4,11,12,18,26 Jul 02

Uweee. I type from the Courtyard Mariott in Long Beach, CA, having earlier today left Izzy and Doug's in Barstow. It's about 8.30pm. Aaaanyway, since the conclusion of my last entry, we went to their house, hung out there for two days, and left =P We got there at about 6pm or so, I suppose, more or less anyway (having gained yet another hour on our way there from New Mexico) and saw their house and stuff. That was Monday evening, and for supper they made ***I STOPPED TYPING HERE BECAUSE I DIDN'T FEEL LIKE TYPING ANY MORE, IT IS NOW THURSDAY 11 JUL AND THAT WAS A WEEK AGO 4 JUL*** trout or something. I don't do ***I STOPPED TYPING THERE BECAUSE I HAD TO GO EAT OR SOMETHING, BUT THAT WAS JUST YESTERDAY*** very well with fish. I don't like the taste and the fishiness of it kinda makes me sick =/ I dunno, seafood. I just don't do well with anything that comes out of the ocean. o_o() Besides salt. Ho ho ho. ANYWAY, there were also noodles with garlic sauce that AnJa thought were extremely delicious but I didn't do very well with those either for some reason so I ate like three bites of my salmon (that's right, it was salmon... I think) and dad ate the rest but I felt kind of bad because I didn't want Izzy and Doug to think I thought they made gross food, it's just that the cream sauce was weird and fish makes me ill anyway =/ Oh well, bah baaaah. Anyway, they have two dogs who are both Australian Shepherds like my Pooh: Pete and Dottie. They got Pete a few years ago after meeting Pooh and realising what a good dog she was, so they were like "We want a dog like that!" and went and got an Australian Shepherd. Only Pete is like a deviant one or something, it's hilarious XD() He was soo bad and hyperactive and chewing things up well past his puppyhood (he even, umm, rinsed my toothbrush for me one time when we visited them), plus he kept growing and is now like 2 or 3 times bigger than Pooh, and he always jumped up on people, and they were like "we did not expect this x_x" But he's still a gorgeous dog, really. He has one brown eye and one pale blue eye and the most beautiful markings-- sort of honey-coloured and grey and black. Anyway, a couple months ago (four or five? six? nine? I can't remember) Izzy got another doggie at the shelter in Barstow-- a little puppy, also Australian Shepherd, but she's coloured like a dalmation (only is furrier than one). Her name's Dottie, as I told you before (you should pay attention!!) and she's ADORABLY cute =D But she's kind of a bad dog too XD() Actually, since getting her, Pete has mellowed out a lot. Anyway, she chews things and licks (ALWAYS LICKING) and tries to break down the fence and runs around with a piece of the broken fence in her mouth and stuff. Also, she doesn't want Pete to bark (she bites his stub of a tail if he does [Australian Shepherds have little nubby things but not actual tails]) and she doesn't want him to get any attention (she grabs peoples' arms in her mouth if they pet him instead of her). Apparently she also won't let him eat. This is even funnier considering that she's about a fourth his size.

The point is, they have awesome dogs, but they didn't get what they were bargaining for in an Australian Shepherd either time.

