Why it helps to be PREPARED for school

Today was my second day of school, and I kept feeling like I wasn't prepared for stuff. I ended up making my lunch this morning instead of last night, because I was waiting for my lunch bag to dry out (I had one of those "Cold Pak" things in it and it leaked water on my bag). I had meant to have my other two syllabi printed out, but they are saved heaven knows where.

I was also late to two classes due to lack of preparation. I got out a little early from my Bio class and at the time I realized I needed a notebook to write in cause Dr. Anover doesn't like you to use laptops in class (even though I saw a girl in front of me using one and the teacher didn't say anything, so...), so I went to the University Store (which, unlike the bookstore, sells apparel and stuff) to see if they had any notebooks but they didn't, so I had to go down to the bookstore and wait in this long line to buy ONE NOTEBOOK. Then I had to buy a pen too cause they have a $5 minimum for you to use your card. Then the girl tried to scan the pen multiple times and it didn't work. With this delay, I was five minutes late to French class after grabbing my bags from the bag check, running up a flight of stairs (or attempting to, rather -- I wore bad shoes for running in -- but since I had my laptop in addition to my backpack and lunchbag, I doubt I could've run fast anyways) and taking an elevator and then more stairs.

I was also late to my history class cause I went to the library to print these questions for Lit class, and when I went to add money to my print card I did it wrong so that took time to resolve. I made it less than five minutes into class, mainly cause I was closer to the hall my class is in than I was when I was going from the Bookstore to my French class in the same building. I would've had more time for that except that right after French class I went to Parking Services (whose building is close to Markstein Hall, where my French and History classes are) to get my bus pass and had to wait in line to get in cause they only had one cashier. Then, of course, it took time to get to the library from the outside tables of the University Commons, where I ate lunch.

In short, it is really easy to get yourself lost on this campus. The part by Chavez Circle I haven't even seen, as my classes are concentrated near Craven Circle (where the library is, as is the Commons, which is part of Craven Hall, which gives the circle its name), in Markstein, University, and Academic Halls respectively. Academic Hall, where my Lit class is located, is really annoying because it obviously has elevators (you have to have them for disabled people), but they are apparently very well hidden because I can never find them. It might have to do with the side from which I enter the building too, I suppose (I enter from the back side, since I'm coming from Markstein Hall - the back side of Academic Hall faces Palm Court, which is right in front of Markstein Hall). But so anyway, I have to go up three sets of stairs to get to my third-floor classroom. This is after two flights of stairs coming down into Palm Court.

One nice thing is that there are some nice common areas. The biggest are the two third-floor level plazas - Founders Plaza, where the University Store is located, and the plaza in front of the library, which I don't think has a name. Palm Court is also nice. It is surrounded on three sides by halls - University Hall on the right, Academic Hall on the left, and Markstein Hall right in front of it. It consists of a kind of walkway/square with benches on the sides and a bunch of palm trees that were donated by somebody. Then there are little shady places with trees and benches here and there; you can't miss them since they're pretty much the only shady outdoor spaces on campus. One is near the Tukwut Leadership Center, by the stairs that take you down to the bookstore. There's also another hidden by one of the big flights of steps.

I splurged and got a 3-subject notebook, since I know there are at least two classes I need a notebook for. I'll use the third section in case I need to write notes for my other classes and don't have my computer or something. It's also one of the "environotes" notebooks, so by buying it I'm being "green" or something. I think it has recycled paper or something like that.

For doing notes on my computer, I am using OneNote, since that's more or less what OneNote is for. It worked wonderfully for my Bio class, since I could copy and paste pictures from the teacher's powerpoint (which I also had open, having accessed it through WebCT, the program CSUSM uses for online classes and for sharing online content for regular classes) into my notes. Technically, they use Blackboard (as I noticed from the URL when I went to log in) but they rename it.

At least I survived the first week. It will get easier as time goes on.

I went to the Academic Advising Center again and ended up doing a walk-in talk with an adviser. Though walk-ins aren't really meant for what I thought I was supposed to be doing there (based on something said at Orientation), which was something about planning classes to take in regards to a career, the adviser did a good job of working with me anyway. She said if I took 15 units from here on out, I could still graduate in 2 years if I wanted. Since this just means 5 classes instead of 4, I might be able to make it work. I will probably have to take one of them online or something, since I can't really take a night class (no car). She said I could do summer classes too, but that there were only 2 of my classes that would most likely be offered in summer. I was also surprised to learn from her that Advanced Creative Writing is invitation-only (I guess cause it's a 500-level course), and consists of students from the Creative Writing Workshop course who are deemed invitable. Since I'm going to be a writer, it might be useful, but I'll determine that when the time comes. Seems like an exclusive writing club, kind of like the Dead Poets Society in the movie of that name.

I may still make an appointment so someone can sit down with me and be intensive, if it's necessary. I'm not sure if it is or not. I'll have to do research first.

It will be tricky to work out classes, with my minor on top of my major, plus one G.E. class left to take, but I think it's doable.

I think what I may need to do is research careers in respect to my major. I do want to be a writer, but it would be good to know what else is out there. I suppose one goes to the Career Center for this? After all, Literature and Writing Studies is broad, right?

I'm going to go downstairs to relax there (plus I think the internet signal is stronger there). More later.

First post from the new computer!

This is officially my FIRST post to this blog from my new computer. I am SOOO excited.

My computer arrived yesterday while I was at school, and I spent most of last night setting it up. Right now I am importing music into iTunes, since iTunes couldn't retrieve my old library. At least I saved my purchases from my old library to my iPod off my old computer, so I have something to listen to.

Here's a link to a picture of more or less what the computer looks like from the back (I can't find a good pic of what it looks like open from the front): http://www.mylaptopsource.com/insp_1525_Red.jpg

Fortunately my computer seems to be able to read the CD's I had sitting on my desk that I was meaning to import, which includes the audio CD's from my old French book and from my World Music book. So I should have some interesting music for starters.

I kinda hope I don't have to have anything read by tomorrow for class, because the classes I supposedly had homework in this week I don't have the books for yet. I think we are watching a film in History tomorrow so I should be ok there. Not sure about my Bio class in the morning.

I have four books left to get; two are novels, and two are textbooks. One is the main text for my history class, which I almost ordered only to discover that the cheapest offers for it were for books that were in really bad shape. The other textbook is Mexican Village and Other Works, which along with the novel So Far From God, I need for my Lit class. The other novel I need is The Wretched of the Earth for history class. I mainly need the two textbooks right now; I have some time to get the others (we're not reading So Far From God till the end of September, and we're doing The Wretched of the Earth even later, toward the end of the semester).

The only problem is the two books I need now aren't super cheap. Like $26 for one and $29 for the other. Yikes. What am I to do? I can't order them. And the prices for ordering them are about the same anyway. Grr.

The Lit book is of "Mexican Village and other works" but we are only reading "Mexican Village" as the teacher couldn't fit the other stuff into the curriculum. This work is in the library so maybe in a pinch I can photocopy the chapter (if it's not too long).

Somehow I'll find a way. I will. I suppose I could call the "used bookstore" across the street (a sort of secret place to get your books cheaper that the regular school bookstore doesn't want you to know about) and see how much individually those two books are and see if the price is better. That might help.

Oy I just downloaded the syllabi for my French class and Science class, and I don't know where they saved to.

I'm getting kinda tired so I'm going to go soon, but one more thing first: I thought about the website dilemma today at work. I had one idea, after talking to Laura (my coworker) about foreign movies. I could do a site about history and mythology in books and films (probably Asian history/mythology, since I was talking to Laura about Chinese films at the time). I know this sort of site works because of a similar site I have gone to a few times called "Anime-Myth," which lists and explains mythological references in anime and manga. I am not sure in what form the content will be -- a sort of encyclopedia or more like essays. The essay route sounds too academic, but the encyclopedia would be harder to code. Besides, regular people are into analytical essays -- Scribbulus (an essay project from The Leaky Cauldron) is proof. Also, I am pretty good at essays. It also has potential to grow over time (which was my main concern). I can think of a few topics right now. For instance I could do an essay on "Reincarnation's Significance in Om Shanti Om" (a Bollywood movie). Or "The Cultural Revolution and The Road Home" (a Chinese film). I suppose I could also include anime films, since some of them have such references (and I haven't seen a live-action Japanese film yet).

After a while, I might buy a domain and attach to it that site, my Pokemon site, and my personal site; for now, I want to see how stuff goes.

Well I'm pretty tired and I have school tomorrow. Good night!

I BEAT THE ELITE 4, last minute stuff for school, website thoughts, etc

On Friday night, after my parents had picked me up after I got stuck in an unfamiliar neighborhood while book hunting (more about that later), I got my player's guide out and prepared to fight the Elite Four (again, I didn't win my first attempt). I'd gotten all of my Pokemon up to level 52, since I figured getting them a little over level 50 would lessen the level difference a little. I switched out my Rapidash for my Japanese Roselia (now a Roserade because I evolved it with a Shiny Stone). I somewhat regret not bringing Rapidash because there was one Elite 4 member I knew I needed a fire-type for, so I had trained Rapidash for that purpose. But with all the types needed to combat both the Elite 4 and the Champion, I couldn't cover them all with just six Pokemon, even when I made Prynne (my Empoleon) do double duty by teaching it Ice Beam from a TM so I'd have an ice attack for Cynthia's Garchomp and Roserade. (This is a situation where I wish I had a Lapras like I do in Silver, where it's water/ice and can thus cover both bases).

First, I'll mention my training a little bit (I wish I could've made videos like Marilland, but I don't have the equipment to do so).

For Prynne, I trained her primarily in places where there were lots of rock and ground Pokémon that she could demolish easily with Waterfall and Surf. (I'd had Aqua Jet too, but I had to sacrifice it for Ice Beam, because her other moves are HM's and couldn't be forgotten). This after I used 1 Rare Candy on her because she was level 46 and so 1 Rare Candy, administered after so much hand-training, wouldn't mess her up and would help speed up the leveling process a little. So I went to one of my favorite training places, Iron Island. There are rock and ground Pokémon galore there, especially Gravelers who have a nasty habit of using Explosion on random occasions and sometimes knocking out your Pokémon. The only hitch is that they are only in the 30's and 40's in level, so you don't get a lot of EXP from them even if you 1-hit KO them, so training there takes a long time (you can't use the Vs. Seeker there either, so fighting trainers for EXP is out).

After some time in Iron Island, I went to Victory Road, which also has a lot of rock and ground types (I think all the caves in the game do, although they usually also have a ton of Zubats). These were better level to train against, and I gained a lot of EXP there. I think I got her to level 50 there. Then I used her in battles for a while and finally got her to level 52. She was the last of my Pokémon to reach level 52 for some reason. I guess Empoleon is just hard to train.

Shii (my Luxray, nicknamed "Shii" when it was a Shinx; I accidentially selected "yes" when it asked if I wanted to nickname it and so had to come up with something) was a little easier to train. I took it out on Route 223 (the waterway from Sunyshore City to the Pokémon League) and let it loose its lightning attacks on the gazillion water Pokémon (mostly Tentacruels) that populate that route. I did this a couple times, and I think I might have taken it on some other route also (I think Route 222, since I went there to try to fight that sailor Marilland trained Saik, his Alakazam, on; I also tried the beach near Lake Valor). I even re-fought some trainers on beachy areas and waterways using the Vs. Seeker. Even if the Swimmers and Tubers don't usually give you much money, I was able to get more because Shii was equipped with Luck Incense, which doubles the amount of money you get from trainer battles if the Pokémon equipped with it participates in the battle.

