Mark's Epic Blog of Randomness

 By Mark Rodriguez I was there back in February 2012, hanging at the now-gone Krispy Kreme on Fremont Street, Las Vegas Nevada, when I saw that they were opening some new place called the Heart Attack Grill right across the street. The restaurant was openly admitting it was one of the unhealthiest places to eat and they were running with the joke that if you eat these overly fat burgers, you might get a heart attack. I was hearing their loud speaker advertise their triple by-bass burgers, flatline fries and saying jokes like 'we only take cash or card because you might die before the check clears'.   A few days before opening day back in 2012 They committed to the whole bit. People that weighed over 350 pounds get a free meal. Some burgers were so big that if you were able to finish them in one sitting, you get a free ride on a wheelchair. There was a fake ambulance parked outside. The owners knew what they were doing and openly embraced this. And sadly, yes, there have b...

 By Mark Rodriguez Things are winding down but we were still able to hit a few sights and hang out with Tasia before our trip was done. Day Six- We started the day with breakfast at the hotel and hitting the slots. We met up with Johnny and some friends at Seafood City, and despite the name, we had some fried chicken at the JollyBee. We also hit Daiso, an impressive shopping center with some interesting goodies. We grabbed some anime-inspired drinks and Wendy got herself a Hello Kitty 2026 calendar.  We then went to the Bouvelard Mall, mostly to see the theatrical re-release the 1995 Casper movie in the Galaxy Theater. We had some time to kill so we checked out some of the shops. One of them was Poor Boy Comics, which wasn't around the last time I visited. They had a cool collection of comics, new and old, as well as Funko Pops and anime prints. I found an issue of the 90's Detective Comics run I am collecting. I also wanted to revisit the Pop Shack which is full of Funko Pops...

 By Mark Rodriguez The day has finally arrived! The big reunion with our classic VGM crew after not having seen them since 2019. While there were some snags along the way, we still had a good time and made some fun memories. Day 4- After running all over Vegas for the last few days, we decided to take it easy that morning and just have time to ourselves. We had a simple breakfast, nothing too crazy, but the most notable thing was Wendy ordering a Bloody Mary that had bacon in it. We actually tried the slots and Wendy won 47 dollars. She started with 20 bucks and cashed out 67.88. After that we met up with Johnny and hung out with him for a while until it was showtime. Once it hit 5 in the afternoon, we all met up at Neonpolis in downtown Fremont. From there we checked out the arcade bar, The Nerd. Finally Wendy got to meet our old friends, Lan Moore and WickaDarko (who now only goes by Wicka) alongside Tasia and Sweet Pete who she met prior.  Unfortunately, the arcade bar was ...

 By Mark Rodriguez So far we've been in Vegas for three days, and like previous mentioned, it was more about seeing our old stomping grounds and seeing our old friends than it was about seeing the sights. Here's a quick rundown so far of the highlights. Day 1- This was pretty much a day to get settled into town and whatnot. One of our friends, Tasia, was nice to enough to not only grab us at the airport, but to take us to Town Square. One of the main things we wanted to do during this trip was to take Vegas-style wedding photos, and Tasia offered to buy Wendy a lovely dress at a fancy custom-made fashion boutique called Wassa Boutique. We checked out the Town Square and then hit an In-and-Out Burger, which we don't have at our general area back home. Afterwards we went to Tasia's house where we got to meet up with our old friend Sweet Pete from our earlier 2010-2011 VGM episodes. Wendy got to listen to our old behind-the-scene stories as Johnny, Peter and I reminisced a...

 By Mark Rodriguez As some might or might not know, I lived in Vegas for a few years with my brother Johnny. We got to meet a lot good friends at anime cons and they have been in several of our older VGM episodes. We're planning to visit Vegas and see my brother again as well as the old gang. I haven't been there since 2019, so a lot of it is going to be seeing what has changed over the years. With Wendy coming along, this will be her first time visiting Vegas and seeing the sights and slot machines. In this case, I can see her reaction as a first timer. We'll keep tabs on what we see and what we do. We're not sure if every day will involve seeing the Strip and whatnot since a lot of this trip is more about seeing my brother and friends again than being tourists. I do intend to show the places that we got to see, so stay tuned for updates. I know the comic book reviews have been slow, but we'll get back to those once we return. 

 By Mark Rodriguez Back in 2012, Johnny and I used to live in Vegas and got our own place in downtown Fremont. Not only were we a near The Fremont Experience, we just so happened to move in a few days around the grand opening of the Insert Coins Arcade Bar. While I have run into several arcade bars by now, the concept was new to me at the time. When I first saw the place with the Atari controllers I thought it was just going to be a bar with an arcade motif, like artwork on the walls or something, but not actually having arcades you can play. Sure enough, it was a fun combination of a bar, an arcade and a dance floor. We went there on the grand opening, and one thing I will kinda regret is walking right past Stuttering Craig from ScrewAttack.com and not getting it on film or something. To be fair, I only heard his voice on all the Top Tens so I had no idea what the guy actually looked like. I'm not sure how popular he is nowadays, but I used to watch his videos back then. The pl...