This is how I'm prosperin'.

Porta-potty Pandemonium

This would scare the crap out of me...literally!

Tell the Count he makes a damn fine sandwich.

We went to Bennigan's last night with Marv because he was leaving for Cabo today, and because we had a gift card. Rhonda ordered a Monte Cristo sandwich, and for the uninitiated, it was one of the most bizarre American food items I've ever seen or tasted.

It's a ham, turkey, and Swiss cheese sandwich. Battered and deep-fried. With the raspberry sauce on the side, it was like a jelly donut. A meat-and-cheese-filled jelly donut. I joked Krispy Kreme should make these and call it the "Kristo".

Of course, I'm eating the leftovers right now. It's delicious, but I could think of few things less healthy for you than a deep-fried, meat-and-cheese sandwich with powdered sugar and sugary raspberry sauce on top.

Another job Americans won't do.

Brewers add chorizo to sausage race

By EMILY FREDRIX, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 29 minutes ago

MILWAUKEE - It could have been wurst. On his first outing as the newest sausage at Miller Park, chorizo didn't fall on his buns.

Wearing an oversized brown sombrero and a bright yellow shirt emblazoned with the No. 5, Chorizo became the fifth pork product to join the famed sausage races at every Milwaukee Brewers home game.

He signed a contract with Brewers general manager Doug Melvin at a news conference at the stadium and then trotted around the bases.

Chorizo, also known as "El Picante," will race for the first time on Saturday against the other sausages — Italian, bratwurst, Polish and hot dog. But that'll be the only time this year he runs in the Klement's Sausage races, which have taken place every home game since 2000.

Chorizo will be put through the grind in the minor league, so he can get some extra seasoning before rejoining the other sausages next season, Melvin said.

Chorizo said through an interpreter his dream has come true.

"I am very humbled to be in the presence of so many world-class wieners, but hopefully I can bring a little something new to the table, and Brewers fans will welcome me into their hearts and grills," Chorizo said in a statement that was read in both English and Spanish.

Random linkage.

Just some cool stuff I have been reading on the Internet.

This guy uploaded the Voice Memo application from the Palm Lifedrive so it could be used on the Treo 650. Thanks, dude. I salute you.

Rhonda sent me this link from Octopus Dropkick: a Katamari Damacy flash game.

I need to replace the cabin air filter in my Scion tC. Luckily, I read Scion Life first, and found out how to make your own cabin filter.

Jesse sent this link of a used video game store in Japan. It truly is friggin' ridiculous.

Maybe I am late in jumping on the bandwagon, but I saw this book at Urban Outfitters tonight: Sorry Everybody.

Following up on recent posts, Anime News Network has exclusive interviews posted with the pillows and HYDE. Here is also the link to the offical website for Great Laundry.

Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

Yes, it was hot on Saturday. But that left us ill-prepared for Sunday, which was by far the hottest day of my life.

That sounds a little funny when you consider I was born and bred in Stockton, in California's Central Valley, where triple-digit temperatures are routine. Yes, but in Stockton the majority of houses have air conditioning (my mom likes the house a nice, cool sixty-eight) and humidity is low.

Sunday was a different beast altogether. We don't have air conditioning (as people in Stockton like to say, "you don't need air conditioning in the Bay Area!"). We live in the most southern part of San Jose (far from the water). Humidity was high, around thirty percent (I think), and it was a hundred and four degrees.

Did I mention the power went out?

So we went with our daily ritual of hanging out at the pool to keep cool around two o'clock. Around 2:30, it started getting very crowded at the pool, since the power went out. A little later, more people came by because a transformer caught fire at Oakridge Mall and the mall (where people go to keep cool) had to be evacuated. We called PG&E a few times and due to "widespread outages" and "storm conditions"(!) they were unable to provide an estimate of when the power would be on.

We were starting to get hungry and all shriveled up, so we headed inside around 8. And lo and behold, the power came on a few minutes later. We opened the windows, turned the fans on full blast (blowing outward, because it was a sauna in the house), and went somewhere air-conditioned for dinner.

We couldn't have gone more than a mile for dinner, to the Burger Pit on Blossom Hill by the gym. When we drove back, the street lights were all out. Oh crap. The power went out shortly after we left, so the house had not cooled off at all.

We decide to wait it out in case PG&E came through. It was hot Saturday night, but with two fans on full blast, we were able to get some uncomfortable, sweat-soaked sleep. Instead, we were trying to sleep in a ninety-five degree, humid house with no fans and not even a breeze coming through the windows. We were also starting to worry about whether the food in the fridge and freezer was going to go bad.

At midnight we started to panic. It had been ten hours with no power (the 20-30 minutes it came back on didn't count) and the food in the fridge was probably a lost cause. We were drinking water but sweating it right back out. Finally, we decided to call Marv and Jess and ask to crash at their place. And if they weren't home, we needed to find a hotel.

On the way out, we talked to the PG&E repairman and asked if it was going to take a while. The guy thought about it, and said, "Yeah, I'd get a hotel. I came from San Luis Obispo, so I have to find a place tonight too."

