Google Cardboard Virtual Reality Viewer

This year, the Legendary booth at Comic Con gave away Google Cardboard VR boxes. I managed to get my hands on one, and let me tell you, it is AMAZING. 

WTF is a Google Cardboard, you ask? It's basically a virtual reality viewer made of cardboard that you fold out into a viewer. You secure your phone in front of the lenses, and then put it on your face. Instead of having to get a pricey VR headset or whatever, Google Cardboard enables you to transform your phone (and a cardboard box) into a VR viewer.

You can purchase your very own Google Cardboard here! They have a bunch of different variations now; most are around $20-30.

I was so shocked to see how many apps are already available to use with it. Check out all the apps currently on the Android Appstore here.

I was very impressed with the apps that I tried out. It's so incredible how immersive they are! You really feel like you are in a completely different environment. I really believe that this could be the future of entertainment. Much more than 3D, this truly gives you an experience where you feel you are right in the middle of it.

Here's a selection of some of my favorite apps I've tried out:

Cosmic Roller Coaster
Take a ride on a roller coaster in outer space, swooping around planets and among the stars!

Seene
I haven't extensively tried this out, but you can basically take your own pictures and make them into a VR environment. It's a whole new level of photography!

North Face: Climb
Walk around the edge of the grand canyon, and even base jump off, all without leaving the comfort of your living room!

Orbulus
Instead of videos, this app contains dozens of pictures of beautiful and famous places that you can experience in 360 degrees.

Sisters
This one is pretty unique. You're in the middle of this creepy room. You look around, and when you look back, something's... different. The environment knows where you are looking and responds accordingly. I don't want to give anything away, but it's pretty cool, and perfect for a good Halloween scare!

Weekend Roundup! Movies, Dinners, Lunar Eclipses!

Happy Monday! I had a fun and sort of busy weekend! How was yours?

On Friday night, we had dinner at The 3rd Stop (I had a delicious chicken pesto mac & cheese - maybe one of the best mac & cheeses I've had), before going to see Snowpiercer as part of a Korean film screening series. It started pretty late for me, at 10pm! Snowpiercer takes place 17 years after an apocalyptic event that wipes out most life on Earth. The only human left are the ones on this train that travels on a long track all the way around the world, over and over again. The train is divided by classes, basically, and the lowest classes start a revolution and attempt to make it to the front of the train, where the engineer and leader of the train is. It's just a really, really good movie, and I was really excited to get to see it on the big screen, even if it was late at night!

Saturday morning, we went to my boyfriend's office so he could get some work done and we could enjoy that lovely air conditioning! I sat at a table with a beautiful panoramic view of Playa Vista and did some interneting. It was a nice change of pace to spend some time in a different environment, just relaxing!

Later on, we went to a celebrity poker tournament hosted by the PEACE Fund, held at a Microsoft office near our apartment. I was hoping for a Tara Reid sighting, but to no avail. We did get some free drinks and snacks, and watched some celebrities play poker.

That evening, we saw Everest, about a doomed expedition to the top of Mount Everest. I will never understand why people would subject themselves to that. I thought it was an okay movie; I didn't love it, but it was interesting.

On Sunday, we saw our 4th movie in as many days, Sicario. It's a thriller starring Emily Blunt as an FBI agent who gets caught up in a government group trying to get the Mexican drug cartels under control using less than up-and-up means. I wasn't sure if I was really going to like this movie, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

We had a late lunch at Pink Taco after the movie along with some delicious sangria. Please enjoy this picture of our half-eaten nachos and tacos.

That night, we attempted to view the super blood moon eclipse. I was hoping we could see it from our balcony, or even from across the street, but to no avail. We drove around the neighborhood, hoping for a different angle, but we couldn't even find the moon at all for the longest time. We eventually caught a faint glimpse of it, so that was cool, I guess. Kind of anticlimactic. Oh well.

Things I Love Thursday - We Bare Bears, Drunk Disney, Joint Support Supplements!

Here's some things I've been loving lately!

We Bare Bears!

We Bare Bears is an animated show on Cartoon Network about 3 bears who walk and talk like humans, and live together and try to integrate into human society. Grizz (the brown one, obvs) is kind of the leader of the group, and typically gets them into wacky hijinks. Panda is the youngest one, and is tech-savvy and a hopeless romantic. Ice Bear is a bear of few words who speaks about himself in third person. This show is SO hilarious and adorable and has pretty quickly become one of my favorite shows. My favorite episode is 'Panda's Date', where Panda gets a crush on a girl and absolutely fails at trying to go on a date with her. Another good one is 'Viral Video', where the bears try to make a viral video to become famous like a koala named Nom Nom (voiced by the fantstic Patton Oswalt). 