Rapidash, my sole fire-type, was for a long time a EXP leech (if such a thing exists). In other words, I simply gave it the EXP Share so that it gained EXP from battle even if it didn't fight. This is because fire-types don't have a lot of types to train against. They are only good against Bug, Grass, Ice, and Steel, all of which are as rare as fire-types in the games. Though I took its EXP Share off of it after a while, it did level up pretty well, though I'm not sure how I trained it; I think I had EXP Share on it at the time.

Mac, my Machoke (I still haven't found someone to trade it with so it would evolve into Machamp), was also an EXP leech for a while, since it's Fighting and I wasn't sure where to train it. But I found that Fighting is super effective against Rock, so I trained Mac in the same rock-type-filled places I trained Prynne. Since its attacks (except for Strength) are all Fighting-type, it gets a same-type attack bonus, which helps.

My Roserade (which I evolved from a Roselia I got over the GTS) didn't get a lot of special training since it was level 50 when I got it and didn't need much training. Grass is good against Ground and Rock, though, so I did train it against some of those.

Lastly, Gio (my Graveler, named "Gio" as a Geodude; again, I need to trade it for it to evolve into Golem, but I haven't found someone to do this with yet). Gio earned its EXP via the EXP Share, since rock-types, like fire-types, are only super-effective against lesser-seen types, except for Flying, which is common only in the early game and against some trainers. Ground hits electric well, but there's no one place to find lots of electric-types except Volkner's gym.

So...ANYWAY. I started the campaign while waiting for the pizza I'd ordered to come. I got distracted while fighting Bertha because the pizza arrived, and I shut off the game at that point so I could eat. But after I ate, I continued playing until after I won.

Aaron, the first Elite Four member, has Bug-types, so I used Star (my Staraptor, who got above level 50 before my first attempt at the Elite Four, which was ages ago) mostly. Having Rapidash would've been real useful here, but I'd forgotten it. But I used Gio I think too, since Bug is weak to Rock. I defeated him on the first try of my second attempt, and saved after the battle (I saved after all the Elite Four battles, so if I lost against the next person I didn't have to start all over).

Bertha was next. Unusually, she specializes in Ground-types (the other old-lady Elite 4 member I've faced, Agatha, has Ghost-types). I was prepared for her, with my Prynne for the Ground-types and my Roserade for her pesky Quagsire and Whiscash, which are both weak only to Grass. Anyway, as I said, I had to fight her twice, because I was interrupted in my fight by the arrival of my pizza. Despite the seemingly easy type matching, she was still really hard since her Sitrus Berry-holding Hippowdon seemed to be immortal and KO'd many of my Pokémon by using Earthquake (one of the most powerful moves in the game). But I did beat her, finally.

Third is Flint. This was my first time facing him, I think; I think last attempt I blacked out before I got to him. Though he's supposed to be a fire-type specialist, only two of his Pokémon are fire-type (Rapidash, which is pure Fire-type, and Infernape, which is half Fighting). His other Pokémon are Drifblim (a Ghost/Flying type), Steelix (Steel/Ground; coincidentially, Steel is actually weak to Fire-type), and Lopunny (a Normal-type, and the evolution of Buneary). I followed the player's guide's recommendations on this: Electric for Drifblim, Fighting for Lopunny, and Water for the Fire-types and for Steelix. Infernape was tough cause it kept using Flare Blitz, which hits for 120 power with 100% accuracy (meaning it never misses). I think I nearly blacked out on this fight.

Last of the Elite 4 is Lucian. Lucian is a Psychic-type specialist. Though Psychic-type is no longer super strong (like it was before Dark came along), it's still hard to type-match. The player's guide said to use Bug, Ghost, or Dark. I had planned to simply sweep it using Shii and its Crunch attack, but this didn't quite work out as planned. I think I had to use Mac or Gio against his half-Steel Bronzong anyway. His Girafarig kept knocking my Pokémon out with Double Hit. (I might have used Star against his Medicham too). So overall Lucian was very hard, and the fight came down to the wire. But I won!

After Lucian is the Champion, Cynthia. Thank goodness I'd saved after fighting Lucian, because I blacked out in my first fight with her. Instead of starting over against the Elite 4 after the obligatory "return-to-the-nearest-Pokémon-Center" scene that appears when you black out (something I really didn't want to do), I simply turned off my DS, turned it back on, and continued from my last save point, which was, as I said, in Lucian's room. So from there I went back to Cynthia for a second try.

Let me just say this: CYNTHIA IS REALLY, REALLY HARD. She's not the Champion for nothing. She doesn't specialize in a type (similar to the Champion in Red/Blue, Blue), so type-matching is not super easy. Ice-type moves work for her Roserade and Garchomp, Electric or Grass for her Milotic, Grass for Gastrodon. Her Lucario could go down to Fire-type moves as a half-Steel type, also Fighting and Ground, and Flying and Psychic due to its Fighting type. Her Spiritomb, though, is a problem, since as a Ghost-Dark type it has NO weaknesses whatsoever.

I had taught Prynne Ice Beam, as aforesaid, to deal with Roserade and Garchomp, and this worked well in that respect. Ditto for Shii vs. Milotic and Roserade vs. Gastrodon. Lucario was a real annoying Pokemon since it was so fast it kept getting to attack first (despite Speed being Lucario's second worst stat in base stats at 90, after Defense and Special Defense, which are tied for worst at 70). It kept KO'ing my Pokémon using its four majorly-powerful attacks (Psychic, Earthquake, Aura Sphere, and Dragon Pulse).

As for Spirittomb? Well, weakness-less as it may be, you can still take it down. I found this out through a little experiment. I figured that, since the thing was just a big ball of gas, that an electric attack would be super-effective on it (I think this happened when I've fought Gastlys in places like the Lost Tower, which is why I would've thought of it). And so it was. Unfortunately, Cynthia uses a Full Restore on the thing at some point (I really hate when gym leaders and the like use recovery items on their Pokémon when you least expect it) and after a while, actually withdraws the thing and sends out something else. In the end, though, electric attacks did do a lot of damage to it, as did some other type of attacks I had (My Roserade's Petal Dance, I think, which seems to do some damage to anything simply because it never misses, has fairly high power - 90 - and can continue for 2-5 turns, though it confuses the user afterwards).

Once I beat Cynthia, I was ecstatic. After playing on and off since February (according to my trainer card, I started my adventure in February), I've finally beat the Elite Four. Yess!!

After you beat Cynthia, she takes you upstairs to register you and your Pokémon in the Hall of Fame, typical procedure for after you beat the Champion (as I found when playing Silver recently). The one difference is that Professor Rowan (the Sinnoh professor) shows up to witness the event. You also learn at this time that Cynthia has been undefeated for some time prior to your win (as she mentions to Rowan). After you register you and your Pokémon, the credits begin to roll. It begins by showing your character biking down the road in the morning and then shows black-and-white pictures of the bicycle, the characters' bags, and the Running Shoes, as well as silhouettes of the starters. Then it shows your character biking again, this time during the day. Then it shows the Pokémon team you just registered in the Hall of Fame. Then it goes back to the bike scene, but this time it's nighttime. Then the credits end and the game autosaves and then restarts, bringing you back to your house in Twinleaf Town. Now, you can do all the post-Elite 4 stuff, like getting Dialga or Palkia to complete the Sinnoh Dex (you "see" it via a picture in a book in Celestic Town) and getting the National Pokédex and a bunch of other stuff you couldn't get before. You also now can do the event which causes Cresselia to roam Sinnoh (Mesprit-style) so you can catch it. Like Mesprit, it is level 50 when you encounter it, and like Mesprit, any damage done to it before it flees stays. So far, it has been easier for me to encounter Cresselia than it is to encounter Mesprit.

You also get the Poké Radar around this time; Rowan gives it to you after Oak upgrades your Pokédex to National. This can help you find some really rare Pokémon (see here for a list). Pal Park is also open to you at this time, but to get Pokémon to appear there, you have to import them from the Generation III games (Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and FireRed/LeafGreen) and then catch them in a Catching Show. Also, similar to how Bill gave you an Eevee in Gold/Silver, his D/P counterpart, Bebe, will give you an Eevee if you visit her at her house in Hearthome City after you get the National Pokédex (however, you must have an empty slot in your party to receive it; if you don't, just go next door to the Pokémon Center and clear a spot--Bebe will wait). I did this today. The Eevee is level 5 and comes with the moves Tackle, Tail Whip, and Helping Hand. Mine also came with the ability Adaptability, which "powers up moves of the same type." So far, only Eevee and Porygon-Z have this ability. Since all of the moves it comes with are the same type as it (Normal), this works out (although Helping Hand is only useful for double battles, since it ups your ally's attack).

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School starts at CSUSM tomorrow, and my classes on Tuesday. Because the check I received from CSUSM (which came last Thursday) was for only part of the money (I'll get the rest later, since the Pell Grant disbursement date is at a different time), I was in a bit of a pickle for getting my books. Long story short, I was able to get four of them, all of them novels I need for my Lit class, from a couple of used bookstores. I went to CSUSM yesterday to buy the package for my French book, but since I had to buy it new it was like $180. I regretted this deeply, especially since the package includes a CD for SAM, a program I used before in my CIS classes that we only ever used for reviews and tests, and a dictionary, which I don't need (I already have one). Therefore, I only really need the book and the workbook, since I don't need a dictionary and I really doubt we will actually use SAM for anything other than personal practice and such (i.e., I don't think we'll use it for homework or tests or anything).

Fortunately, when I went online to see if I could order the books I still needed, I was able to find the book and the workbook, both on their own, for around $30-$35 for the textbook and around $20 for the workbook. This is way better. So I am going to return the package tomorrow (Papa is going to take me to campus before work).

I just checked my bank statement and the purchase of the package is still in my holds, which may be a good thing. It might have been tricky if it had gone through already and then I returned the thing. I will have to ask the person who does my return what will happen, or call my bank, whichever is more appropriate to the situation. I remember when I had to cancel my Papa John's order because of a mistake in the online ordering, the bank told me that since the transaction was on hold they couldn't do anything about it, and that it was up to Papa John's whether or not to let it go through.

The reason the purchase bugged me so much is because, since I won't get paid this week (because the paycheck I would've gotten reflects last week, when I was on vacation), I need to make the money from my last paycheck last two weeks rather than one. And with that purchase, I would've only had a little over $100 for that period.

I do still need to watch my money in the next few weeks, since I need to pay Papa back for letting me use his credit card to order the rest of my books, since I didn't think I had enough money for all of them. I think that is only about $100 though. I'll also owe them the usual $90 soon (for rent and my cell phone bill), and I owe them money for buying me a new work shirt (that I might be able to pay them with this check if the return goes ok, since that was like $43).

I have learned my lesson, though, and I will try to do better at ordering my books sooner next time. Next semester, if I'm still at Stater Bros., I should receive an anniversary check around January 17th, which is close to the start of classes, so should I get stuck in this pickle again, I'll be in better shape. But then, knowing the system by then, I will probably be better with planning to have to spend money there and be able to order them ASAP after the booklist is released.

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I was reading this article I found years ago that was in that old folder of mine that gave advice on making a website. It said not to try to do a general info site but to focus on a certain area. I think I can do that with Pokemon, using a site I made a long time ago and just re-discovered when scouring "Ami's Stuff," called "Misty's Piscine." That site focuses on Misty and on water Pokemon, with a full-on "Water Pokemon Database" with Pokemon from Red/Blue and Gold/Silver, the only games I knew about at the time (Ruby/Sapphire was available at the time, but I have yet to play those games).

