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THIS BLOG HAS MOVED!!!

Yup that's right I have moved from blogger so everyone update your links... here's the new address:

http://litterblog.daijoubu.org

DECEMBER RIBON & ASUKA

OK so here is the promised December Ribon and Asuka (not that anyone cares hehe). I'm way behind on my reading so I really haven't looked inside these magazines yet. In any case, it's still nice to look at the pictures.



This months Ribon came with some really great furoku. I got a Love Berrish 2006 schedule book which is just about the cutest thing ever. Every page is colourful with cute designs... so I most definitely will not be using it. I also got an Animal Yokochou pen, tiny Chocomimi stickers and a Shinshi Doumei Cross fortune telling game.



I ordered Asuka mainly for Kyou Kara Maou because I absolutely love the original artwork. As luck would have it though, no chapter was run in this issue. I was super upset about this (as I'm sure everyone can imagine). Luckily it did come with a really nice Maruma clear file with Yuuri and Wolfram on the front and all the main characters in chibi form on the back. There was also a special section in the front that had to be cut open. Inside there was a bunch of stuff about Maruma that I couldn't read (no furigana.. poo poo on that) but it did have the nicest picture of Wolfram with no top on hehe. So all in all I definitely think it was worth the 10 dollars.

In the picture I also included an issue of animedia I picked up (can anyone guess why?). I've only skimmed though it so I can't say much about it. The best though was the furoku. One of the free gifts was a book with piano music and lyrics to tons of the new anime shows that came out this year. I was so suprised and happy when I saw it. I haven't tried out any of the songs yet but I was singing the lyrics to the aniyoko OP... I think I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this book.

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

Well, it turned out to be another great Christmas. Saturday night we went up to my Aunt's house for Christmas Eve dinner and presents. The dinner was fabulous as always and the tree was piled high with gifts. It litterally took hours to open them all and it certainly didn't help that the kids were so excited about every gift they opened. They wanted to open up and play with everything and if they didn't get to... well, let's just say there was a lot of screaming and crying. Of course you can't blame them though, they're only two and three years old and of course they would want to play. They were so cute all dressed up in their Christmas outfits. It was definitely an exciting night.

Sunday morning we opened up our stockings and gifts here and I must say, I got a lot of great stuff. This included nice new clothes (most definitely needed), the cutest apron in the world (thanks Lisa!), Hart to Hart season 1, some manga (yay... didn't think I'd get any), money (always good) and the final UFO Catcher plushie in the 3rd Card Captor Sakura plush series (oh how happy this made me). Here's a picture:



Christmas dinner was held here as usual but this year we had everything in the basement since our upstairs kitchen is still under renovation. Everything turned out pretty well in the end though. Everyone ate together in one room so it was kinda cozy. The food turned out really well and I think everyone had a good time. I on the other hand did not... well ok that's a bit of an exaggeration. I wasn't feeling all that well and I'm still not all that great. I think I have a bit of a cold (probably from all the running around I've been doing). I'm feeling a little better now but am still not 100%. Hopefully I'll be back to normal by tomorrow.

I still haven't put up the December issue of Ribon so expect that in the next day or two. I also ordered the December Asuka so I'll put that up as well.

TIS THE SEASON... FOR A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN

Boy has this month been stressfull... and if I actually had a job, I think I would probably be keeling over right about now. It's been a month of non stop running around and money spending (money that I don't really have). Of course it's also been fun. Last week Janine, Lisa and I all went over to Christina's house and had a 10 hour day of gingerbread house making. It was a super long day but in the end our house came out better than expected. I'll post some pictures of it as soon as I get them. Then of course there was Christina's annual Christmas party which was fabulous as usual and the annual Rose Bouquet Christmas party and Kriss Kringle. This year it was held at Alta Rosa so the food was amazing.

This past Monday was my last day at St. Rose of Lima before the Christmas break. The students all had a little Kriss Kringle and I made them all gingerbread cookies, which I think went over quite well. School just ended yesterday so they don't go back until the second week of January.

Right now I'm just sitting around doing nothing (it's been the first day in many weeks that I haven't had to rush out to a mall). In a couple hours I'll be heading over to my Aunt's house for Christmas Eve dinner. It's usually a pretty big affair so it should be nice.

