Category: Travel News

  • Anne In Austin

    By Andrea Menzies

    My mom Anne is in the Austin, TX area this week. My family used to live there, and she is going to Thanksgiving dinner there. One of my relatives named Patrick is sick, and she is visiting them in the hospital. I wanted to go visit Austin this year, but she forced me stay at her house in Virginia watching her dogs instead of seeing my family and school friends that I have missed desperately for years in Austin. One of the reasons I am taking classes in night school for my master’s degree is so I can get a better job, and not deal with constantly being put in a forgotten place by my family. My sister Lily in contrast was invited to Austin as she was given 11 Nintendo Gameboy devices for Christmas as a child, and I begged for one and was never given a single one. She is having fun on the vacation I was carefully not invited to go on. I am posting this as people seeing Anne and Lily in my old neighborhood in Austin are sending messages to me thinking she must have taken me with her yet that never happened. Stop inviting me to holiday parties I can not go to as I am not in Texas.

  • Happy Thanksgiving

    By Andrea Menzies

    Happy Thanksgiving to all! Yes I had pumpkin pie with my family today.

  • Phone Back

    By Andrea Menzies

    My phone is back on, but I have switched services and numbers. My old service gave me bad issues with replacement and technical support. My old number is still active for now yet I am switching over the 2 factor authentication on all my devices soon. If you have my old number you will need the new one soon. My e-mail remains the same so people can contact me there if they need to reach me.

  • Trip Canceled

    By Andrea Menzies

    I had to cancel my trip to Maryland this weekend. I had tickets to see a big reunion concert, DJ night, and was meeting friends. Yet my Google Pixel phone broke, I could NOT replace it quickly, and everything was connected to that phone’s two factor authentication. The travel tickets were on the phone’s apps. My concert ticket was on the phone apps. Then how do you get around after you get anywhere if Uber and Lyft are apps for the phone, and your cheap replacement flip phone can’t use apps? Buses don’t even have paper schedules to read most of the time, and most bus, subway, and train schedules are on the phone apps. Many cab companies that use the phone numbers don’t even take cash most of the time as they are now super expensive. Thanks to my old phone being garbage that broke my trip plans were destroyed. I was really looking forward to that show and seeing Maryland friends. Oh well, I will never forget how much better Maryland music was compared to Virginia music, and I can make new plans after I get a new phone. I can’t have a broken phone EVERY day of the year as I use it daily for transportation to work. Not having a phone is like not having one of your hands in modern day.

    Modern phone irony jokes. Getting transportation, cab use, and phone use is harder in modern day.

  • Closed Goat

    By Andrea Menzies

    They also had many types of music nights from rock to rave there. I went to many shows at it. Music places open and close every 2 seconds in New Orleans. Trying to pretend there is one club that plays wild music in New Orleans is like trying to say one tree in the forest has leaves on it. NOLA.com just reported The Goat club has closed in New Orleans. I used to love to visit school friends that lived at that place.

    New Orleans Goth bar and music venue The Goat has closed after nearly a decade

    Decorated with cobwebs, the venue on St. Bernard Avenue hosted both live bands and DJs

    The Goat, a New Orleans neighborhood Goth bar and music venue, has closed.

    Owner Matthew Checki announced recently on social media that he had sold the bar at 1301 St. Bernard Avenue. Tuesday was its final night as the Goat

    “For nearly a decade, I have had the privilege of owning and operating my own bar in New Orleans,” Checki wrote. “The experience was immense to say the least. Through every single moment of success and challenge alike I truly loved it. Now it is time for new adventures in life both professionally and personally.”

    Checki opened The Goat in 2017. The studded chains, horned skull and bat painted on the Goat’s otherwise plain gray exterior only hinted at the venue’s dramatic interior décor. A tangle of cobwebs on the ceiling concealed an assortment of skeletons suspended above a chandelier. A pentagram decorated the stage floor.

    The Goat featured punk, metal and other underground bands as well as deejays. For the recurring “Attrition” night, DJs such as Evil Rudy and Sneauxball cranked Goth, industrial and synth music. The Goat also hosted such recurring “rituals” as “Dark Electric,” “Splatterday Night” and “Sacrifice: The Fetish Party.”

    “Eclectic in focus but united in darkness, our Rituals constitute a central component to the musical and aesthetic identity of The Goat,” said a post on The Goat’s web site. “Come worship.”

