[My ComiCon experience..sort of.]

So my dad dropped me off at Old Town and I took the Trolley to the Convention Center. I got to where the book signing for Hannibal was(in front of the Tin Fish). There was already a line but not as bad as I thought(it was at 11 and I got there just after 9 a.m.)

(BTW the trolley was PACKED. I must say for someone who does not like being in a place with a lot of people-with no room to move-I did quite well!)

Whilst I was in line I talked to other fans, and that made the time go a lot faster. There was an area-a sort of holding area-where the stars were and we could see Hugh Dancy, Richard Armitage and Bryan Fuller.

The line moved really slowly for a while, but then right as we were going to get  to the front of the line,they capped it(meaning no more people) but then they decided to come along the line and sign a few peoples' books, and I got mine signed by Hugh Dancy and Bryan Fuller. I think they may have been having to leave to catch flights and the like,which is why they only had an hour for the signing, but I didn't care..I was a little agitated when we were at the front of the line, but then relieved when I realised that they would sign a few peoples' books(because I was like right behind the cap).

Hugh is so good looking in real life-so is Richard Armitage, who was also there but who had to leave(sooner than Bryan and Hugh did.)

So it was a good day.I enjoyed it :)

[Something that would surprise people about me..]

As much as I am a foodie(and I really am!) sometimes I really do get a feen for something kinda base..like a Filet O Fish sandwich.I LOVED Filet O Fish when I was a kid.

The other thing I always want(but have been talked out of it most of the time) is a store bought  birthday cake.I always LOVE the look of the cakes that they have at Costco.

I've always had a pretty refined palate from a young age..when I was 3 or 4 years old I went to preschool. My teacher Mrs. A would give us the choice of peanut butter and jelly or tuna fish for lunch and I always had tuna fish, which I loved(and Mrs. A loved it because she didn't have to eat a whole can of tuna fish  by herself.)

My mom tells the story of when some friends of the family brought over an octopus that they had caught. I actually ate it(and liked it)-and in fact my mom looked over at one point and I had a tentacle hanging out of my mouth!

I am NOT a picky eater(I think we may have established that in one of my earlier blog posts about food).There are hardly any vegetables that I don't like(and I'm always game for trying new ones!)

[S3 Ep 6:Dolce]

Still no new news on Hannibal being picked up by someone else..but I am still hopeful.There is a chance that we will find something out this weekend at ComiCon(also hopeful)

Ratings..are what they are.Not enough to make NBC consider un-cancelling Hannibal,unfortunately. #ouch. LOL I think they're going to seriously regret renewing Aquarius come the fall..Pretty sure they saw what was being said about them after they cancelled Hannibal :P

That being said, on to the review.The usual applies.. this is going to be an all over the place review -just the way I do things/my mind works..I love being a bit stream of consciousness, me. ;)

[Obviously I've seen too many horror movies]

The other day my dad and I went to a play at the Old Globe. I had to use the restroom before we walked back to where my dad's car was. By the time we were walking across the bridge hardly anyone was around. There are a lot of homeless people that sleep in the park at night.That's one variable that was kinda making me uncomfortable(though we did get to out car safe.)

Then we ran into a girl who forgot where she had parked(turned out she was parked in a lot on the other side of the park.)My dad offered to give her a ride to her car. The directions she was giving were a little weird, and it was kinda making me uncomfortable(turns out that she was using the GPS on her phone but I didn't know that.) But we did get her to her car safely, so that's good.

I guess I just need to go out of my comfort zone-and occasionally do things that I wouldn't normally do-though I wouldn't do anything that might put me in any sort of danger.

[Weekend report-with added Monday content!]

Friday: I stopped off at one of my favorite places and realised..I didn't have my credit card. Luckily some nice people picked up  my bill.

Saturday:Went to a Fourth Of July party..took a mango-cheese chipotle(dressing) salad which was a big hit.Also made saltine toffee-saltine crackers topped with caramel and chocolate chips-also a big hit.And very easy, too!

Sunday:My dad and I went to the fair for a couple of hours.We had free tickets and it was the last day of the fair so thought it'd be a good idea to go which we did.I only need a few hours which is exactly how long we spent there.

