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Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
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11:07 am
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I managed to get through episode 9 of Who last night. I was going to stop at 8, but I can't resist finishing a two-parter, so I watched the concluding episode. Now only three left and I'll be caught up. And I still haven't been spoiled for any of it :)
I have a lot of stuff to do tonight. Mostly it involves finishing up packing. I've got some finishing stuff to do on the pirate costume, I have to print up handouts for Shiny New Anime and find clips for the shows that I want. I also want to finish up Who, but we'll see. I've got to cook dinner as well, so if I can get home quickly and do most of the prep work for that, I can watch the show and do costume stuff in the meantime. I shouldn't have to stay up too late :) Just for my own memory, here's what I still have to pack in my backpack:
Swimsuit
Sandals
Pirate Costume
Pills
Hair Dryer and possibly curling iron
...I think that's probably it. And of course my monies and ID and stuff. It would be nice to be able to get into the con and all :)
Now I'm gonna eat my lunch and chill.
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| Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
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1:39 pm
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The little black kitty that we had been looking at ended up going to someone higher up on the list than us, which is sort of sad but also a little bit of a relief since we would have been getting him kind of soon after our move. We were offered another of the older kittens that was previously reserved but the woman who reserved him kind of fell off the face of the earth. The offer was tempting, but that would have put him smack dab in the middle of our move, which I didn't want to do to the cat. So now we'll wait until the next litter or however long after that it takes. There are a couple people at the top of the list who have been waiting for a kitten from this particular cat's litter, because her coloring would tend to produce kittens of a certain desirable color, so we'll see what happens.
Other than that, I managed to get through episode 4 of Doctor Who last night. That puts me on pace to catch up by the time the con rolls around, so I won't have to worry so much about being spoiled (there's already been a few things in even these early-season episodes that have been a bit surprising and I'm surprised that I wasn't spoiled for them already). Hopefully there'll be a viewing at con. Or else I'm sure I'll be very frustrated.
I realized while packing that there was some unindentified food stain from three years ago on my costume, so I ended up laundering it anyway. At least now it'll be fresh if I have to wear it for a long time. This weekend is going to be freaking insane. I'll have to finish work on my pirate costume tonight, then Wednesday or some time I need to buy some more paper and make printouts for the Shiny New Anime panel on Saturday. I'm not sure how many to make. I'm thinking 50, but I underestimated big time last time so I don't want to run out.
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| Monday, June 30th, 2008
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7:13 pm - Project "Watch all of Doctor Who Season 4 Before Con..."
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...Is a go. If you have trouble reaching me, that might be why. Damn, I should have taken a break from anime to keep up with this show, since it's one of the few I watch anyway.
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11:26 am
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I didn't realize until I was already at work that I'd forgotten my wallet at home. This normally wouldn't have been a problem, except that I have a doctor appointment after work tonight and need my ID and stuff. So The first almost-half of my lunch was spent frantically pedaling home and back. Now I'm really sweaty.
I may have encountered a problem in my AMV quest. I first thought there was a problem in installing the AMV app because I'd get errors during the final tests. Turns out that it's normal for computers with Vista to get those errors and they don't really mean anything. The second hurdle is that, once the AMV app is installed, my video playback for any video files I have is borked. I can't really have that happening. ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) willow_one reminded me that it might be due to the ASPI layer, which has to be manually downloaded from the Microsoft site. I'll probably try that next, though maybe not until after Convergence is over. I don't want to have to give up AMV-making, but I'm not motivated enough to figure everything out manually, so if I can't get it to work, I'll just not do it :/
Speaking of Convergence, I'll have to pack stuff up tonight and make sure all the pieces of my costumes are together. Since I won't be able to show up until Thursday afternoon, I need to get this together to give to marainsanity so that I don't have to lug it all to work. I didn't manage to get Thursday off, but I got the afternoon off, so I'll be able to take the weird 6 bus that goes all the way to the Sheraton and make it in time to do whatever panel it is that I have at 5:00 that day. This weekend is going to be insane. lugia222, were you planning to leave on Sunday again? If so I might want to bum a ride if that's okay. I think if I tried to stay until that night (especially if I get drunk multiple nights) my body might just collapse.