I also want to do a personal site that features my writing; I was able to find a lot of my older writing, including old poetry, in "Ami's Stuff."

Other than that though, I am lost. Why? Because I want to cover ALL my interests. But my interests are many. Based on a combination of lists in my profiles at YouTube, Blogger, and Facebook, I have interest in anime, literature, languages, history, mythology, fantasy books, geography, tennis, reading, writing, trivia, singing, playing around on the computer, and books in general. That's a lot, and what with all the anime I've seen and the manga I've read, just that environ alone would need its own site.

I think I can narrow this down, I hope. Let's see. Well, first off, some of these things -- namely reading, writing, singing, and playing around on the computer -- are really not interests but hobbies. Besides, I plan to cover my writing on the aforesaid personal site anyway. So check those off.

"Fantasy books," "literature," and "books in general" can be lumped into one category, since "literature" is a kind of book, as are "fantasy books." The "fantasy books" listing comes from my backup YouTube account, and is somewhat deceptive as I read stuff other than fantasy books. I think I just must have been thinking of fantasy books that day. "Literature" is probably the same, as it appears on both my YouTube profiles. The "books" comes from my Facebook profile and is a little too broad of an interest. Besides, I can't see any of these being able to be covered effectively in a site (my attempt with fantasy books, a fantasy/mythology site I was planning called "Legend Became Myth," seems disorganized based on my outline for it). So scratch those.

I'm not sure why I put "geography" and "languages," which both come from my YouTube profiles. I am good at both subjects, but that is all. Also they are very broad and also kind of dull subjects for a website or even a website section. There's not much you can do with either (even my "Learn French" website, done for a tables assignment in my webpage making class, didn't seem too fun to visit or make; it took a LOT of coding). Plus language resource sites are way too common. Even "geography" in Google brings up more than 91 million results, and the top ones all appear to be educational, whereas any site I'd make would be informative, but kids probably wouldn't use it for reports.

"Tennis" came from my backup YouTube account profile. Again, like with the "fantasy books" idea (which came from the same list; so did "geography"), I don't know why I put it. I think I was trying too hard when putting in interests in the profile to list every possible thing I could be interested in. I have only a slight interest in tennis; I enjoy watching it on TV, I did a speech on it for speech class, and I enjoy the Prince of Tennis anime and manga. So I don't think I could do a whole site on it, though I could do one on POT since there's not a lot of fansites for it.

"Trivia," which comes from my Blogger and Facebook profiles, is also kind of vague. I am a BIG trivia buff. But "trivia" seems like a hard thing to do a site about. There's so much trivia out there. I'm not even interested solely in a certain category of trivia; I like trivia in general. Heck, even Ken Jennings' official site isn't devoted to trivia (I know; I just checked). It's mostly about him (as it should be in his case). So I don't think a "trivia" site is plausible.

That leaves us with anime, history, and mythology. Technically, coming up with focuses on these three things IS possible. Well, mythology might not work as a site, thanks to the mythology-dedicated monstrosity that is Encyclopedia Mythica, which has info on every type of mythology that exists. Plus, though I do like mythology, it's a heady subject to do a site about. I don't know how I would focus it. I could focus it on Greco-Roman and/or Norse mythology, my main mythology type favorites. Or I could focus it on a certain story cycle, like the Trojan War, the voyage of the Argonauts, or the tales of one of the families (Oedipus cycle, etc).

Just checked -- typing "norse mythology" into Google shows 912,000 hits; "greek mythology" gets 756,000. Egyptian mythology is even less with 577,000 hits.

Well, I'll think about that one. Moving on...

History is definitely focusable. While I claim to love history in general, I am aware that there are certain historical topics that really interest me. World War II and the related Holocaust is the big one, somewhat ignited (I think) by my reading of Anne Frank's diary, among other books. Other than this, I have enjoyed a book about Maoist China very much, and just recently read a historical novel about Japan. I also was very interested in the history of China and Japan presented in my World History book, and in the references to Japanese culture and history in my Del Rey manga volumes. So I could do a site on those two topics. I would have to plan it through more thoroughly though.

Anime (and, by association, manga) is hard because I have seen so many anime (in whole and in part) and read so much manga since the days when I made my first few anime sites, like my attempts at Pokemon sites, my Tenchi Muyo site "Ayeka's Palace," and my Sailor Mercury shrine "Liquid Mercury" (for which Amy made the most awesome logo, using Photoshop). I still say that Pokemon, Sailor Moon, and Tenchi Muyo are my favorites, but out of those three the only one I have had unwavering interest in is Pokemon. I'm not sure what sort of content I put on "Liquid Mercury" and "Ayeka's Palace," so I wouldn't know where to start for sites on those animes. Yet if I only do a Pokemon site, I'll feel like the other animes I like should get a site too.

I think I shall have to give all of this a lot of thought. Probably even sleep on it.

I just thought that maybe I can combine the history and mythology stuff into one site. Not sure yet though.

Well, I think I shall go downstairs and get some dinner. After that, I am not sure what I will do tonight. Oh, I do need to make my sack lunch for tomorrow, I guess, even though I am on a non-full shift tomorrow (11-5 - that's six hours) and won't actually have a lunch break unless they ask me to stay later. Oh well. My menu for tomorrow? A bologna and cheese sandwich on a roll, fruit slices with yogurt, and some kind of chips (I'd planned for pretzels, but I couldn't get the little tiny Snyder's bags I was looking for; I'll have to substitute). I'll have to ask Mum where those cold packs are that she says we have (you know, those things they sell to put in your lunch bag so stuff stays cold).

Wow this is a long post. (I started writing it at 2:50 PM?! That's what the post time thingie says. Yikes). Goodnight for now.

Computer problems, Half Blood Prince delay

I was trying to post to this blog the other day and suddenly something happened with my laptop cord, causing my battery power-less computer to shut off. This was a typical occurrence, so I tried to simply plug it back in, but when I did so, nothing happened.

Mum said it wasn't worth getting a new cord when I was going to order a new laptop pretty soon anyway. And that I did, on Monday night, using her computer (which I'm also using right now to type this - she's letting me borrow her computer tonight). Since I didn't have quite enough money to get the computer I wanted, and since I needed the computer to arrive in time for school, I opened an account with Dell and paid for the computer on credit. The first bill won't arrive till 45 days after my computer arrives, and by then I will probably have enough money to pay it off in one lump sum, since I was only $70 shy of the estimate I had for what the computer I originally was going to get would cost.

I got a good deal on the computer. I got about $13 off by ordering it via a link from the CSUSM Bookstore website (I could've also done it through my labor union, but the savings would've been around the same either way). And then, I got a SHIPPING DISCOUNT. I don't have to pay any shipping, which is great cause this knocks $20 off the price tag. Though of course, there was a lot of sales tax (California has one of the highest sales tax percentages in the U.S., I think), and I had to pay an $8 "environmental fee" that Dell is required to collect due to some bill passed by the State of California. All in all for $666.11. This for a laptop with a "glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display" and a 120GB hard drive. The color is "Ruby Red." (I had to pay an extra $25 to get a color other than black, which is kind of silly). I also took advantage of this special offer where you get Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 if you pay an extra $10. I do not know if this means it will be pre-installed, or if they will send you the program in a box for you to install yourself. Either way, it saves me the money of having to buy the program separately (as I was planning to do). And should it work, I will have OneNote 2007 for writing my class notes in, and my pencil-holding hand will thank me for it. Not to mention that typing class notes using Word (the way I used to do it) is a pain. I may also use OneNote to organize my notes for my writing projects (an idea that could've saved J.K. Rowling a lot of trouble too, I just thought -- she has all her notes on Harry Potter in these multitudes of notebooks, I hear).

I chose 3-5 day delivery, but I still am not certain whether the computer will get here before school starts, as Dell has not e-mailed me or anything about whether it has been shipped. At any rate, since I ordered it on Monday night, it could come as early as Friday (assuming the order went through Tuesday morning). It would be nice to have time to familiarize myself with it before school starts.

One nice thing about this new comp is that it has Vista (ok, no flames please -- I know Vista has problems), and with that comes the new version of Movie Maker. Granted, it's not much different except for having around 20 new effects. But hey, anything new is good, right? If all goes well, Act 24 of the Dark Mercury Fandub Project will be the first Act made on the new computer. Exciting!

Speaking of school, there's a few prep things I need to do. I need to get a new backpack, for one. I also need to plan a lunch menu for next week so I can buy groceries. This is the method I have chosen to get myself back into bringing my own lunch. I'm going to try to do this for work as well as school. Also, sad as it is, I still need to get my books. I went to school on Monday to get all the ISBN's so I could look them up online. I definitely recommend this to any college student out there looking to buy textbooks online. Searching by title is nice, but remember that many college textbooks are a certain edition (or translation, in the case of plays, stories, or novels -- I remember my Asian Philosophy and Religion teacher wanted us to get a specific translation of the Tao te Ching). Getting the ISBN (short for International Standard Book Number) will ensure you get the exact book you need, because ISBN's are specifically assigned to one book only. This was a fact I picked up from working as a library aide, and it's helped me ever since.

Anyway, I haven't gotten my books yet cause I was planning to pay for them using the check from financial aid for the difference between what my tuition cost and what aid was offered, and I haven't gotten the check yet. I called and was told they are being sent out this week, but I expected it early in the week since my account was updated, showing me owing nothing, as early as last Friday.

I'm going out to shop for that stuff tomorrow. I know, lame thing to do on your vacation, but oh well. I mean, I spent nearly all day yesterday getting the stuff off my old computer that I wanted, backing it up to two flash drives, Photobucket, and my iPod respectively, and returning the computer to startup status using my recovery CD. This is because I decided to try to get things off this CD-ROM I have that is a backup of my old main folder "Ami's Stuff." The folder is at least 4 years old, judging by the creation date on most of the content, which is 2004. But the CD was so old it took a long time to load up (I had to use my Laser Cleaning Disc twice during the day to get the drive to run smoothly).

So far on my vacation, I have done the following:

Friday 8/15: After seeing Mum, Papa, and Andrew off, I spent the day mostly at home playing around on my computer. I went out in the afternoon to rent videos, and then came back home and, after some bungling, ordered a pizza.

Saturday 8/16: Woke up, with plans to go to Wal-Mart and to the movies. Walked up to Wal-Mart, was too tired to go then, and decided to go to the movies, and see how far the walk to the nearest SPRINTER station was (2 miles to up by Wal-Mart, plus 20 minutes). Took the SPRINTER to the theater, saw Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Went to Wal-Mart, Office Depot, and Target afterwards, searching for one of those CD-playing alarm clocks but having no success. Walked home (there was no bus service close to my house). Had leftovers (pizza).

Sunday 8/17: Got up early, went to church, came home (with a couple stops on the way). Spent the day at home. Mum and Papa came home that night, we hung out. On this night, my computer cord stopped working.

Monday 8/18: Went to Cal State to get the ISBN's. Got small lunch from Cougar Corner convenience store, as The Dome (the place where you get real food) was closed for renovation. Went and hung out in library open computer lab to use their internet, left a lot later than planned thanks to getting caught up in a couple Marilland videos. Left, walked to Cal State SPRINTER station to see how far away it was walking (also the shuttle to the station was not running, and I wasn't sure when the bus would come). Took SPRINTER, went home. Found and ordered a new Dell laptop using Mum's computer. Afterwards, watched TV with Mum and Papa ("In Plain Sight" and "The Closer"). Went online once more on Mum's computer, watched Marilland training video (Elite Four Training: Saik and Checkmate) to get my mind off the scary TV episodes. Went to bed, after I think reading and playing Pearl on my DS.

