I am the fashion police

I was feeling a bit of stress, so I decided to not do that anymore. And, I watched about 12 hrs of Oscar coverage on Sunday. Yes, from 9am - 9pm my tv was on, and tuned to the absolute fluff of the oscars.

Absolutely nothing happens between 9-3, so they invent fun stuff to do like interview the jewelers and dress makers and wolfgang puck etc. For some reason Jen, the Bachelortte, was a pre-show correspondent. I honestly don't remember much from the 9-3 time period. I do know that they were severely lacking on the coverage of the food and decor at the various parties around town. Wolfgang puck was there with his usual oscar shaped food for the governors ball, but that was about it. we hardly glanced at the decor. And the vanity fair party was mentioned, but was nowhere to be found (unless i was napping when they showed it. and the rest of the parties weren't even mentioned. I just couldn't believe it.

the 3-5 hr is when it all happens. TV guide channel with the rivers family, and E! with the Star Jones/Kathy Griffin pair. Oh dear was it a train wreck. I started off the the Rivers family. TV Guide shelled out a few million to get diamond and ruby encrusted microphones. From TV they pretty much looked like cheap rhinestones. Not to be outdone, Starr Jones, on the red carpet had a shiny E! mic, but I never found out the value. Granted a few seconds of research could answer this, but I don't really care. As far as microphones go, E! wins. And it was a good thing too, because it helped distract from that hideous roll of back fat on Starr. Honestly, what was she thinking, What was her designer thinking. How could E! air that. I may have to complain to the FCC. On the other hand, as long as you didn't listen to her (and I used to really like her) Joan looked better than she has in years. She must have gotten a better surgeon with the $8million tv guide channel contract money. Surprisingly, Kathy Griffin was the prettiest host of the evening, including all those model types that E! hires for the pre-preshow. Kathy's dress really worked for her, it was a great color, and her hair was fantastic.

There weren't a lot of complete fashion disasters this year, ignoring Carlos Santana. There were, however, a lot of women who just don't understand their boobs. Luckily that awful greek goddess thing from the golden globes seemed to have dried up. The trend yesterday seems to have been dresses that look plain on top, but have fancy skirts. They mostly looked really good when you got the head to toe view, but you rarely did.

My biggest shock of the night was Beyonce. Granted, I have no idea what the kids are up to these days. But I was pretty sure the only things beyonce ever wore made her look like a whore. But she was absolutely beautiful with all her costume changes last night.
Beyonce arrives, looking very classy, in some fantastic earrings
Beyonce in phantom
Beyonce as disco ball : it looked so beautiful on tv. this pic kinda sucks

Kate Blanchett
I'm voting her prettiest and best dressed. I couldn't stop looking at her. Usually I'm against one shoulder dresses, but this one really worked. And, unlike most one shoulder dresses, it covered her other boob correctly. Also, i'm usually anti-yellow, but her dress was fantastic. Her hair and makeup was pristine, not to mention that I really like blondes with curls. Too bad this picture is so crappy

Scarlett Johansson: Very pretty, very young, and very blonde. Those jewels in her hair were fantastic. Hers was one of the dresses that looked a little plain, until you saw the whole thing, but she really made it work.

Kate Winslet: Knows her boobs.
I'm not sure her dress was quite spectacular enough for the oscars, but it was very pretty. And her clevage worked, very much natural and undistorted, she shapes the dress, the dress doesn't shape her.

Gwenneth Paltrow: The worst case of not knowing her boobs. Seriously quadra-boob is not a good look, ever, and especially not for the oscars. And her dress had the potential to be very good.

Hilary Swank: I'm going to get a lot of crap for this, but her dress was ugly, and, half the time you could see her nipples. The make products just to solve that problem. Perhaps they should be used. When you only saw her top half, from the front it looked like she was just wearing a long sleeve t-shirt.

Charlieze theron: pretty dress, not such great clevage

Renee Zellweger: usually I love her. her dress was nice, wasn't quite spectacular enough for the show though
Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek: come on girls, know you boobs. if you are going to contort your boobs into shapes they aren't it shouldn't be visible. i don't know why people can't understand this simple conceptboobs=

that's quite enough for now. i hope all the stupid links work, but i'm not about to fix them again. so you're on your own.

