Shadowydreamer

- One of my sheep (stuffies/plushes) went missing
- I can't find the pedal for my sewing machine
- I got seriously screwed over by the Everquest Admin (Since fixed)
- One of my 512 MB sticks of RAM went missing
- My PS2 style mouse port stopped working
- One USB port stopped working with half of my devices.
- My property tax bill came in.
- My cable company charged me $70 for one month's ISP and they think is perfectly acceptable.
- I lost my mailbox key which just happens to have my housekey and house # on it.

And when I thought life couldn't get any more fun.. the guy who was woo'ing me to the point of supposedly buying plane tickets to come visit me just suddenly stopped talking to me with no explanation.

It just been a very fun week.

I have things I want to say but haven't felt much like typing. *sigh*


What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

Woo! It's here! It's here! My Vahalla DVD from Keon arrived today! .. Well, it may have arrived yesterday, I didn't check my mail yesterday.. ^_^;; I didn't realize it was a cartoon! (And apparently humourous - the only word I can read on the box :D )

Oh the glee of cheap DVD players - it didn't recognize the region encoding :D - Of course, now I'm trying to navigate menus written in a foreign language I've never seen before.. so far I've seen the opening sequence four times. :) Once in English .. three times in.. not-English. For some reason, it'll play the opening, go back to the menu, forget I want English and go back to it's default language. If my DVD player hadn't been $39 I'd expect more of it! But so far I've learnt that dogs in the northlands are green! *Teases Keon*

Now, I guess Dansk is Danish - what's Svensk and Norsk, Keon? ^_^

I've been downloading EQ again.. What is freaking moronic is if you have IE/Outlook express set to "Work offline" the EQ patcher won't connect to the server. I spent four hours trying to figure out the problem before going to Windows Update .. and look, EQ now works! (Stupid #@!$ing Sony..) And have since been downloading patches for 14 hours. Oh, the actual downloading time is about 6 - but it keeps sending me corrupt files, stopping the download and I manually have to go back and tell it "do that again!" (Stupiding @#$!ing Sony..)

I drove out to watch Star Wars last night on the iMax, but got as far as the parking lot and my leg decided it didn't want to work - I could only conclude that sitting in a theatre for 2.5 hours would be a BAD idea and went to my parents place 20 mins away for a while before turning and driving home again. I think I'll just wait for the pay per view.. it's not like I don't know the plot already but it woulda been nice seeing it on the big big big screen.

And best quote ever about me.. I tried to claim to a U.S. Marine I was but a sweet innocent angel, and he replied "Sweet? Possibly. Innocent? Unlikely? Angel? Well, I hear Lucifer took one-third of the Host of Heaven, so I guess you could be... ;-P "

Hee hee. That made my day. ^_^

You're a little gold key, and you unlock other
people's hearts. Your kindness and willingness
to be there for those you care about lets
people open up to you knowing they will be
accepted. People will rely on you, but be
careful not to give more than you have.


What sort of key are you and what do you unlock?

For some strange reason this doesn't surprise me in the least! ^_^

Your Political Profile

Overall: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Social Issues: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

The tales of my death are grossly exagerated. After 10 days of being very ill, I'm starting to feel better.

Not that I have anything useful to say in this spot. Well, other than after a year of not writing anything, I started up some new Everquest fanfiction. ^_^;;

http://www.corey-art.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1349

Today I feel lonely.

Maybe it's because I was supposed to go meet Rilly for lunch and then go hang with Suzi.. but felt way too crappy to drive 1.5 hours. Not to mention it was Mommy's day and Rilly's family kidnapped her in the end. But still.. I've been feeling lonely for the last few days and right now it's really bad. *Sigh*

I'll take a life for $500 please Alex.

It's so very rare for me to stop reading a comic. In the history of webcomic reading (7 years and going strong for me) I've stopped reading four. Well, that's a four that excludes comics that have finished or started updating so bloomin' erraticly it wasn't worth it anymore.

One I stopped reading because I wasn't enjoying it anymore and while I adored the author and his family, I just didn't adore the strip. It took me a couple tries to leave, but I managed it in the end.

One I stopped reading because I just didn't understand it anymore. It took a deep left and waded into the jungle and I couldn't see the trail. Being confudes, confuddled and bewildered, I quietly deleted the link and moved on.

One I stopped reading because I just stopped caring. The comic was still going strong but I just didn't give a crap anymore about it. I tried to care, but just couldn't manage it.

