Chocolate Shirt

www.chocolateshirt.com

News story here

"Everybody knows what chocolate smells like. We've all had different kinds of chocolate, and we figured for all of the chocolate lovers out there it was a way to get a chocolate fix without the calories," Husmann told Reuters.

Chocolate Shirts, each priced at $34.95 (19.88 pounds), have chocolate-scented rubber lettering with phrases like, "Hello, I'm a Chocoholic" or "I love Chocolate."

Just when I thought I was over Canadians...

...Alex Trebek lines up for a piece of my heart.

AP Reporter Triumphs on 'Jeopardy!'

"What do you do when you're not hosting 'Jeopardy!'?" a spectator asked.

"Drink!" said Alex, only half-joking. He loves California wine and has a clear affection for the "Potent Potables" category, which came up during one show that day.

more privacy issues

Expect me to become more and more paranoid until I finally erase all records of myself and start a library using only paper card files on a tropical island somewhere.

It occurred to me that I know very little about how the legal system actually works.

Judges are voted, or appointed or something. All judges work for some sort of government. And the government has unlimited rights to keep, demand, and misuse your personal information for any purpose they see fit. This, I’m not exactly cool with, but understand.

And I suppose the same goes for court reporters. They work for the government.

Lawyers, however, do not all work for the government. Most (correct me if I’m wrong) don’t. They work for private companies that I’ve never been given the opportunity to vote about. Yet when I’m called into jury duty I have to reveal any bit of private information to any given lawyer because they’ve passed some nebulous test called a bar exam? I don’t understand why I’m required to tell these people my thoughts on gun control, if I’ve ever been a victim of violence, if I believe in the death penalty, and my favorite TV shows or anything at all.

The courts, and their propaganda say they go through great lengths to protect the privacy of jurors. But from who? Not the random sleazy lawyers who can demand my secrets and personal habits.

Also, will a crazy rant like this get me out of jury duty? If not, what will?

The blogsphere is small

www.lisnews.com, a blog I've read every day since February or so, has a story about calstuff's Andy and his reading the encyclopedia blog. While I don't actually know this Andy fellow, I know that y'all do. And I find my few degrees of separation very bizarre.

Of course, probably, no one else cares.

AZKABAÑO

Before all the crazy posts start, I'd just like to say that rather than sit on the couch and read all day long, I went to a party where the WC (as the Brits like to call it) was labeled AZKABAÑO.

That is all.

EDIT: see pictures here

Wal-Mart Nixes 'Singles Shopping'

Taking a cue from Wal-Marts in Germany, the month-old program encouraged customers on Friday evenings to pick up a red bow they could place on their shopping carts as an invitation to other singles. "Flirt points" were set up in various sections of the store.

It's hard to imagine a worse place to meet someone. Methadone clinic, garbage dump, DMV, court, tire store? maybe? Of places that are full of people I don't want to meet, Wal-Mart is up there.

Best story ever!

Mystery trees stump local authorities

I love local news. It's much more relevant than all that war and bombing stuff. There are tree stickers all over the area! However will we survive?!?!

Jury duty

Since I haven't officially been excused, I can't talk about the trial.

Just know that I'm still alive. And as a location, and as a place I had to drive to, the Compton courthouse was not scary at all. What's scary is the possibility that I'll be forced to be on a trial that lasts for over a month.

They couldn't actually force me to be on the jury, because school is a valid postponement. but that's only 3 months. if they just let me go, then I don't have to go for at least another year.

Free Beer for Geeks

World's first open source beer

Happy Moon Day

If you haven't checked google today, then do. or moon.google.com

In other out-of-this-world news (not because smurfs are from outer space, but because they're bizarre), there's going to be a new smurf movie. I'm not sure any good can come of it, I doubt it will be smurfy, but I'm trying to keep my mind open.

The world tastes good because the candyman thinks it should

Charlie and the Chocolate factory is so attractive [I] must see it on the big screen and not wait two months for the DVD. So attractive, in fact, that I can’t get my money out fast enough to pay for the IMAX experience. Kenny, we’re still on for this weekend, right?