Monday:I went to UTC(University Town Centre) a local mall. I thought I wasn't going to be able to get home from there because they had the buses in a different area. I figured it out(thankfully) and was able to get home safe.

In the evening we went to Shakespeare's Pub in San Diego, which is one of my favourite, if not my very favourite, English pub in San Diego. I had a curry on  french fries(delicious!) and a pint of Stella Artois. My dad had one of the happy hour deals-a $5 hamburger and a pint of Newcastle Brown.

Then we went to the Old Globe and saw Twelfth Night. Rutina Wesley, who is in this season of Hannibal, was supposed to be playing Viola, but last night there was an understudy.The understudy was really good fortunately so Rutina taking a night off was not such a big deal for me.

[Creative Writing]

Today's prompt is:

He turned the key in the lock and opened the door. To his horror he saw..

Water. Everywhere.There had been a BAD clog in the pipes and it just *happened* to only affect his apartment.Of course.He wasn't completely surprised, since it was an old building.The guy who owned the building kept saying he was going to update the pipes but he never did. Fortunately he had good insurance, so everything in his house was replaceable with insurance money.

[Hurricanes and cruising-and you]

It's only July and there haven't been many tropical storms/hurricanes..yet. But when there *is* one-and if they interfere with cruises-and a cruise line screws up dealing with it, you'll know.

Personally, I would never cruise during hurricane season.I understand why people do so(cheaper) but they do NOT understand that there are risks involved with it-missing the boat, and missing ports among them.And people do not buy insurance.Without insurance, you are shit out of luck-and people STILL don't do it. That makes no sense whatsoever!

When a cruise line "screws up" and doesn't deal with it appropriately,people are almost gleeful.Not defending the cruise line,but there are plenty of fans of other cruise lines that are quick to line up to bash the offending cruise line.Same with the people who write for the main Cruise Critic website..to read some of what they write when things like this happen,there is a bias against certain cruise lines.

The time when Royal Caribbean "screwed up" because of Hurricane Irene is a good example. There were a LOT of people who flew in to San Juan Puerto Rico(where the cruise started). You NEVER do that-at least not if you're a *smart* cruiser. The only reason that you would get to the port the day of is if you were within driving distance-Ft. Lauderdale is a good example of this, as are San Diego and Long Beach.)

People  want to lay complete blame on the cruise line but truth of the matter is, is that cruisers do plenty of things that are *their* fault..not saying that the cruise lines aren't at fault, but when you read the posts on the Cruise Critic forums bashing cruise  lines who "screw up" and read the posts from Cruise Critic writers, their biases certainly shine through. You certainly see it on the HAL(Holland America Line) boards. Cruise Critic brass are biased-especially towards Holland America.They see HAL as especially untouchable..for whatever reason.

Gonna go off topic here but it bears discussing..

Royal Caribbean frequently comes in for a lot of shit and I think their super-sized ships bring out the hate in people.What a bizarre thing to hate over.No-one is forcing you to cruise on them-and you're entitled not to like them but some of the comments are based on..searches for a phrase and settles on "petty bullshit".

Holland America is-in order to keep up with the Joneses like Royal Caribbean- being forced to go to bigger ships..which will probably make Holland America lose some of its appeal for the writers at Cruise Critic.

Holland America is starting to realise who their actual passenger base is. And I KNOW they read the Cruise Critic boards(I mean, they know peoples' real names,so..)

[Meme time!]

Last time you had butterflies in your stomach?The day of the Hannibal premiere.

What was your last alcoholic drink?vodka

What's your favourite number?23

Did you ever go to camp as a kid?Yes.I hated it.

Has a friend ever used you?Short answer:Yes.

What's your favourite lollipop?Green apple or watermelon

What stores' departure from your shopping mall most saddened you?The bookstore.

Do you prefer Wednesdays or Thursdays?Thursdays(for obvious reasons!)

McDonald's or Burger King?McDonald's

Number of pillows?As few as possible. I don't like too many pillows.

Which do you dislike most:Pop up ads or spam email?Pop up ads.