    The cover photo of New Orleans surf/punk rock band the Unnaturals’ 2024 album “Sleazy Listening” was taken at the bar of the Goat.

    Beyond the music, the Goat served as a gathering place and de facto clubhouse for the New Orleans Goth community.

    “There are too many bands to list but thank you so much to all the incredible acts that rocked our stage,” Checki wrote. “Thank you so much to everyone who came over the years in support of our events.

    “The accomplishments of the experience that was The Goat were gauged by the talent and clientele we shared our nights with. I think it’s safe to say that makes it a successful story…

    “It was the experience of a lifetime.”

  • Voted

    Voted

    By Andrea Menzies

    I finally voted after verification of my address four places. One of the reasons I was ranting about people not believing my address yesterday was they were trying to keep me from voting this week. I was still doing address verification at the social security office today. I can’t believe it is a mistake in a wild political year that people wrongly mixing up my address was a mistake. Why did four government places have it wrong only at voting time? I have a big family in many areas, and I visit them. Nothing normal is happening in any government building these days. Hopefully balance will restore to political power someday soon.

    Voted

  • Location Not Real

    By Andrea Menzies

    Dear Internet my location is not real. It has literally NEVER been real on social media or the Internet for years. It is my sad misfortune that when trying Internet dating years ago men tried to drug me, strangle me, punch me, and their female friends tried to help them. I don’t want to give abusers a guide book to my front door. I sometimes visit school friends and family in other towns and check in to crowded and well lit dinner, dancing, or theater locations. This does not mean I live there. There are a million app location spoofing programs on the Internet like BlueStacks. I mentioned what online school I was going to, and had to transfer out of that school after making 2 grades of “A” partially due to hackers attacking my student account. I mentioned the name of my online school on social media which I will NEVER do again. One of the reasons cops need a search warrant to enter homes is Americans have the constitutional right to privacy. It is against the law to invade a female’s privacy, and all the information people think they are getting may be very wrong and NOT real. Forcing women into marriage with abusive men is not a good goal at all. I am trying to keep in touch with a few student friends when I post things not jerks. Google the phrase “location spoofing” and BlueStacks is the leader in emulator tech. These apps have become popular as human garbage tries to track women online.

    *Special note I now have “Moon, South Dakota” listed as my home. I have never been there and DON’T plan to go, but I am showing off how stupid and pathetic people that believe everything they read on the Internet are daily. Now when people ask my address I can say it is on “The Moon” to see what level of idiots they are. I got 4 letters from the government claiming I need to update my address as I have moved this month, but I am living and working in the same place.

    Many people have noticed the Internet destroying privacy.
    Women have bad problems with Internet privacy.

    It is easy to get a false impression from the Internet.

    Google the phrase “location spoofing” and BlueStacks is a leader in emulator tech. These apps have become popular as human garbage tries to track women online.
  • 50 Years Rocky

    50 Years Rocky

    By Andrea Menzies

    This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Rocky Horror Picture Show being played on Halloween. Fun fact, when I lived in New Orleans I was both Columbia and Magenta in two different productions of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at Loyola University New Orleans and the Prytania theater near campus. They wanted me to do more shows, but I was a university student with oceans of homework so I lacked the free time for that activity. I will always love how many fun friends I met doing a fun and campy Halloween show with many school friends. Fortunately there are a few places near my mom’s house in Virginia showing the Rocky Horror, and so I can still go there a bit. My review is it is a great show at any venue.

    Columbia, Frankfurter, and Magenta in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
    The NPR article on the 50th anniversary.
  • Double Pumpkin

    Double Pumpkin

    By Andrea Menzies

    My daughter and I painted Halloween pumpkins this week. I was teaching at schools doing pumpkin crafts, and it reminded me it was time to do our own. My pumpkin has the pointy eyes on the right. We like to use paint and markers as it takes longer to spoil.

    Left Alexandria’s pumpkin, right my pumpkin.
  • Accepted New

    By Andrea Menzies

    I was accepted to a new night school masters in education degree program, and classes start this week. I was at the University of Phoenix, but transferred to a new school this month that costs less money. I took a few refresher courses on medical data entry, and got a job at Kelly Staffing after I passed all drug tests. However the temp work ended earlier this month, and I am back to doing my main focus of an educational master’s degree. I have to verify FAFSA loan papers and registration this week to start classes. It feels good to return to real school work!