alarm clocks destroy dreams

Today, I will be Justin courtesy of miss Sheyne neku_niku ! We will see if this works.  Otherwise, I guess I'll just be holing up at Trickster con or hanging out in SD. 
I am missing most all of San Diego Comic Con on Thursday because I didn't really want to ditch class - but I"ll be there in the evening when the 4:00 surfliner train pulls into San Diego.

I am really liking the new "mySched" system that ComicCon started last year.  My biggies are the Legend of Korra, Thundercats, Steampunk, and Leviathan.  Wish that I wasn't missing Game of Thrones, but that's ok.  I kind of doubt I'll be able to snatch all of those as I wish, but I'll try!

My schedule that I'm looking at:
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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I have had piles of things that i've wanted to update this lj with but things keep getting away from me.  I actually just came back from gorging myself at Restaurant Week and need to do lurking before going to bed (lying down right now would clearly be disastrous.)

In lieue of actually journaling anything much - I'm dumping here a bunch of stuff from ASOS that I've been lusting in vain after.  I've a mind to give up a bunch of crap just to have this beautiful wool Cooper & Stollbrand hitch coat here, whether or not summer is coming soon or not!   ASOS is "As Seen On Screen" and a fashion brand from England. 

Attractively there is now free shipping to the USA.  I don't know how their sizing runs but they appear to cater to both ends of the fashion sizing spectrum.  WOOT WOOT  Even better, there is a petite sizing option too for hobbits like myself. Things actually come in a US size 1 (!!!)  Their prices don't seem too bad either - they are on the same run as H&M, but they have so many items that seem more daring and fashion forward that I'm willing to see the higher premium.

I love that you can click a button to see how it looks on a runway and what it looks like walking forward and backward. 
I just wish I could try it on...

*I am highly amused that it has taken until this long for overknee socks and overknee boots to officially become mainstream fashion, when it was nearly unheard of to see these in 2004, 2005 era


Cooper & Stollbrand for ASOS PETITE Hitch Coat

$344.80
NOW $206.88

ASOS PETITE Button Corset Waist Trench

$112.06
NOW $67.24

ASOS PETITE Fan Pleated Bandeau Dress

$72.41 
NOW $39.65

ASOS Premium Dip Back Coat

FROM $137.92

And these two, which I can't remember what the link is to the respective items.


I found ASOS whilst perusing my favorite sections of Haute Macabre's postings, their weekly "The Haute List: Under $100/$75$50/$25" posts.  On a side note - I've been realizing that even if I mentally really like a huge range of things be it sweet or cute to gothy punk, my own body has a different take on things -- I realize differently when I put it on and look in the mirror.  I have no business wearing threads that don't suit my body image even if I want to make believe that I'm a sporty gal / sweet frilly girl / hippie boho type of person.  I realize that Haute Macabre is totally what I've been looking for all along for my mental style image.  These days, when I go shopping, I use a mantra, "Think Haute Macabre" and really inspect a piece to see if it matches the feeling I get from the fashion on this blog.  Nearly all the things that I have chosen using this framework I have worn easily multiple times all throughout the weeks, no exceptions. 

I'm kind of undecided and haven't bought the tickets yet... as long as you have money to burn, there are always places to go and people to see, but this is such a rare opportunity... I've always been kind of leery and scared of going to a concert alone, but I just might for this one since nearly everyone I know is probably going to go to Qpop instead.  Looks like on Ticketmaster, there are hardly any seats left and nearly all in the back, but there are a few single seats left in the central front area!

In my previous post, I gushed a bit on the Theo Jansen kit coming out from Gakken's "Otona no Kagayaku" (Science Kits for Adults) mook line, but even with the double whammy of coolness factor plus actual fangirl factor for the subject matter, I ended up not buying that particular kit.  Reason being -

1. it's really, REALLY expensive (it's 3500 JPY, but starts at $59.99 on j-list without even the shipping), and maybe more importantly...
2. there's another older kit from Gakken's back catalogue that was in danger of being sold out that I wanted to get first.