Drunk Disney!

Drunk Disney is one of my favorite YouTube channels! They are a group of twenty-somethings who comment on Disney movies while playing a drinking game. They're sketch comedians, so it's always really funny. They even have themed drinks that they make for each movie! They've done a ton of Disney movies already, probably well over half. It's so funny to see them get progressively more drunk while they watch the movie, and their comments get funnier and weirder as the movie goes on!

Zenwise Labs Joint Support Supplement!

I'm always looking for ways to keep my joint issues at bay. Zenwise Labs sent me a bottle of their Joint Support supplements recently. It contains Glucosamine, Chonodritin and MCM which have been proved to reduce inflammation in joints. It can help restore strength to joints to improve mobility and flexibility. Plus, it contains 100% natural ingredients. It's hard to say at this point if it's doing anything, as I haven't had any problems with my shoulders for several months now. But this kind of thing is more a preventative thing anyway. I'm definitely going to keep taking these to keep the joint pain at bay!


Dislcaimer: I received products from Zenwise Labs for review purposes. My opinions are my own.

Weekend Roundup - She-Ra & He-Man & The Masters of the Universe Extravaganza!

On Friday and Saturday, my boyfriend hosted a He-Man & She-Ra Celebration at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood! The live-action movie Masters of the Universe, starring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella, screened on Friday night, and we had a full day of screenings, panels, and a mini-con in the lobby! 

Mattel provided a ton of incredibly awesome stuff to set up around the lobby. It really helped set the mood and made for some great photo ops!


This He-Man and She-Ra stand would look great in our living room...

There were 3 cases full of toys, both vintage ones from the 80s, as well as new and upcoming ones! It was really awesome to see toys I remembered playing with as a kid!

I had these ones!!

Look behind you, Skeletor!

This 15-foot statue of He-Man was magnificent! 

Pretty in Plastic had a full size Battlecat head up for auction! This thing was insanely awesome! The helmet even came off!

After the movie on Friday, we headed for our usual after-party spot, Micelli's. It's hard to make out in the photo, but that is the piano player playing his piano with a shoe! I don't know what was up, but he was playing while juggling a cup, while combing his air, and with his shoe on his hand! It was hilarious, and he kept looking over at me to make sure I was watching and laughing!

On Saturday, we had several vendors in the lobby selling awesome stuff! Scrooze Toys and Super7 brought a ton of great stuff, and people really enjoyed checking out their toys and shirts I ended up buying a supercool plastic Millennium Falcon!

La-la Records had copies of the He-Man soundtrack for sale!

Dave Woodman was there, selling sketches he did on the spot. He's an animator who's worked a bunch for Filmation and Disney, including on The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast! He drew me, and the result was pretty great!

It was a pretty packed crowd!

There was also a vendor selling animation cells! I bought a She-Ra cell and a sketch!

There were a ton of great panels and great guests, as well, including Erika Scheimer, Mark Taylor, several writers and animators, and the voice actors for Skeletor and She-Ra! I helped Melendy Britt (She-Ra) at her autograph table, and it was amazing!

It was a super great weekend! Saturday was twelve hours of running around and making sure everything went smoothly. On Sunday, we felt like we had hangovers, minus the drinking, from it all! 

My September Stitch Fix Box!

Here's what I got in my September Stitch Fix Box!

Urban Expressions Richie Asymmetrical Clutch

This clutch is really cute! I like that it has the section underneath the flap (which is magnetized very well), as well as a zippered compartment from the very top. I like it a lot, but for one thing, I have very few opportunities in which I need to use a clutch, for another thing, I actually have several other clutches already anyway, and lastly, it was kind of expensive. Thus, I opted to return this.

Andrew Marc Teren Maxi Dress

This dress is very pretty, and the streaky blue pattern is gorgeous! And the corsetry on the back is just beautiful! Despite all this, it looked kind of weird on me. Also, a little expensive. Had to pass on this one, too.

Just Black Adorra Skinny Jean

So, uh... these look nice. They didn't fit, though. So yeah. No go.