Tuesday 8/19: Might have had plans, not sure what they were. After breakfast, started campaign to get old stuff off computer; finally started running reboot program around 5:45 pm. Left to go to store to get more soda and stuff; forgot to get something for dinner. Fortunately, my dad was able to add to his Taco Bell order and brought me home three crunchy tacos with no lettuce (what I usually get). We ate while watching TV; watched re-run of season finale of "Beauty and the Geek." I went upstairs and played my DS, continuing my quest to level up all of my Pokemon to a level that will work for the Elite 4.

Wednesday 8/20 (today): Got up early, got ready, and went to Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, where I've never been, because I was determined to go to a new beach. Kind of crowded, not nearly as much as Oceanside usually is. Was there for only around 3 hours, due to delays leaving (I forgot my wallet, holding my bus pass and my debit card, and had to go all the way home from the bus stop to get it, which caused me to have to take a later bus). I found a place for my towel and stuff, went out and swam, came back, had a snack from the snack bar, read, and then tried to nap a little, then went and swam again, then came back and hung out on my towel for a little bit before deciding to leave. After walking the few blocks to Encinitas Station, I caught the bus to Oceanside Station, caught the SPRINTER, then caught the 332 to get home. Despite my efforts to spray sunscreen in every needed place, I still got bad sunburns on the backs of my arms and legs. I hope they heal before I go back to work next Monday! I put aloe on the spots and they stung badly; Mum recommended taking ibuprofen for the pain, which I did, and I feel much better.

***************

Moving on, I'm sure you've all heard by now the sad and annoying news about the delay of the film of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In a surprising decision, Warner Bros. decided to push back the film (which was slated for release November 21st, following the footsteps of movies 1, 2, and 4, which also had November releases -- movies 3 and 5 were released in the summer) so that it will now be released on July 17, 2009, almost a whole year from now. It is kind of stupid, really; principal photography wrapped ages ago. The movie was filmed to be released this year. I am checking movieweb.com and the only movie slated for the same day as the new release date is Universal Pictures' Land of the Lost, based on a '70's TV show. Actually, July 2009 seems to be the month of TV show-based movies, since a movie based on "The A-Team" is also slated to come out that month. I suppose it could be because of the writers' strike that there is a lack of original movies for that month, as well that Half-Blood Prince is being delayed. (Coincidentially, placing it at July 17, 2009, puts it at almost the 4-year anniversary of the release of the Half-Blood Prince book, which was released on July 16, 2005. But that's probably not WB's reason). Half-Blood Prince started filming on September 24, 2007, right before the strike officially started, so it very possibly was one of the films that were "rushed to production" after the news of the impending strike.

Just checked movieweb.com - the only other Warner Bros. film currently slated to open in July 2009 is Guardians of Ga'Hoole, which, coincidentially, is also a film based on a series of fantasy books. Except that these ones are about owls, and almost all the characters are owls. As for other summer films, the only ones Warner Bros. has for the Summer of '09, besides Guardians and Half-Blood Prince, are Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins in May, nothing in June, and Shorts in August. That is IT. It is definitely not the summer of Warner Bros. Meanwhile, the summer competition? A new Star Trek movie (which is sure to get sales -- it's an established franchise, for one, and let's not forget how crazy Trekkies are), a new X-Men movie, a Transformers sequel, a movie of Angels and Demons (the book that introduced Tom Hanks's character from The Da Vinci Code), a new Fast and the Furious, and a G.I. Joe movie, to name a few. All of these have name recognition and are likely to sell (not sure with Angels and Demons, given the bad publicity given The Da Vinci Code by Christians).

So why change the date? Based on movieweb.com, the only big competitor the movie would have had would have been the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, which is coming out November 7 (and looks like it's going to be awesome), and also the Twilight movie (as in based on the book series by Stephenie Meyer) had that movie kept its original December 12, 2008 release date. Despite this, they changed the date, and Twilight's release got moved up three weeks to take Half-Blood Prince's slot.

I heard the first bit of an interview recently that MuggleCast did with Stephenie Meyer (I skipped the part where they discussed her new book, Breaking Dawn, because even if I never intend to read it, I didn't want to spoil myself). I should've seen it coming since a lot of the MuggleCast hosts are also fans of Twilight (and four of them have started a separate Twilight podcast). Anyway, aside from finding the 34-year-old (thanks Wikipedia) Meyer way too bubbly and sounding really young for her age, I seemed surprised that she doesn't watch horror films and has never read a vampire novel. It's like, hello! If you're going to WRITE novels about vampires, people are going to expect you to have READ that stuff. Most writers write novels like those they like to read -- I know I do. Now granted, I do write sci-fi despite the fact that I do not regularly read sci-fi. The only sci-fi I've read are the Mars Diaries book series, the Power Mark comic series, the sort of sci-fi manga Chobits, and the novel of Star Wars Episode I by Terry Brooks (the book was pretty boring btw - having seen the movie, I found while reading that I knew almost the whole plot already). I do watch sci-fi in movies and TV, though most of my experience in that vein has been with Star Wars.

On the other hand, I write fantasy and also read a TON of fantasy novels. Yet, my fantasy novels have been hard to do. I think this is because I plan them out and realize that they seem very deriviative. In other words, it seems like I'm simply copying things I've read, but with slight changes. My Walden stories -- my primary fantasy project -- seem heavily influenced by The Lord of the Rings, particularly my idea of the Elves being born in the West and then coming to Walden in boats -- which is very similar to the Elves leaving Valinor for Middle-Earth in The Silmarillion. Also, one "tale" is referenced in my "notes on Walden" that speaks of the love between a dwarf and an elf, and how their union causes a new race to be born. While there are better changes here, it seems awfully similar to the The Lay of Leithian, a.k.a. the story of Beren and Lúthien, also in The Silmarillion. I guess in many ways I have modeled my elves, the Nuri Fidele, after Tolkien's, and that is why there are so many similarities.

I wonder if this deriviative nature of my work is because I simply cannot write original fantasy or because my personal writing style/voice is not fully developed. I personally think it is the latter, since there are ideas in the "Walden" series that are original, though there are some Biblical allusions -- Chaimvin being portrayed as the one and sole God and Creator, for instance, being a reference to the monotheism of Christianity; his "servants" being a reference to angels; and the Great War being similar to the war that drove Satan out of heaven (except that it happens much later and involves some of the peoples of Walden, and not just spirits). The apocalypse story for Walden is also somewhat Biblical -- it involves the arrival of a Savior and a final battle in which evil will be vanquished forever. But Biblical allusions are all right.

The Chaimvin/God comparison is a small nod to Narnia, in which Aslan tells the children they must get to know him as he is in their world (and Aslan is meant to be the "Christ figure" in Narnia).

I wish someone would tell me the difference between being inspired by other books and being derivative. I suppose sooner or later I will say, like Philip Pullman, that I took things from every book I have ever read.

Oh boy it's late (1:14AM). I better go to bed. I just hope I can sleep what with these sunburns.

Shorter hours, upcoming vacation, new laptop, featured on WTPT!

The last couple weeks I haven't been getting a lot of hours at work, usually the bare minimum (24). Last week, I worked 6 days but only worked 4 hours each day. Doing sampling, this sort of shift is fine, but doing production (working in the bakery) it's not very useful cause it doesn't give one a lot of time to do anything. This week, they gave Monday-Thursday off and then have me working full shifts Friday-Sunday (so I still get 24 hours). Mind you, I did not request 4 days off. They just gave it to me.

Shorter hours means less money, just when I need money for books and stuff. Now is bad as well cause, with only a little under two weeks till my vacation starts, I don't have a lot of time to build up my checking account before I go on unpaid vacation, and I nearly drained it last time thanks to two trips to Balboa Park where I took out a lot of cash each time, and spending $70 at Comic-Con. Thanks to my low hours, I didn't build it up by much since after taxes, my check was just under $200. After paying $90 to Mum and Papa for rent and my cell phone bill and $49 to Cal State for my August bus pass, that doesn't leave a lot of money. And now I have to buy a new work shirt, even though the two I have are still fairly new and work well, just because my collar gathers when I have my tie on and won't stay down, and Diana (store manager) and Sandra (my department manager) have both said I need a new shirt. It's like, GOOD LORD I CAN'T AFFORD THIS RIGHT NOW!!! If I could delay it, I would, but I can't. I have to have it by Friday, when I work next. Thus I am having to be really cautious with money, not eating out as much. And if I do get something to eat en route to work or something, it's something pitiful like chips, a drink, and some small sweet (which is what I had for lunch today, en route to Cal State to get my bus pass).

The problem is, it's really hard to find shirts for work in my size (I'm a plus size person). I've already been through this anyways. The shirts I have now are Dickies and we had to order them online because I couldn't find anything after scouring several regular stores. And I can't go for mens' shirts like some of my female coworkers, cause I tried one on before and it didn't fit well over me (obviously, since I've got a big chest -- mens' shirts aren't made to go over big chests). I don't know a polite way to communicate this to my boss and my boss's boss, however, so tomorrow I'm going to go look again.

As I said before, my vacation -- probably my only one this year -- is coming up. I originally tried to get the week off before school starts, but I had to adjust the start date slightly due to my parents revealing that they will be out of town next weekend (15th-17th), helping Andrew move I think. Thus, Sunday especially, they won't be able to drive me to work, so it is best to have those days off. When it will end I am not sure, since everyone has to work the 24th (according to Sandra -- I overheard her telling Joseph this, and she didn't say anything when I mentioned it while she was confirming my vacation start date with me), which was my original requested end date. I suppose I can find out, just in case.

Fall classes start the 25th, which is exactly three weeks from now. Scary!! Fall booklists will be out next Monday, so I am going to try to order my books if possible. Mum was saying she thought they were trying to prevent people from doing that by publishing the Fall booklists so late, but I'm going to try anyway. Some of the extra $640 that is supposed to come to me due to the difference between my tuition and fee total and my provided financial aid will probably go to books, and also some towards getting my new laptop if I haven't been able to transfer more money to savings. The one I want is $649, and I have $400 toward it already ($300 from my economic stimulus, plus $100 I transferred from checking to savings a little while ago). I need to figure out how much shipping will be.

Hmm tried to run the thing like I buying it to see the shipping, but I guess maybe you have to add it to your cart and all first. I also went to the Dell Discounts page link on my union's webpage (you can get 12% off through them) and found out I can get $13 off the laptop I want. Not a lot, but every little bit counts. That makes it $636. Oh but it doesn't include the built-in webcam; that's extra. Eh well. I'll go back to my original plan then I guess.

There is another cheaper laptop in the same catalog that interested me, but it doesn't have much more hard drive memory than I already have (80 GB compared to my current 55 GB).

Hmm the laptop on the cover of the catalog is only $599, with $25 more to get some color other than black. With $19.99 shipping (if I do 3-5 days, which is fine with me), that's bound to be less than the other one. Hmm, did the math, it's less than the base price of the other one ($649). Again, the webcam's extra.

Ok one last thing then I need to go to bed. I wrote an e-mail to answer the Question of the Fortnight for the Female Trainers episode (an episode about girls who play Pokemon) and THEY READ MY E-MAIL ON THE AIR!!! I heard this on Saturday before starting work and it really made my workday.

I have also been catching up on older WTPT stuff. I downloaded as many of their older episodes as I could (one of them wouldn't download for some reason) from their Digg site, and I also subscribed to their Itunes feed for WTPT Live. I even made a NowLive account and downloaded Gizmo, in hopes that I can get onto the next live show.

