Force-i-licious

So, the new Star Wars movie? I loved it! It was so much fun.

I'm going to blab about it here with spoilers, so in case someone is reading this, and hasn't seen it yet, be warned, there are spoilers here!

(One more spoiler space, just in case.)

OK. So yeah. I thought the movie was a lot of fun, and to quote something a lot of people have been saying, it takes the bad taste out of your mouth that the prequels left. Now THIS is how you do a Star Wars movie! Although one of the reasons it may have worked so well is that it's essentially the first movie. Mike pointed that out to me after it was done and I was like "....hahah, that's true." Like, instead of a Death Star, you have that sun-thing. And Han Solo pretty much takes Obi Wan's place. (Sad, but I guess it had to happen.)

I love how much music from the original trilogy was used, and I love how it was used.

I love, love, LOVE BB-8! He is just the cutest! I am totally in love with him. I want my own BB-8 so badly. Why can't he be real?! ahhh....<3

I love all the characters! And look, characters with personalities! (As opposed to the prequels, heh.) I love both Rey and Finn so much. Kylo Ren is...interesting. What an asshole though. :P I wasn't hugely fond of Poe, but thankfully he doesn't stick around too long.

I love that Finn is a stormtrooper. I mean, I knew all that from the ads and the hype, but I kind of forgot about it, and I didn't think about how that would shape his story. It's really cool (I thought).

I'm so happy they managed to stick in a "I have a bad feeling about this", and that it was Han who said it. ^__^

Did I mention how much I love BB-8?

Chewbacca was wonderful! I love the scene where the nurse is tending to him and she's like "wow, that sounds really scary!", you can tell she's just heard so many stories that day. It's just such a cute moment. There were lots of cute moments.

I love the dynamic between Rey and Finn. I didn't at first, I found them kind of overly coy, but then I warmed up to them. I am so happy there was no random romance thrown in for the sake of romance. Yay!

I definitely have more to say, but that's all I can think of for now off the top of my head. I would definitely go see this again. It's great to see in a theater, needless to say...I mean, c'mon. It's Star Wars! Also, a fun bonus: the cinema we went to see it in ended up being one of those super old retro cinemas. How fitting, for a franchise from the 1970s. It was just such a perfect setting. We didn't know that going in; this was our first movie-going experience since we've moved to Toronto. And what a great one it was!

7 years of Twilight Princess

So much to talk about! I'm on holiday, finally...which makes me realize that since I've last updated, I've started working full-time. Well, 2 part-time jobs that equal 1 job when put together, I guess. But has it really been so long since I last wrote here? If the last time I updated was around Halloween, then I guess so!

So, on the subject of long amounts of time, I finally beat Twilight Princess, a game I've been playing for seven years. Why seven years? Because I sometimes I hated that game (and no, I don't think hate is too strong a word!). I hated it so much I'd have to step away from it and take breaks from it that lasted months at a time. But even though I felt like I'd give it up, I'd always come back for more. I guess because it's a Zelda game. No way could I have had this kind of dedication or drive with any other series. It's the Zelda universe that gave me motivation to keep returning to this game and vow to beat it, even when I didn't want to. And seven years later, I did. Even when there were so many times when I didn't think I would. And when I was first diagnosed with leukemia, I had serious doubts about living long enough to beat the game. So to say it means a lot to me to complete this game, to see this challenge all the way through, is quite an understatement. ^_^;;

Seven years is such a long time. When I first started off on this adventure, I was still a student. I was still living in Verdun. It was another lifetime back then! So different. It's such a crazy feeling to know this game is finally completed. Also, seven years is a long time to have a project like this going, to always know I had this game as an option as something to work on or something to do. It's going to take some getting used to, to know that it's now done with.

I finished the game at 3 AM last night! I was quite wired afterward and didn't go to bed until almost 5. Luckily I didn't have to get up early today, but that didn't mean I had no plans today. Quite the opposite; I finally went to see the new Star Wars movie! But, that'll be a separate post...

Halloween 2015!

