James in words.

getting ready for Christmas

2009-12-24T03:08:12Z

another busy weekend of holiday parties and getting some shopping done.

last friday, we went out to dinner with Charlene and Roland, and then went played some pool. it's been a while since i had played some pool, but i got a couple good shots. and a couple good scratches.

on saturday, we had double parties to go to - Matt had his 'i'm free of my job' party, and we had a grill going and played some Cornhole beanbag toss and had a good time. then we went to Marisa's party, and had Feuerzangenbowle and got to talk with some friends whom i hadn't seen in a while, like Janet, and Patrick, and Barbara.

sunday we slept in, and did a little shopping, then went to church, and went out to dinner afterward with Tom and Nancy and Andrea and Anne.

monday i pretty much worked on the indiana jones wikia all day, writing some new articles.

tuesday, i hung out with my brother, who is back in town for the holidays, and today, whitney took off from work and so we finished our shopping.

weekend fun

2009-12-14T22:52:09Z

oh christmas time, when there are lots of fun social things to do as we approach the holidays.

last friday it was pretty rainy, but it didn't stop me from going with Martha to go see 2012 using some movie passes for a matinee. awesome awesome awesome. and we ran a few errands, like dropping off my window screen to get it re-screened.

friday night was Kary's tree trimming party, and whitney and i whipped up another batch of apple-pear salad to take (after several trips to the store to get all the ingredients - oddly enough Henry's didn't have any Havarti). lots of fun hanging around with some friends, and frozen margaritas and chips from El Indio to top it off.

saturday was the annual Geekmas celebration at Dan & Debby's house. whitney and i made a new batch of apple-pear salad and i threw together a green bean casserole at the last minute and we went up to their place, where we had a huge feast of meats, and desserts, and other yummy stuff, and we played some Ticket to Ride, Dominion, Word on the Street and Backseat Drawing. lots of fun and a huge amount of people around the dinner table, which literally took up the entire dining room/kitchen.

sunday i went over to help my sister and parents set up the christmas tree - the only rain we got on sunday was at the same moment that we needed to bring the tree in from the van to the house. the tree was decorated and plans for going to china in the spring were discussed. sunday after mass, whitney and i tried to go to pastalini but they were closed, so we opted for the KFC next door to it, and came home and watched Friday's Dollhouse and some other shows that had been taped that week.

Misled again!

2009-12-12T21:11:10Z

so the other night we had to go to Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up more curtain panels (since the amount we initially bought was insufficient), and we decided to go to the nicer mission valley store instead of the mira mesa one.

so we decided to get dinner down that way as well, and why not find a restaurant that is on the Rapid Rewards Dining List (to help work towards earning frequent flyer points). so we look up on the list and find a quick serve Thai place, ra-ka-de-ka, at the east end of Friars Road.

and we get there, and order our food, and wouldn't you know - they take Visa and Mastercard. and not American Express, which is what i have linked to the Rapid Rewards program. but at least the food was good and the portions were on the large side, leaving whitney with some leftovers. but the whole point of going there....

Misled!

at least it was not as bad as the Carl's Jr. / Discover card incident:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/carls-jr-san-diego#hrid:nG-HxK34HCmB8R28yb8g4A

random thought on windows 7

2009-12-10T01:12:52Z

Windows 7 was recently released. but is it really properly named/numbered?

back in the early 90s we had Windows 3.1
then we had Windows 95
then we had Windows 98
then we had Windows ME, which was mostly was a stopgap
then we had Windows XP
then we had Windows Vista
and now we have Windows 7.

If you are counting along with me, Windows 7 should be at least Windows 8, and depending on how you count Windows ME, it could even be Windows 9.

So is the name just marketing - trying to go back to version roots (albeit not entirely truthfully) and using a lucky number that hasn't been really used for an operating system (i recall when Mac pushed out OS 8 with some fanfare, and then OS X (ten)).

or are they pretending that Vista never happened...

looking at the History of Windows wiki entry... apparently Windows 95 was Windows 4.0, Windows 98 was 4.1 and Windows ME was 4.9, making XP = 5, Vista = 6, and thus 7 = 7. but since the general public didn't see or use those version numbers.... they could probably have called it any number they wanted and then justified it with all the billions of updates, service packs, etc. that have come out.

being sick is no fun.

2009-11-26T02:32:46Z

wow. it's been a while since i've posted anything on here about what's going on with me. basically, there was the San Diego Rocket Race, and then i got sick. i also started work at the Registrar of Voters as a trainer for a recall election coming up in december. and im sick.

The Rocket Race - apparently we made the clues a little tougher for this year, as 7 of the 12 teams competing managed to get to the finish line in time. although a few of them were closing in on the finish when we had to call the race due to sundown. we also had a bit more driving for teams, as they started in coronado, went to imperial beach, otay, up to little italy, then out to kensington, kearny mesa and the finish in mira mesa. hopefully they all had fun. and PG had come to town to help us as race volunteers so we joined them for dinner in mira mesa along with some of our other volunteers and racers.

the next day, my little sore throat hit hard, and i was pretty much out of it with a cold for that week. sore throat changed to a runny nose, and jennifer gave me a couple packets of Emergen-C. started to feel better by sunday, and even got in a partial round of disc golf with Matt at morley field before heading off to church.

monday i started my train-the-trainer sessions at the ROV, where we would get to see the new training materials and learn it in a week (normally they allocate 2 weeks for this process, but since they were only bringing in 1 team (3 people) this time, they figured we could learn the new format easier - they've shortened the class from 4 hours to 2 hours, and shifted some of the material to mandatory online class. the room is poorly heated, and i started to get a cough, as did one of my teammembers. by thursday, we were both feeling realy shabby, though i had started with ricola and tea during the day, and cough syrup at night. friday, a day off, i stayed in bed all day and had a fever in the midafternoon. over the weekend i just stayed in mostly, although we ran a few errands and got whitney's cross-stitch project framed finally. she had finished it months and months ago, but it was a sale at the Frame-it-yourself store that lured us into finally getting it on the wall.

we had borrowed the game "Race for the Galaxy" from some friends, and taught ourselves how to play. While whitney won the first game, i managed to come out the victor for like the next ten or twelve over the next few days. undaunted by her streak, whitney really enjoyed the game and maybe in the past three days has been luckier in her card draws. one chair seems to be luckier at the table. stayed home from church and my fan force meeting.

monday was the dress rehearsal at work and that went well, though i felt all hot and sweaty - combination of nervousness and the lingering illness, which started shifting from cough to runny nose. tuesday was the day that we were planning to drive up to the bay area for the thanksgiving holiday, but it seemed like it would be better for me not to drive but to stay home, so we will be celebrating thanksgiving with my family.

i managed to see a doctor this morning. it seemed i had a cold the first week, and then a flu now, which i am likely coming out of. hopefully i'll be mostly well by the time i start teaching classes next week. i'm bummed because i had set up a meeting with the company that i have been doing some online community moderation volunteer work for, since they are headquartered in the bay area, and had to cancel it because of being sick.