Talk about "My Pokemon Ranch" (a Pokemon WiiWare game that was released in June) on the most recent WTPT Live episode I've listened to has made me really want a Wii, though I'm still not sure as far as the prices.

Ok I really must go to bed now. Good night.

YAY!!!!! A HALF-BLOOD PRINCE TRAILER!!!!

Yes folks, it's finally here: the TEASER TRAILER for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince! It came out today, I guess, and I found out via the "featured news" on my homepage, as soon as I got home from going and getting a couple cameras developed (including one that was all Comic-Con). I rushed to The Leaky Cauldron to see if it was in their video galleries, and it was. You can watch it here: http://video.the-leaky-cauldron.org/video/1043

It's also available on YouTube, so I'm going to embed it here. Enjoy!




This is its online debut, thanks to AOL, Moviefone, and MSN. It debuts in theaters with The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which opens August 1st.

Thanks WB for finally releasing this, but I'm still mad that we had to wait so long. Not that I'm some Harry Potter fanatic or anything, but the anger of the podcasters stirred me up anyway.

Speaking of the pictures, 7 pics on one camera and 12 on the other didn't print at all apparently, since they aren't on the index print (the little card that shows previews of all the pictures) or even on the negatives. I called CVS (where I took them for one-hour processing) and the guy who answered put me on hold so I could talk to his boss. The boss guy said I could bring the negatives and everything and have them match them up to the slides, and if the pictures really aren't there, he'll refund my money. He's in on Thursday, so I will probably go in then, most likely after work if I don't work later than 5:00. The Comic-Con pictures that did turn out are kind of dark because I didn't use a flash, not wanting the flash to show up in the picture like what happened with my first set of Balboa Park pics. But my pic from the first camera of the Luna Lovegood cosplayer turned out fine, despite me not using flash, because the room we were in was well lit from natural light.

That's it. Bye!

Post-Comic Con Report

Today I went to the Comic-Con Convention, which is probably the biggest event of the summer down here in San Diego. I've been before, in 2001, but not since. So, when the option of making a trip to the Con an excursion for the Asperger's activity group I'm a part of came up, I totally went for it. I bought my ticket really early, per advice from my coworker Laura (Heather's sister), who was also going. Then, because most of the group didn't buy tickets way in advance like me, they changed the date, so I had to get a new ticket and get rid of my old one (which our group leader bought from me and sold on Ebay for some amount she won't tell me -- but she said that "it sold really fast").

We were to meet at 12:00, but I got my mom to get me there early for the Harry Potter panel that was happening at 10:30. I wanted to go to this because Melissa Anelli and Sue Upton from PotterCast were going to be on the panel, and as a big PotterCast fan, I just had to go to see them if nothing else. Although we left a little later than planned, we still got there around 10:00. But what with having to go get my badge after waiting in a long line, I got to the room where the panel was after it had started, and had to wait in a line with other eager Harry Potter fans to even get in the room. This was kind of fun because some of us actually started talking about the series while in line. Having never gone to an event for Harry Potter fans, to be talking about Harry Potter with other people who actually knew what I was talking about was very fun.

Well, long story short, I finally got in, but I didn't get to meet Melissa or Sue -- though I got within like 2 feet of Melissa cause I went up to the panel afterwards to see if they were still giving away stuff, and to meet Melissa and Sue. But they announced they were going to meet people outside, and all I got was a Azkatraz postcard (for a convention in San Fransisco) for my trouble. I went outside and tried to group up with other people to meet the panel, but convention staff shooed us all out of the hallway, so none of us really got to meet anybody. I did meet a very nice girl dressed as Luna Lovegood--with a robe (which, strangely enough, had a Gryffindor patch on it, though Luna is Ravenclaw -- the girl explained it by saying something about having snuck into the Gryffindor common room), a wand, a blue-and-white Ravenclaw tie, and even an edition of the Quibbler, the magazine Luna carries around in the movies and books -- and we talked as we left the hallway, with me saying that if I ever cosplayed as a Harry Potter character, I'd probably try to do either Ravenclaw robes or the Beauxbatons outfit. I asked if I could take her picture and she agreed. It was very cool. One of the rest of our group met her later when we were in the main exhibit hall and wanted to get a picture of her, and she asked, "Do you want the wand behind the ear, or...?" She did put her wand behind her ear (something Luna does in the books) for the picture. The sole male of the group, Adam, asked Rebecca (the person who took the picture) and I what the girl's question meant, and not really knowing how to explain it to a non-fan, I simply said that you have to know Harry Potter to understand it.

There were a LOT of cosplayers at this con. Aside from the aforesaid Luna Lovegood and her Ravenclaw-robed friend, there were a few other cosplayers at the Harry Potter panel, including McGonagall and Umbridge (sitting next to each other, ironically) and a guy I called "Quidditch Ron" because he looked like Ron and appeared to be dressed for Quidditch (they wear different robes for Quidditch than for normal school). I also saw an Inuyasha, a few Naruto characters, some Jedi, one group with video game characters (Mario, Princess Peach, Daisy, Link, Princess Zelda, and a guy Amanda thought was Marth from Fire Emblem), a Sailor Moon-related pair with a Sailor Mercury and a Tuxedo Mask with a kind of weird mask that didn't fit his character, an Asuka (from Evangelion), one girl dressed as Freya from Chobits (I know it was Freya cause she had a black dress, whereas Chi/Elda is always shown wearing white), an older woman dressed as the main guy from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and a guy as the Joker, as well as many characters I couldn't place.

After the panel, I found my way downstairs toward our meeting spot and got out cash to buy something to eat (I wasn't sure if the food booths took cards, as I had just brought my debit card since I wasn't sure how much cash to take out), and bought a pretzel and a can of Coke and sat down by our meeting place to eat.

After meeting up with the group, we went into the hall. It was really crowded so we started walking around the edge and not really in the middle. This went on for some time, and because of the crowds we didn't get a good look at much. I ended up writing down booths I either wanted to visit or come back and buy something at in a little notebook I'd brought with me (to allow me to see what there was to offer before buying stuff, something I didn't do the last time I went to the Con). We did all stop at a few booths, one of which was sort of a mishmash of stuff from old shows like Ren and Stimpy, Gummi Bears, My Little Pony, and older Disney stuff. I bought a "rare PVC figure" there of Hades from the Disney movie Hercules. It's kinda tiny and was only $5. But it was the only figure that really grabbed my attention, other than the one of Percy, Governor Ratcliffe's dog from Pocahontas. Here is a link to a picture of the figure from Ebay, to sort of give an idea of what it looks like: http://i16.ebayimg.com/08/i/000/ff/48/2648_1.JPG

Another booth we stopped at had lots of DVD's of old TV shows, including some that other members of the group recognized but I didn't (must have to do with not having TV most of my life). I did find a few surprise products there. One was a set of seasons 1-3 of Kim Possible. I'm not sure if it was professionally done, seeing as I have never heard of professionally-made Kim Possible season sets. One clue on this is that there was a DVD of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars and a full-season DVD of PGSM, neither of which have been licensed in the U.S., that had English text on the covers. I'm guessing they were fansubs, and while it not impossible to buy fansubs -- I watched all of Sailor Moon S subtitled and two episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS subtitled via fansub VHS tapes my friend Maryanne got from one of her other friends -- I did not expect a booth at a place like Comic-Con to be selling them. Fansub companies that sell their fansubs in a tangible form for profit usually sell it themselves, not through a third party. So it seemed very fishy. (I did not buy these DVD's btw...just as well as they could very well be bootlegs...I didn't check the prices, which can sometimes tell you whether something is a bootleg).

There was one booth with a huge inflatable Pikachu over it, where a Pokemon TCG tournament-of-sorts was set up. There was also someone dressed up as Pikachu -- in a full-on Disney-characters-at-Disneyland kind of costume -- and I ended up shaking his/her (its?) hand as it walked by. Later, I also got a free promo card (a promo Shellos...woo...oh well, at least it's a water-type).

We wandered around for most of the day, until around 3:30, when we decided to start heading back to where we'd met cause Wendy needed to meet her parents at 4:00. Wendy was distraught cause she'd accidentally dropped her cell phone into an auto toilet while using the bathroom. Along the way, we came across a booth Amanda had been looking for (she'd passed it earlier when she and Adam were by themselves), which was chock full of artbooks and the like from different animes. I almost bought one for the Phoenix Wright game series. It was all in Japanese, though, but it had nice pictures, and I figured it compensated for not seeing any Phoenix Wright material at the Capcom booth. In the end, I left the book and bought a CD instead after perusing the CD area. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the price so I didn't know what it was till I went to pay, and it ended up being $32.50!!! FOR A CD!!! It's one CD, mind you, not like a set or something. I swear, that is way too much. My mom said on the way home that she hoped I would end up liking it since I paid so much for it, and I agree. It is Future Soundscape II, one of the OST's for Tsubasa Chronicle (the anime of Tsubasa: ReserVOIR Chronicle) and, not being too familiar with the music (and not being able to read the Japanese track titles), it was mainly the cover art that drew me to it. From the art, I knew it was Tsubasa, for one, plus the art is really pretty. I figured if anything it gave me more options for music for my fandub projects. Plus, new music to listen to is always nice -- that is, if it's playable on anything I own (someone on Facebook told me CD's are not region-exclusive, so they should play, but I won't know till I try). I debated between this and an Ishida Yoko CD, with her singles (I've heard Yoko-san in Sailor Moon songs and also on my ParaPara CD). The problem with that one was all its track names were in Japanese, so I didn't know what songs it had.

After this, we lead Wendy to her parents, then Amanda and Adam and I wandered around for a bit. I'd bought a new disposable camera (the one I'd brought had run out of available pics long before) and so I started taking pics of thing I hadn't had a chance to take pics of before, since Amy had asked me to take pictures at the Con. I also bought a DVD at the Funimation booth that has both the Tsubasa and the xxxHolic movies on it for the low price of $20.

After a while, I ditched the other two to try to find this one booth I was looking for -- one that had lots of figurines, including some Sailor Moon ones -- before the Con closed. I never did find it, but I did end up at a booth where I bought the Japanese edition of the Princess Mononoke soundtrack for only $9.99 -- an excellent deal for a 33-track movie soundtrack. They had a few different Miyazaki soundtracks -- the only thing in the case I was drawn to -- one I wasn't sure of the identity of and two My Neighbor Totoro soundtracks. I knew whichever one I got would be good, since Joe Hisaishi, the one who usually scores Miyazaki's films, is a composing genius. I chose the Mononoke one though, not sure why exactly. I guess for one it was all in one CD, and also I may have simply liked that movie better than Totoro (which is possible).

So, after being at the Con almost all day, I bought four things, aside from a new camera, a can of soda, and lunch. I spent close to $70 on those four things, which is a lot, but still not bad. I think just using my card rather than cash (not all the booths took debit or credit cards), combined with being with a group, helped me not buy so much.

In summary, I bought (in order):

~A plain pretzel and a can of Coke (lunch) - around $7
~Hades PVC figurine - $5
~Future Soundscape II CD - $32.50
~New disposable camera -$10
~Can of Coke -$2.50
~Tsubasa/xxxHolic movie double feature DVD - $20
~Princess Mononoke OST CD - $9.99 ($10.76 with tax)

The figurine came from the aforesaid small booth, the Future Soundscape CD came from the Kinokuniya Bookstores booth, the camera came from the Protech Products booth (which also sold poster holders and poster tubes and the like), the DVD came from the Funimation booth, and the second CD came from a not-so-well-labeled booth that had a small card on the register saying it was "Comics n' Stuff," which is the same name as a comics store I used to go to quite a bit back in the day, but hadn't gone to since the one at the Carlsbad mall closed down for good, after closing and reopening several times, and also switching locations in the mall itself a few times.