Information Literacy

My mom is generally pretty savvy. The things she does, she's good at. God help the phone company who charges her an extra 50 cents or those retarded people at the mail in pharmacy who try to charge her double. Yet, 2 weeks ago this conversation took place:

Mom:there's a Chinese food buffet that's reviewed in the RAVE! It sounds good, I want to go.
Me: Is it a review, or is it that paid advertisement section that looks like a review.
Mom: Huh?
Me: are you serious? you've been reading the paper for longer than I could even read. you don't know there's a paid review section in the rave?
Mom: no, it looks like a review
Me: Yes, that's the point, it LOOKS like a review. look at the top "PAID ADVERTISEMENT"
Mom: I still want to go

So she went this week. Despite me telling her it wasn't a review, and that a cheap Chinese food buffet is mediocre, at best. And guess what, she was disappointed, it wasn't nearly as good as it sounded in the ad.

Part of the job of a librarian is to promote information literacy. I guess I'm a failure.

I say, what are you up to today, old chap?

Have you seen the new Budweiser commercials? The people who brought us those frogs and that damned "wuzzuuuuuuuuup" are now going back in time. They are recycling commercials from practically before tv was invented. It's a beer for celebration that all the well dressed, classy 30's people drink. And they drink it in a pilsner glass, yes, the same glasses they use for some champagne cocktails and frou-frou girly layered drinks. Seriously, what are they thinking. the king of beers is getting in touch with his sensitive side? Don't they know their audience? Are they stupid enough to think they can change their image? It's a very bold move that I doubt will turn out well. At least they didn't spend any money on this new campaign.

And for a limited time only, it's being sold in it's original 30's eagle packaging, or whatever. I'm at work, I'm not about to verify any of these things I'm saying and risk someone seeing me look at beer online, cheap beer no less.

I like the commercials, because I love retro. I also love pilsner glasses, they're almost as dumb as martini glasses. I just wish the product wasn't crappy, mass brewed, dumb American beer.

Solid Gold Toilet News

Hong Kong jeweller flushed out by tourism board

I am very, very sad. Apparently the people who guard the toilet are mean. They're right though, it won't stop me from visiting any time I'm in the neighborhood.

I wonder if the Travel Channel will add disclaimer next time they run their top 10 bathrooms special.

And you know how they clean a solid gold toilet, with a solid gold toilet brush.

Cookie saga part 3

cookies and restraining orders

Talk about creativity

This is fantastic!

Gentleman's Club Challenges Nude Ordinance

Study: the Pill Changes Women's Taste in Men

The headline is a bit misleading, it doesn't really change, just sort of strengthens their natural resistance. Read it here.

National Cynthia Day

Torrance, CA-- February 16, 2005--- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

I declare February 17, National Cynthia Day. A day for all the Cynthias of the world to rejoice. I have no authority to do this, but maybe if i pull some kind of PR stunt in a few years I'll develop a cult following, and maybe they'll interview me on the radio, or the AP will call.
This will be the official website of National Cynthia Day, with the option of moving it somewhere else, at a later day.

The day should be celebrated doing the things Cynthias usually do including, but not limited to: going to work, going to the library, sending email, blogging, belly dancing, being generally disdainful of others, acquiring strange things from the Orient that cost 98 cents, considering going to see the Heffalump movie, watching childrens and food related TV, playing neopets, deep frying and drinking cocktails.

Others should be extra kind to Cynthias on Cynthia day, giving them presents such as: dark chocolate, flowers, cherry vodka, tiaras and sashes, retardedly expensive mutant hairy dogs and 80's cartoon paraphernalia.

The theme songs for the day will be Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and the Cynthia song from Rugrats

Honorable Cynthias may include Hilary Duff, Alton Brown and any voice heard on the TV series Jem (except for someone who only plays Jetta or a Stinger).

I expect there to be parties all over the world in celebration. Yet there will probably be no photographic evidence, because Cynthias are too lazy to research and buy digital cameras.

There is plenty of room for sponsorship of this exciting, rapidly growing holiday. You can get in on the ground floor. Please offer your suggestions and the staff for National Cynthia Day will work on it for next year.

dogs are strange

I've never wanted a dog more than this one.

Not even, Mr. Winkle.

Wow, this dog was fantastic. It trips over it's own fur! It definitely wins for most retarded animal. And it won best of breed at the dog show.

Breeding Info

http://www.pekingeseclub.org/ there's an .org for these creatures.

It's a nice day for a white (trash) wedding

There is no possible way for me to write this post without sounding like a horrible person. But you all know I'm not nice.

My neighbors are very nice people. They were super supportive when my mom was sick. They and their huge dog keep an eye on our house. They were helpful when our cat went missing. We exchange baked goods on Christmas etc. They are good neighbors. That being said, they're not very classy.