also, i really want to see 2012. does anyone want to go see it with me, once i am recovered?

as for the world of TV:
* Heroes - the Hiro arc has been good, but why why why did Mohinder have to come back? the Sylar/Nathan stuff is way too soap opera. why do i watch?
* V - this week's finale seemed a letdown. the visitor's big plot? contaminate our flu vaccines. stopped. their plan to give us free health care. stupid long lines. and you'd think that even if they are our our diplomatic allies, we'd tell them, "Could you mind parking your ship in a slightly safer place, instead of directly over Manhattan - you're blocking our light!"
* Venture Brothers - yay. some truly crazy stuff has been going on this season. this past week with Doc's therapy group trying to solve the case while Hatred takes the boys to the movies was awesome. but where's Dr. Orpheus this season?
* Stargate Universe - been quite enjoyable. their body-swapping alien communication devices have definitely opened up a can of worms for the characters.
* Mad Men - so glad they ended the season in december 1963 and not november 1963. go team Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce! this past season was a little odder than previous ones, but always good drama.
* Star Wars: The Clone Wars - been really enjoying it this season. the show still has hiccups with plot but the stories have been a lot more intense. and this past week, zombie bugs!

Remembrance Day

2009-11-11T23:13:22Z

In Flanders Fields
by Lt - Colonel John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

---
America's Answer
by R. W. Lilliard

Rest ye in peace, ye Flanders dead,
The fight that ye so bravely led,
We've taken. ; And we will keep,
True faith with you who lie asleep,
With a cross to mark his bed,
In Flanders fields.

Fear not that ye have died for naught,
The torch ye threw to us we caught,
Ten million hands will hold it high,
And freedom's light shall never die!
We've learned the lesson that ye taught,
In Flanders fields.

Ewoks!

2009-11-05T00:11:06Z

P1010219
Originally uploaded by jawajames

We ran into some natives on our trip...

halloween and other stuff

2009-11-03T20:24:31Z

last friday, we hosted the San Diego FanForce halloween party at our house. our club's main tradition for halloween is that since we do star wars the whole year, we don't do it for halloween, so we had lots of non-SW costumes... like Batman, and Ben 10, and from Final Fantasy and some fairies, and a pirate, and a road construction worker, and a bumblebee. two of us carved pumpkins, and rest of us enjoyed a lot of snack food. one chair went, but we have a history of losing those stupid old chairs during halloween parties.

saturday midday, we went to a small wedding of my dad's cousin Pete. he and his new wife live in Los Alamos, but they picked to have their wedding in San Diego, down at the Marine Room in La Jolla. it was mostly family - i got to meet a lot of the bride's cousins and nieces and nephews and such, and a few friends from Los Alamos. we took some nice photos out on the beach. one of Naishing's nieces served as the country-deputized officiant, and they said their vows in the restaurant. nice food.

in the evening, we went out to Mr. Dumpling to celebrate Booboo's birthday. my parents had been there before, as had whitney, but it was the first time for me and jennifer and darren and booboo. they somehow thought we wanted it spicy, and the chicken dish came covered in giant raked pile of dried red pepper bits. good dumplings, good lion's head, good tofu, i should go yelp it, although darren already beat me to it. because we were at dinner, we missed giving out treats to the trick-or-treaters, although Jon and Leah stopped by before we left for dinner so that Gabe and DanniLu could see some friends while all costumed up.

sunday, we did a test run of the San Diego Rocket Race and skipped church.

monday, i continued to prep for the rocket race, assembling some materials. in the mid afternoon, i received a UPS package.. hooray, it's the toilet seat that i had ordered from The Home Depot (because the store doesn't stock the color that matches our toilet). oh no! it's not a toilet seat... it's a kitchen faucet set, with sprayer hose and soap dispenser. lame. the packing slip says it's a toilet seat. so i call up home depot, and they want me to bring the faucet set back so they can re-order my toilet seat. i go in, and they re-order the seat... and it will take 2-3 weeks instead of the 4 days it was originally going to take, because they are now out of stock (likely because the one they had, they shipped to someone who wanted a kitchen faucet set). warehouse error not in my favor. meh.

visiting with whitney's folks...

2009-10-27T00:59:52Z

so whitney's parents were in town this past weekend, and we took them around town and ate lots.

on friday night, we had dinner with them and my dad at Whisknladle, in La Jolla. seriously good food. Expensive, but quite enjoyable. they had been up to Julian during the day with some other friends, and had brought back 2 apple pies from the Julian Pie Company. so we also had a giant dessert and we showed them the photos from our trip up to Oregon and the redwoods.

on saturday, we went to the USS Midway Museum. it was my first time, and it was pretty neat to check out the different parts of the aircraft carrier, and some of the different aircraft it carries. it is rather amazing that a ship commissioned just after the japanese surrender in WWII would be the same ship that was used in the first wave of Desert Storm's air sorties. a lot of the docents are former Navy, so they put their own experience aboard carriers into the tour guides of the "Island" (bridge, flight control, chart room). the audio tour also adds a lot of personal stories of sailors and pilots aboard the Midway.

for an early dinner, we went to "On the Border", and got some margaritas and food, then came back to our place to play mah jong and eat more pie before bidding farewell.

sunday, i went in search of some plumbing parts and learned... Dixieline is closed on Sundays... so i went to Home Depot instead and ordered a part that will come in a few days. after church, we went out to dinner with Anna and Andrea and Tom and Nancy and Anne and Margo and Andrea, and heard a first hand account of Andrea's flight to Minneapolis and being filmed for news bits the following day - using up some of her 15 minutes of fame, but being seen on the news by her relatives all over the world. then we came back and played some Dominion, with our shiny new card sleeves that finally arrived! can't wait to try out the new Seaside expansion with Jon and Leah later this week.

today, my friend martha came over, and we checked out the exhaust vent on my furnace - i had believed that there was an obstruction in the pipe, and went up on the roof with a plumbing snake to see if i could knock it loose. after snaking the vent, and then blowing air back down it and dropping some objects down it, it seemed like there was nothing in the way. not sure why the gas company thought the pipe was obstructed. then we tried out a Peruvian place for lunch. pretty good and quite reasonable.

reading "Death Troopers"

2009-10-19T22:26:26Z

I just finished reading Death Troopers, the latest Star Wars novel, and first foray into novel-length horror in the Star Wars franchise. Not the first horror in SW, as we had the Goosebumps-inspired "Galaxy of Fear" series for kids some years back, and few comic tales that definitely were going for spooky.

Overall, Joe Schreiber's first SW novel is a quick read, full of action as a small group of survivors on the Imperial prison barge Purge realize that everyone around them is dying of a sickness... and then the bodies disappear.(highlight to read spoilers): because they are now coming after them to eat them. yup, zombies. space zombies that eventually can learn, and use blasters.

I was surprised by the appearance of the characters who were in solitary confinement, and while it was cool to have them, it also added that bubble effect that surround main characters and sometimes really cocky side characters (like Henchmen 21 and 24), and also any Jon Hamm character.

