Brad Reviews Everything

At the turn of the year, I decided to expand on my past "Burger Blogs" and start a series called "Brad Reviews Everything." It could also be called "Unsolicited Opinions."  It will continue to be food-heavy, to be sure. And by "food," I mostly mean hamburgers.

Burger King's Angry Whopper:

I am not a BK fan.  I usually eat at BK only if there is an absurd line at the place I actually wanted to go.  But, on a hunch, I figured that their Angry Whopper would really be a Grumpy Whopper, or a Passive Aggressive Whopper.  Most main-stream places are smart enough to not go very far on the spicy scale with food.  I was right, the Angry Whopper is only a medium-spicy, which is just fine by me.  The jalapenos on it provided some punch, but there were only 4 or so, making it a bearable and tasty heat rather than a mouth-scorcher.  So, for the first time ever, I recommend a BK Burger to anyone who likes a little kick in their food.*

Xbox 360: 

In a fit of juvenile indulgence, I bought a refurbished Xbox 360 for Christmas.  I admit this with a small degree of shame, no doubt.  I paid 150$ for a model with a 60GB harddrive and an HDMI port, which would currently retail for $300.  The catch might be that mine only has a 90 day warranty, and the Xbox 360 is plagued by problems.  But, hey, I like to live on the edge.  

I don't hesitate to say that I think the 360 is the clear winner of the high-stakes video game console wars.  Wii is the other winner.  But the 360 offers a large library of fun games, and can serve as a powerful media hub.  It syncs with my laptop through our network and allows us to stream media from our laptop to our TV.  And, because our laptop has Media Center and a TV tuner, we can use it as a DVR and pause, record, and re-watch live TV.  Oh, I forgot to mention the ability to "rent" movies through the 360.  For a fair-ish price (more than Redbox), you can download and watch a substantial number of new and old movies, many available in High Definition. 

The downside to the 360 is the additional expenses.  For instance, it does not come with any wireless networking capabilities.  And the proprietary Wi-Fi dongle for it is $100.  I've worked around that by loading up a router with some open-source firmware (DD-WRT) and using it to grab our wireless network signal and pass it on to the 360's integrated ethernet port. Cost $30 to buy the router, firmware was free, then probably an hour of tinkering to get it working.  You also have to pay to use Xbox Live, their online gaming service.  I paid 38$ for 13 months, or about $3 a month.  You can spend as much as you like on games, but I've elected to buy used games that are usually a year or two old and cost $5 - $30, depending on popularity.  You get the idea, though. 

So why not the PS3? Sticker shock, for one.  And an inability to identify instantly which games on the PS3 I would want to play.  I am sure they are there, I just didn't/don't know about them.  Blu-ray might be a value-adding feature for many, but I don't have an HD TV, so it was not appealing. 

Sundance Ski Resort

I've been twice this season. It is about 20 minutes from Provo to the slopes.  Sundance is interesting because of the lift configuration.  One lift takes you to the top of the mountain. And then down the other side. Then you can ride one of two other lifts up a mountain kind of behind the one the first lift went over. The result is that most of the runs or a little on the short-side.  Terrain is pretty limited, too.  Your options are essentially wide groomed runs or steeper moguled trails.  They do have a rails/jumps park, but we didn't check it out. 

So here is the recomendation. If you aren't in great shape, don't ski more than once or twice a year, or simply don't want to ski one of Utah's Big Mountain resorts, then Sundance is the place for you.  During the week, the place is pretty much empty.  The scenery is second to none, and the snow has been just great both times I've gone. 

*comming soon: 5 Guys Burgers And Fries = Best Fast Burger Ever