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I recently went to Amazing Comic Con in Las Vegas, & I wasn’t really expecting to buy any goods. I’m not big into collecting action figures or classic comic books. I was nearly ready to leave the convention center when something incredible caught my attention. Actually, Jian pointed it out to me first. What stopped me dead in my tracks was a little booth called Gimme Flair, a booth selling iron-on patches, handmade decals, & enamel pins galore. I fell into sheer heaven.
I think I spent upwards of 45 minutes or so ransacking this booth. I left no pin unexamined, no stone unturned. Of course Jian left me to my vices & walked around he Con floor by himself instead of hovering over me, watching me flip out over pins & patches. I ended up with a little haul, & even though I keep promising myself that I won’t add more junk to my already massive pile of tchotchke clutter, when I see stickers/decals, or iron-on patches, or pins/buttons, I kind of throw some duct tape on the mouth of my inner conscience & just go ham.
So without further ado, say hello to my little haul…
It was so hard to keep myself from going really overboard & spending all of my vacation cash on these makes-a-hole-in-your-clothes little guys. I probably spent a good chunk of my time at this booth deciding which ones I was ultimately going to get. I’m sure the shopkeepers were ecstatic to see such a willing customer like me. I was satisfied with my little haul, & Jian wasn’t upset that I spent too much time at this booth since I didn’t go over my spending limit. I believe this haul came close to $35 bucks or so (give or take). Enamel pins can get really pricey sometimes, so I have to choose wisely, & that’s pretty much the end of it. I’m off to do a bit of grocery shopping. Until next time, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Several weekends ago I went to Las Vegas to attend my first Amazing Comic Con. I was there to support my good friend who was showcasing his self-made comic book at the convention & representing the Hawaiian Comic Book Alliance. This wasn’t my first comic book/animation convention, but it was definitely the smallest that I’ve been to in a long time. It was a very fun & intense weekend filled with friends, food, & severely hot wind.
I was so proud of my friend (who happens to be the brother of one of my closest girlfriends, & the cousin of Jian’s best friend). He’s a high school art teacher by day, but a full-fledged comic book illustrater/writer by night. My friend is highly talented in any artistic field he’s thrown into, & he takes his art seriously. I truly applaud my friend for pursing his passions all on his own, of course with the support of his family & friends. So, naturally, I had to support my friend’s budding art career & bought an autographed copy of his comic book The Keepers. Hopefully one day his autograph will be worth tons of collector’s money. (Tee-hee!)
Why did Amazing Comic Con have to fall on one of the hottest weekends of the summer, in the middle of the desert? Seriously, the temperatures in Las Vegas were over 100 degrees farenheit every day. The weather reports on TV weren’t joking when they reported that it was like being in an oven. On top of that, if you dare to walk outside (which is not recommended, at all), there’s a fairly strong wind blowing, but it’s such a hot wind that it feels as though you’re constantly being blown in the face by a hair dryer on high. The weather that weekend was no joke, & I’ll tell you that I’ve never consumed so much liquid nourishment in my entire life. I don’t normally drink a lot of water, which I know is not very beneficial to my overall health, but on that particular weekend, I drank so much water I could practically fill an inflatable kiddie pool with the amount of water I drank.
Jian & I thought we were so smart buying cheap airline tickets with early morning departures. Well the tickets were practically free, since my mom let us use her credit card mileage points, & all we had to pay were the baggage & service fees. Oh boy, did we make a minor mistake by doing this. Yes, we were lucky to get super cheap airline tickets for one extended weekend, but arriving in Las Vegas so early in the morning with nothing to do & leaving at the crack of dawn the day after partying the night away was not very good planning on our part. We both thought we could handle early morning flight times, but it really took a toll on our bodies. I don’t think I’ll be doing another rushed trip to Las Vegas again anytime soon.
Going to Las Vegas to support our friend at a convention was the highlight of our entire trip. We had originally planned on getting tickets to a show while there, but we weren’t interested in any of the shows or musical acts performing that weekend. (By the way, it was super annoying seeing Gwen Stefani‘s billboard everywhere we went. After her band No Doubt‘s album Tragic Kingdom, I completely lost interest in her as an artist. She’s not as good solo as she was with her band.) Then, I thought we’d spend all of our time gorging ourselves silly on extravagant/flashy “Vegas” food, but surprisingly, we were somewhat sensible with our eating habits, & only splurged on one day.