They got me!
Originally uploaded by jawajames

I'm not a big fan of horror (in print or on the screen), although i do like a good zombie flick every now and then (and World War Z). not so big on vampires. actually not true, considering that i have enjoyed Mario Avecedo's works, and of course Buffy. just not the standard romancey vampire stuff. when i was young, i could read something by John Bellairs that would definitely give me chills. this book despite its great imagery really didn't bring those chills to my spine. maybe i'm beyond that. or maybe reading this book in the middle of the day keeps my senses grounded. (although i did entertain the notion that the sound of footsteps approaching my door was not the letter carrier but of doom-bringing monsters). or maybe sci-fi horror is outside my normal scare zone... it's not real cuz it's in space!

Schreiber did throw in a few twists in the right places, so that the novel has a good level of the unpredictability thrown in. He also blends in some things that we don't always get in SW novels: droids just being regular droids, and getting inside the POV of ChewbaccaOverall, an enjoyable page-turner!

where does the time go?

2009-10-13T01:02:26Z

Where does the time go?

I got about half of the photos from our road trip captioned. All of them are up, and I've captioned all of the trip up and all of Oregon. Still need to caption the photos from Redwood National and State Parks and points south.
Check it out here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jawajames/sets/72157622477183760/

Last week, we got to go see "Creditors" at the La Jolla Playhouse. This was the first play I've seen in the Potiker theatre, and we got pretty good seats. "Creditors" was a La Jolla Playhouse world premiere for their commission of Doug Wright's adaptation of the original August Strindberg play. Billed as a "compelling and savagely witty play" where "undercurrents of sexuality, language and economics explode into a tangled web of intrigue, suspicion and revenge in this gripping 19th century psychological thriller.", i felt a little underwhelmed. The acting was quite solid by the three cast members, who played off each other in 3 dialogues. While the revelation near the end might have been bold when Strindberg first wrote the play in 1885, a century of "revelations and twists" made it seem expected. Or perhpas the revelation was to be expected, but the resolution was the key. savagely witty? maybe the first part of it was, but i thought it got a little slow in the middle. one thing that did bug me was that in the program, it mentioned that one of the actors, T. Ryder Smith, was in The Venture Brothers, and i kept listening to his voice, and not his words, trying to figure out what voice he did on VB. (Baron Underbeit)

over the weekend - played some broomball on saturday night with some friends. got a bit sore. played lots of Dominion. went to Emilie's baptism on sunday, and filmed it for Warren and Claire.

been repairing the cracks in the sunroom floor and walls over the past week. at first i was just going to fill the new cracks, but now i am also repairing some of the gaps that i had filled years ago and need to add more to, which is annoying some of the ants who have found holes to get underground.

James & Whitney's big road trip 2009 (part I)

2009-10-06T01:44:09Z

Last month, Whitney and I went on a week-long roadtrip up to Northern California and Oregon. I had been itching to go on a road trip when I had realized that it was the ten-year anniversary of my solo road trip around the American Southwest. This trip wouldn't be as long however, since we had to work around work schedules and such. well, whitney's work schedule, anyway.

We had originally had the idea of visiting Oregon, central Washington and going as far as Glacier National Park in Montana, visiting friends and family along the way, but as we started looking at time constraints, we chose to just stick with a few key places:
- Corvallis, OR, where Whitney's cousin Amy would be starting a professorship at OSU, and my high school friend Tona also teaches.
- Crater Lake in central Oregon
- Redwood country in the northern tip of coastal California

We decided to do some light camping as part of our trip, since we have the gear, and it would save on costs. The weather reports looked like it would be rather hot (90s) in the central parts of California and Oregon, and a little cooler in the coastal areas, so we weren't too worried about cold nights.

Day 1: Sunday, Sept 20
San Diego, CA to Redding, CA
This was to be a day of heavy driving and no real sightseeing. We set out pretty much on time on Sunday morning, and started up I-5. I had made a listing of all the Costco gas stations along our route, for at least getting up to Corvallis, and saw that, along 5, I could probably get from the Burbank costco to the Tracy costco on one tank (which is good because there are none in between). So we stopped in Burbank and topped off, and popped over the Tehachapi mountains and down past Grapevine and into the Central Valley. Sometimes we listened to music, sometimes to podcasts, and sometimes to the road, stopping for lunch at Carl's Jr at the Kettleman City exit. My tiny handrawn map of how to get to the Tracy Costco missed a key point - taking the 580 north, just south of Tracy DOESN'T allow you to then turn east on the 205 to get to the Costco, so we ended up by the windmills outside of Livermore before we could turn around. Luckily, we had enough gas to make it there without fear.

drove through Sacramento, and hit a random midday traffic jam just as we approached the Gold Bridge near downtown. then a stop at the Woodland Costco - last Costco until Medford Oregon. the sun's rays were starting to get pretty angled as we passed through Red Bluff and it was twilight when we reached Redding. We popped off of 5 and went around downtown Redding, looking for a restaurant to eat at. Downtown Redding isn't very big, but their street layout has a couplet of one-way roads that cut around some blocks in an odd way. We passed their very modern and nice looking city hall, but couldn't find a restaurant that looked open. Finally, after coming back up, I spied a place with a neon open sign, and we swung around the block to park at Thai Bistro. Dinner was good, albeit a bit pricier than what was called for. But then again, when you're the only open restaurant on a Sunday night in the downtown Redding area, you can set the prices. After dinner, we got back on the freeway and drove up a few more miles to where we were camping: The Mountain Gate RV Park.

By the time we got in, it was definitely night. We got checked in to our campsite, and set up our tent by my car's headlights, and then inflated our air mattress with the outlet/RV hookup at our campsite. Then we went down to the clubroom to play some Dominion, and the friendly staff mentioned that they had an Atari 2600 and a pile of games. Awesomeness! we busted out some Frogger and Pac-Man and Combat, and whitney even tried her hand at Haunted House and i tried out Raiders of the Lost Ark. some of those old games really make no sense in terms of what you are supposed to be doing at all. after enjoying some of the classics (it's amazing how much better the graphics were for Frogger compared to some of the other games), we played some Dominion, and then watched Mad Men on their large TV. after that, we went back to the tent and i tested out the RV park's wifi while under the stars. Sleeping was bit tough, since the sound of the freeway swept up to our campsite, and then later on in the night, a wind kept shaking the trees around us and our tent. But oh, those stars at night in a place far from a major city.

Mileage for the day: 715 miles.
Counties crossed: San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Kern, Kings, Fresno, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Alameda (oops!) back to San Joaquin, Sacramento, Yolo, Colusa, Glenn, Tehama, Shasta.

Day 2: Monday, Sept 21
Redding, CA to Corvallis, OR

We got up and I took a nice shower in the RV park's marvelous facilities. After a free continental breakfast and a round of tetherball, we packed up the tent and drove back to Redding to check out the Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay Exploration Park. The Bridge, with its green glassy deck, is suspended over the Sacramento River in a nice park area. we walked over and checked the time according to the sundial, which serves both as gnomen and main upright for the bridge cables. We also walked around the eastern part of the McConnell Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. They have a collection of gardens representing different places on earth with Mediterranean climates - in California, along the Pacific Rim, Europe, and South Africa. we found a cool fountain in the Pacific Rim garden, as well as a display of penjing, the Chinese mini-gardens that use rocks, miniature plants, and such to create little dioramas. Whitney spotted a deer just outside the gardens. we crossed back over the bridge to get back to the car, and got back on the road.