AnJa and I slept on an air mattress on a frame at their house. It was considerably better than what we slept on in Albuquerque, but the frame was weird, so after the first night we put it on the floor too =D The second day we were there, we went to a place called Calico Ghost Town. AnJa and I, maybe my parents too, kind of thought it would just be a real ghost town we could wander around and stuff, but it turns out it's kind of a little amusement park thing. I mean, not really, but it's just stuff like a train ride around the site of the old town, replicas of buildings, a little show, gift shops, etc. Anyway, Izzy and Doug have a friend who works there, so we got in for free XD() Considering that, I think we got our money's worth. No, I'm kidding! Well, it was cool for being free. It wouldn't have been very cool if we had to pay. I bought a "Surprise" in this one shop that had a bunch of custom soaps and stuff because it was in a brown paper bag and said "Surprise" and I can't resist surprises in paper bags o_o()()() It was Cornmeal Facial Scrub or sommat, and I was like "heh heh, okay XD" so I scrubbed my face with it later ;o That evening we went and had dinner at this place Peggie (Peggy?) Sue's that was a 50s diner type thing with a huge gift shop attached. The food was pretty good and... stuff. Then we left. Yeah. And the next day AnJa, dad, and I went to see MiB2. At first Doug was the one who really wanted to go, and he said that even if nobody else wanted to, the two of us (he and I) would still go because he was looking forward to seeing it. Then he ended up not even going because he was afraid there would be huge lines to get in since we were seeing the first showing of the first day it opened o_x Yeah, Doug, that might be a worry... IN A CITY THAT HAS A POPULATION OF OVER 25,000. Anyway, in the end there was an enormous line to buy tickets consisting of 0 people, and the theatre where they showed it wasn't even full. Oh well. The movie was groovy. That night we ate fried turkey and stuff outside and watched Pete run around the yard in circles barking while Dottie chased him trying to bite his tail. It was extremely amusing. o_o So the next morning we left there (that was on the 4th) and drove to Long Beach for Anime Expo. We got lost because our map was weird, but we found everything eventually and then ate supper at Subway. There were lots of cosplayers eating in the Subway, too, and we had the same thought we did when we were at ACen in Chicago... that if some person just happened to be there the same weekend but didn't know about the con they would be all "AAAH, CHICAGO/CALIFORNIA IS SO SCARY" XD But it wasn't as bad at AX. Even though the costumes were just as outlandish-looking or revealing to the casual observer as they were at ACen, the people wearing them generally looked better. I mean, in Chicago, it seemed like over half of the cosplayers were obese and looked like they'd never seen the sun. And I mean, people like THAT were going around in costumes that basically cover as much as just underwear. It was scary. Of course there were a few people like that at AX, but mostly, people wearing very little costume could pull it off. I don't care about people being extremely heavy as long as they cover up. And the same goes for people who aren't extremely heavy, too, usually o_o() Anyway, that first day AnJa and I just went and got our badges and stuff, then wandered around looking for something I forgot, then watched the first three episodes of Tsukikage Ran and the first two of G Gundam in a video room. Tsukikage Ran seems pretty cool. The main chick looks exactly like Kuno from Ranma o_o()()()() And, she's just like Kenshin, only without the ethics XD() also she is quite tall and probably more masculine than Kenshin u_u() G Gundam was great and I really need to watch the whole series, just because I want to o_o() I've wanted to ever since I read those little SD comics in the back of the GundamW manga novels. Also, it's really funny, especially when the Italian guy in the first episode goes "Take a look at this!" and extends the middle finger of his Gundam and everybody yells "SOPHIA!!!" XD()() Also, Shining Finger. And the portrayal of Americans in the second ep. XD After that we met mum and dad for dinner. We tried to eat at this place Johnny Rocket's (home of the original hamburger-- it must be pretty ratty by now, you know?) but they were too crowded, so we ate at this Chinese place called Chopstick Express next door. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really GOOD. I mean, it was good, but not like "wow it's good." ...yeah.

