Thursday, March 26, 2009

Home Alone

Happy Thursday! Today my folks flew off in a plane to visit their other, fancier daughter in France. They left me alone to fend for myself. I have already learned something fantastic!

A tip for if you want to make something delicious:
a good place to start is to not microwave celery.

The reason this blog comes so late in the day when recently I've been pretty good at getting it in before 11 is because I just put in all my pictures from Space Trains Day! and i was too busy looking at them. They're going into Facebook right after this.

Space Trains Day! was slightly different than expected. Trains museum WAS as uninteractive as you might imagine, which made some people antsy. I'd like to go back, but I'm not sure what I would do there. Maybe go on the train ride.

I drove all day long, with no deaths. Yay! Carolyn went with me, and we met Sam, Gareth, and Jake at the Trains. Beth was late because she got lost? And then we tried to find Famima!! but everything broke right about then.

I drew a vague map for the boys to follow, but they got lost and we very nearly never saw them again. Us girls ended up at the right place but alas there was no Famima!! to be found. We ended up at San Sai, where Brianna found us! San Sai was fun, what with its sketchy restrooms and second-hand salads.

We all met back up at the Observatory, where parking was almost nonexistent. We found the boys, but evidently their lunchtime adventures were even more sketchy than ours, and they had to go home. So that was a sadface. Maybe another day for an adventure, guys!

I ended up being pretty distracted at the Observatory, probably from driving stress and too many people and having read all the signs before. So I didn't really pay attention to anything or learn anything. Ended up singing "We love the moon!" for half an hour. ('Cause it is close to us.) Liked the planetarium show, but next time I'm going to remember that I've seen that one already, and try to see a different show. Also need to remember to go on a weekday. (But afternoon, so all the kids have gone home?)

I also drove home without any fatalities, too. Good jorb!

The rest of this week has been mainly sewing oriented. I made two matching pillowcases out of the cheapo deal fabric I got from the thrift store, and made some throw pillow cases from overly expensive designer scraps from Michael's. Want to buy one? I'll put pictures of those on Facebook, too.

Today I brought Subway to my mom for lunch and we sat in my car like the cool kids. And then I came home and played FFXII. Balthier is level 99 now! That's my boy.

OH. Balthier reminded me, because all day I've been calling him Baltar.

BSG ended! And what an ending. I really loved it, until I read some whiners' comments on the internet. I mean, I still love it, but they were obnoxious. The sickeningly sweet happy ending they evidently expected would have tarnished whatever this show might have stood for. Oh my gosh you guys, grow up and stop being fools. That was directed to the whiners.

It was a good ending. And ending worthy of the show that preceded it. I want to say I laughed, I cried, but really it wasn't big on the comedy. I did, however, have to pry my claw-like hands from my Leoben toaster at commercials. The anxiety/excitement ramped me up more than any television event has. I could feel my pulse in my hands. AND I got sick from the adrenaline after it was all over and couldn't sleep for hours. It was great.

I can't wait to watch it all over again.

-Steph

Thursday, March 19, 2009

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Happy Thursday! It was a day bookended in fog, and it was just splendid. I took pictures of the creepy morning, but I'm too lazy to get them out of my camera. They'll end up on Facebook eventually. It was an unexpected change from the last two hottish days, but a magical one. You couldn't see the mountains from downtown and it was like some mythical place hidden from the outside world.

I highly enjoyed my day, because in addition to the mystical weather, I spent it wandering around the town, going where I wanted to go and doing what I wanted to do. Now, yes, I do that every day, but usually it doesn't involve going outside. To places where other people are, anyway.

There's this Mediterranean/Argentinian/Italian deli just on the downtown side of midtown, and first I went there for lunch. The last and first time I went there, I had the curry chicken salad sandwich, which arguably may be my first introduction to the concept. I got that again! But this time on a pita. And with a Greek salad (a real one, no lettuce) and a baklava for after. This all sound delicious, but actually it was all just regular tasting, nothing special. OH WELL. It was still fun.

From there I walked over to Fabric Town because Jo-Ann's has gone out of business. Fabric Town is where all the old ladies go to buy yarn. Fabric Town (, USA!) is the imperious, over-cultivated, under-accessible, senile old great-aunt of the textile etc. retail family. I bought safety pins. And a yard of 7-inch wide brown poplin scrap on sale for $1.31, which we'll come back to later.