We drove over Lake Shasta, which was noticeably not at it's high fill line. The town of Shasta Lake, at the north end of the lake should be called something like Shasta meadows or Shasta-not-quite-near-the-lake, because of the receded shoreline, and then past Mount Shasta and through the town of Weed. We stopped for lunch in Yreka at the Black Bear Diner. Good food, and great "beary" cobbler. mmmm... we rolled ourselves out of there, and i decided to put 2 gallons of gas into the tank just in case we didn't have enough to get to the Medford Costco. We cruised down Main Street Yreka, taking in the sights of the small town and then hopped back on I-5, and kept our northward journey, passing into Oregon. California, as measured by driving I-5 is 796 miles north to south, abouts, and we had pretty much driven it all in that day and previous day.

Going into Oregon, we passed Ashland, where we hit some traffic as there was a wildfire consuming a nearby hillside. We saw helicopters dropping their loads on the fire. We reached Medford, and I pulled off onto Crater Lake Highway to find the Costco amid a sea of big box shopping and light industrial. Oregon... where you can't pump your own gas. The line at the Medford Costco gas station was really long, but we eventually got back on the road. West of Medford, we got off the freeway to pass through the little town of Gold Hill, and drove up a canyon to find the House of Mystery at the Oregon Vortex. The main attraction of the Oregon Vortex is not the tilted old assay office, but the site's ability to mess with your sense of relative heights. Basically, putting two people side to side one way will lead for a different comparison in their heights as opposed to reversing their positions. The Vortex has a 45 minute tour that shows off the vortex's odd effects, and our guide was enthusiastic and knowledgeable.

We got back on the road, with a little detour of construction keeping us off of I-5 for another mile. we passed through the lower Rogue Valley, and went through Grants Pass, and started going through green mountains, passing through Eugene, and coming to the flatter Willamette Valley. As we entered Linn County, I noticed two things: traffic picking up as we entered a more settled area, and that Linn County does a crappy job of maintaining I-5. I could see and feel the worn spots of where tires go versus the quieter patches of concrete when you change lanes. We hopped off of 5 to go to Corvallis, and got a marvelous treat - the sun directly in our eyes as we headed west to Corvallis for 10 miles. cannot see! also, Oregon roads tend not to label themselves.. only the cross streets. So when a road changes name or has a route designation and a road name, you can't tell what it is.

We got to Corvallis, and found Tona's house, where he was repairing one of his bikes. He got us settled in, and gave us a tour of his green back lawn, and the current state of his VW bug, which he used to drive me around in for Cross Country practice and meets in high school. we joined up with Whitney's cousin Amy, and their moms, who were in town driving up to bring Amy some of her gear from Whitney's aunt's house in the bay area and helping her move in. We had a great dinner at one of the finer restaurants of Corvallis, Big River. Good food, local wine, and really great dessert. We ended up being the last ones out of there. The six of us split three desserts, including a fabulous peanut butter cup. Yumminess. After dinner, Tona drove us back to his place, where we played some Mario Kart and he introduced us to Pokemon Puzzle, a simple yet fun head-to-head puzzle game on the N64, and then we went to bed.

Miles driven for the day: 383 miles.
Counties: CA: Shasta, Siskiyou; OR: Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Lane, Linn, Benton.

october - sigh.

2009-10-02T20:56:50Z

it seems mother nature got the calendar change just right - October has started, and the weather is now overcast out, after weeks of hot sun.

i had an interview earlier this week, and i felt pretty good about it. but then again, i've generally felt pretty good about every interview i've ever had, but they all didn't lead to job offers.

this weekend promises to be busy - Pastoral Council formation day tomorrow, and a kid's birthday on sunday afternoon, with some other stuff going on as well.

coming back from our road trip, i decided that after a week of ant-free life on the road, it was time to go full tilt against the ants at home and i bought a new thing of Terro and have been liberally leaving it out for the ants in the sunroom, in our bathroom, and around the perimeter of the house. a few places their numbers have dwindled.

in other news, i narrowly lost re-election for the presidency of San Diego FanForce to miana_dude after a tie vote and trying to dredge up more members to vote. but i ended up as vice-president (since we were both running for both positions). i've been VP or president for the past 2 years... i do sort of wish that more people would step up to take on leadership roles, but i know that in our club we have quite a few members where FanForce comes second after their 501st or Rebel Legion stuff.

haven't finished uploading the trip photos or yelping the places we went yet.

stupid thing of the day: my printer is very low on black ink (so much that the printer was asking me to use the colors to approximate black to conserve black). i get an online coupon from staples to print out to save 10% next week. but i can't print it out since my printer now has officially declared it is empty on black, and won't let me print at all until i change cartridges. chicken, meet egg.

back from our road trip

2009-09-28T18:01:37Z

so we got back from our road trip around midday on saturday - and i had a bunch of things to do over the weekend, so today is the cleaning-up-the-gear-and-putting-things-away day.

here's where we went:
The Sundial Bridge, Redding, CA
The House of Mystery at the Oregon Vortex, Gold Hill, OR
Corvallis, OR (visit friends and family)
Silver Falls State Park, OR
Crater Lake National Park, OR
Redwood National & State Parks, CA
"Old Faithful of California" Geyser, Calistoga, CA
Thousand Oaks, CA (visit friends)

lots of driving over the course of a week, especially on the first day (San Diego to Redding) and on Friday (Willits to Thousand Oaks).

more to come on the adventure..

Star Tours posters...

2009-09-19T00:36:56Z

So StarWars.com does a little retrospective on the various posters associated with Star Tours
http://www.starwars.com/vault/collecting/news20090918.html?page=1

(this is on the heels of the announcement that Star Tours will be closed in October 2010 so that Star Tours II can be installed in 2011 with super 3-d coolness).

Anyway, their retrospective takes a look at some of my favorite Star Wars posters that i actually own: some of the Star Tours travel posters from the late 80s.

In 1989, I went to Disneyland with my 8th grade class and spent some of the scant money i had on 2 of the posters - the Endor and Tatooine ones. Even then, I wished I could afford the whole set (of 6). I even remember choosing the natural Endor poster over the Ewok village celebration poster. Years later, I'd go to disneyland, and they'd have jumbo versions of the poster in the ride exit area, but the store staff would confirm that they didn't sell the travel posters anymore.

when i went off to college, i posted my Endor and Tatooine posters on the walls of my freshman dorm room, along with maps of Yosemite and Yellowstone.

