halloween cruise/ Magic: October 28th-nov..4th 2006

[captaincrash]

OK...

... anyone notice we had a 66th vote to the poll? OK... who was it? AND... we are at posting number 1981... so it's only 19 more to gotil we have 2000 potings. Anyone wanna take a guess who will be number TWO THOUSAND?

And I will have t-shirt designs up BEFORE we sail. In time to order is another thing... OK... I been busy... if not one thing its another. But I'll probably surprise you with something soon. Maybe even before the weekend.... oh yeah... didn't I say something like that last week?

Anyways.... does anyone have plans to travel or do anything extraordinary this July 4th weekend? I had several things on my agenda that were more or less in conflict. I settled on trying to tone it down.

Saturday morning OR monday - I'm going with old friends to North America's largest Animation (Anime?) Convention next to Disneyland in Anaheim. Lots of people go in wild full (home-made) costumes ... and my older daughter will do so too. She bought a fancy costume at Legoland and I want to get some use out of it. Then saturday afternoon we have her first swim meet. SHe will be doing her 1st feestyle and breast stroke. Sunday my bible study group is scheduled to serve lunch to the congregation - it's a rotating privilage... followed by an informal pool party at my place. Then Monday is either the Animation convention - and/or an afternoon at the beach. Tuesday is just a tiny local carnival followed by community fireworks. Really rather modest.

Below are some photos I dug up on the internet from other folks who attended last years' Animation convention in Anaheim (plus 1 from the midwest - the 3 headed silver flying dragon outfit!)... we hope to see some pretty outrageous HOME MADE COSTUMES - and if so then my daughter is gonna have a great time witnessing the IMAGINATION and INGENUITY of all these home made outfits! ... We've never been to one of these before and it should be ... interesting to say the least!

The girl above on the LEFT (blue with huge guns) actually has RED eyes! Contact lenses no doubt!

 

[kritter]

WOW crash those costumes are amazing...really neat..let us see what your daughter's looks like...


WE are going to be holding our breath waiting anxiously for your t-shirt designs.....can not wait.....


Ok who is the latest person who voted on our poll????

 

[GoofyDrivesACar]

OK...

Saturday morning OR monday - I'm going with old friends to North America's largest Animation (Anime?)

Captain, I always thought and so did my email filter that Anime stood for something that wasn't on the up and up. I am confused now

So according to Eastern time, we are now at the 4 month mark, who is dancing with me?????

I can do the following dances:

"Driving the bus"
" the lawn mower"
"The sprinkler"

and depending on the drink of the day (who is buying the drink of the day???),


"The shopping cart"


Anyone with me????

 

[captaincrash]

Captain, I always thought and so did my email filter that Anime stood for something that wasn't on the up and up. I am confused now

GDAC.... well... I think you are referring to a sub-segment of "mature" japanese animation that varies from being rated R to otherwise ("X") . I am not familiar with which film titles are so rated - but I have heard that some are. But - I believe the span of the catagory cannot possibly be all that bad. Take (for example) These Anime fans here are mostly college kids from what I can tell - a spirited and clean looking gathering (as opposed to gang bangers and pierced and tatooed rebel drop-outs... many "nerds" are very VERY bright people) - and I am under the impression Anime involves highly imaginative and harmless fantasy based stuff. I can remember being on business trips over seas as a child and MARVELING at an animated TV series called SPACE CRUISER YAMATO (a giant star faring rebirth of the WW 2 battleship of the same name). The concept was really visionary compared to the sci fi in the US at the time. It's not exactly Anime - but it is Japanese animation. So is it not the same?

So - given more time and if the thread was a sci -fi one I might go on... but it's not. I have already hijacked several inches of this page and shall tone it down after this posting - but - I am a science fiction enthusiast in general and an arm-chair star trek/star wars fan of merit. So - anime is looked on for it's creative and fantastic imaginative merit - not for the subgroup that skews beyond PG and R ratings. Have you even seen the short film... "Bambi meets Godzilla"? It's very humorous in it's dark outcome.

