Thursday really is the best day, you guys.

Happy Thursday! Today heralds in the weekend, as always, and caps off a wholly satisfying week. Stroll with me.

Last Friday I got around to seeing our school production of Beauty and the Beast. Not to sound overly full of school spirit or anything, but our drama department totally rocks. (Not to mention that the theater department is technically my department since it's now TFT for Theater, Film, and Television, and that I had more than one friend in the show) There's a funny story involving the show and Facebook, but since this is actually imported into Facebook each week, I don't feel like I need to go into it and tag specific people in a creepy and stalkerish way. ^^

OH. Also on Friday*, me and Beth went on a culinary/geographic adventure. Which meant we drove in the general direction of Monrovia for lunch and ended up coming home like four hours later. The original destination was India Sweets N Spices, this Indian restaurant/deli that some of my group project members* had visited the day before. I was feeling brave (and hungry) so I enlisted Beth. It was pretty trippy. The menu was full of words I had no idea of their meaning, and the food was literally unidentifiable. So we got the Combo 1 and hoped for the best. It wasn't all bad, mostly different. And we were totally the only white people there, which is always a unique experience. Oh, and the drinks? They came in the biggest fountain cup you've ever seen, and I kid you not, the soda was flat as the horizon. So at first you're all Holy Shoes I can't drink all that--and then you start drinking it because of the curry, and then you're all GEEZ this is flat--but then you can chug it like water because it doesn't burn. And since you need to chug it, you end up drinking the whole half gallon in a matter of moments. It was rather neat.

Mm. New paragraph. Then we went for a stroll around this park we saw many years ago on a different random drive in the direction of Monrovia. It was really very pretty and we found the tree from which all squirrels come (on kids Jeopardy the day before, the kid had said that all sqirrels come from one tree. We found it. It's in a park in Monrovia). And then we explored by the tennis courts** and the empty swimming pools and the crazy broken cement bleachers for them and then the ghetto playground and then the lawn bowling court. That's a fun park to hang out in, and I will return there someday.

Then, instead of going home, we headed up the canyon! Straight up into the mountains towards the dam. And we parked at the shoulder and looked at the lake and the cigarette butts and the thrown-away beer cases and listened to the silence. It was pretty magical.

And then we went back down into civilization and headed for the cute main street in Glendora, which has this coffee shop that's really popular amongst my peers. I got a "maple spice latte" on the spur of the moment, but it really just tasted like coffee. But it was okay! Because outside there was--NO JOKE--a little jazz quartet from Citrus. So we hung out behind them and partook in the ambience. And then I went back and saw Beauty and the Beast. So all in all it was a magical day.

*It was also a Study Day, the freedom of which I celebrated by rising at 9 AM. No fair! It's a study day! Shouldn't have to get up at all! And whyyyy did I greet the morning? To study. Gosh. It was actually to meet with my group about our presentation on India for World Lit. My job was to edit the movies they'd taken when they interviewed the people working at India Sweets N Spices. I was also given an authentic Indian dress to wear at the presentation. More on this later.

**It's a semi-quest of mine to find a fabled tennis court of my past. When my brother still lived here, me and my sister spent a week of the summer with him. One of these summers, we woke up super early and played tennis. I remember this morning for many reasons, one of which because it was TOO EARLY (but it was Azusa in the summer, so that's what you have to do), because I had just been reading Shade's Children (checked out from the APU library) in the car and had to stop because we'd arrived, and because I at one point it the ball out of the court and we had to go out into the neighborhood street to find it. So I have to check any tennis courts I find to see if they match my memories. Unless, of course, Kevin or Gretchen can just tell me.

Also, Kev, every time I go in the theater I look for the Fiddler on the Roof photo. It's a mid-show shot, not like a cast shot, so I'm not sure if you're in it. You could be the guy behind the other guy. But I look for you all the same. (Also, they turned most of the warehouse into Duke Version 2, and it's very bizarre.)

Um, then Saturday. Not much going on. Played some FFXII. Fought Gilgamesh for like half an hour, because all I could do was heal and reheal and revive my people. So. Gonna level up some more before I revisit that battle. Megan's family came up to see Beauty and the Beast, so I saw them briefly.

Sunday I spent not doing my work. Literally. Because, you see, Monday I didn't have anything due, but by Tuesday I had to have edited that movie, researched the religion of India, wrote notes about it, sent said notes to be added to the powerpoint, type up my assignment for Writing, rewrite the scene for Sitcom that should have had been done last Thursday, finish my sister's birthday presents, and fix up something cool for Carolyn for Boss' Day.

Ya. You guessed it. I did all these things sometime on Tuesday. Well, most of them. Monday I rewrote that scene and made this:

But so Tuesday was chock full of waking up early (that thing for Writing? not even due ><) and throwing notes together and running out the door full of unease. But the presentation went okay, we played a Bollywood video from Youtube (you all can thank my International Channel days for that), and passed out some curry, and played that horrible interview video and sang a Beatles song and did some Yoga. And there was some factual information in there, too. So it wasn't so bad. And then it was over! Yeah!

For Sitcom, we worked quietly on our own things for a while. Oh, here's what happened. A new, finished (if not polished) draft of our re-written script had to be in yesterday so the actors could read it today. So our head writers farmed out the scenes to each of us to re-do, and then they pieced them back together. But this hadn't happened yet.......so there were some fun writing parties in the library Monday and Tuesday nights until the librarians kicked us out because it was 1. The life of a writer. But the almost-mostly-finished script is...eh. Not bad. Got a few big laughs at the read today, which was nice. But now we have to have version 2 done by next Thursday!

Ugh, but after Tuesday was over, everything was anti-stress! Slept in on Wednesday but then jetted right off to Heritage to help finish finish the re-write/compiling. But then there was nothing to do until Art later, so me and Megan went out and saw 3:10 to Yuma. Very, very, very good. Solid story, beautiful, just a piece of cinematic art. Go see it!

And then @ Art, I stayed until there were only me and the guy next to me and the prof! Just doing art. Moving around the letters S J and A in artistic manner. Stayed there for three hours! She really likes me, last we she said if I wasn't a junior she'd try to steal me away into the art program. So I hope I get an A XD Oh, and I think if I don't have enough classes to fill up my next three semesters (which I don't!) I'll look into taking the typography class. I like letters. And art.

And then I got to sleep until 10 because there was no class this morning! I don't know what a Comp Day is, but ain't it great to have 'em? But then I had a midterm for World Lit and I think I probably got a C. Oh well. But then we went to Sitcom and all the actors read the new script like I said before, and that was fun.

And then I came back and made falafel pitas. And the other day I made matzo ball soup, which is so good. I also had a delicious muffin yesterday morning. Mmm, food. NOW I'M WATCHING THE OFFICE AND PAM AND JIM ARE SO CUTE AND I ACTUALLY KINDA FEEL BAD FOR MICHAEL. And 30 Rock was pretty pretty good, too. AND CHUCK. Was A+ this week, I feel really proud for it. Missed Carpoolers. Forgot allll about it. Eh.



And my mum is coming to visit tomorrow! Yayz. So I guess that's all. I'm off to do nothing for four three days straight.

-Steph

Relevant Title

Happy Thursday! I just now remembered that I ABSOLUTELY forgot about last week, how the 4th was in fact a Blackjack Thursday. Because it was the error of my own memory that caused this regrettable ignorance, I am opening up today for proper blackjacky observances. That is, if it doesn't get in the way of your National Coming Out Day celebrations.

Beth: Guess what I did Saturday!
Me: Went to Hollywood and hung out with bikers?

(I forget how the rest of the story goes, but as it turns out, she was in fact in Hollywood that day, too.) That's what I did! Me and Megan, we drove down to the Kodak Theater and helped bikers sign in for this charity ride. Megan gave them their wristbands for food, and I gave them the sticker for parking. In retrospect, neither of these duties were at all necessary. There was some famous people there, like the guy who made/owns the Paul Mitchell hair products/Patron tequila (John Paul DeJoria). And an someone who I think name is Michele Smith, of former Playboy fame. Aaand. Um. Later Robbie Knievel showed up. I'm getting ahead of myself.