What's the most messed up food combination you've had that was quite good? I don't know that it's so odd, but pickles with grilled cheese sandwiches.

If you could spend a week anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

How would you describe your sense of humor?Warped.Sarcastic.

What was the worst job you ever had?Working at a record store.It was my first "real world" job. I hated the work.I hated my boss.

If you could have any kind of dog in the world, what would it be? a French Bulldog.

[S3 Ep 5:Contorno]

God how I loved this episode.

But first, a few things:Ratings:not great. But it kinda doesn't matter at this point :P

Secondly, the cast have been released from their contracts.This doesn't mean the end, should Hannibal be picked up by a streaming service or cable network.It just means that the contract negotiations could get interesting. And finally, Bryan Fuller is commiting to American Gods right now,so he would  be doing that for a while.What that means is that the fourth season of Hannibal, should it get picked up, may not happen for a while.

I have resigned myself to being OK with that-I mean, we had to wait a year plus for S3..I think I could do it, if I had to. The waiting for S3 did get to me-It got to all of us Fannibals in some shape or form!

And good lord.The promo for next week's episode.I immediately was wishing that it was next Thursday already :)

[Restaraunt review:Bagby Beer Company]

So I went to Bagby Beer Company for dinner tonight. It's a new(less than a year old!) restaraunt within walking distance of my house. And yes, they have beer. They have a selection of beer for just about any type of taste(I did not have the beer on this visit but will definitely be going back as I see they have samplers of various types of beer..Gotta love that!

The decor is very simple. There  is a long bar, several communal tables, and a large outdoor area  for when the weather is nice(which it almost always is around here!)

Now!To my dinner! I ordered a turkey burger which was served on a pretzel bun.They served it with a tomato jam, and a horseradish mayo.It was TASTY. They serve it with big, thick cut french fries. I had iced tea.

Pricing?It was a little on the spendy side(almost $20 for dinner) so it will only be an occasional treat, but I do want to go back and try a couple of the beers.

[Creative writing]

Today's prompt is: a evangelist and a memo.

Ok..

He got on the intercom with his secretary: "would you please cancel the rest of my appointments for the day? This is really bad.It is going to take me the whole rest of the day and maybe tomorrow to get this sorted out".

He hadn't been entirely surprised by the content of the memo;however, what had happened finally came to light and in public knowledge so he was going to have to deal with the consequences of it himself.Noone else. He wasn't happy about it, of course. He made a few notes to himself.Just then the phone rangg. He wasn't at all surprised who was on the other end of the line.

"I was just going to call you..so we could do some..strategizing" he said.

[San Diego is the ish]

And of course the day I  sit down to write this I have something interesting to talk about-we got thunder and lightning today-some monsoonal weather which is not unusual for here, especially this time of year.So I'm adding it to my list of things that I love about San Diego(also:It's just about cured me of my fear of thunder, so there is that!)

There is so much to like about living here-one of the things that I love-and you can't really get a feeling for it unless you're flying over it in an airplane-is all of the wilderness areas.When you're flying into San Diego you go over a lot of  forest before you get to where there are houses. And you understand why forest fires are such a big deal when they happen. Brush fires, too.

[Random Hannibal thoughts]

*Am I the only one who  totally pictures the Revenge Squad picking  weapons?:P  Will has a taser,Alana has  throwing stars,Jack has brass knuckes, Chilton has a paintball gun and Mason (via Cordell) a baseball bat.

*Me, I am LOVING this season. I think I've said that more than once, and we are only 4(5 as of this week) episodes in. Don't get the hate some major TV websites have WRT the pacing and plot.It's leaving some "fans" of the show cold and it's just odd.

*Will had a nicer hospital room-like a hotel suite, really! than everyone else-maybe he has the next tier of insurance?(I heard a suggestion that  possibly everyone was at the same hospital-a private hospital-that would explain the look of it, very sparse(from what we could see.)

My theory is that Will has quite a bit of money saved up(and maybe he got some "we're sorry" money from the FBI after the Red Dinner. :P) He bought his house "as is" but was up to the challenge of fixing it up.

That also explains why he's able to buy a sailboat and fix it up.