I guess - it could be that Anime is not renown for being spiritually consistent with western tastes. I don't believe I have EVER heard of an Anime flick that had a tone or theme which promoted Catholicism, or presented an encouraging message about Judaism. In Japan - where mpst of the Anime comes from - bhuddism (or Shintao-ism???) is a big deal. SO - I imagine there is a western "resistance" to media from that sort of culture. I can remember going in to meet the pastor in our parish when we were going to ask to be married in the local Catholic church. When interviewing me the priest made an odd question in asking me if I was Bhuddist. I am not. But he was really strange about it - as if being bhuddist was a huge tabboo or black mark. Forgive my ignorance in NOT understanding the fine differences between various faiths. I'm considered by some to be "young" spiritually.

SO... I'd say the email filter on "Anime" is possibly agressive IMHO... but then again - I have never received an email with anime in the subject line or body which was offensive or otherwise suspect. AM I MISSING SOMETHING? If I am = please enlighten me. Otherwise, filtering "Anime" might be like filtering "MOVIE" because some of them are rated "R", "X" and mature.

On the OTHER HAND.... GDAC... now that I'm looking back on all the photos I found of the 2005 Anime convention - a LOT of those costumes are really bizzare!!!!! I have NOT seen any of those movies so I have NO IDEA what portion are beyond PG. I must confess a few of these that I have seen are not very understandable to me. The story lines are ... foreign... and otherwise very simple. BUT - aside from the stories I find the animation and ideas drawn to be wild and imaginative.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ​

Kristen... Ask and you shall receive...

... (or in the case of T-shirt designs... you shall EVENTUALLY receive <them>).... otherwise... below are a couple of pictures of my daughter in her Legoland costume (BLUE) along side her cousin from Hawaii. The photo on the left has the 2 girls growling and on the right they are pretending to have swords... can you tell?

AND... below are a couple more crazy and exotic home made costumes. Please keep in mind - I am NOT exactly a wacky NUT like these passionate Anime fans... just a curious and open minded arm-chair enthusiast of a sort. And a photographer who sees an opportunity to capture some interesting subjects. One of my friends (graduated from Columbia with a Phd and Yale undergrad) is a professional writer for that industry and invited us to tag along with him as he visited the event quasi-professionally. So we have a modest gathering of friends developing who will venture into this previously unknown domain.

Above - this is the one of the few costumes I recognize out of all of these (plus the 100s I did not post) - as it comes from the movie "Final Fantasy the Spirits within" ~ a beautifully computer rendered movie noted for it's ground breaking technical merit at the time. Even Disney and Pixar do not come anywhere close to the complexity or realism of this flick. I guess this is one of a hand full of movies I am familiar with and own. I even own some "collectible" toys modeled from this particular movie. It doesn't make me a wild eyed fan does it?

Below are a couple I just HAD to post... I imagine AWOL is on the edge of his seat in debelief at the heights these "nerds" have taken it! For what it's worth - most of the hi-tech billionaires are all nerds of a sort too -

The fellow at the bottom right (above) here has EXACTLY the same costume as I have! I can tell he imported it from the same designer where I got mine! Plus, the light saber he is holding is an very costly reproduction light saber. I have a similar one with the polycarbonate tube that lights up - which is more or less commonplace. HIS light saber is actually quite rare and costs about 7x what cost. HOWEVER... I bought a Jedi CLOAK with my costume! Plus - come october I will have the Anakin glove ... if I find one on eBay for cheap enough!

I don't suppose anyone can identify which movies these costumes come from other than Star Wars and Final Fantasy?

 

[GoofyDrivesACar]

GDAC.... well... I think you are referring to a sub-segment of "mature" japanese animation that varies from being rated R to otherwise ("X") . I am not familiar with which film titles are so rated - but I have heard that some are. But - I believe the span of the catagory cannot possibly be all that bad. Take (for example) These Anime fans here are mostly college kids from what I can tell - a spirited and clean looking gathering (as opposed to gang bangers and pierced and tatooed rebel drop-outs... many "nerds" are very VERY bright people) - and I am under the impression Anime involves highly imaginative and harmless fantasy based stuff. I can remember being on business trips over seas as a child and MARVELING at an animated TV series called SPACE CRUISER YAMATO (a giant star faring rebirth of the WW 2 battleship of the same name). The concept was really visionary compared to the sci fi in the US at the time. It's not exactly Anime - but it is Japanese animation. So is it not the same?