I mostly dislike going to see movies. You all know how few I see. Yes, I hate high prices. Yes, I hate paying the high prices and then being forced to watch commercials. Commercials, you see, are commercial. They should actually be there to defray the cost of the movie for the public. I think there’s a model for that already, it’s called TV.

But when it comes down to it, I’m too lazy and too prissy to see movies. First I have to drive my ass all the way to the theater. Then a parking spot needs to be found. Then there’s the wait in line. And the encounter with the minimum wage ticker seller who would rather I just die. If you want snacks you have to pay in cash, wait time and blood. Then there’s the wait in the sticky, dirty, gross theater full of questionable people who you have to share the air with, who brush past you, the people whose conversatons you have to overhear, and the sticky, dirty gross children who really should just die. When we were little, my mom was obsessed with us dressing properly for the movie. Full on shoes, long pants, at least short sleeves, hair in a pony tail—all to minimize contact with questionable moviegoing surfaces. Then the lights go down, and I have to worry about terrorists, or stabbings. (okay, I don’t do that, but my mom tells me I should.)

Finally, when the movie starts I’m so exausted from all that, my jaded self defense mechanisms are exausted too. I forget that I hate movies and enjoy the show. Until next time, when it happens again.

I love couches and I love tv. I don’t have to get dressed, I don’t have to remember to pack a sweater on a 90 degree day. And, no strangers have ever been on my couch. The only grime is from my family, friends and cat. Everyone who has ever been on my couch is a quality person.

Last night my couch and I, in preparation for the new movie, watched my recorded-off-cable-15-years-ago copy of Willy Wonka and Chocolate Factory. It seems the only parts I remember are Charlie finding the golden ticket and the inside of the factory. It took them like 45 mins to get inside the factory. Who knew? IMDB says they edit out a lot of the pre-factory stuff for tv showings, and they should! Also, It’s much less spectacular than I remember it being. It could be because of my copy, but I doubt it makes that much difference. It doesn’t matter much though, next time I order from amazon I’ll probably buy the DVD. It will cost about the same as 1 ticket for the new movie.

OC Fair

I've been rather not on top of things lately.

Last week, not only did I miss the love of my life, Alton Brown, I missed X too. Maybe next summer, if I don't have a good job, I'll join up with the fair. I've always wanted to join the circus, that the fair is probably the next best thing.

I love the fair, and when you combine it with other things I like, and then I miss it, it makes me a very sad girl.

But, I will be dancing at the fair at noon on Sunday, July 31. Save the date. When I finish we can eat some fried potatos, pet the zebra and laugh at place settings and Chicken McNugget collections.

Amazing!

Google short message service

It's practically magic! Yet I wonder how I lived so long without it.

Chuzzle, Chuzzle, Chuzzle

Has there ever been a more delightful word? Or a more delightful game? Seriously people, Chuzzle! And I will not stop blogging about it until someone plays and comments. Try to play long enough so you lose, because thats when you get to see the sad chuzzle. And we all know how cute sad fuzzy things are. I'm tempted to buy the full version, but $20 seems a bit steep, even for all that cuteness.

~~~

I very much want to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But I'm very much afraid to go to the supermarket and see Chocolicious Wonka Cakes. Let's hope I won't need groceries for a few months.

~~~~~~

I'm all alone at work today, everyone else is at the conference. Hopefully I'll take the free time to write my paper, and not blog all day long.

----
Blogger works almost correctly again. My IE problem with the side bar got fixed yesterday. But if you put the paragraph tag before the post in the html editor the text is smaller than if you don't. hmmm.

more on comics

Thanks for your help, especially Ryan for giving me the term “trade paperback.” As far as librarians go, after about 2 days of research, I’m almost an expert on building a graphic novel collection. And I’m actually excited about comics, even though I don’t want to read any of them, and I basically lack the skills to process complex pictures and text together. There is enough written about the benefits of a good comic sort of section, and I believe it

Preconceived notion 1: American comics are American comics and manga is manga.

