Tuesday, October 25, 2005
MY ILLNESS

I think there must be something wrong with me because I can't seem to stop collecting things. Anyone who has ever seen my room I'm sure can testify to this. As far back as I can remember, I have always been a collector of something... stamps, coins, cards, keychains, pencils... ya you name it, I collected it. Somewhere in my highschool years I started to collect toys. I think my interest was peaked by the re-release of the Star Wars trilogy, which got my brother and I searching through our basement for old toys. In my quest to find Yoda I came across a bunch of old My Little Ponies as well as some Strawberry Shortcake mini figures. From then on I spent loads of time looking up information on the internet and searching through thrift stores throughout the city in an attemp to find what now has become my obsession. Wanting a few toys led to wanting all the toys as well as books, videos, figures, lunchboxes, toy houses... it was and still is never ending. I think that for me the hunt is what drives me. It's not so much about aquiring these things as it is searching out and finding them. It's like a gaint worldwide treasure hunt. More recently my obsession has turned toward the more foreign. I'm sure I need not spell it out. One only has to read through my blog entries to know what I'm refering to. Over the past few months I've been buying plush toys called UFO Catchers. These little dolls are usually between 6 to 8 inches tall and are produced as prizes in crane or claw games (you know, those games where you have to catch a stuffed toy with an encredibly loose claw). While in North America the prizes tend to be cheap (not worth the money) toys, in Japan a lot of the toys are characters from anime shows. I first found out about these plushies many years ago and was interested in getting some Sailor Moon or Magic Knight ones. However, there were rarely any on ebay and the prices were well out of my range. Luckily for me, prices have become more reasonable and more people are putting them up on ebay. At first I only wanted a couple Fruits Basket plushies (see previous post), but after I saw how cute they were I just had to buy more... So here they are, the newest memebers of my collection...



These two are from the series Card Captor Sakura and are part of a set of three dolls. This was the third series of CCS UFO Catcher dolls and in my opintion the cutest. I fully intend to complete the set as soon as I find an auction for the third doll. Sakura in her yellow outfit is by far my favourite.



These two are from Inuyasha and are part of the Summer Festival series. On the left is Inuyasha and on the right Kagome. I probably won't get the rest of this set since the other dolls aren't as cute. I do intend to get more Inuyasha series dolls though... I just have to get a Sesshoumaru plush, he's soooo cute!!


Sunday, October 16, 2005
SCREEMERS

This past Friday Rachel and I went to Screemers at Exhibition Place. Even though this is its 13th season in Toronto, it was actually the first time I'd ever gone. Since we had a buy one get one free coupon we only had to pay 15 dollars to get in so it was a pretty good deal. The whole thing was set up inside the old Better Living Building at the EX. It was decorated quite nicely. All the attractions were lined up along the walls and in the middle there were food stands, carnival games, fortune tellers, and rides at the back of the building. We only ended up going on one ride as a way to start off the night. There were a total of six scary attractions plus a fun house and a show about Vlad the impaler. We decided to do things in order and started off at the attractions allong the left wall...

The Haunted House

I don't really remember the particulars of this house but I do know that at one point there was foam falling from the ceiling. I think there was also a meat packing room with bodies handing from the ceiling and flashing lights... and of course a maniac chasing after us. After getting out of the first house my heart was pounding. It really didn't give you a chance to rest since someone was always jumping out of somewhere.

The Asylum

This house was an insane asylum which had us running away from... well probably the criminally insane. The coolest thing about this house was probably the half body on a table. It was really interesting because it was an acutal live person but you could only see half their body and it looked liked they had been cut in half. I think there was also a person hung from the ceiling with all sorts of insides coming out of them... definitely very interesting costume and make-up work.

The Maniac Maze

This was definitely the most heart attack inducing attraction for me. It was a gaint maze outside so the possibility to get lost or trapped was definitely there. In addition to the maze there were about 5 guys with chain saws chasing after you. We could actually smell gas so we assumed they were really saws just with the chains removed. Every corner you turned there was someone ready to kill you. People were running in every direction so you just didn't know where to go. The ground was wet and slippery and at one point Rachel got her mouth smashed by a guy running away from one of the chain saw maniacs. While the whole thing was exciting and scary it was definitely the type of place you could get hurt in. There were dead ends all over the place and at one point a chain saw guy ran us into one... there was no where to escape... it was like the only logical choice was to get murdered... thank goodness those people arn't allowed to touch you.

Carnival of Bad Dreams

This house was completely in 3-D so you had to wear these stupid glasses that wouldn't stay on my head. I ended up having to hold them up so it kinda detracted from the fun I had in that house. It was still very cool though, Wearing the glasses allowed you to not see people that were very close to you and thus could attack you more easily. This wasn't my favourite attraction but it was still quite fun.

The Black Hole

This attraction was completely in the dark. The idea was to follow a little red lazer beam through the house. Since you couldn't see anything one again you were open to attack from anywhere. At various spots throughout the house there was stuff hanging from the ceiling or you would just bump into someone. As Rachel said after we left the place, this particular attraction really played on your fear of the unknown. All the other houses were somewhat lit so you could look around corners and see what was coming at you. In this house you were just not sure of anything.

The Castle of Doom

This was the last attraction and once again I don't remember anything particularly interesting about the place. Though I did break one of the rules and accidentally touched one of the people that come after you. They had on this interesting mask so I just reached out to touch it and then Rachel reminded me that I wasn't supposed to touch them... oops haha.

Overall the whole thing was quite fun. I don't think I ever screamed so much in my life. I'm really getting in the Halloween mood now and this is just the begining. Either next week or the week after I'll be going to Canada's Wonderland for Fearfest. I don't exactly know what it's going to be like but there are a bunch of haunted attractions and some of the rides will still be open. I can't wait!