3 days and counting

The biggest pop culture convention is about to begin in a few days. San Diego Comic Con is back. Although last year, there was a special edition which is a toned down version, and I mean toned "down". But it seems it has not gather that momentum just yet. A few of the mainstay companies wont have a presence and there were several things that was able to get access to. One would be parking. Yes, parking is a big thing that you have to register ahead of time to be able to buy spots on days that youd be attending. And thats not guaranteed as well. Ace parking is unfortunately the sponsored/endorsed/official company that handles this. On the map provided, there's only one available parking structure that close to the convention center and thats the rate for that day. Another thing is the hotel room availability. Bookings the hotle rooms is also a nightmare. It's like buying the con tickets but the price per night is astronomical. So now you can imagine the amount of money you'd invest just by attending a 5-day event. And that does not include transportation whether through flying or driving, the food, the merch that for sure youd buy and any other things that you require. And mind you, whether it be freebie items that companies would hand out or exclusive items, they go for big bucks on Ebay, Mercari, FB marketplace, Craigslist, Offer-Up etc. This explains why the crazy numbers. And to all those cry babies out there saying that these attendees should be considerate in selling any of these items for a high price, lets see if youre willing to fork out thousands of dollars of your own money, be in line for a minimum of an hour and just be a nice person buying things and lugging them with you back home and sell it to a complete stranger for maybe a mark up of $10 from the original price. Then............

Macro Shots

How I missed doing these style of photgraphy. It's just takes a lot of your time in getting the right shot. Lighting is the most important and getting the right angle would either break it or ruin the whole thing. After all that work, you then have to choose which photo that would represent your work and then edit to any specifications on what otcome you think is right. This is like gardening for me. Gives you the satisfaction on what the end result is, on how it turns out. Scare Glow Compound Hulk

Express Unboxing

I started doing unboxing videos where it only takes less than 5 minutes and some even less than 2. I'm at that point where spending 15 or more minutes someone open an item, talking about whats in their head while slowly taking a toy out of its box is a waste. I just want to see what it looks like out of the box, what it came with and whether its worth it or not.

Lesson learned

Just a few days left before school ends. And the kids would normally celebrate it with a minimum day, playing games and having food brought in by their parents. Happy's contribution was not as difficult. We bought those a few days ahead at Costco. And for some reason, for Adi's class, I totally forgot that pizza, no matter how convinient it is to order it to go, last day of school was a big no-no. It was not even any of those fancy pizza. It was simple, pepperoni and cheese from Little Ceasar. And I had to ordere those on the day. They open at 10Am, and I was there at 10:15. I then ordered and the ady in front said 20mins. Im like, ok it's busy I guess since there were 4 people ahead of me waiting already. 20 minutes, became an hour, then 2 hours. I left that place at 12:15 pm. And at that time, there was a mob of angry soccer moms waiting for their pizzas. Some oredered theirs days ahead online. Apparently, I was not the only parent that made the mistake of volunteering to bring pizza. Lesson learned, no matter where you go for pizza on the last day of school, a 3 hour wait is a norm

Coffee to the MAXXXX

Forget Amazon's Prime free shipping nor Netflix's binge watching. There's a new subscription in town.

Just discovered Panera's unlimited coffee for $8.99/mo. Any size and you can get one every two hours. Thats not a bad deal, since their drip coffee would run you at an average of $2.50

My only gripe is, since coffee is not their forte, it's very inconsistent on how we like ours made/customized. We still have to tweak it a bit to our liking. But overall, this would be the deal of the year for me. At least, something nice came out of 2020. And by the end of the day having 4 large servings of iced coffee,

Curiosity killed the dog

Went to Ikea to buy stuff for the kids to have things organized before school starts with distance learning. And on our way out, I had to pick up some essential things like the meatballs, but then, it was almost lunch time and their veggie dog caught my eye. THe most logical thing to do was to go ahead and buy it. We then ate the thing in the car. The size was decent, around 5 inches and since this was not keto, Anna and I shared. It had those crunchy onions, pickled radish (I think) mustard and the veggie dog itself. For 75 cents, it was good for that price. The taste was something that we both cant really describe in a way that every bite tends to represent its ingredients. But this wont replace my regular hotdog, Costco would still get my vote.