*sigh* I think I'm too tired to really write anything else :/ I'll just eat the rest of my lunch and zone out I guess.
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| Sunday, June 29th, 2008
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11:26 am - Eh Emm Veez
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So finally, after realizing that my computer is running in a stable fashion, I went back to AMV.org to look at new video announcements. The reason I waited until I was 100% sure about my computer was that I knew looking at other AMVs would make we want to start back up on one of my own, and I don't want to go through the experience again of getting part way through a video and then having to scrap it because my hard drive is about to die. I'm not sure about where to start, though. For reference, here's some stuff I was considering before my multiple computer problems:
1. Kino's Journey episode 7 (the one with the girl and the airplane) to "Clair de Lune" by Claude Debussy. I actually had this one about halfway littered with clips before my hard drive died while at Anime Iowa 2006.
2. Kino's Journey in general to "Scarborough Fair/ Canticle" by Simon and Garfunkel. For some reason every time I hear the song I think of this anime, but I'll probably want to come up with a better reason than that before proceeding.
3. Berserk with the song "Lullaby" by Loreena McKennitt Most people seem to not be familiar with this one of hers - you can listen to it here.
4. Mushi-shi to "All Souls Night", also by Lorrena McKennitt. I will have to do more research on the show for this one [meaning watch the DVDs]. Listen to the song here.
5. Moyashimon to "Popcorn" by Hot Butter. Slightly comedic.
6. Claymore to "Quan ve la Lauzeta" by the Mediaeval Baebes. An examination of the relationship between Claire and Teresa and parralels between Claire and Raki's relationship (the translated lyrics aren't especially relevant but it conveyed the mood I wanted). This one is on hold until Funimation releases the DVDs, since I'd rather use that than the crap raws I downloaded months ago.
7. Gankutsuou with "Suited and Booted" by Snoop Dogg. Made an attempt at this as a lip sync vid a while back, and scrapped it because I didn't have the skill to accomplish what I wanted to with it. I might want to learn masking before attempting it again. Luckily I still have my DVD rips for it sitting around :)
8. Mononoke to something. I got the raws a while back, I'm just trying to think of something to couple it with. It doesn't even have to have some deep and intricate meaning. I just want an AMV to exist for this show.
9. Kurenai to something. I also just got a batch of raws for this show. Not quite sure how to use them. I think it might be hard for me to get advice because the only person I know of who's also watched the show is cthuljew.
10. Kaiba to something. Also might be difficult because the show is so weird-looking. I have raws for this.
11. Akagi or Kaiji to "House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals. Probably Kaiji, since he's more tragic. Yes, I know this song is about a brothel, but it's not blatant or anything.
Mostly I just think that some of these shows really deserve some love. And I've been wanting to do a serious Berserk vid for a while now, to contrast with my tribute to phallic imagery, Guts is Compensating.
Frankly, I don't know when I'll have time to make a serious AMV. I wouldn't mind slapping together a funny one to get back in the groove, however. Maybe something for WTF next year.
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| Friday, June 27th, 2008
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11:18 am
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Hopefully I can relieve some people's boredom with this post :)
Actually, I'm a pretty boring person, since the only thing I've really been thinking about lately is anime. A lot of that is because I've really immersed myself in this current season and I've been using my reactions to practice and try to hone my writing a bit. I know blogger posts probably aren't the most constructive way to do that, but I think just being able to formulate an opinion on something and then to convey that in a way others can understand is an important skill. And I'm getting stuff done almost every day, which I think is quite a big deal considering how busy I am with work, making dinner, and other stuff (packing up and moving being one of those things coming up soon).
( This is me being boring )
In case you want some light entertainment, here is the website for the breeder of the kind of cat we're going to get. She has pics of all current and past litters up there. They're all very cute.
