Friday, July 31, 2009

Day Three - Disneyland

I told Mimi that I came to experience so I would just follow her lead. But that I would like to go on Splash Mountain & the other water ride at California Adventure.

First up was Space Mountain...

Then we head over to Splash Mountain where I had Britt & Shelby lean forward so we could get Amber soaked.


Here you can see how soaked Amber got. :)
Here are Britt with her friends Amber & Shelby getting ready to enter the Matterhorn.
And look I got to see Johnny Depp again, twice in the same weekend.
Mimi had been worried that the lines would be really long. But we got lucky and was able to move quickly and able to ride Screamer four times 3 or the 4 in the front even. Oh and Maliboomer three times.

We had dinner plans at Blue Bayou at 9pm needless to say I was very tired. While we were waiting I stepped outside to sit down and saw a pretty door and a pretty plant. I sat down to rest soon Mimi came out and was talking to me and freaked out when she saw a sign that said 33. She told me "Connie you found club 33".

I did not know what club 33 was so Mimi explained that it was a sort of secret club or exclusive club. I then pointed out a window where I saw a guy standing up above. The guy had moved away and Mimi pulled out my cell phone (hers was indisposed) to take a picture to send to her mom who had looked for the club for years. While Mimi was taking the picture I was still sitting down looking at the window...then I saw the guy in the tux again this time looking at us. I told Mimi who turned to look we both laughed and the guy who must have been a waiter or something started laughing with us or at us.

Here is the door to the secret/exclusive club of Disneyland.

The first day we went to Millie's I tried my hand at the IQ test they had at the table. I always ended with 3. The day we left we went to Millie's again, I was rather tired but decided to try it again and with Mimi watching look what I did...

I was so happy I even did my happy dance in my chair. A perfect end to a perfect trip!!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Day Two - Beach aka Power Hour

Friday started with breakfast at Millie's then Mimi & I dropped Britt and her friends off at Disneyland (I didn't think I wanted to do 2 days of Disneyland). After Mimi and I got ready and then headed off to the beach. We decided to take the closest freeway to the closest beach which happened to be Hermosa.

After picking a spot on the beach we headed down to the water. At first just putting our feet in and slowly going farther out. The under current was crazy strong I had never felt it tug at my feet so hard before. Mimi mentioned that we were probably in a surfer only spot since there was no one else swimming. So we found some flags that looked to mark the end of the surfing only area and headed down there. We were getting in to about our waist when we heard someone yelling to us. We weren't the only ones who heard the 18 year old life guard yelling at us. He then came up to tell us that there was a very strong undercurrent (no kidding, I couldn't tell) and that we were still in the surf only area. With our heads hung (I hate getting in trouble) we walked past the guys playing football and headed down the beach to were there were less people.

Once we got all the way in, the water was great I wasn't cold at all. We soon started to play in the waves and soon would get swept away and rolled around until the tide swept us a shore. When I would finally stop I would look over at Mimi both of us holding on to our swim wear so we would not loose it and just laugh at each other. We would then get up and try again, we even tried body surfing which was not a good idea at all. At one point Mimi got swept under came up only to get swept under again. I was trying to watch for her to make sure she did not get swept to far, when bam something slammed hard into my shins (I may or may not have sworn). It took me a second to realize it was probably Mimi that had ran into me and right then she sat up. We both laughed and laughed. That may have been when I lost my footing and got pulled along and scrapped up my leg. We then tried to get the sand out of our hair and decided we needed a break.

After sitting for awhile we both realized our toes hurt from trying to dig into the sand and not get swept away. It was crazy only after an hour of playing we felt like we had been playing in water all day. We went to the showers and could not believe the amount of sand that was everywhere. We both ended up taking two turns each. After we sat on the beach laughed some more as we dried off. When leaving the beach a good looking guy in a Mercedes SUV pulled up and asked if we were leaving we said we were he then told us he was just going to hang out and wait while we loaded the car and changed. When we pulled out I yelled bye Coop, all good looking guys driving in California will now be named Coop.

By the time we were heading back it was dinner time and I was hungry so we were looking for a place to eat when Mimi saw a Mall with an AMC theater. We had talked about seeing 500 Days of Summer since we did not think it was playing in Arizona. Alas that theater was not playing it and there was nothing else so we walked over to the Red Robins in basically pajamas no make up and our hair all messy from air drying. But apparently gross old guys like that look Mimi said one was trying to catch my eye. I don't know how old or how gross I didn't see and didn't ask Mimi because I did not want to know, yuck.

