Um... so the new layout didn't finish itself as quickly as I wanted it to have.

(::takes this moment to try to beat his computer elves into submission::)

Today's been a thoroughly satisfying day (whoo!).

Woke up around 11:50am and got ready to go out for the day. Quick lunch at Suncoast and then sis and I had time to kill before the movie began. We headed over to the lil arcade by the bowling alley to perchance play some DDR, but there were numerous expert players (all asian) already at work on the damned things, so we meandered and played Time Crisis 2 for a bit. At some point I got onto the new Tekken 4 and was enjoying my game.

So, I'm the final round of a match against one of the fighters, with two more hits and I win, when this kid comes along and decides to jump into the game. Strike one. While I wait for him to pick a character I glance over to the DDR game longingly only to discover that the boy had just put the cursor on the random character selector and intended to beat me with any of the characters. Strike two. Before the match begins he turns to me and says: "I'll go easy on you this first round." Strike three. Guess who won? Yep, I completely devastated the poor boy (and even managed to smash his fighter through several layers of concrete). Pride having taken a beating, the boy decides to be cocky and challenges me again, but this time he uses my own character against me. Still decimate him. But after that I was getting my ass kicked by the game while getting condecending remarks from a small, pre-pubescent boy who sadly enough resembles a young me. Eep.

Eventually made it to the cinema and got to watch Lilo & Stitch. Although not quite a typical Disney animated movie (the PG rating and absence of a musical score already a given) it was still able to be very entertaining. Then again, seeing a sadistic space-alien-koala version of me wreak havoc was nice. No blood, but plenty of mooning from Stitch's end... erm, no pun intended.

Afterwards went down to WOW to peruse the CDs. The spoils from that exploit are: Bridget Jones' Diary, The Velvet Goldmine DVD (finally!), Splendor DVD, the Something Corporate EP, Our Lady Peace's Gravity, the original broadway cast of Thoroughly Modern Millie, and a piano/vocal selection of the music from RENT.

To go off on a tangent... ahem. RENT in Japan, where Roger has fly-away hair, Mark looks like Michelle Kwan (while still remaining a male), Angel resembles Gackt-sama (no surprise there), and Benny looks like the filipino broadway-affectionado Michael from my church. I'd post the Manila cast, but seeing a pack of pinoys playing that bohemian musical is too disturbing.
But back to WOW. The magazine section is completely amazing. Not only do they have almost every single periodical in America, but they have a fair amount of stuff from other metropolitan countries. Namely Japan. I was tempted to go get both of Jamie Oliver's books (for the recipes, I swear!), a book about erotic art during the 17th and 18th century (with mainly satirical images), a book of amazing cyanotype photography, a book of Carrivagio's work, a book about vintage photos of men with men (both platonic and not-so-platonic), several collectible figures from NGE, several posters involving Mr. McGregor, and Edward Gorey's "The Unstrung Harp (or Mr. Earwax Writes a Book" but that would've pushed the total bill to be above the $500 mark.

(Speaking of the Moulin Rouge star, I was watching the "Ode to Impersonators" episode of StreetSmarts and witnessed a homophony Nicole-Kidman-female impersonator from La Cage and a fully flaming Ricky Martin impersonator from the Stratosphere's American All-Star show. Eep.

After purchase (complete with an extremely sexy Rufus Wainwright-esque boy behind me in line and seeing Sean Biggerstaff on a cardboard ad for the Harry Potter DVD) the family headed over to Panda Express where I dined on the only two vegetarian dishes (Tofu w/ Garlic and "assorted veggies") and read disturbing fortune cookies.

Then it was home to watch the 2002 Olympic skating competitions and exhibitions on DVD (whoo! Tim Geobel!!) with a call from Karen and a conversation about upcoming auditions and a mutual friend finally doing exactly what he's been wanting to do for a while. (It's about effing time!)

Later on that night I turned on the tv and L.I.E. was about to start. Amazing movie, but my mind is completely frazzled at the moment for me to make any coherent sense (as if you couldn't tell that from what I've written thus far). Luckily I had the foresight to record the movie. And now, it is off to watch Ewan McGregor in The Velvet Goldmine. Ciao.