I also got a lot of freebies, including a bunch of stuff from the freebie table in the badge pick-up area as I was leaving. In my Comic-Con bag, I got a free booster pack of MapleStory cards and a free deck of Magic the Gathering cards. From one Lord of the Rings-oriented booth, I got a free deck of Lord of the Rings-themed playing cards that came in a box within a cool drawstring bag. Quite a nice freebie there. From the aforementioned Pokemon booth, I got a free promo card. And most of the booths had free postcards and stuff. (Funimation's one had free coupons).

I also want to check out the book related to the Lord of the Rings fandom that one lady in the Harry Potter panel audience said she had written (she was apparently important enough to warrant a signing at the booth where I got the free playing cards, and yet here she was in the audience for a panel). She mentioned it because Melissa Annelli has written a book on the Harry Potter fandom, which she has discussed a lot on PotterCast.

Oh man hearing Melissa and Sue's voices live, even if I didn't get to meet them, was awesome. And actually seeing what they look like too. They were going to do a LeakyMug (a joint podcast between MuggleCast and PotterCast) later that day, but it was going to be in Mission Valley, which (I checked before writing this) is close to an hour's transit ride away. Plus, it would've been far for my mom to go to pick me up. As much as I would love to go to a live podcast (and in this case, not only see Melissa and Sue live but also Andrew Sims and Matt Britton from MuggleCast), it just didn't look feasible transportation-wise, which is a shame cause neither PotterCast nor MuggleCast ever do live podcasts down here. Eh well, it will likely be recorded and posted online, so I will look forward to listening to it then. I've always wondered what Andrew looks like, and if he looks as goofy as he sounds on the show.

So anyway, I'm glad I have a late day at work tomorrow (1-5) cause I'm tired. I should probably go cause I still need to do laundry for tomorrow.

A couple other things: my mom suggested for my birthday, they could pay for me to get a new eye exam and new glasses. Since I have been talking about doing this myself but haven't been able to, this is a welcome gift, so I agreed. Also, on the way home, I mentioned that Wendy had actually gone to see a doctor about her Asperger's after seeing the girl with Asperger's on America's Next Top Model (something I learned from the article the North County Times did on our group). Mum said her friend Laura McGrady (who's a therapist) knows someone who specializes in that area, and I said I would definitely like to get a firm diagnosis yea or nay on whether I have Asperger's. She said she will e-mail Laura McGrady about it. So a firm diagnosis on my Asperger's may be on the way. Yay!

So anyway, I am going to go so I can get my laundry together. I am going to restart my computer after I post this to get my internet working normally again. (Megaupload Toolbar, though I deleted it, messes the internet up still at this point, after a while). Bye!

Tired, end of XXXholic, finally caught Mesprit, EV training, video making break

Today was one of my 10-3 days this week, so I had to get up at 5:30am so I could take the bus. This is after I got home late last night cause I got off at 9pm and then had to wait for Andrew to pick me up. He got held up at work, then we went to McDonald's and got ice cream and then went home, not getting home till around 11pm. So I am really tired right now, and glad to be home.

I just finished watching the last episode of season 1 of XXXHolic a few minutes ago. It is a side story about a boy Watanuki met in the past. Episode 23, the one before it, is technically the last episode of the storyline of the season. That episode is cool in that at the end, but before the credits, they have this part where the camera moves in such a way as to make it look like you, the viewer, are actually walking into Yuuko's shop. Plus the featured characters actually "break the fourth wall" and speak to you directly. It begins with Watanuki, who's outside sweeping, welcoming you in, and then Maru and Moro enthusiastically coming up to the door, seeing you, and then running off with cheers of "A guest for mistress! A guest for mistress!" Then you go through the shoji door into the main room (like Watanuki did in episode 1) and the camera zooms to Yuuko (who is lying spread out on a couch, like in episode 1). She welcomes you and asks if you want your wishes granted.

This doesn't end the xxxHolic anime by any means, though. Besides, the first season only gets to the storyline where Watanuki gets ill because of the woman he meets in the park, which isn't very far at all into the manga, I don't think. There is a second season, called XXXHolic Kei ("Kei" meaning "sequel"). That season goes as far as what is called the "Himawari arc," i.e. the story where Himawari's secret (that she inadvertently is "bad luck" to everyone around her, except her parents and also Doumeki, who aside from repelling spirits is immune to her bad luck as well, for some reason) is revealed. Having read the manga, I know that this only takes one up to the end of volume 10 of the manga, and the manga currently has 13 published volumes (with a 14th on the way, to be published next January in Japan). An OAV has been announced though, so maybe that will continue the story.

Apparently as of chapter 157, it was announced that the manga was nearing its conclusion. A similar announcement was made for xxxHolic's sister series, Tsubasa: ReserVOIR Chronicle, so both will probably end sometime next year. There are 161 chapters in the xxxHolic manga so far, in 13 volumes, so the final arc probably starts in volume 13, which I don't have yet. I don't think it's even out here yet -- I was surprised to even find #12 on the shelves last night when I was at Barnes & Noble. I should mention that nowadays I mostly go into the two bookstores I frequent -- the Barnes & Noble by my work and the Borders Express at the Carlsbad mall -- to do a "manga check," checking to see if volumes I need of certain series are in stock. This can be a somewhat long, frustrating process. It certainly was when I was collecting Chobits. I collected that eight-volume manga one volume at a time (except for when I bought 6 and 7 at the same time). Ditto for Card Captor Sakura and its sequel series Card Captor Sakura: Master of the Clow (speaking of which, Sakura is a girl, so wouldn't she be the "mistress" of the Clow, not the "master"?) -- I'm still missing volumes 5 and 6 of the first CCS series. Right now, I am doing checks for Tsubasa: ReserVOIR Chronicle, xxxHolic, and Full Moon (a.k.a. Full Moon wo Sagashite, the series I started reading when I couldn't find new volumes of the other two).

Just checked Wikipedia, and it says that volume 18 of Tsubasa was released on July 22, 2008, which was this last Tuesday. I'll have to try to find it. The plot of that series is getting thicker right now, so the suspense of not being able to find it is annoying.

I read volume 12 of xxxHolic today while riding the bus to work. I figured some light reading was good since I was still kind of half-asleep. That one starts to introduce Watanuki meeting Princess Sakura (from Tsubasa) in dreams, which becomes important later in Tsubasa, I think (unfortunately, Wikipedia doesn't put spoiler warnings in its articles, so I sort of spoiled myself on the plot of Tsubasa). One thing I found interesting is that Watanuki really starts to change in this volume. Earlier in the story, it had been predicted (both I think by Yuuko and also by the fortune teller they see in volume 2) that he was bound to change, and that Yuuko would be partially an agent of that change. Anyway, in this volume, he really seems to start to care about others more than himself. Not a totally surprising turn of events -- most books which feature a somewhat self-absorbed protagonist like Watanuki end with that person becoming more selfless and others-centered (unless it has a sad ending where the person just ends up as selfish as before). Watanuki becomes concerned for "Syaoran-kun" and his party (the main characters of Tsubasa), for instance. This makes sense because, based on things Sakura and Watanuki say when they meet, this volume is set around the same time as the "Tokyo/Acid Rain" arc in Tsubasa (covered by volumes 15-17, as well as the very end of volume 14, of the Tsubasa manga and the "Tokyo Revelations" OVA of the anime), in which Fai, the closest person in the party to Sakura after Syaoran, almost dies. Their meeting in dreams also has the shocking revelation in one instance of Watanuki not being able to remember his parents' names -- which sets up for later developments.

Besides the Tsubasa party, Watanuki also begins to worry about his friend Kohane, a young girl who is a spirit medium, and her tense relationship with her controlling and ambitious mother. He tries to reconnect with her, only to be chased out of the house by Kohane's mother.

Lastly, Watanuki also changes his attitude towards Yuuko. After his eye is injured when Kohane's mother throws some hot liquid on it, he is resting, and Yuuko asks him as usual if he has anything to ask of her (i.e., a wish). He says he does, but chooses not to discuss it at that point. Then, in a move unlike him, he asks Yuuko if she has a wish. She is taken aback. Watanuki goes on to say that Yuuko is always granting other people's wishes, but has never mentioned her own wishes. Later, at the end of the volume, Watanuki asks her again if she has a wish, and promises to do whatever he can to fulfill it (probably assuming that Yuuko can't grant her own wish, just like how she previously said she was not allowed to tell her own fortune). Her wish is not revealed at this point, though.

When reading this, I was reminded of the first of the three Disney-made Aladdin movies. In it, when Aladdin is thinking of what he's going to spend his other two wishes on, he asks the Genie what his wish is. The Genie, taken aback, confides finally that his wish is to be free of the lamp. Aladdin grants this at the end of the movie, using his third wish.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

In other news, I FINALLY CAUGHT MESPRIT. Yay! It happened by chance last night. I finally got into playing my DS again, having not touched it since the day I got Deoxys. I was sitting waiting at Barnes & Noble for Andrew and playing the game, using the Marking Map to track down Mesprit. I finally ran into it, and it still had the same damage on it from when the time I had finally hit it (using my super-fast Staraptor and the powerful but not one-hit KO move Aerial Ace). Not wanting to KO it (there's only one, after all), I simply threw an Ultra Ball at it. This hasn't worked so well so far. Actually, this is true for all the "lake Pokémon" -- I used probably more than 20 Pokéballs, at least 10 of them Ultra Balls, trying to catch Uxie, and in the end, in a fit of desperation, I ended up using my lone Master Ball (which has guaranteed 100% capture success rate) to capture it. But this time IT DID WORK. I remember the glee I felt when the ball stopped shaking and clicked to indicate that the capture was successful. It felt really good -- and relieving too, obviously, since I've logged a lot of playtime hours chasing this annoying Pokémon.

In other related news, I may take up EV training. I heard about this method on WTPT. It involves training your Pokémon in such a fashion as to build up certain stats, like Attack or Speed. Fortunately, when I went to explore the chat room at WTPT's website, someone kindly offered to send me the guide he made on EV training, and he did this. I read it over the other day. It still sounds pretty complex to me. I'd have to figure out which stats to train up. Based on the Pokémon currently in my party...hmm. I currently have Empoleon, Staraptor, Machoke, Graveler, Rapidash, and Luxray. (Come to think of it, I really must find someone to trade with, because I have to trade my Graveler and my Machoke in order for them to evolve into their final forms, Golem and Machamp. It'll have to be someone who's willing to trade them back right after).

The available stats are Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, Hit Points, and Speed. So...

For Staraptor, I would definitely focus on Speed, although its Speed is really high anyway at this point, probably thanks to it holding a Quick Claw (an item that increases your chances of going first in a battle). It doesn't really need any pluses in the way of the other stats, I don't think; high speed often compensates for lame stats in other areas (as is the case with the Abra family, which has really low attack and defense but really high speed and special attack). Its current attacks are all Flying-type, and those are Physical, which means they are governed by the "Attack" rather than the "Special Attack" stat. Flying-types are weak to Electric, Ice, and Rock. Electric and Ice types are governed by Special Attack, while Rock is governed by Attack. So maybe I should put some points into Special Defense for my feathery friend.

