Hippocorn

July 31, 2011 Nina Penalosa1 Comment

While looking at some of the shops around Cannery Row, I stumbled upon a Himalayan store that sold wool knitted novelty hats. Amongst the menagerie of wooly wearable animals was a unicorn! I tried it on for fun, but grew more and more attached to it. My love for unicorns never went away, nor do I think it ever will. Naturally, I bought it. 🙂

I showed everyone when I got home! I think my parents were fairly amused by my purchase (I think they’re used to me buying random things that a 25-year-old wouldn’t normally buy), but my dad said that it looked more like a hippo with a horn than a horse, thus the hat has been dubbed as the “hippocorn.”

Whether it looks like a hippocorn or unicorn is all in the eye of the beholder, but either way it’s still a freakin’ rad hat.

out & about

Monterey Bay Aquarium: Part Deux

July 31, 2011 Nina PenalosaLeave a comment

I didn’t really pay attention to the signs that said what animals lived in a certain part of the aquarium, I just saw a bunch of tuna fish go by. But alas, a Hammer Head Shark was in there! Unfortunately, the setting was rather murky, so I don’t have any good pictures of it. Not even the big ‘ol sea turtle!

But, BEHOLD: the Ocean Sunfish!

Look at that creepy ass uncle trucker. It’s like a real-life Pokemon! It came by pretty close a few times and I was leaning against the glass, so I was all paranoid about turning around and having it’s head in front of my face. Luckily, that didn’t happen. Otherwise I’d look like a fool screaming profanities and whatnot. *phew* I have a really awesome picture of Jen and the Sunfish behind her looking like it’s about to attack, but she absolutely abhors it, so I can’t share it. Boooo. 😦

And here’s a few more pics from the aquarium:

Fin.

bloop

Monterey Bay Aquarium: Part 1

July 30, 2011 Nina Penalosa2 Comments

On day 2 of the Monterey trip we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Besides Disneyland, the aquarium was one of my favorite places to go as a kid. The ocean has always fascinated me with all the strange creatures that dwell in it. In fact, at one point in my childhood I wanted to be a marine biologist. That dream went died when I realized how much I don’t enjoy science classes, don’t like the beach (yeah, that’s right. I said it. Salt water in my eyes? No thanks. I’ll just stand in the sand), and became a germaphobe — the ocean is basically a large toilet for all the things that live in it. Did you know that “marine snow,” bits of debris and poop from the upper level of the ocean that falls into the deep part, act as nutrition for the animals that live way down on the ocean floor? They eat poop! Yuck!

I’m a bit weird though because I totally love tide pool areas at any attraction where you can touch star fish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and sting rays! Germaphobe issues go out the window when I find places like that. Like I said before, the ocean fascinates me. I watched that Disney Oceans thing on Netflix instant queue and saw a Mantis Shrimp kick a crab’s ass. Watch!

That shrimp is a B.A.M.F.

Anyway, I don’t quite remember how the aquarium looked since I was really young when I last went, but there were really neat exhibits like the Seahorse one. I was a bit creeped out with the statue of the little baby seahorse coming out the dad’s man vagina (mangina?), pictured above. And when I was taking pictures of the Potbelly Seahorse, [all my pics of those turned out crappy, click the link if ya wanna see them] a little boy in front of me said, “They don’t look like they have potbellies. They look like they have boobs. Big sexy lady boobs!” I wanted to die. 😀

Every time I see jellyfish I think, “Jumpin’ jellyfish!” and say it in *Sebastian’s voice.

More pictures from the aquarium in the next post!

*Sebastian, as in the crab from The Little Mermaid. Durr.

out & about

17 Mile Drive

July 29, 2011 Nina Penalosa3 Comments

Besides the fact that we completely passed by Pebble Beach (y’know, the beach with all pebbles) on 17 Mile Drive (the sole reason why we went there in the first place), I had fun taking a bunch of pictures along the way. I saw a couple of deer (I was only able to get one picture since we passed by the first one too fast), some squirrels, tide pools, “ghost trees,” etc.

Here are my pictures!

My travel buddies: Jen, Thomas and Shanice.

This area made me wish I wore my mocassins so I could run around and sing songs from Pocahontas. Oh, and that’s my Doctor Who action figure by the way. Hehe. 🙂

ANIMALS!

The Lone Cypress = emo tree.