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| Thursday, June 26th, 2008
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11:31 am
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I finished watching Kurenai last night. It's one of the best, most well-executed anime I've seen in a while. The ending was the best kind - bittersweet, and it didn't feel cheap. I'd recommend it for anyone who's into watching drama (I know some people don't like drama in their anime). I wouldn't even call it particularly dense either. I'm trying to think of what to write for a final post on it over at my blog. I'm thinking I definitely want to touch on the abundance of female characters. Seriously, even though Shinkurou is what you would call the "main" character, most of his interactions and most of the story is driven by the women who populate his life. It was nice to watch a show with so many women and not feel like they were eye-candy. Anyway, go watch the show! It's only 12 episodes, so not a huge commitment, and it's well-worth your time.
I went on a bike adventure yesterday after work. I really needed to go to Rainbow to pick a few things up for dinner, but since I'd ridden my bike into work I was debating whether to take my bike there (which I'd never done) or ride the bus from work and then just return on the bus to retrieve my bike later on. Luckily a lady I work with also rides her bike to work and happens to live on the way to Rainbow, so I just followed her. It was a pretty intense ride, and the way she takes isn't exactly straight to the point, but it allowed us to avoid traffic-heavy roads like Central and Johnson. The only thing that sucked was that it was really hot out and so I was sweating buckets when I got home. A nice cool shower fixed that.
I made a really yummy thing for dinner last night. We have all this venison in our freezer that takuansoho's parents gave us, and since I don't have a lot of experience using it it's been hard to find things to do with it. I tried a recipe last night that used carmelized onions and raspberry vinaigrette to make a sort of skillet stew with cut-up strips of venison, and I really loved it. When I find the recipe again I might post it, since you could probably use pork and achieve a similar effect.
First real MAS meeting of the summer tonight. I'm looking forward to it. I got the fansubbed shows to fit on my flash drive, but I'm still hoping to get home and burn a backup DVD just in case (the flash drive is on my key chain so it might get bumped around and stuff). I might ride my bike to MAS, too. That way no one is obligated to drive me and I can make it home quickly and get my exercise at the same time.
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| Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
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11:10 pm
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I was hoping I'd have time to finish watching Kurenai tonight, but it's getting late so I think I'll leave the last episode for tomorrow. People should watch this show, it's really good. And no, it's not a lolicon show.
I watched the first episode of The Middleman as suggested to me by marainsanity. First impressions are positive. Gotta love Wendy and her sassy attitude. I'll probably check out subsequent episodes when there's time.
If you aren't reading my anime blog, why not? There are now pretty pictures included in most entries, so it's not just HUEG blocks of text. There are updates every flippin day, too, so it's worth your trouble. That's a lot of writing, people :P I hear that if you use Google Reader, you can subscribe to it as an RSS feed. Very easy. And if you don't have time to actually watch the anime, you can just read about it :)
Tomorrow I will probably take the time to edit the handout for Shiny New Anime and possibly think about what shows deserve clips and what scenes would be good. Might end up doing it this weekend, though. Sucky part is that I'll probably have to find that shitty file converter to convert some of the mkvs so that I can edit them.
Ok, now I really ought to go to sleep. For realz, yo.
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| Saturday, June 21st, 2008
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5:28 pm - Long Day
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Believe it or not, it's only about 5:30pm and I've already been up nearly 11 hours already. I woke up early, watched an episode of anime, then went to the Farmers Market where I bought some salsa, fresh asparagus, and a loaf of some cinnamon raspberry bread. When I got home, I spent quite a while writing in my anime blog. Clever me, I set up posts to publish each day this coming week, so it'll look like I'm keeping busy :) I caught all the way up with three shows today, which I think is quite the accomplishment. I plowed through 6 episodes of Toshokan Sensou. Epic win. I can't wait to see the last two and I hope we can watch this at MAS in the fall. It's got the perfect blend of action, comedy and romance. Each of them is low-key enough that it's not obnoxious. And no stupid panty shots! I <3 it a lot.
As soon as I finish with this post, it'll be time to walk over to takuansoho's workplace to meet him before we're picked up to go to a bbq. It'll be sweet.
