faNime

So, this post is coming to you a few days late because of complex family matters. We've been going to my grandparents house for the past couple days to help out with stuff because Grandma wasn't feeling well (and Grandpa has Alzheimer). They live about an hour away, but it's really beautiful in the mountains where they live. It's definitely worth the drive. Anyways she's feeling better, but some of the rest of our family is taking turns driving up there just to help out a bit.
Soooo, the main point of the blog, Fanime! We went on Saturday. It was fun. Nicole spent the night, and we were up late being crazy (as quietly as possible since my parents were asleep). Unfortunately her brother was sick, so he couldn't go, but I think he went on Sunday, so that's good at least.
So, Nicole and I stood in line to get our passes and took pictures of people and chatted with our "neighbors."
I was dressed in my Yellow costume. I made a fishing pole and carried a Pikachu around. It was the first year that people actually stopped me to take pictures somewhat regularly. Because I actually did a decent job of my costume. Yellow isn't REALLY well known, but a lot of people were excited to see someone Cosplay her. Whenever people take pictures of me, I feel like my smile is always weird... I dunno. You know, I've never actually put a picture of myself on the blog. I wonder if I should put a picture of my costume up.
Ellen made an awesome costume of Toph. Nicole didn't dress up. Lazy Nicole!
So, we met up with Ellen and co, and waited for Dealers Hall to open up. And we got there and I saw a cute little figure of Shippo, so I went to get my money out and it was gone. I guess I accidentally knocked it out of my pack or something. I had about $100 too. Never did find it even though I checked the lost and found several times. But you know, it's just money. I wasn't gonna let it ruin the one day a year I come here. And I did have a great time (though I did get annoyed as we were running in circles trying to find a lunch place that didn't have an hour wait, and then again when we Nick and I were waiting outside in the rain for everyone, and they never came outside!).
I recognize more characters this time! Let's see. Who's new? Bleach, InuYasha, Ouran, Tsubasa, XXX Holic, Yuyu Hakusho, Kenshin (I started Naruto and One Piece). That pretty much covers most of the popular ones. (I still like FMA more than such popular ones as Bleach, One Piece, and Naruto because it has a moving plot and it has a lot more thought involved instead of just fight the bad guys, like Bleach does. There are good parts of Bleach though).
Oh, and with the release of the Pokemon Black and White games, there was a lot of fanart of N. He was all over the place. I like N. He's a cool character. There's a lot of really good artwork of him on Deviantart too. I was finding some pictures to send Nicole and I ran into an N fanclub sort of thing and I thought I'd look through it. And it had no end. And a lot of the artwork was really good too (sheer numbers of good quality work are the reason I have so many Pokemon favorites on Deviantart).
I was gonna get one print, but it was sold out when I went back for it. Here it is anyway so you can enjoy it. I bought this Okami print too. And this is one I got last year, but I don't think I ever posted it.
As always, there's lots of awesome costumes and artwork.
Luckily Ellen and Nicole are really awesome, and they let me borrow money to buy stuff. I held back a little (which probably isn't a bad thing), but I got most of the stuff I really wanted. Almost everything I got was less than $5. Bookmarks, pins, small prints, ex. There's always tons of artwork ther eI want, but I'd never be able to buy it all.
I called Kelly on Monday to have her pick up a print of Al for me though cause I forgot to pick it up before dinner. Can't wait to get it from her!
Nick actually came down, which was impressive since he really doesn't know any anime at all. One of his friends came too (she had a cute Togepi-pattern shirt on).
Dinner was really fun. There were 12 of us around a 8-person table, so we kept bumping elbows and knocking tea over and stuff. It was a Chinese place, that had one of those big lazy susan's in the middle. We got a bunch of dishes to share, and cleared all of them.
The whole steamed fish and the whole shrimp were dishes we'd gotten in Chine but I'd been too scared to try them. We also got them two years ago at my first fanime, where I DID try them, and found them to be quite good. We got them again this time. Ellen talked Nick into eating some of the shrimp heads, and I went to try too, and when I bit it the shrimp kind of exploded on me which was... unexpected.

Cave Paintings

(I did end up winning that other kiriban ^-^ I'll post the picture when I get it.)
So, we saw a movie called "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" today.
It was about these ancient cave paintings they found in France just over 10 years ago. It's called the Chauvat Cave. There was some amazing stuff in it. Lots of cave paintings, some 32.000 years old. And there were lots of animal bones as well, especially cave bears. And there were beautiful cave formations as well.
I'll post some pictures I snatched offline.
These are some of the paintings.





This is a cave bear skull that was covered in calcite. Isn't that amazing?

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

YES! Finally got out of my last class for the semester! So I'm officially on vacation (Actually I have one last band thing, but that doesn't really count. I can finally slack off and do some of the million and two projects I have planned.
YAAYYYYY!!
I wonder what the odds are that I finish Katani's story this summer. I should try to do that.

