Today was composed of one goal and one goal only. Meet John Green. Today was the Portland leg of the Tour de Nerdfighting 2012, which is basically a thing where John and Hank drive around the country in a big van and do stuff on stage in front of nerdy fans. Kind of like an even nerdier w00tstock. I wanted to get there nice and early, but I made the mistake of buying Doritos last night. Every time I do that, I eat too many of them, and then I end up sleeping way later than I mean to, and I always have a Dorito hangover when I wake up. You'd think I would learn one of these times, but I just have this unmanageable urge to try new flavors. Ahh, Dorito regret. (Hello spam comment bots that will be triggered by the frequent mentions of a brand name product!)

Anyway, I wanted to get there at least an hour early, but I ended up being five minutes late. They were giving out raffle tickets to make the signing run smoothly at the end (I later found out that I was the eighth to last person to arrive. Oh, the shame!), so I grabbed one and found a seat. The only seats available were pretty high up on the balcony so I didn't have a great view. The evening started out with a sock puppet show, and then John came out in a nice suit and read a chunk of his book. Then he talked quite a bit about the gift of consciousness and our responsibility to use it wisely. Then Hank came out and did a few songs. Then John came back out in more comfortable clothes, and there was a big Q and A session with previously submitted Qs. The finale is a sort of mini game show where the two brothers take turns asking each other questions, and there is a timer, and whoever is speaking when the timer runs out gets shocked.

After the show came the signing, and it was a very long one. Because the ticket was ten bucks, I forgot that the event itself was free, and that the ticket counted toward the purchase of a copy of the book. I'd already got the book from a preorder, but I didn't want to waste the ticket cost, so I bought another book. Happily, this one also appears to be from the first printing, plus it has a John Green autograph and an anglerfish from Hank! (or "Hanklerfish" for the uninitiated!) I also bought the exclusive tour mini album from Hank. ♥

I had a lot of time to sit and think while I waited for my spot in the signing. I tried to think of the most clever and concise thing I could think of to say, but of course all of it went out the window when I got to the head of the line. I basically told John about my 34 During 34 list, and I told him that he was number 25; "Meet a famous person I admire." He would probably argue against his fame, but he does have more than a million followers on Twitter now, and I think that legally qualifies as fame. I also told him that his book means a lot to me for reasons too complicated to get into during a signing, and I encouraged him to participate in 35 During 35 on his upcoming birthday. I don't think I made too much of an ass out of myself, but it was the most nervous I have been to meet somebody since I met Tori Amos when I was a teenager.

After I was done talking to John, I talked briefly with Hank. I'd already met him at w00tstock, so I felt comfortable with a more casual interaction. He commented on my Woot shirt, which shows an anglerfish reading a book by the light of his lure, and decided that he should just buy one. I told him I would see if they were still available. While he talked to the next person, I told him that they were, and that I would send him the link on Twitter. I also asked if I could make a suggestion for dinner. Since they were about to drive three hours to Seattle tonight, I knew they didn't have time to go to a sit down restaurant, so I suggested Burgerville, and gave him the rundown on my favorite hippie fast food chain. His response? "God, I love Portland."

When I got home from the event, I found two very exciting things awaiting me on Twitter. First, John favorited my Tweet where I sent him the link to my 34 During 34, which I assume means he actually intends to check it out in the future! Second, Hank responded to my Tweet with the shirt link, and said "Thanks! And thanks for the Burgerville tip. It was fantastic!" They actually went to Burgerville at my suggestion! ♥ I have this weird fixation with trying to get people I admire to try restaurants I love, so I always try to suggest things when they come to town, but this is the first time it has actually succeeded!

PS - I updated 34 During 34. Long overdue. I am now current with books, AFI movies, and restaurants. I also made a page for meeting John Green, although I will probably write something up later. Oh, and I added a gallery of evidence that I did actually send out Christmas presents.

Man, that movie stuck with me. I was still thinking about The Grey for the majority of today. I guess yusaku777 saw it today as well. His Twitter review was a little vague, but I suspect he reacted to it similarly to how I did. It's funny how everybody goes in expecting a cheesy action movie and ends up being thoroughly devastated by what the movie is really about. Except for some of the idiots on Ain't It Cool News. Everybody should be very proud of me, by the way. because I managed to read an article and politely walk away from the comments section before I got into a shouting match with idiot assholes.

