big dreamer

ummm what is typepad all about? I dont know

Colorado Girls...

Colorado Girls

This is so funny!  All my friends are Coloradan, and I became more Coloradan than Wyomingite in College anyway

but UW still rocks!! 

might as well...

Well I might as well announce my new blog here.

http://dreamtocheer.blogspot.com/

I write in it every day and It is the coooooooooolest blog I have ever done

Web browsers...

I asked a group of people what browser they used... most of them had no idea what I was talking about.  Well it turns out that they were clicking on the "e" to use the internet.     In other words, they were using internet explorer as their web browser.   Well they were in shock when I told them about how badly it performed, and how it is full of security holes and so on.

don't believe me about the performance?  well I did a performance test here of all the browsers on my system

here are the results

http://clients.futuremark.com/peacekeeper/results.action?key=3sMd

Notice that how all of my browsers perform much faster than IE (at the bottom)  

And the fastest browser on my system?  google chrome. 

And another thing about internet explore.  it sucks.  It sucks worse than having root canals done on all of your teeth at the same time.  it is what I would say ちょう最悪じゃん

so if you are using the little "e" to browse the web, I command you to stop. Do yourself a favor and click here

http://www.google.com/chrome  

You will be shocked to find out how much faster the internet is for you once you do.

Yet another World cup and we Americans just doesn't care

I had a little conversation about soccer today, and I think I shocked a few people when I calmly stated my opinion that soccer is boring.   But how can soccer be boring? It is the most popular sport in the world...

The fact is there have been attempts after attempts to promote soccer in America.  It is wildly played among children, hence we even have the term "soccer-mom" to explain the busy mothers who chauffeur their children to soccer practice and so on.  

There IS a professional soccer league in the United States... 

The US did hold the World cup a few years back, and I remember watching Patrick Stewart on TV saying how America needs to be proud of hosting such an event.  

Even David Beckham played for the Los Angeles team in order to get soccer a boost in popularity in the United States.

Yet America doesn't seem to care about Soccer.  As a result, the rest of world often criticizes America for being narrow minded, closed to the world, focused on their own sports.    I really think that this criticism of America for not taking an interest in soccer is a bit unjust. You can not say Americans have no interest in world sports, because it is simply not true.  Take the Olympics for example,  Americans love the Olympics.  

Yet soccer has failed to capture the heart of Americans as it has captured the heart of the rest of the world.

And here is why:

Lets take a look at the results of the world cup so far

The first round is not even over yet and there has already been 9 draws, 5 of which nobody scored a single point.

There were six 1-0 matches and 14 other shutouts (2-0 or 3-0)   

In the Argentina/Netherlands match, there were only 6 shots at the goal, that is 1 shot every 15 min.  Most of the shots don't even need to go to the goal.. so the goalie doesn't really do much work. 

Ok, this blog post here really puts it into detail of why Americans just cant get into soccer.  The author states that soccer is essentially a zero-sum sport.   Americans as a society of doers, yes-I-caners and achievers simply can't accept a zero-sum.  It is against all of our values.  There always needs to be a score, something measurable, something obtainable, something more to strive for.  Soccer is a game where if you get 1 point, you basically have your chance of winning.  If you manage 2 points on your opponent, you basically have won and you don't really have much to strive for.      Most of the time, things just end up in a draw and you don't have anything to strive for.  

It is that striving for a goal that is essential to the American spirit.    That is why we like our sports to alway be striving, pushing, our exceeding our limits.   Soccer on the other hand just doesn't strive, push or exceed anything for us Americans.

Almost Alice-CD review

So  I got the Almost Alice soundtrack from the Itunes store.   It is a collection of music Inspired by Alice to some degree or other.   i kind of enjoy this collection, there are some pretty cool songs in it.  Let me give you a little review of some of the songs.

White Rabbit:

 Ok, so I must admit I do prefer the original Jefferson Airplane version of White Rabbit, because it is super trippy,  or even the Blue Man Group's version.  But the version on this album is pretty good.  Although not as trippy as the 1967 version, it is a good enough cover.     But the Airplane version seems a bit longer.

Lobster Quadrille

This is probably the most done songs from the original book.  Who know's how many versions of this song there is out there, and it has been done in many different genres.  i have heard it in folk, rock, polka, childish, punk, hip-hop and just plain strange.   The version on the CD is a rather trippy version, which is a nice break from the children's version.  It has a nice cool instrumental mix in the middle, but overall it is way too short to really enjoy.   If you want a really cool upbeat funky version of this song, check out a group called The four Postman.  They made an amazing, lively version of this song, which is much better than the one on the album. 

Alice -Arvel Lavigne

I kind of like this song.  I guess it just has a touch of some of the music I grew up listening too, and I can really fall into wonderland listening to it.  It is a nice cheer me up song, in the way U2 would cheer me up.  I hope the artist goes far. 

