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Addendum
2002-07-13 02:04:56
I forgot to write about the day after AX. Monday was really really fun! We had to get out of the hotel by noon, so after hurriedly packing (we managed to fit it all into our original bags unlike last year) we went to Johnny Rockets for lunch. Great place - it's cheap and they can give you a Vanilla Barq's root beer. Better than Vanilla Coke! We decided to go back to the Queen Mary (where we went on the 4th for fire works) and actually see the Ghosts and Legends tour. I didn't see any unlicensed ghosts, so it was all a smoke and mirrors haunted house - more like hot steam and strobe lights.
There were some Japanese people doing a film shoot on the boat - probably a commercial. Hope it turns out well!
Then the best part of all was the Aquarium (eet's terrefic) of the Pacific. Third time I've been... keeps getting better. Kazz isn't really thrilled with sea animals, but he helpfully took some pics and video of some of them - especially the sea jellies and fetal sharks. The newest feature at the Aquarium is Shark Lagoon - where you can go watch the large shallow-water sharks, guitarfish and rays in the shark tank and pet the smaller types in a tide pool. I pet some bamboo sharks and baby zebra sharks, as well as various rays, and some sea urchins and anemonies. Really really cool.
My favorite animals are probably the auklets and otters. And the octopus. And the seals and sealions and the jellies and rays. I'm probably forgetting some. I love pelicans, but they don't have any at the Aquarium, although I saw some around the Queen Mary!
Oh, and if anyone is thinking about going to the Lorikeet Forest, ask yourself if you really want to be pooped on. Went there back in March, and although I really love birds, I didn't like their liquid diet and the consequences of such. I steered clear this time around.
Anyways just wanted to tack that on to my trip entry.
Nothing new otherwise except I still have a lot of videos to watch from all the disks we got at AX. -
AX, Heat, and Other things....(LONG)
2002-07-11 21:11:56
Yeah, it's taken me about 3 days to recover from AX, read all the posts on the mailing list about it, and get back to "normal". Getting back to work was kinda hard, and I'll probably have to spend a lot more time doing so because Research has a LOT of projects to work on in which I'm playing the role of tech person. :| Crash-course in online databases, here I come...
I'm saving my account of AX's amv fiasco for a real article for our Studio Gaijin site, since that thing hasn't been updated in months.
AX 2002 was fun. Not as fun as last year because we were very interested in the amv stuff this time and so we missed out on all other panels and I only got to watch a few new shows. I, My, Me: Strawberry Eggs looks like a GREAT comedy anime. I saw 3 eps and was hooked from the beginning. Pet Shop of Horrors seemed decent enough to give it a try, but it's not my first choice. IMM:SE doesn't come out on DVD until August, 'tho. :(
The worst thing about AX? It should be called LineExpo. All Lines. All the Time. That was new and unfortunate, since I wasn't going to spend all my time waiting in line for the Exhibit Hall. So I skipped it this year, but Kazz got in and bought some DVDs so we are set for a few months of watching. ;)
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In other news, I have been battling my air conditioner all summer. I've called the maintainence people twice and they patched it up decently. Tuesday night it went tits up. We had no a/c yesterday. Luckily, I decided to work late. ;) The maintainence guys left their laser temperature reader and at 3am we started taking readings of different rooms. The coolest spot was the shower wall at 88 degrees F. The hottest spot was my monitor at 102 degrees (had been sitting there for about 3 hours, smell the cooked brain). The coolest place to sleep was around 91. At 3am!!!
It was a big relief to have them replace the whole thing this morning. 77 degrees feels positively arctic. ;)
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Our next projects are to
1) Update our site, it's desperately out of date and well.... kinda boring. :(
2) Decide which videos to send to AWA. Decide if we can GO to AWA this year. I'm pretty broke after AX.
3) Rewatch Eva and/or Escaflowne. At least Gina needs to see them for the FIRST TIME! ;) We have a list of around 75 ideas! We need to make sure we've all seen the same stuff. :)
4) GET TO WORK!
Gina, you need to see some of the great stuff the creators we talked to at AX made. Some really inspiring, cool, and original stuff.
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I'm outta school until sometime in August! Phew. Last semester, then I'll finally be a college gradjiate. ;) I'm trying to get as much reading done as I can. I'm less than 1/4th of the way through the VERY LAST book of the Otherland series. It's really the best sci-fi I've read. I'm still having a hard time deciding which is my favorite author, Tad Williams (Otherland) and George R. R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire). There each focus on different things, and each time I read the author in question, he becomes my favorite. So it's really a toss-up. I think that ASoIaF is the best *fantasy* series I've ever read. William's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn was great, but there are things that made it difficult to chug through: loooong descriptions (yet beautifully written) and sort of "flat" characters. The strong point of GRRM is that, in this newest series at least, he is *brutally realistic* and his characters are not black and white. But then, William's people (they aren't characters to me, they seem more like real people - perhaps due to the modern setting) in Otherland have dramatically improved without missing any of his original flair. I think he's gained a lot as a writer. George Martin is experienced and seasoned and everything he writes seems to flow, so I think that he is on a slightly higher level of quality than Williams. But only slightly. Tad Williams has outstanding ideas and plots... but then I need to read more of GRRM's works.