I played a whole bunch of Skyrim today, since the roommate is currently not playing anything major, and thus the television is less occupied than usual. After being goaded into starting the main quest by said roommate who was getting annoyed at my languid explorations, I went off to fight my first dragon. I was promptly and unceremoniously STOMPED into the ground by that beast. First time it let me on fire. Then it swatted me with its tail. Then it lit me on fire again. Then it ate me. I eventually barely managed to beat it by hiding on the roof of a tower and peeking out with my bow and arrow whenever I saw it breathing fire in the other direction. Needless to say, things are quickly getting more interesting.

I also learned my first Thu'um, or Shout. When the dragon died, it apparently awakened my dormant abilities as a dovakiin, or Dragonborn. (Rare humans born with the blood and soul of a dragon.) The Shouts are basically words learned in the language of the dragons. Each Shout has three syllables that must be learned separately in order to use its full effect. It's a really interesting concept, and I can't wait to see where they go with it.

Tomorrow, I get to meet John Green, one of my favorite authors, on the Tour de Nerdfighting! I'm incredibly nervous about this. Not sure how I am gonna manage to get to sleep tonight, but I have to try. I hope to be downtown already when their vehicle arrives.

Once more into the fray
Into the last good fight I'll ever know
Live and die on this day
Live and die on this day

Just got back from seeing The Grey with the roommate, and now I am struggling to put into words the powerful emotions this movie stirred in me. The basic plot can be gleaned from the trailer; a plane full of oil rig workers in Alaska goes down, and Liam Neeson tries to lead the few survivors to safety through harsh wilderness, harsher weather, and harshest wolves. From the trailer, all I was expecting was an exciting movie where Liam Neeson punches a wolf. I didn't expect to see a staggeringly brilliant work of savage poetry, which faces mortality head on, and gives us one of the most emotional examinations of masculinity in the history of Hollywood. Seriously. It's that good. It somehow devastated and uplifted me, and the final scene is so perfectly realized, it was all I could do to stop myself from jumping to my feet and cheering when the credits started to play. Jesus, what a film. I can't believe it came out of the same guy who directed Smokin' Aces and The A Team.

I normally talk about things in chronological order, but I wanted to talk about that movie while it was still raw in my mind. Before the movie, though, we went to restaurant number 14. It's a tiny hole in the wall izakaya place called Yuzu. If you're not familiar with this type of restaurant, it's a type of bar that specializes in having lots of interesting snacks. No sushi, usually. Anyway, this is where the sign would usually go, but they didn't freaking have one! It was a pretty tough place to find.



They use a pretty damned high grade of matcha here. Since the kitchen is fairly open and visible from the bar, I recognized the bag it comes in from when the roommate's ex worked in a tea shop. rust me, this is the good stuff.



What's a Japanese bar without a free helping of edamame to start things off. Not much to report here. It's pretty hard to mess this dish up.



This was advertised as a chef's specialty. It's basically skinny hot dogs battered and deep fried. I got them because I was morbidly curious, but then they ended up being quite tasty. Go figure!



I wanted to get this just to contrast it with the onigiri I get at Toshi. Sadly it does not favorably compare. Toshi's onigiri is much bigger, much fuller, and just all around better than this one. Sill pretty, good though.



This is just a little side dish for seasoning the ramen. It's just sesame seeds and minced garlic. Still, it comes in its own dish, which means it gets a picture.



Here we have the main event. This is the ramen everybody on Yelp has been raving about. I do admit it is very good, but I still vastly prefer Toshi. This is a very fatty dish, which grossed me out a little bit. I still liked it, but I didn't like it nearly as much as everybody on Yelp does. I don't know that I will come back here. I get the feeling this place is amazing if you actually get drunk.



And, continuing my backwards order of talking about things, my day at work was fine. The issue that's been making our lives hell for two days is fixed. I even had some down time. In related news, our W2s posted around lunch time, so I spent the last part of my shift doing my taxes. They've already been filed and accepted, which means my federal and state refunds will both be deposited on February 8th! That is a personal best for me!

This work week just needs to be over. Today was just as bad as the past two days. The issue that was making us all miserable yesterday still hadn't been repaired as of when I left work. It's unusual that an issue like this lasts more than five or six hours. For it to still be going on after two days is nigh unthinkable. I really hope whatever it is gets fixed overnight tonight, because I really don't want to deal with another day like today. Bad times all around. Once again, I was in too bad of a mood to go see a movie after work.

The only real fun I had today was scheming my next food adventure with the carpool buddy. We're probably going to try out this izakaya style place called Yuzu. Apparently, it's very hard to find. Like, it's a hole in the wall restaurant in the middle of a strip mall, and it doesn't have any kind of sign with the name on it. Supposedly, the restaurant is very authentic, and the ramen is supposed to be the best in the area. I don't know if my brain can conceptualize ramen that is more delicious than Toshi's, but we'll see how things go. The tentative plan is to see a movie tomorrow, then go to dinner after, because it is open really late.