Tea Party --Kerli

Ok this was defiantly the most-pushed song song on the Album.  As a lolita I guess I have to have a have a heart for this.  The deluxe version on Itunes features the video, which has a lot of really cool slightly lolita-ish (more cosplayish i suppose) costumes in it.  And the notion of tea parties is good.  However the song is a bit to pop-ish for me really really love it,  It is not bad, but not amazing...

Alice's theme

Love or like the movie or not, you have to admit that Danny Elfman really hit the nail with this soundtrack.  Even though the story was kind-of-alice, Danny Elfman's score was just perfect for the wonderland story.   Definitely something I can and will listen to over and over and over again and never get sick of.  In fact, I might buy the soundtrack, just to hear Elfman's magic. 

You are Old Father William

This song was the highlight of the album for me.  First of all, I love They Might Be Giants, and if I had to choose a group to do Father William, it would be them.  The Lewis Carroll is well suited for the group and their style.  This is the reason why I got the CD.

Anyway, this is just a simple review.  you can go back to your lives now.  I am going to pretend to be Alice now... and get some work done.

chibi alice

OK, i took my chibi sketches I did last week and made a vector chibi alice really really quck

this isn't good, but it only took me a few min...

I kind of like the graphic art style, but It is different than what i normally do

what do you think

little Sophies, rescued.

So yesterday at work (which was a great day, I love working on Saturdays because it is so calm compared to other day) I was told that the new mini Sophies, Judys and Lillians came in on Friday.  I was also told that two of the Sophies had to be set aside as "factory rejects" because they didn't come out perfect.  

On of them (on the right) has a ribbon which is untied, the other (on the right) has no blush.

I felt sorry for these two little girls so I had to take them home.  I am going to give one to my friend who always gives me little bunnies. 

And I had to take them all home, just out of principal.

Yes, BABY is rather strict about factory rejects... they don't go to the stores at all because everything the sell to customers needs to be perfect.  The last "reject" bag I got had a tiny little mark the size of a baby gnat... 

But at least you know they are very concerned with the quality of their products :)

New Design = Refreshing

I decided to changed the design of my header for my blog.

Sometimes changing the design of your blog makes it feel nice and refreshed.   Maybe it is because I am a greek about such things.   I AM a designer after all.

As for news, I am currently volunteering my time by designing a page for the Utah Rabbit Rescue.  I sponsored a bunny there around easter, and I realized their page needed a facelift.   So I made it for them just for fun! It looks really nice, and it works really well.  Hopefully it will be up and running soon.

I will let you know!  Anyway, enjoy the new design

Alice

Well yesterday I FINALLY saw the Alice movie!  I went with my first lolita friend, Nacco.  OF course i dressed up like alice to see the movie.   

As for my thoughts about the movie,  it was exactly as I expected, which was a Tim Burton hack of the original story.  I am not saying that this is  a bad thing, artists do it all the time.  But if i came in expecting to see Lewis Carroll's Alice's adventure in Wonderland, I would have been very disappointed.    It had it's good things and bad things...  Like most alice movies, a lot of it is borrowed from Looking Glass.   In fact you would be hard pressed to find an alice movie which was JUST all Alice, as in the book.  Even the Disney animation of Alice takes things from the looking glass...

I was amused with all the tiny little references which was thrown into it,  the name of Alices father being Charles, from Charles Dodgson, the looking glass insects, etc.

But the overall story was changed just to give Johnny Depp a larger role.  In the book, the Mad hatter only appears two times, at the tea party and the trial.  However, you can't have a Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie without more of Depp...   If they stuck to the original story, I think a lot of Depp fans would have complained... who knows tho.

But would I call it "Alice in Wonderland?"  probably not.  Something like Return to Wonderland  or just Alice might have been good.  I am sure they struggled with that.

and that is all I have to say about that

Now, I of course wore my sax blue dress from BABY, my black ribbon and stripped tights! But there was a problem.. I ordered the tights my size... or so I thought... when i began walking i noticed the tights began slipping!!!  Next thing I knew i felt they were at my knees and I was soo angry.  I had to stop by the restroom to pull them up.  On the train I wasn't moving, so the tights were ok, but when I started moving again they slipped down!  I cant believe it! they were suppose to be my size!  So I had to go to a 100 yen store and buy safety pins and pin my tights so they would stay UP! this made going to the bathroom an adventure... but oh well

Before the movie an old lady stopped by to tell me how cute I was!  I think I just naturally make a good alice, and everybody was really noticing it

So after the movie, Nacco and I went to Harajyuku because she wanted to do some shopping... Well I ended up buying a cool pocket watch at closet child!  Now that i got it, I am glad I did! it is kind of elegant.

Then some high school boys were being sarcastic/nice enough to say 'Alice in 3d' when they saw me... 

Afterwards, we went to Shinjyuku to meet Nacco's husband and 3 year old daughter. Her daughter was sooooo kawaii (she takes after mom)! THe first thing she told me was "I am now 3 years old!" and she must have said it 50 times.  Cute little girl.  

anyway, here are some pictures.  First, my Alice coordinate

Next my cool brown dress  from BABY.  I am soooo going to wear this for a concert