The next day Hans came! Yaaay! AnJa and I were both wearing plaid trousers. ...just thought you would want to know. We got in a big line at the convention centre that we thought was just to get into the building because it hadn't opened yet, but it turns out it was the line for the dealer's room. Once it started moving it moved pretty quickly, so we were all like "yay" and went to the dealer's room and looked around. I found a place selling markers and pens with various tip sizes and I bought a pen with a 0.05mm tip =D Because I used to have those, but one of them got the tip broken by some guy, and the other one ran out of ink, and I could never find them anywhere since then until NOW!!!11 Other than that, I also really wanted the Cardcaptor Sakura DVD vol. 1 (still do), but I only had $17 after buying the pen (hey, I had very little money to begin with) and nobody had DVDs for under about $21. Anyway, we thought Hans was going to come at noon, but later he called and wouldn't be there until later because he had a miscommunication with his mum, so we were killin' time and AnJa did something and I went to a video room and watched the last third of the Utena movie dub =D I loooove the Utena movie, it's gorgeous and has beautiful music and all this stuff, but the dub was bad XD() Rachael Lillis plays Utena, and she did all right, as did Crispin Freeman... well, everybody was all right, aside from the Shadow Play Girls and Anthy... who sucked... a lot. Everyone was kind of expecting the dub to be good before it came out, because Kunihiko Ikuhara, who directed the movie originally, was directing the English dub. The problem with that is that he isn't a native English speaker, so what sounded like good acting to *him*... u_u()() Anyway, the dub was quite bad, but it could have been worse. At least nobody emphasised the wrong word in a sentence like in Sailor Moon S. (Trista: "But if you go, you might be in as much danger as they ARE!") Lots of people laughed loudly during the Utena movie, especially the thing about turning into a car. It's odd, but when I think about it-- that seemed just as ridiculous and laughable to me when I saw it the first time, but the idea of it has gotten less and less stupid the more I watch the movie until I'm now at the point where I'm like "You shouldn't laugh, it's not dumb, it's cool D=<" .... yeah But that was over and it was before he got there, so we went to this voice acting demonstration thingie where these Japanese voice acting students did a demo of dubbing in their voices to this anime Galaxy Angels after a veeery long delay. We sat at a table with three Rayearth cosplayers and their guy friend and one of them got a picture with the seiyuu of Ferio and was like "*______*" then they did a thing for volunteers to try dubbing in their voices and I kept raising my hand but what they would do is get everyone who raised their hand for a certain role stand up and play jan-ken-pon for it. I lost every time except I finally got to go up the last time XD() We did it in English the first time and I mostly said my lines at the right time, but everybody else kept not talking when they were supposed to and weird stuff. The next time we did it in Japanese (since we had the Japanese and English scripts) and I switched roles with another girl because she said she didn't pronounce Japanese very well and her character had more long lines. Actually, only about two thirds of the people did it in Japanese, so it was randomly English or Japanese, which was funny XD() After that the emcee guy sort of interviewed us (he was Japanese, so there was also a translator) and then said I should try it with more enthusiasm. I think he might not have realised I switched roles with the other girl, because I thought I was extremely exuberant, but maybe he was also talking to everyone and not just me. When I got back, we had to leave because Hans had just gotten there more or less or was on his way and would be there soon (he called AnJa's cell phone cos I gave him the number). The Rayearth girls and the dude had left, but the one girl accidentally left her camera =O And we knew it had at least one very important picture on it, so AnJa took it around asking about lost and founds and stuff and ended up giving it to the people at the Westin downstairs from registration. Another thing about this con as compared to ACen-- ACen was all confined to one hotel-- everything was in the same building, so you could stay there and never even have to leave o_o AX was spread out over the Long Beach Convention Center and three different hotels, so you had to go walking around all over the place to find anything. Anyway, AnJa and I went outside then to wait for Hans or whatever, then he called again and he was there, and it turns out he was standing across the street from us talking on the cell phone XD So he came across and we were like HURRAY! And his costume (Tao Ren from Shaman King) had a tie to it but he didn't know how to tie it and neither did we, so we stopped some random middle-aged guy going to work and asked him to tie it for us so he did and we were like "Thank you! =D" and he was like "You're welcome =D()" We also met up with Aviy, and we went