The Grandma lived in the house with her husband and sister since before my parents got the house 26-27 yrs ago. Eventually the sister and the husband died off, and her son and his wife and their daughter, the bride, moved back from Arizona to live with her and stayed. The bride is a few yrs older than me. She moved out after highschool like a normal person, and came back a few yrs later. A number of months ago her boyfriend also started living in the house. That's 5 people in a 2 bedroom house, plus a cat and a dog the size of a horse.

So last month the bride got engaged, and the wedding was yesterday, Valentine's Day. My parents went to the wedding, at a park in San Pedro. They said the ceremony started about 50 mins late. When I got home, I popped my head over to the reception. The bride was wearing a nice dress, the Groom and best man were in nice white suits. Our neighbors had dressed for the occasion. The Groom's side of the wedding, however, were barely dressed to go the grocery store. Someone was actually wearing jeans, but I guess that's preferable to warm up pants. Oh my gosh, I would have cried, and then I would have put a hit out on my mother-in-law. The reception was almost adequate. About 40-50 people, a honey baked ham, a turkey, mashed potatos etc. Also, an entire crock pot full of pork and beans from the can, at a wedding! I can safely say, even if I never have a wedding, it will be better than that one. I think a Vegas wedding might have been preferable, at least it would be a little exotic.

They story is almost cute. They got married on v-day. He was her childhood friend. And they got married all these years later (even though he has like a 4-5yr old kid with some other girl). I guess I'll find out soon if they rushed the wedding because she was pregnant.

Then I went home to watch the Secret Life of Wedding Cakes on the food network. Those cakes cost more than that entire wedding. sigh. I guess everyone can't have nice things.

Once upon a meow

I watched he last of my Netflix this weekend. The Secret Lives of Dentists
was not quite what I was expecting (although I don't know what I was
expecting) but it definitely reinforced my lack of enthusiasm for starting
a family.

My other disc was "Hello Kitty Becomes a Princess" this was a set of 5
stories from the 1987 TV show Hello Kitty's Furry Tale theater . I don't ever remember this show existing. The cover artwork had me beleiving this was a new, made for DVD
thing. But, one look at the actual show and you see a mutant kitty that I
don't remember at all. But it makes up for it by being super-charming. If I
had a daughter, I would buy all the DVDs for her.

The cast of characters that we know an love is: Hello Kitty voiced by Tara
Strong (Bubbles from PPG), Tuxedo Sam, the little seal friend, and My Melody.The cast of characters they just made up and I've never seen a sanrio.

product for are: Catnip the selfish valley girl voiced by Cree Summer (the
hardest working voice in show biz (or at least the shows I watch) best
known as Suzy from Rugrats), and some ugly bulldog, not very bright, good
at brute force, as long as he understands the direction. Not bad hearted,
but does whatever catnip says. They are, obviously, the villians. They
weren't very exciting, but at least they stayed constant through the shows.
So, the point of this series is that Kitty and her little friends (and
enemy) put on plays of fairy tales. My disc was 4 episodes where she
is/becomes a princess and one where she just has beautiful hair:
cinder-kitty, kitty and the beast, snow white kitty, sleeping kitty, and
kitty-locks and the 3 bears.

Like shows like Hamtaro and Smurfs, they like to work in the Kitty angle
whenever possible saying things like purr-iffic and cat-tastic. Every
vignette starts "once upon a meow"

Cinder-kitty: We open with Kitty outside. since she isn't allowed to have
friends, she's rigged some kind of machine where she can catapult a
football at herself and catch it. Because the evil step-sister, Catnip
moves the catapult Kitty ends up breaking the window. The big game is
today. and it's rumored that prince tuxedo sam will choose his princess
from the cheerleading tryouts before hand. Kitty doesn't care so much about
being princess, she just wants to see the big game. So the mom and sister
leave her home alone, crying. Then the fairy god-kitty appears, and doesn't
mince words. She will not stand for self-pitty and crying. (the best fairy
godmother I've ever seen). So first she puts kitty in a cheerleading
uniform and drives her off to the tryouts in style. Sam sees her routine
and falls in love. Unfortunately at the big moment Catnip unties kitty's
shoe and if flies off and gets stuck in Sam's mouth, they spend a good 5
secs showing that it's rather stuck and needs a strong tug to get out.
Kitty runs off in embarassment, but Sam still likes her. And her God-kitty
gives here another good talking to about running away in embarassment
Later the game starts, and someone gets hurt, kitty asks the god-kitty for
one last favor, and she gets put into the game. She makes the game winning
touchdown (or whatever) and then runs off before she can be discovered.
So the prince searches the land for the one who can fit the shoe. the
stepsister tries to whore herself off on him, but he finds kitty's foot
dangling out of the chimney that she's trying to clean. It's a match. And
he loves her even more because she's the cheerleader and the football
player.