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| Friday, June 20th, 2008
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12:34 pm
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Just in case anyone is curious, I'm thinking of going to the Farmers Market tomorrow morning, weather permitting. I won't bother putting a big meetup together, but if I see anyone there, I'll wave :)
Summer MAS is now in full swing, our voting meeting having proceeded rather quickly last night (I think the lack of bodies in the seats may have had something to do with that). Here's the lineup:
6:30-7:00 Chi's Sweet Home
7:00-8:00 Black Lagoon Season 1
8:00-9:00 Moyashimon
9:00-10:00 Mononoke
We could really use more people this summer, so if you've been waffling about coming, now would be a great time to start since it's really low key right now and the shows are all pretty high-quality (IMO). Every Thursday, except for the week of CONvergence [July 3] and the week of Anime Iowa [August 14]. Bring friends :)
I was going back and forth about suggesting Moyashimon last night, but I figured that it would make room for me to suggest some stuff for Fall that hasn't finished broadcasting yet. I think Toshokan Sensou would go over really well during a power hour or something.
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| Thursday, June 19th, 2008
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11:46 am - Stuff Lately
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Quick summary of stuff that's been going on lately.
- Made a tofu cheesecake on Sunday. It was about half-successful. The store didn't have silken tofu so I think the texture wasn't as smooth as it could have been. Also the taste was somewhat bland. Next time I'm going to try and find the right kind of tofu and also flavor the batter a bit, probably with some Kahlua or chocolate or something like that. I know it'll never equate to real cheesecake, but takuansoho needs to have something he can eat so I'm trying to find a balance.
- Tried a sample pack of the Instead disposable menstrual cups. First experience was positive and I like them better than tampons. Major epic fail on Target, though, for not having them at the downtown store (I don't know if other locations would be different). Had to buy more online and they'll probably not be here until next week, by which time it won't matter anymore.
- Made a doctor appointment for the 30th (luckily I could get it in before CONvergence and my trip which is coming up in July). They have an appointment thing online now, which is nice because I don't have to worry about trying to schedule in a phone call during work (believe it or not, this can be a problem sometimes).
- Went to the Arts fair over the weekend which was fun. I bought a soapstone cat sculpture and some greasy fair food. The weather was pretty much perfect.
- The Dethklok concert was excellent. My hearing was sufficiently blasted. Epic fail on the weather, though, as it was downpouring when we left the venue.
- Tonight's the Summer MAS voting meeting. Hope we end up watching some good shows. People want to watch Moyashimon this fall, but I'm debating suggesting it now anyway because there's stuff being broadcast now that I'd like to suggest for Fall (see user icon). Angst! Perhaps I'll discuss with people before the meeting. Hope to see people tonight.
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| Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
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6:40 am - "Now you and your children can watch Kodomo no Jikan together"
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| Monday, June 16th, 2008
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8:54 pm - Spice and Wolf
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I had time to watch the second half of Spice and Wolf after I got home from work today.
( thoughts )
Next I think I'll try to finish Kemonozume to see whether I'd like to suggest that as well. It's pretty violent, but I figure I'll just be completely honest about it and let people decide for themselves whether that's something they want to watch. I certainly don't want to be like "LOL SURPRISE NAKED BOOBIES AND BLOOD!".
>_> I also have Ebichu downloaded for the lulz, I wonder if that would be in bad taste? Hehehe.
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| Thursday, June 12th, 2008
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9:15 pm - My favorite subject of all, TEH ANIMUS
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Yesterday, after I got home, I started thinking about Denno Coil since we've been watching it at our Sunday group. I decided to watch the next episode that we're scheduled to watch, firstly because I like it, and secondly because the first time I watched it I was crying like a little baby afterwards, so I figured that if I was planning to watch it with other people I should get any strong emotions out beforehand so that I don't become a wreck. Man, every time I re-watch an episode of that show, for whatever reason, I can't help but thinking how much I would a) love to show this in MAS because I know without a doubt a lot of people would just love it, and b) love to see a DVD release someday.
Man, I love that show.