SHOWS

I've been to see a few shows lately so I figured I'd give my opinion of them.

Pride and Prejudice

As I'm sure most of you are aware, this is just about my favourite book. It most definately has the best first line ever and if you don't know what I'm talking about just check out my favourite quotes on this blog. Prior to seeing this movie I had read the book twice and watched the BBC mini-series about a hundred times (ok well maybe not that many) so I have a pretty good background on this story. This version was definitely quite entertaining and for the most part well done. All the important points were included and the dialog was quite true to the book. Seeing as how it was only about a 2-3 hour movie everything had to be brief and to the point. For someone with a good knowledge of the book this would not be a problem at all, however, if you had no prior experience with this story I would think one would find it choppy and a little confusing. In any case, I really enjoyed Mr. Bingly and Jane in this version more so than the mini-series. In the BBC version they really weren't very good looking. Now I'm not saying that all people in movies should be good looking, but it's clearly stated in the book that they are, especially Jane. So in this repect I like this movie better. The relationship between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth however was not, in my opinion well done. The movie really does not convey how Mr. Darcy came to love Lizzy in the first place. One day he hates her the next he's in love with her. Once again though, it must be recognized that this was a short movie and only so much could be done. It was definately worth watching so go check it out if you get the chance.

Swan Lake (the lake of swans)

I went to go see this Ballet with some friends last week. I had never heard the story before so I really didn't know what to expect. Over all I'd have to say it was ok but at times I found it to be long and the dancing unvaried. The entire thing was saved in my opion though by the spectacular act with all the swans dancing. It was absolutely beatiful and the dancers were just amazing. At one point four of the swans linked arms and danced together in a row for around 5-10 minutes without one step out of place. I was just amazed by the talent. The story itself was kind of weak. A guy falls in love with a swan, then thinks this girl all dressed in black was the swan, then a flood kills everyone in his castle, he fights with some fool and then dies in another storm and only the swan is left. It was one hell of a blood bath. For some reason I always thought it was the swan who died at the end after being shot by a hunter. Who knows, maybe there is more than one version or maybe I'm just confused. In any case, it was a fun evening.

Harry Potter and the Gobelt of Fire

I really liked this movie. Being one of my favourite books in the series I was really hoping it would be good and it most certainly met my expectations. Sure a lot had to be left out but all the important stuff was included. In general I found the movie to be more amusing than the others and I absolutely adored Fred and George with their longer hair. The seem to have gotten a lot better looking as they grown up. In the first movie I wasn't all that fond of them but they're really growing into their characters, everyone is for that matter. The only part I didn't particularily like was the last task of the tri-wizard tournament. It seemed really short, almost rushed and I didn't really like the way Voldemort looked. He didn't seem evil enough. Anyway, I can't wait for the next book to be released. It'll be the seventh and supposedly the last but I'm unsure how Rowling is going to fit everything in. I doubt it'll be out in the next couple years anyway so there's no sense in thinking about it now.

This weekend I'm going to another anime convention, "Con no Baka" (idiot convention?), hopefully it'll be really fun and I'm sure I'll have some pictures to put up here. I'll also be going to my first ever Barmitzva (that definitely is not how you spell it). It's for a second cousin of mine. Not being Jewish myself or even living around or knowing many Jewish people I've never been invited to one. So this should be really fun (or at least I hear that they are fun). I'll definately do an entry on it so check back soon!

OCTOBER & NOVEMBER RIBON

Well I'm a little late with my October Ribon so I figured I'd just do October and November together.

October's cover wasn't the greatest. I'm not really sure who the guys on the front are but I do believe they have something to do with a story that started recently called Ya-Ya-yah ga Yattekuru. The issue did come with quite a bit of furoku though. The main item was a Love Berrish purse type thing to hold make-up, hair clips etc. To go in the purse were hair clips, hair elastics, and a Love Berrish compact mirror and comb. In addition to these items there was an Animal Yokochou plastic bag, Shinshi Doumei Cross sticker (forgot to put it in the picture), Ageha 100% book cover, and a Choco Mimi paper doll set.