Sleeping Kitty: Kitty doesn't invite Catnip to the party, so she casts the spell that kitty will fall asleep forever if she ever watches tv again. So they ban all tvs from the kingdom. And the next day all they can do is talk about how fun TV was. Catnip still has her tv though, and kitty decides there's no reason to punish her friends, and lets them to watch tv with Catnip. But they're watching a scary movie, and they're all screaming so kitty rushes up to save them, catches a glimpse of the TV and falls asleep forever. So they take her to the castle. Catnip makes the vines grow superfast so in like 15 mins there's no way to get in. Tuxedo sam is the only hope. He's very nervous about having to go kiss kitty. But vines are covering everything, the only thing he can do is blow her a kiss and hope it sticks. It flies around for a while and finally sticks, waking up kitty, the kingdom, and the vines disappear.

Snow white also hinges on a nervous kiss. But after an adorably chaste kiss on the cheek, snow kitty awakes and the kingdom rejoices

Kitty and the Beast also involves a kiss, and good hearted kitty easily kisses beast on the cheek and the kingdom rejoices.

Kitty-locks is mostly amusing because there are no bears in this show, so 3 of the characters have to wear bear hats. I love it when animals pretend to be other animals! We also learn the very important lesson that bears like to eat porridge, pizza and kitties.

Hello Kitty is almost as good as JEM. She gives Rainbow Brite a run for her money.

Nothing kills the mood quicker than science

Kissed off: Swedish couple fail in Valentine's Day smoochathon bid

During an open-mouthed kiss, two individuals on average exchange 40,000 parasites, 250 different types of bacteria, along with varying amounts of salt, fat, protein and other organic substances, according to Apoteket.

Happy V-Day everyone!

April 1985. Ages before Rainbow would become queen of the raves 

My third birthday. I never thought then that in 2005 I'd still like Strawberry 

another "I'm getting old"story

Yesterday I was kinda in a weird mood anyway. And I had no energy. At one
point during my belly-dancing class, I was sorta sitting there with my head
down waiting for the class to start, while all the other girls were
chatting and jingling. I felt just like that little zoloft guy. Tired, sad,
isolated from my peers, not really the best mood to be in. Of course,
thinking about the sad zoloft guy made me happy.

I've been trying to read this stupid Killer Angels book. And i just can't
concentrate on it. The most success I've had is at work in like 15 min
increments. And yesterday I went to the library to kill some time and try
to read this book. And I gave up after 40 mins, and tried to read
Cosmopolitan instead.

I've never had a love-love relationship with cosmo. near the end of my
subscription, sr year, it was a hate-hate relationship. and most of the
time in the middle it's somewhere between love-hate and love-mild dislike.But I picked up the issue anyway, thinking that if I couldn't concentrate, some crap like cosmo would be something I could tolerate. Oh boy, was I wrong.

At first I started just turning the pages, looking at the pictures. There
was a cool ad for l'oreal, or some kind of cosmetics, involving apples
covered in makeup or something. and then the words started. Bleh. I went
into this knowing that Cosmo hasn't had original content since dinosaurs
roamed the earth. But I was hoping for something to at least amuse me.

It started ok, with the fashion page with some pink jackets and frilly
things, but the next page was "bohemian" which I think, maybe, means ugly. so cosmo fashion isnt' my thing.

then there's the cosmo version of "say anything" where people write in their embarassing moments. it made me sad for humanity.

then there was the pull quote, that i didn't bother reading the rest of
that said 43% of men had fooled around with women who were engaged to other people. 43%? I don't even know anyone who's engaged. Everyone is married but me. Even cheaters!

then there was the list of 100 thing to do with your boyfriend, or ways to
be romantic or whatever. the list is always the same, only the title
changes. "we write love notes to eachother" bleah "i pack my boyfriend a
bag lunch with peanut butter sandwiches, juice boxes and cookies" ha, i bet his little work friends give him so much crap about that. i couldn't read
the whole list, it was like 3 pages of text. these ideas were so dull i
couldn't even believe it. The only one I liked went something like this "my
boyfriend is a soldier and we can't always see or call eachother, so we
have mail sex. we draw dirty stick figures and send them to each other" At
least that's a little different.

I skimmed the 2 pg article on condoms. I was amused that all the graphics
and tables were pink and purple. If I wanted an article about condoms, this
one contained actual facts.

