Happy Thursday! Tomorrow is my first day off this week! I'm gonna watch movies alllllllllll day. Hurrah!
Since last week, this one kid at work has been sick, so I picked up at least three of his shifts. This week I was already scheduled yesterday, today, and Saturday equaling like 14 hours, and then I jumped in on Monday and Tuesday as well. So tired! Today even I got to sleep in until 10! Wow! But it's good, I'm getting better at working, and, like I say, I'm making all the monies.
I also successfully took and passed traffic school! That was fun. Learned some good jokes.
In between working and, like, traffic school, seen some movies. Squeezed in The Prestige between lunch with mom and work on Saturday. Hooboy I love that movie. And this week I have checked out Brick, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Seven Samurai, (and Heroes disk one, and Vantage Point, but those don't count because I've seen them both)--and my mom got some, including a French one we watched today, and IN BRUGES.
Watched In Bruges yesterday, and it's sorta my new favorite hitman movie. It's not particularly a hitman movie, other than that it has hitmen in it. It's funny and quirky and beautiful (in location and acting) and the muuuuusic is sooo good. Someone please buy this for me?
Um so that's really all that's happened this week. We're watching So You Think You Can Dance right now, it's not bad. One too many interpretive dance solos for my taste, but whatever. People are being kicked off. A six year old did some break dancing, which was really good. I like Joshua and Twitch, don't really care about any of the others.
Man I hate it when that lady screams.
Was it Comic-Con that was last weekend? Wish I had been there. Megan got to say hi to Simon Pegg, so !! I have no way to express my jealous glee in words.
So You Think You Can Dance is having an 80s acid trip right now. Whoa. You just have to see it. Pop music will never be low brow. You can take those words to the bank.
Oh, somewhere in this past times, we spent some time at the library, because I'm remembering when I read the script for Buffy's musical Once More, With Feeling. Anya kept talking about breakaway pop hits. It made me miss Buffy a lot, and glad that Joss got to achieve his dream by making a real musical like Dr. Horrible, and that he had a shot to figure things out in Buffy before going for it for real. Yeah, not sure at all if I'm being coherent. It's that time of day.
The fair has started! The fair! Ohhhhhhh I'm gonna go to the FAIR. I love the fair!!! I want to go one day all by myself and see everything. And take all the pictures. And NEXT YEAR I will enter photos. I promise it. (and hopefully work will continue to be dead because of the fair)
Happy birthday to Beth tomorrow!
-Stephanie
(ps Joshua and Twitch are both coming back next week.)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
The Dark Knight
Happy Thursday! It's been a good week. Let me tell you about it.
Friday, I never remember the contents of Fridays. I'm sure something happened on it. I'm fairly certain that I worked. That was probably it, I guess.
Saturday we saw Batman, and then I worked again. I suppose I'm entitled to give you my review of The Dark Knight.
It is, quite frankly, a very good movie. The style is refined, slick and dark as an oil spill. The story is complex and impacting; the acting is intense and spotless. It's really everything you want in a professional Batman story. That being said, I recognize and applaud its merits, but I didn't necessarily love it.
There were individual things, like certain characterizations or character decisions, that I questioned. I can't be specific because I don't want to give details and nothing really stands out in my mind now. I guess I just mean to say that while the movie was created by a group of geniuses, there were times when their work missed its mark with me--they did their jobs perfectly well, but it wasn't what I wanted to see. All in all, I didn't walk out of the theater thinking "wow, that was the best thing I've ever seen! I need to see it eighteen more times!!!" It was more of a "wow, that was a really well-done movie."
In the past year or so, I decided to start judging movies on two separate basis--whether they are good and whether I like them. This, I've found, clears up a lot of misunderstandings: No Country for Old Men is a Good Movie, but I Don't Like It. High School Musical is a Bad Movie, but I Love It. The Departed is a Bad Movie and I Hate It. Shaun of the Dead is a Good Movie, and I Love It. Good and Bad are based on technical, stylistic, and performance achievements; my enjoyment of these movies are only somewhat relative to these standards. I like movies that are fun, funny, or intellectual or moving or shocking, but always entertaining. While I appreciate the landmark The Dark Knight is in terms of the way it approached the Batman icon, and the really profound way it shapes Batman's world, it was just too long, complex, and intense for me to simply enjoy it.