Boy was I wrong! You can barely get sales figures for them separately. Bound volumes of words and pictures are all one category and have to be dealt with together. Of the top selling 25 graphic novels of 2004, only 4 were American, and one of those 4 was that bunny suicides book which I wouldn’t even count as a graphic novel. And this is only American sales. See below for the full list (of which, the library owns 1).

Preconceived notion 2: Libraries are set up in a way to make finding the information you seek reasonable and unfrustrating. And librarians are helpful people who can help you find your way should you become confused

741.5 adult, J 741.5, 741.5 YA Graphic Novel, YA Graphic novel by author. And what about the actual comic books (not graphic novels) that are not cataloged, but just thrown on a shelf all willy-nilly. Obviously X-Men belongs on top of Archie! And obviously, the shelf between the willy-nilly comics and the graphic novels should be the high school summer reading list and YA biography.

Preconceived notion 3: Once I find the right subject heading, finding all graphic novels/ comics/ mangas/ etc will be a snap.

If only it was that simple! This is why they need librarians to help decipher libraries.

Other things I need to get off my chest before I can write a reasonable paper:

Take a look at the area, take a look at census data, almost 30% of the population is Asian, and Japanese is the most represented Asian race. And the people who aren’t Asian are still influenced by the culture. And how much have they spent on manga and anime in the whole history of the library? Judging by the fact that there are few enough titles to do a title by title check, I’d say less than $2,000.

Anyway, their sections are sadly lacking. And small. And with the remodel there’s loads of shelf space. There are like 9 Asterix titles in the whole system and another on order. Who the heck signed off on that? I’ve read at least 2 dozen articles in the library literature. It basically repeats the same stuff, that y’all told me: Sandman, Watchman, Miller, Maus. No where, not once, has asterix been recommended

I tried to look at one of the Scott McCloud books, both are supposedly held by the library but neither are on the shelf where they are supposed to be. (books not on the shelf is a rant for another day)

Also, in lieu of stuff kids will actually read they have a large collection of the “classics illustrated” titles which put classic lit into comic book form. Booklist calls this a “staid old series”, which seems the best thing people say about it.

Conclusion: The collection is pretty much crap. I wouldn’t even call it a collection.
Conclusion 2: This is the first time I’ve actually physically looked at a shelf of books and was force to evaluate it. I very much like tangible things like that, but I can see myself tiring of my job very quickly if all collections (and therefore selectors i.e. my colleagues) are so horribly awful.

Top 25 of 2004 by Publishers Weekly:

1. In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon)
2. Rurouni Kenshin Vol. 1 by Nobohiro Watsuki (Viz)
3. Rurouni Kenshin Vol. 3 by Nobohiro Watsuki (Viz)
4. Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon)
5. Fruits Basket Vol. 1 by Natsuki Takaya (Tokyopop)
6. Trigun Vol. 2 by Yasuhiro Nightow (Dark Horse)
7. Rurouni Kenshin Vol. 2 by Nobohiro Watsuki (Viz)
8. Hellboy: Seed of Destruction by Mike Mignola (Dark Horse)
9. Fruits Basket Vol. 2 by Natsuki Takaya (Tokyopop)
10. Naruto Vol. 3 by Masashi Kishimoto (Viz)
11. Naruto Vol. 2 by Masashi Kishimoto (Viz)
12. Tsubasa Vol. 2 by Clamp (Del Rey)
13. The Book of Bunny Suicides by Andy Riley (Plume Books)
14. Rurouni Kenshin Vol. 5 by Nobohiro Watsuki (Viz)
15. Tsubasa Vol. 1 by Clamp (Del Rey)
16. hack/Legend of the Twilight Vol. 2 by T. Hamazaki & R. Izumi (Tokyopop)
17. Fruits Basket Vol. 3 by Natsuki Takaya (Tokyopop)
18. Rurouni Kenshin Vol. 6 by Nobohiro Watsuki (Viz)
19. Hellboy: Wake the Devil by Mike Mignola (Dark Horse)
20. Naruto Vol. 1 by Masashi Kishimoto (Viz)
21. hack/Legend of the Twilight Vol. 1 by T. Hamazaki & R. Izumi (Tokyopop)
22. Trigun Vol. 1 by Yasuhiro Nightow (Dark Horse)
23. Inuyasha Vol. 1 by Rumiko Takahashi (Viz)
24. Yu-gi-oh Vol. 1 by Kazuki Takahashi (Viz)
25. 1602 by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert and Richard Isanove (Marvel)

Harry Potter Book Sold by Accident

This article seems to be missing a lot of facts. And rather than search for them, I’m going to pass judgments.

