It's kinda weird seeing the pictures you took and remembering that I was at many of those same locations, and it seems just bare minutes after or before you. I know that such is in all likelihood incorrect, but it's a hard notion to escape.

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We're just like "An American Tale." You can check the tag info on the pics if you want to see when I was where, but then you'd also have to know where you were for comparison. Did you take and pictures?

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I did take some but not nearly as many as I had anticipated taking. Since I was only there for the single day, my focus was almost entirely on getting to the few booths I had a specific desire to see and meeting up with friends and artists. I typically only took a picture (And generally pretty terrible ones at that) when I nearly trippped over someone in a costume or was distracted from my mission by something that at the time seemed especially noteworthy.

Only three times are firmly fixed in my head. We arrived at 10:30 after a light breakfast. We left the con at 18:30 to get dinner. We finally ate dinnner, the first time I'd ingested anything since breakfast, at 2200. Every other event is a blur of walking, standing and being hungry.

Well I do remember hearing Ray Bradbury call Michael Moore a "lousy bastard."

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Do you know what those girls that were painted in orange latex were promoting?

They walked past us in an awkward little waddle with their arms bent out to their sides in that special way that can read only as "Eeeewie eeeewie eww ewww!"

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I'm not positive, but I'm relatively sure they were supposed to be the orange jumpsuits featured heavily in Sealab 2021. I'm basing this deduction on the known facts that they were A. standing in front of the Adult Swim booth, and B. painted in orange body paint. As you can see, my logc is infallible. I could have asked them, but was afraid they'd get whatever toxic sludge they'd painted on themselves onto my precious Tron tshirt.

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Ah. Yes, the way their necks were painted look like the collars on the Sealab 2021 suits.

I don't have cable, so I'm totally unhip to the whole Adult Swim thing. I just saw the Venture Brothers for the first time last weekend. That show is awesome.

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The Venture Brothers is (are?) awesome, and unfortuantely not on DVD yet. Production on Season Two started just a week or so ago, so a DVD release is likely close.

I've heard about peoplpe like you, people who don't have cable and are satisfied to sup at the meager teat of broadcast television. I seem to recall that you have only a modem connection as well.

This is a travesity. How are you supposed to enjoy the great outdoors and cutural highlights of LA without shows like The OC, Baywatch and TJ Hooker?

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Marcus doesn't watch any TV, and he calls them picture boxes. He does have broadband, though.

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I want to see people hugging them in photos, then follow-ups of them all disgusted and covered in orange body prints. I love how they couldn't just find orange jumpsuits. That wouldn't be slinky enough by half.

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They weren't...NEKID! were they?!?

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That flickr gallery was very cool, lucky man. I'm not sure how you fit all that into two days, though...

Cool factoid: At one point right outside San Juan Capistrano the train goes over a tressle bridge next to the beach with a huge, over-the-freeway pedestrian walk. This beach is called Hole-In-The-Wall and sells the best hot dogs, cut lengthwise and served on hamburger buns, called 'T-street Hotdogs'. This, also, is where I learned how to surf.

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You've been to the SJC? That place is beautiful. What was the reason for the excursion? Mom ALWAYS made hot dogs by slicing them in half and frying them up in cooking oil, but I haven't tried them on burger buns. If I wasn't on this low-carb thing, I'd give it a shot.

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When I was young I lived there and went to St. Margaret's, a private school just across the freeway from the Mission. 'Course it was much less settled then, and we were really out in cow country -- we used to take all day to climb up the 'mountain', struggling through shoulder-high brush and old-growth Saguaro trees. And now?

Houses.

Try the hotdogs just like it was a hamburger -- lettuce and tomatoes and a big slice of cheese on top. Yum! You doing Atkins? How is it working? Is it hard to keep up and not get bored with it? Do you have enough energy?

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Awesome. You grew up like a nun on a Mission! I bet they taught you how to shoot skeet while standing atop charging horses, too! :)

Atkins works great for me. I lost 10lbs while mom was visiting for the week, but none since. It goes in stair steps. I'm just trying to use more energy in a day than usual to help burn calories, and then eating only Atkins things to keep more from sticking. I was huge when I graduated college from sitting at my computer doing my thesis for months, while super stressed and eating greasy take-out, and I dropped 68 lbs in 2 months on Atkins, and that was without really exercising or changing my routine otherwise. And if you swap out the tomatoes for a dollop of mayo, then you can just try to keep me away from your flattened hot dog sammiches.

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Also, I don't really get bored, because I have no gourmet side to me at all - normally I eat the same things every day for months before switching again, and I love that. I like routine in my food, even if it's all bad routine. As for energy, yes, I have plenty. Being fat is what sucks energy away. Every couple of pounds lost is like an extended shot of adrenaline, because the muscles that were holding up those lbs are freed up a lot. When I lost that 68lbs so fast many years ago, I recall a day when I went to stand up from the computer and actually jumped unexpectedly and had to catch the desk, because I was so used to picking up that extra medium sized dog. Walking around felt like I was on the moon, too, like I could easily lift a Buick. I just lost it all so fast, my body wasn't used to my new lightness of being.

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I know that's no way to really lose weight, but that sounds really lovely! It's not often that we humans get freedom, or even really get a 'new' look at ourselves, is it? I'm just...me, you know?

I have NO IDEA what kind of nuns you know, but I would really like to. Shoot skeet while standing atop charging horses? What, with their habits flying out behind them?!?

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I have NO IDEA what kind of nuns you know, but I would really like to.
Go watch Chrno Crusade. Seriously.

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New anime always appreciated -- thanks for the tip!

Is this safe for a 9-year old, or too violent/strange?

Random fact: the new Willy Wanka movie is rated pg-13 for something like "Wacky Situations". Um, ok? That seems like a strange designation to me...

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Is this safe for a 9-year old, or too violent/strange?
It's about Rosette Christofer, a nun in the Order of Magdalena -- an order of nuns dedicated to exorcism. They carry guns with 'holy bullets' and vials of holy water. She is assisted by a demon, Chrno, who is tied to her by a contract.
In between the goofyness, there is a lot of gunplay. There are demons doing wicked stuff, not all of it bloodless and some of it pretty gruesome. Amazon lists it as 'not rated', but AnimeOnDVD lists it as 13+ and ADV itself has it as 15+. I wouldn't show it to a 9-year old either.

That seems like a strange designation to me...
But... surely you aren't advocating that we teach children to look at things in any other way that we taught them to!?

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Hey, my college "Sally" costume was better than the one in that picture. I made it from scraps of clothes I bought at a Salvation Army (back when you could get an entire wardrobe for $20... I think most mall stores are cheaper these days.)

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