And this one I stopped reading because the author and friends have treated me, and others, wrong.

Now, when I say this, the perspective is.. I've had screaming matches with several people whose comics I still adore. I purposefully didn't approach Greg Dean at Sakura Con because he had shown a rather strong dislike of me since our, ah, "debate" about how to insult the French. But I love his comic, read it faithfully five days a week. I've called Scott Kurtz the biggest ego in online comics, called him a fathead, called him all sorts of names (to which I don't think he ever did anything more than pat me on the head and give me the "That's nice" routine. ^_^ ) and I'm still reading PvP with love! (Tho I wish he'd do another actual GAMING storyline.)

So, what does someone have to do to actually get me to stop reading their comic based on how they themselves are? Being superiositic is a great start. Being condescending helps with the mix. Completely ignoring all input from anyone (not just me, honest!) who is not in the "clique" and make it obvious you're doing it.. just about sums it up.

I have little patience for people who think they're better than others. I have even less for their sycophants. While people are better at things than others, no one is actually a better human being than others. I don't give a rat's ass if you feel you're better educated than me, it doesn't make you better. (Just because I don't talk like I've swallowed a dictionary doesn't mean I CAN'T!) Just because you have a high paying or a supposed high intellect job doesn't make you better than me. (Are you happy with your job? I am with mine!) And just because you seemingly have more people worshiping at your altar, doesn't mean you're better, just that you may need the extra help.

So, y'know, after watching another fan get completely and utterly ignored while just being friendly, I said "Fuck it" I have better places to spend my online time. I just wish I was the type of person who would write a critique of their product saying "Incomprehensible "art" maybe art to you.. but to your audience, it's just incomprehensible."

Bfeh.

H'k. So, I played Monkey Island last night. It's all the fault of those guys over at Herculian for creating such great games (Apprentice 1 and 2) and leaving me craving wacky side-scroller goodness.

So when I finally crawl off to sleep.. I have this incredible dream. And what's REALLY incredible is I typically wake up every 20 minutes because of my back.. I get up and move around every hour. But every time I went BACK to sleep the dream *continued* .. I've never had that happen before. Normally I have to "finish" it via waking imagination to satisfy myself. (Doesn't that sound much kinkier than it is? ^_^ )

So, the dream starts on a typical carribean island. I am "Rachel somethingorother" a Captain of a privateer. She's wearing some sort of fluffy white blouse, black split skirt (it's like really baggy pants), and a floppish piratey hat with feather. Apparently, she's looking for crew replacements when she runs into a girl who is setting herself as a hooker for the first time. She's about to enter the bar every single carribean island has. ^_= Rachel, of course, being the strong willed wench she is, drags her off and talks sense into her and hires her as my cabin girl. Even tho she needs a cabin girl about as much as she needs her head chopped off.

So off she gowa into the bar where some sailor makes a snotty comment about women and she kicks his chair out from underneath him. His chin thwacks table and he goes into nighty-night land. She goes up to the bar, well known by the rest of the customers and left alone by them. (Smart men, eh? ^_^ ) So, fine, she's eyeing down for likely prospects for her ship when a familiar voice declares "Cap'n Rachel! Just the dame I was looking for!" ("Dame?!!") She turns to see my old friend Brian! Swarthy, tall, dark, and a pirate! (Of course.) Rachel narrows her eyes in that 'don't you be messing with me!' way. "What do you want this time, Brian?" She asks.

"Oh, well, I won't be askin' for anything you won't be willing to be givin'" he flirts with a devilish smile. The torches glint off his gold capped front tooth.

Rachel, of course, just rolls her eyes. More than used to his flirtatious ways. (And not fooled by them!) "Uh huh." she replies, wittily, turning back to the rather smelly bartender to claim her drink.

"Y'see, a friend of mine has gotten himself into a wee bit of trouble," he explains, "And I'd be needing a ship to go and rescue him."

"The Falcon is a privateer, not a taxi. The sack boat [I think I meant mail boat in dream] is leaving shortly, hitch a ride."

"Oh, but I did! To HERE! Where I am fortunate enough to meet the lovely and talented and kind-hearted YOU!"

Anyway, it desolves into her eventually telling him 'sod off' since there's no money in it for her, and more importantly, her crew.

