This last weekend, I had a chance to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince as well as Wicked (in the same day!). I seem to be hearing some negative comments about the Harry Potter movie, but considering the size of the book, and the massive amount of content they had to cover, I thought they did a great job. They covered all of the really important details, even though sometimes it meant they had to be really quick about it (which might lead people to say it "jumps around too much"). The movie left me struggling to remember some details from the book, as well as book 7, so I'm definitely going to have to go back and skim the books again. It's such a fun series.

Wicked was truly great. I was a little worried at first as the actress who was playing Elphaba wasn't the regular - it was the standby. Elphaba is pretty much the single most important role in the musical, and the regular actress had an insane amount of experience in Broadway. It definitely left me feeling a little bummed. However, once the show started, the standby distilled any doubts I had - she had a lot of talent and was plenty good enough. I guess that's why she's not an understudy - she could be the lead any day of the week. I always am so happy when I watch musicals though - they are one of my favorite escapes. I would rather see a musical than any movie. I will say that it helps to know all of the songs extremely well - you can connect easier with the songs because you know what's being said, so you can just appreciate the performance. It also gives you something to compare against, so you know how good the cast is. I couldn't help thinking about singing all of the Wicked songs with my sis though as they were being performed - I think we sound great together (we've sung musical duets together for years), and it's one of my favorite things to do. I'll have to make some recordings sometime soon so people can hear her - her voice is gorgeous.

Now I just gotta make it through the week so I can enjoy my 3-day weekend!

Man, I feel like I've waited far too long to post anything. Over the Fourth of July weekend, I went to L.A. again for the annual anime expo. It was a pretty fun experience, especially because I cosplayed this year. I am going to put up plenty of pictures of myself and my friends in costume, but first I need to compile the pictures. I will say that it is a truly unique experience to have that many people photographing you all day long. Look forward to the full post about everything that happened.

The main reason I haven't posted much is because I've been working very hard on putting together a web page for my trip to Japan. There were a ton of pictures to sift through, name, and organize, on top of actually having to design and create the web page. Well I am happy to announce that the page is up and functional, and all of the pictures have been posted to my gallery. All of the movie clips from the trip are also viewable/downloadable. Unfortunately, I have not finished writing the articles, as its going to be a fairly big task in itself. At the very least, I have most of day 1 finished. I will be working on the writing constantly though, so keep checking if you are interested.

In order to view the webpage, either navigate to www.zubersoft.com/Japan09 or click on the link on the sidebar (you may have to scroll down a little bit).

Man, the last week has been pretty busy for me. Last weekend, I spent most of Saturday playing in a Table Tennis Tournament, and part of Sunday morning. I entered three divisions, the U-1200, U-1300 and U-1400 (those stand for under 1200 and so on, and your ranking has to be below those to enter). I didn't really have my sights set on winning, but I was extremely surprised to wind up with two gold medals in the U-1300 and U-1400, and a silver in the U-1200. It was a really great time, and I feel like I'm advancing pretty quickly. My parents stopped by on Saturday to watch part of the tournament, and managed to get some of the U-1200 on video. My Dad was kind enough to put together a highlights reel with some music (thanks Dad!), so here is the video, in all its glory:

This last three days were crazy as well. On Friday, I saw Transformers 2, got my car serviced, got new tires, had a repairman out for my fridge, cleaned my house, and worked on some of my songs (phew!). Transformers 2 was better than I thought it was going to be. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although they went a little overboard with the slow-motion boobs-jiggling-as-she-runs shots. On Saturday, I headed up to Flagstaff and played in a really fun reverse coed grass 4's volleyball tournament. We had a really strong team, so we managed to get 1st, and I walked away with a 26 piece grill set. It was around 80F in Flagstaff, and extremely beautiful as usual. I wound up staying Saturday, and going to a barbecue with all of the players. There was tons of food, and we had a great fire blazing. We spent all night drinking, talking, and laughing. Sunday (today), I've just been recovering and trying to prepare for Wednesday, when I leave for L.A. for Anime Expo. Too much fun!

What an eventful weekend I just had. It's probably easiest if I go day by day:

Friday

I had to wake up at the break of dawn to get my car to Tucson to get my windshield replaced. I failed to factor in morning traffic though, and wound up late. Luckily, the people at Ventana Auto Glass were able to swap appointments. I then went back to my parent's house, where I was surprised to see my Aunt Laurie there, and what a nice surprise it was! I was able to just hang out and play music for awhile, and then I went out on a mountain bike ride with my Dad. The ride was pretty uneventful, other than a rattlesnake getting a little angry at us, and me feeling completely sick from having a mountain dew and hot dog before riding (yeah, I know, stupid idea). I returned home, spent some time in the spa, and had a really relaxing evening.

Saturday

I started off Saturday by shopping for frames and mattes for the pictures I bought last July at anime expo. My mom and aunt joined me, and it was great to have their opinions as we sorted through the rows of frames. The pictures from anime expo are beautiful (I will post pictures of them once they are in the frames) and I got compliments on them, but they are a weird size (20x30). This required some interesting decisions, and we wound up staying at the store for several hours before finding wonderful frame/matte combinations. I can't wait until they are done!