Las Vegas is not quite my favorite place to vacation. I try to avoid that town as much as possible, which is often difficult because my mom’s side of my family LOVE going to Las Vegas whenever they get a chance. I’m not a gambler; I’m not a club goer. I’m not even a 20 ounce specialty steak flown in from some exotic-place-you’ve-never-heard-of eater either. However, I had fun on this trip. I enjoyed the company of my close circle of friends. We ate good (reasonable) food. We stayed at a smoke-free, gambling-free hotel in the heart of the Strip. Jian & I even squeezed in a few hours each day for some Fifa World Cup viewing. (Sorry, I’d much rather watch sports than bet on a game.) Other than the extremely exhausting day of flying back home, it was a fun way to spend a quick weekend out of town. Cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Graphic artist credit embedded in image. Click to enlarge.
Continuing on in my journal, I bring you my list of most beloved childhood movies. Well, I wouldn’t exactly say these movies are my most “beloved”, but they are truly memorable. A few of these movies even represent a few small milestones that occurred in my life. Let me cut to the chase & just get on with it then.
[DISCLAIMER: ALL PHOTOS LISTED BELOW ARE COURTESY OF PINTEREST OR GOOGLE IMAGES.]
Image represents the 3 good faeries.
I believe Sleeping Beauty was the very first Disney princess animated film I ever watched. Out of all of the Disney princess movies I’ve seen, Sleeping Beauty is my most favorite princess. When I was a little girl, I daydreamed that I lived in a beautiful, secluded cottage with my three best friends, who also happen to have magical powers, & that I could communicate with animals, & meet a handsome man to come & sweep me off my feet.
Out of all the elements from this movie, my favorites were the three good faeries. They were always my all-time favorite characters in the movie (along with Prince Philip’s horse Samson). I loved the way Flora & Merryweather would argue back & forth over taking care of Princess Aurora (a.k.a. Briar Rose), especially bickering over who gets to sew Aurora’s birthday dress (& choose which color it will be). Fauna just quietly steps back to bake the important birthday cake. When I was a child, I really wished I had three special faeries that could wave their magic wands & help me along the way.
I loved this Disney animated movie when I was growing up. I loved to fantasize about falling in love with a Prince Philip-type guy of my own, where we would bump into each other accidentally & fall in love with each other at first sight. Of course like most young girls, I dreamed that this mystery guy would slay dragons & move heaven & earth just to kiss me. I wanted to live on my own with my three best friends & go on adventures. I didn’t necessarily want to be a princess per se, but I wanted that fairytale of falling in love at first sight with a hot, hunky guy who would fight to be with me.
I didn’t watch this movie when it first released. I was too young then. I watched this movie a few years later when I was a bit older, & my older siblings convinced my parents to get the fancier cable TV package with the HBO movie channel. This was one of the first times I ever realized I started liking boys in a romance-y kind of way. I saw the actor Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid, & I pretty much had heart-shaped stars in my eyes.
First off, I was barely 7 or 8 years old & hardly even knew what a “crush” was, but I knew that I thought this actor was cute. That was the first time I ever experienced a celebrity crush on an actor. I was in total awe of the main character’s school costume in the movie (a person taking a shower, but instead of wearing a cheesy bathrobe & shower cap, he actually rigged up a fully functioning shower curtain so it looked like he was in a real shower). I thought it was so cool that he could do karate. I kind of wished back then that I could perform a few karate tricks so I could impress my relatives back in Japan. Watching this movie made me want to visit Japan again.
I was such a weird kid growing up. When I watched TV shows or movies, I would focus on the most random or inconsequential things, like how I wanted to paint a fence just so I could say “wax on, wax off”. At least my older cousin who was living with us at the time tried to copy the scene when the character Mr. Miyagi caught a fly with only a pair of chopsticks. He actually succeeded in recreating that scene, but only after like, 15 tries…& we had to trap a fly & bring it into the house so he could try the trick.
This movie will always be hailed as my most favorite Disney film of all-time! Hands down. Oh man, I watched this movie so many times that I memorized all of the songs. I wanted so badly to have Julie Andrews come to my house & be my babysitter/nanny/governess. I would daydream that she would float down from the sky wit her talking umbrella & take me on awesome adventures, except for dancing on rooftops & walking on staircases made of chimney smoke because I have been afraid of heights my entire life. Seeing those chimney sweeps dancing & leaping between buildings mad me so nervous when I watched Mary Poppins as a child. I was always anxious/scared that one of them would slip & fall off the ledge of the building, even though I knew this was only a fairytale movie.
Even to this very day, I still love this movie & will watch it over & over again. I want to laugh so hard that I float up to the ceiling & tell funny jokes with the likes of Uncle Albert (who looks suspiciously like Benjamin Franklin) while sipping on cups of tea. I want to jump inside a sidewalk chalk drawing & have lovely tea & cakes served to me by smiling, dancing penguins. I want to invent the longest word you’ve ever heard & song a catchy song about it. However, I DO NOT want to live next door to an over-zealous ex naval captain with a penchant for daily reenactments. It would be incredibly annoying to have to rearrange/realign my furniture & hanging picture frames everyday. My OCD personality wouldn’t know how to deal with that kind of situation.
