kerikeri

So... PAX East. I'm still feeling the post-con crash pretty hard, but I want to talk about it while it's still fresh in my mind.

I had a good time overall. There were some definite hiccups, due to the noob factor (most of us had never been to a gaming con before, and it was the first time this convention had ever been held on the east coast as well) and just some bad luck, but it was a surprisingly enjoyable experience anyway.

We got in very late on Thursday... as in 5 am late (we didn't end up leaving Buffalo until after 9 pm because of my brilliant boyfriend almost forgetting his passes, Guy's girlfriend having a minor crisis, and so on). The trip there was pretty fun-- I played a bunch of Phoenix Wright on my new DS (sold my old one to Chris and bought a shiny blue DSi), and Guy told us horrible stories about the creepiest girl in the entire universe (trust me, you don't want to know). We got to the hotel and tried to get some sleep before the festivities started the next day.

( Friday )

( Saturday )

( Sunday )

And... now I'm back, and still feeling sad that it's all over. I hope I can go next year-- I've already heard it's going to be held in a larger venue, which I think will really help with the wait times/difficulty getting into panels, and hopefully they'll get some of the organization stuff together as well. I think it'd be better next time because we'd know a little better how things work, as opposed to just figuring it out as the con was ending. I hadn't realized that everything needed to be planned out in advance, and there are so many different things to do that it's hard to keep a group together because it's unlikely that everyone will want to do the same things.

But I had fun and it was amazing to be around so many other nerds-- gaming/geeky shirts everywhere, memes being quoted in the hallway, awesome cosplay (there was a tiny girl dressed as Pyramid Head! Splicers from Bioshock! A guy in the yellow foam mask from Dead Rising! A steampunk jetpack!)... it's tough to be back in the real world now. Is it spring 2011 yet? :(

THIS. This is the most true thing ever.

It's all brilliant, but #2 is so, so perfect. Finally some recognition of the thinking woman's heartthrobs. <3 <3 <3 <3

So sleepy, srsly. And there's a novel in my head that wants to be written but doesn't want to be bothered with pesky stuff like well-rounded characters and a coherent plot. Sigh. I wish I could shut off my self-criticism long enough to just write something and not worry about the quality...

I saw Star Trek today. To disclaim, I am not a Star Trek fan. I haven't seen much of the original series, but I've always found the spinoff series (especially Next Gen) kind of flat and boring and plastic-- the characters don't have enough personality and the world just doesn't feel real to me.

That said... THIS FILM IS INCREDIBLE. It's thrilling, it's moving, it's funny, it's got big splodey action and gorgeously nuanced characterization coexisting perfectly... it's probably the best time I've had at the movie theater in years.

( commentary with spoilers )

I highly recommend you all go see it ASAP, whether you're a Trek fan or not. I already can't wait for the next film, and I'm not sure anything else coming out this summer can possibly even come close to topping this one for me. (Though is it sad that I want to see the G.I. Joe movie because it looks big and dumb and shiny and it has Christopher Eccleston as a bad guy?)

New guilty pleasure! I just caught up on the first episode of Harper's Island, that new summer mystery series on CBS, in time to watch the second one tonight. It's pretty bad. Most of the acting is pretty laughable, the script's cheesy and it's full of horror/mystery/soap-opera cliches. And I looooove it. I think I'm enjoying it so much because it's basically a TV version of one of those terrible old R.L. Stine teen horror novels I used to love. A bunch of friends with overwrought secrets in a secluded setting being killed off one by one? So Fear Street.

Plus, it's full of minor-league TV actors I recognize! Christopher Gorham, who is always super adorable, and Ruby and Bobby from Supernatural, and the chef from Eureka, and the annoying boyfriend from The Best Years (speaking of terrible guilty pleasure TV >.>)... and, heh, Aaron Echolls, but yeah, about that. ...And I need a life. XD

Also, I need to share this video. Because it's adorable and amazing.



It will live in your head forever. I almost don't even think the actual game can live up to how cool this is.