Edit: Just checked my Staraptor. Its stats in HP, Attack, Defense, and Speed are all above 100. But its Special Attack and Special Defense are only 63 and 64 respectively, higher than its base stats for these stats (which are both 50), but not much. But since, as I said, its moves are mainly Physical (with the non-Physical ones all being "status" moves, which aren't affected by stats), it might not need much in those categories.

Empoleon's attacks are all water-type, except for Rock Climb (which is normal-type), which I taught it cause I needed to teach that HM to somebody (and I think it was the only Pokémon I had at the time that could either learn it or had a move I could give up for it). Water-type is governed by Special Attack, so that might be a good stat to pump up. Although, checking its base stats right now, it actually has very high Special Attack and Special Defense to start out with (111 and 101 respectively) but is really low in Speed (60) and in the80's for HP, Attack, and Defense. Mine seems to have good defense though. Hmm...its Attack is at 97 and its Defense is at86. So its Attack is a little higher than normal and its Defense is a couple points under base stats. Its Speed is good(86, compared to 60). Hmm, so maybe if I pumped up Defense and maybe Speed for Empy.

For Graveler...It is Rock/Ground. Both of these types are governed by Attack. Fortunately, mine has a high stat of Attack at 110. It also has a high Defense stat (124), typical of rock-types. While Ground-types are not good defensively, they are great offensively. Rock-types, on the other hand, are great defensively but stink offensively. So the two types balance each other out. Its Special stats (Special Attack & Defense) and Speed are really low (58 for Speed and Special Attack, 66 for Special Defense), but since it has no special-type moves, it's probably ok there. Not sure on the Speed. It would be nice to train for Speed since I think the slowness of my Pokemon worked against me during my attempt to fight the Elite Four.

Rapidash is, as its name suggests, really fast. Mine has a Speed stat of 113, a huge amount. It is also its only stat over 100. Everything else is in the 90's except for Special Attack, which is at 85. It does need Special Attack points to fuel its Special-governed Fire Blast and Fire Spin. Its one non-fire attack, Fury Attack, is physical-governed, and its last move, Sunny Day, is a status move and thus not governed by stats. Base stats show that its highest stats are usually Attack and Speed. So I suppose I could build up Special Attack at least.

Machoke is Fighting-type, which is governed by Physical. It has really high Attack, therefore. All its other stats are pretty low, with Special Defense being the lowest at 56.

Mum just came in to invite me to come watch 21. My dad rented it. More later.

EDIT AT 11:50PM: I came upstairs cause I was tired and didn't want to stay up and watch the whole movie. We paused it cause all of us were trying to help my brother get enrolled for the classes he's taking at Cuesta College, the school he's going to go to up in San Luis Obispo.

So anyway back to EV training. Machoke is Fighting-Type, and it has all Fighting-type moves. So Attack is strong, but the other stats are really low, so I might want to pay attention to that, like maybe to defense, either regular or special.

Luxray is my electric-type powerhouse, with three strong electric-type moves and the powerful Dark-type move Crunch. I raised it from a Shinx that I very randomly encountered early in the game, and a good thing too -- Shinx are considered "rare" in the game. Electric, naturally, is governed by Special Attack. Dark is as well, although Crunch itself is actually a Physical attack. Strangely, for base stats, Luxray's best stat is Attack, despite the fact that Electric-type is governed by Special Attack. Everything else, except Special Attack (at 95) is low, especially Speed (70).

%%%%%%%%%

One last thing. I am considering taking a break from video-making soon. I have been focusing on it too much this summer, I have come to realize. Especially recently, with my stress over that one trailer and stuff. Even Papa said that it might be better if I focused on like, writing. I haven't worked at all on the new website I've been planning to make; I need to work on getting into driving school; I need to get my eyes checked and get a physical and an MMR booster.

The main problem is how to put it out of my head. Nowadays, I think up video ideas from just listening to my iPod. Today, on the way home from work, I was thinking of doing a solo fandub of the Special Act of PGSM while listening to the song "A Marriage Has Come to Town" from Bride and Prejudice. A possible PGSM ship video idea was sparked by the song "My Lips are Waiting" (by Ashanti) from the same movie.

I guess I just need to focus my mind on something else. I seem to do this all right at work.

Okay it's late (12:15am). I'm gonna go to bed.

Act 23 fandub, redo of SM/Golden Compass trailer, day at Balboa Park

Well like I mentioned last time I did work on the Act 23 fandub, although I didn't get to it till Sunday evening. Placing the lines -- the first stage -- is basically done, although I am missing a few lines from one of the cast members. I e-mailed her about it but have not heard back. I could have sworn I sent her a message on YouTube about this too, a while back.

Hmm...just checked, and I guess I didn't send her a YouTube message. I suppose that would be more effective than an e-mail. The cast member in question lives in England, where's there an eight-hour time difference from here, so I have to take that into account. I'll send her a message that is a virtual copy of my e-mail, for convenience.

Other than that glitch, placing the lines is done for all three parts. Normally, I do each part one by one, doing lines and then music for each one in turn. But this time I decided to not do that because it takes more time. Not like placing the lines doesn't take a long time as it is -- it takes me 2 hours or so to do one 10-minute part, just because I usually cut the audio line down to the best possible length (cutting out silence before and after, etc), and then before placing it, I use the frame-by-frame thing in the preview window to make sure I put it in exactly the right place, using the subtitles as a guide. I know, I'm weird. But the result -- a video with perfectly synced fandub lines -- is very satisfying, and worth the extra work.

As far as splitting the parts, generally my modus operandi for the Dark Mercury Arc project -- and also my SM episode 42 fandub, the other full-episode fandub I've done -- is to split the parts at some natural place. For the episode 42 fandub, for instance, I had three parts. For Part 1, I reached the 10-minute mark (YouTube's time limit for videos) at the eyecatch/commercial break for the episode. So I cut Part 1 at that point, leaving out the eyecatch to stay under the time limit. Part 2 began with the eyecatch, and then continued to the end of the "Venus in London" series of flashbacks, which seemed like another natural breaking point, since the scene right after that is the final fight with the youma. Part 3 then picked up right after Usagi responds to Venus's story, with the lights coming on and the youma appearing. It included the fight with the youma and the resolution scene of the episode, as well as some fan-made closing credits with the PrettyCast version of "Moon Revenge," which I'd used in the fandub, even including fansubs of the song done by me. (The fandub also had its own opening, set to "La Moon" from SeraMyu, which was uploaded separately from part 1 due again to the time limit rule).

For the Dark Mercury Arc project, I tend to split the parts at the commercial breaks. In a typical PGSM episode, there are two commercial breaks. They are easy to find: just look for the scenes that show the small PGSM logo in the bottom right corner of the screen when the scene starts. The appearance of this logo indicates (to the best of my knowledge) that the viewers are coming back from a commercial break with this scene. Also, if you look at the timestamp in the top left corner of most PGSM fansub eps, when a "coming back from commercial" scene starts, the timestamp has usually advanced 2 minutes ahead of what it was at the end of the last scene. (This means that they have really short commercial breaks in Japan, apparently).

For Act 23, though, doing this kind of split was not possible because for whatever reason doing so made the parts over 10 minutes. Usually this does not happen. Usually the episode splits nicely into two 10-minute segments and a third segment of 4-5 minutes. Somehow this didn't occur this time. I instead split the episode at other natural break points. Part 1 ends with Rei fuming after Minako says "Good luck, Mars Reiko-san." Part 2 opens with Rei "battling" the karaoke machine and ends with Venus and Moon finishing off the youma. Part 3 opens with Venus and Moon discovering they're stuck in goo, covers Nephrite's entrance, Mars's appearance and awakening, and ends with the end of the episode (the resolution of the battle, and an injured Nephrite going after Dark Mercury with some weapon consisting of a large blade, resembling that on a pizza cutter but with chainsaw-esque edges, on a long staff).

The lines were great for this act I think. The girl playing Rei (the same cast member I mentioned earlier) is obviously the star of this episode, which focuses on Rei. And she does really well, both as Rei/Mars and in her other parts (Minako/Venus and Artemis). Even Mammurachibi, who plays Motoki and all of the Dark Kingdom except Jadeite (Jadeite is played by me), had some great lines, and his audio was easier to hear this time around. (He didn't record in very high audio quality, unfortunately).

Ok, moving on...I am having to re-do the SM/Golden Compass trailer yet again. It didn't save. I am downloading AVI's this time, to see if using converted files is what messes things up. Fortunately, I found out a trick from Keiichi's Anime Kingdom that helps out with this - if you set up an account with Megaupload and download the Megaupload toolbar, a certain button will appear in your toolbar that, when pressed, will give you access to "Happy Hour Premium," a special from Megaupload which gains you temporary premium user status for the "Happy Hour" period (9pm-3am Eastern Standard time, which is 6pm-12am my time), with all the benefits that come with it (unlimited parallel downloads, unlimited downloads per 24 hours, no waiting for downloads to load, etc). Cool, huh? The only glitch is that I think the toolbar occasionally messes up your internet, causing megaclick.com to start loading instead of the site you want.

Today I had the day off from work, so I decided last night to take a little excursion today to get out of the house. I went to Balboa Park, which is located near downtown San Diego. It's a huge park which houses 16 museums, an old house you can tour (the Marston House), the world-famous San Diego Zoo (famous for its giant pandas), 7 performing arts venues, and 14 gardens, as well as some other attractions. I found out today that a free tram takes you to pretty much everywhere in the park (except the Zoo), though most of the museums are laid out rather close to each other so that it is fairly easy to walk from one to one.

One great thing I took advantage of is the "Passport to Balboa Park," a special card you can buy online that gets you into 13 museums in the Park for one purchase of $39 (well, $40, actually, cause they charge you a $1 convenience fee). It's also good for 7 days after you buy it, which means you don't have to see everything in one day, and there is also another more expensive package where you can buy it and also include admission to the Zoo. In other words, it's $40 well-spent.

I realized that I couldn't see 13 museums in the limited time I'd have there (I had to leave by 4:00 to make sure I could catch the bus home, since it takes around 3 hours to get back on public transit), so once on the SPRINTER, I took out the list I'd printed out that said what museums you could get into using the Passport and decided which museums I considered "must-sees" for the day. I figured, if anything, I could go and see those. I narrowed this down to 4 museums -- the Museum of Photographic Arts, the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, the San Diego Air and Space Museum, and the San Diego Museum of Art -- and the Japanese Friendship Garden (I had read last night that it had a Fujidana, or "wisteria arbor," and this sounded like it would be really pretty). I figured that was a good start.

I got up at 7:00am and began getting dressed and stuff. I'd packed my bag the night before. I had planned to walk to 7-11 to take out money and decided against it, choosing to just go straight to the bus stop because I wanted to get to the Park with enough time to really look around. I caught the bus and arrived at the station just minutes before the 8:00 SPRINTER train to Oceanside. I rode this and arrived at Oceanside at 8:25. I killed the hour I had to wait for the next COASTER train by going to get breakfast (I'd skipped breakfast in my haste to get to the bus stop). This consisted of Cheetos and a Diet Pepsi from the vending machine and a bacon, egg, and cheese Cross'andwich from the Burger King at the station. Then I panicked when the train arrived half an hour before its departure time, and ran as fast as I could to the track it was on, only to find out it wasn't leaving for a half hour. You could still board though, so I did.