That’s all for now, folks! Monterey Bay Aquarium post to come.

out & about

CandyLand!

July 29, 2011 Nina Penalosa5 Comments

On Wednesday Jen, Shanice, Thomas and I headed to Monterey for a micro vacation! It didn’t exactly go as we had hoped — we got jipped on SO MANY THINGS. From food to souvenirs, and even the places we planned to visit! We went on the 17 Mile drive to go to Pebble Beach, but we passed it on the way (we couldn’t find the entrance part to the beach). We were all tired and hungry, so we said “Eff it” and checked into the hotel, then went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. Dinner was good (we don’t have a CPK in Stockton anymore, and we miss their tiramisu!), we were just a bit bummed about the whole Pebble Beach thing.

Afterwards we did some exploring. Shanice and I both loooove Salt Water Taffy and I saw an add for a candy store on Cannery Row that had over 70 flavors!!! And it was in the same shopping center the big antique mall I wanted to go to was in. However, all the stores were already closed. 😦

Oh, you know how they weigh candy to determine how much it is? Well, my original amount came out as $15. I was like, “HELL NO!” I mean, that is a ridiculous amount, right? So I went back and tried to dump out as much as I could, but I was getting irritated by running to all the different flavors and once again said, “Eff it” and just bought it. My new total came out as $13. x____x

Maybe I should’ve tried to control my taffy urges. Anywho…

candyland — O.P.I. nail polish “Rumple’s Wiggin”

At least I got to take some fun pictures. I’ll share photos from the 17 Miles drive shortly! 🙂

—
outfit details:

jacket: ???
shirt: Her Universe (purchased at Comic-Con)
skirt: Old Navy
boots: Blowfish
purse: M. Rossetti

out & about

MOAR COMIC-CON STUFF!

July 26, 2011 Nina Penalosa1 Comment

Unlike previous years, I didn’t go to any panels and didn’t see a ton of celebrities. I really wanted to attend Chuck‘s farewell panel on Saturday morning, but after we (my sister, Carmel, and her boyfriend, Ryan) grabbed out badges, we checked the line for Ballroom 20 and it was ridiculously long! We determined that we probably wouldn’t get in and just fell in line for the exhibit hall. One thing we did get to do was grab a “boarding pass” to check out the new ABC show PAN-AM. I was slightly disappointed though because I read somewhere that grabbing a “boarding pass” enabled you to view the pilot episode of the show, but really it was just a really short sneak-peak — it was basically this video I saw on YouTube and a few extra behind the scenes footage:

[courtesy of ABC]

They could’ve at least showed us a clip from the show. But besides that, the booth’s presentation was really cool. We got to sit in what was modeled to be a first class cabin of a PAN-AM airplane, and there was even turbulence during our “take off” and “landing.”

Here’s Carmel and Ryan flying first class:

The first semi-famous person we saw was Andrew W.K. which I thought was really random. On Sunday, I passed by the Fox booth while the Glee cast was doing their signing. I caught of glimpse of Darren Criss which was pretty exciting because he is effing dreamy! I also saw Queen of the Nerds, Felicia Day (The Guild, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog) at the Dark Horse booth during her signing.

Can you spot Darren?

Like I mentioned in my last post, Katie Cook is the BESTEST! Besides the Doctor, I had her draw Jingles the horse from King Arthur’s Carousel at Disneyland. I also bought a couple copies of her insanely hilarious comic about her disgruntled cat’s inner dialog called Fuck You, Box, my friends.

And now, I’m just going to throw in some random pictures I took at the convention because I don’t know what else to write about.

The End.

out & about

Who-Licious

July 26, 2011 Nina Penalosa3 Comments

Comic-Con was a freakin’ Doctor Who fest for me! Unfortunately, after waiting in line for nearly 2 hours on Sunday morning, I didn’t draw a winning ticket to get into the Doctor Who signing. Booo. 😦

On the bright side, I walked away with some awesome Doctor Who swag. 😀

BEHOLD!

