I love when I find cool stuff online! Someone was asking about the 'magical vessel' adlib of scariness on the Software Sculptors version on the Slayers TRY DVDs elsewhere, so I went to YouTube to see if it had been uploaded there. It doesn't seem to be (so get the Software Sculptors DVDs if you really want to see it), but I came across something else...

...interviews with Veronica Taylor at an anime convention earlier this year! It's hard to hear some of the questions, but a lot of people ask about Pokémon. That's a bit of a hot topic since at one point Pokémon USA decided to change all of the actors for the dub. Ash almost seems like a child of Veronica's that was taken away by force when she's asked about him. Slayers comes up too, and she did leak that she did have interest in it, and we even get a snippet of Amelia...and yeah, just watch! She's mentioned Lisa Ortiz and Eric Stuart so far. I'm still watching these myself, but here's all of the parts for anyone else who's getting really excited about the upcoming Slayers dub:

( What a life voice actors must lead! )

Actually, what I found made me happy because it goes right back to the 'glory days' of the Pokémon dub, yet at the same time greatly saddened me. So, apparently there was an expo this past year in New York that Veronica Taylor (Ash, but also Amelia in the Slayers dub) and Rachel Lillis (Misty, Jessie, and Martina in the Slayers dub) were a part of. This first is pure awesome for Ash/Misty fans, as the two were asked to improv:



This second is more on how Veronica Taylor came to be the voice of Ash in the beginning. Kind of impressive she stuck with the job, all things considered:



Bring back our original dub cast, Nintendo! ;_;

*disappears to die at Super Soap Weekend*

Curse you, Chun Soft, for making another addictive game in the fledgling Pokémon Mystery Dungeon franchise. I finally bought Explorers of Time this past week, but didn't start playing until the babysitting stint was over, and now the game has taken over my life!

Pokémon meets Dungeons and Dragons for a wonderfully fun little game that's even had me gladly shirk WoW for it, and I've been having fun playing through the story mode. As per usual, you start the game being quizzed on your personality, then after an aura reading (you touch a finger to the DS screen), it tags you with a Pokémon to be you. I got Munchlax the first time, didn't want it...so I had to restart five times. XP I got Chikorita once, but I played Bulbasaur in Blue Rescue Team already, so I wanted something different. I was hoping for Meowth, but when I got Cyndaquil, I decided that was good enough - then was surprised to see it walk around on two legs. And here I thought it walked on all fours...

In any case, my character and my Mudkip partner are nearly level 40, and well on our way to solving the time crisis. Hopefully I can finish the story mode soon...and then maybe go back to the first game to get the best rank. I'd forgotten how fun these games are!

In other Pokémon news, Software Etc. is giving away Deoxys for Diamond and Pearl this Friday, so I need to curb one addiction for the other, to be sure I have what's needed to get one for my game.

I'd be irked at myself for how much I've been playing this game, but seeing how I only have about two months before it's back to a solid schedule with little free-time, I best enjoy it while I have it!

Kids are just so unpredictable. My (oldest brother's) nieces have been getting a lot of the Disney Princesses merchandise, and seem pretty keen on the whole princess thing, so I thought it would be so perfect that I'd be working at Walt Disney World later this summer. Christmas and birthday presents would be in the bag. However, my oldest niece seems really smitten with Pokémon as of late, and before she left today, she asked if I could get her an Umbreon plush (like the one I have that she was playing with) for her birthday.

Kids...

Little does she know how net-savvy her auntie is, so no doubt I'll track down something extra special. I guess I'll save the Disney merchandise for myself. ^_-

Methinks my brain felt cheated from not being able to play more video games yesterday. I actually had a dream last night that I had the new Smash Bros. Brawl game (not slated for release until March), but I guess thanks in part of my playing earlier versions, I actually was playing it pretty close to how it's played at first. (Pressing up + B, etc. to perform special moves.) Someone was with me, but I have no idea who. All I know is that I decided to play the Pokémon Trainer for my first battle, and the person seemed surprised I'd take a chance on it.