Then I tried to find the Asian market I've seen around there but never been to. I failed. It was another block up. But I got distracted by the crazy intersection between me and it, and the used book store across the street saying EVERYTHING 20% OFF. So I went there instead.

Now there are two things I always look for in used book stores, thrift stores, anywhere that they have cheap books. These are anything from the Shannara series by Terry Brooks, and anything in the Ender's Game series (Orson Scott Card). I love the way the old books look, because I first read the Shannara books on loan from my brother's collection, and I don't know where he got them, but their condition was second-hand. So that's how my collection has to be. They just have a character that comes through in creased binding and bent pages. So at this bookstore, what do I find but ONE OF EACH?! And that I don't already own. Finds!! Absolute finds. I also picked up a book on space, because who doesn't love space!

It was getting a little chilly by then, the later it was getting and the closer I was getting to the ocean. But I decided to head out to the end of Main St., where all the good thrifting is. But I only hit up one place, the only place that regularly stocks military fatigues. (For my BSG cosplay) But they only had one jacket that wasn't in camo, and it was way humongous. So I wandered over to the books to see if my good luck was going to hold out.

No Brooks or Card, but I did see Dune. I picked it up but I put it back when I found THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN RAILROAD in a giant book that came in a case like a VHS. It was nine dollars, so that's why I put Dune back. But I also picked up an old hiking/tourism book for lesser-known points of interest in Israel, which is a beautiful place. In the side room of the thrift store, I found great amounts of green fabric, and pretty plaid for two dollars apiece. Thanks for the rip-off, Fabric Town!

I bought this fabric because I couldn't sleep last night and (impossibly?) dreamt up this idea that I want to sew pillows and/or pillowcases. That green/plaid combo is going to make some beautiful matching pillowcases. And maybe even some pillows with the left overs! (seriously, that tiny scrap from Fabric Town is a tenth the size, for three-fourths the price)

If I make cute pillows, will you buy them?

What if they're quillows? Pillows with quilted cases? I WILL START A MAJOR TEXTILE TREND!

So that was my beautiful day. Then I went to work and it was dead, dead, dead. Ugh. And we can't sell Rewards anymore because they're updating the membership laws or something, and don't want to confuse people when they change up everything. OH ALSO: Good News! Our stock is going back up. I shoulda bought some when we bottomed out. Darn.

Speaking of thrifting, me and Carolyn went Adventure!Thrifting on Saturday. In Oxnard! The strange thing about our sister city is that there's really no reason to ever go there, so there's this perfectly good city sitting right there that's virtually a complete mystery. Unfortunate! We only found two thrift stores, and one was ginormous and full of stuff (I got shoes to use in cosplay, FOUR TAPES FOR A DOLLAR, and a Batman mug) and the other one was cramped and chaotic. The rest of the adventure was dangerous! I mean, fun.

Then we went to Carolyn's house and she played Portal through while I napped/watched/helped. Funny, funny game. I enjoyed it a lot.

I didn't watch any tv this week except for HIMYM. Strange episode, although Barney's "I've never seen it," "never seen it," "I already said," bits while everyone else is saying that they watch Robin's show made me laugh so much. Anyway, was there a new CHUCK? LOST? HEROES wasn't new, I know. I do think my Thurs sitcoms were new, but I was at work. And instead of CASTLE I watched the BSG "Last Frakking Special," which will also be on tomorrow. Let's move on to BSG.

So tomorrow is a special day. At 7, they're showing that special again. At 8, last week's episode. 9-11 is the two hour series finale EVENT. Deep breath. It will be ending, but there are so many of you who must prepare yourselves for when I get it on blu-ray and force you into marathons. Wait, who am I kidding. I'll only have to force you through the opening credits. You'll marathon under your own will, I promise you that.

Me and my mom are going to party it up. Snacks, and, you know, whatever else makes something a party. I think I'll pop out and find the first season soundtrack, too, 'cause I still want that something fierce. And then we'll sit back and let history happen.