Years later, I've gotten the two posters framed. Still haven't figured out where to hang them in the house, but they are the only SW posters that meet with the wife's approval to hang in the public parts of the house. (Not even the SW: Magic of Myth exhibition from the Field Museum exhibition poster makes that cut). So for right now, they are resting on the ground at the end of the hall.

maybe it's time to find some mounting hooks...

a few random things

2009-09-15T03:24:20Z

1. i managed to cut my finger trying to get the cap off of a bashed in jug of orange juice. i didn't realize i was cut until 10 minutes later.

2. anyone else see Mad Men last night - the show took an interesting turn with Bets' visions during childbirth. but what does it mean?

3. we planned out our itinerary for our road trip up the coast next week. going to Oregon. we'll probably have to sell our oxen and be forced to shoot squirrels for food, and then die of dysentery. wait.. no.. we're going to Oregon, not playing Oregon Trail. we'll be visiting Corvallis, Crater Lake, and hitting the Redwoods on the way back.

4. i started filling in the cracks in the sunroom floor, although i am running out of the crack-sealing concrete compound.

5. leftover Thai food. yum!

reading in the late summer: "Relic", "Map of Bones", "Fate of the Jedi: Abyss"

2009-09-09T02:34:03Z

so recently i've been doing a little reading...

Relic
by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Yes, this is the novel that the movie of the same name is loosely based. I was a bit leery too, but Sam at Mysterious Galaxy recommended this book to me, over my objections about the crappy movie. The novel primarily takes place at the New York Museum of Natural History, where the displays come to life at night... i mean, something mysterious brutally kills a few people as the museum prepares for the opening of an exhibit on "Superstition", with the highlighted artifact being a unique statue brought back from the wilds of the Amazon, and is said to be cursed. There's a bunch of likable characters, and despicable characters as well, and as the museum has their gala opening, everything goes all Jurassic Park, and there's a monster loose in the blacked-out museum. Enjoyable thrill ride, with page turning action.

Map of Bones
By James Rollins
I'd been entertained by the first two Rollins novels I'd read, "Sandstorm" and "Amazonia", and so was ready for another dose of adventure with "Map of Bones". It definitely delivered, as I read most of it on my flight out to Gencon. A grisly massacre in a German cathedral starts off a quest by an American elite soldier-scientist squad to figure out what is going on with the theft of the bones of the Magi, and race against an ancient order planning on using the superscience in the relics for evil. On board also are an Italian art cop, her Vatican archives uncle, and a mysterious woman freelancing for the evil order, but playing both sides. It's an "Angels and Demons"-esque chase around Rome, Alexandria, and France as the lost knowledge of the Magi comes into play. Good stuff - I'm hooked on Rollins.
one of the blurbs on the back said that this was a "smarter Da Vinci code", although is that saying all that much? hmm...

Star Wars - Fate of the Jedi: Abyss
by Troy Denning
I picked this up at Gencon, as Troy was signing copies of it before the release date, and then it got shipped to my house after it was released. The Fate of the Jedi series has started on a few storylines: An exiled Luke and his son Ben go out in the universe to track down the different Force traditions that Jacen had discovered, in a search to find out what turned him to the Dark Side. Meanwhile, a strange disease is attacking young Jedi, causing them to go crazy, and becoming a divisive issue between the Jedi Order (which seeks to keep the loony Jedi in their own confinement, to hopefully cure them) and the Daala administration (which seeks to prosecute the order to keep them in line, and lock up the loony jedi). Han, Leia, and Allana try to sort things out on their own, and Jaina and Jag balance their relationship against their positions of authority - Jaina as a top Jedi, and Jag as the head of the Imperial Remnant - at least they have learned from previous Jedi/politician couples, and haven't gotten a secret marriage. Also, there's a group of Sith on a planet that's been isolated for ages, and they have just started contact with the larger galaxy, and are tracking down Ship, which leads a group of them to a really nasty planet of chompy flora and fauna.

As the third book in the multi-author series, it really feels like the action of the series picks up in this novel, and Denning's ability to build up alien cultures really shines both on the planet that the Sith are stuck on, and in the bizarre Force users that Luke and Ben come across inside the Maw - and Luke goes all-noncorporeal. Meanwhile, a certain journalist becomes a thorn in the side of everyone on Coruscant when it is revealed that he has some high tech spy toys in use against Jaina and Jag. and the Mando's are back, hired to keep the Jedi in line.

the ol' Labor Dabor 2009

2009-09-09T01:27:29Z

so the past week, it's been really warm in san diego. and this weekend, our main goal was to beat the heat... but also we got to hang out with friends.

on Friday, i got to have lunch with Charlene, and we went to Hodad's in OB, which is a famous burger place that i hadn't yet made it to. they apparently make awesome burgers, and i wish their chicken patty was better, but all the fixin's made it tasty. friday night, we joined the Cartas for dinner at CPK, and then went back to their place to teach them how to play Dominion. then when we got home, i decided to finish reading my book.

Saturday, we lazed around, and then went over to Ian's, to teach him and Timmy how to play Dominion. Timmy won. and sort-of watched Bolt in the background. then came home and watched the Futurama movie: "Into the Wild Green Yonder"

Sunday, we had church at noontime since there would be no 5:30 pm mass for the weekend, and we got to meet the new priest who will be our pastoral associate. after mass, we got lunch with Brian, and then taught him how to play Dominion. see a trend here?

Monday, we went over to Matt's for a last minute cooking club. he had gone on a fishing trip in cabo and came back with a lot of mahi-mahi, and so the theme was mahi-mahi recipes. i found a nice reciped for grilled mahi mahi on roasted red peppers with a cilantro pesto, and matt found an awesome fish taco sauce for beer-battered mahi-mahi. then we came back and watched Mad Men.

meanwhile, i got a slew of FB notifications due to my posting about some new policies for Rock Legends, prompting a flurry of discussion and friend requests.

winding back the clock: returning from vacation to face the invasion.

2009-09-02T22:50:23Z

winding back the clock still...

remember when i said that we were getting our house fumigated for termites while we were on vacation, and this was a good idea because our housemate would also be out of town. we get back from vacation to find that the house has been tented and has aired out... and now swarms of ants have invaded the house to avoid the heat, find some water and bits of food, like all the dead termites and spiders and whatnot. ants in nearly every room of the house, including some rooms that had never had ants before. going nuts in the kitchen even though all the food is double-bagged or in the fridge.

i started putting bait out for them in the kitchen, and sunroom (where they had clearly set up entrances to underground entrances into the house), but they just kept going. started using spray on them in the garage and outside the house.

there's still ants in random parts of the house. like in the computer room, deciding that my desk is a great place to scout. and in the living room. and the kitchen. and our bedroom.

i'm sure having a major heat wave after we got back was just the thing for them to keep wanting to get into the house to get water and avoid the outside heat. they are driving me crazy.

what else have i been up to, since returning from gencon and chicago?
- helping my brother paint his room at my parents' house. took up most of last week and the weekend. but the walls, trim and ceiling are all freshly painted - about one coat a day
- selling some stuff on ebay and craigslist, including a bike that we fixed up with new tires and tubes.
- smackin' down cheaters on Rock Legends
- playing lots of Dominion.
- getting caught up on Mad Men
- August fan force meeting and bowling. egad, i've been nominated for president again. and vice-president.
- been really really hot.
- got a haircut.

ok.. all caught up on life. i think.

winding back the clock: Indiana and Chicago

2009-09-01T21:18:21Z

Chip & Kristina's garden plot
Originally uploaded by jawajames

So after we left GenCon, we rode with Chip and Kristina back to their house in West Lafayette, Indiana, stopping on the way at a Steak n Shake in the hinterlands of Indianapolis. When we reached their home, they showed us their little vegetable garden plot in the corner of the backyard, and then we opened up Dominion and taught them how to play.