Here’s how I read the story:
A grocery store sold books to people before it should have. The people took the books home. The grocery store realized the mistake. Courts contacted the people who bought the books and ordered them to not read the books, and to turn them in to the appropriate authorities until Saturday.

How the courts found the shoppers is unclear. My guess is the club card. Scan your card, save 10 cents on bread, and have it forever recorded that on that day you bought that bread. Because of this, my grandparents pay extra for their groceries. My grandpa won’t get a card.

As much as I should oppose the now expired part of the patriot act about searching library records, I never thought it was that big of a deal. I don’t trust the government any more or less than I trust the companies that collect my grocery data. Personally, I don’t check things out of the library that I’m afraid of people knowing about. What I’m more concerned about is one day I’m going to need a pregnancy test or if I start buying some sort of medication regularly. What’s going to stop the people who have my data from passing it on to my insurance? What if one day I’m in a perfectly innocent car accident, but someone finds my records and sees that I’ve bought alcohol that day, what’s going to stop them from prosecuting me from drunk driving. What if one day I buy a lighter, and the next day my house burns down? Now it’s arson. The complications could be endless.

But until I have enough money to not think about it, I’ll be selling my soul to save 10 cents on bread.

U.S. workers say they waste 2 hours a day

I don't feel so bad if everyone does it. Finally peer pressure working in my favor.

And, have you played the new popcap game??? It's awfully good, and a huge time sucker. Chuzzle: it's addictive and fuzzy! I wish I could play games at work.

Bloggers Need Not Apply

This is why I'm paranoid.

Apparently you're judged based on things that could happen in the future:

The content of the blog may be less worrisome than the fact of the blog itself. Several committee members expressed concern that a blogger who joined our staff might air departmental dirty laundry (real or imagined) on the cyber clothesline for the world to see. Past good behavior is no guarantee against future lapses of professional decorum

Hello fellow bloggers!

After hours of staring blankly at things in the library, in an attempt to figure out a plan for my paper, I treated myself to something only I enjoy. I went to see The Perfect Man at the $3 theater. Not that Hilary Duff has to do much to make me like her, but really, the movie was a lot better than I expected.

As the movie opens we see that Hilary Duff is using a computer, and she writes “Hello fellow bloggers,” and my heart skipped a beat. Not only is she cool, and adorable, but she blogs too! Please feel free to skip to the next paragraph now, if she makes you gag. Through out the movie she is adorable, she’s got a vintage feel to all her clothes, but not grungy vintage, much more the style I like. On two different days she wears an adorable red polka dot shirt, that I want very much. This is much preferable to the uber-young/fresh/trendy style that she sports in lizzie mcguire. She also has this fantastic red strapless dress. In all, her clothes seem very wearable, and not too fussy, the sort of thing I would actually buy. So now my fashion idol is a child.

Here’s the plot for those who don’t know. Even I didn’t know what it was about until I saw it. Mom, Heather Locklear, is desperate for a man. So she dates the first thing that comes along, it ends badly, and she moves away. Luckily, there are bakery jobs everywhere, and people in bakeries run a tight circle of social networking and she can flit from place to place, and find decent, affordable housing for a single mom who works in a bakery. It seems that while she likes to decorate cakes, and bake in her spare time, all she does is run the cash register at the stores. Maybe I should hire into a bakery, the uniforms are rather adorable.