After we checked in all the bikers, we drove down to Malibu, which was where the ride was going. And then we passed the place we were trying to get to like three times, because we couldn't find the way to get into it, and that town's darn skinny. And then we parked at the far end of a motorcycle gang because we thought it was our people, but it wasn't. It was a motorcycle gang. And then we hung out with the bikers for a few minutes after they all arrived, because there really wasn't anything else for us to do.

So then we set off again, to find this elusive "Pie Festival!" we saw advertised on some signs we saw while maneuvering earlier. We followed the signs to a big set up of tents on a dirt/grass/straw field, and the girl said she didn't know what the pie festival was, and that it was seven dollars to park. So we parked and strolled over to the tents and luckily enough, there was NO PIE, it was a HIPPY-MAKE-MALIBU-GREEN fair. So we left and then saw the tiny tiny pie festival in the next parking lot. Which was full. So we went home. But then once we followed Sunset back to Hollywood, we couldn't find the freeway, so we actually ended up on the 101 west for a little while. Where's the 134?! The map says we should hit the 134!! I don't see it!! I don't see any signs!!

There was a sign for it, however, on the eastbound side. And we eventually made it home. Where we promptly hit up the Marie Callenders for pie. Three years here and I've never stepped foot in that building. And I still have half a pie left, I like to cut a slice and then eat it like a sandwich.

The only other amazing and outstanding news from my week was how addicted I got to Photoshop. For Computer Graphics class, we had to take a picture of somebody, and then make it grayscale, and then add back three colors, and then make a negative/positive version, and then take either the black or white and add a texture to it and so on and so on. The finished version is a book with the final nine images in it. It was due Wednesday, but honestly I was done with it Sunday night because I couldn't stop. I had to print them all out and bind it all on Monday, though. But I was so obsessed I ended up making another version for the cover--

for the mutilation process, I had to physically mess up the image some how, rescan it, and add one color. So I cut out the background, cut that up into squares, taped them back down haphazardly around her picture, and drew some lines on it (to know the dimensions of how it should be when I rescanned) that made it look designy. I've been kind of hung up on this powder blue/brown dynamic for a while, so I threw a sepia tone on it and filled the background with the blue.....but I was only supposed to add ONE color! So I left out the sepia for the project, and then started in for myself. 'Cause Megan did say that it would look cool like as a wallpaper or something. So I set out to make a wallpaper. Oh, and my model was Beth.

I kept the sepia and splashed the blue into the background, but I also pulled the brown across the full length of the screen (since desktops are wider than tall, yes) and then added some text that spontaneously popped into my mind. And then after I was "done," I went back and made a blueprint pattern underlayed that onto the blue parts and that was that. And then I realized I liked it so much that it should be the cover of my book, so I moved some stuff around to make it 6x9, and then I made up a back cover to match. I don't have pictures of the actual book, since I turned it in yesterday, but I do in fact have the original images (gasp!) so I'll pop them up in here to show off.

And the wallpaper, if anyone wants Beth's face adorning their desktop:

So, I think photoshopping is way fun and I think I have a new hobby. It's just obnoxious to obsess over, because I can't take it with me to class (like I can writing). Oh, and Blogger has a ridiculously inefficient process of uploading pictures, so I hope you appreciate all I've done for you. And I'm running out of time because I started too late and that always makes me edgy.

Oh, also, me and Megan explored out to Bishamon yesterday, that Japanese restaurant that my brother was always trying to take me to and it was always closed in our faces. For the record, Sexy Albacore Rolls are not very tasty. But luckily, my food was. XD

-Steph

Computers are about trying to murder you in a lake

Happy Thursday! My head hurts a little, so this probably won't be crazy long. I've just been holding out for the wonders of Thursday prime time television, and soon I will be having the Office dreams.

TV update!

Forgot about Cavemen (which I hear is really dumb), and while trying to at least catch the end of it, I managed to tune in right on time for Carpool. I think I've heard of it maybe once way back sometime ago, but I really hadn't heard anything about it recently. But man, was that unexpectedly funny. The kind of crazy, unexpected, RANDOM things that you just don't see ever. Not so crazy about the actors, but Dougie was pretty good. Him and the black guy. And that other guy's son, who never wore any pants. When he was trying to think of the word "tie," he held the toast up to his neck and wiggled it around. That's just great. Gonna try to remember to watch that.

I also seem to accidentally be watching ER now. Oops. And this, children, is what we call a lead-in audience. My inability to turn off the tv or change the channel after the Office is what gives ER its great ratings. It's pretty nifty.

Hmm, and Moonlight. I actually turned down a party (what! Me! not go to a party!) to stay and watch this new LA-crime-fighting-vampire show. With Jason Dohring, of Veronica Mars fame (with which I spent my weekend--season two. mmm) as the oldest vampire in LA, Josef. Realized I'd never heard of it because I thought we didn't get channel 2 - CBS. And we almost don't. So between the colorless fuzz and the horrible acting, it's probably the cruddy writing that makes it not worth the while. Jason.....I'll wait for you to move on to something I can watch without wanting to die.

30 Rock premiered today! Many laughs. They certainly know the meaning of consistency. I'm sensing a future between Jack and Lemon, does anybody else? Not much else to say about it, 'cause it was pretty solid, but not outstanding. Wasn't really digging the Seinfeld, but the Seinfeld Vision bit was pretty classy.

Chuck! Chuck is very not living up to my standards. Biggest offense in this week's episode is hands down the portrayal of driving a helicopter. You CANNOT learn how to fly a helicopter from video games, because I don't know of any controllers that come with helicopter pedals in addition to the "stick" and "parking brake." But I suppose I'm just being hypocritical, since the thing is not taking itself seriously and fully intends for you to do the same. But still, the writing....not very smooth. And the acting just barely makes it palatable. Hope hope hope hope it gets better, and soon.

Missed Pushing Up Daisies, 'cause of class. It's been lauded as the best new show, but my prof said he fell asleep during it. And that his roommate fell asleep during it WHILE eating dinner. But I dunno. Maybe I'll make an effort to find it online. Don't really know.

I still need to see season one of Heroes, so I can watch season two with Kristen Bell. I also want to own all the seasons of Veronica Mars, for the same reason. Watching season two means I've finally finished the series, after introducing myself to it last year. Season two....met my needs, but it really doesn't stand up to season one. And three, being an entirely different animal, is allowed to be judged on a different scale. But I still wish there was more. Sadday.

Movie-wise, I finally saw Silence of the Lambs over the weekend. Hmmm. Overrated, in my opinion. Sure, Hopkins as Lecter is creepifying and brilliant, but he was grossly overshadowed by the hideous acting of Foster. She won an OSCAR for that $%^^@^$%#. I just didn't believe her character, the way she was all IMMEDIATELY open to Lecter, getting all emotional about her freaking boring past. Utterly unbelievable. Horrible. Bleck.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, was Hot Fuzz. I remember wanting to see it from the trailers (and it's actually pretty rare that a trailer really interests me), and let me tell you it was worth it. I've been asking around at people, if they've seen it, and the majority of them tell me that they "heard it sucked." Which is fairly shocking to me because I absolutely loved it. Every moment. It was so funny, and then had so many cute and then intense bits, and the climactic firefight sequence was just great fun. And don't even get me started on the cinematic/theoretical aspects of it. In my opinion, a definite Must See. I've been told Shaun of the Dead (made by the same people, a few years earlier) is actually better, and so I'll be seeing that soon enough. I want the crazy extended DVD so bad.

Hm. I guess that just about sums up my media intake for this week. Except for that we watched Scrubs in class this morning. AND I finished my paper on time. But that's not related to media. Unless you count the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid as media. Which, in all fairness, you can.