Periodically, when I express my pants frustration, people make suggestions. I was told to check out 5.11 Tactical Pants, which gave me a weird feeling of deja vu. I think I was bitching about pants last year or the year before, and the same person suggested the same place back then, but I didn't buy them because they are expensive. Well, I am in a better position now, and I also realize that expensive is worth it if the pants last for years. Anyway, I will probably treat myself to some fancy pants with my paycheck on the 10th.

The roommate is off somewhere doing something, so I had a big chunk of time to play Skyrim today. It's definitely starting to get a lot more fun. I'm still a little overwhelmed by how non-linear everything is, and occasionally get paralyzed by options, but overall I am having a lot of fun. I despair of actually beating the game before Mass Effect 3 comes out, though.

The week of inexplicable terribleness continues. I really hope the whole week doesn't go like this. I'm going to be very put out if Monday ends up being the best day of the week. Today we had a major issue that lit up the phones like a Christmas tree, and every single person was aghast that there could be some kind of issue that was interfering with their service, and every one managed to act like they were insulted to be lumped in with a bunch of people having the same issue. It was not a happy day. Not even silly ViHart videos could make it better.

After work, I went to CostCo in search of new pants, and they utterly failed me. I'm starting to feel that maybe I need to start buying all my clothes online. Except I'm not really having much luck there either. Is it too much to ask to have some unobtrusively colored pants with lots of pockets? Apparently it is too much to ask of Portland during the winter. Well, at least CostCo still had eggs, which I also needed to buy, so the trip wasn't a total loss. And my carpool buddy bought some beef jerky and got gas, so I didn't feel as bad about wasting her time.

My roommate made a pretty spectacular soup today. I think we've discovered the ultimate noodles at Uwajimaya. They are a kind of noodle designed for quickly making ramen. They are already cooked, expanded and soft, but they are frozen. You just plop them into the soup shortly before the broth is done, and the clump of noodles becomes surprisingly delicious ramen. It's a little less cost-effective than buying bundles of dried noodles, but the results are more satisfying. Maybe some day we will learn how to twist our own noodles.

We couldn't find anything we really wanted to watch on Netflix, so after half an hour of browsing the available titles, the roommate finally settled on From Paris With Love, which is a ridiculous Luc Besson-produced action movie. Directed by the same director as Taken, but not nearly as good. Still a fairly entertaining way to wrap up a horrible day.

Woke up this morning to some torrential downpour. When I went out to the bus stop, there were so many people standing under the overhang that I should have realized something was up. Having no available shelter, I had to stand in the pouring rain while I waited for the bus. Which was forty-five minutes later. How a bus that runs every half hour managed to be forty-five minutes late, I'm not entirely sure. Especially since the buses going the other direction were all right on time. How did that happen? Doesn't a bus have to pass me going one way before it can come back the other way? I guess not.

Today was an absolutely wretched day at work. Just awful. Wall to wall insane people, and all the kind who require really long calls to deal with. I think I was up to maybe twelve calls at the end of my eight hour shift. (My average number of calls handled is rarely less than thirty-five, for contrast.) Pretty much the only thing that got me through today was a couple of really silly YouTube videos. And that animated gif of the cat leaping off the roof.

Oscar nominations came out today! Here are some thoughts on them!

Best Picture - Out of these nine, only three of them would even be in my top twenty for the year. (The Artist, The Descendants, and Midnight In Paris, if you were wondering.) Personally, I think The Artist should win out of these, but I think The Descendants will take it.

Best Director - I strongly suspect Alexander Payne will get this for The Descendants, but as long as Terrence Malick doesn't win, I'll be happy.

Best Actor - This is really a tough call. Of course I want Gary Oldman to get it, but Jean Dujardin is a dark horse candidate here.

Best Actress - I still think Meryl Streep has this locked down, but I haven't seen Albert Nobbs yet. I secretly sorta want Rooney Mara to win, though.

Best Supporting Actor - I can't freaking believe Jonah Hill got nominated for an Oscar. That's just ridiculous. This one's tough to predict, but I suspect Christopher Plummer or Max von Sydow will get this one.

Best Supporting Actress - I have no freaking clue. Probably somebody from The Help will win this one, because it was nominated for a whole bunch of things I don't think it will win.

Whew. Okay, I was way more tired than I thought. The rest of my Oscar thoughts will have to wait until tomorrow.