So - given more time and if the thread was a sci -fi one I might go on... but it's not. I have already hijacked several inches of this page and shall tone it down after this posting - but - I am a science fiction enthusiast in general and an arm-chair star trek/star wars fan of merit. So - anime is looked on for it's creative and fantastic imaginative merit - not for the subgroup that skews beyond PG and R ratings. Have you even seen the short film... "Bambi meets Godzilla"? It's very humorous in it's dark outcome.

I guess - it could be that Anime is not renown for n=being spiritually consistent with western tastes. I don't believe I have EVER heard of an Anime flick that had a tone or theme which promoted Catholicism, or presented an encouraging message about Judaism. In Japan - where mpst of the Anime comes from - bhuddism is a big deal. SO - I imagine there is a western "resistance" to media from that sort of culture. I can remember going in to meet the pastor in our parish when we were going to ask to be married in the local church. When interviewing me the priest made an odd question in asking me if I was bhuddist. I am not. But he was really strange about it - as it being bhuddist was a huge tabboo or black mark. Forgive my ignorance in understanding the fine differences between various faiths. I'm considered by some to be "young" spiritually.

SO... I'd say the email filter on "Anime" is possibly agressive IMHO... but then again - I have never received an email with anime in the subject line or body which was offensive or otherwise suspect. AM I MISSING SOMETHING? If I am = please enlighten me. Otherwise, filtering "Anime" might be like filtering "MOVIE" because some of them are rated "R", "X" and mature.

On the OTHER HAND.... GDAC... now that I'm looking back on all the photos I found of the 2005 Anime convention - a LOT of those costumes are really bizzare!!!!! I have NOT seen any of those movies so I have NO IDEA what portion are beyond PG. I must confess a few of these that I have seen are not very understandable to me. The story lines are ... foreign... and otherwise very simple. BUT - aside from the stories I find the animation and ideas drawn to be wild and imaginative.

Thanks for the information Captain.

 

[kritter]

Capt,

Bruce will love the star wars pictures....I am going to email him them...

Thanks for sharing the pictures of your daughter..they are great....


Kristin

Still raining here...!!!!!

 

[LaRue]

So according to Eastern time, we are now at the 4 month mark, who is dancing with me?????

I can do the following dances:

"Driving the bus"
" the lawn mower"
"The sprinkler"

and depending on the drink of the day (who is buying the drink of the day???),


"The shopping cart"


Anyone with me????

.

Oh, sweety I thought you'd never ask. Of course I will dance with you. Does this inviation extend onto the cruise or is cyber dancing all I get.

I haven't seen you do the "lawn mower" in awhile it is about time, don't you think.

On the other hand, if the ceuise is like last time I might need some ginger in order to get up and start dancing.

 

[GoofyDrivesACar]

.

Oh, sweety I thought you'd never ask. Of course I will dance with you. Does this inviation extend onto the cruise or is cyber dancing all I get.

I haven't seen you do the "lawn mower" in awhile it is about time, don't you think.

On the other hand, if the ceuise is like last time I might need some ginger in order to get up and start dancing.

You know me, Cyber dancing is about all you are going to get

 

[captaincrash]

GDAC

Well...

... I have to confess... out of curiosity from your casual concerns I went to the local Best Buy to examine the Anime titles, their story lines and their ratings. In brief - Buena Vista (Disney) had 3 titles on display; and the few with interesting cover art or names were either not rated (box sets seemed to not show the ratings on the box?! and many others had no obvious ratings on the clam shell box???); or age 10+ or age 16+. So - I think Anime is not really as likely to be suitable for 5 year olds HALF the time ... Except the Disney stuff is definately OK for any age ... I think (???).... I remember giving Princess Monotoke DVD (a Disney distributed Anime) to friends a long time ago as a gift. Later I borrowed it to enjoy. It was mildy odd and wildly imaginative... and nice animation.

So, on how many attend? I think I read somewhere they (AX) had 2000 dealer tables sold/rented and this was the largest Anime Expo convention in North America. So - I suspect there must be 10,000+ if not 10s of thousands attending. And I don't know how many dress in costume... except to say judging from some actual convention photos I would say it is close to 5-10%. Here's 2 photos.... see what I mean?

Judging from this photo I may NOT go in costume - but I'm sure my daughter will go in her costume!

 

[disneyfanforever]

Sorry to just drop in but I wanted to say "Hi There" to captaincrash. We sailed with the wonderful captain on the Magic last September. You guys are in for a treat. He is a great guy with a wonderful family. I wish I was going with you guys.