The other exciting schoolish news is our project for art, Computer Graphics, that is. We're photoshopping! I used to be really frustrated any time I wandered into the murky woods that is Photoshop, but now I'm only mildly frustrated on occasion. I'll be putting up the finished works on the internets when it's done. Gonna be a cute book of pictures. It's a lot of fun. I get to go to class, listen to my Zune and mess around on the computer for three hours. Sigh. My life is sooooo hard.

For Sitcom, the rewrites are finally starting to commence smoothly. So far we've just been talking about the new spins to put on the characters, to make them better and more interesting. And also to fix the plot, to make this pilot have something to be about. It was kind of ridiculous, the way it was originally. Tuesday after class, those of us who lingered about moved over to Heritage and hung out for ANOTHER hour and a half and knocked out some more details. That was fun, but it was a little awkward, just the three of us and Gilbert. XD He's a very interesting man. Today we had a table read with the actors, reading the "revised" teaser. Jack (Gilbert) typed it up yesterday based on our discussion, but it didn't end up so perfect. So there's work yet to be done. Hahaha. Sitcom Writing.

Oh, the Office. Was on tonight. Pam and Jim are great, but I'm actually pretty glad that their normal format is half an hour. These hour longs, while beautiful for giving me my fix, are really not this team's forte. Felt pretty bad for Dwight, thought Ryan was being silly, couldn't believe Creed (XD printer ink), and admitted that Michael looked pretty good with that lake-water hair.

Happy Birthday, Sputnik!

Yeah, I really want to sleep now? I'll see you around.

-Steph

Premier Week

Happy Thursday! The week is finally over! Not that I'm sad to be past this set of classes, of course, but if you must know, World Lit is a lot more fun when you're not handing in papers late.

Ok, I feel fully justified in spending this Thursday discussing television. Firstly, because that's what I do all week anyhow. For college credit. Yes. Envy me. And Secondly, because THE OFFICE IS ON TONIGHT. I'm starting this thing ahead of time (it's currently 20:16), so that I can talk about things coherently before the event, and not so coherently afterwards.

Chuck
NBC, Mondays at 8/7c
Premise: "a one-hour, action-comedy series about Chuck Bartowski -- a computer geek who is catapulted into a new career as the government's most vital secret agent."
I regrettably have class Monday nights, but I caught the pilot Tuesday morning at NBC.com. There were a number of things that I wasn't expecting. For instance, I had no knowledge that it was not a sitcom--I'd forgotten that hour long shows could be comedies, too. Also, I was not expecting Chuck the character to be as cute/endearing as he is. Both of these, of course, are pleasant surprises. The show as a whole, too, is unexpectedly catered directly to my tastes. Lead character is a sweet nerd who wears Converse and coded video games in college. Then there's the whole CIA secret agent angle, which we all know and love. Also, there was definitely a ninja fight. Dead serious. And a creepy guy who winked.....and then winked again with the other eye. How deliciously terrifying. Happy to see Adam Baldwin in a steady role here, since he is well loved around these parts for playing the part of the Man They Call Jayne from back in the Firefly days. And Zachary Levi as Chuck is just too perfect. He's very sincere in his delivery of emotion. Also, he totally went to my high school. So, I love Chuck. Looking forward to more of this.

Journeyman
NBC, Mondays at 10/9c
Premise: A man suddenly pops around through time for no apparent reason, and mucks about with the timeline. And if you're curious about the network-sanctioned tagline, you'll find mine approximates it quite well.
BORING. I hated it since I heard about it, since I have a very clear idea about how timetravel should work. It's a little long-winded for this post, but I'll be happy to prattle on about it upon request. Suffice it to say, I devoutly believe that even if one were able to travel to the "past," one would not be able to "change the future." Which is, I say again, the premise of this show. But moving on from that, I wasn't sold on any other aspect of it. I wasn't watching very closely, but it was very confusing and disjointed (although I suppose spontaneous, inexorable time travel is prone to have that effect).

I just want to pause and say at this moment, Clark Kent is fighting himself in slow motion, and it's still not very good television.

Where was I. Journeyman. Megan was all YEAH about it, 'cause the actor was apparently amazing in Rome. He's pretty boring in this, though. The one coolish moment was when he had gone back to 1997 or whenever, and met up with his dead (I think she's dead in present time) woman friend, except it turns out that this particular girl is ALSO going through time, and then the actual one that belongs to that timeline busts through the door a moment later. So that was mildly intriguing. Worth watching it? Nah.

Smallville
CW, Thursdays at 8/9c.
Premise: Clark Kent as a teen.
I didn't mean to watch this season premier, I just settled for it because I wasn't expecting The Office to be on at 9. Here's what I had to say to my friend about it so far:
Aya kun Rose: wow, smallville's got way jacked since I last saw it
Aya kun Rose: lex is arrested for killing lana, lois is drowning with an unconscious cloe, clark is fighting Bizarro
Aya kun Rose: fake rocks are shattering
jbev009: LANA WAS KILLED?
jbev009: are you effing kidding me?
jbev009: noooo
Aya kun Rose: probably not
jbev009: haha. yay fake shattering rocks
jbev009: oh good
Aya kun Rose: you can never tell on this show
jbev009: true dat
Aya kun Rose: holy no
jbev009: did we find out who the girl super chick was?
jbev009: what??
jbev009: what?
Aya kun Rose: innocent fisherman? running away from the wall of water coming down from the broken dam? trips on some SAND and knocks himself OUT
jbev009: hahaha
jbev009: HAHAHAHAHA
jbev009: i hate when i do that
Aya kun Rose: I love hating this show
jbev009: hahaha
jbev009: good.
...
Aya kun Rose: oh no! Lex is going to drown!
Aya kun Rose: yeah right
Aya kun Rose: like I'm really worried for him
jbev009: hahahahahahahahaahah
Aya kun Rose: some kind of effing water fairy is here to save him
Aya kun Rose: bizarro set a guy on fire with his eyes
Aya kun Rose: you know, Tom Welling sometimes does that to people
jbev009: thats nice of her
jbev009: hahaha
Aya kun Rose: being a model and all
jbev009: i hear that
Aya kun Rose: now there's a spooky child
Aya kun Rose: I think the green goblin just stole away lionel's drowned body
Aya kun Rose: even though the goblin is spiderman fare
jbev009: ooohhh
Aya kun Rose: hahah, that spooky child might have killed chloe
jbev009: hey, ive gotta go
jbev009: enjoy hating smallville!!
jbev009: see ya
Aya kun Rose: ok!
Aya kun Rose: oh lex
Aya kun Rose: he's fine, if you wanted to know

And it didn't get very much better after that. There was a hilarious bit where Chloe was literally looking back and forth between Clark and Lana's death certificate (don't worry, she seems to be alive and well in China, we just saw), and it was just so overdone I just laughed and laughed. And I just don't know what's wrong with this show. It's like they don't even try. Perfect for mockery. It's a pastime of mine. Oh, and we still don't know who stole away Lionel. Although it was Wonderwoman who saved Lex. Thought it was Supergirl or something until just now, when she put on this bracelet and put her fists on her hips. Then she flew away.

OFFICE TIME

OK not going to lie. The very first shot of The Office made me shriek in laughter.

I'll see you in fifteen minute intervals for the next hour.

Um hey wow. I'm loving it. What I'm also loving is the fact that we can hear other apartments laughing at the jokes. For reals. It's amazing. Like a movie. We all have a lot of Office love.

While it's the commercial...

The Office
NBC, Thursdays at 9/8c (but probably 8 or 8:30 in a few weeks)
Premise: The everyday life in an office of a small branch of a paper company.
Definitely my favorite show. Don't bug me right now.

GUYS. If you've seen the episode, you'll know what I mean. The entire A court actually CHEERED just now. 9:30. There's totally guys' voices in these laughs, too. Everyone loves the Office.

Zoh My Gosh. People. Did you see how he was BLUSHING. I can't. I just cannot believe how wonderful this show is. GAAAH.

Speaking of 30 Rock, I'm wondering when that is coming back? I want to watch that so bad. That, and New Amsterdam, which I hear is premiering mid-season. Oh, tv says 30 Rock is next Thursday. Good news.