After a few rounds, we switched over to a game they had bought at Gencon from the discount section of the Mayfair shop - I forget what it was called, but it involved building up market stalls in a little European marketplace and luring customers (and not the thief) to them. A bit like Monopoly but less random.

With a dinner of tacos, we also played a few rounds of "Word on the Street" before retiring for the evening. sometime in the night, i was having trouble breathing, and so got up to get some water, and Lucy, their cat, decided i was a menace and started threatening me. Lucy and I have a past history when she cornered me once when i was catsitting her back in san diego. sometimes she just decides that i must be growled at. Kristina heard Lucy's growlings and came to quiet her down.

the next morning, Lucy was still in angry mode at me. finally we realized that it might be the fact that i was barefoot - she might not like toes. after i put on socks, she seemed to leave me alone. while chip had some appointments, whitney, kristina and i played a few more games and ate lunch, and saw a big thunderstorm roll in. we hit the road for chicago just as the storm picked up some traction, and it was rather hard rain for a little while.

as it cleared up, we hit a construction detour that took us off the interstate toward chicago, and back through the farm country and towns where you could hold your breath as you passed through. finally we hit the outer urban areas of Gary, and got back onto the interstate and headed into Chicago. reaching whitney's parents' neighborhood, we had to circle around a few times before we found a parking place.

Whitney had gotten us tickets to see the Touring Company show at The Second City, so we headed out in a little rain to get dinner while walking up to the comedy venue. we got grub at a local dive bar that Whitney's mom had randomly mentioned. not exactly a dinner place, but it was food. The Second City touring company did a show incorporating some of the best acts from the history of The Second City, as well as some amazing improv -- like coming up with songs line by line in a group. also, the brownie ala mode there was rather tasty. after walking back to whitney's parents', we got in a little more Dominion maybe and then went to bed.

*piff*
Originally uploaded by jawajames

Tuesday, we headed out to see the Shedd Aquarium, and found parking under Soldier Field. it was pretty warm out, but the line to get in wasn't too bad. it had been a few years since whitney and i had gone, but chip and kristina hadn't seen it yet, and so we checked out the Amazon Rising exhibit, the large dolphin and beluga tanks, and river and lakes tanks before heading to see the Coral Reef exhibit, which i thought was pretty cool, as it described each part of the ecosystem, going from corals all the way up to a large shark tank. i ended up filming a bunch of things with my flip video.

Giant Crab!
Originally uploaded by jawajames

afterward, we were tired of being on our feet and needed food, so we walked along Lake Michigan to the Adler Planetarium where we ate lunch at Galileo's snack shop. refreshed, we checked out some of the interactive exhibits at the Adler before heading back to the car. whitney's parents took us all out to dinner at a spot not far from the house, and then the killian's headed out back for home, and we taught whitney's parents how to play Dominion.

My favorite fountain - at the Lincoln Park Zoo
Originally uploaded by jawajames

Wednesday, whitney and i stayed in for most of the day as it threatened rain off and on. in the late afternoon, we walked over to Lincoln Park, and stopped by the Lincoln Park Zoo, where we got a good display of the rhino and the tiger. walking back, it started to rain (which nearly always happens when we go to the LPZ), and we headed west into the neighborhood, and checked out Oz Park before the rain picked up and we zipped home.

Thursday, the weather cleared a little, but we stayed in and played with Buddy the cat, and packed everything up for our mid-afternoon flight home.

See the set of photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jawajames/sets/72157622085078737/

winding back the clock: GenCon and JadeCon

2009-08-29T01:42:29Z

so i've been absent from here for a while...

let's go back two weeks or more..

Gencon / Jadecon
before we left: since our roommate was also going to be out of town at the same time, i scheduled the house to be fumigated for termites in our absence. so we'd have to prep the house for fumigation (bundle or evacuate all foodstuffs, houseplants, medicines) as well as pack for our trip... and i still had to finish my presentation on Star Wars comics for Jadecon. my dad would work with the termite staff to get the key, and get the gas turned back on for the house after they were done. seemed like a good plan.

August 13:
We flew off to Indianapolis for Gencon, a big board, card, and roleplaying game convention, and JadeCon, the annual meetup of Club Jade. we got into Indianapolis, and jedidajuan picked us up in her new car, and took us to the hotel, where we stowed our stuff, and walked over to the Games Night at the Rock Bottom, where we got to see the whole gang. man i suck at remembering names. i'm still bad. had some fun with SW Scattergories and SW Fluxx, whitney taught some people how to play Farfalia, PG passed out some info for the Saturday night murder mystery, and we ate, drank and had fun.

then back to the suite, and we opened up Sir Dan's bar, and had more fun. instant conversation topic: Karen Traviss' announcement from earlier that week that she would be ending her SW authorship early.

Friday, August 14:
Whitney and i got our Gencon badges and walked around the exhibition floor a bit, and demoed some games. we bought "Word on the Street" after demoing it and getting a discount. then we came back to the suite for hollywdliz's wine tasting session, and played some Dominion with Jesse and Rogue and Dan. We had found that on the floor that we could get a discount if we bought 5 copies of Dominion, so we were looking for other fans to go in with us on getting the bulk discount. after playing Jesse's copy, Rogue decided that he was definitely in for a copy, and we eventually rounded up Dajuan, the Killians, and Jesse (for obtaining the second set, Dominion: Intrigue). we had so much fun playing Intrigue that we kinda skipped on the paddleboat activity. then we had a nice build-your-own-taco dinner, with some interesting cheese sauce.

James crafts a Millenium Falcon out of foam.
Originally uploaded by jawajames

then i sculpted a millennium falcon out of foam. mmmm.. speed crafting is my apparently specialty. when you need SW craft projects done fast. the falcon was then used in a game of trying to catch a Luke Skywalker doll dangling from the balcony, in a sort of reverse piñata action.

again, much fun.