And they move to Brooklyn where we meet bakery owner Caroline Rhea, who is even worse at accents than she is at stand up comedy. And as Hilary Duff goes to school we meet a slightly lankier and obnoxiously accented Vanessa Lengies (from American Dreams) who once again, plays second fiddle to a blond. There is also newcomer Ben Feldman, comic book geek/cool nerd, as Hilary’s love interest.

The story is a bit convoluted. The commercials lead us to believe that Heather Locklear is ignoring Chris Noth, who reprises his role as the perfect man, who is right under her nose. Not quite true. In an effort to cheer up mom, Hilary invents a man.. She does the fake secret admirer thing, writes love letters and such to her mom, and offers a picture of Noth (who plays Vanessa Lengies’ uncle) to keep mom hanging on. Blah, blah, blah, boring. But after hanging out with Noth, she grows to realize that he’s the perfect man for her mom, but they can never meet now because of the secret admirer plot. Finally she stops a wedding wearing torn jeans with a large pink bow, because he’s the best man, but she thought he was the groom…. But who cares about the adults

The love between Hilary and comic book guy Ben Feldman is fantastically pure of heart. Not only does he read comics, he draws and writes them. And he draws Hilary when they’re sitting in class. The first thing he does after he decides he likes her is invite her to a comic book convention (they’re not as geeky as you’d think, says he) and I’m charmed by his nerdy jew boy charms. I’ll go to a con with him any day. His age is not on IMDB, but it seems he’s attended college, so at least he’s legal. Not that anyone has any doubts about the end of a Hilary Duff movie, but of course they end up together. And I love it when the nerd boy gets the girl.

And just when we know the movie is ending, because the younger couple is together, we worry about Locklear and Noth. He is the perfect man! How will they meet? Will they even? (as if there are doubts in a Hilary Duff movie) and we see her, in her own cake shop, having finally decided she doesn’t NEED a man, finally settling in one place. And he comes in and asks her out. Oh no! at first she resists, Could she really be turning down Mr. Perfect?? No, of course not. He’ll pick her up at 8.

