Preview of new Pixar movie Up!

The highlight of my day at Comic Con was definitely the preview of Disney Pixar's preview of their upcoming movie Up!
They showed the first 46 minutes of the movie to a limited audience of 300 people.
It was a little rough with the sound but overall it was the great animation and storytelling that we've all come to expect from Pixar.
The story of an old man who gets his house to float using a ton of balloons seems a little odd at first, but they do good job with the lead up and back story. You will definitely fall in love with the character very quickly. The preview definitely left me wanting to see the rest of the movie. It's due out in May and I can't wait to see it.

The rest of the Con is fun as usual. You can definitely see the effects of the economy by the deals this year. There are buy one graphic novel get two free, and 50% off the newer graphic novels. I got really good deals on some figures and stuff that I would never have thought I would get in the past.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Joss Whedon presenting Dollhouse is sure to be awesome. He is my hero and I've never met him before, so I'm ready to totally geek out and wait for ever just to get his autograph. Wish me luck.

Day 2 of Comic Con

I got in late last night and was too tired and kind of lazy to write, so I'll fill you in on Friday night now.
I'm in the car on the way to the con now. I'm running much later than I expected. My sick Fiiance didn't want to get there too early and have to wait in line in case it made his cold worse. Anyway, I saw the premiere of the new animated Wonder Woman movie by Bruce Timm.
The movie was really good. The cast of voices was great, Keri Russell actually pulled off not sounding like a whiny brat, and Nathan Fillion was his usual charming, funny self. Disappointingly, Nathan did not make an appearance at the Con as was hoped. He did send a video recording that leaked a possible Serenity sequel. He was of course joking and said so vehemently, so be forewarned if any other posts leak "inside" info about that project, it's not true. The story was interesting, mainly centered around Ares the God of War. The dialogue wasn't too cheesy and the fighting was pretty good for animation. If you liked the Justice League New Frontier movie, then I'm sure you will like this movie.

The usual players are in town at the Con, along with some new faces like Joseph Linsner.
I will to into more details later tonight after I see more.
#1 on my agenda today is seeing Seth Green at the Robot Chicken panel.

Finding the Dress

Okay, so I finally found my wedding dress!!!
This was no small feat, I have to tell you.

I've been engaged now for over 7 months, and almost every other girl I know who is engaged or married found their dress way sooner than I did. It's one of the first things girls seem to do after they get a ring on their finger.
At first, I wasn't worried, I knew I had plenty of time to find my dress.
I also had absolutely no idea what kind of dress I wanted. It seems like so many girls know exactly what kind of dress they want, because they've been planning their wedding for years even though they didn't have a boyfriend. I figured I'd narrow it down as I tried on a bunch of different dresses and pick the one I liked best.
I did a lot of online searching and looked through dozens of magazines to find dresses I liked and styles I might want to try on.

My first bridal salon experience was not a good one. I went to Kleinfeld's thinking it would be a good place to start because they are supposed to have one of the largest selections in NYC. I did not enjoy myself there at all. I felt pressured to pick a dress and felt my options of dresses to try on were limited because they weren't with my "budget". I left the salon feeling very disappointed and nervous about what I had to look forward to in my search for my dress.

The next day I went to RK Bridal during my lunch break. They do not require appointments and you're able to browse the racks of dresses on your own. I figured that might be a better experience. I picked out a few dresses that I thought I might like and was given a consultant to help me. Her name was Gilda. She was a super nice, old lady and made my experience very enjoyable. After I tried a couple of things on she took in what I liked and didn't like and brought a few more dresses for me that she thought would be nice for me. It was overall a much better experience than my frst one at Klenifeld's and I left RK Bridal feeling much better.