Saturday.
the plan was to go to the Indy Knights' charity breakfast to benefit Aaron Allston a little late, since whitney wanted to sleep in, and it was to go from 7 am to 10 am. we get down to the Ram restaurant, and find that the first round of guests was all mostly gone already, and the authors are doing a signing. we sit and get some food, and i meet up with Anthony, who had organized the breakfast, and handles most of the Indianapolis SW author signings. then the latecomers show up for breakfast, and we get a second crowd. then we hit up the con floor again, and get our 5 boxes of Dominion. i get back to the suite for duncatra's session on blogging for ClubJade.net, and stick around for the session on pimping fandoms in 5 minutes or less (where i learned that James Cameron's Avatar movie is not related to The Last Airbender.. how did i go through Comic-Con not knowing that?, and that i should be watching Avatar: The Last Airbender, and more Torchwood), and then i had my session on Star Wars comics. not a huge audience, but i hope i kept it entertaining as i blitzed through the last 3 years of star wars comics.

then we got ready for the LARP, which was a murder mystery set in Cloud City. i had two roles.. i was playing the role of the local Black Sun crime boss, with lots of business and family connections (brand new trophy wife, ex-wife, daughter, mother, business partners, ex-lovers, big crime boss in town, a politician trying to go clean, etc.) who gets murdered at the opening of a new casino. then after my death in front of the crowds, i played the Jedi inspector that helps present the evidence to the audience as they try to solve the murder. meanwhile, some of the extra characters have their own plots... and can kill off other players as the game went on. in the end, we discovered 3 or 4 more murders (including from a serial killer journalist), and that pretty much every character was sleeping and/or married to several other characters. and the killer: jainamsolo, playing my daughter, was the one who killed me, and then updated her Spacebook to reflect her complicated relationship status. meanwhile, the casino owners didn't want the jedi investigating their books too closely, so they kept their bodyguard tailing me and getting my drink refilled. my jedi character certainly wasn't the strictest adherent to the jedi code it turns out.

We gave out some prizes for best acting, and moved onto the Project Runway results (in which teams had been working on costumes for some 12-inch Star Wars figures, and by costumes, i mean, stripper costumes to be worn by Jedi infiltrating a bachelorette party), and the charity auction.

sunday:
we got a quick breakfast (where i learned a lot about Welsh language studies) and slipped out to meet up with ckillian and kmkillian, who came to check out Gencon for a day, and we walked the floor with them, and bought some discounted games before heading off to play in the Tribbles CCG World Championship.

whitney, jesse, charlie plaine and i made up one table in the first round, and whitney and jesse advanced to the finals, for a 6-player round. i taped part of the final round, and kept score for the remainder of the round. in the end, Dan was the winner and world champion.

as her prize, whitney got a copy of the Star Trek VCR interactive game. hey.. we still have a VHS player hooked up at our house. we said good bye to our jadecon friends who had come to cheer us on, and headed off to meet up with Chip and Kristina, who would be taking us back to their place in W. Lafayette for the night, before heading up to Chicago the next day for some sightseeing. out on the street, whitney realized she had left behind the game she had bought that morning, so i went back in to get it while they went to get the car. luckily, Dan was still in the gaming area and found the game for me, and i met up with him and ran into Susan and Caitlin before heading back to the hotel to get our bags.

and then we headed out of Indianapolis, stopping at a Steak n Shake for a late lunch on the way to West Lafayette.

see all the photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jawajames/sets/72157621987920331/

discovery of the day

2009-08-28T02:35:04Z

apparently, soy mozzarella will indeed eventually mold. after about 3 weeks of being sealed in a slightly damp container after being half used.

now i know.

and knowing is half the battle.

catching up on everything else

2009-08-10T18:37:59Z

so besides all this Comic-Con and Urban Dare stuff, i've been busy doing things the past few weeks:
- went to the zoo with Christine and the boys, and saw the new Elephant Odyssey exhibit. it's pretty grand, although the spot where i proposed to whitney in front of the old giraffe exhibit is now long gone.
- went to LA to do some hardware work and pick up some empty wine crates out of the cellar of the Repton house before it gets sold. also stopped by Grandma's grave for her birthday. the crates are now all cleaned, and stacked inside the garage, and i put together Justin's old workbench to help provide more vertical room.
- preparing for getting the house fumigated for termites while we are gone to Gencon/Jadecon. the inspector also discovered some dry rot in the fascia of the house, and so we are getting wood replaced before the fumigation.
- preparing for JadeCon/Gencon - i'm working on a murder mystery LARP with PG. i also am giving a seminar on Star Wars comics. i really should start my presentation on that.
- hanging out with friends and lots of game playing. Dominion is fun!
- repaired the washing machine (replaced the broken lid switch)
- finally getting the results of the UC Photo Race 2009 up online, back from 4th of July.
- dealt with a missing credit card and its replacement being accidentally deactivated by the credit card company... and still waiting for the second replacement.
- moderating Rock Legends! banning fake players, investigating cheaters, answering questions.

This past weekend, we went to a Green Homes fair organized by the California Center for Sustainable Energy. I went to a session on Green Jobs, and we checked out the booths. Lots of Solar Power and Solar Water Heater Companies, but also a companies that does Green Roofs (plants on your roof, rainwater storage), and a lady who sells tilapia for small-scale backyard fish farming, and some artificial turf sellers. Whitney thinks i should be a tilapia farmer so that she can wear a shirt that proclaims her to be a fishmonger's wife. there was also a guy selling solar-powered flashlights and ipod chargers, but it would take quite a few of his cylindrical units to power a lightsaber.

comic-con 2009 in review: sunday

2009-08-07T23:31:25Z

and finally, Sunday of Comic-Con

Comic-Con 2009: Preview Night
Comic-Con 2009: Thursday
Comic-Con 2009: Friday
Comic-Con 2009: Saturday

Sunday morning, Whitney woke me and reminded me that i was going to comic-con. In my groggy mind i thought/dreamed that comic-con was done and over... and then after 30 seconds of thought, i realized that nope.. it was sunday. one more day. still, i slept in a little bit.

got down to the convention center around 8:30 and got in line for Room 20 - The Doctor Who panel. met up with a cool guy from Mesa, Arizona, whose friends were still asleep in his hotel room, and would be driving back to AZ after the panel. He had come primarily for the Venture Brothers and Doctor Who panels... and while he missed the Venture Bros. panel, he was pretty jazzed to see the doc.

Doctor Who panel
Originally uploaded by jawajames

got into the Doctor Who panel, where they had several writers, directors, creator Russel T Davies, and the 10th doctor, David Tennant. lots of great reflecting on the show, and some awesome teasers for the upcoming season, including Tennant's farewell episode two-parter. this crowd was probably the most crazy for a star that i went to at con.. i'm sure not as crazy as say, Twilight or something like that, but there was constant gushing from the crowd.

After the Doctor Who panel, i slipped into the "You Can Draw Star Wars" panel with Katie Cook and Bonnie Burton. Bonnie and Katie were pretty hilarious. While Katie would be teaching the kids how to draw their favorite Star Wars characters, Bonnie would be dropping random 80s references and then asking the kids to ask their parents about Journey or Parker Lewis Can't Lose. why describe it? just watch the clip:

Rancor eating Harry Potter
Originally uploaded by jawajames

jainamsolo & sirrogue were official distributors of paper and pencils, so i took some photos and video, along with Terri. got some fun pics of Katie and Bonnie, Katie's cute drawings (my favorite is of a rancor eating harry potter), and of the kids drawing their own star wars characters. I'd never been to a "how to draw" panel at comic-con before - this was lots of fun!

