the EMP and stuff

Yesterday we took the bus downtown again. Got tickets to the DCT show (geez, they went on sale Friday and by Sunday the best I could get was row ZZ on the floor level) at Tower, then went to the EMP (Experience Music Project). I'm definitely glad we didn't pay full price ($20?!) to go in there. I mean, some of the ideas are neat and all, but we didn't really try a lot of the "super interactive" stuff because it was really crowded, and it was sort of weird to see the one room where they basically had my high school music collection up on the wall (geez, they even had Reckoning up there and the "definitive" REM song they played was "So. Central Rain"). Except that this was part of a museum of music thingy, so my high school record collection was intended to be a piece of music history. Weird. We looked at the "uncommon objects" but they were mostly dumb. Then we went on the "Funk" ride thingy, which was the lamest thing of all. You watch a few videos about people in the James Brown Band, and then you go on an Alice-type "ride" which doesn't do much except make you feel sick, not even because of the jerkiness of the seat, but because of how dumb it is. Blah. God, I feel bad being this negative, but I dunno, I just didn't really enjoy the EMP very much. It might be because I didn't eat any food all day until afterwards, but I'm not sure.

We bussed back and got food at Red Mill Burgers. YAY! Yummy milkshake. Then we spent some time in our new house. I fell asleep after unpacking some stuff and then eventually Eli woke me up to come back here since he wanted to go hiking with people in the morning, that is, today. So here I am. Not sure what I'll do today, but I'm sure I'll tell you all tomorrow.

Deanna's DDR tour

Much like yesterday I only had one goal (get Dreams Come True tickets), today I had two goals: play a lot of DDR 7th Mix and get a Hello Kitty CD Tower.

So, first I went to Factoria Mall, which is in south Bellvue. The mall itself is not great, but they were supposed to have a store with Sanrio stuff and an arcade that just upgraded their 6th mix to 7th mix. So, I found the arcade first. There was a kid playing there, he looked like a pretty decent player and probly around 17-18 yrs old. So I played a set after him, he played a set after me, etc. He complained that they had nothing at all unlocked on the machine, and he really wanted to do Oni courses but none were unlocked, etc... and then did some Oni course (dunno the name but it's mostly Standards with So Fabulous So Fierce as the 2nd song) and failed about 4 songs in (Challenge Mode "Higher"). Shrug. So I just played some random crap there and left after like 3 games, wishing the kid good luck on getting stuff unlocked. I found the toy store and they had Sanrio stuff but no CD Tower. Oh well.

Went to Illusionz, because I still had like 7 bucks on my IZ card and this is their last weekend of 50-cents-per-game-ness. I played 4th Plus Solo for a while because the MAX2 machines were full, and I did all of the Korean songs except Bakkwo. Then I played some Para Para, and then some MAX2. I would like to say that I tried Burning Heat Heavy again and got a little further in than last time, but didn't finish it, yet again. I mostly just played random standard songs on MAX2... fortunately around 3pm or whatever it was, there were very few people around, so I could just play like 4-5 games of MAX2 in a row (interspersed with one USA game for freestyling and taking a break). I also played Drummania. Natsuiro is a cool song too. I really like playing songs like Motto, because it's about right at my level AND it's one of my favorite Judy and Mary songs AND it actually feels like real drumming. Whee. Anyway, I got my card down to 50 credits and left because I was having weird pains in my chest after playing a lot. Ugh.

Hmm, so after that I was going to drive to Quarters in Kirkland to play some 7th mix and some PIU, except I remembered there was a Sanrio store in Bellvue Square, where I had been with combinator two months ago. So I went there. I swear, every single person in Bellvue was out at the mall today. It was near impossible to actually park anywhere, but I finally found a space and went in, and was fortunately right next to the Sanrio store. Well, so remember my second goal for the day? I saw what the HK CD Tower actually looked like out of the box and went "ugh, that's awful!" because it looks all dumb. It has feet and arms and a big bloated Hello Kitty head, and it's just yucky looking. So, I didn't get it. On the other hand, I bought two HK folding fans (sensuu), and four plushies - a Russian HK for Eli (which he actually put on his bag when I got home and gave it to him) and a Japanese HK with a kimono and all, and the Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel bride and groom keychain plushies. I'm not sure what to do with them, but I figure I'll save them until next year when I get married or whatever and figure out something then. (The problem with Sanrio stuff is that they cycle their stock WAY too often, so if you want something, get it, because it will never be there again.) Shrug. So I got food at the mall too because I was falling-over starving. And then it was like 4:15pm so I decided to come back here instead of going to Quarters. Turned out to be a good idea because there was a huge storm right as I was driving home, and fortunately it only took me like 20 minutes to get here, there was no traffic on 520, but apparently right after that, there was a big accident or something. Whee.

We're all hanging out now listening to the Mariners and watching Josh play video games. Hopefully we'll grill stuff soon. Whee.

Maybe I'll go to Quarters some time this week... but I don't really have an excuse to go, nor do I know anyone who goes there. Eh, we'll see.