"Sergzilla's Homecoming. Part 4"

Yesterday was....interesting. This artist I gave a partial payment to so he could start on some artwork apparently tried to scam me. We connected via facebook. I'd been waiting a few days to hear back from dude with at least a few sketches but he'd already either blocked me or deactivated his account. I couldn't even find our conversation. Its pretty insane that people out there like to prey on others like parasites instead of making an honest living. Its only $50 but still. I gotta wait around 10 days (customer service told me) until I can recieve a refund. Thankfully another artist is nearing completion of some artwork for me. Paypal isn't like banks because if it had been a bank transaction (as I learned from Sir Dan) I'd be shit out of luck. That fateful encounter from years ago cost me like a thousand bucks dude still has made no attempt to reimburse me for. I've been ripped off over the years quite a few times. Luckily technology is making it harder and harder for people to get away with this shit. People are slick and its amazing how far some will go just because they know they can get away with something. A certain co-worker who tried to get me in trouble recently comes to mind. But anyway....back to more pleasant things....like my trip and Disney adventure with Joshuazilla my crazy yet violently brilliant little brother.

There were plenty of people there in the park but it wasn't really crowded. It did get kinda crowded later. So we didn't have to wait in any long lines when it was time to get our grub on. I'm not gonna count the neat little gummy candy we got in the Japanese area.
I was shocked at how expensive everything was. But since I was on vacation I just didn't worry about it. We decided on an interesting looking establishment that featured a wide assortment of dishes. Come to think of it I'm not even sure exactly what area of the park it was located. I got this really delicious fish thingie and Joshuazilla got some strange looking artery (probably) clogging dish. 

My fish was incredibly delicious but the portion was pretty damn small. It also cost $50.00. Not sure how much Joshuazilla's food was. I barely glanced at the bill. So you now know where my tax return disappeared to. Still its good to treat oneself once in awhile. We're not here just to pay bills after all. So I won't complain. After we ate Joshuazilla bought himself one of those flickering light saber things and was able to convince him to go with me to check out a concert. The concert turned out to be pretty impressive because this one dude could sing his ass off. The lady was good too but THIS guy....he was something else. In fact I need to go online see what else he's done. He did say he worked on some pretty big plays. He and the lady. I tried to take as many photos as possible along with videos. I will post some here if I can. Most of the concert photos came out wonky but the videos are great. My little cannon camera and ipod touch are awesome little machines.

Oh yeah I wanted to share this before I forget....!

Mommas banana pudding (Her best yet!)

I got mommy to make me a big banane pudding. Now that I think about it I should have brought some home with me on the plane but I wasn't sure it would be allowed since after those fucking terrorists in 911 security at airports has become a pain. Yeah I know its necessary but man is it irritating. I hate having to take my belt off and my shoes. I hate having to put my shit in those nasty ass trays too. I was sooooo happy coming back from Florida when they let us skip that hassle and instead let a security dog scrutinize us instead at the airport. Maybe it was because of the long line or perhaps they are trying something new at the airports. I love animals but I don't think I have ever been so happy to see a dog! I'm sure the other people in line with me felt the same way.

I love that you can drag and drop photos now just about anywhere! Imagine how easy this would have made all our lives if we had this technology waaaay back in the early 2000's. 

"Sergzilla's Homecoming. Part 3"

My mother and stepdad seemed so cutting edge when I was a youngin when it came to computers and tech. I guess it was all in my mind or perhaps they simply haven't really kept up with the times. I mean they both have and love their Apple products. They may well rival me in that regard. Yet they have this expensive ass cable that they pay $170.00 a month for. I tried to explain to them about all the free apps they could get and free content they could access. Keep in mind I sent my mother a video cam many moons ago and she never hooked it up because she lost it. I ended up on Valentines day just going out to Target and buying her a Roku. Its a newer model so I'm sure it has more features then mine. With the Roku they can access hundreds if not thousands of apps. Many that allow you to watch free movies and tv shows. The news apps you can also access for free. It only cost 24 bucks. I left a Vudu streaming stick for Joshuazilla in his old room but he's already lost the freaking remote which means he can't do diddly with the stick. Meanwhile I'm on the fence about buying Miss Big Nose a firestick because she also has apparently lost her technology super powers.