So, back to the ship she goes with Janet, the would-be-hooker turned cabin girl and Sammy, a scrawny, pock faced boy to help in the crow's nest. Having resupplied they drop anchor and head out to see. Rachel eventually goes to bed in her luxerous room..

..and wakes up with a pistol in her face and her old friend Brian beside her. Her first thought is "Oh, good, I still have my underwear on." (which is interesting since underwear wasn't around then.. ^_^ My dream is so full of historical inaccuracies!) "Oh, this again." She says, yawning, rolling over and getting out of bed.

"I'm commadeering your ship!"

"Right you are." she says splashing water on her face.

"My friends and I are making you turn to St. Martin." (Hmm.. Who knows why I named it that. It wasn't the right island. ^_^ )

"You have friends?" she asked with mild suspicion.

"TWO of them!" he declares with pride.

She rolls her eyes.

Deciding that while he probably wouldn't shoot her, he probably would shoot some of her crew.. and there will probably be French ships on the way, she decides to agree to take them to St Martin.

Much witty commentary and conversation ensues. The friends turn out to be a newly wed couple who were supposed to take over governship of island X, but the Navy captain didn't like that idea and had them both arrested. Brian had saved them since they'd saved him after he saved them and .. well, it was a well established and very strange friendship. Much like Rachel's with the rogue.

So, Brian staggers out on deck after a good night getting to know the crew (much Grog was involved) and Rachel turns to him. "I think your master plan has changed." An eyebrow raised.

"What?" He says wittily and follows her point before saying some naughty words.

The island, a nice beach with a hill of green, has a massive smoke stack at the top of it. "I think it's safe to say, the slaves are revolting."

"That's why we don't believe in slaves!" The female friend says primly.

"Right." Brian agrees vaguely.

After much arguement, threatning of private parts, cabin girls, and other interesting things, Rachel orders the ship to go into the bay to see teh situation.. to see if the girl's father (AH HA! That's who we're trying to rescue!) is available for rescue from the Navy base. Considering the Navy is leaving in a hurry and the fort is in shambles, it's considered unlikely daddy is available and the decision is made to persue the Navy which is strung out across the ocean like pearls due to different nautical ability of Captains and ships.

"WHat do you expect me to do?! I can't attack the British Navy!" After all, it's the King (Queen?) who has her marque and pay her. (Sort of.)

Brian nods thoughtfully a couple of times and pulls a flag out of his sleeve, much like a magician pulling out silk hankerchiefs. He holds up a Jolly Roger. "You could go pirate!"

Her eyes narrow.

"No?" He pulls out another flag, "You could go French!"

She tells him to do something anantomically impossible.

He mutters he'll have to try that sometime, "How about.." He pulls out a third flag, "Jamaican?!"

"Jamaican? They don't even have a bloody navy!" she protests.

"Ah.." Brian says wisely, "They might now. What do the English know?"

So, the Singing Hawk goes from being British (from the safety of behind a convienent island, of course) to Jamaican. They persue down the boats, much fighting and mayhem ensues until it's discovered the ship they want is .. the lead man'o'war, of course.

By this time the Falcon has quite a few prisoners. Rachel being unwilling to condem innocent men to death. (Brian doesn't quite understand what all the fuss is about) One of the officers gets out of her what's going on, and he declares if she leaves him in Port Y he will investigate this properly! HE is the Duke of BlahBlahBlah and his stakes his honour on finding the truth!

Rachel's never known the British Navy to worry too much about honour and proper conduct, but for some reason believes the young dashing fop and stops at the next British settlement and releases them all.

"Bloody stinker." Brian mutters after the fop kisses her hand before leaving. "Would take your boat away!" He stomps off.

Cabin GirL Janet looks all confused. "Are you and he -" she makes a rough gesture towards Brian, "uhm.. Mmmf?"

Rachel raises an eyebrow before she laughs, "My dear, the day Brian STOPS flirting with a woman is the day after you know she's relented to his flattery."

"Oh." says Janet, wide-eyed.

And the chase over the high-seas continues. They pick up two French privateers on the waves as they chase the man-o-war that seems to be heading for Virginia. Agreeing to split the profits (Rachel DOES have a ship and crew to keep afloat after all) they triangulate on the man-o-war trapping her.

Massively impressive battle ensues inwhich many of the man-o-war's crew are captured, one of the French ships sunk and both the Falcon and the other French ship disabled as the man-o-war limps away. Tossing a coin, the French ship gives its working bits to the Falcon while the Falcon gives its broken bits, water, rum and food to the French ship while she makes repairs.