 

[awoltoday]

<<<SNIP>>>

Below are a couple I just HAD to post... I imagine AWOL is on the edge of his seat in debelief at the heights these "nerds" have taken it! For what it's worth - most of the hi-tech billionaires are all nerds of a sort too -

<<<SNIP>>>

<<<SNIP>>>

No, no. I am not shocked at all. Nerds come in many different forms and I've seen a lot of them (and been one type or another). In fact, if I encourage it. Especially if it involves cute chickies in scantly clad outfits!

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime:

Anime features a wide variety of artistic styles which vary from artist to artist and is characterized by detailed backgrounds and stylized characters in a variety of different settings and storylines, aimed at a wide range of audiences.

Anime has many genres, with as many as traditional, live action cinema. Such genres include action, adventure, children's stories, comedy, drama, erotica (hentai), medieval fantasy, occult/horror, romance, and science fiction.

You know me, Cyber dancing is about all you are going to get

Unless the Vikes score a few touchdowns on Monday Night Football. But, LaRue might not want to dance with you then!

121 days of anticipation on the wall, 121 days of anticipation... you take one down, pass it around...

 

[awoltoday]

GDAC

Well...

... I have to confess... out of curiosity from your casual concerns I went to the local Best Buy to examine the Anime titles, their story lines and their ratings. In brief - Buena Vista (Disney) had 3 titles on display; and the few with interesting cover art or names were either not rated (box sets seemed to not show the ratings on the box?! and many others had no obvious ratings on the clam shell box???); or age 10+ or age 16+. So - I think Anime is not really as likely to be suitable for 5 year olds HALF the time ... Except the Disney stuff is definately OK for any age ... I think (???).... I remember giving Princess Monotoke DVD (a Disney distributed Anime) to friends a long time ago as a gift. Later I borrowed it to enjoy. It was mildy odd and wildly imaginative... and nice animation.

So, on how many attend? I think I read somewhere they (AX) had 2000 dealer tables sold/rented and this was the largest Anime Expo convention in North America. So - I suspect there must be 10,000+ if not 10s of thousands attending. And I don't know how many dress in costume... except to say judging from some actual convention photos I would say it is close to 5-10%. Here's 2 photos.... see what I mean?

Judging from this photo I may NOT go in costume - but I'm sure my daughter will go in her costume!

Convention attendance, although impressive, doesn't count for much in my book. It's how much SWAG you walk away with!

disneyfanforever - No need to apologize! And it's not too late to jump aboard! There's plenty of room!

 

[captaincrash]

Sorry to just drop in but I wanted to say "Hi There" to captaincrash. We sailed with the wonderful captain on the Magic last September. You guys are in a for a treat. He is a great guy with a wonderful family. I wish I was going with you guys.

Ok....

... where do I send the check?? DFF... now, you won't be telling anyone else which cruise I transferred to? Will you? And keep it extra quiet with the cast and crew... I wouldn't want to trigger a mass exodus of staff leaving just as we're boarding! AND... Of course... I would not try cashing the check (which will eventually get "in the mail" 4 U) if I were you .... as it's only good on the Ship ... and even so... I gotta be aboard to pay off in Mickey Bars or spare candy sprinkles scraped up from the Sunday bar otherwise the purser will simply chuckle as he/she mumers ... "not ANOTHER one of THESE"!!!

OK... we're at 1993... 6 more postimngs to go til we hit 2,000! WHos' gonna post it?

 

[kritter]

Ok....

... where do I send the check?? DFF... now, you won't be telling anyone else which cruise I transferred to? Will you? And keep it extra quiet with the cast and crew... I wouldn't want to trigger a mass exodus of staff leaving just as we're boarding! AND... Of course... I would not try cashing the check (which will eventually get "in the mail" 4 U) if I were you .... as it's only good on the Ship ... and even so... I gotta be aboard to pay off in Mickey Bars or spare candy sprinkles scraped up from the Sunday bar otherwise the purser will simply chuckle as he/she mumers ... "not ANOTHER one of THESE"!!!

OK... we're at 1993... 6 more postimngs to go til we hit 2,000! WHos' gonna post it?

Oh Crash we knew you were nice but did not know that you had a fan club.... ...

Love the pictures and I hope that our mickey bar eating contest will be just as fun...looks like it was a blast...