The jury is still out. ;) -
Reorganized, Refreshed.
2002-06-23 16:27:03
Not so much on the refreshed department. But I have a cup of really strong coffee.
I finally reorganized my Top 10 Anime. I rethought what it was I really look for in anime (and shows in general) and applied it to what was already there and added in Now and Then, Here and There. Which, is a truly truly awesome show. I had to drop Escaflowne off the list, but I still do like the show. I think I weighted the annoyance factor of the other shows, which is why Fushigi Yuugi dropped down. Despite the constant wailings and failings of Miaka and crew, it is a very good show and is still one of my favorites, albeit not one I want to watch again for another 6 months or so. ;)
I think I need to watch Eva and BGC2040 again, to evaluate whether they belong there or not. Eva was really good, but it was too... in your face, I guess. Too obvious with its psychological drama. But the characters were interesting, sorta. I'll give it another go, I guess. BGC2040... I really like it, it's got some strong and diverse female characters, but so do some of the newer additions to my list (Crest of Stars, Niea_7, NTHT) so who knows how long it will last. Still a good, if overused story... hm... I could replace it with Blue Seed, which just makes me feel warm and glowy inside. Or it could be the coffee.
It's so hard to decide! I think there should be a top 20 or 30 anime list. ;) -
Just Because
2002-06-23 07:45:10
I've been meaning to post a journal entry, and Silvercat just did so I will copy her. ;)
Yes, we watched Now & Then, Here & There... it IS amazingly good. Very emotional. Good drama, no silliness. I should look up who it was who made it.... reminded me of several anime.
Another good good thing I've encountered this weekend is the band Small Furry Animals - their DVD has their songs set to some weird animation, photography, photoshopery, and really bad cheap props. Oh, it's delicious. They are a really fun, creative bunch of people - and their music's great too. ;)
I'm still stunned that they switched one of my favorite radio stations here (KAZL) from a really cool Classic Hits station to ALL commercials ALL the time. Mostly old radio commercials from the 30s-80s. An interesting concept and a thing I would most enjoy if it hadn't been such a good, reliable station. When all the other stations where playing commercials or really really overplayed songs (or Sherryl Crow *shudder*), KAZL was playing a good mix of music. Old stuff and new stuff, some I've never heard before, and some old favorites. *sigh* Kazz said it was a joke 5 days ago.... 5 days ago..... this is a long joke.
I got back on dalnet... there's a trick to it that I just don't understand, but apparently sometimes it sees my ident and sometimes not. Got to talk to some old friends again. That REALLY made me feel better. Nobody knows you like old friends. Not that there was much to catch up on, my life is tragically boring, but I think I like it that way. Work hard and save my pennies and goto cons.... that's all worthwhile, right? I hope so. I hope so.
Speaking of pennies I need to go pillage one bank account to feed another tomorrow or sooner. Oh it is tomorrow. That's a problem.
I want to spend the day reading the rest of my book, dangit, but I'll need to at least run some errands and stop by my mom's house and give her my recyclables and the Sparkletts water jugs I pilfered. Maybe she can feed me or buy me groceries. ;)
No news still on AX receiving our video. Many people are also on pins and needles waiting.... good luck to you all, and I hope we all at least get into the contest! -
Avast, mateys.
2002-06-20 18:50:01
Finally the school week's over... that's what I love about taking summer classes at Scottsdale Community College... they don't do Fridays. ;)
I'm in better spirits today, although it could just be the future weekend affecting me. Finally, don't have to work on a video for a deadline or participate in family obligations. And only a little bit of homework for Monday. Wee! I can READ all weekend. I wanna finish the series before AX. Dunno why, just a little goal to set. Probably because otherwise I will be very distracted.
My dreams seem to be plaguing me. Too much anxiety and stress, I guess. Had another dream where my old dog was back to life and happy again. And everyone talks about how old she is.... and then it changed and she was dead, and I had *kept* her body and moved it over to the new house. That's really disturbing.
And then I had a dream where people that I find obnoxiously annoying are interested in what I write. "Oh why didn't you write something for me? Let me see your stories. Why haven't you written anything lately?". Like I need them to make me feel guilty about not writing, and I know they would just make rude comments about them anyways.
Then there was a dream that I was in a class that I had basically skipped all the classes to, and came back to find out that I hadn't turned in a big assignment and the professor wanted to see me about it and I was going to fail, fail, fail....
And last night I dreamt that I had no money (which is pretty much true) and it was late at night and I wandered into a grocery store. All of the previous days baked goods were being sold for like $0.20 each. I didn't even have that much. Couldn't buy the day-old donuts... It was still too early for fresh donuts. Sadly I walked past the stale pastries and there was a "free sample" booth for some kind of seasoned bagels. I was picking one up when the person setting the samples out glared at me and tried to take it back. Apparently I was too poor to get free samples. :(
All in all, I think I really need a vacation. ;) Hooray AX!
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