Once I had my mind set on going to Disneyworld it was a done deal even when I considered the possibility of doing something else. It just felt right you know? I didn't expect it to be so damn expensive though. Anything even remotely Disney related is costly but man....! The food is pretty high too but I'll get to that. Eddie (my step dad and Joshuas father) dropped us off around mid day and we took a short walk to the entrance where I purchased our entry tickets. Gotta make a mental note that next time I go back its cheaper to just buy a pass for a few days instead of just for one day. Thinking about going back and surprising Joshuazilla for his birthday so I better start saving up moolah.

There were a bunch of areas themed after countries. Japan. China. Mexico. Norway. France. I had no idea the place was so big (40 acres!) and only now am I realizing we missed out on some cool attractions. The first attraction we headed to had a looooong line so we decided to go somewhere else but that ride had a long wait too. But since we were already there I just figured we'd wait it out. It was basically a race car simulation. There was this multimedia interface that allows you to design your own car. Joshuazilla seemed to have more fun with this. I'm not really a car person although I do enjoy the occasional Mario Kart race and the legendary Gran Turismo will always have a special place in my heart (license tests aside of course)  When you're done making your dream racer you get in this roller coaster type car which races you (often at breakneck speed) thru a series of on rails scenarios. First you enter a cool kinda psychedelic tunnel. Its mostly dark but theres neon lights going on and they try to scare you by almost running into some oncoming vehicles. Its all pretty tame until the end where you are thrown onto this racetrack looking scenario where they really pour on the speed. I was filming the entire time holding my camera with one hand much of the time. Its a true miracle I didn't drop it.

We went over to a Mexican themed place with some Aztec pyramids. Always have loved pyramids. Then we went on a kinda lame boat ride thing. I say it was lame mostly because of how slow it was. There was a Frozen attraction that featured a boat ride which was much more entertaining. That I filmed almost in its entirety. I think because he's had to binge watch Disney films with his daughter Joshuazilla has become a Disney cartoon aficionado. I still can't believe he'd never seen or heard of Big Hero Six until I put it on for him at the house. Big Hero Six is loosely based on the Marvel comic about a group of Japanese superheroes. A few of whom were (in the comics) mutants. But when the move came out Marvel/Disney couldn't make movies about mutant anythings because they didn't own the movie rights for X-men stuff. (Now they do) There was a cool video exhibit about China that we checked out as well as one for Japan. You just stand in this huge room and its like a gigantic 360 degree screen shows a video about the history and culture. The whole time we kept talking about the fireworks that were gonna happen later. Joshuazilla really didn't seem interested because mainly I didn't think he wanted to be out there at 9pm. Honestly time flew by incredibly fast and before we knew it we were sitting down eating and it was dark outside.

Sergzilla's Homecoming Part 2.

Jussie Smollett is in the news these days. Seems theres a strong possibility he lied on a police report saying he was the victim of a hate crime. It certainly polarized the gay community for a hot minute. Then we all got to thinking....wait a minute. If he did in fact get beat up then wheres the video evidence? Turns out there is none. Meanwhile Donald Tramp er Trump is still trying to get his wall built. He's even gone so far as to declare a national emergency to dip into funds that are needed for other things. Like a real emergency. Stuff like military construction. Money for medical treatment programs etc. A young woman who wanted to join Isis is being deported and a white ex marine who believes in white power was taken into custody whilst the law enforcement confiscated a bunch of weapons he planned to use to kill liberals and "as many innocent people as he could". This world is so crazy sometimes and I keep asking where these people keep coming from. Seems just when things appear to be quieting down another psycho rears his or her head. My theory is something is affecting these people and making them do these things. In some cases. Maybe its supernatural or theres some science involved. That makes alot of sense actually. So much time has passed so mental manipulation by technology would be pretty advanced by now.  It does worry me that some of my younger family members are gonna inherit some of this craziness. It'll probably be normal to them at some point. Mass shootings and terrorist attacks. We've always had issues within society but when I was a teenager I certainly did not have to worry about going to a damn mall and some fool with an agenda might come out and start acting the fool. Of course Orlando has seen its share of insanity. The whole Pulse club shooting comes to mind. The thought of visiting that place did pass thru my mind truthfully. What would it feel like to go to that place where so many terrible things happened? Or even the World Trade Center a place which I have visited so many times in the past. I believe I'd feel something. Spiritual energy swirling all around. Anger. Confusion. Just terror of what they went thru and then finally what was taken from them by this coward. A little boy with a big gun punishing a bunch of complete strangers who had their own problems and its likely if he'd asked for help a fair number of those (whose lives he took) woulda given him a listen. Yes I still believe in the good or potential for it people. Even though my brothers niece "J" worked my nerves while I was there on vacation I can see she has a pretty sharp mind. I wonder if anyone else has noticed it yet? When you observe kids doing crazy things its easy to forget how bad some of us were when we were youngins. I heard a couple of stries of my legendary childhood. The toddler years. Once I heard I threw a tv out a window. Mommy told me a funny story about how my grandma Cora had to put wooden borders in front of the open doorways in the house so I couldn't enter. Poor Grandma would always forget about about the wood boards and she'd have all these bruises on her legs from bumping into them when Mommy would come to visit from NY!

