Long-Awaited Update, AnimeNEXT and News

Daaaaaaaaaaaayum I've been lazy/busy/forgetful/tired and haven't updated in FOREVER. This weekend was AnimeNEXT in Somerset, NJ. This was my first time driving that far, but everything went off without a hitch. We took 95 to 287 to avoid tolls and stopped at Friendly's in West Haven, CT for food and got to the hotel in about 6 hours. The ride back was going even smoother - we didn't make any stops and were flying through New Jersey and ConnectiCut - until we hit tons of roadwork in RI and MA. The return trip ended up taking about 6 hours too but it was at least an easy route - long but at least there weren't a lot of changeovers to other highways.
I've never been particularly fond of AnimeNEXT. It's not set up very well. 2 years ago when it was still in Secaucus it was horribly set up. That was the year that the Artist Alley was in a parking garage. The Somerset location does a slightly better job but it's too spread out. Last year it was in the Garden State Exhibit Center and the Doubletree Hotel, which wasn't a big deal because there was a handy covered walkway connecting the Doubletree and the Exhibit Center. But this year they added locations in the Holiday Inn and a training center across the street. It was too spread out. With Inyx in charge of the Artist Alley this year, the Artist Alley was better set up than last year. We ended up commandeering the entire corner since she was staff, so we had the staff table, 2 tables for our displays and then Sin's table for her studio. I can't believe I forgot to take pictures. It was impressive. Another beef with AnimeNEXT is there isn't much for quality panels or workshops. They don't get the best guests. They did have Greg Ayres this year, who is a very notable voice actor, but they usually don't get anyone bigger than that. The panels are usually lame. The only ones that are of any merit are the Bento and Sake panels but you have to sign up way in advance because they fill out so fast. The Adult Swim Revolution panel happens every year and it's great for Adult Swim fans who want to hear about new shows, see previews, find out what's been cancelled, what's coming back, what's on hiatus and just bitch about crappy shows and praise awesome shows. The panel is a mix of awesome and lame-ass bullshit. I've gone to it every year I've done AnimeNEXT - which is only 3 years, but so far it's progressively gone downhill. This year's panel went from talking about new seasons and new series to bitching about Family Guy and American Dad, and they barely talked about the new shows or any original Adult Swim content. Last year had a lot more information and the year before had free swag and I won a Murderface button by being able to correctly answer what Adult Swim's first time slot was. (I beat someone dressed as Space Ghost, that's epic)
But I think AnimeNEXT should've been renamed PokeCon this year as like, 85% of con-goers were cosplaying Pokemon, Pokemon trainers or Teams Rocket, Magma or Aqua. And everyone had PokeWalkers from the new DS games (mine took a nasty trip through the washer and no longer works, but Wig and Xaqu got plenty of items and Watts). Wig got lots of great pictures. I didn't get as many. I usually just take pics of the cosplays I like and if I got a picture of it at one con I usually don't take subsequent pictures unless the person did an exceptional job and it's extremely accurate or it's some clever twist on the normal character design.
Anyway, the Artist Alley wasn't nearly as busy as Anime Boston's. We still did pretty well. A small but comfortable $650 on Friday and a much better $800 on Saturday. I don't know the Sunday numbers because Inyx stayed to go to the staff after-party and we left early, so she hadn't counted it before we left. I myself only made $76, a far cry from the $101 I made at Anime Boston but still decent for some crocheted dolls and guitar pick earrings. Someone bought 3 of my $12 amigurumi on one sale - both mushrooms and the Dragon Quest slime. The mini Brain Slugs were the star this time, trumping their full-size counterparts. I don't know how PortCon will fare, it's a much smaller and less busy convention but I think people are a little more willing to spend on handicrafts there.

