PAX Part III: Happy Randomness

In the indie game booths, there was a postcard challenge thing where you were supposed to go around and  do different things at different booths. The first one was to take a bunch of blocks and make something. I made a face! And then when I went back, because it was the end of PAX, they let me keep one of the awesome foam squishy blocks! HUZZAH!

PAX Part II: Fun Booths

So, there are a LOT of people at PAX and a lot of random things to see. We all know about the booth babe grannies who handed out cookies (they were really good, by the way):

PAX Part I: Costumes

So I went to the Penny Arcade Expo this year and it was a lot of fun. Going to PAX was a bit impromptu -- which really made it better for me, I think. :)

Anyway, like any convention/expo there were costumes galore. I LOVE costumes... or at least people in them. Some were professional, some were fan-based. They were all fun and awesome.

First of all, there were lots of zombie costumes. There was the disco zombie from plants vs zombies dancing out front:

Miscellaneous Seattle Adventures!

Oh, my! It's been an entire month since I last posted here. I guess getting back into the swing of school has been a bit crazy. Anyway, it's about time I write about my adventures in Seattle!

I went to Seattle the weekend before school started and I had a blast. I'll post a bunch of random things about PAX but first, my Miscellaneous Seattle Adventures!

The first day, I wandered the streets of my future home city on my own. I wanted to find the trees covered with knitting in Occidental Park. Unfortunately, the knittings were gone when I got there (Alas! I was a week or two too late.) Instead I wandered over to Pioneer Square where I saw people playing giant chess:

The next day, Ahmet and I returned to the area because I wanted to see the waterfall park. It turned out to be a tiny space built by UPS for some anniversary of their founding. It was cute, free, and very waterfall-y. Ahmet thought it made a great place to read:

Fantasy Game Shop Board Game Day

As long as I'm in St. Louis, I will always look forward to the second Saturday of even numbered months.

Why? Because The Fantasy Shop (in St. Charles) has a board game day that lasts from noon until 11 pm, feeds you lunch and dinner with nearly infinite snacks, AND you get raffle tickets -- all for 15 dollars! It's one of the most amazing things I've been to.

Early August, my boyfriend and I went with some friends. We got there and I quickly shot some photos of the wall of games:

and the candy bowls:

The High Line

A few years ago, I was stumbling on the internet and came across a fantastic architectural design idea: take an old railway and turn it into a park! I looked at the renderings and drawing and imagined how lovely a space like that would be. Little did I know that space exists now in New York City.

When I visited the city, MG told me I must go to the High Line because it was a very Hao-like place. ED and I met her there on Sunday evening after our trip to find the little red lighthouse. Walking up some stairs onto the High Line made me feel like I was being transported into a different NYC -- a more environmentally friendly futuristic idealized city where greenery and construction were perfectly integrated:

Donuts!

Everybody loves donuts! Well, at least most non-health freak people I know. :P

When I was in NYC, MG took me to the most amazing donut place! It's called Doughnut Plant:

The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge

I like strange adventures, and this one I had was one of the more interesting.

One of my best friends took a children's book class in college and was assigned to read The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde H. Swift and illustrated by Lynd Ward. This friend of mine grew up in New Jersey and crossed the George Washington Bridge every time she went into New York City. She read the book but refused to believe the light house actually existed.

When she moved to the city after college, she wanted to figure out if the children's book was inspired by fact. She found the Little Red Lighthouse.

When I went to visit, E.D. told me her story about the book and the lighthouse. She wanted to take me to the lighthouse. I agreed on one condition: we would go read the book first.

Ikea Ferry

I love IKEA. It's one of the best places to get random cheap stuff. I love it so much I try to go there every chance I get. Unfortunately, I live in St. Louis -- a tragic city that is desperately in need of an IKEA. So... when I went to visit friends in NYC, I secretly  hoped we would get to go to IKEA. I was in luck. My friend needed a new bed and asked me if I wanted to go wit her.