The last straw was the next article about "NEW" sex positions. For goodness
sake, I don't know how many Puritain missionaries they think read Cosmo, but I'd bet the numbers are pretty low. Is it possible to sue? If they're suing splenda for false advertising, certainly cosmo is a worse offender. There's nothing new about any of the stuff they've published, certainly for the last 10 yrs, probably ever. That was the last straw. I couldn't even make it to the quiz.

I no longer read Cosmo. Am I too old?Am I too jaded.? God bless them for their past, pushing the envelope with birth control advocacy and all. But I'm way over Cosmo. I don't know what the deal is. And now, what magazines are there for me to read? I could try with the hardcore fashion ones again. But I don't know if I'm into that. And I'm still too young for the magazines that my mom reads, especially that God awful Ladies Home Journal, also I may be of the wrong political persuasion. I don't care about celebrity gossip, so that genere is out. I don't care about fitness, cars, science, dolls, photography or electronics. The only magazine I really like is Saveur. I'm going to have to renew my subscription when my free one runs out. But not all food magazines are good. I guess, when I start joining library associations I can read their magazines. They're not too bad.

So that's it, I can't read books, I can't read magazines. I'm just going to have to watch only Jem DVDs for the rest of my life. I ended netflix this week. Hello Killy Becomes a Princess is sitting at home waiting for me, and that's it. *sigh*

Cookie Saga Part 2

Girls Get Donations in Colo. Cookie Case

It ain't over yet.

Greatest thing since sliced bread

Chef creates paper meals

Isn't technology great!

More Marukai sadness

I went to the 98 cent store yesterday, even though I'm still upset. I was hoping maybe they already changed their minds about the price increase. I may have to start calling it something else, because there are fewer and fewer things for 98 cents and more things for $1.25 and $1.50. I probably wouldn't have gone at all, but I needed raw supplies for a birthday present I'm working on. $15 and one small bag later I left feeling ripped off. Most of my purchases were food, I've been lacking Japanese/Korean snacks in my diet.

Unlike my January trip, the store did get new things that they are charging over 98 cents for. This way I don't feel completely ripped off. But adding more expensive things changes the whole dynamic of the store. I don't go there because I want good stuff, I go to see what kind of crap i can pick up for 98 cents that people might like.

Here's a selective list of changes. There are plenty more :(

They brought in a bunch of new ceramic things and a whole aisle of weird wooden things that i can't figure a use for and that is all over 98 cents

they raised the price of socks, hello kitty merchandise, key chains and many school supplies to 1.25

the jones soda is still 98 cents but they raised the price of the jones juice.

in an interesting move, they've seemed to stop carrying the 3/98 cup noodles and instead are carrying a wide variety of instant ramen noodles from between .98 and 1.50. This is bad for my bland American palate, since I can't read most of the packages and they look scary.

I can no longer get the 98 cent panko, It's a good think I'm winding down with my deep frying.
Stupid Marukai. I can only hope this will fail, like it did last time. It's all any of us can do. It's a good thing there are plenty of other places to buy imported goods.

Happy Second Week of February

I hope your Mardi Gras, Chinese New Year and Groundhog's Day were all swell.

Yesterday i spent a rather uneventful mardi gras, and today seems to be turning into a rather uneventful new year. You'd think in my company with the president and vp being Chinese, and so many other Chinese people working here we'd at least have a small party, or something. Our factories are closed, our Taiwan office is closed, and we're just here working like it's a regular day.

I tried to celebrate mardi gras this weekend. There were supposed to be festivities at the Grove/farmer's market. And there kinda were, i guess. There were a few dixie bands, and a rather unexcited person slowly handing out beads, but that was about it. I saw some people eating a king cake, but there didn't seem to be any place to buy them. Nothing looked particularly festive at the cajun food place, so i ate my usual potato crusted cod and spent like 3 entire minutes trying to figure out the song the band was playing--sweet georgia brown. And there was a small booth selling mardi gras crap like harlequin dolls and gator lamps. But really, if i didn't buy that crap when i was drunk in New Orleans, i'll never buy that crap.

There was this old couple at the table next to us. And saturday, i was in the mood to think they were cute. then i started thinking about when i get old. i like the farmers market. i love all the food, and i was even happy when they built the grove, because it gave me added incentive to drive my ass all the way there. But really, it's getting too cool for me. Those old people probably have been going to the farmers market since the beginning, when it was little more than a produce stand and pie shop and they'd be damned if they let the young kids come in and take their joy away. I respect that, and i know i won't be that way when I'm old. Already, it's trouble to go there, I have to put on my young, hip and LA clothes and be in my young, hip and LA mood, and parking keeps getting more and more expensive. I guess, maybe, I'll care less about meshing with the cool, beautiful, rich kids when I'm old. People will either ingore me because i'm old, or be nice because I'm old and they think i have money. Maybe the world is telling me I should just live a hipper life. If i practiced every day, it wouldn't be so much work.