Luckily, Jesse was home, and awake (sorry Marv), so we drove up to their place and crashed on their couch. In the morning, we were relieved to find the power on and the freezer cold, although we had to toss the ice cream and most of the stuff in the fridge. I had a cup of yogurt and it was not pleasant.

Finally, the cooling trend arrived last night, a few days late. Today was the first day since early last week we did not spend several hours in the pool. (On the plus side, we tanned nicely and got a lot of exercise.) We were able to go to Santana Row tonight and actually walk around outside comfortably.

The fridge needed to be cleaned out anyway, and we needed to go shopping, so it could've been a lot worse.

Stewing in my own juices.

If Bush still doesn't believe in global warming, I'd invite him to Northern California this week. As B.J. Shaw said yesterday at the pool, "I think the sun is moving closer to the earth!"

And all you people from Stockton who say you don't need air conditioning in San Jose...you're all full of crap! We came home at 10:30 tonight to a ninety-two-degree house. Ninety-two! How are we supposed to sleep tonight?

We camped out at a Borders today (the cheap bastards at the Great Mall didn't have the A/C on high enough to compensate for the crowds) for three hours and that place was packed with people, sitting on the ground trying to stay indoors. Yesterday I went straight from work to the pool, then to Costco, then to Baskin-Robbins, then back into the pool. Until almost 11:00.

It was so hot at the Shaws' place today the router or the DSL modem stopped working because it was just too hot. On the way over there, traffic going south on 17 to Santa Cruz was at a dead stop...by our house! In the morning!

I getta get out of this room, and into one with a fan! Seacrest out!

Marshawn10.com

There was a time when you wouldn't think to say "Heisman Trophy" and "Berkeley" in the same sentence. Of course, we didn't have a Top-10 team back them either.

Marshawn10.com

And again, from about this time last year:

the pillows clips from YouTube

"Hybrid Rainbow".



The audio on this clip sucks but you get the general gist. I think this cover just surprised the crap out of everyone. A highlight of the night for me.

Vacation = over.

Brad Kava from the Mercury News reviews the HYDE show.

Congrats to Celena and Patrick on their wedding Saturday!

Happy birthday to my Mom-in-Law!

The Little Manila crew traveled down to L.A. to work on the video shoot for the Black Eyed Peas' "Bebot". Not sure if it will get play here, but Stockton and the Little Manila cause will get some pub from it. I haven't been a fan of their music the last several years, but this is still very cool of them nonetheless. (Hope I am not blowing anything by posting this on my blog.)

Back to work tomorrow. Sigh. Guess I should be happy there's still work to go back to.

HYDE the women and children

HYDE friggin' rocked the Fillmore tonight. While the pillows rocked Slim's last week, HYDE's performance tonight was a different beast altogether. This guy is a rock god, and he knows it, and he proved it with a charismatic and captivating performance. Add to that the fact that one of Japan's rock legends graced the stage at the Fillmore, one of America's most hallowed music venues. I was glad we fought off the hordes of screaming teenage fangirls to witness it, since we bought the tickets on a whim from the Anime Expo dealer room. Rhonda had a better time than at Slim's last week because she is a bigger fan of Hyde and L'Arc~en~Ciel than the pillows.

The opening act, Black List Club, was also, surprisingly, really good. They were much better than the openers for the pillows (although I reserve judgment on Lemon Drop Kick, since we were in line when they were on, then missed them at AX, and have yet to check their myspace). They had a very polished sound, a great stage presence, and seem ready for bigger things.

Should also mention HYDE did an edgy cover of The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds". Very nice, especially given the historic context of the Fillmore in rock history. Although, in my book, it was not as sublime as the pillows' cover of Nirvana's "Breed" the week before.

Fourth of July

Lastly, we spent every last second of Tuesday in the exhibit hall. I left Anaheim without a dollar in my wallet. After that, we drove over to Torrance for Fourth of July at Kim & Robert's place.

I knew there were going to be fireworks, but I didn't realize they were just down the block at the park. So we were extremely fortunate to get the last parking space on the block.

The food was great, hot dogs and bacon cheeseburgers and carne asada. Also chicken salad and sushi and, later, pie. Unfortunately, all the excitement of the week caught up with me, and I knocked out on the couch. Rhonda and I (and Uncle Gary, Shrley, and Andrew) watched the fireworks from the balcony, since Rhonda was bound to be allergic to the park and I was still groggy.

On Wednesday, we slept in and skipped the tour of UCLA (another day). We drove home and had Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We watched Ichigo Mashimaro (Strawberry Marshmallow) and introduced Sara to Undeclared. Then we slept in some more, bringing our week-long saga to a close.

Well, more or less. We are having dinner with Auntie Helen today and then driving to San Francisco to see HYDE from L'Arc~en~Ciel in concert, bookending our big Anime Expo weekend with J-Rock concerts.

Our friend, the Fastpass

Somewhere in between the panels and dealer room, we squeezed in a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. (No, not Hooters. Disneyland!)