It it wasn't part of the Batman franchise, I bet I wouldn't even like it. That's my stance on the matter.
Uhhh the rest of the week! Ended up renting Red Eye and The Prestige after Batman, but haven't got around to Prestige yet. (Now there is a long, complex, and intense movie that I do enjoy, because it's one of those omgmymindohhhhmymind movies that changes your life) Oh, also got the second Ultimate Avengers movie and there were really only two good parts--when the future Black Panther looked over at the elders, who glared at him, I said "They hate him," and about half a second later he says to his dad, "They hate me." The other was when Steven wanted Hank to die the whole movie long, and then he did. Oh, and also when Thor was recharging Tony with his magical lightning powers, I said "Pikachuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" It wasn't much better than the first, besides the fact that Tony ended up with both Jan AND Betty.
So I guess that means I also spent one of these days at Carolyn's house. Let's see, that must have been....Monday or Tuesday. My money's on Tuesday, but that's just a hunch. Yesterday I worked in the morning. Me and my mom also went out to lunch and to the mall and I got two new snappy polos. Wearing one right now. It's got a little lion on it.
I guess I've also been doing a bit of Pokemon, and official correspondence.
My once and future roommate Megan is at the ComicCon, and I am deeply jealous. She saw one of our professors there. Before that sounds strange, let me tell you I'm taking Sci-Fi Films from him next semester. She's also hoping to get into a panel where Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright etc are talking about Spaced, their old tv show. As is the rest of their work, it's fantastic. I've told you also that Wright is writing/directing Marvel's Ant-Man? Ant-Man is this same Hank that Steven hates so much. Poor Hank.
OH I REMEMBER NOW. The other way ComicCon and Carolyn's house relates is that the same day we watched the Avengers, we also watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, written/directed by Joss Whedon (who frequents ComicCon, and also Dr. P asked Megan yesterday if she'd seen it, and tomorrow she might be going to a panel about it) and it honestly might be my most favorite thing I've seen all summer. Rivalling Iron Man, honestly. It's three fifteen minute "episodes" designed for internet broadcast, starring Neil Patrick Harris as Doctor Horrible, and Nathan Fillion (of Firefly fame) as his arch-nemesis Captain Hammer. It's also a musical. That's about all I can coherently say about it. When the dvd comes out, I'll show it to you.
So today I also visited the house of Carolyn, and I brought Firefly to show Steven why I laughed so much when Captain Hammer started singing. But first we watched some old Host Club (still soooo good) and some Soul Eater (our new show, kinda similar to Host Club but in most ways not so similar), and it's just about set that we'll cosplay Soul Eater next year. We also played some Rock Band and I earned $60 to buy my guitarist a shirt that didn't have holes in it.
It was a pretty happy Thursday. Except for when I accidentally stepped on Donnie.
-Steph
Friday, I never remember the contents of Fridays. I'm sure something happened on it. I'm fairly certain that I worked. That was probably it, I guess.
Saturday we saw Batman, and then I worked again. I suppose I'm entitled to give you my review of The Dark Knight.
It is, quite frankly, a very good movie. The style is refined, slick and dark as an oil spill. The story is complex and impacting; the acting is intense and spotless. It's really everything you want in a professional Batman story. That being said, I recognize and applaud its merits, but I didn't necessarily love it.
There were individual things, like certain characterizations or character decisions, that I questioned. I can't be specific because I don't want to give details and nothing really stands out in my mind now. I guess I just mean to say that while the movie was created by a group of geniuses, there were times when their work missed its mark with me--they did their jobs perfectly well, but it wasn't what I wanted to see. All in all, I didn't walk out of the theater thinking "wow, that was the best thing I've ever seen! I need to see it eighteen more times!!!" It was more of a "wow, that was a really well-done movie."