In other news I got some clearanced cashmere gloves from the Grove's nordstrom. They are awesome!

non-princess ISO boy and tiara

I was out shopping this weekend, and as usual, I somehow ended up
at Victoria's Secret. But what I found was far from usual. The most
fantastic/retarded thing just appeared before my eyes. They are
selling a pouch that contains:

1. rhinestone tiara
2. sash (like Miss America, or Mrs. Banks from Mary Poppins wears)
that says "sexy lil thing"
3. thong

I can't for the life of me figure out who gave approval to
manufacture that. And I'm not sure who the audience is that they're
expecting to purchase it. But I want one!

The friend I was shopping with was not particularly encouraging, so
I didn't buy it for myself. And later on, I did admit that it
really is the sort of thing that should be gifted to you, not the
sort of thing you should buy for yourself. I, of course, would
return the favor with cookies, or muffins, or maybe even an icebox pie.

I'm looking for a boy who will buy me a tiara and sash, and
occasionally encourage my whims when I want to pretend to be a
beauty queen or a suffragette. This is in contrast to my regular
life as a grad student studying to be a librarian.

In addition to my aspirations of sash wearing, I enjoy watching
children's shows on tv, cooking and belly dancing. I dislike busy
work, gyms and people who lack imagination.

Trouble with Tribbles

Dear Google Image Search,

I'm sorry to inform you, but I think you have your priorities confused. I was trying to find pictures of tribbles, the little furballs from Star Trek, because my otherwise well versed in pop-culture friend, didn't know what they were. I was, sort of, looking for a very specific picture that I know exists, but I would have settled for many others.

The first page of results returned is approximately 70% tribbles, that is almost acceptable. the rest of the pages are a majority of things that aren't tribbles: dogs, cats, weasels, people, kids...
Granted, my results dramatically improve when i search [tribble star trek]. But there is only one thing that should be called tribble, and Star Trek should really be unnecessary.

And, only 196 results for [tribble star trek]? that's just silly. Is it because i'm at work and I have the safesearch on? Surely, there must be millions of tribble pictures on the internet. Why don't you have them indexed? You do know that the internet was started by nerds, for nerds. Nerds who love star trek. Surely, you people at google like star trek, there are probably even some of you with tribbles on your desk. The trouble with tribbles in 2005, apparently is not their ubiquity, but rather their dearth. I don't believe this is a scarcity problem, but rather an access problem.

The solution to this problem is:
1. reprioritize the order in which tribble pictures are shown
2. find more damn tribbles and provide access to them.

When I get my library, I will keep a file stocked with tribble pictures, just for situations like this.

Teens' cookie deliveries crumble into $900 lawsuit

If I was the crying type, this would make me cry. Instead, I'm plotting to leave the country again.

A neighbor says an anxiety attack sent her to the hospital after two girls dropped treats on her porch

Bleh!

USB Sushi

I thought cats in sushi was cool, but this is fantastic! And I actually could use one of these.

Never again will you have to choose between having sushi or having a USB memory drive

and here's another picture

AnimeLA: how I spent my weekend

i was at an anime convention for 3 days, and managed to watch less
than 30 mins of anime. somehow, that was half the amount of lizzie
mcguire i watched.

like i said, the convention was small. the anime viewing room was
probably equipped for 40 people max. the live action viewing room
was a hotel room. The vendor hall consisted of a hallway and 4
hotel rooms. still, i managed to spend $40. there was a hospitality
suite where all conventioners could go and have free snacks and
drinks. i was amazed. they could have made a decent amount of money
selling soda and things, but they just gave it away. and very few
people abused the privilege.