I want to see more cruise pictures anyone got some to share??????

 

[captaincrash]

Oh Crash we knew you were nice but did not know that you had a fan club.... ...

Love the pictures and I hope that our mickey bar eating contest will be just as fun...looks like it was a blast...

I want to see more cruise pictures anyone got some to share??????

Now K....

You don't want TOO many cruise pix now do ya? It might begin to "give away" too much. We gotta leave enough for a surprise for ya! Of course, mere pictures cannot convey the reaction of our kids to the cruise.

LOL!

As for "fan club"... I'm not so sure about that. Frankly I don't know how to respond to kind comments like DFFs'. Except to say her family was also great fun to sail with too. Oh well... thanks again for your kind comments... DFF! Cheers!!!

.... gotta go - my spouse has come down with a fever - and she whnt to see a doc today - which is a pretty rare thing for her. That's how bad her discomfort was. And now she has a triple brew of medications to take to deal with it. That leaves me juggling everything 'round here tonite. Kids are hungry - I got an eBay auction closing in 10 minutes that I am stalking (the seller made the listing line merge a couple of key words together - thus making it fail to come up on routine key word searches... so it is looking like it might sell for 1/3rd less than normal - well - I'll soon see in about 10 minutes - maybe I'll bid on it!)... so I gotta go for now...

TTFN!

<edited in > Awww.... RATS! I didn't win the auction... who would have figured that so many people had found the listing?!?!? It more than tripled in bid level in the final minutes! I was trying to buy a grip for my Canon DSLR - and I (as usual) was holding out for a "bargain". Oh well... half the fun is the "hunt". On the other hand - di I mention I did buy a new camera lense a couple days ago? It just shipped from Toronto yesterday! I can't want for it to arrive!!!! I wonder if US customs is gonna access me any fees or duty?

 

[awoltoday]

Oh Crash we knew you were nice but did not know that you had a fan club.... ...

Love the pictures and I hope that our mickey bar eating contest will be just as fun...looks like it was a blast...

I want to see more cruise pictures anyone got some to share??????

Here's one I posted before on the DCL POD thread:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=12904803#post12904803

One that didn't make it to dinner on formal night!

 

[awoltoday]

More from my "Castaway Ray's Stingray Adventure" trip report
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=965950

 

[awoltoday]

Ah, what the heck. Here's a couple more...

The smile says it all.

The kids at Coki beach.

 

[awoltoday]

Now K....

You don't want TOO many cruise pix now do ya? It might begin to "give away" too much. We gotta leave enough for a surprise for ya! Of course, mere pictures cannot convey the reaction of our kids to the cruise.

LOL!

As for "fan club"... I'm not so sure about that. Frankly I don't know how to respond to kind comments like DFFs'. Except to say her family was also great fun to sail with too. Oh well... thanks again for your kind comments... DFF! Cheers!!!

.... gotta go - my spouse has come down with a fever - and she whnt to see a doc today - which is a pretty rare thing for her. That's how bad her discomfort was. And now she has a triple brew of medications to take to deal with it. That leaves me juggling everything 'round here tonite. Kids are hungry - I got an eBay auction closing in 10 minutes that I am stalking (the seller made the listing line merge a couple of key words together - thus making it fail to come up on routine key word searches... so it is looking like it might sell for 1/3rd less than normal - well - I'll soon see in about 10 minutes - maybe I'll bid on it!)... so I gotta go for now...

TTFN!

<edited in > Awww.... RATS! I didn't win the auction... who would have figured that so many people had found the listing?!?!? It more than tripled in bid level in the final minutes! I was trying to buy a grip for my Canon DSLR - and I (as usual) was holding out for a "bargain". Oh well... half the fun is the "hunt". On the other hand - di I mention I did buy a new camera lense a couple days ago? It just shipped from Toronto yesterday! I can't want for it to arrive!!!! I wonder if US customs is gonna access me any fees or duty?

Crash check out auctionsniper.com - "bid" and forget without a starting a bidding war. And the bid groups are really cool - "bid" on a bunch of similar items and it quits if you win one (or the specified number). Very cool.

 

[awoltoday]

OK... we're at 1993... 6 more postimngs to go til we hit 2,000! WHos' gonna post it?

Me?

120 days of anticipation on the wall, 120 days of anticipation... you take one down, pass it around...