In other news, I'm pregnant. It's kind of shocking. I never expected it to happen this soon. Everyone who knows me knows how badly I want a baby, though, and I'm more happy than nervous. Part of me wishes it isn't happening now, but part of me is glad I no longer have to wait. I can finally experience pregnancy and have the baby I always wanted. I was kind of getting sick of a lot of my friends and old classmates having kids before me. I felt like I was being left in the dust. Me and Wig's friends Dan and Lindsey just had their 2nd baby, and Katie and Fetus (another Sean, everyone goes by nicknames) had Seamus in January. Not only was I jealous of people having what I want and couldn't have, I was disappointed that our kids would end up being far apart in age. Now they'll be close in age and get to play together. Wig isn't happy. He's convinced he'll be a horrible father just like his father and thinks he'll end up doing something bad that'll cause me to divorce him, kill him or have him arrested. I know him better than he knows himself and I know he is too sweet, caring and too desperate to not turn out like his parents and that he'll come out fine in the end. I don't know how we're going to manage raising a child right now. I'm confident in help from my family and friends. My parents don't have money to spare but my grandparents do, and I bet some of my friends will donate some of their old baby things. I have a lot of my old baby furniture down in the basement that is still useful and of course there's the baby shower. Finding full time work is gong to be tough. Wig is still having trouble finding a job, but I think Stop n Shop will work out if he just follows through, and he's finally expressed interest in going to school to learn a trade. I wonder if he pulls the "my fiancee is pregnant I really need a job!" spiel if that'll get him a job out of sympathy. Now that I'm not doing the Census I can finally focus on applying for full-time jobs again and I'm trying for some entry-level government jobs because even if you don't have any experience if you at least have a Bachelor's degree they'll train you. My aunt also knows someone with a music teacher job opportunity on the South Shore. She's going to give him my contact info and I'm just waiting for an email or phone call with the info. I haven't told my parents yet. I'm waiting until after PortCon, because if I tell them now, they'll either forbid me to go or bitch and moan that I'm going to another convention when I should be saving money for the baby and shouldn't be traveling and doing convention-type things when I'm pregnant. Plus I don't want to stress them out like that then take off like that. I don't know how I'm going to bring it up. But I'm going to tell my mom first because she'll take it better. They're going to freak out at first because it really is too soon. I'm not too young - I'm 25, which I think is a good age to have a kid (my goal was always between 25 and 30 for my first) - but working part-time with an unemployed fiancee and we both still live at home and have less than $700 between us isn't an ideal situation for having a child. But they won't forget that they were in the same boat when they were younger than me and that their parents supported them and helped them out. It could be a lot worse. Plus once they get over the initial shock and we figure out how we're going to work this out, they'll start to gush over the fact that they'll be grandparents. My sister is going to refuse to look at me during my 2nd and 3rd trimester, though - she's weirded out by pregnant women. All in all, I'm amazingly calm right now considering the news. It's surreal though. I'm still having a hard time believing it really happened and it happened so soon. I don't even feel pregnant yet. But it must be meant to be, so something good must be coming from it somewhere down the line. I'm not too worried yet. I'm determined to find away.

Seasonal Update

I have to get back in the swing of blogging more frequently. It's been too long since the last time I updated. So even though it's 2 months before New Year's I'm going to make a resolution to update my Blogger, Twitter and FaceBook on an almost-daily basis.