Happy Halloween! I woke up on Halloween, pretty much my favourite day of the year, sick with a very bad cold! So I couldn't go out to celebrate. I had to stay home, which really sucked. On the bright side, I got to eat snacks and watch cartoons in my pajamas. I pretty much do that every day anyway, but it was still not too bad. I also studied some Japanese, so that was really good. It also didn't hurt that I spent the evening on a nice Tylenol PM buzz. Now that's not something I can do every day. ;) 

As for my costume, I was going to wear a kigurumi anyway, so I actually wore that for part of the night, as they're pretty much (just like really cute & decorative) pajamas anyway. I got it at FanExpo in September and I actually hadn't gotten a chance to wear it yet. Budgie! 

Today I'm still sick, but by the time it became evening, after being cooped up all day in this dark apartment (it's a basement and we get absolutely no sunlight at all in here),  I just HAD to go for a walk! As per usual lately, I discovered new streets and little neighbourhoods that I've never seen before. Well, I've only been here two months, and this city is sooooo extremely huge, so I guess that's normal! It's so exciting. I wandered down a huge alley that was 3-4 blocks long & decorated so cutely. (It reminded me a bit of Osaka!) It was so serene: just me, the alleyway, Please Save My Earth on my earphones, the city lights above...I felt so cozy & creatively-inspired. I'm really, really, really loving exploring this city, it's really hard to put it into words...

Tales of Teaching, Tutoring, Toronto, & Trudeau

Toronto continues to be awesome. Employment, for me, not so much; I have a few hours a week teaching & tutoring (and I just got a couple of hours added, yay!), but it's nowhere near enough to pay the rent. Luckily Mike is making about 8 times what I make. Oh well. I just went for an interview in the wilds of Etobicoke, which despite its vastly different terrain, isn't that far to get to by public transit. I have a follow-up interview on Tuesday, so we'll see how that goes.

My dear sweet country has a new Prime Minister, so change is in the air. Although I didn't vote for Trudeau, and I am skeptical about him, I have to admit I'm starting to warm up to the guy. For many different reasons. Oh and hey. Did you know he's changing the law so that gay people can now donate blood? Oh wow. So all you assholes who refused to donate blood under the deeply misguided ~plan~ that it was some kind of "protest" against this old act, guess what? You can get your slacktavist asses off the couch and go give blood now. Though who am I kidding, you'll just find another excuse to not give blood. You clearly don't want to help us cancer patients for real. Although you'll claim that you do, because I've seen you folks change your profile pics on Facebook to comic book heroes to "raise awareness for childhood cancers" even though that doesn't mean a thing. You know what DOES mean something? Making a difference. You know what makes a difference? Donating blood or money to a cause. If you're not interested in helping out a cause, that's seriously, genuinely fine; we've all got lives to live, and there's so many causes out there, how do we choose which one to help? But don't say you actually care, and then pull this shit. Changing your profile pic, the most useless and lazy thing ever, but refusing to donate a penny or a drop of blood ~on principle~. Fuck you, seriously. I've defriended people over this, and it's better this way. Protesting by refusing to give blood. What kind of piece of shit do you have to be, to pull such a thing? There's so many ways to protest the harmful, homophobic act of banning gay people from donating blood, but doing so by refusing to donate blood? An act which only hurts innocent people? That's gotta be the most disturbing, disgusting, low-life thing I've heard in a long time.

Haha, this turned into a rant. And, true story: this is the edited, nice version of how I feel!

FanExpo!

Finally getting around to making that FanExpo post!

Well, Mike and I worked there for 4 days, and I had an amazing time. Because we worked there, we got to attend the Expo for free, so we totally explored like crazy on our breaks or if we finished early. It was so much fun. We wouldn't have gotten to go otherwise. The first thing I noticed is how incredibly MASSIVE it is! First of all, there were 2 buildings; the North Building and the South Building. We worked in the South Building. But even within each Building, there were multiple floors. And on each floor, multiple rooms. I was overwhelmed! In Montreal, all cons and expos are shoved into one room, even the big ones. I had never been to anything of this magnitude before. Right away I got a taste of just how BIG Toronto does...well, everything!