This was not a convention for people who wanted to be exposed to
new and different anime. It was for hardcore anime people who just
want an excuse to gather, dress up and take pictures. 2 hrs into my
arrival i was already lamenting the fact that i was lazy and didn't
bring my costume. especially since (drinking) mario and (smoking)
luigi showed up, and there was no princess in sight.

by the friday night dance, i realized that i had my practice belly
dancing clothes in my car and decided if i couldn't look like a
real character, at least i could not wear jeans. so after a change
of clothes and half a bottle of cherry vodka with coke, i was ready
for dancing. cherry vodka is very, very good, even though it smells
like cough syrup. (thank you, Dave) unfortunately it is 70 proof
(rather than the usual 80 proof) and that 5% less alcohol really
makes a difference in my inebriation. I'm going to look for it in
the store, and next time mix it with regular vodka for more kick.

the anime people come prepared. somehow they all brought glowsticks
and were dancing and glowing to the techno rave music. as lydia
keeps telling me, i'd make a good rainbow brite, and if i made a
costume i could be queen of a rave. i was no rainbow brite, but i
did get some attention. some girl came up to me, we exchanged a few
words about belly dancing, shimmied at each other and as she was
leaning over me, she bit me on the neck. kissing lydia is one
thing, but being bitten by a complete stranger is quite another.
but she ended up being harmless, and more attractive than i first
though. i haven't turned into a vampire yet. so i think it's okay. and i was amused for the rest of the weekend when she or her friend yelled at me from across the way "hey, you're that girl
from the dance"

after this incident, Lydia said "lets go shopping while we're
drunk." and while i wasn't particularly drunk, i rarely turn down
teh opportunity to look at cute japanese things for purchase. but
the first store/hotel room we found was not quite as japanese as
much as it was dead animal and rock. i picked up a headpiece for
bellydancing. at $12 it was less than half of what i'd expect to
pay. lydia bought a real fur tail. and tried to convince me that i
need a $4 fox head pelt. they had a live rabbit, i was very worried
that tomorrow it would become a rabbit "love glove" $10 natural
color, $12 dyed. but the lady seemed very attached to her rabbit so
i think he's safe. we spent kinda too long in there. they told us
to come back tomorrow to see the "pink o'nine tails" which is their
mink o'nine tails only very, very pink. if i ever needed a(nother)
bondage toy that was the one to get. but i missed my chance. gosh,
was it pink. and soft. i could have just worn it as a tail.

karaoke was rather disappointing--not that i know any anime songs,
but something was wrong and they didn't have the lyrics for any of
their anime songs. they only had a small handful of karaoke cd's. I
sang a disappointing version of cabaret where they completely cut
out the good verse, which left me on stage confused, trying to
recover. lydia sang a fantastic version of breathless in her little
pink dress. i made sure to sing before her. i'm not stupid.

Saturday night was a super cute anime song cover band. With a real
Japanese singer wearing an amazing mickey mouse had from Japan that
looked like a baby seal with ears. i signed up to be on their
mailing list. i hope i get email from them. i wish i had a party
that i needed a band for.

Lydia's friends turned out to be rather unscary for people she met
online through geek channels. i was pleasantly surprised. although
some of the people were definitely questionable

We were in a group with a friend of a friend of Lydia's friend and
he turns to me and asks "didn't you work for me?" and i looked at
him confused, and asked who he was. He was in charge of something
at AnimeeXpo. and my sister had worked for him. I guess we really
do look alike.

The brother of the girl lydia knows from the internet had a real
storm trooper outfit. apparently when they buy those things they
take your information. and sometimes the put out an APB for storm
troopers to gather for some reason or another. i didn't quite get
the whole story. boys are weird. can you imagine a convention of
girls all wearing the same dress? there would be maulings, at the
least.

Thanks to Lydia (not like i'd be there without her though) i
somehow felt I was in the inner circle at this thing. it was very
odd being one of the cool geeks. Granted, I was like the geek
mother, holding the stuff that we didn't want in the pictures,
making sure the length of the skirt stayed as respectable as
possible and the boots stayed up. I guess that's what it's like in
small places. You start with the right friend or two and it grows
into instant popularity. In all, i really liked the smallness of
the thing. the kimono workshop would have been fantastic if i
focused on sewing rather than calling towing companies. that never
would have worked anywhere bigger. and the free snacks, definitely
wouldn't work at a big convention. Quaint may be the right word. it
amused me. passing the same people a few times a day and actually
recognizing them, that was interesting.

Only one problem I found with the quaintness was the student film
"the importance of sound and music to film" it was worse
than one of my high school videos. it's a darn good thing i
finished the vodka just before arriving to the viewing room. i was
all set to watch anime about panties. but then some college kids
showed their class project, that had nothing to do with anime. not
only was the plot bad, but also the sound and lighting. and they
said they got an A on the thing. obviously, wherever they go to
school, it doesn't have very high standards. If i had Kenny's
movie, i would have beat up those 3 very large guys and put that in
the player instead. Maybe i wouldn't have beat them up, but i would
have used my feminine wiles, and the "typewriter," the dance move
of the weekend, which seemed to impress everyone.