The Falcon catches up to the Man-o-war anchored at an island plantation. They storm the ship to find several political prisoners, including happy-couple's father. (Girl's father) And lots of money and interesting pieces of paper in which to gain more money with. Rachel's crew, which had been starting to grumble, is now all happy and gleeful.

So the couple, Rachel and Brian chase up through the undergrowth to capture the Bad Guy (Navy Commander whatshisface) and as they're approaching the summet (because it's always an up) there's a loud explosion.

It seems Commanderwhatshisname has decided he can't get his way so he's taken himself and his remaining officers up to the plantation lake, somehow has restrained themselves and lights the waters on fire. (Hmm.. gasoline lake? It's the only part where my dream got REALLY nonsensical)

Leaving Brian and Rachel to find the grizzily remains.

So, it's 4am and I'm sitting in the dark (sorta) updating my journal. The kitchen light is on, my bedroom light is on.. I'm sitting in the living room in the gloom.

Often when I go to bed I leave various lights on to make it look like I'm still up or something. The whole park knows I sleep oddball hours, I just don't want people knowing when I'm asleep and "vulnerable." I never had this problem at my parents' place (even if I was the only one home!) or at any apartment I lived in. (And I lived in some pretty skuzzy neighborhoods!)

For some reason, since moving into this trailer, I just don't feel safe. I wake up to noises (most likely 'house settling' type stuff) and then I'm up and wired and freaked for hours before my adrenaline wears out and I go back to bed. The only time I felt completely and utterly safe was when my friends Vlad and Marie stayed over on their way down to Seattle from Alberta. It was the first really good sleep I'd had since I'd last crashed at my parents three months before.. and I don't sleep GREAT at my parents' house, just well.

But it's still better than the paranoia I seem to have here.

I live in a village of 983. The police hang out about two minutes away. Yet, I still have my diving knife on the bedside table within easy grabbing reach. That knife went there the night something on my deck fell over and it sounded like someone kicking one of my entrance doors. I'd woken up, heart pounding to realize i didn't have a single thing I could use as a weapon in my bedroom. That everything of destructive nature was seventy feet away at the other end of the trailer. (Eeek!) I wanted a hockey stick. I would have settled for a broom, instead I dug up my diving knife. Not exactly a weapon I'm proficient with - but it looks scary and that counts in the complete dark, right? O_o;

I find it hard to believe of myself that I look forward to moving into an apartment in Surrey - a city with a MUCH higher crime rate (especially violant crimes!) - because it will be an apartment complex with more security. There's not only one door into my living space but another door beyond it. There's also neighbors right trhough a wall who will hear me screaming at the top of my lungs. (Who probably wouldn't do anything but my subconscious doesn't seem to realize it.)

I can't fall asleep on my left side because that puts my back to the room and that just freaks me out more. I want to see who is coming. I've gone from a little night light that I bought for finding my way to the bathroom to leaving at least two main lights on. I practically hyperventilate if it's completely dark here and strange noises happen.

Heck, there's a strange noise coming from the second bedroom.. it's probably the dead vines smucking against the glass from the wind, but I'm still totally chicken to go check it out. When did I go from being immortal and completely fearless to scared of my own shadow anyway?

Maybe it's part of getting older. Maybe it's a part of being a single female living alone.. I'd had two apartments by myself, but friends were always visiting, or staying over. Here only two friends have visited me. An hour and a half driving being too much for most. Maybe that's another reason for insecurity. I feel abandoned and alone.

Or maybe I just need to pummel my head against the wall to get over this strange fear that every creak or moan is a strange man intent on doing me harm.

And my doctor wonders why my blood pressure is through the roof..

So I just finished Guy Gavriel Kay's "The Last Light of Sun." I didn't even clue until I was just about done that it was written by the same Canadian author as my beloved "A Song for Arbonne" which I'd discovered years before at the ferry terminal store while waiting for the ferry.

The first comment I can make is that the book doesn't really get started until around page three hundred and twenty. Up to that point he's setting the stage with minor conflicts and action until the rising action just suddenly bursts on to the page and the story kicks into gear. I think it says something for the quality of words when I was thinking "this is going where?!" for a good portion of the book but didn't toss it aside. But the path, once it solidifies does so well. The various threads are suddenly weaved together and the tapestry of words starts to become clear.