So I think I'm having a quarter-life crisis. I'm turning 25 this month. On the one hand that's not old at all, but on the other it's 5 years from 30, and nothing I had planned to have accomplished by now has come to fruition. I'm still living at home, and I'm no closer to starting my career and getting married. I realized that subconciously I've been trying to recreate my youth. Over the past year or so I've been slowly collecting all my favorite childhood shows on DVD, the most important being Peanuts specials. For some reason, Snoopy will always stick out in my mind as being a big deal when I was growing up, and recently I've been rewatching the specials I already have on DVD or VHS and have been trying to collect the rest that are available on DVD (no small feat as there were over 130 made between the 1960s and early 2000s and not all of them are on DVD yet) I've been on the Peanuts wikipedia page and I found out there's a Charles Schultz museum in Santa Rosa, California that I MUST go to - and there's even a statue of Charlie Brown and Snoopy in Santa Rosa center. Other series from back in the day I've amassed in my nostalgia stupor include Garfield, Adventures of Pete & Pete, Darkwing Duck, Inspector Gadget, Clarissa Explains it All, Alf, and Punky Brewster. Not to mention all the old movies I have as well. I'm too young to be freaking out about my age and trying to recapture my youth, but right now the desire to relive the simpler times in my life is at full force. But it's not necessarily a bad thing. Those were some great shows and the fact that they're on DVD and I can watch them whenever I want is great - especially when there's bonus features because I'm a trivia whore.

They're having a Price is Right Live event at Foxwoods now through the 18th. Being the game show whore that I am and the fact that it's only 2 hours away and $25 for a ticket, me and Wig are thinking of going next week. Who knows? We might luck out and win some awesome prizes. It's worth the shot. I'd fare a lot better on Cash Cab, Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy though, it's less up to chance and more reliant on my unending cache of useless random trivia. Also I just found out that there's a little sci-fi convention being held the 21st and 22nd in the Framingham Sheraton (the castle on the Mass pike) and fucking Brent Spiner is going to be there. Only my favorite actor who played my favorite character in the entire Star Trek universe. And tickets are only $35 for the whole weekend. I've already started overnights for the season, and getting weekends off is normally impossible this time of year, but my manager is a fellow nerd and he totally understood. I only really need Friday off so I can sleep and be well rested and get there early then I can do my normal Saturday overnight after I get back from the con. I don't need to go Sunday unless I miss Brent on Saturday and he's going to be doing signings on Sunday too. But I think Sat will suffice. But if I couldn't get the days off, I could function on a couple hours sleep and still work and go to the con. I can forgo sleep for one weekend for Brent Spiner. I know I'm being a total spaz right now, but this is a big deal. I've been a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation since I was eight and Data has always been my favorite character, so this is a lifelong dream.

In other news, I had a couple Etsy sales a few weeks ago. Two in a row. I also joined an Etsy Team. It's the CreateCrochet team and it's wicked fun. Every month there's a new challenge theme. This month's is "winter" and the possibilities are endless. You make your item, list it, and it gets featured on the blog and in treasuries. Every week there's a featured seller and I was the featured seller 2 weeks ago. I got much love for my brain slug amigurumi as usual and a bunch more hearts but no sales. We're also doing a swap right now where we were matched up with other members to convo back and forth and get to know each other and make each other surprise gifts. I have to work on the swap and the winter challenge item plus some new ideas I have for the shop. I don't know what I'm going to do for everyone for Christmas yet. I have a lot of ideas that cost a lot of money but no money to pull them off, but I don't know what I can crochet for everyone that I can get done in time. But I'll think of something and pull it off last minute.

I actually had a decent Halloween for the first time in years. Me, Wig, Inyx, Sin and Ed went into Salem. It's so overrated and overcrowded and has been totally ruined by the tourists. But the highlight of the day was seeing a DeLorean decked out just like the one in Back to the Future! Complete with a Marty McFly and Doc Brown for photo-ops. They were collecting donations for TeamFox for Parkinson's Disease research and any donation allowed you to take a picture in the driver's seat. I love the Back to the Future trilogy and I love DeLoreans because we share the same initials, DMC. My dad used to joke I was named after the DeLorean Motor Company, and I'm even considering keeping my maiden name when I marry just to keep the coolest initials ever. More pics on my flickr.