Volume 25 - 35mm Twin Lens Reflex Camera kit! 
It includes an entire kit and pieces to build your own twin lens reflex camera, as well as a full color mook on the history / photography of Twin Lens Reflex cameras.  A cute and compact, appealing plastic toy-type camera with a bit of a vintage feel!  Recently I also discovered that unlike most of the other kits from Gakken, there's a bit of a cult following just for this one alone, meaning if you get the kit, you won't be alone in trying to build the sucker and learn how to use it.  There's a Gakkenflex fan community that has generated a bunch of fan-made support documents for the building and operation of this little camera!  In addition, there's even this neat Gakkenflex flickr group solely for images taken using this camera, and the dreamy images people have been taking look really, really cool, almost tilt-shifted. 


You can customize the camera with sticker designs! | Mook contents include historical data

Although this issue is just five issues back from the current issue and it's not quite impossible to get it, right now it's starting to go out of stock in various places even though earlier volumes are still available.  It's out of stock on both BK1 and YesAsia.com, but you can indeed still get it at CDJapan, and, of course, you can get it at J-List as well.  I do like J-List as a resource for finding new stuff in general, since J-List's owner puts out a nice blog/email update on products, but I prefer CDJapan for publications, since the pricing and shipping is a little more reasonable.  Currently even Maker magazine stocks these magazine kits as well, but their shipping pricing, even though it's domestic, is almost the same as the shipping from Japan - however, unlike the other stores, they occasionally have markdowns on certain kits which offsets the crazy shipping prices.  BK1 seems to usually have a slight edge on pricing -- although that gets potentially sidelined if your credit card company charges an additional foreign transaction fee, so it's kind of a judge as you go situation.  Gakken kits seem to have a wild range of pricing and markups from store to store - while you can buy it for the regular 2500 jpy cost via BK1 or other Japanese bookstores - there are some stockists, particularly the camera shop stockists that have been asking $50 to $75 for this kit!  Whuuut.  (The $50 kit isn't even for the original Gakkenflex - it's for a Chinese clone of the original Gakkenflex, called the Recesky which has gone for as low as $9 on ebay apparently, at least according to feelingnegative)

I ended up going in with artgalgenius  to grab a copy each from CDJapan for a bit over $35 each after SAL shipping.   Can't wait to build it and burn some film, whenever it arrives~

Bleeding Gakkenflex fan-made t-shirts from FourCornerStore

Building the Gakkenflex
Blinded by Light: fan-translated English instruction manual
Nicnichols.com: Review and photos of building the Gakkenflex
Nrdoo: Gakkenflex building tips and photos

Reviews of Gakkenflex
circlerectangle.com: Gakkenflex wins compared against the nearest TLR camera, the Blackbird Fly
holga.com: Holga blog reviews the Gakkenflex favorably
lomography.com: Lomography blog reviews the Gakkenflex
feelingnegative.com: Recesky review

Videos of Building
Youtube: Mijonju's video of his building process for the Gakkenflex
Youtube: Raguna's way to assemble Gakkenflex(GKF) 

Other notes
feelingnegative.com- Use ektar100 film for good results.

Moar Gakken

The best resource I have found so far on the Gakken Kits in general - Curtis Hoffman's Knol on Otona no Kagayaku kits, with reviews and photos on each volume including ones that are long out of print!  He has not only reviews but this great ranking chart on each one based on replay value, kit quality, etc that is a great place to start out when considering which kit to choose to get the best bang for your buck - since, after all, these are a pretty big financial investment.

The next two Gakken kits I have my eye on:
 
Vol 30 Theo Jansen kinetic sculpture kit - it just looks very cool and it's like having a piece of Theo Jansen fandom.

Vol 27 Japanino programming kit - This looks like a really useful fun programming tool that can be used over and over again!

I'm obsessing a bit over Theo Jansen today.