Heheh

Yeah, ever since I've learned what a kiriban is, I've been trying out for them. We'll see if I was fast enough to win this one. The artists hasn't replied back yet, so I'm not sure.
Still waiting for that other one. I'll be sure to post it when I get it!
Here's the artist. She's very good. She makes it to the front page on a regular basis.

Kiriban Maybe?

Ben

I finally did a good picture of Ben!!!! The last one I did was lame, and Ben deserved much better.
Took me quite a whole. I extend my gratitude to Colonel Roy Mustang, who proved a model of a guy standing from behind (in one of the manga.)
Then I took the original drawing of the back of Ben's jacket (Located here) and pasted it onto his back to cover up the poor sketch I'd drawn on. Then after a failed attempt to fill in all the line around the pattern with the leather color, I figured out how to do it by deleting the white space on the original design and then layering it. I'm still not great with all the details of photoshop, but I'm learning at least.
The next challenge was the hair, which I tried to make look semi-real. The jeans were hard too cause I'd never textured clothes before, and I didn't know how to shade them without covering the texture (and then I discovered about opacity ^-^ )
Ah, Ben, why must you be so awesome? You must exist in real life so that I can steal your awesome leather jacket.

Dirt

So, today in class we watched a documentary about dirt. "Dirt! the Movie."
It talked about how badly we treat our dirt. We blast it out of the way, bury it under cement, let it wash away into rivers, and let it dry out and lose its nutrients.
Dirt is very important, and it takes a very long time to make. We need to take better care of it.
It talked about how some elementary schools are tearing out some of their solid cement campuses to make gardens and get kids working and playing in dirt again.
And they take some convicts out to gardens to work, and it makes them feel better. They can get jobs helping at those sorts of places after they get out, and it keeps them out of trouble.
It was actually a pretty interesting movie.
One lady (who I'd seen in other environmental documentaries) told a story that I liked:
There was a forest fire, and all the animals sat by and watched as the fire destroyed their homes. But a little hummingbird went to the river, took a drop of water in its beak, and put it on the fire. It kept flying back and forth with one drop at a time, trying to put out the fire. And the other animals said "what are you doing? You're too small to put that fire out." And the little hummingbird said "I'm doing my best."
It reminded me of a story Elise told us a few years ago. I'd never heard it before, but I've heard it about 10 times since.
So, this guy's walking down the beach and he sees a bunch of starfish on the sand. They got stranded when the tide went out, and there's hundreds of them strewn around. The guy keeps walking and sees a kid standing on the beach, picking up starfish and throwing them back into the water. The guy goes to the kid and says "What are you doing? There's no way you'll be able to save all the starfish. There's too many for you to make a difference." And the kid picks up a starfish and tosses it into the water and says "It made a difference to that one."

Semester end O_O'''

So, end of the semester is here.
No tests, but SOOOO many big projects due. Last week I had a research paper due, I had to do another draft of my section of the class project. And then they promptly gave me a whole new section to get due by tomorrow. In addition to that, tomorrow I have ANOTHER research paper, and presentation, and then the day after I have a lab report. Then I have a break for about a week and then my last class where I have a few last things due, which shouldn't be as hard as next week... Gasp gasp. Before I start my research paper, I thought I'd say a few quick words. First a follow-up on the last post that I've been meaning to do for several days.

Okay, this is one of the songs he sang at the performance I went to.
Nothing like hearing Wolverine singing "see that pretty girl in that mirror there? What mirror, where?"

Wolverine!!

Keeeyyyaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK, so Hugh Jackman AKA Wolverine AKA Van Helsing (and yes, even Curly) is doing a series of performances nearby. He's probably my favorite actor. Mostly because when you watch the specials of the movies, you can tell that he's a really nice guy. And he's really funny.
So, I got a ticket to go and see the play today.
He came on state singing O What a Beautiful Mornin, which made me very excited. ^-^ Love that song.
It was mostly a one-man-show. There were a couple other people, inluding 2 ladies from Broadway who sang and danced a few pieces for him. And he introduced his trainer (who gets him in shape for playing Wolverine). And his trainer did some funny stuff too, like walking in and lifting Hugh up and carrying him off stage.
But it was mostly Hugh singing, dancing, and talking.
Actually, he's supposed to be shooting another Wolverine movie in Japan, but because of the tsunami, it got delayed. And that's why he's doing the show now. He's always wanted to do a one man show.
I still remember a few years ago when I happened to catch a glimpse of his version of Oklahoma on TV and I went O_O Wolverine sings????
He's really good though. He started off on Broadway before he did any movies. In fact, one of the stories he told was about how he got his first film role, in X-Men.
His wife was going to help him practice for the audition, so she read part of the script for him. It said "wolverine sniffs the air and 'snikt,' out come his claws " and stuff like that. She threw the program down and said "this is stupid! Don't do this!" He said it's the only time during thier marriage his wife's ever been wrong.
So, the audition was right when he was doing Oklahoma. So between performances, he ran out to do the audition. He still had Curly's hairdo. But he got a callback, saying he'd done great except for the western accent (which was no doubt related to him doing Oklahoma right before).
I wish I could tell it as funny as he did. He had everyone laughing the whole time. And he's an amazing singer and dancer.
He also talked about how he had to build up his body to do Wolverine. And he said that it's a combination of genetics and exercising (and something else which unfortunately I don't remember). And then he showed a picture of him as a scrawny kid and said that it obviously had nothing to do with genetics.
And he also talked about how his dad was always so supportive and came to see all his performances. One time his dad flew up from Australia and Hugh accidentally told him that the performance was a black tie event. When he found out that it wasn't, he called his dad right up. But when his dad came to pick him up, he was wearing a full tux. And Hugh said "I told you that this was a casual event." and his dad said "with my son on stage, it's always a black tie event." And the whole audience went "awwwww." And he said that throughout that whole performance, he could see his dad in his suit. And then he said that his Dad was actually in the audience. And so he spotlighted him (I couldn't see him from the balcony though).
He sang a lot of songs I didn't know, and danced a lot, and all of it was excellent. He talked about Australia (the place not the movie... well, both, actually). And I got to hear him sing Hard Day's Night and Can you Feel the Love Tonight.
^-^
And then near the end, I suddenly got very bold and hid my camera up my sleeve. Except it focused on the inside of my bag, not the stage... so just ignore the visual and listen to the audio. It's called "Once Before I Go" and I believe it's from the play called "The Boy From Oz. It was the last thing he did before he left.