with the two of them to register. Then we went and ate lunch at this Italian place with those two and two guys from Las Vegas and two other girls, or maybe it was only one more, agh I can't remember. AnJa and I had already eaten lunch at Johnny Rocket's (ho ho ho) so we just got soft drinks. The menu was funny because not only did they think Dr Pepper and things like that was Root Beer, they also wrote "Mr. Pip" instead of "Mr Pibb". Our waiter hated us or something or was on drugs because it took forever for us to get any service and he never did get AnJa's drink right (how difficult is a Diet Coke?). One of the Vegas guys took a picture of my back while we were walking and later called Aviy about something and then asked to speak to me to apologise O_O()()()() I don't think we really watched anything that night... we went to the exhibit hall and Aviy bought herself three finger armour things and one for AnJa too, and she and I both bought little ornamental fish O_O() I don't know what they're for-- I've been wearing mine kind of as a necklace. Even though it's pointless, I'm still glad I bought it, because it's beautiful and is a fish o_o() (I love fish hardc0re aside from eating) I named it Verano. Because it's red and gold and made me think of "Crimson and clover, over and over" but Crimson or Clover weren't happy names for me, so I thought at first "Overan" but that's too much like Ovary or something o_o So it's Verano. As in, Crimson and clover, oh Verano ver. *nod* I also got to be a model XD And I got a free T-shirt out of it =O See, this guy at some booth was like "Want a free T-shirt?" and it was a pretty groovy shirt so I was like "okay" and he was like "All you ahve to do is go over there and they'll take your picture" and I was like "okay =D" so I went over and changed into the shirt in the bathroom and got my picture taken and I was like "HURRAY!!1" It made me feel preeeettty~~~ XD Anyway, it was kind of interesting, because Aviy called me "Silla" and I'm not used to that in real life. o_o After that we did something or other, then Hans, AnJa and I went back to the hotel room. And we watched Whose Line is it Anyway? with mum and dad, then went and ate supper at IHOP =D And Hans was like "you eat supper at IHOP? o_o" and mum was like "BR34KF4ST" or something. Cos she really likes breakfast. Then we slept. Yeah. Also, our room had one king-size bed and one fold-out couch because they ran out of rooms with two full beds, so the first night, mum and dad had the bed, AnJa and I took the couch bed. That night, mum and dad had the bed, AnJa and I slept on the couch bed mattress on the floor, and Hans slept on the couch minus its mattress which made it kind of collapse XD() The next morning he got into his other Tao Ren costume (the one from the previous day had been like his school uniform or something and nobody recognised him, aww) and I into my Beatrix one ^_^ Mum and dad went somewhere, then Hans and I left (AnJa stayed at the hotel for a while doing something) and went to... geez, around the Westin I guess? I can't remember.. x_x to meet Devon, who was Nanami from Utena and didn't want to show her legs XD() So we went there, then I went to the bathroom to fix my cleavage o_x then she registered. We found Aviy again at some point, too, then we went to the Hyatt. ***I STOPPED THERE, IT'S THE 18th NOW*** Aviy and Hans were both dressed as people from Shaman King, and they found a group of other SK cosplayers in the lobby and they all had a huge picture-taking orgy for forty-five minutes or something ;o Devon and I were like "...yeah" and they had taken a bunch of pictures and weren't stopping so we were like "...we're gonna go upstairs" and they were like "*click* oh we're so beautiful ha ha" and we went upstairs and there was a Stormtrooper where there had been a Jawa the year before and Devon was like "WHERE'S THE JAWA!" and the Stormtrooper was like "Oh, it tasted really good roasted =D" and we were like "O_O JAWA KILLER JAWA KILLER!!!111" and then we went into the same video room where I'd watched Utena the day before and watched the end of 08th MS Team something or other. Also, there were these artist people set up outside the video rooms who were drawing commissions, so Devon got one girl to draw her (Devon) with Tobey Maguire and the girl was like "okah" and it would cost $10 for a pencil drawing. And it would all be good. That was before we watched the 08th MS Team. After that we came back out and Devon had remembered that her hair was curled and wavy for the Nanami costume, but it's naturally straight, so she wanted to tell the picture drawing girl that so she wouldn't draw Devon with wavy hair. The girl wasn't there but then she came back and Devon told her that by the way she had straight hair, and no bangs. And the girl was like "okay". So we went back downstairs and bleh-ed the Jawa killer again and got to the lobby and Hans and Aviy and them were STIIIIILL taking pictures, the FREAKS! There were also some guys from RisingSun.net taking pictures of cosplayers but we didn't know they what they were, we thought it was just some guys being like "Excuse me, can we take your picture" "Okay, another angle?" "One more