Since then I have been to a few more different salons, some designer salons, a consignment shop and a charity salon. Every experience has been better than my experience at Kleinfeld's.
I went to three salons this past weekend looking for my wedding dress. I had set a goal for myself to pick my dress before the end of January. I felt this was a good time frame and I didn't need to feel pressured about it. I tried on gorgeous dresses and had a couple that I was seriously considering buying. My last salon was on Sunday. I went back to RK Bridal, made an appointment with Gilda again, so I could have more time in the salon than just my lunch hour. I had also really narrowed down the style of dress that I was looking for. My best friend and my sister came with me and we all searched through the racks and grabbed some dresses that we thought would be good for me to try.
Finally it was my turn to try on dresses. I went through the ones we had chosen. I didn't like most of them. Then finally I tried one on that was really great and very similar to one I had found on Friday that I loved. That one went into the "seriously considering" pile. I had a couple dresses left from our original picks, and I showed Gilda some pictures of dresses I really liked. She ran out of the dressing room and brought a dress back that she said I would look amazing in. We left that one for last. I tried on the remaining dresses, not impressed. Finally I put the dress Gilda brought in. It was amazing. It was exactly what I had been looking for.
She brought me a veil to put on with it. As soon as I put the veil I knew that was it. I finally found my dress. Even better were all the other brides and their friends and family in the salon waiting to try on dresses were looking at me like I looked amazing. It was a great feeling.
Then it happened. I had that stupid moment everyone talks about. I was really hoping to avoid having that moment. It's so cliche. I didn't think I was even capable of having that kind of moment. Most people who know me, know I'm really not an emotional person. I had to run into the dressing room so no one would the tears in my eyes. It was only a couple of tears, I wasn't bawling or anything. I think it was relief and happiness rolled into one. After all the searching I found exactly what I was looking for. It was great. I couldn't stop thanking Gilda. She really made the experience more enjoyable for being such a nice person.

Now I can move on to the thousand other details I need to plan for the wedding.
Less than eight months to go.

Review - Equus

I went to see Equus on a Tuesday with my friend Nicole. It's playing here in NYC at the Broadhurst theater.
I've got to say, it was really good!
I was worried about whether Daniel Radcliffe would be able to make such a dark character work, but he was great and quite disturbing. The content was somewhat uncomrfortable, but it was extremely interesting and very well acted by everyone.
The "horses" were magnificently staged, the steel frame masks were beautiful.
I would definitely recommend this play to anyone interested in good acting and theater.
It's not for kids though, even though Harry Potter is in the play.

First Monday of the year - Randoms

Al Franken has undoubtedly won the Senate election recount for Minnesota.
He now leads the with 225 votes.
I'm sure there will still be some fighting from the Republican side before they concede.
So there will be a long drawn out legal battle because Coleman isn't ready to give up.
It's a pain in the ass, but I can sort of understand where he's coming from, he was expected to be the winner on Election Day, and after all this time, and lots of ballots counted, it's being taken away from him. The swing of about 200 votes either way is really small. I hope it doesn't get drawn out for too long, we can use another Democrat in the Senate. I think Franken will make things a little more interesting.

Moving on to other things...

I started playing Fable II this weekend, probably why I have blogged for a while. I loved the first game, being able to wander aimlessly and virtually do whatever you wanted in one of the most beautiful realms I've ever played in. Yes, there were quests that got in the way of my wandering, but it's always nice to have goals. The new game plays pretty much the same way.
The story goes that the original character in Fable was from a long long time ago. A lot of stuff has happened since then and Heroes pretty much don't exist anymore. Then you come along and as a child are discovered to be descended from the line of heroes.
Long story, short, tragedy leads to a thirst for revenge and repair and you are sent on your way many years to become a full-fledged Hero.
I like that you can choose to be male or female, I always like to be a chick in games, it helps me identify. The fighting is pretty cool. And you get a trusty pet dog who follows you everywhere and aids you on your quests.
Now here are the things I don't like, interacting with other characters is a pain in the ass cause you can't speak, you can only make gestures which are pretty stupid and have nothing to do with anything going on around you. Then there's a stupid glowing, fairy-like trail that points in the direction of your assigned quest at all times. Now, granted, you don't have to follow the trail if you don't want to, BUT IT'S ALWAYS THERE! What is this Fable for Dummies?! I'm sure I can eventually find my way to the destination, I have map and can walk around and stuff. The trail is very annoying and quite distracting as well. It's almost like it's rushing you along to complete your quest instead of allowing you to enjoy searching the hillsides of Albion at your own leisure.
I will, of course, continue to play the game, cause it's still pretty cool.
I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Robot Chicken is officially announced to be returning to the New York Comic Con!
Seth Green and Matthew Senreich will be at the Con Saturday, panel and signings!
If you haven't bought your tickets, get them soon.
They haven't posted the programming yet, which is always kind of annoying that they take so long to do so, but I know they will be doing that soon, so keep checking on the site.
I also have it, from an insider, that there is a possibility of a certain creator from an upcoming show named Dollhouse that may be making an appearance at the Con. I'm not allowed to name names, but there may be some other cast members from his past shows there as well, can you smell REUNION??? I don't want to jump the gun on this, but it would be pretty awesome.
If you can't make it, don't worry, I will be there for all three days, and I will be reporting on everything I see and hear. If you are going, please keep an eye out for me. I'd love to meet anyone out there who has actually read my blog.