But man oh man, my dream got a bit silly after that, but I was stoked being able to control those Pokémon! I started off with Squirtle, and used its Submission move to dodge around my opponent (no idea who it was), then swapped it out for Ivysaur, where I used a Razor Leaf attack. I then swapped it out for Charizard, but then I seemed to have trouble figuring out its moves. For whatever reason, after swapping out Ivysaur, every Pokémon afterward had a flower bud on its head. (Ivysaur has a flower bud growing out of its back.)

Things got even crazier after that, since I was no longer playing the game, but I still had Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard with me. (+10 to Dream Awesomeness!) I think I was with one of my sisters then, and she wanted us to walk on a narrow path that was made of molten lava. I recall Ivysaur being able to fit into the palm of my hand, and its poor eyes were bugged out in fright at the sight. From there we were to jump down to a lake of lava, but not far off was the fence leading to my lower field. My sister wanted us to remove all of our clothing (which is actually done by players in World of Warcraft to avoid extra damage to their gear when traversing dangerous terrain, seriously... "Okay guys, time to get naked!"), but I figured to heck with it and took a flying leap, barely skimming over the molten lava before touching down on the grassy field.

I recall something about walking through the field after that, but I think the coolness factor of the earlier part of my dream caught up with me, as I woke up.

Man oh man, when I get that game in March, I am definitely playing as the Pokémon Trainer first!

Today was quite the adventure, considering I hardly left my room for most of it. To start, after being woken by the roommate exclaiming surprise and joy at the snow, I opted to stay in bed and accessed General Conference via the internet. (LDS people are so technology-savvy, I love it!) I'd only gotten half an hour into it when the program was halted, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was again singing. This confused me. I was wondering if they were having technical difficulties, but then I noticed that it had actually jumped back to the start of the program. I moved it back to where it had been, but again it went back to the beginning. Then I noticed that my chat program was screaming that it couldn't connect to the internet. This really confused me, until I finally realized that my MacBook wasn't receiving power from the power cord.

Uh oh... What really cinched it was that not soon after I got a text message from an old roommate (who is still living over in Heritage Manor) asking if we were without power. Oh, and were we... We had had some people up in the living room watching Conference on the television, but they were all packing up to head up to the dorms on campus. That is, until we got a call that there wasn't any power there, either. Finally someone pulled out a small radio (it looked like a fat little monkey! So adorable, I want one!), so we tuned in again over the radio. (Again, LDS people really are technology-savvy.) Sadly, not too far into another talk, but then the radio fell silent. Everyone thought the batteries had died, but closer inspection showed that the radio signal had died. One of the guys joked that Satan must really not want us to listen to the talks given. We laughed, but at the same time it sure seemed like it...

Everyone finally headed over to the lounge to sing and such, but I went back to my room. (I was still wearing pajamas, after all. No power means no shower!) I was going to watch a movie, but then I worried the power would be out too long and I'd only drain my MacBook's battery, so I pulled out the DS to play more Pokémon. I had it also plugged into a power cord, so my reasoning was that it would alert me when the power came back. Just about the time I hatched my baby Riolu, it did just that! What's more, there was exactly enough time for me to hunt down the missed talks, listen to them, then have a moment before the next session started. And wow, the sessions! One of the last talks was especially relevant to me. It's almost like he saw my LJ way back when the one guy told me I wasn't Christian, since his talk covered everything this guy slammed me with. Oh man, did it make me smile.

The best part is when I get to go over it again later. I think anyone curious about the church would benefit just from today's sessions. They did such a good job addressing the saints and those curious about the church.

First day back, and it rains all day. Oh yes, I missed you, Washington! Today went well though. I couldn't sleep in past 9 a.m. so I was able to enjoy my morning. I took Bird out because he was doing his "take me out" dance, then randomly turned on the television to see that there was an hour-long episode of Pokémon on, so I watched it...

...much sadness! They had different voice actors for almost everyone but Misty and Jessie! It wasn't nearly as enjoyable with the different voices...not that they were bad, I've just become fond of the voice actors who did the work before. (Stan Hart, I miss you! Come back! No one can do Professor Oak but you!!)