angle" and we were like =D()()() Anyway, I DID look hot and sexy in my Beatrix costume, but the pictures came out horribly u_u() My eyepatch was slipping down and stuff. You know, all the pictures of me in my costume came out so badly that I think sometime I have to put the whole thing on again and make sure to get some *GOOD* pictures of me in it. Oh well. The RisingSun pictures can be seen here, here, and here. There's also a picture of Hans, Devon and me from outside somewhere on fansview that can be seen here. And a picture of a super hot (I think it's a) guy here *_*. Hans and Devon also have pictures at RisingSun, but I should probably ask before I post them. Oh well, it's not like anyone would want to see those... Anyway, so we were in the lobby and the Shaman King people were finally like "Okay, we are finished taking pictures of ourselves now" so Aviy and Hans had tearful goodbyes or whatever and then we left and went outside and we called AnJa because we didn't know where she was and it turns out she had been trying to call us on Hans's cell phone for a long time but it wasn't working D= Poor AnJa. Luckily, she was also in the Hyatt (what are the chances, eh!) and we met up outside the building... also, Hans and Aviy re-met up with their Shaman King buddies (geez, they were both inside, and went OUTSIDE...) and they decided to take even *more* pictures u_u()()()()() Finally we were finished there. Before that, AnJa had gone back to another voice acting demo thing to see if she could find the chick who had lost her camera from the day before (since they had mentioned something about going there tomorrow), and she didn't find them, but she did find the guy who had been with them and told him and he was like "Oh, thank you, she was really upset because it had some important pictures on it" and stuff. Aand, I think then we went to have lunch. We ate at this place Rock Bottom... erm, I think I ate, but I can't remember what... maybe a burger or something... anyway, the people eating there were Hans, Devon, me, AnJa, Jeff, Jeff's friend Walker, and a couple other people who were also friends of Jeff's or something. Those people (as in, the people who weren't me, AnJa, Devon, Hans or Aviy) also all had ears of some sort. Little cute fake ears on headbands. Ah! Also, way at the start of the day, when Hans and I had just met up with Devon, we'd gone to the main convention center and hung out in the line for the dealer's room where Jeff and Walker and those guys were *nod*. We didn't go to the dealer's room, obviously, but they did and that's where they all got ears XD After lunch, we wanted to go to the dealer's room because Devon hadn't been and we kind of wanted ears XD() The line was very long, but we got to cut a little because the Vegas guys from the day before (including the one who took a picture of my back x_o) were already pretty far up in line and said Aviy could cut with them if she brought me XD()()()() so we did that. And. Yeah. From my original $20, I had spent $10 (the pen and the ornamental fish). I still had enough to buy the ears I wanted (floppy pink bunny ears, so cute!!) but... it turns out I had left my wallet in the hotel room XO Devon was nice enough to buy them for me, and also sparkly black cat ears for AnJa =D!!!1 DEVON ROCKS!!! Hans bought himself some cow ears, but he lent them to Devon for a while since she was Nanami. Also in there, AnJa ran into the guy who'd been with the Rayearth girls yet again and asked him if the one had gotten her camera and he said she had and thanked her again. AnJa is such a nice person ^_^ Even though she's also evil =O After that, we hung out and tried to decide what to do. There was a dating game the rest of them were going to, but we were like "hmm" and "eh". (Yes, we were like "hmm" and "eh".) Hans, AnJa, Devon and I went to the karaoke room and Hans and I signed up to sing "Aoi Jiyuu Shiroi Nozomi", a Tasuki and Chichiri duet from Fushigi Yuugi. We waited for our turn and the other people (Aviy, Jeff, etc.) were called and wanted to come see us sing, and then Devon left to the Hyatt to pick up her Tobey drawing and meet up with other people. Stuff happened, we waited, lah lah. Then they got back and Devon had her drawing and it was a waste of $10 and she was very upset ._. First of all, the drawing-her had bangs, and the Tobey looked nothing like Tobey, and he looked all weird, and it was sad u_u Poor Devon But then Hans and I sang, wearing our ears XD Halfway through the song, the sound screwed up, so we had a long period of silence while they tried to fix it to entertain the audience XD Hans did backwards pelvic thrusts for them, then I did the Time Warp, then the music came back and we got to sing the entire song again, wa ha ha XD After that it was getting kind of late-ish and close to when Hans's mum was coming, so Devon, Hans, AnJa and I all went back to the hotel room. We ended up just changing out of our costumes, drinking soda, and watching half an episode of Invader Zim on AnJa's laptop XD (Bestest Friends). Hans had seen only the first episode before that (I sent it to him) and Devon had never seen it, but they both liked it a lot ^_^ And really, how could somebody NOT