In all of my discussion of the other games I played over the weekend, I neglected a very interesting demo for a game called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. It's got a pretty impressive pedigree, with art by Todd Mcfarlane, writing by RA Salvatore, and game design by Ken Rolston, who was the lead designer on the 3rd (widely regarded as the best) Elder Scrolls game. This game snuck under my radar, possibly because I didn't go to PAX last year, but it's really entertaining. Great concept, pretty artwork, fun gameplay. If you are the kind of person who downloads game demos, you should check it out.

Tonight, the roommate and I started watching Breaking Bad, which is one of those I've Been Meaning To Watch It Forever shows. Now that I know for sure that the show is ending next season, I feel I am allowed to get caught up with it. I'm shy about committing to shows these days until I know for sure how much there is going to be, and if it is going to end properly. We watched two episodes, and it is just as good as everyone says it is, and twice as disturbing. For those of you who somehow haven't heard about it, it's about a chemistry teacher who learns he has inoperable lung cancer, and decides to team up with an ex-student of his to cook and sell meth as a way to make sure his family is provided for when he dies. It's a pretty messed-up concept, and the movie certainly doesn't revel in his decision to commit evil acts. I get the feeling that there will be some convoluted moral issues raised later, but I guess time will tell.

On a somewhat related note, I finished The Fault in Our Stars tonight. (It's only related in that the book deals heavily with cancer as well.) At the end of my shift, I decided finishing the book was more important than going downtown to see a movie, and I read the rest of it on the way home. I finished it sitting at the bus stop a block from my house, bare hands numb from the cold because gloves would slow down the process of turning the pages. At around page 260, tears were streaming down my face, and they didn't stop until I reached the end. What a tremendously powerful book. I have to admit that its emotional resonance was increased tenfold by John Green's intimate connection with has fans via YouTube and Twitter. The book is dedicated to Esther Earl, and although the book is not about her, I don't think it could exist without her, and I don't think anybody in Nerdfighteria will ever be able to read it without thinking about her.

Okay, I'm now a couple of quests deep into Skyrim. It really is basically a fantasy version of Fallout 3. I mean, obviously there are some differences. The first one is that the game is really pretty. Both of the Fallouts I played had a sort of desolate beauty, but Skyrim is just flat out beautiful. I've never seen a roleplaying game that takes place entirely in a mountainous, winter environment. As with Fallout, I'm probably going to take forever to actually complete the story, because I'll just want to wander around and look at everything. ♥ This game may actually be worse than Fallout in this regard, because it apparently has a system that randomly generates quests forever.

The first thing I noticed about Skyrim is that the world is heavy with a sense of history. Even though I've only done maybe two quests, I feel like I am in a fully realized world with hundreds of years of history. It's just an interesting place. The skill books in particular are a narrative detail that really makes me happy. In Fallout, you could find books or magazines you could read to give a boost to a particular skill. For example, if you read Tumblers Today, your lock picking skill increases. The books are just inventory items to use. Skyrim has them as well, but they are actually books you can read. Some of them contain stories that are dozens of pages long. This is one of the many reasons it will be very boring to watch me play; I intend on reading every story start to finish.

This hasn't been my most productive weekend, but I've definitely made some progress in my room. I'm still quite pleased by my rainbow door. Only took me three years to do it. Next goal is to overhaul my bookshelves. Previously, they have been split between actual books and crafting materials. The crafting shelves are not very efficient, though, and I've acquired a large number of books since I last sorted the shelves. I think I've got enough books sitting on stacks on the floor to fill at least three shelves, and that's just disrespectful. I think I've just been reading a lot more than usual the last year. My 34 During 34 is probably helping, too!

Did I mentioned we had a shift bid last week? It doesn't kick in for two more weeks, but my schedule is getting bumped up an hour or so. Shouldn't be much of an adjustment, and it should make my evening movies easier to schedule. On the other hand, once the clock changes in the spring, I won't have any overlap with the night crew, so the last hour of my shift won't be as relaxing as it is right now.

My roommate woke up this morning with a craving for phở, and thus came about restaurant number 13. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually haven't had phở in Portland yet. The only times I have had it since I moved here have been in Seattle during Penny Arcade Expo, so I was long overdue. We looked up a bunch of places on Yelp, and went with this one because it was the only one with a website in Vietnamese. Seemed like a good sign.



And here's their menu. I like how the broth on the left side is sorted by how scary it is to white people. Most of the stuff in the adventurous section is only there because it has tripe in it. I'm not a fan of tripe, so I stuck to the basics.



Very nondescript tea. Not bad, just not describable. It tastes exactly like it looks.