Anyway, after that I managed to sneak in a hair cut appointment today, so my hair is now all mostly the same length again. But since the hard rain hit during my appointment, my hair was nice and soaked again shortly after leaving. I also stopped by the mall to see when Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is being released, but they said not until September! I'll have to order it online, but only when I know what my address will be when I'm back in Idaho again. ;_;

After that disappointment I called the bakery about what days I'll be working only for a miracle to happen. ^_- Originally I was going back to fill in for someone for one day during the week, but one of the employees there just got accepted to a summer college course in Hawaii, so they'll be gone from mid-May to July. Huzzah! This means more hours for me, if not full-time! It'll be good to be making a decent paycheck again.

I'm a bit miffed that the local peoples pretty much ran off to do fun stuff without me, but whatever. I had fun playing WoW with balony_samitch and remote_endeavor. I can solo the Deadmines now, which isn't great for my paladin, but all of my alternate characters are getting good gear out of it!

Enough of the nerdage. Bed time for me!

Now this was a fun dream! I can't recall exactly how it started, but I was in a park sitting in the sandbox when some tall guy in a black trenchcoat approached me, then made fun of me. He stalked off, but I chased after him, as if I intended to attack him. When he turned to look back at me I came to a halt and said, "If you hadn't made fun of me, I would have been your friend." He looked a bit surprised by that, but went on his way, and I went back to the sandbox. Then it seems a group of prisoners were allowed to roam about the park (they all had on light blue prisoner outfits), but one of the prisoners was a small...boar? It had a prisoner outfit on, too. It came near where I was, so I held out my hand and made noises at it (like someone would do to a cat or any small animal when they are enticing it to come up to them), but the little boar snorted and tossed its head, as if it were going to run its baby tusks into my hand. I persisted, and finally it came up closer, and I pet it on the head. It seemed to like that, so then I picked it up and cradled it. Then it spoke to me (I think it said "can't" in a little child's voice) and indicated its mouth, which had a wire inside keeping its upper and lower jaw together so it couldn't open its mouth very much. I then took it away from the park....

What's weird is the baby boar seems to have been a sort of Pokemon (no, not Swinub or Piloswine), but instead of making any noise, it would talk instead. (Always saying just one word.) I wanted to find some way to free its jaws, so I took it along with me as I traveled. At one point I stopped at a store (much like Kinokuniya), and as I was walking down a very large stair, I slipped and fell, landing right on top of the little boar's head. I felt so bad! I was rubbing the sore spot and apologizing, then pulled out a potion and gave it to the little boar to heal its lost HP, but it didn't seem to take it personally, and in fact seemed really happy just to be with me. After that I came upon a huge pile of file folders, but they had pictures of various Pokemon, and characters from the show. I was looking at one that had a picture of James and some small kid with glasses (not Max), and another that had James' Pokemon all over it, when someone stepped slowly over me...

Looking up I saw - Jesse and James! o_O She immediately turned hostile, but then I just said something like "How are you?", and she instantly settled down and even became friendly. What's weird is that she was wearing a short white skirt, but she was also wearing a white sweatshirt that had a red name on it (like a college). James was wearing grey sweatpants and a very baggy grey sweatshirt, but he looked very cheery. I somehow saw a white T-shirt he was wearing underneath that had food spilled down the front so I commented, "You've eaten well", which made him smile, and he showed me that the T-shirt was for some Jewish vegetarian grill. I then went to go stand near Jesse, who was sitting on the ground at this point. (Yes, they were taller than me...) I can't remember who started it, but she and the little boar I was still holding started slapping each other across the cheek, but they were enjoying it! She commented that the little boar reminded her of her father's Pokemon (I can't remember which one) since they enjoyed picking on each other. After that I bid them farewell and continued on my way.

Not much farther in, the little boar picked up a small bag of candies (they looked like an assortment, but there seemed to be something akin to those gummi Lifesavers in it) and said, "Want". The bag had already been opened, so I went to search for one that was still sealed, which somehow led me to another store. Before I could enter it I came across some sort of strange entrance into a secret hideout (too much playing Pokemon games, I tell you), but a Korean girl emerged. (She reminded me of Sun from Lost.) I started talking to her, and told her about the little boar's problem, when she told me that her father would be able to remove the wire. I was overjoyed! I was all intent to go visit her father...but then I woke up. ;_; It was a nice dream though, even in its oddness...