like it o_o() Actually, on our way there we found out from some people who noticed all the Zim buttons on AnJa's backpack (half of which she stole from me since I wasn't wearing them that day) that... Jhonen Vasquez, creator of Zim (And Squee, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, etc.) and love of AnJa's life had been at the con. Not as a guest, just as an attendant. But he was THERE and we didn't SEE him. ;_; So AnJa got really sad. =| I understand her feelings somewhat because I imagined how I would feel if I went to ACen and never got to see Brad Swaile... still, it is a little different since I kind of went to ACen with the primary goal of meeting Brad Swaile, and she went to AX without expecting Jhonen at all. Even so, I can understand because I imagine how I would feel if it turns out Brad Swaile WAS at AX and I just didn't know about it o_o() Bleh, it's a bad situation. But anyway, Devon, Hans and I walked back down to the convention center and got in Hans's mum's nice white car and drove awaaaaay =D Uh, I gotta go to bed so I'll finish writing this tomorrow I guess. I need to stop making so many journal entries that were written on multiple days... o_o ***OKAY, NOW IT'S THE 25TH. O_O()*** Okay, so we drove from Long Beach to Orange, about a half hour drive I guess, and Devon had forgotten her toothbrush so we stopped at her mum's house before going to Hans's house. We all hung out there talking a bit (Devon's mum is really cool) and "watching" Speed which was on the telly. After a little while, Hans's mum left to go study something and we (Hans, me, Devon) ate spaghetti homemade by Devon's mum with a salad from stuff she grew in her garden =D! Devon also gave me a baggy of garden lettuce, fwa fwa fwa. After eating, we went to Devon's room and watched some Space Ghost C2C episodes on her computer ^___^ THEY ROCKED We also watched part of this video called "Troopers". It's a parody of COPS with Star Wars Storm Troopers. It's hilarious XD Originally, Devon's mum was going to take us back to Hans's house when we were ready, but instead we got Hans's friend Fred to take us. Fred has a hybrid car-- a Prius. It's cool. He sorta took an immediate disliking to me, though, which was bleh. (Of course he was nice and didn't act like he hated me, but I got Hate Vibes) We listened to Jewel, and I said her pronunciation of the word "fragile" in her singing sounded hicky. I think that was one reason he hated me. Another was the fact that I was wearing my bunny ears XD() he was also annoyed by Hans's cow ears. But he was in a bad mood anyway that night, as I found out later. Devon was the only one who didn't annoy him because she knew all the Jewel songs ;o Anyway, we got to Hans's house and went around back and knocked on his mum's window or sommat to get let in so we went in and went to Hans's room and were like "yay." We sort of planned to go see a movie the next day before my people came to get me, and we wanted to see the Powerpuff Girls. We found a time it was showing that would probably be early enough, so we planned to do that and then brushed our teeth an' stuff and went to bed. Hans had top bunk, Devon had bottom bunk, and I had air mattress. ALSO DEVON GAVE ME A LITTLE LAMB FOR MY BIRTHDAY WHICH I LOVE. Also, we planned to go somewhere for boba tea. But we woke up the next morning to the answering machine, and it was AnJa saying they were on their way, and it was only like 9 or something in the morning and we were like O_O()() So I got my stuff together and Hans's mum got home from somewhere and we decided we would just talk to my parents and AnJa about maybe getting boba tea on our way out, or something =O That was fine with them, so AnJa, dad and mum went in the car and I rode in the car with Hans and Devon (and Hans's mum). We went to their favourite boba place (Tapioca Express) but it wasn't going to open for another two hours x_o so we drove to another boba place and it wasn't going to open for another hour x_o So we stopped at Coco's and ate breakfast. I had a biscuit, mmmm. I love biscuits. Devon had a huge amount of butter on her plate, and it looked all sick, so after we finished eating we covered it up with our garnish ;o By that time, it was only about a half hour before the original boba place would be open, so we all went down there. Although we couldn't order yet, they let us sit inside the place. They had Asian magazines and fun stuff. Me an' Hans an' Devon sat on a couch in there and I asked Hans if Fred had hated me and he was like "No, he liked you! =O" and I said "well, I just got vibes". Then we got our stuff. Devon, Hans and I all got milk tea with boba (boba are tapioca balls); I don't know what flavours they had but I got peppermint flavour, mmm it was so good but I accidentally choked on the boba like three times XD() Devon said she also did that the first time she had boba. AnJa got something called a Snow Bubble, which is like a slushie, but she also got boba in it, so it was kind of weird and she didn't like the boba very much. I also kept my straw (it was huge and orange) but I don't know where it is. Anyway we all said goodbye and stuff... and then me, AnJa, mum and dad went out to Las Vegas.