Pixley Dardie Lace Inset Blouse

This top is quite pretty. I love the deep V lace inset - sexy yet classy! Sleeve lengths like this make my arms/shoulders look weird, though. I kind of liked it, but didn't end up keeping it.

Papermoon Tigard Lace Back Knit Top

I really really like this top. I love shirts where the back bottom half is a bright color, or lace, or whatever. I do not know why, that's just what I'm into right now. Plus, it was really soft, and fit pretty well. The thing is, this shirt is almost $60. That's kind of a lot for a shirt that feels like it's probably not super great quality? And honestly, I feel like I can get something similar for much less, or better for the same amount.



Anyway, I feel like I'm kind of struggling with Stitch Fix recently. The clothes just feel a little more expensive than I really feel comfortable paying. Also? Not loving the thing where you have to return them in 3 days. I've had a really busy week, and didn't have time to really take my time and try them on, look at myself at all angles, etc. I literally just tried them on real quick this morning, took some pictures of the items on the floor, and then shoved them in the pre-paid return envelope. Had I some more time, I think I probably would have ended up keeping the last Papermoon shirt. But without some time to think about it, I had to make a fast decision, which ended up being a No, and I didn't keep any items from this box. And that's really disappointing. 

I'm going to switch my subscription to every other month (it is really cool they offer that option, I will say that.) Every month is getting kind of stressful and expensive.

Weekend Roundup - Disneyland, Long Beach Comic Con, Disneyland again!

So my weekend started out being a hot, sweaty mess, and ended up awesome! We were sitting around our sweltering apartment on Friday after work, miserable and sweaty, when we spontaneously decided to spend the night in Anaheim. We already had a hotel room at our usual Anaheim spot, the Red Lion, booked for Saturday night, so we just tacked on a night and drove down there at 7pm! Right after we checked in, we headed to Disneyland! They had just decorated for Halloween that day, so we got to see all the fun pumpkin and orange stuff; it felt a bit incongruous with how hot it was, but oh well. 

We tried out our single rider trick that we learned from Universal Studios, and skipped a majority of the lines for Indiana Jones and Matterhorn! 

We got a Fast Pass for Star Tours, and spent a few minutes waiting in line for Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. That's 4 rides in just a few hours! 

We even managed to see most of the fireworks show, Disneyland Forever, and the Paint the Night parade! 

Not bad for an unplanned Friday night!

On Saturday, we went to Long Beach Comic Con. I was really looking forward to it all week, since LBCC is usually a really chill, but fun, show where I end up buying a bunch of stuff. This year, though... I don't know what went wrong this year. First of all, the parking was half a mile away from where it normally is. There was some other event going on that apparently had priority or something, and LBCC attendees were forced to park at some distance location, with an incredibly long line, $10 fee, and half-mile trek to the convention center. We were lucky enough to be able to find some street parking near-ish-by,   which unfortunately meant we had to feed the meter every 2 hours.

Then, the line just to get in was almost an hour. I haven't had to wait an hour to get into freaking San Diego Comic Con in the last 5 years. LBCC ain't no SDCC. And there was no real explanation was to why this wait exited, just: there were more people than expected. How do you not know how many people have bought tickets to your show?! That's absolutely no excuse. There were only 4 people handling registration. I would think that, if the line has been that long for that amount of time, allot more people to registration. And it's not like there was more show. It was the same show as always. I hate to be negative, but this was a really horrible way to start a show. Parking and registration are the first impressions you have of a conventions and if they're bad, your audience is going to perceive the show is bad as well, and it'll just go downhill from there. Sigh. Please, LBCC, step up your game for next year! 

Since we had to watch the clock and go back to feed the meter, the only panel we got to see was part of a GI Joe voice actor panel, which we'd seen at a previous show. They were still really entertaining, and it's awesome they're so into it.

On Sunday, we headed back to the Disneyland Resort, spending the morning at California Adventure. We rode some fun small rides in the Paradise Pier area - Little Mermaid (best. ride. ever.), Flying Zeppelins, Goofy's Sky Coaster. We also went to a showing of the Aladdin show, since I recently read that it will soon be replaced by a Frozen show, and I hadn't seen it in several years.

Then we went over to Disneyland again, and had lunch, and got ice cream at the Golden Horseshoe, when suddenly a show unexpectedly started! It was a pleasant surprise. I've never seen it before and it was really funny!

Despite the heat, it was a really great weekend! And man, did I sleep well in that air-conditioned hotel room! I can't wait until the temperatures go down around here!