One last note, you may find my purchasing books on space and trains somewhat odd, or perhaps original. But let me assure you, these are deep-seated interests. Profound interests, even. Things I love but don't talk about very much I like to call my secret loves (like I love Japanese food but Greek food is my secret love, or I love the arts but physics is my secret love). Maybe space and trains aren't necessarily secret loves, but still. This weekend, for my birthday (I know, lol), I'm making everyone go with me on Space Trains Day! which is a day outing to the train museum I always pass on the freeway and say I neeeeed to gooooo theeeerrrrrreee and the Griffith Observatory, which I hands down flat out LOVED when I went last.

So I'm looking forward to that.

I hope all of you had an equally beautiful Thursday, and I hope you didn't crash in the fog.

-Steph

Thursday, March 12, 2009

--DARY. Legendary.

Happy Thursday! I really didn't mean to leave that hanging from last week, I just forgot to finish it. So let's pretend like I did it on purpose (I'm referring to the "legendary").

I'm 22 now! As of Tuesday. There was a full moon that day, and as everyone knows the full moon depicts a rabbit grinding mochi. I was also born in the year of the rabbit, and in the spring the Easter Bunny makes an appearance. Here's another gem: A group of rabbits or hares is often called a fluffle in parts of Northern Canada.

I spent the majority of my birthday sleeping, a secondary amount photoshopping, and a third amount cooking. You've all seen my new Facebook picture, right? That took a while. Let me tell you about cooking!

I made some red beans-not-quite-paste the day before, and was making the mochi for them by the time my birthday started. That was not really a success, on the whole. The mochi is the right consistency but tastes hella strange, and the beans were not exactly cooked to perfection. Better luck next time.

For dinner I made the best curry I've ever made. I usually get the mild box, right? But last time I tried adding an apple to it, but that cut the flavor out almost entirely. So this time I got the medium hot box, and the apple cut it down to perfect flavor. And the potatoes! Never before have I cooked potatoes to such a fine consistency! Usually I cook them too long and when I'm stirring in the curry they mash up and make the whole thing a sludgy brick. But I cut them big this time and added them late, so I thought maybe they'd end up undercooked--but seriously, this curry was a birthday miracle.

Which is great, since I'm pretty certain Japanese curry is my favorite food.

I also made a batch of bao dough, but I misread the directions and neglected to add the half-cup of sugar that would have made it light and fluffy. It's still delicious, but about a third of the amount it should have made. Filled half of it with some red bean, and the other half with curry, haha! Multitasking my food. The threads of my plan come together.

My mom made me a strawberry cake, which you may have seen on Facebook. It's delicious. She also got me this fantastic costume (yes, the pants are as ridiculous as they look), but now I just gotta find a set of fatigues in my size and I'm basically set to crew the Galactica.

She also got me a Cylon toaster, whose handiwork you can also find in my Facebook birthday album. I named him Leoben, and he loves me.

Carolyn dropped by after school and had cake with us, and brought me a book on writing comics and the IN BRUGES soundtrack. Collection complete! (Movie, screenplay, soundtrack) It's a very beautiful soundtrack~

So thanks, everybody!

I also got a speakerphone call from the roomies at the very start of my birthday, which was unintelligibly hilarious. And a birthday song from Sam and Gareth, which I missed due to the party line nonsense. And then I called Beth at the second nighttime of my birthday, inquiring about the make of a vodka martini, and received appropriate instruction on that matter. Not very delicious, but much less disgusting than I'd expected.

So that was my birthday! I also listened to a bunch of podcasts. And took a walk to the store.

I spent most of today writing a story, with a nine hour sleep break in between. (Much like how my week starts midway through the contemporary week, my day starts at a comparable mid-point to the contemporary day.) It's sure to be epic! Or at least not-fail. I'll have to look at it again tomorrow. Then you all can see it!

With a few exceptions, everything I saw this week was better than average. Particular props to THE OFFICE and 30 ROCK today, and I enjoyed CHUCK a lot more than I'd expected to. BSG I don't remember (sad) and its second-to-last episode is tomorrow. Deep breath. HEROES was of course sub-par, although I have to say I thought the end was super adorable. In a slightly creepy way.