A classmate from last spring's Product Design class was super into him and even produced some designs clearly referencing his work  (which were excellent)  I learned that Gakken's Otona no Kagaku released their latest magazine mook, this time on Theo Jansen!  You can build your own little precious wind driven kinetic sculpture!!!  Good luck finding a free patch of miniature beach to let stride your miniature StrandBeest, heheh

I have four different sources from which I buy Otona no Kagaku - bk1, cdjapan, yesasia - lastly j-list is a handy resource, but I have rarely bought from them.

I have to hold myself back from jumping on this one since I already have the Vol 17 mini theremin kit/mook AND the Berliner gramophone, and both are still in their plastic packaging.  In a true hoarder's mentality, I'm already pleased that I have them and then have the future prospect of someday actually building them... whenever I find an affable Japanese speaking person who can help me read the manual, lol

 

My buddy Sunyoung is a game companion to my fooding

Samgyetang at the famed Sahn restaurant aka Mountain Cafe on Yelp.
After coming back down from the mountain on 1/1/2011 it was all I felt like eating.
Samgyetang is a Korean soup that is made from a small cornish hen stuffed with raw sweet sticky rice, ginseng, dried jujubes/dates, garlic. Then it is sewn up and simmered until everything is cooked and the water turns to chicken broth. The insides cook in chicken juices until the sweet sticky rice is cooked. It was awesome and full of goodness.  I guess it counts as sick people food. I was seriously feeling sick from 2 hours of drinking and 4 hours of sleep followed by 2 hours of exertions going up the highest peak at Griffith Park (not to mention drumming and dancing around with folks) so it was good for warding off the SARS


Jocelyn and I get an entire corner of Chado's to ourselves.  So luxurious!

Me and lilusako  went to Chado's in Hollywood for tea! It was nearly deserted due to perhaps its newness, perhaps the weather, and perhaps its unfortunate location in the most farthest and forbidding area of Hollywood/Highland, so we had the place nearly to ourselves, and two waiters dying of boredom came to service us simultaneously. The food was pretty good, the service top notch, and the very very good tea was very cheap. We both dressed in lolita; I used the opportunity to wear my fearsome gorilla jacket from Lanvin x H&M (pictured above) -- it's really true what Vivienne Westwood says about dressing extraordinarily, as we then managed to meet some interesting fellow guests at the tea parlour who were intrigued by lolita fashion...


Later in the afternoon I went to go pick up my big sister from LAX.  Never ever travel on the weekend of New Years.  It was hellacious traffic at the airport, and it was only a foreshadowing of the traffic that would come later when I went hours later to get iamchubbybunny  and Will from their (also hellacious) journey by air


With big sis in tow, I insisted on going for noodles -- after all, we were in the LAX/Gardena/Torrance area -- home of all the great Japanese food in the area!.   Otafuku was closed since it was a Sunday, so we went to go eat at Sanuki no Sato, a restaurant I had heard great things about.  We had some udon as a kind of post-New Year's good luck charm.  The udon was really, really chewy elastic, and delicious.  So worth it! 


Sheyne, Megan, Glenn, Michelle all hanging at Villain's Tavern

The high windows are decorated with racks and racks of various bottle and liqueurs which must make an amazing sight during the daytime light.  |  The gang waits around at the lobby while I snap snap out with my camera on the second floor half drunk

I finally made it to visit for the first time Villain's Tavern out in the Arts District of Los Angeles, to join neku_niku  and drclock  as they were hosting Megan and Austin from Atlanta in their New Year's trip to visit Los Angeles. This tiny bar is definitely worth the trip! I soon got pretty swirly after having half of a hot bracing "Day of the Dead" apple jack cider, although that was supplemented by a good round of makkoli earlier at Kobawoo House with iamchubbybunny  earlier in the evening. Soon I was falling over on the sofas and making a fool of myself and talking too loud to everyone who was out in the outdoor portion of the bar.