After a few mishaps with finding hotels, we got a room at the Stratosphere. From there, we went to the MGM Grand hoping to see lions but there weren't any out. We got supper at the Carnival World Buffet (for like, $20 per person, AAAAAAAAAUGH) and it wasn't even that good ;__; After that I think we went a couple other places... oh yeah, we saw the Fountains of Bellagio and THEY WERE SO AWESOME. The next day we went more places... breakfast at IHOP I think, stuff at MGM Grand (pretty lions actually there, and parrots), something at Excalibur (we saw a magic show and a mentalist thing, they were little shows cos they were free)... uh, we went to the M&M store... I was gonna get a shirt but I decided not to. They had a huge GameWorks underground but it didn't have ANY Bemani games o_o()()()() We also went to the Coca Cola store. AnJa got a Diet Coke shirt. Since Dr Pepper isn't officially affiliated with Coca Cola, they didn't have any Dr Pepper stuff, so I didn't get anything. I think I also got an Icee at Excalibur. And we did... some other stuff... gambled away like $7 at the slot machines (XD)... We went to the Hilton to do the Star Trek Experience, and there was an arcade in the corridor on the way to the place for that, and they had a DDR USA machine, and I wanted to play DDR because the night before AnJa and I had played some DDRMAX in the arcade at our hotel, and we did really really badly, so I wanted to prove myself ^_^()()() There were these two people who were playing Beginner mode (the one where every song has 1 foot and it shows the characters doing the steps on a dance pad).... I told AnJa to put a token on the machine cos, as I learned, that's what you do to show that you're in line to play a game like that. Only the girl who was playing accidentally knocked it off o_o()() We picked it up later and they didn't get the token thing so we had to be like "Uhh, we're waiting to play ^_^()" And we played. We had to do the same difficulty settings, and I wanted to do a hard one but AnJa didn't cos she hasn't played it that much. So after that, I wanted to play again by myself because I wanted to show off XD() That one girl played again after we were done, and I put a token on the machine, and when the first song was over, she picked it up and put it in her pocket o_O()()()()()() And I was like "Uhhh...?" and she was like "Oh, did you want this back?" and I was like "It just means I'm in line... ^_^()" and she was like "Oh, I'm sorry!" cos none of those people understood the whole thing and she was really embarrassed. Anyway, after she was done I played, on all Expert (Maniac) level XD() I got applause after Dub I Dub ^_^ so then my ego was restored and we went to Star Trek thing ;o I can't tell you about it because I'm not allowed but it was excellent and official XD!! You know, we also all had 44oz. drinks before we went to Star Trek... I can't remember where we got them. OH YEAH!!! We ate supper at In & Out Burgers because Hans and Devon recommended it. The menu is very funny. XD() And that's where we got the sodas of course.