Not the best fantasy I've ever read, but I enjoyed the side-trips into little stories within the large story that really had nothing to do with the little story but were enjoyable none-the-less. It was written more as "this is a section of life" than "this is a story with a beginning, middle and end" and the first three hundred and twenty (ish) pages were to explain who the lives involved were.

It also made me think I REALLY need to learn more about Norse mythology because once again I run into a book that assumes I know way more than I do!

Over all, I give the book a B-. Enjoyable, but I probably won't re-read it for a good chunk of time, but certainly not one I'll trade with the used book seller in the village.

THE OFFICIAL CANADIAN TEMPERATURE CONVERSION CHART

50° Fahrenheit (10°C) - Californians shiver uncontrollably. Canadians plant gardens.

35° Fahrenheit (1.6°C) - Italian Cars won't start. Canadians drive with the windows down

32° Fahrenheit (0°C) - American water freezes. Canadian water gets thicker.

0° Fahrenheit (-17.9°C) - New York City landlords finally turn on the heat. Canadians have the last cookout of the season.

-60° Fahrenheit (-51°C) - Mt. St. Helens freezes. Canadian Girl Guides sell cookies door-to-door.

-100° Fahrenheit (-73°C) - Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. Canadians pull down their ear flaps.

-173° Fahrenheit (-114°C) - Ethyl alcohol Freezes. Canadians get frustrated when they can't thaw the keg

-460° Fahrenheit (-273°C) - Absolute zero; all atomic motion stops. Canadians start saying "cold, eh? "

-500° Fahrenheit (-295°C) - Hell freezes over. The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup

We can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well they're no friends of mine
I say, we can go where we want to
A place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind
And we can dance!

I've figured it out! People don't go to Scandinavia to enjoy the spa's and get better.. they go to trick an innocent citizen to wish them better! ^_^ After Keon's wishes for me to get better.. about an hour later (travel time?) my back felt GREAT.. for about four hours, then I moved the wrong way and it's back to where it was before.. But I was completely pain free for four hours. Apparently I need to bottle Keon and take his good wishes 4 times a day instead of percocet. ^_^ (Hmm.. I think there might be a few complaints about that..)

In other news.. I really wish Livejournal would accept "KEEP ME LOGGED IN!" means "I DON'T want to have to log in every time i leave a comment or want to update my journal or.." Grrr.

I was considering leaving LJ when I could get absolutely **NO** useful help with embedding the leave comments / comments link with the LJ on my home page without having to learn a programming language. My decision was MADE when I replied to an email and it was posted publicly. Seriously did NOT impress me there. THAT was a very bad business move on their part. I was a paying customer! You don't publish your customer's emails!

I just haven't decided where I'm going yet.

I just finished Anne Bishop's "Dreams Made Flesh" .. and OoOoo.. it's a wonderful dive into the world of "The Dark Jewels Trilogy" .. answers, more questions, happy endings, justice, vengence, love, hate, obsession.. I'm all a tingly!

I never liked the ending of the Dark Jewels.. I always thought it was a bit too .. open and pat. It was a happy ending without answering any questions, leaving the reader to make their own decisions. Sometimes that's good in a book, sometimes you look towards the broad horizon, let loose your imagination of and amuse yourself for hours.. but in a world that was so well defined, with characters so well created, a lose thread was out of place.

"Dreams Made Flesh" tied up those threads, gave the reader further insight into the characters.. and revealed Luciver and Marion's courtship. (Which really, is everything one would expect it to be. I'm surprised he didn't get brained with that skillet, but that's the woman in me speaking. ^_^ )

I try and resist the oversized paperbacks that are being released instead of hardcovers for many authors. (Hardcovers now coming in at $50+ CDN) I often can't QUITE justify $23 for a book, especially when they released the oversize for the LAST book of a trilogy or something stupid and not the first two.. but y'know, I would have paid the $50+ and been happy with this one.

No I am NOT squee'ing.

Quite.

Ho-kay. So my back was pretty much better by Wednesday, all was happy in Lorna-land. So I did what a Lorna does when Lorna is happy.. I drove out to Langley and returned a couple books that I didn't realize I'd already bought before and bought some more books. (Mmm.. Books) But apparently driving 1.5 hours (roundtrip) on my freshly recovered back was INCREDIBLY STUPID.