In the past year or so, I decided to start judging movies on two separate basis--whether they are good and whether I like them. This, I've found, clears up a lot of misunderstandings: No Country for Old Men is a Good Movie, but I Don't Like It. High School Musical is a Bad Movie, but I Love It. The Departed is a Bad Movie and I Hate It. Shaun of the Dead is a Good Movie, and I Love It. Good and Bad are based on technical, stylistic, and performance achievements; my enjoyment of these movies are only somewhat relative to these standards. I like movies that are fun, funny, or intellectual or moving or shocking, but always entertaining. While I appreciate the landmark The Dark Knight is in terms of the way it approached the Batman icon, and the really profound way it shapes Batman's world, it was just too long, complex, and intense for me to simply enjoy it.
It it wasn't part of the Batman franchise, I bet I wouldn't even like it. That's my stance on the matter.
Uhhh the rest of the week! Ended up renting Red Eye and The Prestige after Batman, but haven't got around to Prestige yet. (Now there is a long, complex, and intense movie that I do enjoy, because it's one of those omgmymindohhhhmymind movies that changes your life) Oh, also got the second Ultimate Avengers movie and there were really only two good parts--when the future Black Panther looked over at the elders, who glared at him, I said "They hate him," and about half a second later he says to his dad, "They hate me." The other was when Steven wanted Hank to die the whole movie long, and then he did. Oh, and also when Thor was recharging Tony with his magical lightning powers, I said "Pikachuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" It wasn't much better than the first, besides the fact that Tony ended up with both Jan AND Betty.
So I guess that means I also spent one of these days at Carolyn's house. Let's see, that must have been....Monday or Tuesday. My money's on Tuesday, but that's just a hunch. Yesterday I worked in the morning. Me and my mom also went out to lunch and to the mall and I got two new snappy polos. Wearing one right now. It's got a little lion on it.
I guess I've also been doing a bit of Pokemon, and official correspondence.
My once and future roommate Megan is at the ComicCon, and I am deeply jealous. She saw one of our professors there. Before that sounds strange, let me tell you I'm taking Sci-Fi Films from him next semester. She's also hoping to get into a panel where Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright etc are talking about Spaced, their old tv show. As is the rest of their work, it's fantastic. I've told you also that Wright is writing/directing Marvel's Ant-Man? Ant-Man is this same Hank that Steven hates so much. Poor Hank.
OH I REMEMBER NOW. The other way ComicCon and Carolyn's house relates is that the same day we watched the Avengers, we also watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, written/directed by Joss Whedon (who frequents ComicCon, and also Dr. P asked Megan yesterday if she'd seen it, and tomorrow she might be going to a panel about it) and it honestly might be my most favorite thing I've seen all summer. Rivalling Iron Man, honestly. It's three fifteen minute "episodes" designed for internet broadcast, starring Neil Patrick Harris as Doctor Horrible, and Nathan Fillion (of Firefly fame) as his arch-nemesis Captain Hammer. It's also a musical. That's about all I can coherently say about it. When the dvd comes out, I'll show it to you.
So today I also visited the house of Carolyn, and I brought Firefly to show Steven why I laughed so much when Captain Hammer started singing. But first we watched some old Host Club (still soooo good) and some Soul Eater (our new show, kinda similar to Host Club but in most ways not so similar), and it's just about set that we'll cosplay Soul Eater next year. We also played some Rock Band and I earned $60 to buy my guitarist a shirt that didn't have holes in it.
It was a pretty happy Thursday. Except for when I accidentally stepped on Donnie.
-Steph
Thursday, July 17, 2008
I choose you, Batman!
Happy Thursday! This has been a really slow week! I've basically just looked at lolcats and played Pokemon. Very strange.
On Saturday, though, my aunt and uncle came down from Goleta and we had a fun barbecue. I made couscous! They brought their little dog Bentley, and he did not make friends with Donnie. We also made a cake that Josh and Michelle failed to frost, and so we ended up covering the failure with tea lights and pretty flowers. The adults were rather impressed.