I had a job interview a couple weeks ago. While the position was in Beverly I had to go to the main office in Sudbury for the interview. It was for a part-time music teacher for a daycare/school called Next Generation Children's Center. I thought the interview went really well but I got a rejection letter literally 3 days later. With my license still pending and no experience, it's next to impossible to get a job in anything remotely teaching related. But I'm not giving up yet. I have a list of online resources for private school job listings someone my mom knows sent her for me, and there's the option of private lessons. I'm also seriously pursuing the idea I had for a children's book: Hayden Go Seek. I don't know whether I want to do it like an I Spy book or for younger children where you lift open flaps to find items, but the plot is that you have to find specific orchestral instruments, parts of the musical staff and composers. Also my eBay sales have been steady. No huge hauls but I'm getting a few bucks for things I don't need anymore (or promotional items I got for free or for as little as a penny!). Although I'm having some issues with a couple buyers not having paid yet. They're already late, it's been over a week, but I try to be understanding and lenient. I mean, there could've been a death or medical emergency and they haven't been online in a week. Who knows? But if I still get no reply or payment in a few days I will file a claim with eBay. This is the first time I've had this problem on eBay, although I had it once on Etsy. Generally I get paid instantly or within the first 3 days. I pride myself in having 100% positive feedback and everyone praises my fast shipping and communication. I'd hate for my reputation to be tarnished.

And my car has been in the shop TWICE in the past month for leaking coolant. The first time was a cracked something-or-other valve and then 2 weeks later the radiator went. When they were replacing the radiator, they found that the transmission lines were rusted and one broke so those had to be replaced. Fortunately, the guy that does all my repairs is a close friend of my dad's and didn't charge any labor. I still owe my dad and my grandmother a ton of money for helping me with car parts and repairs. :(

And we have a new kitten! Heather's friend couldn't keep him and she didn't want to see him go to the animal shelter, so she brought him home. We were supposed to find a new home for him but we got too attached and kept him. His name's Frankenstein. He is the most obnoxious pet I ever owned but he's adorable. And my parakeet Gemini died the other day. Sad, but not devastatingly sad as I wasn't too attached to him, and he was old for a parakeet and I think het got sick in the past couple months.

I saw Boondock Saints II: All Saint's Day. If you haven't seen the first one, what the fuck are you waiting for?! And if you have, see the sequel you'll fucking love it! It was much like the first one with the action and the spurts of comedy but it had a deep backstory that Saints fans will appreciate. Wig and I both give it two thumbs up.

Well, I think I'm going to work on some crochet projects and rest before my overnight shift. I'm going to try to blog more often so my few readers know what's going on. Until then...