DOLLHOUSE? Don't remember. HIMYM? Plain. LOST? Not new this week? CASTLE? Eh. And KINGS is up and running this weekend. I'll let you know how that goes.

I also saw MOMENTO today, but it was ruined for me by conversation about it, so I'll discuss it no further.

I would also like to say that I have six Pokemon sitting on my desk watching me, and I feel no shame at all for it.

-Steph

Thursday, March 05, 2009

A Home Depot Waits in Barstow

Happy Thursday! I am going to tell you all about my super fun weekend in Azusa!

It started Friday night, when I packed up my green sixties suitcase and went to work. Then, after work at like 10PM, I drove across the freeway to Oxnard. Why?! Because my blinker was broken. Oh well. Then I drove to Azusa.

Once there I hung out with Megan in our bittersweet old room, looking at all the free promotional dvds she'd acquired from her hookup aka internship. We watched the secret, unlabeled disc, which spawned my new trademark slogan, "wanna bullet?" and trademark gangsta arm wave.

Then we locked the door to keep out the other roommate and former roommates (it was the unfortunate reunion of the former roommates night) and tried to go to sleep. Except for the aforementioned party having a half hour conversation with the neighbors on the deck right outside our window. Just like the good ol' days.

On Saturday I woke up just in time for Sam to come over. We went to Rolling Rice, which is one of the things they built to spite me when I left. He was in shows that day, and he alerted us to the existence of the matinee show at 2. We went to that. I sat next to Jake!

The show was "A Night of One Acts," and there were four little shows in it. The first one was ...a show, the second was Sam's and super cute, the third was well acted but contextless, and the fourth was racy. I liked it.

Then me and Megan and Beth drove to Barstow.

We were heading to "the desert" and Beth "knew where it was." Then we turned around and went to Victorville for dinner. Olive Garden! Did you know, children, that when they sing the birthday song there, an angel dies? True story! They fall straight out of heaven and smash into the restaurant. We heard it all night. I can only imagine that the roof of the Olive Garden is littered with angel bodies in various states of decay.

Saturday night we tried to go to sleep because the call time for Megan's shoot was at like six in the morning. It didn't work. I ended up having a frustrating dream (highlights include witnessing the new Godzilla show -- "this show is really unsafe. What if someone gets hit with a fireball?" -- arguing with my mom about the last time I visited the school -- "I went to the giant stapler YESTERDAY, mom!!" -- and trying to take a test with a fraying orange marker -- "I'm using a PEN!!") I got maybe like a half hour of sleep and was pretty happy when Megan's alarm went off at 5:30.

Shooting was fun, but also not fun. This is for the class I would have taken if they'd offered it last semester but they didn't so I had to do Ink-Man instead. It was cool to see people again, and to loiter behind a camera (and momentarily in front of it). It was also fun to schlep equipment back into the trailer. I was always good at that.

My all time favorite part of being on set? Free food. Tell your friends.

But the last few hours of the day were pretty, what, lingering. It was a 12-hour day, I reckon. And since I didn't actually have an assigned job, I spent a lot of time at the second location just sitting. We didn't get out of there when we thought we were going to, so there was no time for naps directly following. Oh, let me mention another fun story: a crew member wore a "got your tickets to the gun show?" shirt, with arrows pointing in the direction of his arms. For some reason, when it came up, he said that it was a funny joke--if he were a big guy wearing it, he'd be a tool. So that's where Megan got her trademark catchphrase, "I'm a tool!" and the accompanying gangsta shoulder pop (and lock and jam and break).

We didn't get naps because Sam was done with his daytime activities by the time we got home. So we caught each other up on youtube videos and went to get dinner. They went to Rolling Rice again, and I went to the Greek place.

We ended up back at our place (now gifted with Gareth's presence) and watched BLACKADDER II, which is a British period sitcom from '86. Wacky! I especially got a kick out of Queen Elizabeth I, who often and in lieu of an actual response, would just emit a brief, shrill yelp. We followed that up with some HIMYM, the episode "Slap Bet" which features Robin Sparkle's smash hit Let's Go To the Mall!

I probably watched that another two or three times before the night was up.

Monday morning was chapel, of course, and the hilarity usually associated with that. Then me and Sam hung out in Heritage and listened to Let's Go To The mall! seventeen times and had lunch. Then he went to class and I went to the ER to look at INK-MAN.