I love cons and expos in general, to say nothing of fandom-focused ones. To be surrounded by like-minded people--many of them in amazing cosplay of characters I just adore--it's just such a fantastic feeling. You can really feel the energy and passion coming off everyone! I found everybody so incredibly friendly and approachable, and I spoke to so many super awesome people. And the costumes. Oh, the costumes! Such terrific cosplay. There were hundreds upon hundreds of Jokers, Harley Quinns, Doctors, and Spidermans, and quite a few Links, Sailor Moons, zombies, and Jedi, but there were also tons of rarer, more unique costumes--Anthy from Utena! Misato from Evangelion! I did a fistbump with an incredibly accurate Bayamax from Big Hero 6, and chatted up an Advent Children-style Tifa and Cloud. Ah, there's so many I'm forgetting! But it was amazing. I'm including the super common costumes in the category of "amazing", of course. It doesn't matter how many other people cosplay the same character as you--just the fact you're dressing up and going out there in costume (and sometimes in character, too!) is beyond lovely, to me. I love it. I love these people.

And the booths! So many exciting things to see. I got to finally buy my first kigurumi! From a company from Montreal, ironically. I've been wanting to buy from them for awhile. I bought a budgie kigu. I know what I'm being for Halloween! ;) And the art booths...so wonderful. I love seeing fans' artwork. I talked to so many cool people and saw so many wonderful things. Amazing portraits of Zelda boss battles. Family Guy and old-school Simpsons coin purses. Cat capes. Nintendo-themed cutting boards (one was a giant question mark block!). Actual moving mechanical animals. And EarthBound. I found people who did EarthBound art! And while I have a special fondness for the art booths (I think it's called Artists' Alley?...hmm, more like Artists' Gymnasium, with the amount of space they take up, with all their awesome stuff), I loved seeing all the gaming and movie-themed booths as well.

On the last day of the Expo, we didn't start til much later, so we went to the North Building, where all the autograph signings and photo ops were. I saw Rupert Grint from a distance and got awfully excited! Can you see him in the picture? I'd be amazed if you could. ;)

Everyone was crowding around the booth I was at with their phones, trying to get a pic of him. The bathrooms on this floor were right in between some of the booths, so when I left the bathroom, I walked right past Neve Cambell! It was really weird, but cool. She looks exactly the same as she did back in the day! I loved the Scream movies. And who could forget Catwalk?

Anyway, Mike and I went to see Jeri Ryan as we are HUGE fans; we are both WAY into Voyager (we both consider it our favourite Star Trek series, actually--yeah, I know, bring on the hate! lol), and Seven of Nine happens to be our favourite character. So we went to her photo op! It was really exciting. She is even more beautiful in real life than she is on TV! She told Mike she liked his hair which I couldn't stop giggling about after. It was a really great moment, I'm so glad we went! Also, Chandler Riggs walked by me when I was waiting in line, so that was pretty neat, too.

Yeah, there's a flash on it; taking a photo of a photo is kind of difficult. ;)

The North Building had so much cool stuff that the South Building didn't have; in addition to the autographs and photo ops, the shops and booths were quite different, and there was a lot of Doctor Who stuff set up, which I'd have taken a picture with if I hadn't done so already at ComicCon in Montreal back in 2013. I also found Sailor Moon's wand! ;)

By far the coolest shop in the North Building though was this little kiosk that sold genuine, legit retro items from the 1980s (and older)! I saw so many things from my childhood, it was amazing. And I do mean actually from the 1980s; not modern-made hip nostalgia stuff. Actual stuff from 30+ years ago.
I had this exact E.T. when I was little. I couldn't believe my eyes! And check out that Pac-Man. Whaat! o__O

Look at all this stuff. Up near the top toward the middle is something called a Keyper (the white creature with a purple shell and blue hair that kinda looks My Little Pony-ish. If you follow that creepy doll's gaze, it's kinda looking in the Keyper's direction). I used to have one of those.

They even had a Polkaroo! How Canadian can you get?

I am really happy and grateful we got the opportunity to work at FanExpo. I was on a high the entire time I was there. All this cosplay makes me want to dress up really badly, and I guess the timing is perfect for that--just a few weeks until Halloween! Ooh, my first Halloween in Toronto. I can't wait!I gotta find where the Rocky Horror Picture Show is...