It's ooooooooooooooooooover now!! Awww man. Hap-py Thursday, people.

Oh, the other thing I wanted to tell you this week was about my new phrase I invented in my sleep. We started watching season one of Lost this week (dude, guys, it's so much better than present-day), and so of course Locke et al made appearances in my dreams. And so Locke made up this phrase, to say that something is or is not your "hat." Like, in the same vein as something being or not being your "cup of tea." Except "hat" means the thing you are interested in, or your area of expertise.

For example, I like to think of writing as my hat. Dancing is up my alley, but it's not quite my hat. Math, however, is certainly not my hat.

I hope you'll take this and spread it to the ends of the English-speaking earth.

-Steph

The Mantis They Call Jayne

Happy Thursday! I'm watching the Office! Season 3 finale! BECAUSE NEXT WEEK IT IS ALL NEWZ! Jim and Pam! GAHH!

Let me tell you about our new pet.

Yesterday when we went to check our mail, we discovered a praying mantis next to Megan's car! So we bravely scooped him into one of the boxes she got from the mail.

And then we went on an adventure! (we dropped the mantis off at home first) And went to Go China! Five bucks for a ginormous lunch. And then we went to Petco. Where the pets go. Bought a terrarium, a fake plant, and a tiny spray bottle.

Transporting the mantis from the box to the gladware to the terrarium was really terrifying. He's all legs and spiny arms and bugeyes. He liked to stick to what he was on and not go into where we wanted him to go.

We named him The Mantis They Call Jayne Jermaine. Jayne from Firefly, being Megan's new addiction thanks to me, and Jermaine because we can't stop quoting that video. So all yesterday I had "The Man They Call Jayne" and "Wear the funky eye patch, Bret" stuck in my head. They would switch off.

Jayne is so cool as a pet, I mean, we got him for free, and we can feed him for free--he eats bugs. Any bugs that are smaller than him. He's eaten pincher bugs and a cricket, but I'm not sure if he ever go the rollypollies. He would grab at them but they would roll up, and I don't think he can grab round as well. He's so intense. When he notices there's another bug in there, his head snaps around--and it already pivots like it might not actually be attached--and then he starts dancing. And then the bug gets too close and SNAP he's suddenly got in his crazy spiny arms and is eating it. It's actually pretty surprising we didn't get nightmares from that.



He likes to hang out upside down. And he's really hard to take a picture of because he's so small and the focus goes all wonky through the plastic.

But that's Jayne. I put the Beware of Dog sign up in the window, and Beth put up "MANTIS" over the "dog." So people been pointing at it all day. I was standing at the door, and these two kids walk by, and the one says something about the sign and then says, "there's a mantis in there!" It was so funny.

Ummmm, what about my real week, eh? Uhhhh, finally saw Stardust the other day. Very fun. I liked the management of all the threads of character travel, and I really liked Claire Danes. Hooray fun adventure stories.

Class hasn't been noteworthy--well, today in Writing he finished his lecture way earlier than he expected, so we ended up watching season 2 finale of the Office. Have I mentioned I love my major?

Oh, and it's been raining! During the night. Last night and the night before. So it's been beautiful and cloudy and cool but also warm and it's been great to walk to class in that. OH and I've had a few really good naps this week, too. One in my beanbag, and one in the middle of homework. Ahhh, naps.

Jayne says goodnight!

-Steph

Don't go--I'LL go.

Happy Thursday! Title brought to you by our current inside joke, where someone is leaving, but you say Don't go--I'LL go. And then you maybe sink behind the counter or even leave the room yourself.

Me and Megan, we've been hanging out a lot. It's a side effect from being roomies. Quick, before I forget, this is all the movies we've seen this week:

Firefly (the series), Serenity, Rope, Shadow of a Doubt, Into the Woods, a disc of Fawlty Towers, Return of the Jedi, (and of course I've seen Hairspray and HSM2 a few more times, as well). AND, for Writing class, we've watched episodes from Freaks & Geeks and Mad Men. Oh, and we watched some Colbert because, I kid you not, it was homework for Sitcom. If you ask me, my summer was well spent. You know how it's really important to read, if you want to study literature and stuff? Well, I think you can figure why I think studying tv/film is really great.

My schedule is also really great. There's only two classes that aren't directly tv-related, and even these aren't horrible (I've never had a semester without a class I abhorred). Computer Graphics looks pretty neat, and not as time-intensive as advertised. I mean, I spend about two hours of that class doing nothing (at least so far) because I'm done with the project and can't go until she passes around the roll sheet. I get some creative writing done in that time.

And I dropped I & II Samuel. Like I said, the prof was just NOT getting any information across and he clearly thought he was. So I said, I can stick it, I'll just read the books real well and that'll be enough--but the books were just as thick as he was. And the first reading assignment? 1-38 in the one book and 1-92 in the other. Those thirty pages, too? Were the first half of the introduction, explaining how they decided on which particular translation of the books, using extremely esoteric terms that I can't just grasp as an amateur. So I threw it out and got my $107 dollars back.

I put in its place World Lit to the 1600s. An English class. It's super intense. Lots of reading, but not scholastic reading; reading ancient literature, which beats standard textbooks anyday. ....I just need to order the book 'cause there's none left. But I think Tuesday/Thursdays are funny because it goes Writing, Reading, Writing. Tuesday/Thursdays are really intense.

My classes with Parham look to be the most intensive. Producing, we're actually going to be producing the student films near the end of the semester. That's terrifying. And Writing, I do believe there is some script writing involved. But also learning by example, I think we're watching an episode or two of particular television every week. What a way to start the day.

Sitcom I'm having mixed feelings about. It's less a class and more a writing team like in the real world. Today the production team (another class) came in and discussed problems they found in the script, location- and cost-wise. And on Tuesday we had a "table read" of the script with the newly-cast actors. It's apparently very close to the real world of producing a television show. Kinda daunting. Oh. We're not writing the script, we're fixing up a stock one some other people wrote. It's not bad, but it's not Friends, either. I'll tell you more about it some other time.

So besides going to class and watching movies, (and hanging out--these people ALL expect me to be social) I've been writing. Still mostly HSM fanfiction, but it's so much fun. Gonna slip a Hairspray fic soon. Also, on Wednesday, Megan was all "LET'S WRITE SOMETHING," and then we spent that day discussing what became our thriller movie. It's about creepy stalkers and psychopathic killers and the like. It's very intense to discuss around other people. Have you ever seen Rope? It's Hitchcock, and it's beautiful. I didn't know I'd seen it, but Megan put it on and I was all OH and then we watched it and it was eerily similar. But also very different. Our main character would find that main character very flawed in his murder. Our main character is crazy.

It's still nice and warm here. Gets pleasantly cool at night. The sprinklers go on for hours in the dark, so we have a giant lake outside our door. Oh, tiny bugs can and do walk right in under the door. We still have to light the stove by switching on the gas at the back and quickly using a lighter on the burner we want. Oh, we also been playing some DDR, and today we finally used the TV as a TV because I finally plugged in the antenna. I've been walking to class and back as much as possible, and I was pleasantly surprised to see it took 23 or so minutes from the top of West Campus to my apartment, when last year it would take 20 minutes just to go from the sidewalk of one campus to the sidewalk of the other.

Thursdays really are quite good.

I'll leave you with a comic story. So yesterday, Megan checked her mail and was blessed with three packages! I asked, do you know what they are, or maybe it is surprises? She says she's got a comic book, a movie, and a hat. Neat, I say.

She opens the first one. A comic book. X-men. Old school.

She opens the second one. Also a comic book. Lies, I say, I bet that last one is like a sock or something.

She opens the third one. I swear to everything good and true that it is in fact NOT a hat, but a small box of rubber bands.

She didn't even order rubber bands.

-Steph

Hotter'n HELLTH In Here! AKA You Can't Stop The Beat

Happy Thursday from A-town! Moved in on Sunday, and it was totally like 108 or so degrees. And then it got hotter and hotter until yesterday. And we didn't have electricity! No lights, no A/C. It was great.