My back has been absolutely killing me since. No matter how I lie, slouch, sprawl, sit or stand my back HURTS. Actively, pulsatingly hurts. There's a background ache that's always there in my lowerback which has a layer of pulsing pain (connected to every time I breath) which is sharper over top, a tailbone that if I put pressure on it feels like I'm sitting on a knife and a leg that varies between shooting pains, numbness, pins and needles and burning ache. Sometimes only one thing at a time, sometimes a variation of them.

I keep wanting to go to the hospital to get a shot or two.. but I either have to call an ambulance here and pay for a cab back, drive there, leave my car to get towed and take a cab back or .. well, not go. And since it's not an "emergency" I'll later be billed for the ambulance. Not to mention that I'll have to battle it out with Chilliwack hospital to GET the shot because I've never been in there before.. (My brother who works for the hospital region says Chilliwack hospital is the worst he's ever been in. Oh, yay..)

So, I'm thinking.. bottom line.. I'm never, ever, ever, ever, EVER driving 9 hours in 26 hours again. EVER. When my bro drives me down the Pacific Northwest Everquest BBQs I take a percocet and go to sleep. I'm out of percocet, can't see my doctor for a week yet, and cranky from pain and lack of sleep. I know that if I ASK my mom, dad or brother to come get me, drive me an hour back to Surrey, wait for me at the hospital for 4 hours with me and then drive me all the way back out here.. I know they will.. but geez, that's a lot to ask!

I think I'll just be a big whiner and suffer instead. But not in silence, never in silence!

I recieved my first fan mail today.

I've had recognition from my web comic before. I've even recieved emails to do with it. I bring Bunny with me to a convention (sometimes both Tux and Bunny) and people Squee and want to hug him and tell me they're readers and they like my comic.. but none have ever been happy to see ME and tell me they're a fan of ME.

At Sakura Con a friend dragged his friend up to introduce me and she was very shy. At the time I'd just assumed she was shy and took a picture of her with Bunny and she was tickled pink. But it was later revealed she was shy about meeting ME, like I was some sort of star. But she was thrilled to have her picture taken with Bunny Hey - what girl doesn't want to get their picture taken with a psychotic rabbit? ^_^ .. Little does she know I'd already had plans to be using it in the comic..

Then I get an email today telling me what an honour it was for her to meet me. ME! Some hick Canuck who takes pictures of stuffed animals and sticks them on the internet. It was absolutely surreal. >_< I'm having trouble choosing between being flattered and being weirded out. (In a good way. ^_^ )

I got an email (paraphrased to hide identity) that basically said: "Why is your every post about you and only you?"

..I dunno, maybe because it's *my* blog? 0_o;

I suppose I could write about Tom Jones, but it would be rather tricky since I don't have access to HIS inner thoughts and feelings.

Ho-kay. I went to Sakura Con for the first time after the big blow up of October 2003. (I'm not going into details of THAT now, but let's just label it "politics" and leave it.) I wanted to hang out with the Anime Alberta guys, and some of my fellow Anime Evolution people. No, and not just because the AA guys were throwing a huge party in Canuck style. Honest.

So, I leave home ~9am. I'd not really calculated into my back/leg situation the extra 1.25 hour drive in front of me, but that's my own stupidity. >_< I'd refused to pay $109 USD and stay in the con hotel, and instead booked one down the street for $50 CDN. (~$40 USD) So I get down there around 1pm, got settled in my hotel and headed over to the Sea-Tac Hilton. It was a few more blocks than I was prepared for, but percocet is a beautiful thing (See? I'd thought ahead somewhat and hit my doctor up for some.) and I found Jim and Melinda easily! After a brief rest, sharing of my "congratulations on the engagement!" present and conversation I decieded to head up to registration and buy a day pass.

Let's just pretend I knew nothing about Sakura Con and I was a first time attendee. I get to the elevators were I promptly get greeted by the security personnel sitting between the elevators with "Where's your con badge?" I say I'm going to go buy mine. He tells me that the elevators are for registered con attendees only. I replied, "I'm disabled, please don't make me go up the steps." (Three *flights* of them. I have trouble with five steps!) He makes a disbelieving noise and shrugs and says he guesses I can take the elevator.

So that's my first impression.

First off, they have NO right to prevent regular hotel guests (which I could have been) from taking the elevator. I can understand that they were limiting 6 per elevator, the abuse the elevators go through during the con is unbelievable and it only makes sense, but to say if I don't have a badge I can't get on? They're lucky I didn't complain to the hotel. (Which I would have if I didn't have a history with the con.)