[Blog housekeeping]

It's possible I will be posting twice a day occasionally;I am going to post a Hannibal post  later on today because I have some things I want to talk about but the review posts aren't really the place for it.

One thing I'd like to do more of are topical/in the news posts(I had every intention of posting about Charleston when it happened but never did.)

More restaraunt reviews(I have a particular restaraunt-which is within walking distance of my house!-in mind and will do that soon.)

[I am all for trying something new]

Some people are all up in arms about the Konigsdam. My feeling about this are as follows:

Nobody is forcing you to go on the Konigsdam. And inasmuch as people are entitled to their opinion, it is whinging, for lack of a better term.

Holland America is trying something new,(and it's about damn time!)... it's upsetting some cruisers. But these are the people who favour the older, more classic ships(the same ships that are being sold to other cruise lines, cruise lines who want to take on all of the issues which come with buying older ships from another cruise line.

Here are some of the complaints about Konigsdam from people on the Holland America boards on Cruise Critic(with my opinions in bold)

*Too big of a ship
It is, in fact much smaller than the Royal Caribbean ships.NEXT.

Too crowded
To see renderings of the ship, it looks like the *opposite* is true.

*Not enough bars
Some posters on the Cruise Critic HAL boards are obsessed,obsessed I tell you, with where their next drink is coming from.

*No glass elevators(a feature on all HAL ships).
Really?*that* is a deal breaker for you?

But for all of that, there are plenty of people that want to be one of the first to cruise on her. There was negativity before the Niew Amsterdam and Eurodam, and they are some of the most beloved ships in the Holland America fleet(and I've been on Eurodam so can speak from personal experience!)

Holland America is going for a newer, cleaner look(and more choice of restaraunts, including a Dutch-themed ship and a seafood restaraunt(which I SO would try if I was cruising on Konigsdam!)

Already, there is word of mouth about Konigsdam;I doubt that Holland America is worried about it not selling out.With everything it has going for it, it is going to be very popular.

[So excited! everyone should be able to get married!]

I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the Supreme Court ruling that  same sex marriage is now a right in all 50 states. Yes, it is. And I am so excited. This is a right that people have been fighting for  for a long time now, and now it is The.Law.Of.The.Land. Hells yeah!

People who know me are well aware that I am a supporter of gay rights. I don't like that my gay friends are being discriminated against, but there are still so many places where you have to keep it a secret.  San Diego isn't really like that(though San Diego's politics run towards the more conservative, we have a really great Pride weekend which gets a HUGE turnout every year.I've never gone, but I hear it's fun. I would love to go but I'm not a big fan of crowds(the reason(apart from tickets being so expensive and selling out fast)I don't go to San Diego ComiCon.)

So today, Oceanside(the city I live in) had their Fourth Of July parade(yeah, a week early, I'm sure there's a reason behind it.) and they had someone there with a rainbow flag.She was from the North County LGTBTQ resource center. I started talking to her.. anyhow, I wound up walking with the people from the LGBTQ center-I was honoured to be able to walk with them and show my support(and we had a lot of support from people watching the parade-it was more muted in some places but very much present in others.

Of course, the ruling was a topic of conversation..people could not believe the timing of it.And it really is amazing.

And you know, I wouldn't be at all surprised if  that is the theme of San Diego's Pride parade this  year :)

[S3 Ep. 4:Apertivo]

I loveloveloved this episode, for a very many reasons which will be obvious  as you read through the review.

But one thing I have to mention:
I love that they showed characters  taking some time to recover from their injuries(granted, this episode *did* jump around in time,like in one scene Will is in a hospital bed and the next he's in his garage fixing a boat motor. For people who don't understand that, it's called a plot device. I saw criticism of that from a website that is normally very supportive of Hannibal.They're entitled to their opinion but IMO it seemed like they weren't understanding what was going on.

Not sure if it was the structure of this episode, but I was amazed at how fast it went by-I mean, I'm sitting there watching and half an hour has gone by already!

And how about that promo for next week! Shit is going to get real,that is all I have to say about that(I wish it was Thursday already!)

OK, that said, on to the review. If I miss anything out, I'm sorry, but I've been tweeting whilst I watch the show instead of taking notes.