No news there. It's still not done.

Then I went to Megan's class for which the filming was occurring. Saw the assembly cut for the other film, too, which looked crazy. They had all night shoots, five to five. So I'm pretty glad I was on the one I was on.

Then Megan and I went home to watch some BSG (she's only on season THREE), but we only got in one episode and then it was nap time. It was still naptime when Beth got back from class at 6:30. Then we noodled around and did nothing, and then Brianna came home. SHE is only starting season TWO. And don't even get me started on Beth.

The plan was, I was going to stick around and watch HIMYM and HEROES at their place and then bug out. And that's mostly what happened. HIMYM was the new episode I'd already seen on the internet, and Megan "did not approve" of me watching HEROES. So me and Beth went out to get dinner while that was going on.

Rolling Rice just closed, so they had to get Panda. I went to the Greek place.

And then we made fun of HEROES until it was over and I went home.

Work's okay. Blockbuster's probably going to file bankruptcy, but they're going to try not to. Go rent a movie.

And today I doodled around with my HIMYM spec, and sorta helped my mom set up for her open house. Free dinner (for me).

I'll finish up with a brief Media Circus because there were one or two pretty exciting things.

DOLLHOUSE
Finally watched the second and third episodes and I don't hate it. I mean, I don't even think it's bad like most people do. It's certainly not at the level I naturally expect from a Whedon project, but it's not like each episode is worse than the last. It's just kinda slow getting to the punch. Tahmoh doesn't shine like he does in BSG, but I was literally surprised speechless at the Mark Sheppard scene. I think I knew he was on board, but I'd forgotten.

Fun game: six degrees to Joss Whedon. Gets easier by the day.

CHUCK
This show is starting to lose some of its sparkle. Chuck likes Sarah and Sarah knows and Sarah likes Chuck and Chuck knows and Casey is basically trying to set them up. This is not a situation that can continue indefinitely (although it's worked pretty well so far; so I could be wrong).

HEROES
I watched it for reals on Tuesday. Zachary Quinto had a breathtaking moment, mixing hardcore Sylar face with a glint of repressed emotion at an act break. Don't remember what else happened other than Claire was forty five years old and Nathan loves Peter.

HIMYM!
Now I'm caught up and I can give you weekly impressions. Not next ep, but two eps from now I call Barney coming clean. It's gonna be legen -- wait for it --

LOST
Whoa. What's going on. I think I'm in love with Daniel Faraday. Other than that, now the show can get moving. All this skipping around from time to time and character posse to character posse made the season so far feel like the prologue to the main event. As if only now is the story about to start. I hope it does.

THE OFFICE
Cute, cute episode. I knew something was different when I found that I'd been grinning foolishly at my tv for no less than the first ten minutes straight. Jim scaring people off by pretending to be Michael? And succeeding? Great! Everything else that happened! Great! Whaat! I luv it.

30 ROCK
Solid. Not extraordinary. Funny. A little bit of thematic overkill. But I enjoyed it.

OKAY NOW BSG
OMG YOU GUYS THIS LATEST EPISODE IS THE GREATEST EPISODE OF TELEVISION I HAVE EVER SEEN.
I'm sure that's not true, but it might be. I may look back at it and see it as a fine piece of narrative television, but not the ultimate--in the present time, however, and certainly within the duration of my initial viewing, it shocked and awed me. I don't know how many times you've literally been made speechless, you know, physically unable to speak due to whatever it is that you've just experienced, but it happened to me. Gives me chills just thinking about it.

Next week on Monday (too bad mine is already overbooked--hello internet ratings boost), some new shows are starting. ABC's CASTLE (Nathan Fillion ftw (what did I tell you about that Joss Whedon game?)) and ... something else I forget. Can't be KINGS, that's going to be on Sundays. I think I might mean HIMYM. So nm. Just CASTLE.

Me and Megan are going to record a rap/techno song that goes like this: "wanna bullet/ I'm a tool/ wanna bullet/ I'm a tool." We're going to lay our own beats, too. And it will end with a "whaat! I luv it."

We're going to be famous.

Later on,

-Stephanie