I should be in Anaheim right now. Probably eating, drinking and being merry….or at Disneyland. It’s Star Wars Celebration – the one put off since 2020. The one I scored our 4-day badges for in 2019.
But I am not.
They put it off in 2020. Thanks Covid.
They put it off in 2021. Thanks Covid fear-porn.
They announced it for 2022 BUT changed the dates from August to May – Memorial Day weekend. When travel is both expensive and pure suck. F U. But OK.
THEN, they announced all badge holders must be fully vaxxed AND wear a mask all of the time. Well….no thanks. They announced all this not too long after I lost Smokey. I was already in a very bad headspace. But now you want to insist I inject drug trial chemicals into my body? And this is AFTER the State of CA removed any such restrictions? No thanks. Fuck off. I was able to sell our badges to 2 friends who were unable to get them in the pre-sale in 2019, so that was nice. And Sonya was able to nab a VIP via another friend. So that worked out for everyone else – that is good. At least people I care about were able to benefit.
Then they changed it to fully vaxxed or neg test on EACH day of the show about a month ago. Again….fuck off. You can be fully vaxxed and have *and spread* the virus you fn morons. Not sure if they changed anything since then – I stopped looking at the con reqs. Although I did check the flight once again to see if Disneyland was still a possibility. $500 for an hour flight each way. Fuck off. Seriously.
But sad not to be there. Not to be with friends. Not to see fun things and experience it all. And def sad not to visit Disneyland. But mostly sad that the world has come to this and is still like this.
Actually…mostly sad that I wouldn’t have needed a dog sitter for any of this.
Finally decided to watch an episode of The Walking Dead tonight. I’m behind from last season and this is the final season so I want to watch it. I want to see how they wrap it all up. But I have been very hesitant. I did not put my finger on why until tonight.
Judith gets sad and says “they’re all gone” and starts to cry. And so did I. Not because of the characters on the show she is referring to but because this is the first time I am watching this show alone – without a buddy.
This show started in 2010. I remember making Angelus come inside so I could lock the door because it was creeping me out.
And Smokey – he *always* went to sit outside on the deck when I would watch because he could sense my stress. I think he really hated this show. He could pick on my stress easier than anyone. But I always made sure to skoosh him and tell him it was just TV. And I always tried to hide my jumping and screaming at the show. But he always knew.
I cannot believe this show has been on since 2010. My life has changed so much while I watch these characters – and go see them every year at their panel at SDCC.
But I cannot believe I am now watching the end of it alone. Not sure I will make it through. We’ll see how it goes.
Why did they change Chewbacca’s look (aka costume but he is a real Wookiee so not a costume so whatever..) in the new trilogy?
Had the Star Wars TNT marathon on last night after the Marvel marathon on some other channel. So had the last part of The Last Jedi on and then Rise of Skywalker. And then just now, turned on TNT and the best movie ever made in all of the history of movies is on…The Empire Strikes Back. That’s the Chewie I love the best.
But if you compare fluff – he’s way bulkier in the final trilogy. I know it’s a different actor for the bulk of the final trilogy but obviously that should not matter.
It annoys me. Not in a psychotic nutjob post my hate all over the internet and any fan forum or story kind of way that people love to do, but it annoys me.
But I love Chewie. No matter what. I guess maybe he got his winter coat (although he did not that on Hoth…)
Today was a Funko NFT drop – this time for “Retro Comics”. I told myself I’d buy a pack or 2 but kinda forgot about it until a friend texted me about it. It’s been hard to care about much lately but have been trying with organizing my collectibles and selling some. Listed a few Freddys yesterday. I hate dealing with POP buyers though so just did a few to start.
Today I bought my few packs. And then was able to buy a few more so did. Ended up getting almost 2 full sets which grants you a special NFT and token as a “Royalty Set” (changed from the first named Mastery Set because of ridiculous wokeness.) Then you redeem the digital token for a physical POP.
Since I just need a few more to complete 2 full sets, I decided I might as well. They are digital collectibles so no problem with space. Of course, then I get a physical POP for having these full sets so…more stuff. lol
Maybe I’ll list all of my dupes to get WAX. At least that’s currency.
Never ends. But keeps my mind off other things for a little while.
I did not go to public high school. So I “missed out” on the social cancer known as the clique.
Later in life I saw it in action – at work, in collecting groups, neighborhoods, forums, etc. But thankfully, have not been involved in 1 so that I am either the aggressive a-hole or the victim. Probably mostly because I simply do not care.
I mean at work I was HR so if I saw something like that I kept an eye on you and assumed you were schmuck. I love my hobbies. My “fandoms”. But if I have to spend any time thinking about crappy people – meh. And neighborhood? I’ve been blessed with great neighbors at both my long term residences. And if you are not in my direct neighborhood – I don’t have the mental energy to expend. Reading Nextdoor is akin to burning your eye sockets with acid.
