms hotel behind the joint and we were all treated to some splendid pepper spray aroma therapy courtesy of Tempe's Finest.  If you're looking to get swervy without spending it like a Sultan down on Mill, Ra's sake bombers will get you there and that alone is worth 3 stars.

I'll admit it. I have a soft spot for places where I can sit on a raised platform, recline on some pillows and pretend I'm the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland.  No. It's pretty unlikely that the people here will be "your people"  whoever you are, and whatever you're into.  I'm thinking this isn't a place to make friends, it's a place to take friends.  Friends who enjoy gigantic water pipes with hose attachments so you can enjoy some exotic cancer causing treats.

Mr. T ordered the first round, with Rose and Lavender.  This was my first time at a Hookah bar, or as I call it, wrestling with the 2 armed octopus.  Apparently it's not that hard, you suck on the end of the hose where the hole is.  Although, if the person tending the other hose isn't either actively sucking or blocking the hole some other way, the pipe won't draw and you'll be stuck with a lung full of stale, non smokey air.  And seriously, if you wanted that, you could have just stayed at home and locked yourself in the hall closet.

So, keep an eye on your hookah mates and make sure they've got their hole plugged or a hose in their mouth.  Otherwise nobody is gonna enjoy the Sheesha.  After we were done with the first round, which honestly felt a bit like smoking those fancy decorative soaps at your friend's grandmother's house.  You know the ones? The little roses and sea shells and what not?  Yeah, the ones you got in trouble for actually using when there was a perfectly good bottle of foam for you to pump?  The ones that it was only later pointed out were for decorative purposes?  Yeah, well imagine the strong rose and lavender scents wafting off those soaps mixing with grandpa's pipe smoke which crept in through the bathroom vents to say hello and you have a pretty good idea of what that first round of Sheesha was like.

Anyways, after the soap round  - We decided to try grape next which was mellow and neutral and didn't really remind me of anything.  I mean, it was good.  But it was good by virtue of not being bad.  

All in all it was an interesting experience.  The place was fine, I didn't try any food but I might next time.  I was neither impressed nor unimpressed with the Hookah portion of the evening.  I mean, it was no opium den, but it still had it's own thing going and I can appreciate that on a few levels.

Chuck and Larry talked me into their Friday afternoon ritual of expressing a Panda. Er.. of Panda Express.  I was secretly amused by the message on my cup that becked me to believe that orange chicken was truly a Panda Express "original."  I mean, I haven't exactly done hard research on the subject, but I'm pretty sure there is exactly nothing original about their particular brand of super americanized "chinese" fast food.

The overall blandness of the place matches well with their food. Even dishes you would think would be spicy and exciting somehow manage to be tame and underflavored.  That's ok though, sometimes blandness can have a certain charm to it.  At least you know what you're getting into.  And the portions are plentiful.  And by plentiful I mean holy crap, what kind of a pig am I that I was able to eat most of it?

It's true what they say though. In two hours, I'll be hungry again, and I when I am, it's a pretty sure bet that I won't be thinking of Panda Express.

Subway, your bread's trying to hard to please.
Your meat is okay, but you skimp on the cheese.
Some girl who just started thinks "pickles" means twenty.
My sandwich was briney, I swear six was plenty.
But I did like the apples and unsweetened iced tea,
Which helped cut out the fat and empty calories.
No you still aren't my fave and you never will be.
But at least you aren't trying to "Super Size" me.