November's issue has a very cute cover. This issue has a ton of advertisement in it for the Animal Yokochou anime that recently started. The manga has been getting colour pages in the past few issues as well. It's the first pannel comic in Ribon that I've seen get colour pages since I starting buying it last January. The furoku with this issue was just awsome. It came with a Love Berrish wall clock, Love Berrish stickers, and and Animal Yokochou deck of cards. It seems that every month more and more awsome furoku are given out with the magazine, and when you consider the price it's even more awsome.



I think that I will definitely be getting a subscription for 2006. I didn't get one this year because I wasn't sure if I really would like the magazine. Lately, however, I've been able to read through entire chapters (which is something I most definately could not do when I first bought the magazine). So it's most certainly worth it for me to continue to buy the magazine... for the reading practice... and for the free stuff hehe

HALLOWEEN FUN

The week before last Friday, Linda, Rachel and I had planned on going to Wonderland for FearFest. Unfortunitly it was raining and quite cold so we ended up just hanging out at my house and watching scary movies. Since we really wanted to go to FearFest, we postponed it a week and went this past Friday. Since it was the Halloween weekend it turned out to be quite busy but was still a lot of fun. The entire park was decorated in a haunted theme, all the lights were replaced with red bulbs and there were smoke/fog machines everywhere. It definitely gave the park and eerie atmosphere. Basically a bunch of haunted attractions were added to the park and many of the good rides which were left open. The attractions were very similar to the kind of stuff at Screemers. The only problem though was that there were so many people. This made it difficult to be scared by anything since a monster etc would jump out at the people in front of you so you would know (most of the time) what was coming up. In any case I still had an awsome time and am glad that I got to go. One attraction in particular was really great. They drained all the water out of the white water rapids ride (the one with the inner tubes) and let us walk through it. The whole thing was turned into a kind of ancient scary ruins attraction, which eventually ended us up in the forest where we were chased by a guy with a chainsaw. I don't think there is anything more scary than a guy with a chainsaw... it's definitely a heart attack inducing experience.

Yesterday, being Monday, I got to go over to the school I volunteer at. Luckily for me Halloween fell on a Monday this year. All the little kids were dressed up in their costumes and having a great time. In the morning all the grades and classes were mixed up and everyone got to rotate classes and participate in different Halloween activities. In the afternoon our class had their own mini party and everyone brought snacks. The whole day really got me feeling nostalgic.

That evening I was in charge of handing out the Halloween candy. Since we only got between 20 and 30 kids last year, we decided to just buy large candy bars this year. I think we ended up getting about 30 kids so it was a pretty good night... ah but I remember a time when we got close to 200 kids... everyone has really grown up in this neighbourhood, it's kinda sad but what can ya do.

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!!

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!

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

This past Saturday was our annual trip out to Stratford. In the usual fasion we left late (by a few hours) but we always manage to have plenty of time. We had a lovely pot luck pic-nic by the lake/pond (whatever that water thing is). It was a bit chilly this year but we managed alright. After dinner we headed up to town and got some warm drinks while we waited for the play to begin. I got myself a very good hot chocolate that came with chocolate shavings and a pocky stick. The play began at 8:00pm and was in the Avon theater (I'm pretty sure that's what it was called). It was my first time in that theater and I have to say, it was quite nice. We had very good seats in the balcony and for once there was no large person obstructing my veiw. Our seats were pushed back a bit so it made it a lot easier to see. The play itself was quite enjoyable. We saw Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennesee Wiliams. There definitely was no chance of not realizing while this play had that particular name. I've never heard a title more stressed in my life. The whole thing took place in a bedroom so the set never changed. I thought this couldn't possibly be interesting, but characters came in and out of the room and everything just seemed to work. My favourite character by far was big daddy. He was just hilarious, spitting out all kinds of scetchy language (sounded just like home lol). The play ended at 11:00pm and we were once again heading home. Of course we did our annual stop at the local Timmy's before the long journey back. The Straford CD's this year were quite good. I very much enjoyed the variety of songs even though picking mine caused me much distress. Next year I vow to choose well ahead of time... well maybe not...