Argh... I'm sitting here trying to type up more story, but it just doesn't want to come. My brain doesn't seem to want to focus right now. (Maybe I should go play a video game or something...)

Today didn't start off how I was thinking at all. It's my last Saturday I'll have off for a while, so what happens? I wake up before 9:00 AM! That hasn't happened in a very long time... I was in denial though, so I lay in bed until 9:30, before getting up. I even managed to watch Pokémon this morning, which I haven't done in over a year. I'm still not a fan of May's character. If I had a friend as weak willed as that, I think I'd distance myself from them away some. (Bring back Misty!)

I need more CDs. I finally stopped being lazy and uploaded more of my songs onto lil' Zelgadis, and it's still not even halfway full! Maybe I will put those radio dramas on there as well. Speaking of radio dramas, I was so not sure what to do with my time, that I went to go steal my CD burner from my sister's room, only to find it's not there! (Drat! Which means my older sister still has it. She was just over this last weekend!)

I'm really hoping I finally get my doujinshi today. Anything to end this random wandering around I seem to be suffering from! Just have to surive another hour or three before the mail comes...

( Wah! Not even a page long! )

I finally got Jirachi: Wish Maker in the mail the other day, but only got to watch it this evening. It's not my favorite by any stretch, but there were some good things about it. The main setup is that Max (kid brother to May) befriends Jirachi, but the Pokémon will only be awake for seven days. There was one scene where Max is upset that he'll not get to see Jirachi again, so Ash has a little chat with him. During it Ash mentions that one of his great friends left too, but that she'd always be in his heart while she's away. (Makes you want to go, "Aww, he misses Misty!")

It was also a bit odd because the (somewhat) badguy's love interest's name is Dianne, so it was a bit surreal to hear Brock saying my name. (That guy gets too many crushes! I found it too amusing though...) Also, the closing song was really interesting in that it started out in English, then was sung in Japanese, then at the end they were both harmonizing. I wonder if it was originally done that way, or if that's just for the English version. (Either way, it was a pretty song.)

And darn it, why won't those auctions end? I want to get some sleep...

Man, having time off from work is nice and all, but after a few days it just gets a bit boring. (Thank goodness I go back to work Thursday!) My wrist has been bothering me again, so I haven't done any scanning or anything...just sat back and played Pokémon Colisseum (sp?) all day. I also finally got Pokémon Box from the Pokémon Center...it looks like someone sat on the box, but at least the game was unscathed.

Darn these Pokémon games for being so addicting! I'm already plotting how I'm going to get all of the starter Pokémon from Ruby/Sapphire and FireRed/LeafGreen when I only own two of them. Blah... (At least I have my beloved Bulbasaur and Meowth now!) ^_^

We finally sat down to watch Slayers Gorgeous today. (SPOILER ALERT!!) All I can say is...wow. The artstyle was a bit different, but it was still enjoyable to watch. This is my favorite Slayers movie now! It has the same feel as the other movies (with a lot of comedy), but this one had a lot more depth as far as storyline goes.

And then there was Naga... People who don't think she's Gracia need to see this movie! Not only did she jump up to a higher place to rant at people (although it was about their laughter, not about justice), she pointed! You could have stuck Amelia in there in her place! (Although you'd have to change the dialogue, but the motions were exactly the same!) And then later she even demonstrated her ability to be a klutz. Aye...

And Marlene!! I didn't check who the (Japanese) voice actor was, but she sounds exactly like Hellmaster Phibrizzo! (Provided he had talked in a slightly higher, more feminine voice.) There's no way anybody else could laugh that way! Man, it was so scary listening to her talk. I was waiting to see people keel over. o_O

After that lovely movie, I finally got to see Pokémon Heroes for the first time. (They only had it in theatres here for about a week, and I only found out after the fact.) I really love their dubs, and listening to Lisa Ortiz be a villian was great fun! Latios and Latias were also really neat looking. I still need to catch Latias...

I wish all dubbers would take the time and effort to make their products as good as the people behind the English Pokémon franchise...