Amusing Friday...A Musing Friday

I had a funny moment w/a customer today: she just happened to be quite large and she decided to take advantage of our Buy one Get on Half Off on the 20-packs of Philips AAs. She literally said, "Never have too many batteries. I eat through them...not literally." I'm thinking, "Did she just make a fat joke about herself or just making a joke about figures of speech?!" So I just politely chuckled, but that phrase choice is just priceless right there.
Then Flav and Ricky stopped by unexpectedly, so that was a pleasant surprise. I couldn't persuade either one to buy a Wii though. Although I will admit, if you're only casually into playing video games, the DS would be the better choice. It's more casual-gamer-friendly and there's a bigger variety.
Everyone is familiar with my cheesy string of composer puns (I'll be right Bach, can you Handel it? I'm going Chopin...etc). Well, today I came up with a great idea for a children's pop-up book that teaches about classical music and composers. It'd be titled "Hayden Go Seek." It's so clever I'm afraid it's already taken, so I'm going to have to research that. It's a slightly better idea than my old classmate James Peters' movie idea: "Bach to the Future." I don't think that the great German and Austrian composers of the Baroque and Classical eras realized the extent of punniness their names would amount to.
Then I was looking at stuff on Etsy, namely stuff with skeleton keys and vintage typewriter keys, and I found one made with a really rare typewriter key for a punctuation mark known as an interrobang, which is a combination question mark and exclamation point. Y'know, for when you have to exlaim something incredulously like "He did what?!" Instead of using both a question mark and and an exclamation point you'd just need the interrobang. First off, I just love the name: it combines the word interrogate with BANG! It's a question with pizzazz! Actually, it's because "bang" is printer's slang for exclamation point. It kinda makes sense. It's for sentences with a bang. But now I'm thinking "Damn, that would've made a great band name, or company name." You already have a built-in logo. But now it's too late. Wig would never rename Umbilical Cord and I don't have the wherewithal to start my own band, and I'm kinda already established as StringTheory101 on Etsy. But yeah, the interrobang. It was invented in the 60s and was basically only used in printing and on typewriters for the 60s and 70s. It was a fad - and I didn't think you could have punctuation fads. That'd be like not using semi-colons anymore.
So when I got home from work today and brought in the mail, there was one of those "We're sorry we missed you" things from the Post Office for when they can't drop off a package cuz they need a signature. So it's for me, it's certified mail and it's a letter, not a box or anything like that. So I'm hoping this is my long-awaited degree from Berklee. We'll see tomorrow before work. Woot. Also my tax return dropped into my bank account either yesterday or today so now I got a huge chunk o'money with which to pay bills. Yay! And it'll be gone in less than a month...
Where do all those people come from in the Verizon commercials? I mean one minute there's no one, and the next there's an army of IT guys and operators. And if you need that many people per account making sure it's working right, then your service isn't as good as you make it sound. I think I'm gonna stick with Sprint and their pretty laser light shows LOL
Well, that's enough amusing musings for now. I somehow lost 3 hours because last time I checked it was 8 and now it's 11...so I think it's time to put the computer away and either do something productive or call it an early night and get some much-needed rest

Long Time No Post

Yeah, I've been lazy, I know. I haven't updated my blog in weeks. I haven't been on Facebook either. I'm not good at this online social networking thing, so sue me LOL.

Anyway, I've been surviving, doing the same ol' same ol'. A couple weeks ago Wig's father took us to see Gary Charone perform with his Who cover band at Tequila's in Danvers. Fitzy (yes I call my future father-in-law by his nickname. I call my future husband by his nickname. They're both Seans, it's just easier this way) has been close friends with Charone since high school and actually used to tag along on Extreme's tours once in a while. They even have an inside joke together. ("Sides of cows," since Fitzy knew a butcher and could actually get a whole side of a cow worth of steaks and would give some to the band) It's not the biggest deal knowing someone from Extreme since the band was made up of people from Medford and Malden, but Extreme was pretty big in the 80s and 90s and Gary Charone was also in Van Halen. Anyway, the show was awesome. I don't know a lot of Who music, basically the common songs like Baba O'Reilly, My Generation, Tommy, etc but they put on a hell of a show, especially Charone who was all over the place. I kind of hate going to see shows in small, cramped bars and clubs like that because people just shove you around, you can't see shit and it's wicked hot and stuffy but I endured. The funny thing is they had to temporarily shut the show down because the fire marshall had to make sure we weren't over the max capacity. So they made everyone leave and stand out in the parking lot until the bar was completely empty, then shuffled us back in single file so they could physically count us. We lingered as long as we could and were some of the last people out so were were some of the first back in which meant once we got back we were right up front near the stage, which improved the cramped situation a bit. The show continued and it was funny, Charone kept leaning against the people in the first 2 rows, especially this one large girl, and at one point he just laid right on top of the first 2 rows' shoulders. I'm surprised no one dropped him LOL. Anway, we were supposed to meet up w/him after the show but because of having to stop in the middle and how late it was and how long it probably would've taken to wait for him, we didn't stick around and Fitzy said he'd call and try to set up going to a rehearsal instead. Wig's already met him twice, once when he was younger and again probably 3 or 4 years ago. It's good that he's got some business connections as he tries to get Umbilical Cord off the ground. Too bad his dad's marriage didn't work out, his former stepmom Maria had a lot of connections - including being friendly enough with Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant to have gone bowling with him on numerous occasions.