So fine, I get to the line-up and I see they're out of Saturday badges. I'm expected to buy a 3-day pass for $50 USD for the 12 hours I'm going to be at the con. I have a SLIGHT issue with that so I decide I'm just going to hang out and not actually visit any of the function space. I get cross-eyed looks a few times from security personnel but no one actually challenged me. (I later magically gained a badge. ^_= )

It was nice to walk around and see all the ideas that were on the "wouldn't it be nice" list when last I heard actually in effect. They have a massive dealer's room. (Three rooms actually) They have their video game room and it's huge. Gone is the home user video game machines and accessaries and arcade DDR's and machines instead. They have expanded to take over a second hotel. They present a very organized front (even if I know different from the staff I know. ^_^ ) and everything looked good.

It was CROWDED however. Nothing they can do about that considering it's a 5000 person convention but I felt claustraphobic more than once. I did pass Greg Dean in the dealer's room when he had no line-up but decided discretion is the better part of valour. While I've said nice things about his work and him, he's only ever focused on the negative and labelled me by it. His choice to do so but I'm not going to ruin his fun time for it by getting in his space even if I did just wanna say hi and shake his hand. I would have liked to get a picture of Gabe and Tycho with Bunny but they had a huge line-up. C'est la vie!

So after socializing with various Canucks and running into Sakura Con people who did double-takes to see me there (some hugging, some fleeing) we went off to dinner. Jim and Melinda bought me dinner to go with the Kirara they'd (Melinda!) bought me. Apparently it was "Don't let Lorna pay for anything." at Sakura Con. ^_^ We hung out in my hotel room for a while before they retired back to their own and I went hunting for a drug store. Yet again I'd forgotten to bring socks to wear with my slip-ons and I'd given myself some beautiful blisters. (Ew.) So quick shopping trip, first aid applied, nap-taken and Melinda, Jim and I regrouped and headed to the Great Canadian Bounty (tm).

Started the year before at Sakura Con the Great Canadian Bounty was the Anime Alberta guys going forth with music and booze and sharing it with the masses. ^_^ (Tho in theory those attendees were supposed to donate or bring their own booze. I didn't see a donation bucket tho.. Hmm.) Or, basically, it was one large room party. Strangely I talked to more Americans than Albertans. ^_^ Those Albertans I knew seemed to be busy with other things and I didn't want to disturb them. So I caught up with people I hadn't talked to in 2.5 years. (And collected more hugs! Woo!)

After a few hours of humidity and heat I realized my blisters were .. well, bleeding (EW!!!) and I was getting antsy with the crowd of people. (I only get claustraphobic when it's INDOOR crowds. Gah.) So I decided to head back to my hotel, change my bandages and come back to the partyage.. but having been up at 5:30am and being incredibly sore and stiff and blah blah blah I ended up crawling onto bed, watching a bad Kevin Costner movie (there's other kinds?) and going to sleep for about 35 minutes at a time. (The bed was as hard as a rock.)

Finally gave up and went home at ~7am.

Over all it was a fun time. I don't know if I'd ever attend Sakura Con for all three days. It was a good time because I saw people I wanted to see rather than the con itself. It's too big for me, but I can see why people love it. They're still having issues with security staff (every year they do, it seems) but I'd give it a B as far as grades go. ^_^

I went down to the lake to take pictures of our beautiful weather to mock my Edmontonian friends when I was attacked by a fluffball. I was walking along, camera dangling from my wrist by it's strap when I heard the yapping bark-growl from a minature annoyance. As the noise was getting louder it was my conclusion the dog was heading for me. Sure enough, when I turn around there's this little white mutt coming at me full tilt with teeth bared and barking. Apparently it thought the whole park was it's territory or something. It's owner was chasing after it saying "Corki, No!" Corki was paying no attention.

As I was wearing open toed sandals I didn't think kicking the attacking muppet would do much good, so I did what any human would do.. it leaped and I hit it full force with a swinging camera. WHACK! Yip, yip, yip! The furrball goes flying back to it's owner whining that it's just been injured. It's running so obviously I haven't done any permenant damage to it. I'm more concerned with the camera.

No OBVIOUS damage, other than a few stray white hairs from the dog. I get home, I plug the card into the reader and .. TA -DA! Pictures!





Hewlett-Packard, you build good cameras.