Take your favorite preteen, or parent who likes simple movies, this movie is squeaky clean and adorable! And so is Hilary Duff.

~~~~~ I just noticed, blogger has finally started counting posts again. Now I'm at 361.

Comics

To prove that it takes no expert subject knowledge, I'm writing a short paper involving collection development and graphic novels and comic books. professional resources on these are slim. While I can google as well as the next guy, I was hoping that someone would have suggestions on resources for me, web or not. top 10, top 100, what every comic collector should own/know about etc. also, if i haven't filled my quota of 4 pages, i'll stick in manga too.

Navagating through this all myself makes me queasier than seeing man faye. so please, geek your heart out.

lovin' it

It's time.

Neopets happy meals started today. I got a blue kiko with a mewoclops clip. Then I went to another McDonalds, and they also only had kiko's. I was sad. Before DelAmo had a McDonalds, but it's not there anymore. The next closest one seems to be Torrance near Anza. I'll make that my new third McDonalds.

Meanwhile, I think I'm going to try calling the ones on my way home today. I hate calling people who work for minimum wage, but it may be worth it since I don't have a lot of time this week or next. And I have nothing but time while I'm sitting at work.

Yea blue kiko with a bandage on his head!

Just like Anime, only not animated

Or, maybe better than anime, because it’s real

Yes, last night I was going to do my homework, but then I saw this in the guide:
America's Bread Battle

Oh my gosh, they really have them! And they’re better than in cartoons! And this was America’s first bread and pastry battle. Now, pastry competitions I’ve heard of. There’s the cake competitions and the sugar ones and the chocolate ones, etc. Those are some pretty easy mediums. But to actually make a show piece out of bread, wow! Check the schedule and watch. They’ve actually silk screened bread! I wish there were pictures online (but as a side note if you do an image search for or you do get Yakitate.)

Here’s how it works. You have a team of 2 people, preferably a bread expert and a pastry expert.

On the bread side, teams have to turn in a baguette, any other bread of the chef’s choice, 3 types of Danish, and the bread showpiece.

On the pastry side there needs to be a plated dessert, a cake and the pastry showpiece which has to incorporate sugar sculpting and chocolate. (and as we learn, chocolate likes to stick to chocolate, and sugar likes to stick to sugar, but they don’t like sticking to each other much.

There were pretty obvious winners and losers, but in a competition like that the losers could kick mostly anyone else’s asses. And the competition is intense. 3 days before the competition one of the bread guys had a nervous breakdown and pulled out. His partner soldiered ahead, not wanting to give up the opportunity to be seen and judged by people of such high caliber. They gave him a fake sportsmanship award (awwww!) I’m sure we’ll see the bread guy next year after he shaves his head and visits a convent.

Wed. Tv recap

The finale of Beauty and the Geek was a big let down. No one had to do anything they weren’t good at. And since there were only 2 teams left, we saw way to freaking much of Richard and his giant ears and lips.

The challenge didn’t happen until the last 2 mins of the show. And the first 4 mins involved each person doing something they were good at. And since there wasn’t any conflict, we finally were shown what everyone knew all along, beauties and geeks are BORING when left to their own devices.

The showdown involved answering questions about your partner. Boring. Who freaking cares if someone you don’t know was born in Idaho or Nebraska. Whatever, thankfully Richard lost. And saved his partner the embarrassment of being seen on camera making out with that freakshow. (Because she said if they won the $250,000 she would).

Stay tuned for the after-show show next week!

And just when I was about to turn off the tv and do something productive, I saw it in the guide. My newest favorite show. In the grand tradition of MTV’s putting people in houses and filming them. And in the tradition of PBS’s Manor House, 1800’s house, 1900’s house, 1940’s house and Frontier House (and I have seen the majority of episodes of all these), there is now MTV’s The 70’s House. Unlike the PBS counterparts, this is a competition.

I’ll start at the beginning. You can tell the cast is brilliant from the start when they walk into their brady bunch looking house and look confused. You see, they didn’t actually know what they signed up for. They figured it was some real world show where they’d have super modern quarters etc. But this house is the pinnacle of 70’s design. I liked it, but I do love a well carried out theme. Each kid is identified by their name and zodiac sign (I think there’s one of each).

So they’re told they’re competing to be the most 70’s. and I guess every week they kick the most modern one out. First, everything modern is confiscated: cds, I-pods, computers, cell phones, and modern hair care etc. Then they’re shown to the closets and have to pick some polyester atrocities to wear. At this point my dad said, “you know, they had jeans back in the 70’s,” but jeans are normal, and wouldn’t humiliate anyone on tv. Then they get a groovy slang lecture. They’re shown the kitchen which has the only phone in the house (rotary of course, and they get a lesson on using it, it seems), and new 70’s processed and/ or super popular foods like wonder bread, twinkies, and chef Boyardee—no microwave of course. At this point, I’m concerned for the nutrition of these children: scratchy polyester, and crap processed foods do not make happy bodies. Surely, they had fruit and vegetables back then