Sunday Josh went home, but I went to Carolyn's for pho and Wall-E and playing at the arcade. They all were good. It was a long day. I wish I had more to say about Wall-E, but as far as stories go, it doesn't really hold up to Pixar's past (and that's besides the fact that it's also an ecology movie, which never really settle right with me). The graphics are singularly outstanding, don't get me wrong, and you should definitely see it, but I wouldn't say it's the best thing they've every done, not on the whole.
I pulled out this bucket from my closet which holds a segment of my childhood--I was looking for Star Wars Racer for the Gameboy, to see if it was a game I wanted to sell. Oh, it definitely is. Along with it, though, I found Pokemons Blue, Yellow, Gold, and Crystal, the very backbone of my middle years. I wanted to play one! I popped in Yellow, to see what I had been doing at the time, maybe I could erase it and start over? Oh, but no, I was seemingly in the middle of raising starter Pokemon to ridiculous levels without evolving them. Too precious an endeavor to rewrite. Gold, Crystal...I remember restarting Crystal a while ago, but I never even got the first badge because things were so complicated and not interesting. I really wanted to play something old school.
I snapped Blue into my berry pink Gameboy Color, not to restart it--no, Pokemon Blue is the first RPG I ever beat, my first Pokemon was Bulba the Bulbasaur (and Ivysaur, and Venasaur), and my first Pokemon to reach level 100 was my Persian Meowsy because it knew payday which got me money every battle. That game was stuffed as full with nostalgia as any Christmas turkey--I was just going to look and what I had done, maybe listen to the corrupted music files in my League scores entry. OH WAIT. DATA FILE DESTROYED my Gameboy tells me happily. I mourn my lost childhood for about 15 seconds before I choose New Game.
I started with a Charmander this time, named him Bade. Before we went to dinner today, I taught my Sandshrew Wolverine CUT, so now I can get into all those secret places. Also have a Golbat named Batman, and a Magikarp named Sub-Mariner ('cause you know it's gonna be a Gyrados someday!) and I'm hoping to eventually have a DC team and a Marvel team. Ohohohoh my Geekdoms collide.
I also got a Piplup card from Burger King. Yes, in my Big Kids' Meal. Here's some trivia for you--it was actually Pokemon which converted me from McDonald's to Burger King all those years ago, when their toys were those Pokeballs with the Pokemons inside, I still have my two Koffings, Eevee, Electabuzz, and Pikachu from then. Right there in the same box.
Yeah, other than that, lolcats. Icanhascheezburger.com. Gotta get Donnie to wear the little sombrero long enough to get a pic of him.
Michelle's going back to Seattle tomorrow, but I have to work so I don't get to go on the LA adventure that will ensue. While she packed today, I sat in the hallway outside her room with my Zune and the big ol' speakers my bro got me a while back, and DJ'd. While, of course, raising my Pokemans. Oops, I think I left them there, right where everyone's going to trip all over them.
YEAH ALRIGHT. IT'S LATE NOW AND IT'S TIME TO WATCH TV. HAPPY THURSDAY TO US ALL.
-Stephanie!
On Saturday, though, my aunt and uncle came down from Goleta and we had a fun barbecue. I made couscous! They brought their little dog Bentley, and he did not make friends with Donnie. We also made a cake that Josh and Michelle failed to frost, and so we ended up covering the failure with tea lights and pretty flowers. The adults were rather impressed.
Sunday Josh went home, but I went to Carolyn's for pho and Wall-E and playing at the arcade. They all were good. It was a long day. I wish I had more to say about Wall-E, but as far as stories go, it doesn't really hold up to Pixar's past (and that's besides the fact that it's also an ecology movie, which never really settle right with me). The graphics are singularly outstanding, don't get me wrong, and you should definitely see it, but I wouldn't say it's the best thing they've every done, not on the whole.
I pulled out this bucket from my closet which holds a segment of my childhood--I was looking for Star Wars Racer for the Gameboy, to see if it was a game I wanted to sell. Oh, it definitely is. Along with it, though, I found Pokemons Blue, Yellow, Gold, and Crystal, the very backbone of my middle years. I wanted to play one! I popped in Yellow, to see what I had been doing at the time, maybe I could erase it and start over? Oh, but no, I was seemingly in the middle of raising starter Pokemon to ridiculous levels without evolving them. Too precious an endeavor to rewrite. Gold, Crystal...I remember restarting Crystal a while ago, but I never even got the first badge because things were so complicated and not interesting. I really wanted to play something old school.