Which gets me to thinking about the first Summer MAS meeting (which I believe is next week?). I'm trying to think of things to suggest. More than one person has asked about Baccano, and while I'll oblige them, I don't know how interested I am in watching the whole thing again (though maybe this time it would make more sense). Definitely want to go for Chi's Sweet Home for pre-showing. I've figured that about 8 episodes would make a good 25 minute set, and including what I'm downloading currently I should have just enough by the time next week rolls around. Let's see, what else... I've been watching Kemonozume lately, which I like but which is also kind of weird-looking and contains some rated-r material (boobs and blood, oh noes!). I might suggest it anyway. I'll have to watch the rest of Spice and Wolf to see if that holds up (I've heard the ending isn't very satisfying, but then again, many anime are like that). I had been thinking of offering up Mononoke, but marainsanity wanted to suggest that for Fall so I might leave it alone for now. I'd suggest Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, but I frankly think at least the first part is a bit too dense and might seem boring (we all know how much MAS "loved" Hakkenden which was good but not "LOLOL ACTION" all the time). People want Moyashimon for Fall too... dang it. Half the stuff I'd love to suggest isn't finished (Kaiba, anyone?) and half of it is reserved for Fall voting. Kind of makes me wish we'd voted for Fall already so I'd know exactly what was "off limits". Oh! Maybe Black Lagoon season 1, since season 2 is still in limbo without a distributor.
Hmm, now for Fall. Denno Coil definitely. I'll be so sad if MAS never gets to see that show. People want to see all of Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei which is fine with me but which I think might blow MAS' collective brain quite a bit. Moyashimon, Mononoke, Kaiji and Akagi. half_angel suggested Noein, which I happen to have purchased for the low-low price of just $20 but which I haven't watched at all yet, so if I get a chance to watch that and it holds up, that might be a decent option also. And Mushi-shi, which I personally enjoy greatly (though I think it might be a bit too episodic for MAS, but whatever). I'll have to think about if there's anything else I want to throw out there. I think Kaiba will probably be done by then, if I'm not mistaken. I'm going to hold myself to a code of ethics (so that I don't seem like a complete hypocrite) and not suggest or vote for anything that's been seen in full in MAS before. Like I've mentioned before, the classics are great but there are so many things out there, both old and new, that deserve a bit of the spotlight, IMO.
If anyone has any opinions to offer, I'd be glad to hear them.
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| Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
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11:15 am - Weekend
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I had quite a busy weekend.
( Weekend )
I'm sort of frustrated that we spent so much money on eating out this weekend. I took my dad out like I told him I would for Fathers' Day (I know, it's a week early, but like I said next weekend is the Art Festival and I didn't think we'd have time). Then there was Pracna, then the party. It seems like every time I try to save some extra money by cutting out some of my extraneous expenses (I decided not to take advantage of the Geneon sale, despite the fact that I might now have to search for some of those things later) I end up having to spend a bunch of money somewhere else. Maybe next time we plan a dinner date I'll just do the cooking.
Since I usually host dinner on Sundays, I'm trying to think of things to cook which don't cost too much but are healthy and will feed a lot of people. Pasta is always a winner, with a side salad and some garlic bread (which I can approximate with some of those dinner roles and garlic powder). Stir fry is good too (and now that I retrieved the huge bag of stir fry veggies I left at my parents' house, that's an option now). Hmm. Certain things get complicated by the fact that I can't use real cheese. So home-made macaroni and cheese is right out. But the boxed kind, which I can make with soy milk, would work, and the taste is indistinguishable as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I'll brainstorm a bit more at home, because I don't just want to tell people to fend for themselves and I like to make dinner.
In any case, no eating-out for a while. That's for sure.
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| Saturday, June 7th, 2008
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4:26 pm - Surprising
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Hmm, so I was of the opinion that SR Harris, the wholesale fabric warehouse, was actually far outside the cities and quite a trek. What I found out today from my father is that it's actually in Brooklyn Park, by the Fleet Farm in a business district. Only about 16 and some miles away. Not too bad if I need to get some crazy costume fabric. We stopped there and I picked up some upholstry fabric that I'm going to try and turn into some kind of bento bag.