Me and new roomie Megan went and saw Hairspray again and again on Monday and Tuesday. Still really great. So great. Too great. I need to see it again, and then own it.

Which is alright, since for two of my classes, the on-going homework is to watch as much tv and as many movies as possible.

Which I'm doing, since I introduced Megan to Firefly yesterday, and now we have only two episodes left! I'd forgotten how great this show is (not really, not entirely forgotten); at least, it never ceases to amaze. And it reminds me that this was the thing that, near two years ago, made me switch my major so as to maybe write something just as amazing someday. (or at least try.)

Other roomie Kelly is nice, too. Haven't seen her much, what with schedules and all. But I think this year/apartment setup deal is gonna be real easy-nice. Also nice is having the whole place with just the three of us, four like last year could be a bit much.

Classes! Had all of them 'cept for Producing, 'cause that's only on Monday. But I'll tell ya about the rest.

Yesterday, Intro to Computer Graphics. Three hours, twice a week. Real late in the day, 7:30. But it's the only thing Wednesdays. We are gonna use graphics programs to make art! Exploring font and all kinds of stuff like that. I think it'll be good or fun, or at least interesting/informative, but it looks like it's going to be all kinds of time intensive. Jeesh.

Writing for TV, Radio, and Film! Way early in the morning. Looks like it's more like learning *how* to write rather than writing all the time. I mean, I bet there's gonna be a lot of writing, but there's also a strong learning ...thing. In it. Looks fun.

I & II Samuel! Is awful. We have this guy who's maybe three years older than us, it's his first sememster here at APU, and he just reads his powerpoints (which are too technical and too seemingly irrelevant) too fast for us to take notes. There's a five page review on one of the books, a ten page research paper on a topic of our choice (sound familiar?), and a comprehensive final. That's it. I'm going to give it another week before deciding to drop it.

Sitcom Writing! Way for sure the best class ever. There's six people, including Megan and myself. We're basically re-writing this someone-else's pilot for the Sitcom Acting class to perform, and the Sitcom Producing class to produce. Just like the real world. So basically, it's not particularly a class, it's a writing project. We all start with A-s, and if we don't do something stupid, we can't end the semester with anything lower than that. So, much funs in this arena.

No school tomorrow! But that's a day for cleaning and homeworks and such. And I guess English Conversation Class again. Yatta.

Maybe I'll take some pictures soon, so yous know what I'm talking about. And I'll send my schedule to those what want it. So.

Gosh, now there's only one episode left. Probably save it for tomorrow. Then, Angel. Then, Lost. Then, Veronica Mars. Then, the Office, when it's new again at the end of the month. Who's excited!

-Steph

What Time is It!

Summertime! (Happy Thursday). I mean, School time. Going back Sunday. Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh. !

I'm fairly certain that I didn't inform you of what classes I registered for. So now I guess it's time for me to tell you what classes I am taking imminently.

T/Th: I & II Samuel
T/Th: Sitcom Writing
T/Th: Writing for TV, Radio, & Film
M: Producing & Production Management
M/W: Intro to Computer Graphics

Yeah, lookit all that writing. Hurrah.

Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis week, I went on some adventures. Driving adventures. Alllllllllll the way around my valley with my dad: from Saticoy to Camarillo to Pt. Mugu to Port Hueneme to Oxnard and back to Ventura. I seen so many places I've never seen before! It was real exciting.

And then there was the time I picked up Steven at the library, then we went to L&L, then we went to Gamestop, then we went to his house.....then we went to my house, then we went to Gamestop, and then we went to his house......it almost went on forever. Thrilling.

Uh, what else. Been cleaning and packing. But that's not very interesting.

Um, well. Happy Thursday.

Oh, I remember being proud of my vast technological victories. First I found the secret code to make the DVD player region free. So now I can buy any sort of Japanese DVD I want. If I can find a place to buy them.

Aaaaaaaaaaand then I got 9 BILLION points on Pokemon Pinball. That game lasted over an hour and a half! It was really amazing. I'm just sad I didn't hold out just a little longer to get 10 billion. One day, one day.

There was something else, too, but I utterly forget.

I just saw an ad for the LA County Fair, and it reminds me that I want to go to that. Since it's in session while I actually live in LA County. I deserve to go to that, don't I? I just love fairs. No idea why, I just do. Yaay fairs.

I don't really know what's going on in this post anymore. It's late. Or whatever. More school-talk next week, no doubt.

-Steph

Thursday of the Week

Happy Thursday! I just finished watching High School Musical for the fifth time! I don't care what you think, it fills my heart with happiness.

Not a busy week, which means even if I did go into all the fangorious details, I'd still have to fill up the rest of the thing with, like, interesting stuff. This week I hung out with Carolyn and Jacqi (and Steven) in the real world, and gushed over HSM2 with Jennifer and Beth on the interwebs. I saw movies.

HSM2: SO CUTE. The songs are so much fun, and the dancing is more intense. The acting is decent. Vanessa Hudgens is very, very believable, while Ashley Tisdale needs to be taught how to not-just-read-aloud the script. Kid Efron is adorable, as is Grabeel. There's even a tragic scene at which I mist up every time. Over all, it just fills my heart with happiness. It's worth saying twice. OH. And, the moral is not as heavyhanded or irrelevant as in the first one. It's a lot more like a real movie.

Hairspray: Since I saw it sandwiched between airings of HSM, I get the two confused. Also because they both have singing, dancing, high school, and Zac Efron. But I do remember that it was also a lot of fun to experience. Travolta is a much better woman than you might expect. Or maybe, just as you expect. Newcomer Blonsky, the lead, is pretty good, but seems better suited to Broadway than Hollywood. Pfeiffer was downright disgusting, but it really suited the character. Full of laughs and the message isn't overforced, either.

The Prestige: The most apt description that comes to mind is not at all appropriate for polite company; maybe I'll point you to someone else who says it if you ask very nicely. I don't even know what to say about it. Oh, don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad review. I just don't know how to explain it without ruining it. Let's just say I truly wish I was smart enough or focused enough to write something like that.

Tony Takitani: Very Indie. Very Japanese. That being said, it's very slow and poignant without really being about much of anything at all.

Out of my new batch of signs I learned, my favorite is "lizard." It's an L with the one hand, and then it runs up your other arm. XD Like a lizard would.

Oh, so we've had more battles with the Raccoons. The big one was lurking about a couple days ago. So I kept chasing him away, "run, raccoon! run away!" I want to pet him. Once when I went out to run him off, there was all this commotion as soon as I stepped outside--it was the three baby raccoons fleeing for the safety tree. So then we shone the light up there and laughed at their silly raccoon faces. Here's some pictures.

Yeah. So laughable.

I also got new glasses! I mean, I finally picked them up! And I could immediately tell the difference. The prescription for my left eye had changed, which is why it had been hurting so bad. With the new glasses, I can tell its vision is being altered in a positive way rather than a negative way. There's a bit of funk in between the way the world looks through the glasses and what's bordering that, if that makes any sense at all. I'll get used to it, haha. Funky. Here's what they look like:

Snazzy, eh?

I really really need a haircut.

Happily, Thursdayily yours,

Steph

Lobster Week

Happy Thursday! Lobster week is a lot like Shark Week, but it's a lot tastier. I never told you about my sign language show.

So one morning (really, it was the afternoon), I happened upon a show called Signing Time. Like a kid's show that teaches Spanish and reading, but instead it was for sign language. That day I learned all kinds of fun things, like "boots," and "outside," and "hat," and "silly."

And then it disappeared. I've only caught it maybe once since then. It reviewed for me the letters, and the numbers. AND THEN. I was taught the most wonderful signs: "crab," and "lobster." Crab is hard to explain, but I'll teach you lobster.

Both hands palm up. Then make like the peace sign (or two, or a V), and then snap 'em. Lobster.