I snapped Blue into my berry pink Gameboy Color, not to restart it--no, Pokemon Blue is the first RPG I ever beat, my first Pokemon was Bulba the Bulbasaur (and Ivysaur, and Venasaur), and my first Pokemon to reach level 100 was my Persian Meowsy because it knew payday which got me money every battle. That game was stuffed as full with nostalgia as any Christmas turkey--I was just going to look and what I had done, maybe listen to the corrupted music files in my League scores entry. OH WAIT. DATA FILE DESTROYED my Gameboy tells me happily. I mourn my lost childhood for about 15 seconds before I choose New Game.
I started with a Charmander this time, named him Bade. Before we went to dinner today, I taught my Sandshrew Wolverine CUT, so now I can get into all those secret places. Also have a Golbat named Batman, and a Magikarp named Sub-Mariner ('cause you know it's gonna be a Gyrados someday!) and I'm hoping to eventually have a DC team and a Marvel team. Ohohohoh my Geekdoms collide.
I also got a Piplup card from Burger King. Yes, in my Big Kids' Meal. Here's some trivia for you--it was actually Pokemon which converted me from McDonald's to Burger King all those years ago, when their toys were those Pokeballs with the Pokemons inside, I still have my two Koffings, Eevee, Electabuzz, and Pikachu from then. Right there in the same box.
Yeah, other than that, lolcats. Icanhascheezburger.com. Gotta get Donnie to wear the little sombrero long enough to get a pic of him.
Michelle's going back to Seattle tomorrow, but I have to work so I don't get to go on the LA adventure that will ensue. While she packed today, I sat in the hallway outside her room with my Zune and the big ol' speakers my bro got me a while back, and DJ'd. While, of course, raising my Pokemans. Oops, I think I left them there, right where everyone's going to trip all over them.
YEAH ALRIGHT. IT'S LATE NOW AND IT'S TIME TO WATCH TV. HAPPY THURSDAY TO US ALL.
-Stephanie!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
AX Report: 08
Happy Thursday! Another great AX this year, everyone! Good work! Much better than last year. LA convention center is really nice, but the hotels are pretty far away--here, look, here's what's great about Anaheim:
-next to Disneyland
-a thousand hotels within two blocks
-fireworks every night
-everyone knows where everything is
-there are other things; I forgot
Long Beach had none of these things, well, I guess our hotel was right across the street, but I have a thing against those high class hotels. Too small and too fancy and too expensive. Anaheim has the best Best Westerns, which are homey and roomy and have free breakfast and microwaves and bunkbeds and are reasonably priced and don't usually have elevators.
LA didn't have everything that Anaheim has, and the hotels were all super far away, but this allowed for a bus system which actually turned out to be something BETTER than Anaheim, because we didn't have to walk through hot heat LA July weather. But the weather was really nice, anyway, and the walk wouldn't have been that bad anyway (just about 20 minutes long). And similarly, the convention center was ginormous but indoors, so while at Anaheim you have to go to the other hotels to see certain panels, and at Long Beach you have to walk two blocks down to the exhibit hall, everything at LA was under one roof and thoroughly air conditioned.
Plenty of people. We got there early because Carolyn went Day 0 and got all our badges (no three hour line this year, kiddos!) and we ended up sitting on this second level looking at this plaza where the exhibition hall line was forming--at this point it was less of a line and more of a mob, and then we watched them flow in right under us, pointing out all the cosplayers we saw.
Cosplay was pretty good this year. A good amount of really good looking costumes, although I'd say maybe not as many that I recognized. I really haven't been much in the anime loop this last year, besides the super popular shows. I do think, though, that our group was one of the best cosplays of the place, especially because of our size. At one point we had nine of us, give or take some members. One person would stop and take our picture, and then we'd pose, and then thirty more people would flock over and snap snap snap. I'm entirely certain that on the last day we had our picture taken about 200 times. Cosplay is my favorite part, and I think we utterly succeeded this year.