Then we go downstairs to the “Shag” room. It was fantastic! And we meet Charlie—I mean Oscar, but we don’t meet him. He only talks to us through a black box. And it seems to me that not one single person in the house realizes the tie-in. It’s a house full of people who can’t think back further than 1990, and have never even seen VH1’s I love the 70’s. The first challenge is basketball—complete with 70’s uniforms. This works out better for the girls, because modern girls wear shorter shorts anyway, but the boys were taken aback for a while.

One team wins, and they win a fondue party. Apparently no one on the team knows what fondue is. And apparently MTV makes a crappy fondue, because everyone hates it. I don’t know what’s wrong with kids today. How can anyone dislike melted cheese??

The other team is up for someone to be eliminated. So 2 people are nominated for being the least 70’s. and they compete in a rousing game of operation. The loser loses and the winner wins, the bell rings and everyone does the hustle. Yes, the house has a bell, and when the bell rings, any time, day or night, everyone has to hustle.

We can look forward to a bunch more weeks of kids proving how useless they are without today’s modern frills.

I can’t wait for this to be a runaway hit and then next season they have 80’s house. I’d totally sign up, but I’m probably too old? Actually I’d love to be in this house too, because 70’s home décor was much more fun, and all the records and 8-tracks in that house: totally groovy.

Can you dig it?

Japanese manga takes humongous step

Why didn't I hear about this at AX?

The August CosmoGIRL!, on newsstands this week, offers its 6 million readers the debut of a monthly manga strip, the Japanese-style comic

Really long, boring AX recap

For those of you who haven’t heard I ended up going to AX all 4 days, because my sister needed me to help run her balloon dart booth. Because the rest of her people were boys, and you can’t trust boys to run anything!

I was thinking about how strange anime conventions are. I don’t know much about conventions in general. But it seems to me that a bunch of Americans running around dressed in costumes from cartoon from another country is a bit strange. Do they have anime festivals in Japan? If so, are the people equally crazy? I don’t think they have regular cartoon conventions in America. But I guess it’s not too different from a generic sci-fi or fantasy or comic book convention. It’s just that anime as a genera runs such a broad scope. It’s not like you like one and you like them all… But enough of that. On to the recap:

Friday: wore my Jem shirt and at some point in the middle of the day had a conversation that went like this:
boy: What’s Jem and the Holograms from?
Me: Jem! and her friends are the holograms. Ahhh, you’re just too young. And I’m so old.

arrived earlyish, couldn’t get my badge because the summer festival wasn’t ready. Sat down to pout and had a girl decide to sit down and tell me her life story, which involved her mom demanding lots of info so she wouldn’t hook up with people in hotel rooms. I couldn’t tell how old she was, but it must have been 17-19. I wanted to make lots of comments about anime geeks and not having sex, but I figured that would only make her talk more. Thankfully she left.

The summer festival was not run well, my sister snuck us into the room we needed to be in and we found that while we had been scheduled for balloon darts, and they provided us with balloons and darts, we were missing a dart board. The boys, being good at hunting and scavenging, rigged up a cardboard box as our dart board and it worked out much better than I would have imagined. Feeling cocky about this, the boys tried to argue with me about the prize threshold but I won out in the end. And it turned out really well. 3 darts for $1, pop 2 balloons to win.

After this I escaped to watch Magical Meow Meow something or another. It was adorable. And the only show I saw this weekend. I wish I stayed for the 2nd episode, but I was worried about leaving the boys with the booth so early on. I totally could have stayed, because we had so little business that whole day.

Later that afternoon was the iron hat competition. Lydia ended up entering (and winning, of course). This was lucky, because I saw a girl from my classes, and we talked about really geeky library things for 30 mins. I wish I took a picture of Lydia winning hat. I’m not sure anyone did, and I’m sad. Lydia thinks her secret weapon was her rocket ship hat (See Kenny’s pictures)

The end of the evening, I somehow lost track of everyone, and no drinking was to be had. I ended up popping into the Inuyasha movie (subbed) which was weird because I’m used to it being dubbed on cartoon network. But my dad called, and wanted to leave. Which was lucky, because the killer butterflies were starting to freak me out.

Saturday: I got the whole day off from the booth. I was Strawberry Shortcake. It was adorable. And parents loved me. Kids loved me because I was cute, but the parents loved me because they remember retro Strawberry. And who knew my Pupcake doll would come in handy 20 years later.