[TV things]

Seriously.. Aquarius got renewed for a second season?Really?As if I needed any more reasons to avoid watching their shows in the fall. As soon as Hannibal is finished on NBC, I won't watch NBC.Ever. I am going to block it on my TV(I've done that before, when the coverage of ebola started to get to much.But I didn't stick with it for very long :P

Bones is going to time jump when it comes back this fall.6 months..and apparently Bones and Booth are going to be living in another town with their kids when a HUGE case at the Jeffersonian  has them going back to DC. Yawn. I haven't been interested in Bones for quite a while.

I dunno, I could do with being addicted to a few less TV shows, and I have dropped some shows because I didn't like where they were going with plots(NCIS is a good example of this.. I had a friend who I would run into at Barnes &Noble sometimes who also was a NCIS fan, and we would talk NCIS. But then I couldn't get to Barnes &Noble so easily and I quit watching the show, so I didn't feel so bad about it.)

[Mentioning a few things that couldn't go elsewhere]

*I will occasionally miss days-that's what happened yesterday..the day just got away from me :)

*Have I talked about the finale of Orphan Black yet?well,I thought it was awesome(I'll be amazed to see if they really did kill off a certain character)

*Summer is here.It's been feeling like it here for the past couple of days.

*No Hannibal news(if there is,I'll blog about it.)

*I have so much stuff for my Cruise Critic post that I have 2 weeks(and possibly 3 if there is an outbreak of drama) worth of posts.

*TV Line had a Blind Item: "I just got 2015-16 season intel that is going to leave a certain fandom shaken, stirred and pissed off".

I don't know why, but the first show that came to mind was Bones. If it's not Bones,I'm wrong, but I feel like we're going to get some sort of news about Bones when they start production again..I'm betting that they are going to announce a final season,possibly at the start of the season or in the middle of the season.

Problem being that they had a season finale which had to serve as a(possible) series finale because they didn't know if they had been picked up or not, and  everything was left very open-ended.So now they're going to have to write around that and explain what happened(but not have it be handwaving which would be lame.)

[What the fuck,NBC?Not like you have much else!]

And I am not going to apologise for the swearing because honestly?it's how I feel right how.
I was all ready to blog about something else, but then *that* news dropped. Yeah, Hannibal got cancelled. I was upset. I called my mom and she was genuinely upset for me, and she doesn't even like the show! Same with my dad-my Fannibal dad -who will be 75 years young next month!

I was actually on Twitter when the news dropped. I didn't believe it until several people associated with the show confirmed it.

On the plus side though, there is a very strong possibility Hannibal will be picked up by someone-whether it be Netflix or Hulu or whoever(Netflix or one of the pay cable channels like HBO seem to be the favourites right now.) Fannibals will do everything they can-tweet and email people who like the show especially-to try and get them to support Hannibal-it's surprising how many celebrity Fannibals there are-Jordan Gavrais from Orphan Black tweeted that he's a fan recently, and then just today tweeted about the cancellation too.

Can I just say: I have made So.Many.  friends because of this show, and I would hate it if that went away.This fandom feels more like a family than any fandom I have been in. The cast also feels like a family-mind you this is a cast and crew who are on social media interacting with fans. Sure, other show's casts and crews are on social media, but it just doesn't..searches for a word and settles on "ring as true" as  it does with the Hannibal cast and crew.

NBC are really fucking themselves over  by cancelling Hannibal-they really do not realise what they are losing by cancelling Hannibal-Hannibal is a show that is not afraid to take risks, and NBC really were taking a risk in the first place by airing it. NBC could use a lot more risky shows..they play things way too safe.

Now,NBC're  going to coast along on the few "successful" shows they have, and hope that some of their new shows are going to be successful in the fall(not fucking likely.. most of those shows will get one or two episodes before they're cancelled.)

I seriously doubt that NBC are paying attention to what's being posted/tweeted about them,but I hope if they are, they feel really fucking stupid about canceling Hannibal.That won't uncancel Hannibal but it's something.

The ultimate irony would be Hannibal being a HUGE hit with whoever picks it up and NBC  face-fuckingpalming that they cancelled it.