Oo-de-lally, golly what a movie! This might’ve been the first movie to introduce to the wonderful world of foxes. I loved this movie so much when I was a little girl. I wanted so badly to be Maid Marian & fall madly in love with Robin Hood, who would use his cunning skills with a bow & arrow to rescue me from the evil clutches of the nasty, yet bumbling villain. My hero would save the entire kingdom, get an official pardon from the real king, & we would run off together in a wildly romantic fairytale ending.
Although I loved the whole story line between Marian & Robin, they weren’t my favorite characters from the movie. Some of my most favorite characters from this Disney movie were, quite literally, the little guys. I loved the little church mice. They were such a lovely & adorable couple living in the church with Friar Tuck. I also really loved the lute-playing rooster. To me the rooster & Lady Kluck, the chicken-in-waiting, were the funniest characters (aside from Little John) who provided just the right amount of humor. However, my most favorite character in this entire movie were the little rabbit children, especially the little girl bunny who was always carrying her stuffed bunny toy with her & minding her manners.
I wasn’t always a fan of Disney movies, but this one (as well as a few others) really captured my attention. I mean, seriously how could you not love a movie with intrigue, secret disguises, action, romance, & epic child-friendly fight scenes. On a related note, I also cannot wait for the new Robin Hood origins-style movie to be released in theaters later this year. The headlining stars of this film are actors Taron Egerton (as Robin Hood) & Jamie Foxx (as Little John, not the rapper)….but most importantly, it also stars Jamie Dornan as Will Scarlett, Robin Hood’s half-brother who is the one actually married to Maid Marion (but Robin Hood steals her love away from him…blah, blah,blah…) It’s going to be super exciting.
When I first watched 101 Dalmatians as a kid, I had a bunch of thoughts racing through my mind that a kid that age would normally never think about.
1. How could one couple take care of so many dogs/puppies? I couldn’t imagine taking care of one let alone 100 (and one). I could barely take care of goldfish let alone a dog.
2. Cruella DeVille, the villain, kind of reminded me of my maternal grandmother. Not in that way. My grandma wasn’t evil or mean, but like Cruella my grandma had an extravagant lifestyle. She owned exotic fur coats & jewelry that could almost rival the collection of Elizabeth Taylor. She was also larger than life, & commanded the presence in any room she walked into.
3. I was such a weirdo back then. I saw the commercial for Canine Cruchies dog food in the animated movie, & like the little puppies, I sort of wanted to try it too.
4. I really wanted a Dalmatian as a pet. I never had a pet as a kid, so seeing all these cute & cuddly puppies made me so envious.
I really loved this movie for all of the adorable, cute, & cuddly puppies. I love how all of the dogs banded together with their owners to defeat the villain & lived happily-ever-after. I’ve always loved feel-good movies like this one!
Oh my gawd! I LOVE spaghetti with meatballs!! Seeing these two lovable dogs sharing a plate of pasta yumminess made me so hungry every time I watched this movie. Of course it’s always been a romantic fantasy of mine to share food with my significant other (or my crush) & then we keep eating until our lips touch. I am getting hungry even as I write this.
I really felt bad for Tramp being stereotyped just because he was a stray. He was a scrappy dog, but he had a good & pure heart. I loved how Lady saw the good in him right away, & gave him a chance. I always thought Lady was the most beautiful dog, but my heart ultimately belonged to Jock, the bull terrier. I instantly fell in love with him when I saw his adorable knit sweater & heard his cute accent. The two characters I didn’t really like (other than Aunt Sarah) were the Siamese twin cats. I thought it was kind of discriminatory to give them Asian-sounding accents & slanted eyes. I also didn’t like them because they were stuck up little brats, & when I was a kid, I was severely allergic & didn’t like cats anyway.
Of course, after watching his movie too, I still wanted a pet dog, but my parents wouldn’t allow it. I have a theory as to why, but that’s a long story for another time. Overall, I found this movie to be super romantic, & I especially loved the happy ending where all of the dogs in the neighborhood got together at Christmastime along with Darling & Tony’s newborn baby & Lady & Tramp’s new puppies.
As you can tell, I’ve always loved feel-good movies with happy endings. I watched a lot of different movies when I was a kid. I wanted to hang out with my older siblings & older cousins, & they were mostly interested in the pop culture of those days (back in the 1980s). As a family, my generation watched a ton of television, movies, & listened to all of the popular music on the newly trendy TV channel MTV. When I spent time by myself, I would watch the same movies over & over again, & some of these movies were on heavy rotation. Writing about these movies s making me want to go back & watch them again. Until next time, cheers!
Today’s song of the day is my new PLAYLIST!
Rabbits & Foxes 
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