OK Ribon time. I've taken such a long time putting this up it's almost time for the next one. In all honesty, it's taken so long because I wanted to read the new stories before I posted so I could give a little summary. Unfortunitly my Japanese sucks so it's taken me forever to read to two (ya that's right two) and even now I haven't finished both. In any case, the big new story that started this month is called Love Berrish by Haruta Nana. It's about a 15 year old girl named Fukushima Yuuya who, as far as I can tell, is entering a new summer school academy (it may not actually be a summer school... she might just be starting in the summer or it may have nothing really to do with summer at all... ya my Japanese is that good). OK so on her way to school for the first time she gets lost and bumps into this guy... from here on in it's kinda all fuzzy... she manages to get to school, is shown her new living quarters and then meets this other really hot guy (well that basically what she calls him). Eventually she meets this other girl and the guy she bumped into on the way to school... lalala some stuff happens (I don't really know what)... lalala she's all upset and wanted to leave school and that guy she bumped into tells she to go home to her mother and father... eventually the hot guy convinces her to stay. End chapter one. All this could be totally wrong. This is really only an opproximation of what I think happened. The other new story is called Kurumi's Oracle (I think... the real title is Kurumi no orukoru... I'm just guessing orukoru is oracle but once again I may be wrong). This story is looking really cute. It's about this girl named Kurumi who has this little music box thing. One day a little fairy girl comes out of it who can play all kinds of music. I haven't finished reading this one yet but it looks like it should be fun.

The furoku this month was just awsome. A Love Berrish tin pencil case that is just sooo kool and pretty. It has multiple layers/compartments and is painted in such pretty colours. In addition to the pencil case there was Star Blacks stationary and a Shinshi Doumei Cross punch out wall hanging thing (uuh I can't remember what exactly it's called). All in all this was a great issue!

MARLA THE CHIPMUNK

This past Friday I had my little surgery to take out my upper M2's. Why M2's and not wisdom teeth you ask? Well, for some reason my M2's (or 12 year molars) never decided to come down on the top and just recently changed direction and started growing into the roots of my upper M1's. The dentist and oral surgeon both seemed to think that if I left them in they would likely cause major problems for me in the future. Sooo, I decided I'd have them removed. To be quite honest I was rather scared about the whole thing. I'd never had any kind of surgery before and definitely had never been put to sleep.

Friday morning I was feeling a little nervous and when it came time for me to go into the "opperating room" I kinda felt like backing out. I was in a corner room with windows on two walls and it was raining. Sitting on the chair waiting for the doctor I started to think.. damn I got to get the hell out of here. But then the doctor came in and that was that. There was no turning back. He put this mask over my face which gave me a combination of oxygen and laughing gas and then started to get the IV ready. The gas didn't really do anything right away except smell a little funny, and I couldn't help but wonder how many dirty faces it was placed on hehehe I'm such a freak. After about a minute I started to get a little tingly (like when you wake up on an arm that has no blood in it anymore). The doctor at this point told me that he was putting in the IV. It didn't hurt at all and actually went in at the inside of my elbo (I thought it was going to be on the back of my hand). He then told me he was putting in the drug and then I was out. The next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room and the dental assistant telling me I was leaving (talk about kicking you out fast). She changed my gauze one last time and I was out the door. I don't actually recall walking out of the office but I do remember getting into the car and then going to sleep. By the time I got home I could start to feel some pain so I took one of my pain killers. Things were going relatively OK for a while. I was changing my gauze every half hour and spitting up all kinds of blood (lovely thought isn't it?) but I wasn't really feeling any pain. All that changed when I took my fist penicillan. The damn pills made me horribly sick. I ended up shaking and laying on the bathroom floor for about a half hour. I finally started to feel a little better and then all of a sudden I felt the urge to throw up. I ran to the washroom and in the process knocked over the bottle of penicillan into the sink where I proceeded to through up on the pills. The whole thing kinda makes me laugh. I managed to salvage 15 of the 30 pills so now I'm gonna have to explain to the doctor why I need more. After a while I got used to the penicillan and things haven't been to rough since. I've been living on all soft foods, which has been great cuz I get lots of ice cream but bad cuz I can't eat italian bread (well the crust anyway). My face swelled up like a balloon a day after the opperation. I looked like Monica on Friends when she was wearing that fat suit. Everyone in my family kept saying I looked like a chipmunk. The swelling has steadily been going down but now my cheeks looks kinda bruised and there are these yellow lines under my eyes. I hope by tomorrow things will be considerably better since I have a job interview (yay!) and I don't want to have to cake on the make-up but at this rate it looks like I'll probably have to. Anyhoo, that's been my ordeal so far. I'm going back to the doctor tomorrow morning for a check-up so hopefully everything is healing well.