The masks started breaking, though, but mostly they were emergency patched up with buckets of glue and even staples. Mine only needed two repair jobs, but I was immensely stupid and left it on top of Dorothy's car right when we left. So it is no more. But it was really amazing and definitely the high point of all our costumes. Thanks to Carolyn!
The exhibit hall was large, but looked the same as ever. Not so many exciting things to buy, and I'm proud to say I only bought three things for myself: A Naruto watch (with Lee on it), a Squiddy keychain, and a FFXII manga. Altogether that was only $16, a record low I bet. But I also bought stuff for Carolyn and Jacqi's birthdays, and for some school friends. I consider the pictures I take and those that are taken of me to be just as valuable as the nerdy swag I bring home, so I also enjoyed this AX because of the cheapness of the memories.
The shirt booth had the Captain America shirt I want, but they only had it in medium. :[
There was also a Famima!! on the street between the hotel and the convention center, but it was continuously set upon by the plague of locusts masquerading as anime fans, so it was kind of disappointing. The UFO-flavored yakisoba that we cooked with water from the coffee maker was rather good, though.
There was swimming, as usual, and much kids-tv watching-- 4th of July had a Chowder marathon, which is this crazy cartoon I'd never seen before, but now I might be a fan due to the sheer number of episodes I watched consecutively. Rada, rada. Caught the hotdog eating contest, of course, too bad Kobayashi didn't win. Chestnut totally cheated in that tie breaker. I almost recommend The Breed to you, just because it follows the B-horror movie formula very well. Spoiler: the black guy does indeed die first. It also took us three days to discover that there was a giant food court in our hotel.
I haven't put any of the pictures onto my camera yet, but I will. Since my flickr's full, I'll probably just be making Facebook albums. I can give you the public links to those.
Funny stories include me telling people the corndogs had just come out of the onions, Steven asking me what egg rolls were, Carolyn saying her chopsticks were full of staples, that lady in the lobby who just stared and stared and smiled and stared, when me and Steven laughed at each other for half an hour in the middle of the night, when Daniel told Hannah she should cosplay blindfold!Riku with a blind person's cane, and many more.
The rest of this week has been work and my sister and Josh came down to visit. Also, Carolyn turned 21. When we drove down to get them we took PCH and it rained for like 40 seconds. Oh, I also went to the dentist and they didn't tell me anything I hadn't heard before. Watched a lot of Outer Limits this morning, some of it was particularly well-acted.
-Stephanie
-next to Disneyland
-a thousand hotels within two blocks
-fireworks every night
-everyone knows where everything is
-there are other things; I forgot
Long Beach had none of these things, well, I guess our hotel was right across the street, but I have a thing against those high class hotels. Too small and too fancy and too expensive. Anaheim has the best Best Westerns, which are homey and roomy and have free breakfast and microwaves and bunkbeds and are reasonably priced and don't usually have elevators.
LA didn't have everything that Anaheim has, and the hotels were all super far away, but this allowed for a bus system which actually turned out to be something BETTER than Anaheim, because we didn't have to walk through hot heat LA July weather. But the weather was really nice, anyway, and the walk wouldn't have been that bad anyway (just about 20 minutes long). And similarly, the convention center was ginormous but indoors, so while at Anaheim you have to go to the other hotels to see certain panels, and at Long Beach you have to walk two blocks down to the exhibit hall, everything at LA was under one roof and thoroughly air conditioned.
Plenty of people. We got there early because Carolyn went Day 0 and got all our badges (no three hour line this year, kiddos!) and we ended up sitting on this second level looking at this plaza where the exhibition hall line was forming--at this point it was less of a line and more of a mob, and then we watched them flow in right under us, pointing out all the cosplayers we saw.