At one point during my vacation trip home I was sitting down and she (my niece) creeped over to the back of my laptop while I was surfing the web and went about trying to peel off some of my stickers and I told her to stop it. She quickly moved away from me. Then there was a time when my other niece "K" was playing Mario Kart on my Switch while I tried to teach her how to use the weapons and the freakin accelerator. J came over and was like "I wanna play the videogame" in this quiet kinda shy voice. Now she acts shy whenever I offered her candy or when Mommy asked her if she wanted to hang out with me but this kid has a pretty clear idea of what she wants and how to manipulate people to get it. I told her I would take it under consideration. She promptly went to her dad and said "He won't let me play the videogame" Joshua told her "Its his. He doesn't have to" I guess I kinda felt sorry for her and I let her play but maybe I shouldn't have? You can't just think its okay that when people tell you "NO" you can run to daddy to fix everything. "K" is a terrible player but at least she does actually look at the screen. To "J" I think it was simply a matter of her getting what she wanted but not really caring after she got it. Its gonna be interesting to see what kind of personality "J" has when she gets older.

As for "J's" father Joshuazilla he's still got some growing up to do even despite the fact he is tremendously intelligent. Months ago he got into it with Mommy and Eddie my stepdad and they basically put  Joshuazilla out. I remember getting into it with my father once. It was over some stupid little shit. Probably built up shit in all actuality. I was washing clothes and he hit my hand because I didn't do something he'd asked and that night I moved out to go stay with my grandma Cora (my moms mom). Its unfortunate but even in the wild the parent animal often has to chase their offspring out and then they get a chance to go experience the world. In time me and my father were cool again and that was the last time we ever argued over anything. But Joshuazilla and my mom were still butting heads while I was there. I stayed out of it. I'm not a "hoverer" and its not my business to interfere since I am a stranger to the feud. Mommy explained to me some of the things that have gone down and me and my sisters constantly remind her she and Eddie would have killed us if we did even half of what they let "other people" get away with but anyway....I did speak to Joshuazilla. Just told him no matter what these are your parents and you gotta give them the respect because without them none of us would be here. So there's that to consider. I'd like to think he listened to me. It hurts because if I'd been there more in his life when he was coming up maybe I could have helped provide some more guidance. Eddie and Mommy are getting older now and this is the time they should be relaxing and enjoying what they have you know? They shouldn't be stressed out. Mommy made a remark about me giving her grandkids but geez would her and Eddie survive another one? I'm not gonna harp on this anymore but "J" is a handful and she single handedly disrupted the breakfast the family took me out to Saturday. I warned Joshuazilla he's gotta get her under control because I know a few people who couldn't get their kids under control and they had to send them away. Both "J's" parents are so young and yeah its safe to say they were not ready. I just don't want to see them make the same mistake many parents are making these days by being more of a friend than a parent. And thats all I gotta say about that.