I'm a little behind on my September Ribon entry but it should be coming up soon. The furoku this month was just awsome!

CNANIME 2005

This past weekend I attended my second anime convention of the year. CNanime was held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Front Street between Union Station and the CNTower. It was a three day event that was combined with a bunch of other conventions: Horror, Sci-Fi, Gaming, and Comics, so the venue was quite large and there were a lot of people. This being my second convention I already had some idea of what to expect. The anime part of the convention was very similar to Anime North though I found that there were significantly less things to do at this convention than the previous. In general there were very few events/panels/workshops compared to Anime North. There was also less anime showings. Of course there were the other parts of the convention to consider and the amount of rooms available so obviously there would be less. In any case I had a very enjoyable weekend and always had something to do.

Friday

I arrived Friday night at around 5:30pm and waited in a line-up to pay my $45.00 entrance fee for the weekend. The line actually wasn't all that bad since I showed up a little late. After that I headed up stairs to the very large dealers room/artists alley/gaming area/signature area/industry preview area... haa I think I got them all in there.



I spent a couple of hours wandering around, checking out prices and thinking about the stuff I wanted to buy. I did happen to see the new Fruits Basket plushies and I was quite disappointed. The quality is quite poor compared the the Banpresto ones so I didn't end up buy any. In fact I didn't buy any plushies since none or very few were actual UFO catchers from Japan.



After I short while I heard an announcement saying that angela (a j-pop group) were now signing autographs at the Geneon booth so I went over and got myself an autograph and a handshake with atsuko and katsu. The both of them were super nice and very friendly.



After getting my autograph I headed downstairs to watch The count of Monte Cristo. I had heard some bad things about this show but after watching the first two episodes I didn't think it was all that bad and actually wanted to stay and watch more however, I had to get over to the line up for anime name that tune which was being held in the smallest room and just about everyone wanted to see it. I guess I got in line early enough cuz I got in but the huge line of people behind me weren't that lucky. The game was pretty good and I actually knew a lot more of the songs at this anime name that tune then I had at the anime north version. After the game I headed home for the night since there really wasn't much else to do.

Saturday

Saturday morning I arrived a bit late... actually I'd probably call it Saturday afternoon/late morning. The first thing I did was attend an hour and a half voice acting working which was actually a lot of fun. We did warm up exercises and learned a bit of stuff. Then of course there were volunteers who went up on stage and did little performances. After the workshop, I once again I spent some time in the dealers room and bought some stuff. Then it was time for a quick lunch before lining up for the angela concert. The concert started at 4:00pm and was my favourite part of the convention. They sang around 7 songs I think. The first two I hadn't heard before then they did the ED for Stellvia, the OP for Eva, the ED for Fafner, the OP for Fafner and did the Stellvia OP for an encore. It was great fun! They had everyone dancing along with them, clapping and whistling. During a mini intermission they taught the audience the word MOE, which atsuko explained meant very very very cute... like me! (that's what she said hehehe). They had the whole audience saying it, it was quite funny.



After the concert I headed over to theatre 4 to check out the only anime playing at that time that I hadn't ever seen (or even heard of). I'm so glad I went to watch it cuz I thought it was just hilarious. GENSHIKEN is basically about these nerdy otaku guys who had this little club. I guess it's just a slice of life anime but it had me in stiches so I most definitely will be watching the rest of it. That was the end of day two for me.