It was fun, though. I could have spent all day there. They had a table full of silk remnants that I could have sat around and just touched all day :P
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| Friday, June 6th, 2008
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5:14 pm - Hah!
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| Thursday, June 5th, 2008
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8:16 pm - Zombie Thing
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You are in a mall when the zombies attack. You may bring:
1. one weapon.
2. one song blasting on the speakers.
3. one famous person to fight alongside you.
Weapon can be real or fictional, you may assume endless ammo if applicable. Person can be real or fictional.
1. A Katana - a super-sharp authentic Japanese one, great for slicing heads off.
2. Kasabian - Clubfoot
3. Guts from Berserk. I mean really, who's better at chopping dudes up?
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11:04 am - Bike Riding
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A couple of weeks ago, I got my dad to drop off my bicycle at the apartment. I bought a new lock and since then I've ridden to work every day. It's nice, since I can leave a little later in the morning and I'm not worrying about the bus every afternoon. This past Saturday morning I got the urge to go on a longer ride around the area. I figure if we're going to be moving farther away in the next couple of months, I might as well enjoy stuff while it's still convenient. So I picked my destination - the Minneapolis Farmers' Market. I tried to pick the route that would keep me off the busiest roads.
Here's an approximation of the route that I took (it wouldn't let me use the Stonearch Bridge as a valid road in Google Maps, so I had to use the 3rd ave bridge instead)
View Larger Map
Anyway, it was nice, scenic, and I got some good exercise. If anyone would like to join me some weekend, I plan to make a trip there weekly, even though the Farmers' Market doesn't have a lot of actual produce yet (mostly just flowers). On the way back I overshot the bridge and decided just to have lunch at the Mill City Farmers' Market, which is right across the river from home. I sat in the shade and had some Tibetan dumplings while the cool morning wind blew. Excellent.
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| Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
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7:01 am - I wish people would listen
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This weekend was interesting. We looked at more houses, which was mostly an episode of the realtor (a friend of takuansoho's family) and his parents trying to prove that what we want is not correct and what they pick out is better for us. So needless to say we ended up in Richfield for a time (not to insult anyone who lives there, but *shudder*) until we convinced them that this was too far from downtown to meet our very specific needs. There were some junkers of course in NE Minneapolis, which is often hard to tell from photos, but there were some fairly nice ones. We're not dumb, after all. But takuansoho's grandma picked one out on Columbia Heights which was admittedly kind of nice but a) bigger than we'll probably ever need (we've been trying to get it through people's heads that we're not having kids so we don't need large 4 bedroom homes to accomodate us) and b) more expensive than we wanted to spend. These two items seem to be especially difficult to explain. I know that we'll have to make some sacrifices to own a home, but I don't want to be house-poor and everyone we talk to seems to really be overestimating our financial situation.
As a side part to this overall problem, we also can't get anyone to actually help us work on our finances so we have an exact range of what we can afford. The answer we get is usually "it's easy! Just use the mortgage calculator on the website!" I don't want to fucking use the mortgage calculator, which could very easily be completely fucked up if we assume some inaccurate numbers. I want to be able to sit down and work out our finances with an actual person so that we know for sure. I didn't know that it was so much to ask for that simple thing. We really don't make a whole lot and if some disaster happened and we were spending the majority of our finances on mortgage, that would be a major problem.
So needless to say I came home feeling like a complete idiot and also like I'm somehow wrong for wanting to live in a particular place. I spent at least a good half hour crying about this after we got home. They kept saying NE was a bad neighborhood with crime. I'd venture to say that there's a comparable amount of crime to the neighborhood we live in now, but when you're talking to people who hail from the 'burbs the mere mention that there might be a person of a different race in the neighborhood means that the area is therefore high in crime. Every neighborhood has crime. If it's not the violent or druge crime of the city (which isn't a big problem until you get into North Minneapolis which is not where we're looking), it's sex offenders, burglary and meth labs of the suburbs. When I talked to my mom she seemed to be really realistic about all this. I just wish that other people could give me the benefit of the doubt sometimes.
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