My stepsister "Miss Big Nose" and younger sister "TT" have their own family units going on. Miss Big nose has four kids. Three girls and one son. He is a super nerd like me. He took after his father who I met briefly many moons ago. Unfortunately he passed away but dude was super cool and I can remember us hooking his Playstation up to my Grandmothers tv when we all went down to NC to visit her. She passed like six years ago. Its still so weird her not being here you know? Miss Big Nose has a red Wii on her living room floor. She had no idea Nintendo cut all the internet services from that machine just recently. She is from Trinidad and she has naturally red hair that everyone thought she died when we were in high school. She was a tom boy. Not so much into comics but she was good at videogames and an excellent basketball player. In fact she played in a lot of games and in many ways I always felt she was like the son Eddie never had in me. Because I wasn't into sports at all and sucked at math. I was a big weird nerd. I was always getting into trouble too because I hated school so I'd cut classes and hang out with my friends at arcades or wait till everyone was at work and sneak everyone over to my place. They ended up sending me to a school for troubled kids. Plus I had to attend summer school. Going to school for me back then was a nightmare. I'd get picked on. Slapped around and spat on. Those New York kids were no joke. In many ways I'm probably mentally traumatized by many of the things that happened to me in those years. Miss Big Nose actually was able to protect me from some of it because she was popular. My sis the jock. Excuse me "Jocktress". I remember we used to sit up late listening to people like Luther Vandross, Heatwave,Mickey Howard, Teena Marie and Patti Labelle on the quiet storm. WBLS. KISS FM. I would get on everyones nerves by constantly playing "Let me show you the way to go" by the Jacksons. I practically worshipped El Debarge and his family. I'll never forget the summer of "84" when "Whats love got to do with it was in constant rotation on the airwaves. Ahhhh. Those were the good old days.

Sergzilla's Homecoming Part 1.

I took a vacation last week and kinda on a spur of the moment decided to go see my family in Florida. Put that tax return check to good use. I'd planned to go see them sometime this year anyway but I figured since I was on vacation and not keen on being stuck in LA again like the last time I went on vacation, it was the right time for a visit. I called my step sister Miss Big Nose (Beverly) to let her know I was coming. Told her to keep it a secret from mommy though. It was certainly good timing because one of my co-workers and I aren't speaking and I've been having some trouble with the maintenance supervisor. On top of that I just needed a break from LA and anything stress related. Packed the cool orange backpack the Nathan gave me last year to replace the one that got stolen during my ill fated birthday trip. (No I have not recieved anything in the way of compensation for the things "Mr Jackson" took. ) Was really pushing it though because Spirit is now charging like $65.00 for carry-ons and I was sure my stuffed backpack was over the limit. No one said anything to me though but next time I will either pack lighter or just check in another back for clothing. Will only take a bag onboard with my electronics. Definitely bringing one of my other consoles in addition to my Switch. Only because the PS4 and Xbox1 have most of the better games. Just saying. Sorry Nintendo. Of course theres always the option to simply mail some clothes ahead of time or pick up some things when I get to Florida. We'll see.

Anyway my brother Joshuazilla picked me up from the airport. He's grown up so much its pretty ridiculous and he inherited my handsomeness as well as an intelligence that MIGHT be superhuman. Plus he is VERY funny. Joshuazilla is also a dad. He has a cute little daughter who I probably would have really enjoyed if she wasn't screaming and throwing temper tantrums most of the time when I saw her. Brianopolis said thats to be expected from kids but my niece is....well she is spoiled to the point I worry she will be out of control when she gets older. The Dangerous African had trouble with his daughter and nephew to the point they had to be sent away. Part of me feels responsible for some of the things Joshuazilla experienced in the years past because as a big brother I just wasn't there. Was so wrapped up in my life and problems I kept everybody in my life at arms length. The truth is I know my being gay weirds some family members out and I struggle with some developmental shit. Mostly stuff I keep to myself thus I've kept my distance. Some things they probably can't understand or help me with anyway. Still being home reminded me what I've missed out on. Being back around family can certainly have a healing effect.

I have had this idea for years in the back of my head....me and Joshuazilla on a roadtrip or some crazy camping trip where we have to survive some insane shit that forces us to bond so I figured maybe if we went to Disney that would be a good start. One of my bosses suggested awhile back that I should go do something cool for myself. Universal, Disney or some other amusement park. I decided Epcot Center was good gamble. Figured I'd spend some time with Joshuazilla and maybe see some virtual reality shit. It really sucks that Epcot doesn't have anything even remotely related to virtual reality although the race car simulation ride is pretty cool. I guess the important thing is me and Joshuazilla had alot of fun. Plus I made alot of progress in understanding who he is and the man he is becoming. It would be very cool if I could get him involved in this filmmaking thing. Maybe fly him out here to assist in a production later this year. As much fun as Joshuazilla was to hang out with I need to talk about the other family members; especially my mom who I convinced to bake me one of her world famous banana puddings....