Cosplay was pretty good this year. A good amount of really good looking costumes, although I'd say maybe not as many that I recognized. I really haven't been much in the anime loop this last year, besides the super popular shows. I do think, though, that our group was one of the best cosplays of the place, especially because of our size. At one point we had nine of us, give or take some members. One person would stop and take our picture, and then we'd pose, and then thirty more people would flock over and snap snap snap. I'm entirely certain that on the last day we had our picture taken about 200 times. Cosplay is my favorite part, and I think we utterly succeeded this year.
The masks started breaking, though, but mostly they were emergency patched up with buckets of glue and even staples. Mine only needed two repair jobs, but I was immensely stupid and left it on top of Dorothy's car right when we left. So it is no more. But it was really amazing and definitely the high point of all our costumes. Thanks to Carolyn!
The exhibit hall was large, but looked the same as ever. Not so many exciting things to buy, and I'm proud to say I only bought three things for myself: A Naruto watch (with Lee on it), a Squiddy keychain, and a FFXII manga. Altogether that was only $16, a record low I bet. But I also bought stuff for Carolyn and Jacqi's birthdays, and for some school friends. I consider the pictures I take and those that are taken of me to be just as valuable as the nerdy swag I bring home, so I also enjoyed this AX because of the cheapness of the memories.
The shirt booth had the Captain America shirt I want, but they only had it in medium. :[
There was also a Famima!! on the street between the hotel and the convention center, but it was continuously set upon by the plague of locusts masquerading as anime fans, so it was kind of disappointing. The UFO-flavored yakisoba that we cooked with water from the coffee maker was rather good, though.
There was swimming, as usual, and much kids-tv watching-- 4th of July had a Chowder marathon, which is this crazy cartoon I'd never seen before, but now I might be a fan due to the sheer number of episodes I watched consecutively. Rada, rada. Caught the hotdog eating contest, of course, too bad Kobayashi didn't win. Chestnut totally cheated in that tie breaker. I almost recommend The Breed to you, just because it follows the B-horror movie formula very well. Spoiler: the black guy does indeed die first. It also took us three days to discover that there was a giant food court in our hotel.
I haven't put any of the pictures onto my camera yet, but I will. Since my flickr's full, I'll probably just be making Facebook albums. I can give you the public links to those.
Funny stories include me telling people the corndogs had just come out of the onions, Steven asking me what egg rolls were, Carolyn saying her chopsticks were full of staples, that lady in the lobby who just stared and stared and smiled and stared, when me and Steven laughed at each other for half an hour in the middle of the night, when Daniel told Hannah she should cosplay blindfold!Riku with a blind person's cane, and many more.
The rest of this week has been work and my sister and Josh came down to visit. Also, Carolyn turned 21. When we drove down to get them we took PCH and it rained for like 40 seconds. Oh, I also went to the dentist and they didn't tell me anything I hadn't heard before. Watched a lot of Outer Limits this morning, some of it was particularly well-acted.
-Stephanie
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
AX Thursday
Happy Thursday! I'm cheating and starting writing this on Wednesday, so when Thursday rolls around I can stop and post it and go to bed. I have to get up at six! The AX is here!
The AX is the Anime Expo, which I guess I feel needs an introduction this year. We're going Thurs-Sun, and staying in a hotel with a bunchload of people and dressing up as ANBU ninja from Naruto. Since I'm lazy, if you just google anbu you'll probably come up with an idea of what we look like. Also, if you wait a week, I'll have pictures and then you'll really know. I think this year we're pretty spot-on, and we'll have an army and we'll be really really cool.
Carolyn went to Day 0 and got our badges ahead of time, so we'll miss out on the morning-long line waiting we're so accustomed to. So we'll just show up and BE at the AX. Pretty exciting.
Um, I can't think of what else to say about the AX. I'll probably have lots more to say when it's actually over. Along with the pictures. Probably a story per picture. I take pictures of buildings and other cosplayers, so yeah.
Still obsessed with Tokio Hotel, just so you know.
Still working at Blockbuster. Started doing cashier, and that's pretty threatening to me. The standard check-out is fine and easy, but when things start popping up on the screen I sort of have mini break downs. Also, I still seem to be deathly afraid of phones. It's like a physical freeze-up/panic when the phone rings. All I have to say is "Thanks for calling Blockbuster on Johnson Dr, this is Stephanie," but it's still awful.