Finally the train departed for the 1-hour trip to San Diego. I ended up at some point with an elderly couple sitting across from me who were on their way to fly to Seattle. They were going to take the train to downtown and catch a special bus that connects the COASTER to the San Diego International Airport (also known as Lindbergh Field). Across the aisle were some mothers and their kids who were going to the Children's Museum, one of the few San Diego museums not located in Balboa Park -- it's located downtown actually. One of the moms said it was by the Convention Center (another hallmark of downtown -- I'll be going there in a couple weeks for the Comic-Con Convention). This information led me to remark, "Ah, in the Gaslamp Quarter." This is the name given to a 16 1/2 block district of downtown San Diego, so called because all the streetlamps in the district are old-fashioned gaslamps rather than modern streetlights. It's a historical district, with 94 historic buildings, but it's also very new and hip -- the district also hosts many restaurants and clubs. Plus there's the convention center. Nearby the district are two major places of interest in downtown -- the outdoor mall Horton Plaza (and the nearby Lyceum Theatre, home of the San Diego Repretory Theatre) and Petco Park, new home to the San Diego Padres, the local MLB team that I must confess I even have a slight passion for, despite my constantly expressed apathetic disinterest in sports.

RETURNING FROM BREAK

(Speaking of sports, the All-Star game is on tonight and it is still going as I write this - at around 10pm my time - and is in the 13th inning!)

Anyway, I got off the train in San Diego, offering my assistance with luggage to the elderly couple before disembarking, which they politely refused. I walked across the street to America Plaza to catch the trolley for the next leg of the trip. I got a little confused at the ticket machine and in the process got a useful tip from a station worker - for $5 I could buy a MTS Regional Daypass, which would be good on MTS buses (Metropolitan Transit System, the San Diego transit system) and the trolley for the whole day. However, all I had were $20 bills (I'd taken out $40 at the Oceanside station, plus I had what was left over of the cash Lisa from the Asperger's group sent me to "buy" my Comic-Con ticket from me, since I'd pre-paid for a Saturday ticket and then they changed the day of our excursion there to Sunday, so I needed a new ticket), so I had to go across the way to the 7-11 and buy something to get change. My first instinct was to buy food, but I wasn't hungry so I grabbed a trial thing of Advil instead (I get headaches often), and then, once I got to the counter, also bought a disposable camera, since I thought I might need a backup for the camera I'd brought. (And I did indeed, it turned out).

I took the trolley to City College and got on the bus around the corner to get to Balboa Park. I met up with Larry, one of the baggers at my work, on the bus. He was there with his girlfriend Meg (who works at the Target in the same shopping center and frequently comes to our work to visit Larry and have lunch with him), and they were going to the Zoo.

I made sure to get off closer to the park this time (something I didn't do on the Dead Sea Scrolls trip), and was able to get to the museums rather easily via a pedestrian bridge. I came out on the end by the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. From there, I walked down the pedestrian walkway to the area by the Prado Restaurant (at the other end) to redeem my e-ticket for the Passport at the Visitor's Center, as instructed. Then I decided to go to the Museum of Photographic Arts first, since it is in the same building as the Visitor's Center. I somewhat avoided the "FLESH" exhibit (it was an exhibit of photos of, well, flesh), but I looked at the other two exhibits - "Picturing the Process: Landscape Through Time and Space" and an exhibit called "Humanitas" that focused on India. After this, I went to the gift shop, because I'd subconsciously decided to buy one thing from each place I went to as a souvenir. But unfortunately, things are almost always overpriced in museum gift shops. So I reverted to my usual "bargain hunter" mode and bought really cheap souvenirs at each place. For instance, at the Photographic Arts museum, I bought a pencil that says "MOPA" on it.

Next, I went in a different door in the same building and down a flight of stairs to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, giving a somewhat unattentive window clerk my Passport. (She didn't see me at first cause she was trying to put new receipt tape in the register). This place, unlike the MOPA, allowed photography, so I took full advantage of this, even chasing a moving model trolley from window to window to get a good picture of it. It's quite a museum. I know Steve from Loaves and Fishes, himself a big fan of trains of all sizes and a subscriber to Model Railroader, would have loved it. The gift shop didn't have much to offer, though it did have a rather large selection of "Thomas the Tank Engine" stuff (Jesse, this kid I used to babysit for, would have loved that). I continued my bargain shopping and bought a magnet with the museum's name on it.

After this, I headed up to the cafe in the same building, since I was considering getting lunch. But it looked pricey, so I moved on.

From this museum, I made a detour and went across the way towards the Botanical Building, a large wooden building with a pond, known as the Lily Pond, in front of it. I walked around this building, taking pictures of many of the plants. Then I walked out and, desiring a photo near the Lily Pond, asked a nearby stranger to take my picture and posed on the railing with the Lily Pond in the background. This done, I headed to the Timken Museum of Art, a small art museum that is always free and is the home of the Putnam Foundation Collection. Despite its free admission, it hosts quite a collection: three painting collections -- European, French, and American -- which include paintings by Rembrandt and Rubens, two medieval tapestries hung in the atrium area, and one room devoted to Russian Orthodox Church iconography. I bought two postcards here of two paintings I liked -- John Frederick Peto's In the Library (a still life of some books) and John Singleton Copley's Mrs. Thomas Gage (a portrait of the wife of Thomas Gage, one of the early commanders-in-chief of the British army during the American Revolution).

After the Timken, I headed to the other big art museum in the Park, the SDMA or San Diego Museum of Art. Despite the fact that the lady at the visitor center who gave me my Passport warned me to stay clear of the SDMA today (it's the "Free Tuesday" for that museum, meaning admission was free and thus it would probably be really crowded), I went anyway. And yes, it was crowded. I was particularly interested in the Asian art and a small room on the second floor with prints (having just taken Printmaking), not as much with the other stuff. The main attraction there was the "Georgia O'Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle" exhibit. Having taken Modern Art History, both the names "O'Keefe" and "Stieglitz" were familiar to me. The exhibit consisted of both paintings by O'Keefe and other women in the "Circle" and also photography by Stieglitz (he is known to art as a photographer) and those in the "Circle." I did not expect photography to be allowed here (most art museums don't allow it), but I did not see any signs forbidding it, and I saw one girl take a picture, so I figured it must be all right and took some pictures. Here I bought a postcard of William Bouguereau's The Young Shepherdess, one of the most popular paintings in the museum.

After somehow finding my way out of the museum, I stopped by the museum's outdoor cafe, again rejecting it for its high prices. Then I decided to go to the Friendship Garden next, and realized it was a bit of a far walk and my feet were tired. So I hopped on the free Balboa Park tram in order to ride there, but I got off at the wrong stop and ended up by the Air and Space Museum. Since I had been planning to go there anyway, I went there next, trying to ignore the loud loop of the Star Trek theme playing from outdoor speakers near the museum alongside huge banners for the museum's special Star Trek exhibition. I presented my Passport and decided against using it to get a discount on the Star Trek exhibition, since I'm not much of a Trekkie. I instead checked out the regular exhibition, which includes a replica of the Spirit of St. Louis (appropriate for a city with an airport named after Lindbergh), among other things. As I was walking out of this museum, I realized I'd run out of film on my backup camera, which meant no film for the Friendship Garden. This also nixed my photo op of the gift shop's Rosie the Riveter collection (which includes extremely overpriced plush Rosie the Riveter dolls for $20 apiece). Here, after waiting behind a family with a little girl who was insistent on buying a backpack that came with a NASA Barbie (what the...?) despite her mother trying to encourage her to get something else, I bought another pencil, which the cashier claimed was a mood pencil. I was a little distrustful of this, especially when he blew on it to try to make it change color and nothing really happened.

After this, I decided I had delayed lunch long enough. So I went to the nearby Starlight Bowl (a theater for stage plays) and bought a combo at the snack bar, the one reasonably priced place to eat I'd seen all day. I got a combo with a pretzel, chips, and a drink for less than $5. I sat down over there to eat, turning on my iPod in an effort to drown out the Star Trek music, which seemed louder from this angle, with my Beach Boys playlist. Then I walked up to by the International Cottages, hoping to be able to buy another camera at the gift shop there. I didn't find any cameras, but they did have, as the tram driver promised, "trinkets and candy" from many different countries. I bought a cute small pouch with a Chinese design and took the opportunity to enquire whether the Friendship Garden was nearby. The cashier replied that it was, and said it was near the Organ Pavilion (another performing arts venue), which was just up the way.

I found the garden, and I got the impression that maybe there was a souvenir shop there that sold cameras. They did sell souvenirs at the ticket booth, but no cameras. One nice perk is that the Friendship Garden was also having a Free Tuesday, but in this case you had to have ID to prove you were a San Diego County resident, an active military member, or a veteran to get in free. I fit into the first category, and so I flashed my California ID Card for the officer at the gate, and was allowed in. Despite being camera-less, I strolled the garden anyway, left, finally found a place to buy a camera (the Visitor's Center), bought it, and then went back to the garden a second time, where there was the same officer, who didn't even say anything about seeing the same ID twice. I stopped to buy yet another postcard, this from the ticket booth.

I used my camera to take pictures of the garden, including a shot of the not-so-impressive Fujidana (a bystander I asked about it informed me that it looks much nicer in the spring, when the wisteria are in bloom). I also took pictures in the small Exhibit Building, which is currently showing an exhibit of items made by people who were in the Japanese internment camps (like Manzanar) during World War II. Determined to get a photo in the garden as well, I went to the balcony off the Fujidana, which provides a nice backdrop of the trees behind, and asked a stranger once again to take my picture. This lady seemed a little more serious about it though and actually tried to pose me in some artistic fashion. I won't know till I get the pictures back whether letting this strange lady do this was worth it.

I should mention I also took a couple pictures of myself on this excursion - one of me against a column at the Organ Pavilion, and one of me sitting on the Friendship Garden sign. They probably won't turn out as well though.

After the Friendship Garden, I decided it was time to head home, and walked quickly back to the West Prado area, where I boarded the tram, in hopes of getting off close to where I could catch the bus. I did, but it was across the street so I had to go to the light and cross.

I got home finally around 7:00, at which point I took pictures of my room to fill up the last of the roll on camera #3. If they don't call me in tomorrow, I'm going to take them in to be developed. Two of them are primarily from today, but the first camera already had 10 pictures taken on it, and I don't know what those are of.

Oh I should mention -- I was on my way home on the SPRINTER, listening to MuggleCast and minding my own business, when the transit security guy came down the aisle to check tickets and passes. I got mine ready, but never ended up showing it to the guy, because he got preoccupied with writing a citation for someone behind me who apparently didn't have a ticket or something of the sort. This apparently suddenly irritated the guy sitting across from me, who up to this point had been quietly sketching the face of Michelangelo's David from an art book. He went off on the officer, getting angry, cussing, and even giving him the finger! The cussing distressed a gentleman across the aisle, who was there with his young daughter, and he reprimanded the man for using bad language within earshot of his daughter. For me, the cussing did shock me but not so much as the act of giving the officer the finger did. I have never seen someone do that gesture within such close proximity to me, and I was "properly horrified" (as L.M. Montgomery would say).

Speaking of bad words, at around that moment I was, as I said, listening to MuggleCast, and they, per custom, were going to play songs for the deaths of Bellatrix and Voldemort (they've played songs for everyone who died in book 7 during their "Chapter-by-Chapter" discussion). The song they played for Bellatrix is called "I'm a B****" and is by Meredith Brooks. Despite the cuss word, the lyrics do fit Bellatrix pretty well. The song they played for Voldemort is "Ha Ha You're Dead" by Green Day, which despite its irreverence, sounded kinda funny and did somewhat represent how the good guys might feel about Voldemort's death (actually "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" from The Wizard of Oz would have even worked).

Okay it's late, and I'm in desperate need of a shower. Good night. I'll post pictures from the trip tomorrow if I can.