After dinner we went back to the hotel got a newspaper found the closest theater playing the movie got directions. And after showering and getting dressed we drove to Edward's Theater it was on a campus in Irvine I think. When we got there the show was sold out, there was a later showing but Britt had text saying that Disneyland was closing early so we would be to late to pick them up. When we got back (it was like a 20 min drive) Britt text saying she was wrong and Disneyland did not close early. I was pretty sad we missed seeing 500 Days of Summer especially since I didn't know it was playing in AZ. But I was pretty happy about getting back to the hotel and being able to sleep.

But it all ended well since when we got back we found out it was playing. Debbie, Mimi, Britt and I went and saw it Tuesday. And let me just say it is true when the trailer warns you this is not a love story but all the same I loved it. I laughed so hard and really just thought it was perfect. I wanted to watch it again as soon as it was over.

I have been told a few times that I look like Zooey both Mimi & Debbie agreed and during the movie there is this part where Zooey is sitting at a bar and a guy who was credited as douche (sorry mom) came up and started hitting on Summer (aka Zooey's character) and Summer is pretty matter of fact to this guy. I didn't think she was being rude, others might have. Right then Britt leans over and says she even acts like you. The whole movie as I would look at Zooey I was thinking we don't look anything alike. Then when we step outside the theater Mimi and Debbie commented on how we do look alike, I disagreed but Mimi argued that I blink like her. Which made me laugh and I responded with "well I guess I don't know since it is impossible for me to see myself blink."

Monday, July 27, 2009

Day One - Comic Con

We got to San Diego early Thursday AM to join the already long line for the H Hall. Thankfully I was able to get a couple hours of sleep thanks to an eye mask and ear plugs. What is crazy is we had to wait in two lines the first one (the one we slept in) was for the H Hall thankfully there was enough of us to split up and keep our place in line. The second was to get your ID badges that grants you access to the events. Here is the line to get our ID badges...can you see the line? I was hoping the sign that says The End Is Nigh was meaning the end of the line but sadly no.
I had wanted to take more pictures of people dressed up but I was never quick enough with my camera. Here is Zelda.
We were getting ready to enter the H hall when I spotted a guy dressed up as Edward, but when I got a better look I realized it was the kids who did one the Twilight spoofs I actually liked. You can see the spoof here. It was funny because I was moving in line so I only had a second I called Hilly (thankfully Mimi remembered her name) they turned saw the camera and posed in about 30 seconds it was great I didn't have to slow down the line.

The first panel of the day was...


Disney: 3D Panel— Patton Oswalt moderated the event (who was hilarious by the way, you may know him from King of Queens or the voice of Remy from Ratatouille) as the filmmakers presented their movies... A Christmas Carol, Alice In Wonderland and Tron. Special guests include Robert Zemeckis, Tim Burton, Sean Bailey, & Steve Lisberger.


First up was A Christmas Carol



The director Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future, Polor Express) showed us a clip of his new 3-D movie starting Jim Carrey who plays eight roles, Ebenezer Scrooge and all three Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.


Highlight: When Patton Oswalt asked the director if they have been sued for their characters looking like Flammer from Fantastic Four, I can't remember the other one but the last one was Amy Winehouse.

Alice In Wonderland with Tim Burton



This has a lot of the footage we were shown but the footage we saw was of course 3-D and was to the song Time To Pretend by MGMT...we actually got to watch it three times!
Highlights: After we watched it the first time Patton Oswalt said to Tim Burton, “Thanks, Tim. You know, I’ve always wanted to try PCP.”

THE BIGGEST HIGHLIGHT EVER!!!



Last was Tron


Which I was not excited about. Last year they showed a clip as a surprise, it did nothing for me. I am not sure if I ever saw the original Tron maybe when I was 5 or something. They did show another clip which looked better and we saw the same clip in 3-D which made it cooler.
Highlight: Cute boy to look at for the girls and a pretty girl for the boys to look at.



Next up we had another 3-D showcase with: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, The Hole, The Final Destination.


Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is an animated 3-D film...Highlight Andy Samberg who is one of the voices came out to say hi.