It's here. April 12th, 2003. It was a lyrics meme, and the subject line was "Meh." Maybe I haven't really changed that much in six years. >.>

And I guess two days ago was my six-year LJ anniversary. I haven't posted constantly for all that time, but this journal has seen me through two degrees, several jobs, five or six romantic entanglements, and a lot of drama and turmoil. It's probably a bit self-centered, but I like having a chronicle of my life that I can look back on, and it's been good to have a place to work through emotions and vent and sometimes even get support/input from others. Here's to more years to come, though hopefully my good luck will continue and they'll be more stable ones. *knocks on wood*

On a totally different note, my faith in humanity has been utterly destroyed by TLC. Didn't that used to stand for The Learning Channel? Now it's full of terrifying shows about people with approximately seven zillion children. The Duggars scare the living shit out of me. I respect people's decisions and I try to be open-minded with regards to those who follow religious traditions I don't believe in or agree with, but... these people are really like aliens to me. How incredibly sheltered the kids are (they don't even seem to have any exposure to non-Christian popular culture or people who aren't just like them), and their practically sociopathic devotion to camera-whoring (the grandfather was dying of cancer and they were dragging him around and shoving cameras and lights in his face and talking quite calmly about how Grandpa's illness would really bring the family together... it was actually really disgusting). Also, they think Kirk Cameron is a "major Hollywood star." Um. Ha. I actually just feel sorry for most of the kids, and I really hope a few of them manage to rebel and learn to think for themselves someday.

The shows about people with weird medical conditions creep me out, too. It's just this very uncomfortable, awkward balance between "heartwarming story of courage against the odds" and "hey, look at the freak." I don't really know what the motivation for putting such things on TV is, or what the proper response is. Other than... changing the channel to something less bizarre and disquieting. Like Aqua Teen Hunger Force. >.>

Did get around to watching "Planet of the Dead." I... am not exactly sure if I liked it!

( spoilers for PotD and the preview for the next episode )

Well, this is about 45 kinds of bullshit. (Especially with this additional detail, because... yeah. Wow. Award-winning literary explorations of GLBT themes are apparently unacceptable pornography now. AWESOME. Never realized I was reading filthy smut unsuitable for the masses when I was assigned Winterson in one of my undergrad English classes! PROTECT THE CHILDREN.)

Amazon, stop failing at life plz. >.>

(at some point I need to get out of bed, and go visit my family, and maybe watch the Doctor Who special jfpbookworm so kindly acquired for us. But blaaaaargh. Am teh zmobie. I am so tired lately and it sucks. XP

weekend has been okay, not much to say about it really. went geocaching. saw Chris, but he's very stressed about school and his crazy overprotective family as usual. had to pay my taxes for the entire year... bank account has a sad. am getting addicted to the Dresden Files, finally, although... maybe it's just that I'm used to modern paranormal fantasy series being very female-driven, but he could do with a little less "I am a manly man full of masculinity" every three pages. and I still think Susan sucks and Murphy is way more awesome and should be the canon love interest, just like I did in the TV series. buuuuttt I've only read the first book so we'll see.)

The Tor.com blog is made of so much win today. Among the highlights: "PETA Unsure About Furries"; "Fox Cancels Joss Whedon"; and my personal favorite, "Fiction World Rocked as Woman Claims No Sexual Attraction to Neil Gaiman". (someone totally needs to write Britgeeksexgod: The Story of How Hot Neil Gaiman Is forrealz.)