I then proceeded to do some clothes shopping, as I really needed to get a larger wardrobe for Japan (packing a minimum of one weeks' worth of clothes). I started off at Macy's, and spent at least 3 hours going through piles of clothes. My ears actually burned from changing shirts so much. At the end, I walked away with some crazy deals ($30 shorts that rang up for $2.99?! Sweet!), but I didn't feel like I quite had enough. I had some nice new shirts, pants, and shorts, but I thought it would be worthwhile to check out Kohl's. Having never shopped at Kohl's before, I didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be one of the best stores I have ever shopped at. The selection was incredible, and I couldn't see to grab enough clothes to try on. After several more hours at Kohl's, I had more clothes than I could carry, and I was going to get 20% off of all of them (on top of the individuals savings and deals going on). So after all that, I basically had a completely new wardrobe. I haven't had this much fun or success shopping ever!

After retiring back home, weary from all the running around, I sat down and started writing a song (somehow I ignored all the craziness with my nephews causing havoc around me). I've been trying to write a song that my sister and I could record together, and it needed to be a fun duet. After a couple of hours, I put together something that I think will turn out great. I haven't shown it to her yet, but I think she will love it! It's called, "Friends Forever."

Sunday, doomsday

As the section title would suggest, this is the day where the craziness truly went down. My Dad and I woke up really early on Sunday, and headed out for a mountain biking ride. We went to the 24 hour trail out by the Biosphere, which is truly awesome ride. As we arrived, my Dad realized he forgot his cell phone, and I didn't bring mine. You can hardly get signal out there anyways, and I mean, heck, nothing bad is going to happen right? (famous last words, and a lame attempt at foreshadowing). We started out on the ride, and we were cruising along at a pretty decent rate. My Dad is a very good rider though, so he had to stop me for me a few times to catch up. One time, we had to stop because my seat was knocked loose somehow. Upon trying to help me adjust the seat, he accidentally backed into a nasty cactus that embedded a painful needle into his Achilles heel. Needless to say, it hurt a lot, and I couldn't really get it all of the way out with the crappy tweezers we had on hand. So he bared the pain and rode on (still riding way faster than me up the hills). Eventually, we hit this one section of the ride where you have to climb four series of hills followed by fast descents. These hills are huge, and very steep, so it's easy to get hurt if you aren't a very experienced rider or you are reckless. We have done this ride many times without any injuries though, so neither of us is concerned about that usually. Anyways, we got to the fourth hill, and my Dad had a decent lead on me, and as I got over the crest of the hill, I saw him on the ground. Apparently, he had been going nearly 25 mph and hit a jump and got quite a bit of air. He landed mostly on the front tire, and wound up sliding. When I got to him, he seemed pretty stunned, so I skidded to a stop to see if he was alright. He turned to me and sort of gathered himself and then showed me his arm. He had ripped open the skin on his arm, and his bone was exposed. The cut was about 4 inches long and it was bleeding (but not nearly as much as you would think). He also chewed up the side of his hip pretty badly, and he had cuts all over. He immediately pinched his skin closed on his arm, and proceeded to take off his shirt (not an easy thing to do while trying pinch off a wound). I tied the shirt around his arm, and we tried to decide what to do next. We were approximately 9 miles into an almost 18 mile ride - not much choice there. We decided to ride and finish, as there wasn't really another option. The thing that amazed me though, was that he didn't slow one bit after getting injured. He seemed completely unphased, and I still struggled to keep up with him. We finished the ride without any additional problems, loaded up the car, and headed to the hospital. I tried to take some pictures with my phone at the hospital, so take a look below at the wonderful wounds.

Visit the gallery if you want to see the pictures full size.

My Dad was still cheerful and tough while they treated his wounds. In fact, the only thing that bugged him was the tetanus shot they gave him. He really didn't like that one bit! He said it hurt worse than any of his other wounds.

I finished up the day by getting a haircut, having a nice steak dinner with my family (parents, aunt, and grandparents), and watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which is a terrific movie that covers a lot of the aspects of life that we all have to deal with - namely love, family, aging, and death. While some people may be turned off by the speed of the movie (it is somewhat slow I suppose), I thought the director did a terrific job on it and there is a lot to think about with this movie.

I headed back to Phoenix this morning, and waking up at 5:15 for that especially sucked. Only four more days until Japan though, and I am psyched! I just hope I don't forget anything!

I worked extremely hard this weekend, and managed to finish another song: Midnight Elegy. I wrote it randomly one night around midnight (how convenient...) when I was in a sort of tired/chilled out mood. It has a wistful feel to it. I'm interested to see what people think. I also finished the lyrics to a couple other songs that I think could be extremely good. I can't wait for another free weekend!

In other news, I played in the 42 in 42 benefit volleyball tournament yesterday and it was a blast. After I get my hands on some pictures, I will post them. I managed to get 1st place after a close final match. The main purpose of the tournament was to raise money for a charity, and we gathered several hundred dollars for the Special Olympics. Not too shabby!

I also wanted to mention that I've put up links to download my songs as mp3's in case people have the desire to get them. Check it out on the music page.