I also finally took up exercising daily again. Since purchasing Wii Fit, I did it every day or almost every day - up until early September when I got really sick for a whole week. I just couldn't get back into the swing of things and then was really busy w/the holiday season, but since 2 weeks ago I've been doing it daily again (except for last Friday, Sunday and yesterday). When I was weighed for the first time since Christmas, I had dropped to 131...I was floored. Last time I weighed myself i was 135 - how did I lose 4 pounds doing nothing?! In the past two weeks I've fluctuated between 128 and 132 as I get reaccustomed to exercising and trying to improve my diet. No matter what, I'm finally in the Normal BMI bracket. Sure the Wii balance board isn't the most accurate piece of machinery, but it is pretty damn close.

Then Sunday, I got my car towed for the first time ever. Not realizing it was going to be considered a snow emergency because there wasn't that much snow on the ground, I parked on Wig's street all night and when I left at midnight, the entire street was empty. I'm like "FUCK!!!" So, I had to call home to get picked up then drive over to Export and pay $122.05 in cash to get my car out. I didn't get home until 130 between getting yelled at over the phone, waiting for my mom, calling Export, then actually going to Export and getting the car. The stupidest thing is the fact that Wig's neighbors recently moved out and I can park in their driveway until the house gets rented or sold again but I don't like doing this often because I don't want to suddenly be smacked with a trespassing charge. Plus everyone knows how much of a bitch it is to back out of a driveway on Harvard St, especially when this house is right by the intersection of Main St. So I usually only use it as a last resort. I should've parked there Sunday, but I forgot about the fact that they tow people off that street when there's a snow emergency. Still I got my car back no problem - except that I'm $123 broker with a $25 parking ticket on top of that - at least I have a little more time to pay that. Good thing my tax return should be coming in the next week or so.

I was supposed to spend today getting a lot of things done and I failed. After my workout I was going to take pictures of some of my finished jewelry and post it on Etsy, post some more stuff on eBay, apply for a substitute teaching job, play some violin for the first time in almost 2 years, and finish some Brain Slugs. So far, I've taken pictures of my jewelry and posted them on Etsy. It doesn't help that I didn't wake up until 1030. Then I sat half-naked and watched Crocodile Dundee instead of getting dressed - I'm so lethargic in the morning and it takes forever to get me moving regardless of how much sleep I got, and I don't know why. But finally I got up and did my workout and it was about 1PM by time I was done. So I had some lunch and got to doing the pictures - which took forever because the lighting in my room sucks and it took forever to get halfway decent pictures. I also had to check my email since I failed to do so yesterday and was pretty backed up - lots of surveys and Publisher's Clearing House entries LOL. Then I could finally start posting to Etsy. I posted, like 7 new items. I have a bunch more guitar pick earring and 2 new hemp necklaces. I finished that about halfway through Jeopardy. I'm going to apply for that sub job now and then either do some crocheting or reorganize my DVDs, books, CDs and games. Probably the crocheting, cuz the organzing takes hours and I don't want to be up all night. But I've been putting it off for too long and I won't have time the rest of this week. We'll see. But I wanted to get a blog in so that all two people who read my blog don't think I'm dead, which is almost worthless because one of those two people I talk to on the phone on an almost-daily basis. LOL.

Why am I still up?

I should've waited until tomorrow to start blogging again. It's 3AM and I'm still setting up all the little frilly things on this thing. Granted, I don't have to be at work til 1030, but I still gotta get up a 830 to give me enough time to get ready then it takes 20-30 minutes to get to work. So now I only have 5 1/2 hours sleep. Brilliant. So I guess I'll call it quits now and do all the Etsy mini-ads and shit tomorrow after work and before Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra. I can tell having a laptop of my own is a bad idea. I'll be online instead of doing anything else.

I love how Stephen Hawking played himself on Star Trek: The Next Generation (and Simpsons and Futurama)

Good night

Or should I say Good morning?