Torontolicious Tales

So we're settled into our new place in Toronto, in a nice neighbourhood called the Annex. It's really close to downtown, and as I discovered today, about 10-minute walk from Yorkville. If you're familiar with Toronto, you know where that is. If you're not, Yorkville is a really posh part of town with cutesy expensive-for-no-reason shops and cafes, bars, very visually appealing super narrow walkways, and a snobby suburban feel that I get such a kick out of, as you walk another 5 minutes and boom! You're on Bloor street, near Bay and Yonge, which is skyscraper central.

Toronto is such a diverse mix of non-stop forever moving busy-for-the-sake-of-busy utter lunacy. I can definitely understand why someone wouldn't want to live here; big cities are not for everyone. I dared to hesitate for maybe half a second at a major transfer subway station one day and nearly got trampled. But I adapt quickly to picking up a city's vibe because I love. Big. Cities. I live for this stuff. I've always wanted to live in a big city ever since I was a small child, and growing up in Montreal, I always felt fortunate to at least live in a proper city (and a really awesome one at that!), even though it wasn't a very big one. I've always wanted to live in one of those skyscraper-laden labyrinthine concrete mini-universes that have buildings that disappear into the horizon, perhaps serving as our generation's precursor to a Blade Runner LA type deal, or even Coruscant. I can't foresee myself living in Shanghai (yet), and Tokyo's off the table for the time being, but for now, places like New York and Toronto will most certainly do.

I can't wait to explore more of it and see what this city has to offer. So far it's been beyond great. I feel like I belong here, and today I said as much to Mike. It's so weird. I've never felt that way before. As much as I love Montreal, I am so glad to leave it as Mike and I both have such wanderlust and just can't stay put. I feel finally moving at 34 is so late in life to be doing so, although for what it's worth we would have moved two years ago if it weren't for my cancer. But still, a lot of people get up and move when they're in their late teens or early 20s and here we are, mid-30s and finally changing up cities for the first time? Ha! Well, certainly better late than never, and that's an understatement. This feeling is incredible. It's like I've been wearing the same jacket or sweater for forever because I love it so much and I'm so comfortable in it and it's grown to fit me just right after all this time, stretching out to my shape. But it's starting to fray at the ends and the colours are fading and suddenly I buy a new jacket and of course it'll never replace my old original jacket, not my jacket I grew up with, with all its sentimental value, but wow, does it ever feel amazing to have a brand new jacket to wear that isn't all tattered, that I haven't worn 8 billion times. I didn't realize how tired I was of wearing the old one til I tried on something brand new, new and fresh which I can style in so many different ways I never even imagined. It's so new and shiny and sparkly, I feel so rejuvenated in a new outfit. I realize it's finally time to move on and try something new, something different.

 ...I don't know, maybe this is a terrible comparison. But it's what popped into my head first. I'll have to think of something better to help describe how I feel about changing cities and starting a new life here. But suffice is to say, so far I love it so much. I have so much exploring to do. I didn't do too much of that yet as pretty much as soon as we got here, we started working a little gig at FanExpo, which I mentioned in my last post. Now THAT was quite the experience! A post about that shall be next. :)

Living in a labyrinth of boxes

Ah, moving is so stressful! I'm actually glad that my husband is currently away on tour, because I have no idea how we'd have room for the two of us in our extremely cramped apartment right now. With all these boxes, there's barely any room for me! I'm actually getting so used to walking like a ninja (or maybe more like a crab), I presently can't even fathom what it's like to live in a place where you can just walk around at will.

Right now I'm at one of the more difficult part of packing--going through my teaching stuff! Seriously, I could open my own school with the amount of stuff I have. I have to get rid of most of it though, because I just can't keep it all. Too expensive to move, and I have most of it digitally anyway. A bit of a shame as I'll have to make the photocopies all over again, but really, what can ya do!

I can't wait til we're all settled in. Apparently Mike got us a gig working at Fan Expo or Comic Expo or SOME kind of geeky expo for the first few days we're there. How random is that! We only get paid for half of it, but hey, some money is better than no money.