So, how appropriate is it that Lee Thompson Young, who played Cyborg on Smallville, would show up in an episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles?
(Not, as far as we can tell, as a cyborg this time.)
Category: Entertainment
Shopping Oddities
Catching up here on some stuff I saw in stores last December during (and after) Christmas shopping.
The “perfectly cromulent gifts” is my favorite of the bunch. The Simpsons display was found at a Borders bookstore, probably the one at The Block at Orange.
I love the fact that the “Bah Humbug” hat is actually labeled as a “Santa Hat.” I think someone’s got their wires crossed. Found in the clearance aisle at the grocery store.
These bars of tomato soap (not a typo!) were at the World Market at The Village (the one that used to be Orange Mall, not the apartments across from the Spectrum — though I think they use the same font for their logos, which is kind of strange. Better than the apartments that use nearly the same font as the logo for The Prisoner, though!)
I think the reason I get such a kick out of this toy is that laptop computers didn’t exist when I was in preschool (or if they did, they certainly weren’t affordable to anyone who didn’t absolutely need one for business). A laptop meant the top of someone’s lap. And now, in the grand tradition of transforming the everyday objects of the adult world into toys for infants (cars, telephones, bubble pipes), we now have something that vaguely looks like a folding keyboard and screen.
Comic-Con: Hotel Anxiety
Spent a good chunk of last night looking at travel websites. Accomplished 2 things:
- Arranged for a hotel to stay in San Francisco next month.
- Arranged for a back-up hotel for San Diego Comic Con, just in case we can’t get a room through the convention desk.
Hotel rooms during Comic-Con have become a scarce commodity over the last few years, as attendance has shot up by thousands (it actually sold out before the doors opened last year!) but only a few hundred new hotel rooms have been added to Downtown San Diego. Rooms in the convention blocks have been selling out in a matter of hours. The con website has crumbled under the stress, and the phone lines have caved. Last year it took me over an hour just to get through. This year, they haven’t even published a list of which hotels are involved, and it looks like they’ve dropped fax from their options. And booking downtown hotels directly isn’t an option: either they’re sold out, or they want $350/night-plus.
So, just in case I can’t get a room downtown when they go on sale next week, we can at least stay someplace near a trolley station. And if I can get a closer room, even if they charge me $25 to cancel the first reservation, it’s worth the peace of mind.
(Originally posted at LiveJournal. Brought over here to fit with the rest of my convention posts, and as a snapshot of the days when you could get a backup hotel. Not downtown, but in…it might’ve been Old Town? In any case, I cancelled the room once we got our confirmation from the convention block hotel sale.)
Getting Propositioned
Oddly, the usual deluge of election propaganda hasn’t materialized yet, and the election is less than a week away. While looking through the scanty haul, most of which is focused on a quartet of propositions on Indian gaming, Katie found an intriguing statement:
Wait… pubic services? Whoa! And here I thought gambling on tribal lands was hot. This could blow it away… or alternatively, screw everyone over.
Babylon 5 Scripts: The Bonus Volume
Hard to believe, but J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 Script Books are almost done. Volume 13 of 14 just shipped (my copy arrived today by UPS), and it’s time to talk about the bonus volume 15, only available to people who’ve bought a complete set.
This is the book that has alternate versions of several episodes, the series writer’s bible…and a complete outline of the original arc with Sinclair all the way through. The site has a description of the contents [archive.org], but how to get it is a bit out of date. Vol.13 shipped with a notice that they’ve changed the procedure.
Instead of waiting until you receive all 14 volumes, then filling out a proof of purchase form, you need to fill out a form before ordering #14, and they’ll ship #14 and #15 together. The form collects your name, address, and the order numbers for the other 14 books. If you ordered them all through the same CafePress account, it’s easy: Log onto CafePress, look at your order history, and then copy and paste the numbers into the form.
Admittedly, “easy” depends entirely on how much other stuff you’ve made through CafePress. Unfortunately they only list order numbers on the history page, so you have to click through each number to see what was actually ordered. This makes it a perfect job for middle-clicking the links on Firefox (open in background tab): I just went down the list, clicking away, and then I had each order in a tab. Click, copy, click, paste. Repeat.
Musical Thoughts of the Day
1. Fountains of Wayne‘s song, “No Better Place,” popped up on the iPod today. There’s a great line that made us both laugh when we heard them at a concert several years ago, opening for some band that one or the other of us wanted to see:
It may be the whiskey talking
But the whiskey says “I miss you” everyday.
2. The “dream control” sequence from Queensryche’s “Silent Lucidity” sounds really weird in headphones.
3. Heard a cover of Aerosmith’s “Dream On” in Red Robin a few nights ago. Sounded like sort of like Amy Lee (Evanescence) if she were a soprano. Googling suggests that it might be Kelly Sweet. (Edit: After grabbing her version of the song—99¢ is a great price for impulse buying—I’m almost certain this was the one we heard.) She was accompanied by our waitress—but not when she was at out table.
P.S., I Love…WHAT?!
A movie theater tried to cram a few too many titles into this space.
Whoever that is in the last line must really like basketball. Alternatively, feel free to insert your favorite Catherine the Great joke here.
And “Atonement Water”—is that anything like holy water? Or perhaps like Aquamantra‘s “I am Lucky”/”I am Loved”/etc. water?