Okay, let's see your credentials. Piece of lime? Check. Pile of sprouts? Check. Two slices of jalapeno? Check. Giant sprig of Thai basil? Check. Everything seems to be in order here. Carry on.



This is a fried tofu wrap stuffed with some kind of cake made out of fish, shrimp, and crab. Kind of scary looking, but seriously delicious. Possibly the tastiest appetizer I have ever had in a Vietnamese restaurant.



As soon as I took a bite of one of these giant egg rolls, I knew we had made the right decision. The flavor is way more interesting and intense than you expect to find in something fried. Full of shrimp, chicken, and veggies.



Ahh, the main event. Love it or hate it, nothing tastes quite like a steaming hot bowl of phở. Kind of like ramen, but with its own special charm. I got mine with beef brisket, but the roommate donated one of his beef balls to make the picture more interesting. This is as fine a bowl as I have ever had. Tastes just like the bowl I got from the first Vietnamese restaurant I ever went to, after staying up all night playing laser tag.



All in all, an excellent experience. I'll probably have to try some other restaurants at some point, but I think this will be my go-to place for phở.

After lunch, we went to the Asian market to stock up on our own soup ingredients. It was super busy, and we couldn't figure out why until we saw a bunch of signs for New Year's sales. They even gave us a little red envelope for spending $25 or more. Our envelope had a ten percent off coupon in it, which will come in very handy next time we go. Apparently some of the envelopes have $50 gift cards in them.

After shopping, I came home and did four things. First, I finally used my over-the-door hooks to decorate the back of my bedroom door. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. I absolutely love LED lights, and I find I fall asleep much easier with some kind of mild light in my room. Anyway, for those of you who were wondering, here is what I did:



The second thing I did was buy an awesome game on Steam called Dust Force. It's this really cute game with amazing animation. You control one of four acrobatic janitors, and you run around cleaning up each level. It's more adorable and more exciting than it sounds. Here's their site!

The third thing was watching Tucker and Dale vs Evil, which is one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. It's basically a parody of slasher horror flicks, where the creepy hillbillies are actually really sweet, innocent people, and the kids getting killed mostly manage to bring it upon themselves through sheer stupidity or clumsiness.

The fourth thing I did was finally start Skyrim. I'm still not all the way through the introduction, but I'm pretty much sold. The world seems to have a real sense of depth and history to it, and the appearance of the first dragon gave me goosebumps. Knowing me, I will probably get two hours into it and then start over because I'll realize I leveled my character up very poorly.

Bedtime now. I'm out like this kitty!

Thus begins the 2012 movie season. Apparently, after seeing nineteen movies in one month, I needed a few weeks off. Also, I saw pretty much everything I wanted to see by the end of the year, and nothing really opened for the first couple weeks of this year. Anyway, I managed to squeeze in two movies tonight. Not only that, but they were with two different people. My carpool buddy and I went to see something right after work, and then she went home and my roommate met me at the same theater. The timing actually worked out surprisingly well.

First, I saw The Iron Lady, which is the Meryl Streep biographical film about Margaret Thatcher. Now, I'm not very into politics, and I knew or cared even less about them when Thatcher was in office, so I don't know much about her. From pop culture and various references on British shows, I gather that she is rather hated by a large number of people. Certainly the movie doesn't pull any punches with her more controversial actions. Overall, despite the utterly amazing performance by Meryl Streep, I haven't decided how I feel about the movie as a whole. So much of it is glossed over, and it is definitely more concerned with provoking an emotional response than worrying about providing details. I'm going to go ahead and call it a success despite my mixed feelings. Streep really is amazing, and I think she has the Oscar locked in this time.

I also saw Haywire, which is a sort of cloak and dagger revenge flick from Steven Soderbergh, who really does seem to dive head first into any genre at any time. Here, we have a fierce operative named Mallory who has a mission go very wrong, and then ends up on the run from the people who hired her while she tries to figure out what really happened. What blows my mind about this movie is how deconstructed it is when compared with other movies of a similar genre. It strips out all of the action movie bells and whistles we have come to expect, and we are left with pure storytelling. There are no flashy jump cuts, shaky cam, or even any ridiculously epic dolly shots. The soundtrack is understated to the point of invisibility. There are barely any special effects. It doesn't even have the dubbed impact sounds that accompany every punch and kick in most movies. What's left is pure storytelling at its most primal, and the results are utterly fascinating. For the first twenty minutes or so, something about the movie felt really off to me, and I couldn't put my finger on it. Once I realized what was missing (all the trappings of the Hollywood action flick), I was totally on board. Highly recommended!