Sunday

This morning I was up bright an early so I could be downtown for 11:00am. Today was probably the busiest for me since there was a lot of things I wanted to see. At 11:00am I went to anime win lose or draw which was a lot of fun adn was bascially just pictionary but with anime titles. After that I went to the angela question and answer session. It was actually very interesting and while I didn't ask any questions there were plenty of people that had them. We learned that the name angela came from a Motley Crew song title (apparently they really like that band). The two of them met in highschool and used to be in rival bands. When they did get together a record label didn’t pick them up for a very long time (I think it was like 10 years or something) and they actually used to play on the street. Ther wer aton of other questions but I really can't remember them all. After that session I went over the Geneon panel. It was all right. There was a Q & A session then they played some preview for upcoming anime that they are releasing. The best part of the panel was the free stuff. I won myself a t-shirt playing rock paper scissors! Once the panel ended I got myself some street meat for lunch (a.k.a a hot dog) and then headed back inside to watch Kodosha. It appears to be a very cute and funny series so I'll probably see if I can get my hands on some more episodes. By the time it was finished it was 5:00pm so I headed up stairs for one last look at the dealers room. I was hoping there would be some last minute sales but alas there were none so I headed home.

Impression

While I did enjoy the convention there were some things that just could have been done better. First and most importantly, the viewing rooms were way too small and there wern't enough. Many times there would be a big event crammed into the smallest room so hardly no one would be able to get in. If you really wanted to see something you would have to line up hours before the show. Then of course because there weren't a lot of things going on, everyone wanted to get into the same event. I don't think this part of the convention was very well thought out at all. Other than that I don't have a lot of complaints though the isle size was very small in the dealers room so this made it difficult just to walk down them during peak hours. Sooo, I guess what I'm saying is... they needed a better venue...

My stuff

I spent way too much this weekend. It doesn't look like a got a whole lot but that Fruits Basket box set cost me $90.00 (Canadian). Since this is the cheapest I have ever seen it I decided to pick it up... It is my favourite series after all. The manga was all $11.00 a piece, which is signficantly less than the Canadian cover price so I decided to pick some up. I got myself Imadoki v.2, Fullmetal Alchemist v.2, Tsubasa v.4, Fullmoon v.1, and Ultra Manic v.1. I most definitely will not be spending more money in the near future.

HELLO DOLLY

This past Tuesday I was invited to go watch Hello Dolly in Stratford with Christina, her mom, aunt, cousin Laura, grandmother, Lisa and Tania. It was an absolutely wonderful day, I had such a good time. It started off around eight in the morning when we all made the journey out to Stratford. We arrived around 10:30am and walked around in city until lunch at 12. Of course we all went and bought some chocolate to share and spent a little time in the very cool little toy store they have there. We ate lunch at an inn which gave us a great idea for a mastercard commercial involving tea shots... that's right shots of tea. The play started at 2:00pm and was around two and a half hours. It was just amazing. It was a musical and revolved around the matching skills of a lady named Dolly. I guess it was sort of a romance comedy. The Dolly character was definitely the best in the show and the lady who played her did a really great job. After the play we headed home and took an accidental twenty minute detour but it was all great fun. The next stratford trip will be in the middle of September and we'll be seeing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Hopefully it will be another great day.

Sooo, speaking of dollies, here is a picture of my new fruits basket UFO catchers Kyou and Tohru. Kyou just arrived yesterday and I just love him. I think they're both just so cute and now I want the whole collection. I don't think I'll be able to afford it so I'll probably just end up getting the cheap knock-offs that GE animation is releasing this year. Yuki and Shigure have already been released so I'll probably see some at CNanime next weekend. I might even buy them... if they aren't too horrible.



Yesterday my free ipod shuffle came in the mail. I was playing around with it all day today and it's really great. It's a tiny little thing but it'll hold 100 or so songs so it's really all you need (well all that I need anyway). We got it free because it was a promotional offer for switching to TD bank. It worked out great since my mom had just about had it with bank of montreal so she switched and I got an ipod... I love free stuff!

The kitchen guys are supposed to show up tomorrow to install part of our kitchen... I have my doubts but I'm crossing my fingers. It's really getting ridiculous now, I mean how long can you live in a basement?

AUGUST RIBON

I guess this will be a really short post since I don't have anything new to talk about. So here we go, the August edition of Ribon. This months furoku included two small containers of blue (Starblacks) and pink (Ageha 100%) nail polish, a Shinshi Doumei Cross nail file, stickers to go on your nails, an extra story book, and a Chocomimi dress up sticker card. It was a pretty good furoku lot (especially the nail polish) but it's next month that I'm really exited for. A whole new story plus a tin pencil case!! I can't wait for it to come out!