And then lobsters have been everywhere. All the time I see lobsters, and then get to sign it compulsively. Lobsters on Good Eats, lobsters on that Wamu commercial, lobsters on that fake laptop in the model house. It's crazy. Megan, my last-year roommate, concocted a good plan for all the lobsters I encounter:

LOBSTERAIDE

- 1 cup finely chopped lobster tails
- 3 tbs. parsley
- 2 cups lemon juice
- 1 cup diced lobster claws
- 3 tsp salt
- 4 cups water

serves 4

Haven't tried it yet, but One Day, I assure you, One Day.

Just been hanging out this last week. In my garden? I have a cucumber vine plant? And this monster cucumber is about ready to be picked. Well. That sounded a lot more interesting before I wrote it. Also, there's a little green pepper which I hope will someday turn red. (like a lobster)

Seen movies. Gray Matters, Alfie, Constantine. Want to see Stardust. Coulda seen it, but I stayed home to watch Feasting on Asphalt 2, The River Run. This is Alton Brown, from Good Eats (you know, my favorite food show which I'm watching in twenty minutes) but he takes like a bike gang and travels America, sampling the native foods. Last summer he went from east coast to west; this season he's going up the Mississippi. It's a fascinating and great journey. Saturdays at nine. Food Network.

In the literary side of life, I just finished One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I filched it out of my sister's room some weeks back, and was reading it bit by bit. But it got intense, you know, at the end, so I finished it. Tragic as all get out. Quite good.

I also had an eye exam and picked out new glasses. They're half frames, so they had to send them out to the shop to put all the special coats on them. I'll show you pictures when I get 'em.

But without 'em, my eyes tend to hurt. I don't know if it's because I'm using glasses that aren't quite the right prescription anymore. We'll see. But for now, I'mma wrap this up, so I don't have to look at it.

-Steph

Salty Salty Sharky Joe

...........................................

So you know how sometimes, if you hit the window instead of the text box, and then you hit backspace, it takes you back a page? Well, that just happened to me. And I was 90% done with writing a very extensive look at my active week and Casino Night today. So I'm really rather depressed, since it was so good. And instead of thinking of Happy Thursday things to tell you, like poker and baby raccoons, I just feel like telling you about how Raines was cancelled. Which is also very depressing. Seriously, when I found out for sure, I got so angry I was really almost sick. And the instant analogy my mind found for me was, "cancelling Raines is like murdering a baby." Because it was so good and exactly what television needed, and all I wanted to do was watch more of it. It could have been a classic.

Deleting my entire letter is like when I'm playing Final Fantasy. I like to level up, so that I don't die, right? But sometimes, things are just so hard, like Seymour, or like Xaldin in KHII, where you lose unexpectedly, and you just have to turn it off and walk away for a few days. Like in FFXII, I was exploring the Sandsea, an ENORMOUS map with no save spot--two or three hours into it, my entire party is wiped out by this Entite, this monster which now (at level 60) is still a challenge to defeat, and this was me at level 15 or so.....and all that exploring, that two hours, was suddenly wasted. That ached. I definitly didn't go back to that for a few days. I just don't pop back from loses like this so easily.

So, Happy Thursday. I'm sorry you couldn't enjoy the details of my week the way I wanted to present them to you. I'll give you a little list, but it just won't be the same. Share in my tragic woe.

Last Thursday, midnight, Bourne Ultimatum. Very good.

Five hours later, waking up and driving to Burbank to pick up my sister's friend from the airport. She stayed with us a few days, 'cause she's from Washington.

Sunday, hung out with Jacqi and Greg and Kaia at a picnic, at Jacqi's house, and at Kaia's house. Watched Guys and Dolls with Brando and Sinatra. A fun movie.

Monday, played KHII and FFXII; Jacqi and Greg dropped by on their way back from the mall.

Tuesday spent the whole day at my mom's classroom, helping out. Mostly entered data on all the posters she has. Also played Oregon Trail on the ooooooold Mac that I moved from one side of the counter to the other. My party (Pluto, Charon, Nix, Hydra, Cerberus) all survived, which is rare.

Yesterday went to the fair with everyone, which had a whole three paragraphs of fun. Looked at old people art, at kid art, at chickens, at barn animals, at rabbits, at lawns, at photography. I had my yearly udon/corndog/cotton candy. No room for an apple tower. I feel entitled to take my time at the fair, to savor it yearly, but that bored everyone away, so it was just me and Carolyn by the end. I enjoy the term and the atmosphere of the Midway, but I don't like the rides. We ended up back at Carolyn's house, watching jellyfish and face eating tumors and gender bending.

Today I went to the Salvation army to get some lounge music records. I ended up buy The Soul of Spain, and the Harmonicats, instead. And a pillow with Matt from Digimon on it. Then to Vons for salty snacks and bottled beverages, and then Jacqi and Greg on the way back. Then Carolyn showed up, and a little bit later Steven appeared, and we had Casino Night. Jacqi raked in most of the money. We also went to the park and examined the new play equipments. We all managed to climb up the little slide. Then we cooked chicken type food, a soup, three minute mashed potatoes and some corn, and also rice. It was cute and fun. Cooking with a bunch of people is entertaining.

Also, we called Jennifer on speaker phone and discussed possible cosplay for the AX next year. Yes. Already.

The big raccoon tried to steal Donnie's food, but I scared it away. Later, I found its babies stuck in our tree, all alone. So we took pictures. They make sounds like a squeaky toy mixed with a dolphin. The babies have cute little bear/badger faces, too.

Also, there was an earthquake at 1 this morning. I'd just gone to sleep, so that when I woke up to the earthquake, I hadn't even known I was asleep. Back at school, I kept expecting to wake up to an earthquake every morning, I don't know why. But I did this morning, but when I sat up, it stopped. And then I wasn't at all sure if there really had been an earthquake--maybe it was just my heartbeat shaking the bed. So I really didn't know if there was or was not an earthquake until I looked it up online this morning.

Okay. I'm sorry this is so dead sounding. My hopes and dreams were instantly shattered, so what do you expect. At least I have Good Eats and Colbert Report to finish off my day. Good night.

-Steph

They Might Be Crazy

Happy Thursday! Today, being the 2nd, happens to be Planism Thursday. I hope you all wore your blues and yellows along with the reds and browns.

In the cleaning (which will be discussed soon), I found a tape which must be my brother's, and it's labeled They Might Be Giants. Now, the only experience I have with them is through Homestar Runner. But I guess it's a real old band since the tape case has "Buena Rules" etched into the back. Which is adorable. ANYWAY, They Might Be Giants is a crazy band. But quite entertaining. Song about mammals? Entertaining.

So we went to Huntington Library on Saturday. That's a cool place, I've only been there once in my memory. But, but! There's this GINORMOUS cactus garden. Like, you could get lost forever in there. We were walking, and it was all, oh, this is cute, and I thought we were done, but then we were in there for maybe another hour. Hour and a half, even. I haven't uploaded any of my pictures yet, 'cause I'm a crazy old coot, but it was amazing. The only one I saw that was really for sure like one I have here at home, was this big version of Rokusho. Which eventually I'll put up on Flickr, so you'll know what I mean.

There's also this big Japanese type area, so this place is now likely to be one of my favorite places ever. There's a bamboo forest type place, and a bonsai garden and a rock garden and a big wooden bridge and a fake house and then a little park with a koi pond going all through it. And a crazy tour guide saying that we get our amusement parks from the way the Japanese would put a tea garden in every place they go.

There's also a bunch of statues from classical mythology, and I totally could recognize them from my recent pillaging of Wikipedia on the subject. Except I couldn't remember who the Greek Diana was--it's Artemis.

But then we went to Ikea. Grrr. Not really a good thing to stack on top of a big adventure. But we got me a giant thing of drawers to put things in, which means I had/have to reorganize like everything, and that's WAY FUN. So that's what I've been doing.

OK SO. The Bourne Ultimatum. Is playing in Camarillo at 11:59, and I'm going to be there for it. So we need to leave like now, so I'll see you tomorrow. Happy Thursday. :3

-Steph

PS
I'm rooting for Pasha.