But the whole fandom bashing is weird to me. You like the same thing. Why are you an asshole? If you disagree with something – move on. NOT HARD.
But I see it regularly. And that sucks. Can’t we all just get along. Kumbayah. Namaste. May the Force Be with you. Love Long and Prosper. Greed is Good (wait…different group..) Etc. Etc. Etc.
I love Star Wars Day. Or May the Fourth be With You day. And I love how it’s become part of “normal” people culture and not just us nerds :)
Realized today that I have never really celebrated with friends though. We don’t have movie marathons, dress up in our t-shirts and assorted nerd flair, or make themed foods. Of course, I live far away from most of my friends and none of them would make that effort to come up then. Only on Hallmark holidays I guess.
And I stopped making the effort to go down to the bay area for events. I did it for Force Awakens, Rise of Skywalker and Solo. Was supposed to for Rogue One but the tickets got messed up. Also met friends mid-way for 2 Marvel releases. Not to mention Twilight. But I’m done.
I did get bummed about it today though. It’s been a shit year (and continues to be so). So I am easily bummed out lately it seems.
Plus the contractors are here installing my A/C. Which is great. BUT, the noise being made ALL DAY long is in complete contrast to what I am used to at home. I want to hit someone. And Smokey hates it so he is pacing. Non-stop.
Didn’t even buy much merch. Not so much released this year either. Bought 1 POP and pre-ordered the Sideshow statue I have been waiting for. Although I did spend a gob of cash on Topps digital app for limited edition cards. But I love the trading so whatevs. Stayed up till past midnight last night to complete the “base” special edition collection. And then today is stuff all day. That’s been fun at least.
I wonder how early I can make up some Star Wars-inspired drinks…
In my mission to stay off “social media” (twitter, FB) I downloaded the Topps Disney card app. I’ve had the Star Wars version for years, although had stopped even opening it for years. But I did it. Downloaded the Disney one, opened the SW one and now I am addicted to collecting “cards”.
Now…I have a crate sitting upstairs in my space bedroom of the ACTUAL physical Topps Star Wars trading cards from when I was a kid and collected them. I have been meaning to put them in binders – be able to look at them. Sigh…on that project list…
But in the meantime I am addicted to clicking on claim this pack and trading up cards to different ones and whatever I need to do to get the rare ones. Short of paying…but I know the minute that ultra rare Chewbacca or Uncle Scrooge McDuck shows up as a possibility in a pack… I do not know how they make money on this. But I guess if a ton of people think paying $0.99 for packs for that possibility of the rare version do it regularly? Oh…did I mention…you can sell the rare ones on eBay because of course you can.
Finally watched this movie and it was cute. I didn’t think it was as good as the first Ralph but it was cute. Best part was all the Disney “cameos”. Those were fun. But not sure if the morale of the story of “the girl needs to not always be attached to friend – a male friend obvs – and search for her own thing – which in this case is rolling with a street gang that commits crime…” is the best but ok.
Altho if the internet broke…would that really be such a bad thing? Really? I mean sure – I use it daily and love the convenience in some things for sure but I tried to stay off my computer, internet and especially social media this past Fri-Mon and did a 99% decent job. And let me say – it was glorious. Social media is toxic. Humans are toxic. Allow humans on social media – ugh.
I’ll be working on leaving social media more and more. It’s clear that unity = conformity in our new magical, glorious world and I say F U to that mentality anyway. I’ll still use it (Instagram) to post happy pics of Smokey because the world always needs more pics of cute animals. And maybe pics of toys. And monitor my FinTwit lists on twitter during market hours. But that’s probably it.
I will post here as my “diary”. This allows me to vomit out my thoughts. But since I am posting no links to this blog – and not allowing comments from the unwashed masses – seems ok.
But otherwise – F y’all (I really hate the usage of y’all unless you were born and bred in the south…)
OK, on this Sunday morning the con is not officially over but basically over for me. I’ve been in my hotel room in bed sick since Saturday AM. I don’t think I’ve been sick in like..3 years so naturally I get it while at Comic Con. NOOOOOOOOO!! Seriously sick, like it hurt to get out of bed to get water sick.
BUT…my trip/Con from Tuesday – Friday was AMAZING! And really I mean Friday was AMAZING! Sat in line from noon Thursday till about 10pm to get wristbands for Friday’s Hall H. My con partner, Sonya, and I were in line Thursday for The Last Ship panel around 11:15am. And we looked at each other at the same time and said “I think we should get in line now for Hall H.” We had planned on getting in line right after The Last Ship panel but we both had this feeling. So we got out of line and went down there. The line seemed to be about 500-750 people. Now more people would joining all of those people but we felt secure in not being 6500 people before us.