There are multiple IKEAs in the NYC area. My friend, MG, lives on Manhattan. She told me there's a ferry from the piers to IKEA Brooklyn and we would take the ferry.

An IKEA FERRY? Who has ever heard of such a thing?! We walked to the docks and I managed to snap some pictures of the boats there. MG really liked this little tug boat:

Look how small it is compared to the neighboring boats!

We walked towards Pier 11 and waited for the ferry. I really liked these wooden columns bound together with metal wires. I also really liked the view from the docks.

The ride over was pleasant too. We saw cranes that reminded us of giraffes:

a Snapple plant:

the Statue of Liberty in the distance:

more tugboats:

and a fantastic view of the city:

We ended up eating dinner there and then shopping until it closed. During dinner, I saw a bunch of school buses. I'm not sure why, but it made me excited and I had to take a picture:

I told MG that she needs to take the Ikea Ferry at least every month. :)  She agreed.

<3
Hao

St. Louis Renaissance Faire

I meant to post this earlier, but I got busy.

Early in June, my friends and I went to the Greater St. Louis Area Renaissance Faire. It was lots of fun. We saw musical performers (who were willing to teach),

jugglers,

 and acrobats:

 I got to see a guy I saw at the Pirate Festival perform again. Actually, we saw him twice. :) He put himself through a tennis racket...

and then my friend tried to do the same. Being really tiny, she had a very easy time of it... so to make her life more challenging, she tried to JUMP through the thing... and ended up with a dent on her nose...(see the band-aid?) It's now (after almost two months) a not too noticeable scar.

During one of the performances, an inchworm landed on me. My boyfriend played with it and tried to eat it:

However, my favorite part was the jousting. Last year, my roommate and I saw the jousting at around noon. We sat on the evil side and I screamed "to the death" way too much. Sadly, there was no fake bloodshed. This time, we went to the last show of the day and we saw horses clashing, people falling, back stabbing, and bloodshed. My only complaint? The good guy won. >.<

What a great way to end a day.

<3
Hao

Live Action Angry Birds

One of my favorite stores in St. Louis is Star Clipper -- the local comic book and random things store. I saw it from the froyo place across the street two years ago and over the last year or so I've become a huge fan of the place.

Recently, for the month of July, the star clipper people decided to put together a live action Angry Birds Shooting Gallery in the back where they often have nifty art.

I heard it opened on a saturday, so I went there early in the morning, hoping to shoot some angry birds at evil green plush pigs. They weren't ready yet. I left and went back twice the same day. On my third try, they said I could be a beta-shooter and held out a slingshot for me and handed me a yellow angry bird. The set up was simple: cardboard boxes painted random colors and pretty silver paper so you could see what you were hitting. People would hold the slingshot for you and you could pull back and fire.

Unfortunately, they didn't have pigs in stock, so they made some out of green trash bags. They even drew faces on the pig.

A little girl in pink with her mother showed up and the girl was very into the game. Some other kids also dropped by. My boyfriend and I were there for about 3 hours helping and playing:

It was awesome. :)

<3
Hao

PIE-venture!

I have a friend who LOVES pie. And I really do mean LOVE pie. Recently, he heard from his mother that there is an amazing pie place about 40 minutes outside of St Louis with good country food and famous, travel network worthy pie.

With much gusto, my friend gathered many of us on a pie-venture. We drove for 40  minutes and arrived at a dinky little town called Kimmswick, Missouri. The pie place was definitely the largest structure in the area. And it was painted blue -- rather appropriate since it was called the Blue Owl:

Botanical Gardens and Jumping. Lots of Jumping.

So early April, I went to the botanical gardens with my friends.

We climbed trees:

I pretended to be the three anti-evil monkeys:

And then we did lots of jumping. I really like this picture:

And that was that.

I'm fond of the botanical gardens. :)

Firespinning Tonight!

I <3 fire. I <3 how St. Louis has really lax firespinning laws. That's why my roommate and I go fire spinning often.