I know, I know, I'm late again

Happy Thursday! Happy Awful Thursday, in fact. You see, every Thursday's been pretty happy for about three, four years now. But where does all that awful go, after the happy squeezes it out of the day? I'll tell you where. That awful goes into a savings account, where it accumulates. Then, one day, it pours all out and creates on Awful Thursday. I'd say one Awful Thursday every three years is worth the price of having one Happy Thursday each week.

I hope today wasn't too traumatic for you all. Without warning and such.

Today I read a whole book. The Painted Word, by Tom Wolfe. He described the progression of Modern Art, and I thought it was interesting enough. His tone and attitude towards the subject was rather "irreverent" (as pointed out in the cover review), and his style was what made it worth it. Real funny, at times.

Then I went to Carolyn's house! And we played Starcraft, because Starcraft is fun, and we haven't played in forever. And then we went to the park and played some croquet. She did a speech on it in her class, so now she's all pro at it. I, however, am not. We played with Steven and his buddy. We also used the swings and the general store and the fire dept and tried not to fall in the lava.

Hey, I never told you about her picnic thing LAST week, where we played on the train what goes to Suremik, and also met Paco. Paco had some really sweet Pokemon cards, and we played a rendition of the game that consisted of him handing us some cards, and us slapping them down on the floor of the play equipment, and him shouting, "I win!" and taking all the cards back. It was real fun. We also made up a whooooole story about the volleyball players, who (according to us) are a local gang running all the small businesses, and also doing cloning experiments. It was great fun.

Did I tell you I saw Die Hard and/or Transformers? I have. Die Hard was better. Like, way better. Transformers wasn't bad...it just wasn't good. Die Hard, on the other hand, was actually a movie. With Mac. Whose name was Matt. Huh. And, as I pointed out to my parents in a pseudo-intellectual way, the inclusion of bumbling geeky hacker boy as a crucial back-up to brawny everymans hero McClane is a sign of the changing concept of strength and ability to prevail over evil. Whereas McClane has had no trouble previously in shooting things up and generally beating his way to victory, the new generation demands not only subtlety but technological know-how in order to put the villain in his place.

Been writing some, lately. Kinda started a thing called Radio Silence, one of those massively thought-out epic stories that I'll never write. The other thing is that I'm gradually anthropomorphizing the Solar System. Setting up the characters as based on the planets' relation in space, and then giving them personalities, histories, and conflicts inspired by their mythological counterparts. So far I'm just doing Pluto and Charon, who are suddenly beset by Nix and Hydra moving in with them. In space, Pluto and Charon are dwarf planets that share a barycenter outside of either mass (Charon is not Pluto's moon because it does not revolve around Pluto; they revolve together around a separate point), and Nix and Hydra do revolve around both of them. In mythology, Pluto (Hades) is lord of the Underworld, Charon ferrys the dead across the river Acheron, Nyx is his mother and embodiment of darkness, and Hydra is the multi-headed lizard creature what guards the Underworld. As you can see, Wikipedia is making me a crazy person. But it's so much fun to write.

I get this from the Griffith Observatory, which recently reopened. We visited it ....last...Saturday. I was woken and told I needed to be ready to leave within the hour, and then I was stole away to Hollywood. It was really neat, I want to go back and absorb more. I've always liked space (Thanks, Star Trek), and especially Pluto. I share a bond with Pluto since I invented Ryan Toronto, who, as an outlaw, lurks around my own futuristic Pluto. BUT, at the Observatory, the Pluto display kept calling Charon Pluto's "companion," and that's what got the whole creative work rolling. There was also a movie hosted by Leonard Nimoy in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater, in which his wife says that this new theater is better for necking in than the planetarium theater.

I hope you enjoyed today's letter, despite the Awfulness that surrounded everything today. I'd been getting complaints about how sparse I've been writing these lately, and so perhaps I won't get so much flak about this one. I'll try not to put it off to the last minute...anymore. ^^? We'll see, anyhow.

-Steph

Wishes do come true!

Happy Thursday! This has been a pretty fun and laid back/busy week. And magical. Let me tell you.

Saturday my aunt and uncle from Goleta came down for a barbeque, which was nice. They're those relatives you actually don't have anything against, yet still manage to never see even though they live in the same state. They brought one of their dogs, Bentley, a reddish miniature poodle. They cut him to look like a dog instead of modern art, so he's very cute. And well behaved. We took a walk around the park and they took a visit to the fenced off dog area. There was a very beautiful husky type dog in there.

And then the next day, my neighbor got married. They moved in next door when I was...seven-ish, and I still remember the first time I saw her in their front yard. She was all of nine years old, and now she's married. It was a great event! The ceremony was on the beach, by those rocks with the squirrels, and the dress code was "hawaiian-esque." The reception was up in the...whatever it is, what used to be the Holiday Inn, up in that room that used to spin. I don't think I've ever been in there before. There was food and music and dancing and it was all very magical. I'm real happy for her.

The title of my post refers to the fact that we got a kitten, and I attribute it to the fact that I "wished hard enough." I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but there's this new little cat that's been around for a month or so, looks like Simba reincarnated. We used to see him with mice and stuff, and he's very scrawny and wary of people. But I fed him the other day, and since then he's stuck around, who'da thunk.



When I first saw him, I called him Ghost of Simba. Later that changed to Fake Simba. Combined, he was often known as Gfimba. But now that he was MINE, I thought he deserved a real name. Also, I'm pretty sure it's a girl cat, but I'm also pretty sure that cats don't care what pronoun you use at them. We tried Bagheera, Paris, Tybalt...he was Tybalt for the longest, but my sister didn't buy it. I'm not exactly sure where Donnie came from, but I do know he's named after Donnie Darko, for his crazy eyes. (my sister tells me she was just throwing out names, and probably, then I just decided it was for Donnie Darko.)

He comes when you call him! Probably because he thinks "Dooonnnnie!" means "I have foooooooooood for youuuuuuu!" And he's pretty much the perfect cat because he doesn't want you to pet him, and he doesn't rub on you, or drool. He pretty much only loves me because of my foods I give him.

And then he spontaneously and unfathomably got himself stuck on the roof. Overnight, 'cause we couldn't get him down at all. The humane society didn't help at all, and then we called our tree trimmer friend, who sent his kid up there. The kid just grabbed him and scooted on down, and crisis averted.

Um! That's pretty much all that happened to me. Played Kingdom Hearts II and got to level 99, just gotta beat it now. I'll stop writing now, because my sister wants me to go on some sort of adventure.

I hope the cute picture makes up for it.

-Steph

Helloooooo

Happy Thursday! I feel like there was some sort of silly Thursday that was coined today, but I definitely forget it by now.

"Definitely" was one of those words that I could never remember how to spell. But I looked at it one day and figured it out. It's the word "finite." With a de- and a -ly. And that's all there is to it.

Here's a similar story. In sixth grade, our language arts and reading teacher, Mr. Dilbeck, gave a simple way to remember how to write there, their, and they're. See, they all start with the-, which is important. And...well, I guess I don't remember how else he specifically "taught" it, but since then I remembered what the differences are. Like "they're" is a contraction of They Are, so clearly it's the one with the apostrophe. And "their" is just weird, with that "i", but since they all start with the-, it must be after the e.... just stuff like that, I remember.

The next ones I'm going to sit down and learn how to spell are the believes, conceived, nieces, etc. those, I just have to let my fingers do it and see if it looks right. I know there's that I Before E crud, but that's just never been useful to me. Especially since there's all those exceptions no one ever tells you about.

Speaking of, I learned "special" because for some reason one day I decided that the "c" was giving the "i to the "a" as a present, and that's why they go in that order.

A special present.

Last weekend was the Visalia trip. I had to wear one of those...I think they call them "dresses" to the funeral. That was not very fun. Not that it should have been, but. It was nice seeing the aunts/uncles/cousins/cousins' kids, though. And the weather was real nice, 107. I miss it.

Today I just hung out with Carolyn (and Steven), as well as Monday and Tomorrow because she had a birthday and now she's an old man. And that's why this is so late 'cause I was over there and we were watching the best shows NBC has to offer until real late and now I'm out of time and it's stressing me out, although I'm really excited for NBCs fall lineup.