And then everyone left the theatre. As we went outside, I noticed a small cluster of people. I wanted to ask what it was for, but Dad (he went too, and enjoyed it a lot) was hurrying back to the car to beat the traffic. I knew that clump of people was gonna bug me, cause I had a hunch what it was for. When we got to the parking lot, I said I wanted to go back and see what the line was for. So he said OK, and I went back and asked and they said that Hugh Jackman was gonna come through on the way to the hotel.
Now, Whenever I see fangirls on TV swarming and prowling like vultures, I always kinda think that it would be really uncomfortable for the person they're swarming. I'd never been in one before. So, what do I do? I climb on a ledge on the outside of the building and wait with everyone else. Everyone was excited and happy and outgoing with each other. I took some videos of it from my high perch over everyone's heads.
And eventually he comes out and everyone's excited and taking pictures and trying to get his autograph, and he walks past me and then moves away from me, and I jump off my ledge and get up close to him and hand him a short story that I'd printed out just for this occasion, and he takes it and autographs my program. And he speaks about four words to me: "Okay, right. Thank you." And he finally disappears into the hotel next door.
I kinda wanted to shake his hand or something. Some people were also taking pictures with him. I wonder if he'll read my thing.

Kiriban Explained

So, I'd better explain the last post.
A kiriban is something that's used on deviantart (maybe elsewhere too?). On the top corner of an artist's home page, it shows the number of page views they've gotten. A kiriban is when an artist offers a free picture comissionto whoever takes a screenshot of a certain number of views. It might be 300,0oo of 151,151 or something.
So, I won one! Last night! (Or was it early this morning?)
Here's her page. I'm gonna ask her to draw my dragon, Heyoa. I'll post it when she finishes!

Kiriban?

Is Ignorance Bliss?

So, I recently saw a poll on deviantart. It asked whether you'd be stupid and happy, or smart and unhappy. Surprisingly, to me at least, the significant majority of the people who answered said they'd rather be stupid and happy.
I said I'd rather be smart and unhappy, because then I would know about all the problems and I could fix them.
This is coming from an environmental science major. That being said, this major can be incredibly depressing at times. But not always. The whole point is not to watch the world die. It's to save the world.
But the depressing-ness is why a lot of people don't want to learn anything about it. They choose to remain blissfully ignorant. This is one of the reasons some people vote for a guy who assures them that everything is all right. They don't want to vote for someone who says that the world is gonna fall apart if we keep doing everything that we're doing. People like their wasteful lifestyle.
But if everyone remains ignorant, nothing will ever change. The world will sit in the same place indefinitely. People need to learn and change.
For example, if someone's gonna come and whack you in the head, would you rather sit there unaware until you get smacked, or would you rather know the guy's coming so you can stop from getting hit in the first place?
Also, a good point someone made on the poll which I'd though about before is this: How can you be happy if you don't have anything unhappy to compare it too? You can't be really happy unless you've known unhappiness. Otherwise everything it monotonous and exactly the same.
And then several people also said "what if you're too stupid to know that you're happy?"

Pokéventure

So, I thought this looked like a fun event. It's called Pokéventure. A deviantart contest. You can read about it here. Since I already have a bunch of characters for my fanfic, It was easy to come up with ideas. Here's my character sheet entries.
Cara is pretty much the Pokemon world version of Fern. Though she can't shapeshift.
I don't know what, but something seems wrong with Cara's character sheet. I like Polaris's though.

Big Weekend!

I'd say that it was a very eventful weekend. First we get the big marriage between Prince William and Kate, and then last night they tell us that they killed Bin Laden.
Hopefully that's a good sign. Maybe world suck levels will continue to decrease! Everyone, cross your fingers!