Eventually we went to the Mirage, which is where Siegfried and Roy perform. We didn't see them, of course. Also the reason we didn't go see either of the Cirque du Soleil shows playing in town... cos they cost XD()()() There was another show at the Mirage... well, a couple others, but the one I'm thinking of is "Siegfried & Roy present Darren Romeo: The Voice of Magic" or something. Oh my goodness. Although there's no way in heck that "Darren Romeo" is anyone's real name.... he is a hot man. Very, extremely. *___* We also saw one of the White Tigers in a habitat with a glass window. AAAH. White tiger is the most beautiful thing everrrrrrrr. SO BEAUTIFUL. AAAH!! From there, I guess we just went back to the hotel and slept. And then got up the next morning to drive to Farmington. Farmington is nice because there's such a relaxed atmosphere there, and because I had consistent access to the internet without having to pay a surcharge for logging on with AOL at a different location XD() We stayed there for 4 nights, during which I bought Chapterhouse: Dune because I was almost done with Breath of Fire for GBA and needed something else to do on the drive home... played some DDR 3rd Mix... and saw the Powerpuff Girls movie. ^_^ I don't really feel like doing a lot of detail with the Farmington visit because I'm getting tired of writing the journal entry right now but I want to make sure I finish it tonight ^_^()()()()

So we left Farmington and drove and stopped somewhere to spend the night. I forget where. I'll go ask my parents. La Mesa. Oookay. We ate breakfast at Denny's and mum spit orange juice all over me and AnJa because AnJa made her laugh XD() I wanted a biscuit but they don't have any at Denny's ;_; La la so we came home and ate supper at Taco Cabana HURRAY and since then I've just been... doing... random... stuff... and... yeah

I went to see Minority Report. Cool movie, Colin Farrell (he played the FBI dude, Daniel Witwer) IS HOT. Tom Cruise has an enormous nose, and I never noticed it before o_o Maybe because he usually has more hair than he does in MR, so you don't notice it as much... I almost started Drivers' Ed today but I didn't. The thing is, we have three cars, and there's no way we can really get a fourth one at this point. Also, because of state law, once I get my permit, I have to wait six months before I can get a license anyway. I can't apply for a school parking permit until I have a license, and six months from now the waiting list will be so long I probably wouldn't get one at all this schoolyear, even if I DID somehow get a car. Plus, I don't WANT to drive. o_o See, mum called me when she was at the driving school yesterday and we talked about it and since the class was actually starting today we thought it was good, and I could get it out of the way and stuff, but then I tried to call friends who haven't had it to see if they could take it with me, and Chris wasn't in town, and Krystal's parents... won't let her o_o() Which I find VERY VERY strange, but, um, yeah. Then mum and dad talked about it between themselves last night, and this morning mum came and woke me up and was like, "well, if you don't want to take it, you can just go back to sleep, but if you do want to you can," and I guess she pretty much decided she didn't want me to take it because she knows me well enough to realise that any time you wake me up in the morning and tell me the choice is mine as to whether I go back to sleep or get up and do something, there's only one choice I'm gonna make XD() So I went back to sleep, but then I couldn't get back to sleep for like another hour u_u I slept for another half hour, and then AnJa woke me up because we were going to go get brunch at Taco Cabana since she would be out of town all weekend (she's in Austin taking her history midterm and visiting a friend). whee. We got back here around noon I guess, AnJa left, I played Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon for an hour, then Greg and Chris came over (they were back from Austin, they were watching a student film that Greg's sister was in or something) and we watched an episode of Zim and then went to Diversions and played DDR 5th mix for about an hour. I was dressed as Dib XD Cos AnJa and I both made ourselves blue T-shirts with gray ambivalent "happy" faces on them with printer transfer, and I was wearing that with black pants and my long black jacket. I did very badly on DDR though o_o() OH YEAH! I also did some stuff with Kefrin a couple days ago, and I got Excel Saga vol. 1. Um, and then we came home from Diversions and played some SSB Melee, then they left. We ate pork chops, beets, potato salad, and biscuits for supper. I ate three biscuits, two beet slices (I HATE BEETS but mum made me eat at least a few), two helpings of potato salad, and about four bites of pork chop.

And that will do it, I suppose. *nod* One last thing: Some words of wisdom from Kefrin, after I told her I had been home for about a week but kept on not doing stuff. "Doing stuff is highly over-rated. I do lots of stuff, and I feel the same that I would if I didn't." Also, I beat FF2, so I guess I'll post some of those screencaps next time... I don't have any new webcam pictures EXACTLY, but I do have this... it's a compilation of various screencaps from a li'l webcam video of me dancing around to Dancing Pompokolin XD()() And it loops cos I thought that was fun XD! View it at your own risk.

(x-1, x)    (-infinity, infinity)    (x, x+1)