Stay classy, San Diego

-Steph

Anime Expo, 2007

Happy Thursday!! I can't believe it's a week later and the whole thing is over now. Just like I said, y'know? I know what I'm talking about. All the time. Want to see some pictures?



This is the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. It is not really the Convention Center, but they're somehow connected. As in, you go in to the Exhibit Hall on the North side, in the Convention Center, and you somehow come out on the South side of the theater (which is this). It took a while to figure that out.




THIS is the Convention Center. We've been to AXes here before, before they moved to Anaheim. But it's real different from what I remember. For instance, I thought the Queen Mary was right to the north of this....but it's definitely restaurants there.

One of the problems of this AX was how spread out everything was. The theater and the convention center are like blocks apart (makes the exhibit hall too big) so everyone is spread apart. There wasn't a definite alley or hallway where you could regularly find all the cosplayers. And for me, cosplay is way more important than the exhibit hall. I mean, it took us two full days to get through the exhibit hall once. In other years we're in, we're out, and then we're sitting and enjoying the cosplay. So, for me, this year was a little reversed, and that was too bad.

But this is our hotel! The WESTIN. The morning we went, I told everyone to go to the Hyatt, but I must have been crazy, because we definitely booked the Westin. Silly me.

The foreground is the fountains area in front of the theater, so that's how close we were. Also in the foreground is the remains of a really dumb Host Club gathering, where all the Host Club cosplayers (like us) showed up to take pictures.......but they didn't know what they were doing.

This is our amazing room! We waited forever to check in (actually made it through the badge line waaaaay fast, thanks to pioneering Greg). But it's a niiice room. Lot more floor space than we expected, which was good because three people were sleeping on the floor. Shhhh.





Our beautiful view of beautiful Long Beach, California.









THIS is the Hyatt, which was mysteriously connected to the Convention Center on the west side. This is us journeying to the more restaurants near the water. "Us" in this sense is me, Carolyn, Steven, and Steven's little friends.






This is US as in Carolyn, Me, Steven, Jennifer, Jacqi, and Greg. Marie took the picture.

See how Steven's is intense?

And Jacqi made Greg's allll on her own. They took a bus down to the AX from Santa Cruz the night before. Poor kids.





And here they are in their own set of costumes, cosplaying from Pokemon. Jacqi is Ash, and Greg is Dawn. We almost didn't recognize them when they came into the hotel.










Here we are enjoying our free Kodomono Nomimono (Kid's Drink). It says apple cider soda, and non-alcoholic...the Americanized bottle I brought home says Party Pop! It was like reaaaally watered down wine, or weak appley beer. But it was free!




Most of the time, me and Carolyn wandered the Exhibit Hall, just trying to find things to buy because there was too much of the same useless stuff. Sometimes we had Steven as Beelzenef, and I had to guide him through the crowds. But he got us lots of pictures because of how intense he was.

The rest of the time, we hung out in the hotel, or ventured over to the restaurants. The others kept journeying to the Vons in the ghetto bit of town hidden behind the hotels. But the touristy part of Long Beach was really nice. Once we walked along the harbor past the aquarium. There's a little peninsula with a light house on it and everything. It's very cute.

Watched a lot of Man Vs. Wild, lions and snakes documentaries, small people documentaries....Fantastic Four. Scrubs, Futurama. Some news.

Went swimming once. It's good to get my yearly swim in.

I've never really gone to any of the activities planned for AX goers, but the others made valiant efforts. There were concerts, panels, movies, all kinds of things. I ended up going to see Tokyo Godfathers the first or second night, and it's one of the greatest movies ever made. I need to buy it. I really really do. Other than that, I joined everyone in sitting in the auction on the last day when we'd already checked out and just wanted to sit someplace. They were selling signed sketches and posters and box sets of things for like thousands of dollars apiece. The caller also wasn't very good, but it was interesting enough to watch. And we sat through the beginning of the ending ceremonies (a first!) but then we had to leave. Awwww.

Here's just some random pictures.


Awww, they're sitting on the cute benches! I think Carolyn was also taking a picture, and Steven was off with his little friends like he did a lot.





Swirly lights from the arena during the auction.









Kyiiiaaaaaaaaaaar!
Says the face in the theater.






Cosplayers!!


Hitmonchan; Pokemon.










Maruchan Instant Lunch cups.








Mokona; Magic Knight Rayearth and Tsubasa Chronicles (the latter of which we cosplayed last year)







A Go board. You all remember the Go club?








Kanmuri, Azuma, Yoshino, and Kirisaki; Yakitate!! Japan.

aka, the Bread Show I always talk about.







A Spartan, I assume. He was just cool because he was wearing that shiny cardboard face on the side of his real face...and that's just cool.











Hawkeye; FMA (don't you all remember those uniforms?)
Riku, I imagine; Kingdom Hearts II
These are Steven's little friends Karen and Hannah. They're pretty cool.







Mello, Matt, and Near; DeathNote. Not my favorite characters, but they were a cute little group.







Balthier and someone-I-don't-know; Final Fantasy XII

Balthier is my favefavefavorite from FFXII, and this guy just ROCKED as him. That other guy....I don't think he's from FFXII 'cause I just do not know him. But maybe I'm just not there yet. *shrug*







Axel; Kingdom Hearts II

She was pretty good. There were a lot of lame Axel's, just 'cause he's so popular.









Shuuichi from Gravitation.
Gravi is soo oldschool, but there's always a Concert!Shuuichi like this one.








This is blurry 'cause I was zoomed up, but.

Mikami (we guess) from DeathNote.
You see, in DeathNote, there is an item called a Death Note, and "the human whose name is written in the Death Note shall die." So this guy? He was looking out through the registration line, jotting down names.
HARDCORE costume roleplay.


Florist-Aya; Weiss Kreuz.
Ah, Aya. If you know me online, you'll know the name Aya. Clearly, someone other than me loves him, too.











Zabimaru; Bleach.
In Bleach, the fighters have these swords, and the swords have different levels of strength, right? When you release the sword to it's second level (bankai), it sometimes stops looking like a sword. This is Renji's Bankai, a crazy sectioned snake thing. And some people cosplaying it.




Stealth shot of Cloud and Tifa from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Yeah, it's still popular. It's hard to find non-Advent Children versions anymore.

Inside the convention center, second floor, looking out. Awww, what cute little anime fans.

One of the things I truly love about the AX is that it's a different sort of stranger. I mean, when you're walking down the street in a crowd at any other time of the year, the people around you are just strangers, and you don't have any idea about who they are. But at the AX, when the Convention Center as well as the surrounding streets are filled with anime fans...it's like you already know them. You can just walk by and say, "I like your shirt!" and he'll say, "thanks!" and you'll continue on. If they're cosplaying, it's even easier, 'cause you know automatically one of their favorite shows and can assume several others. And then you can talk about it. Or calmly take pictures of people you'll never see again. I was wearing my Naruto shirt, not even cosplaying, and I smiled at this Itachi crossing the street, and he knew why I was smiling; because we had Naruto in common. You can't just smile at strangers on the street, they'll think you're weird.

At the Anime Expo, you already know everyone else is weird.

You can walk up to someone dressed the same as you, invite her to a gathering of the show you're all wearing as, and then still be friends with her two years later. We caught Andrea only for a moment, and I was silly and didn't even take any pictures of her in her Tenchu cosplay, but that's the sort of bonds forged in an Anime Expo.

And here's us in the arena, between the auction and the closing ceremonies. Our group in the back (Carolyn, Jacqi, Marie, Jennifer, Greg), Steven's group in the front (Steven, Karen, Hannah, Maddie, and Sta..cey).

It was fun times, it really was. Till next year!

Also what happened over the weekend was that my Grandpa died. So now I have to go finish my laundry and pack again, 'cause we're leaving for Visalia at 3-ish. Funeral's tomorrow. So. I'll catch you next week.

-Steph