I got…

Dalek coin bank. I couldn’t find a little Dalek or Cyberman action figure, and stumbled upon this coin bank and thought, “Close enough!” I’ve already dumped my spare change in it.
11th Doctor + River Song’s Sonic Screwdrivers. Now I can coordinate outfits with Sonic Screwdrivers!
Water color doodle by Katie Cook. She’s the bestest. If you’re at a convention, and Katie Cook is there, you must, MUST, get yo ass to her booth. Her little water color doodles are only $5 and you can ask her to make whatever you want.
Doctor Mew print and buttons. I’ve seen this cat art on Tumblr before and found that the artist, Jenny Parks, had a booth at Con this year! I couldn’t resist nabbing a print and buttons for myself and Tim! My favorite is the 11th Doctor in a fez.
BBC America Comic-Con exclusive shirt. I had a bit of buyer’s remorse after I purchased it. I just felt weird not buying anything at the BBC America booth, but I have come to love it. 🙂

One thing I’m sad about is this:

[courtesy of BBC America/Anglophenia]

On Saturday, while I was roaming around the exhibit hall, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan showed up at the BBC America booth! I have no idea where I was when this happened. #@()#()_@*$$&%&&%*#!!+($(! It would’ve been cool to say that I saw the Doctor and Amy Pond with my own eyeballs, y’know? Oh well. I do not own a TARDIS or a Time Turner, so there’s nothing I can do about it.

le sigh

out & about

:fwamp:

July 25, 2011 Nina PenalosaLeave a comment

Oh my goodness, Comic-Con has left me tired and poor! I don’t even wanna know how much money I spent over the weekend. D:

I’M GOING TO SAN DIEGO!

July 21, 2011 Nina Penalosa2 Comments

Sorry I’ve been M.I.A., but I’ve been a busy little thing. Right now I’m at the airport noming on a Hawaiian pizza while I wait for my flight, which has been delayed. Rugh. 😦

I’ll be going to Comic-Con on Saturday and Sunday!!! And Doctor Who is going to be all over the place! I’ll most likely not get into the panel on Sunday, and I missed out on buying tickets for the Nerdist Podcast Chris Hardwicke is going to have with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. I don’t want to go into the details of that unfortunate event. It’ll only make my inner She-Hulk come out. BUT, I’m totally looking forward to all the Who merchandise, and other things that’ll be at Con.

Hopefully I’ll be able to blog while I’m down there — unlike my Disneyland trip, I’m staying at place with interweb connection. Woop!

PS: I got a haircut on Tuesday. Behold…

geek style

Mischeif Managed

July 16, 2011 Nina Penalosa3 Comments

Watching a movie at 3:30 am in a city an hour and a half away might actually not be the greatest idea ever. I know I did it last year, but I lived a half hour away at the time and managed to slip in a good 5 hour nap before going (I could NOT fall asleep before we left around midnight!), so that made sense. Yesterday, when I got home after we ate breakfast (around 7:30 am), I knocked out for the rest of the day. I even fell asleep wearing my costume thinking I would take pictures for this blog when I woke up (since the ones I took at the theater came out blurry), but I was completely groggy and zombie-like. Rugh. But it was all for Harry Potter! I wouldn’t do that for just any movie, so it was worth it. 🙂

Anyway, to our surprise there were TONS of people at the Metreon for the 3:30 am showing. In fact, it sold out! We moved like cattle as we tried to form a queue to get into the theater. This is what we were hoping to avoid. And I spent $4.50 on a greasy, doughy pretzel. WTF? Movie theater pretzels are usually yummy!

Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I knew I was going to cry buckets since I knew certain things were going to happen with several characters (*CRIES A TRILLION TEARS*), but I forgot to bring tissues with me! Alan Rickman’s performance as Severus Snape made my heart hurt. I could not stop bawling. That man deserves an Oscar nomination. SO AMAZING! And Maggie Smith unleashed Professor McGonagall’s bad-assery-ness.

I even got misty eyed during some parts that weren’t even sad. I was just thinking, “This is it. After this, it’s all over.” I’ve read some things on Tumblr with people complaining about us Potterheads and our whining about how it’s the last movie. Star Wars fans (that apparently don’t like Harry Potter) are like, “When it [Star Wars] came to an end, I was okay. I accepted it. I didn’t cry about it.” And I’m sitting here thinking, “IT’S NOT THE SAME!!!” Star Wars had 6 films, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars is out on Cartoon Network (I think?), and there’s all these books that have been written and are still getting released; something new is always happening with Star Wars. Harry Potter fans don’t have that. I mean, we’re getting Pottermore later, but that’s it as far as we know. So give us some slack and let us mourn the end of a glorious era! Jerks.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I shall continue listening to the Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows audiobook as I clean my room.