We got there right after it opened, and within an hour rode Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, Autopia and the Matterhorn. Which was a god thing, because it was hot and lines were getting long.





When you have sufficient arm strength and don't get sick like Rhonda, the teacups rock.







We had lunch at the House of Blues with Sara's friend from school, Jon Chew. Rhonda found an allergy/asthma kindred spirit of sorts.

After lunch, the lines were outrageous. Splash Mountain had been Fastpass'd up until 10:45. We were hot and tired and wilting quickly. We got a brief reprieve in the Tiki Room, but the line for It's a Small World was hella long so we went back to the hotel.

We drove back for dinner at the ESPN Zone. Yes, drove a block-and-a-half, that's how tired we were. We figured we could park at Downtown Disney at 8, and with validation, stay there until 1. Unfortunately, we were not the only ones with that idea and it took a long time to park. Then we had to wait half-an-hour at ESPN.



At the ESPN Zone bar, Al Davis's decision-maker dartboard. Complete with areas such as, "Demand Coliseum Repairs", "Sue Oakland", and "Bench Marcus Allen". Oh, Raiders, how I hate thee.

What was sweet is we got to sit in recliners in the front row of the restaurant, right in front of the giant screen with about a dozen video feeds. The bad news is the Dodgers were on the big screen and they were winning.



We went back to Disneyland after dinner with the sole purpose of riding the re-opened Pirates of the Carribean, starring an animatronic Johnny Depp. The line was ruthlessly long in the afternoon and we timed it right, getting there after the fireworks were over and during the second Fantasmic show. It wasn't changed too much, so that's a good thing.

By the time that was over we were thoroughly exhausted and passed on Small World again. (Turned out to be a good idea, as Sara fell asleep on the five-minute ride back to the hotel.) Despite the fact we only went on like three rides after noon, we all had a good time.





I even got a tan! That totally goes against the stereotype of the pasty, pale, sun-starved otaku! We even wore bright clothes, not the standard otaku uniform of black t-shirt, black pants, and optional trenchcoat.

More AX goodness

I ain't gonna lie, we spent most of Sunday and Tuesday shopping in the exhibit hall. So there aren't a lot of pictures, although we did pick up some nice stuff.



We don't know who these guys are, we just followed the screaming fangirls and took a picture.



Karaoke Revolution live courtesy of Comcast. Rhonda insisted she needed a couple of drinks to do this, and she wanted to shop, but I'm pretty sure she would've brought the house down.



Rhonda with her childhood hero.



Rhonda in her sweet Great Laundry shirt.

Just because you are a character, doesn't mean you have character.

Life is not all about anime and stuff. Needing to broaden our horizons, we joined the Shaw family for Lilo & Stitch's breakfast at the Paradise Pier Hotel on Sunday morning.

Cosplay Time

KAWAII!!!

You betta AX somebody

(I thought it would be cool to post daily pictures and doings from Anime Expo. And it would've been cool. But we were too busy having fun so you'll have to settle for slightly stale posts from home in San Jose.)



Day one of Anime Expo finally arrived Saturday. We went there bright and early for opening ceremonies. After a lengthy delay, they got under way and most of the Guests of Honor were introduced and had a few words for the attendees (no, CLAMP did not make an appearance).




Crispin Freeman (Wolf's Rain, Hellsing, Witch Hunter Robin)


Vic Mignogna (Fullmetal Alchemist)


Yutaka Izubuchi (Director of RahXephon)


Toru Furuya (Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya)


Seiji Mizushima (Director of Fullmetal Alchemist)


All the Guests of Honor (minus CLAMP and Mana)

We had a quick bite to eat and then it became decision time. Rhonda went to a traditional Japanese dance class. Sara and I were debating whether to get in the gigantic CLAMP panel line. Sara wanted to go to the panel for Seiji Mizushima, the director of Fullmetal Alchemist, so I tagged along. When the CLAMP Panel line looked insurmountable, we decided to go the Mizushima autograph session instead.





Mizushima-san bears an uncanny resemblance to Biggie Smalls.

Chillin' & Grillin'

Friday we enjoyed a leisurely pace as the only thing we had to do was pick up our Anime Expo badges. Once that was done, we walked over to Downtown Disney and did some shopping.

Friday night we were supposed to meet my co-worker Xochitl for dinner at Shinsengumi in Fountain Valley. We drove over there but the restaurant wasn't open yet, so we parked the car and walked over to TJ Maxx. While Rhonda was trying on clothes and we were getting ready to checkout, who should we say but...Xochitl! She showed up early and was killing time as well. The funny thing is she had also been to Downtown Disney around the same time as us.

Dinner was really good. It was a unique dining experience and a lot of fun. We sat at a table on barstools and on one side was the kitchen. We ordered a bunch of skewered meats and vegetables and when they were cooked, the chef would come over and put them directly on our plate. It was sort of like a barbecue dim sum. They also had drinks and Rhonda got a little toasty on her green tea cocktail. We had a great time, and my only regret is I left the camera in the room.