and that was my weekend. I'll leave it to Lydia to provide a visual record of the weekend

once you're a jem girl, you're never the same

so, it was a small convention (although, someone said they'd seen
smaller. but really any smaller and it's just having your friends
over to watch a dvd). the guests weren't so huge. there was Mr. shake hands man from the short lived fox show, banzai! there were some people i'd never heard of. and one person who i'd never heard of but with credentials i recognized:

Mr. Wally Burr a cute litte old man, and voice casting and director for JEM! among other things. and I find out now, he was also the voice of minor characters, the fathers of both pizzazz and jem! oh dear, i talked to the voice of jem's father and didn't even know it!
Lydia and I went to his panel, he was supposed to be talking about,
oh, i don't know, something to do with voice acting and casting.
Mostly he just told anecdotes. Like about how the last thing Orson
Welles did, 2 weeks before he died, was work on Transformers with
him and be an ass.

so mr. burr talked about how he was working for a lot of hasbro
shows. he not only mentioned jem by name, but briefly explained it
for people. i almost died happy right there. but later on we met
him in the hospitality suite, i was afraid to talk to him. but he
approached me because lydia made us sit in the front row. he asked
me if i was interested in voice acting, and i refered him to lydia,
but not before saying i came because i wanted to see someone who
worked on JEM. and we talked about it for like an entire minute or
two. He had good memories of it, and told me about writer Christy
Marx (who was on the DVD) and I told him how everyone on the DVD
thinks JEM was just fantastic and has nothing but great stuff to
say, and would love to do it again. he seemed to be in agreement.

What i really wanted to ask was how they chose the voice of Aja,
because it's so normal, but so weird at the same time. But i was
afraid to ask. Mostly because it was 20 yrs ago and I didn't expect
him to remember something like that... Maybe next time.

plusle and minun

minun

I had quite an eventful weekend. i'll just steal Lydia's format and get this part out of the way so i can focus on other things.

as much as i told lydia "nothing good can come of van nuys" she
just wouldn't listen. and i guess a little good came of it, but not as much as there should have been.

Thursday I drove to work, and when i tried to leave my car wouldn't
work. And it didn't respond to the jumpstart. bleh. So my dad took
the thing apart in front of my work, and found out that the part
that connects the battery to the car was corroded, and while he was
poking at it, part of the battery just fell off. So we figured that
was the problem, I got a new battery and drove home just fine. I
also managed to drive to Anime-LA in Van Nuys to meet Lydia friday
morning. 20 mins later we tried to to for a day of brunch and
shopping, and the car didn't work again. So i decided to stay in
van nuys like my original plan, my dad came to try to make the car
work, but i had to get the damn car towed sunday afternoon, and
missed the kimono workshop (the whole reason i agreed to stay for
the entire convention). bleh.

The tow truck driver wasn't nearly as scary as I had feared. And he
didn't try to engage me in conversation during our 28 mile drive.
Traffic wasn't as bad as it could have been and It took just over
an hour. The drive though was quite an ordeal. If i was prone to
carsickness, i most definitely would have been sick. the ride was
so bumpy, not like bumps on teh road bumpy, but like fidgeting on
speed bumpy. I had a thought that they specifically fixed the truck
that way, banking on the fact that only porn stars and strippers
are in the valley and they can watch them jiggle. But i ended up
deciding that it wouldn't be worth all the strain on your own body,
or the fact that most people aren't strippers and jiggling fat is
not very pleasant. My body is sore today, i'm sure it was because
of the ride. It was like one of those electric things you strap to
your stomach so you don't have to do sit-ups, i imagine. i don't recommend having your car stop working.

if it hadn't been my car, i would have enjoyed watching all the
steps taken to put the car onto the flatbed and secure it.
They fixed my car monday. My battery cables needed replacing, and
some kind of belt (my mom isn't so good with the details), the new
battery, plus the tow, plus today's parts and labor cost about
$400, and my insurance apparently covers $50 toward towing. $350
isn't so bad for making my car work again. As far as cars go, it
could have been much worse. And a corroded, slightly leaky battery
sounds awfully dangerous. (i'm sure that i will die via car one
day, it's just a matter of time)

Being stranded in a hotel full of hardcore anime freaks on friday,
while I was supposed to be enjoying a real mall in the valley and
eating frosted flakes french toast did not put me in such a good
mood. but i'd be dammed before i was going to have a miserable
weekend. and 3/4 of a bottle of cherry vodka later, i wasn't having
such a bad time.

plusle

Lydia in short skirts
New best friends Plusle and minun keychains
cats in sushi t-shirt
banana milkshake
cherry vodka
and more