Director Joe Dante (Gremlins) makes his return to the genre he knows best with the 3D thriller The Hole.


Highlight: During the clip it had a little boy around 10 years old in a basement he hears something and begins to look around and you see this old creepy looking doll, everyone gasped (thinking no no not the doll) then it pans over to a even scary clown doll everyone even gasped louder (no no not the scary clown doll)

Then it was Summit Entertainment— which had sneak peeks of Astro boy—an all-new CG-animated feature film with cast memebers Freddie Highmore (Charlie & The Chocolate Factory & Finding Neverland) and Kristen Bell)


Highlight: When Freddie started to talk and everyone started screaming because of his accent. That is what happens when you get a room full of Twilight fans.


Sorority Row—Think I know what you did last summer set in a sorority. Highlight...it was fast the girls didn't even sit down.


The Twilight Saga: New Moon—


Taylor talking about transforming into the bigger Jacob Black. In case you don't remember here is a picture of Taylor just last year at Comic Con.


And here he is now...
Seriously!!!
I would just like to take this moment to say to all the fans who hated Jacob in the books... You are in for a surprise, it is going to be much harder to dismiss him on film than it was in the books. I said it months ago and I just want to say it for the record.

In case you are wondering about Kristen she is in the middle of filming The Runaways and is playing Joan Jett.
Kristen was asked if it was more difficult to prepare for New Moon than Twilight.

Rob talking about how little he had to do for this movie...I love when he says "that's the way I like it"

I would like to interrupt this blog to answer a question I have been asked several times..."Do I really think this guy Robert Pattinson is good looking?" The answer is yes I really do think he is good looking. Not that I have a huge crush on him, in fact I feel pretty sorry for the poor boy. But see look at that cute grin...

And sometimes he does this pouty thing with his lips... He is also very good at doing the whole smoldering eyes thing...
So yeah I think he is good looking...Ok back to Comic Con.

Besides the panel we were shown two clips one where Jacob was showing Bella how to drive the dirt bike and we got to see the phantom Edward, Jacob take off his shirt & Bella tell Jacob he is sort of beautiful. The other clip started off with Bella & Alice driving through the streets in Italy (it kind of looked a little like a soap opera, I am confident that it will look better in the movie) then Bella running through the square to save Edward.

Highlights: Rob gave this analogy about his life since Twilight. It went something about him walking along stepping on a rock it going flying and then him trying not to drown. I loved watching the clip of Bella running through the plaza and when she got to the fountain everyone screamed or clapped because it was from the book. Oh and when asked what they were looking forward to filming and Taylor said the sleeping bag scene.


Last Panel of the day for us Avatar
20th Century Fox and James Cameron present Avatar— In this first public screening of footage in 3D from his much-anticipated action/adventure/fantasy. James Cameron has been working on this film for years and were able to see over a half an hour of footage. The world he created was breath taking. This technology is going to be able to bring so many sci-fi novels to life. It was obvious that the actors themselves were proud and excited for the movie.
I knew about the movie before Comic Con because my new boyfriend is in it sadly he could not make it since he is busy filming but they did play an interview of him on location.

For more details on the Avatar panel go here


After we were all very tired so we made our way to our hotel in Los Angeles. Mimi was driving Shelby's truck (since Shelby was not comfortable driving in California) she got off the freeway so we could get dinner. Now Mimi was tired and I guess that is why she did not see the curb and drove over it. Then proceeded to park and cut off a mini cooper in the process. Britt & Amber where in the car with me and since we were behind Mimi we saw this all happen. All three of us were laughing and shacking our heads when we noticed the guy in the mini cooper looking at us. He was also laughing and shacking his head along with us. The guy also happened to be very cute which only made us girls laugh harder. When we got out we explained to Mimi why we were still laughing so hard we to call him Cooper, I then turned and yelled come back coup come back.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Depeche Muse

Over at MuseWiki it says about the song Map of the Problematique "It bears similarity with the music of Depeche Mode especially "Enjoy The Silence"." I never picked up on it before but I like Depeche Mode, thanks to my older brother Brett. Maybe that is why I like Map of the Problematitque so much.



What do you guys think?

Wait I forgot while I was listening to Violator I found another one...Well it won't let me post it here so here is the link. It is Waiting For The Night, it sounds a lot like the song Matt Bellamy helped compose for The International soundtrack.