And finally, I've submitted my application for a trademark of FemGeek!
I've started putting together some ideas for products, T-shirts and stuff, with FemGeek. I haven't drawn up an "official" logo yet, but I'm working on it.
If anyone wants to submit some designs, I'd be very grateful, and would of course compensate you if I use it. We would of course have to agree upon the terms before I use it, but trust me, I'm an honest girl. I know there are plenty of creative people out there, so feel free. I'll try to set up a space to display some of the images that are submitted.

The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes - a review

I'm playing the game on a MAC, but I'm sure it's the same for a regular PC as well.
The game is not what I originally expected. I thought it was something like 7th Guest (which I loved) with puzzles to solve as well as character play. But it's more like a combination of I Spy and a Photo Hunt game.
There are about 16 cases to solve, each case is given a time limit of no less than 25 minutes. The cases get "harder" to solve as you go along. It's not so much an increase in difficulty as it is an increase in the number of puzzles you need to "solve" the cases. Unfortunately there's no real thought involved in most of the puzzles and there's no logic used to find the culprits. It's mostly finding hidden objects or identifying differences.
If you like The Mystery Case Files games, you'll like this Sherlock Holmes game, it's very similar.
Since it's not the game I expected I'm a little disappointed with it, but it's kind of fun. You can also skip the corny dialogue which is a nice plus.

Video Game Quality Time for Couples

I like videos games. I really do. But I'm more of a PC RPG or Puzzle game person, than a First Person Shooter or other games like that. Once in a while it's cool, I've played Halo with my Fiance to help him get those dumb achievements on XBox (which, by the way, are just some thing some stupid guy thought up to get you to think the game is worth all of that money you spent because you have to keep playing it over and over in order to get all of the damn achievements, for the most part the achievements are pretty stupid and you would probably have done those things anyway). And it can be fun, but I'm really no good at those kinds of games. He gets frustrated because I don't always know which direction we're supposed to be going. I mean, I've never played the damn game before, how am I supposed to know exactly which route to take.
I do like the Lego games, though. Those are cute and really fun to play. But again, if I finish a game, I don't want to go back through the entire thing with a different character just to get the extras. For some reason though, I've never minded replaying one of my old PC games with a new character, but that was usually because if you chose a different character, like a wizard instead of a warrior the game experience was actually very different. You had different quests and different endings and stuff, it wasn't going through the exact same game with a different person or level.
But, as bad as I am at his games, my Fiance always wants me to play them with him. It's kind of weird, but nice at the same time. Video games are one of his favorite things, and he wants to share that time with me. I know some girls hate video games and they spend so much time trying to get their guys to stop playing them and spend quality time together doing other more important, grown-up things. But, honestly, I think you should be glad if your guy wants to share his video game time with you. Not all guys do. Even if you don't like or know how to play, just bring that fashion magazine to the sofa and flip through it while he's playing a game. You wanted to read that magazine anyway.
What's the point in trying to stop your guy from playing video games? You can't make the claim that it's juvenile anymore, the largest video game audience is adult males, not children. And honestly, I'd rather have my guy home playing video games and chatting online with is buddies, then out doing who-knows-what with who-knows-who.
So the next time you start complaining about his video games, think about all of the things you've dragged him out to do with you that he didn't want to do (yes, those shopping trips count) and cut him some slack.
If sitting on the couch isn't spending quality time together then what is? Who knows, you may even start to appreciate the games too.