Also, this morning the main page of TV Tropes was redirecting to this page. Which I encourage all of you to visit. Especially thegreyarcher. :)

Back from sectionals. It was... fairly average, as sectionals go. I had fun, bonded with people (in some cases by having them make fun of me nonstop, KATE AND LISA :P), learned an awesomely inappropriate new icebreaker game ("...it was the size of a small child!" rofl), did some geocaching... and drank waaaaaay too much on Saturday night. x.x I need my tolerance back, srsly. I had two relatively strong drinks and three shots, and that was enough to put me in spaced-out, can't close my eyes or the room will start spinning mode. And this morning I felt like death, and I never used to get hangovers no matter how much I drank or how little water I had with it. I don't think I like getting old. *pouts*

The conference itself was... ehhh, honestly not great. The meetings were scheduled way too late so we weren't able to get ready for banquet on time (though admittedly we would've been okay were it not for the most epic failure of an attempt to go to Walmart of all time, which I will explain in comments if anyone really wants to know... or just ask Kate and Lisa about how I almost had to kill them and was placated with hush puppies), and for the banquet itself we were squished into a tiny room that didn't even fit everyone... and once again the dance sucked. Is it so hard to get a DJ who plays dance music for a dance? Like, dance music that anyone who isn't into obscure house/techno/rap/whatever the hell he was playing has ever heard of? NOT THAT HARD, PEOPLE.

But really, the point was to see everyone and hang out and have fun, so... mission accomplished, pretty much. It's still a little weird for me, being in a relationship outside of APO and going to conferences, with all the flirting and tension and other people hooking up, but I know it's worth it (not gonna give up a happy steady relationship just to have fun a few times a year at conferences, obviously) so I'll deal. And it's not like hooking up with random people has ever gotten me anywhere good anyway, with my excessively romantic tendencies. x.x There are a few things I'm still... curious about, I suppose, but I have to remember it's basically a moot point anyway so I shouldn't worry about it much. It's just... weird, not bad weird, but weird. Eh.

Anyway... of course, there were many epic (or should I say feckic?) moments as usual. Lisa deciding that my boyfriend doesn't exist... the horrible, horrible conversation involving alligators that somehow resulted from me misquoting a Quiznos ad... playing the pickup truck game and the "figure out what the license plate stands for" game, fitting 7 people into my car to go geocaching, the aforementioned epic Walmart fail, Joe and "that's great!", Kate and Russ doing the maturity dance... probably lots of others I'm forgetting. Oh sectionals, were it not for you it would take us much longer to come up with new inside jokes :)

Now I will find some way to kill about 40 more minutes until Chris comes over (yes, at midnight... CS majors have weird homework schedules). Or doesn't come over, because apparently he's imaginary :P

Just got back from a free advance screening of Adventureland. It was pretty good, aside from the fact that the copy we watched had scenes out of order in the middle of the movie, which made it very confusing when a character who had already appeared repeatedly in several scenes suddenly made a grand entrance half an hour later. Nevertheless, I liked it. Great 80s soundtrack (and major major props for using "Don't Dream It's Over" in a romantic scene <33333), Ryan Reynolds in one of his now-patented sleazeball roles, and Kristen Stewart unsurprisingly much better-cast as an angry rebellious stoner type than as Stephenie Meyer's Mary Sue Bella Swan. And I kind of loved the protagonist-- he's an adorably innocent, hopelessly romantic lit major, so of course I approve.

Don't let the advertising fool you, though-- it's really not as much of a goofy comedy as the trailers have made it seem. It's more of a quirky romance that happens to have funny scenes, more akin to Juno than Anchorman or Dodgeball, and the relationship drama gets a lot more screentime than the "wacky antics at an amusement park" aspect (aside from a handful of scenes, working at the park could've been replaced by almost any other crappy min-wage job without changing the film much). Still, cute, and I wouldn't have regretted paying to see it.

I've been craving horrible fast food for the past two days. I think I finally got it out of my system by having McDonald's for dinner tonight. Not that what I normally eat is stupendously healthy, but at least I usually don't eat much fast food. Now I feel pretty disgusting, but at least I'm not having random urges to go get a cheeseburger in the middle of the night anymore.

...um, does anyone know who aidatu is? Seems to have friended a bunch of Fredonia and APO people, including me, but the journal appears to be some kind of really emo creative writing interspersed with random spam about some work-from-home thing. And it's friendslocked. *confused* Friending troll, or someone we know being weird?

Blah. Bored. Wish I knew for sure what my weekend plans will be, but I guess there's still time. Maybe I'll go read.