After the panel, I went down to the floor and encountered baby C. at her first comic-con, with her folks, blusurfer and Sir Dan, and shared my con experience so far. Cindi showed up and we chatted a bit, and then i said hi to Aaron, who was at the Del Rey booth before heading up to get to the FanForce booth for my shift. got a few more shots of random costumed people on the mezzanine while at booth duty, which was mostly slow. a few people signed up for the club even though we no longer had a cool prize to entice them. maybe some of them will come check us out. finally as the con neared closing, we started some minor packing up. then we pretty much packed it all up. i took the poster tube and met Amy on the con floor, and then bid adieu to my pals at the LFL booth and headed back home.

after seeing Amy off to LA, Whitney and I met up with Rogue and Caitlin and Cindi and Aaron for a post-con dinner at On The Border. much hilarity. and some margaritas. and congrats to Rogue and Caitlin for their masquerade victory!

comic-con 2009 in review: saturday

2009-08-07T21:55:08Z

wow.. haven't had time to finish writing up comic-con.

Comic-Con 2009: Preview Night
Comic-Con 2009: Thursday
Comic-Con 2009: Friday

Saturday at Comic-Con:

Saturday was going to be mostly a "work" day for me - I was scheduled to volunteer at the Lucasfilm booth from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm, then work at the San Diego FanForce booth from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

Amy and I got down to the convention center and found parking nearby. Since Amy wanted to see the Lost panel, i hopped in the Hall H line outside while she went to grab a coffee from the Starbacks at the new Hilton. i dozed and hung out in line with her until they started compacting the lines, and i couldn't sleep on the grass. so i went inside, and went to the exhibition floor. One of the DK books staff was setting up in her area of the greater Star Wars booth, and i helped her get books set up for the day, before the con opened. It was funny listening to the loudspeaker voice tell exhibitors to keep their kids in the booths, and not run around in the corridors... and then the voice told two security guards to turn about and head toward a certain booth to enforce this. After everything was set up, I wandered around a bit.

James gets turned by
the Death Troopers
Originally uploaded by jawajames

My shift started, and I reported in - i would be handing out swag for a while, then working with the Star Wars Stories Project again. Handing out freebies is fun, and the time went quickly, and I got to say hi to lazypadawan when she stopped by. Then I shifted over to being the man-with-the-clipboard outside the Star Wars Stories Project. Unlike Friday, we had a steady stream of interested parties show up, and get in line, including the child winner of the previous year's Star Wars prize at the comic-con masquerade. When it was getting close to lunch, we capped the line. Mary showed up with two people whom she insisted would also need to be filmed for the stories project: they had just gotten engaged on the Star Wars stage in front of a photo shoot of Endor Rebel troopers. so we added them to the line. It turned out while the film crew had made lunch plans, one of the other staffers hadn't, and he was starting to drag, so i offered to go pick up lunch for him and myself - and darted out to Lolita's at the Park, where Darren and I had eaten dinner the previous night. It took a while to walk out there, wait for the food, and get back in, so i was really hungry when i got back. that was a tasty Pollo Asado burrito, and my colleague enjoyed his as well.

Then i had a little time off, and walked the floor a bit, and got up to the FanForce booth early and started my shift, staffing the table and getting people to sign up for our club and prize drawing. bonniegrrl came up to the mezzanine to get photos of the different SW costumes and other costumes, and i got to chat with her for a bit about Yoda's world tour, as he was hanging out on the table. i also got to meet SWBob, a friend from the "Church of Waru" thread on TF.N, and get a pic documenting the first ever "Church of Waru" comic-con meet-up.
the end of my shift was when we were going to announce the winner of the LEGO Star Wars prize drawing, so i started sorting through the entries and ordering them to find who was closest to the actual number of LEGO pieces in our jar. It turned out to be super star wars collector Gus Lopez, whose guess was only two away from the actual number. I left him a message and a text, and he eventually got back to me saying that he would pick up the prize on sunday, which i'm sure bummed out all those hoping that he wouldn't claim it and thus trigger a random prize drawing on sunday afternoon.

This is as close as I got
to seeing the Venture Brothers panel
Originally uploaded by jawajames

After my shift, i tried to get in line for the Venture Brothers panel, but as i got up there, i pushed through a big mob around Stan Lee, and when i got near the end of the line, heard that it was capped. (apparently it had been capped for an hour beforehand) Not too surprised, since adult swim panels are always big draws and stuck in medium size rooms (why don't they go for Room 20?!). I went back down to the mezzanine, and then hit the main exhibition floor. I talked a little bit to Dave Kellett, creator of Sheldon as his booth for a little bit, and hit a second wind of energy. I stopped by the LFL booth, and got back into passing out swag with Jesse and Terri. Terri and I both had Monkey Island freebies and we got a bit crazy in barking out to the crowd about how cool these items were. As the con floor closed, we stuck around the LFL booth, and I got to meet SW artist Katie Cook (katie_can_draw), and told her that i knew jawastew.

I headed over to the Hyatt, and met up with Marisa at the place where the party bus for the Robot Chicken on Wheels party. No word from Amy on whether she was coming or not. The party bus ended up being an old double-decker bus with an open top. Marisa and i sat up top and had a crazy time with the other partygoers. Going under some of those bridges on the freeway was a bit hairy. we got to the roller rink, and stood in line for a while, enjoying some Robot Chicken on a big jumbotron screen in the parking lot. we got in, and ran into few people i knew were there, including kay_dee70, in her Slave Leia outfit.. and skates, and Dale and Matt from SF, and Dan and Liz in their Rebel Legion costumed appearance duties. We got some skates, and stashed our stuff. it was hot in there!

Ahmed Best and me
Originally uploaded by jawajames

I hadn't been roller skating on old-school skates since i went a few times at a rink in 3rd grade. I wasn't any good then, so I was a bit leery of skating now. Luckily, while i was unstable quite a few times, I never fell or landed on my butt. Seth Green was taking photos with fans, and they also had a giant robot chicken for photo opps, and the San Diego Derby Dolls were also there. i also got a photo with Ahmed Best. After trying the skates out a bit, i ventured onto the rink- and did 3 laps before deciding that i'd reached my limit. changing back into our shoes, marisa and i had an epic battle in front of a backdrop and got photographed. we were about done when Amy and I finally managed to get a hold of each other - she had given up on her other evening plans and wanted to come to the party, so we waited for her. at the party she wanted to skate, so we hung out. Seth, the Robot Chicken, and the Derby Dolls had a special skate to themselves:

Seth Green and me
Originally uploaded by jawajames

Seth apparently is a big fan of his Flip, too. Later on, Seth, Matt Seinrich and Tom Root were all made honorary members of Rebel Legion. after one last photo op with Seth Green, we headed out, and caught the party bus back to the hyatt. on the way back, we stood up while going under some of bridges.. pretty crazy. the driver was nice enough to give us a little extra lift from the hyatt in the direction of the parking structure. after saying good-bye to marisa at the trolley station, amy and i walked past the closed "heroes" carnival and hopped in the car and came home exhausted.