Sat in the sun all day long and waited. Made new friends in line :) Around 7pm, the line got quite hectic (and the twitter drama following it all!) as there were line cutters and security had to be called and, once again, SDCC was unprepared to handle these issues. So we were starting to get stressed that we wouldn’t actually make it in. But we did – got B wristbands and we were allowed to leave the line and sleep in our rooms and shower (I *really* wish everyone would take advantage of that…)
Got back in line at 6am and waited some more. Got to see some line cutters get removed from the line – that was fun! We all yelled SHAME at them as they were escorted past us. LoL.
Anyway – got in and saw everything I love: The Walking Dead panel (OMG trailer for season 6 is INTENSE!) and Game of Thrones panel (quite obvious they went out of their way to avoid the Is Jon Really Dead question.) Plus a panel for Fear the Walking Dead which looks GREAT! The Entertainment Weekly panel after GoT was full of hero hotties who were hysterical!!! :) And then STAR WARS!
Obviously happy to see everyone but let’s be real – I was out of my mind to see Harrison Ford! :) SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!! I had just seen the rest of the cast at Star Wars Celebration in April but no Mr Ford (who was still recovering from his plane crash.) The place was bonkers when he came out. Bonkers.
And THEN after the panel we got treated to a special Hall H attendee only Star Wars concert with fireworks! We all walked from Hall H to the San Diego Symphony music center down on the water. Mark Hamill drove by us and was talking to fans and waving. Daisy Ridley did the same and was high-fiving as they drove by.
We got light sabers and the music was played to footage (the previous 6 movies, not new footage) and the fireworks display was FANTASTIC. And everyone there loves Star Wars and the energy was just awesome.
My throat had been dry all day but I assumed it was just because I was so exhausted. But when I woke up Saturday AM to try and get ready for the day – I could barely move. Getting out of bed for water hurt. And my throat was on fire. So I’d like to thank whoever came to SDCC fully infected with sickness. I hope you still feel sick for weeks.
As sad as it made me to not get out there on Saturday, I knew I a) felt too horrible and b) didn’t want to be that person who was germy everywhere. I missed out on a lot but 99% of my excitement for this year’s con was for Star Wars. So I got my fill and more. Best Con Day Ever – Friday 7/10/15.
You can see the panel here:
You can see the Behind the Scene footage here:
And then ME in a video down by Verizon (for Facebook). In the same vide as Harrison Ford – ARGH!!!! (I’m about 35 seconds in waving with my Chewie backpack on :) :) :) ) This was Thursday night while we were in line for wristbands to Hall H…for Friday…
Check out what #StarWars brought to #SDCC2015. We’re excited for December 18th!
Interesting article regarding a new book coming (a whole book?!?) out about the beanie baby craze. Pretty interesting. Basically the book is saying the beanie craze was manufactured by some crazy women it seems….I wonder if the book has pics of them. I know how I mentally picture them. But I would add that it really helped propel eBay as well.
And yes…I have some. Big surprise. I can remember hitting up Hallmark stores or small gift shops in search of new cute ones or rare ones. And constantly searching eBay. This is also when I first learned, from an Australian friend who saw TONS of fake beanies being sold on the streets in China, how they were made at a factory (in China) and some of the “rejects” that did not pass QC were then “thrown out” which actually meant employees took them and sold them on eBay as variants and rare for big $$$$. I learned how to look for the errors in the TY tags (the Chinese always seem to mess up the English in everything they steal/copy.)
This is what instilled in me *Caveat Emptor* of ANYTHING bought on eBay (or from China.) But there are people who pay $25 for a Prada purse from a street vendor who actually think they just got a good deal on a designer bag. I am assuming these are also the people who respond to the Nigerian Prince…
I can remember going to McDonald’s to get happy meals for the teenie beanies. I’d go to the one at Stanford Shipping Center in Palo Alto – do NOT get in the way of wealthy soccer moms attempting to get toys for their screaming kids!! And do recall people ordering the Happy Meals and telling the cashiers to keep the food (ummm…give me those fries!) It was definitely nutz.
My beanies are currently all (EXCEPT the 2 husky beanies which are on my bedroom dresser) stored away in 2 containers in my garage. But I can honestly say I never paid more than $50 and that was just for 1 on eBay – the Princess Diana bear. When I moved a couple years back, I considered donating them but I just couldn’t make myself give them up. They are too cute.
So when I start to worry I collect too much Star Wars stuff, or Funko POPs, or anything else…I can re-read this :) I might actually get this book. Cannot argue the guy was a genius. And he owns the Four Season in NYC?!?!? From crazed women (mostly I am sure) buying stuffed toys. That is fantabulous.