Checking movies in and restocking them is pretty fun. So are training modules. And free rentals, which I need to start taking advantage of. It's sort of part of my job, so I can make educated comments to further the "delight" of the "Members." That's company policy.
Did I see Speedracer between last Thursday and now? I believe so. It was pretty good! So many beautiful epilepsy-inducing colors. Speed Racer himself was pretty adorable, and even Matthew Fox had a performance I could appreciate. Also saw Vantage Point, which was also surprisingly solid. Superhero Movie? Eh, if you like that sort of thing, go for it.
I really want to see Kung Fu Panda, Wall-E, Hancock, and Batman when it comes out. And others, I forget. My watch just beeped but it's two minutes fast, so I'm killing time before Thursday. I go by my computer time as REAL LIFE time, just so you know. Most of my other, mobile time keepers are somewhat faster--I just knocked my phone back from four minutes to just two minutes fast, because my watchband broke and I have to use my phone for time, and I need to be accurate because there's another clock, a time clock, which needs to record when I arrive and depart, and it's important to be somewhat in sync with that.
Okay, Happy Thursday, folks! I gotta pack in the rest of my beautiful costume and go to sleep! I wish you all could come with us, but it's a little too late now. Next year?
-Stephanie
(it says I posted it on Weds, but that's a lie--that's just when I started writing it. It's really Thursday right now)
The AX is the Anime Expo, which I guess I feel needs an introduction this year. We're going Thurs-Sun, and staying in a hotel with a bunchload of people and dressing up as ANBU ninja from Naruto. Since I'm lazy, if you just google anbu you'll probably come up with an idea of what we look like. Also, if you wait a week, I'll have pictures and then you'll really know. I think this year we're pretty spot-on, and we'll have an army and we'll be really really cool.
Carolyn went to Day 0 and got our badges ahead of time, so we'll miss out on the morning-long line waiting we're so accustomed to. So we'll just show up and BE at the AX. Pretty exciting.
Um, I can't think of what else to say about the AX. I'll probably have lots more to say when it's actually over. Along with the pictures. Probably a story per picture. I take pictures of buildings and other cosplayers, so yeah.
Still obsessed with Tokio Hotel, just so you know.
Still working at Blockbuster. Started doing cashier, and that's pretty threatening to me. The standard check-out is fine and easy, but when things start popping up on the screen I sort of have mini break downs. Also, I still seem to be deathly afraid of phones. It's like a physical freeze-up/panic when the phone rings. All I have to say is "Thanks for calling Blockbuster on Johnson Dr, this is Stephanie," but it's still awful.
Checking movies in and restocking them is pretty fun. So are training modules. And free rentals, which I need to start taking advantage of. It's sort of part of my job, so I can make educated comments to further the "delight" of the "Members." That's company policy.
Did I see Speedracer between last Thursday and now? I believe so. It was pretty good! So many beautiful epilepsy-inducing colors. Speed Racer himself was pretty adorable, and even Matthew Fox had a performance I could appreciate. Also saw Vantage Point, which was also surprisingly solid. Superhero Movie? Eh, if you like that sort of thing, go for it.
I really want to see Kung Fu Panda, Wall-E, Hancock, and Batman when it comes out. And others, I forget. My watch just beeped but it's two minutes fast, so I'm killing time before Thursday. I go by my computer time as REAL LIFE time, just so you know. Most of my other, mobile time keepers are somewhat faster--I just knocked my phone back from four minutes to just two minutes fast, because my watchband broke and I have to use my phone for time, and I need to be accurate because there's another clock, a time clock, which needs to record when I arrive and depart, and it's important to be somewhat in sync with that.
Okay, Happy Thursday, folks! I gotta pack in the rest of my beautiful costume and go to sleep! I wish you all could come with us, but it's a little too late now. Next year?
-Stephanie
(it says I posted it on Weds, but that's a lie--that's just when I started writing it. It's really Thursday right now)
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