In the morning I brought everyone ice cream. Chocolate with Cocoa Pete’s malt chocolate chunks. I was worried about melting. But since my ice cream freezes so hard, and I kept it in a cooler for the drive, it turned out to be the perfect consistency. And apparently, there’s nothing like donuts and ice cream for breakfast.

Saturday involved a lot of Lydia changing clothes, I mean lots. But following her around kept us all busy, and kept Kenny from having to stand in the retarded line to buy a pass. There’s not much better than watching all the crazies milling about. Especially when they’re all dressed up. And boy were they both crazy and dressed up.

There was also drinking involved. Bacardi raspberry and 7up. Yum! And it’s only 35% alcohol, so it’s perfect for a light drink (if that’s what you’re into). Unfortunately my cheap leg avenue costume had ripped at the seam by drinking time, and strawberry shortcake was not drinking berry flavored alcohol. I changed into my Alice in Wonderland tank.

Sunday: Wore my sleeping beauty ringer t-shirt. I spent most of the day at the booth. I have to give a quick shout out to my fried chicken strip salad from Carrows. It was really good! Sarah had lost her badge, which I used as an excuse to start drinking early. We finished the last drops of Bacardi, and started on the Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville Key Lime tequila. (also 35% alcohol and quite refreshing). I invented my own margarita like drink: 2 parts tequila, 1 part triple sec, a dash of lime juice and a dash of sierra mist. We also drank Torrance’s own Red Car Brewery porter (my grad present to Zack) I felt bad for starting without Lydia, but she was stuck in the masquerade room for hours. And drinking really is the best way to enjoy an anime convention.

So, Lydia and her little Bleach friends won the masquerade, and more drinking was done. I’m actually very sad I didn’t get to drink with her lion and fox friends. (or even realize that she had lion and fox friends until the next day)

Monday: Wore my cat sushi shirt. Balloon darts is closed. The kids made over $300, but only a drop in the bucket toward the new projector they need (because the old one was stolen). This leaves me free to stand around and baby sit people in large animal costumes.

Now, Lydia has been talking about the Bleach show for like ever. And I know she likes it, but she’s never mentioned that I should watch it, or that I would actually like it. But I have to say her friends fox and lion were fantastic, and I will look into the show. The lion I had met before, and I knew who was inside. But I hadn’t met the fox before I saw him as a fox. As the day wore on, I started to believe he actually was a fox. It was weird. Leave it to Lydia to have super cool animal friends. It was like beauty and the beast or something. I was ready to start making out with him in hopes that he’d turn into a prince, or something.

After I had helped guide the lion and fox around for a while they finally relented and hugged so I could get a picture. It was adorable, but my picture didn’t turn out very well. I do rather like the earlier picture of them back to back though.

We had lunch with Kenny and Stephanie, and many presents from Japan were had. See the pictures of my Hamtaro carnival. Yea for Japan and small, cute things!

After lunch Kenny and Stephanie left. Lydia went back for more Beach pictures and the rest of us tagged along. Eventually we found the Bleach group again, and they were mobbed by the pictures again. Lydia and her car ended up leaving, while I stuck with my new friends, fox and lion. There was a rousing rendition of crazy anime character duck, duck goose happening just down the way. It was pretty surreal. But then I had to go. I was sad to say goodbye to the Bleach crew, who definitely had to be crazy to make all those suits. But they were awfuly cool crazies. I hope the lion and fox can come to Lydia’s birthday party.

Overall I ate pretty poorly this weekend. And I’ve sworn off junk food for the next few days. Unfortunately, Neopets happy meals start up again on Friday. I may start taking advantage of the healthier options. Also, my skin is not happy. Not only did I get a small sunburn, but I’m breaking out. I think it’s contagious, from being around all the geeks.

Things I learned this weekend:

1. I need to start dressing like a grown up.
2. I am a grown up because I need more sleep than I used to.
3. I drink like much more of a girl than I’m willing to admit to.
4. Girls really do take too long to get dressed.
5. Foxes are cool!

searching

AX update coming soon. but I'm a little confused now.

Have you seen this new search engine? http://www.ujiko.com/

I just heard about it, and since I didn't have anything to search for, I typed my name in. and my blog came up as a top result. I need to get that gone. not that anyone is going to use that piece of crap search.

so I did a google search, and it pulled up my blog as the absolute last result. how did it find my name? do you think it's the email address I registered my blog under? myname@yahoo? do you think changing it would help?

Anime Expo

pictures here

or maybe that link doesn't work?
try this one

I'm not sure how I feel about snapfish.

Now, you post yours. And be quick about it!

For some reason, I don't have any SSX pictures

have a berry nice day 

a new dragon friend 

pupcake has a new friend 

strawberry shortcake and strawberry pocky