Yesterday, I decided I was going to drag some friends with me to watch me spin. I'm not very good, but I am very addicted to the art. If you've never HEARD fire, you won't understand, but the whooshing sound is so loud and so close to your ears that it makes your blood rush. It is one of my two addictions (the other is caffeine).

Anyway, my friend has a really nice camera, and he took some pictures of me tonight. I might post more later, but here are 3 to start. Enjoy!

 Fans. This was right after I lit them. I over fueled them enough that my safety was telling me to be careful. 

 

Food for Thought (Feb)

The Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) in St. Louis does nifty free events. On the first Saturdays of the month, they do this thing called Food for Thought. I've been thinking about going and trying free food for a while. I finally got unlazy enough to go today! HUZZAH!

The Game

For those of you who have been to my room/home in the last 5 years have seen the collage that decorate my wall. It's filled with crayon and watercolor scribbles. I often stare at it, looking for meaning, for order even though I know there is none. (The photo is from my sophomore year dorm. I currently have the left one still. The right one I lost track of because my friend took it to keep when we stopped living together.)

I don't know how many know the collage is the result of my bastardized version of The Game. I was introduced to The Game in high school. I think it was around my Junior year (2nd semester or summer after). My friend Sam and I started hanging out then. We read books and poetry together -- I liked reading out loud because at that time I was prideful enough to like the sound of my voice. I started getting to know her family and her friends. She told me about the Blackwells and about her boyfriend's family. One day, she said to me we should play The Game. I like the way she says it: both words are enunciated such that you can hear the capital letters; you can also hear her anticipation and excitement. Once you've heard her say it, there will never be any doubt which game she is talking about.

Reverb10 (27) and Home Made Settlers

December 27 – Ordinary Joy
Our most profound joy is often experienced during ordinary moments. What was one of your most joyful ordinary moments this year?
(Author: Brené Brown)

I sincerely believe this prompt has been covered already. Food creates some of the best ordinary moments. I also talked about little things that make me feel happy in my post about body integration. In my discussion of parties and moments, there were also descriptions of ordinary things that make me happy. So, I'm opting out of today's Reverb for the sake of something better: What I did for Christmas.

So, what did I do for Christmas? My parents hosted a party with lots of family friends (there were 5 other families in addition to my own). While 4 of the five invited families had children my age (early to mid 20s), one was out of town and the other was studying for Step 2s. The other two who showed up and I had lunch with the parents, watched a movie (during which I took a nap and they couldn't make out a thing the characters said), and were promptly bored out of our minds.

Somehow, in our boredom, we decided we wanted to play Settlers of Catan. I own the game, thanks to my roommate, but it was in St. Louis. So, we made our own.

For efficiency sake, we didn't make things overly artsy but we did use a bit of creativity and had some fun. The best part? We did end up playing it. 2 games with the normal board, then we made the expansion board and were almost going to play, but some other people (friends of one of the people my age) came over and brought real settlers (HUZZAH!). All in all, it was a good night.

The basic Settlers tiles (I'm really bad at making hexagons, they didn't fit together very well):

Seattle Adventures

So as I said in the previous post, I spent a weekend in Seattle. I LOVE that city.

The colors are beautiful in the fall. I just can't get over how vibrant the reds and yellows and oranges are. I usually don't like orange as a color, but I think beautiful fall foliage is something I'll just have to make an exception for. :)

My friend lives in Redmond, which is a suburb. His apartment is right next to this pond. Isn't it pretty? I'm actually rather jealous. :)

Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start

I don't really like pubs. I don't like the smell of smoke, of people, of too many humans being inebriated. Yet, for some reason, I decided to go on a pub crawl last Friday.

I guess it makes sense. It was the 25th anniversary Nintendo and some kids from the biological sciences department decided to have a "Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start" themed pub crawl. The concept's geekiness won over my aversion to humans, cigarettes, and over inebriation.  I even ended up getting a drink!

The best thing about the event, however, were the costumes of some of the attendees. There were all the Mario and Wario brothers. I only got one picture of them: