A review by Rob Cranley (9). A great flight sim that absorbed many, many hours of my youth

A review by ALLEN HALL (6). Excellently showcased what a computer could offer a gamer over a board game

A review by Medio DeCritici (165). A 2020 Review - Aliens Versus Predator (PC, 1999)

A review by SomeRandomHEFan (46). Getting closer

A review by SomeRandomHEFan (46). One of Humongous Entertainment's weaker attempts at conventional edutainment

A review by Medio DeCritici (165). A 2020 Review - Aliens vs. Predator (PC, 2010)

A review by Medio DeCritici (165). A 2020 Review - Alpha Protocol (PC, 2010)

A review by krisko6 (740). After 13 years, Half-Life has returned

A review by Medio DeCritici (165). What I Can Remember - 90s Arcade & The Simpsons (Arcade, 1991)

A review by piltdown_man (179399). A good story, well told

A review by piltdown_man (179399). A short but enjoyable bit of perversion

A review by SomeRandomHEFan (46). An excellent showcase of Humongous Entertainment's sense of humour. And I guess there's an acceptable edutainment game in there somewhere, too.

A review by raiden_is_dj (2). Real fun in this game

Mold is a fungus with the Ability to flourish in just about any circumstance. While found almost everywhere in nature, mold can cause serious problems when found in residential areas and must be quarantined and removed as soon as possible.… Continue Reading →

Finding top quality MP3 moving download can be real assignment thinking about that moving songs is somewhat of a particular specialty showcase. Certain everybody appreciates clouding prone to the clubs and furthermore move, yet have you ever before in reality… Continue Reading →

“The most difficult part was persuading our children that they had the freedom to make anything they wanted,” writes mom Anam Ahmed at Let Grow. (Click here!) …Like most kids, my children live prescheduled lives (at least they did in “the time before”). At school, someone tells them when to play outside and when to […]

I realize that sounds kinda nuts — why are we asking PARENTS to show us their KIDS being independent? Who, after all, is better at making videos? Mom or little Ava (who’s 5)? But legally we can’t ask anyone under 13 to do anything. So go document your children doing something new on their own, […]

At least for some kids, yes, being flung from the stress of a super-structured, super-supervised existence is having a calming, life-expanding effect. I discuss this amazing phenom in this Big Think article, including six short essays by kids themselves, and also in this interview with Bored Panda,  the  pop culture site, where I note that […]

These “cards” are really an excuse for kids to interview their moms and shower them with the ultimate gifts: attention to mom’s quirky uniqueness, gratitude, and offers of help! Here you go — click here! (Mother’s Day is SUNDAY!)

2021 for taxi-style usage in selected areas. This is level 4 automation: no human driver will be needed to take over. But the car won't be able to go everywhere. Likely that means the cars will be restricted to very well mapped areas without challenging conditions. Ford says the higher cost of the computer and sensing equipment restricts its use to fleets which rack up very high mileage per vehicle per year. The car will be a more expensive piece of capital equipment that requires very high usage rates to pay the cost of capital. I find the 2021 launch date to be a little surprising since Ford seems late to the party. On the other companies seem think they...

Stupidity repeats itself!

Is the new normal a new normal for you?

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On accorde "The World of Art Award" (WAA) aux artistes, aux galeries et aux musées qui poursuivent les "meilleures pratiques" dans l'art et la culture. Cette concurrence cherche à attirer dies artistes, galeries, les musées qui redéfinissent des normes de l'excellence d'art. Ceux qui défie des trends et des tendances existantes dans l'art et la culture.

Date: April 25, 2020

As COVID-19 continues to impact communities around the world, people are coming together to help one another now more than ever. We’re launching a Doodle series to recognize and honor many of those on the front lines.

Today, we’d like to say: 

To all coronavirus helpers, thank you.
 

Help stop the spread of COVID-19 by following these steps.  

Learn more here about the latest ways we’re responding, and how our products can help people stay connected during this time.

Location: Global

Tags: covid, Current Event, covid-19, appreciation, helpers, coronavirus

Date: May 4, 2020

As COVID-19 continues to impact communities around the world, people and families everywhere are spending more time at home. In light of this, we’re launching a throwback Doodle series looking back at some of our popular interactive Google Doodle games!

Stay and play at home with today’s featured throwback: 

Our 2016 Doodle game celebrating Wilbur Scoville!
 

Help stop the spread of COVID-19 by following these steps.  
 

Learn more here about the latest ways we’re responding, and how our products can help people stay connected during this time.

Location: Global

Tags:

The post Reel Review: What’s New with the Shimano Stella SW 2020? appeared first on Ocean Blue Fishing Adventures.

Curing HIV infection will require the elimination of a reservoir of infected CD4+ T cells that persists despite HIV-specific cytotoxic T cell (CTL) responses. Although viral latency is a critical factor in this persistence, recent evidence also suggests a role for intrinsic resistance of reservoir-harboring cells to CTL killing. This resistance may have contributed to negative outcomes of clinical trials, where pharmacologic latency reversal has thus far failed to drive reductions in HIV reservoirs. Through transcriptional profiling, we herein identified overexpression of the prosurvival factor B cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) as a distinguishing feature of CD4+ T cells that survived CTL killing. We show that the inducible HIV reservoir was disproportionately present in BCL-2hi subsets in ex vivo CD4+ T cells. Treatment with the BCL-2 antagonist ABT-199 was not sufficient to drive reductions in ex vivo viral reservoirs when tested either alone or with a latency-reversing agent (LRA). However, the triple combination of strong LRAs, HIV-specific T cells, and a BCL-2 antagonist uniquely enabled the depletion of ex vivo viral reservoirs. Our results provide rationale for novel therapeutic approaches targeting HIV cure and, more generally, suggest consideration of BCL-2 antagonism as a means of enhancing CTL immunotherapy in other settings, such as cancer.

BACKGROUND Since December 2019, an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan, and is now becoming a global threat. We aimed to delineate and compare the immunological features of severe and moderate COVID-19.METHODS In this retrospective study, the clinical and immunological characteristics of 21 patients (17 male and 4 female) with COVID-19 were analyzed. These patients were classified as severe (11 cases) and moderate (10 cases) according to the guidelines released by the National Health Commission of China.RESULTS The median age of severe and moderate cases was 61.0 and 52.0 years, respectively. Common clinical manifestations included fever, cough, and fatigue. Compared with moderate cases, severe cases more frequently had dyspnea, lymphopenia, and hypoalbuminemia, with higher levels of alanine aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, C-reactive protein, ferritin, and D-dimer as well as markedly higher levels of IL-2R, IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-α. Absolute numbers of T lymphocytes, CD4+ T cells, and CD8+ T cells decreased in nearly all the patients, and were markedly lower in severe cases (294.0, 177.5, and 89.0 × 106/L, respectively) than moderate cases (640.5, 381.5, and 254.0 × 106/L, respectively). The expression of IFN-γ by CD4+ T cells tended to be lower in severe cases (14.1%) than in moderate cases (22.8%).CONCLUSION The SARS-CoV-2 infection may affect primarily T lymphocytes, particularly CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, resulting in a decrease in numbers as well as IFN-γ production by CD4+ T cells. These potential immunological markers may be of importance because of their correlation with disease severity in COVID-19.TRIAL REGISTRATION This is a retrospective observational study without a trial registration number.FUNDING This work is funded by grants from Tongji Hospital for the Pilot Scheme Project, and partly supported by the Chinese National Thirteenth Five Years Project in Science and Technology for Infectious Disease (2017ZX10202201).

IL-17–producing RORγt+ γδ T cells (γδT17 cells) are innate lymphocytes that participate in type 3 immune responses during infection and inflammation. Herein, we show that γδT17 cells rapidly proliferate within neonatal lymph nodes and gut, where, upon entry, they upregulate T-bet and coexpress IL-17, IL-22, and IFN-γ in a STAT3- and retinoic acid–dependent manner. Neonatal expansion was halted in mice conditionally deficient in STAT5, and its loss resulted in γδT17 cell depletion from all adult organs. Hyperactive STAT5 mutant mice showed that the STAT5A homolog had a dominant role over STAT5B in promoting γδT17 cell expansion and downregulating gut-associated T-bet. In contrast, STAT5B preferentially expanded IFN-γ–producing γδ populations, implying a previously unknown differential role of STAT5 gene products in lymphocyte lineage regulation. Importantly, mice lacking γδT17 cells as a result of STAT5 deficiency displayed a profound resistance to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Our data identify that the neonatal microenvironment in combination with STAT5 is critical for post-thymic γδT17 development and tissue-specific imprinting, which is essential for infection and autoimmunity.

Infection with the Gram-negative bacterium Helicobacter pylori remains the most important modifiable risk factor for the development of gastric cancer, a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. How the interactions between H. pylori and its host shape the gastric environment during chronic infection warrants further investigation. In this issue of the JCI, Palrasu et al. used human cell lines and mouse models to provide mechanistic insight into H. pylori’s ability to delay apoptosis in gastric epithelial cells by actively driving the degradation of a proapoptotic factor, SIVA1. Their findings suggest that promoting the survival of gastric epithelial cells has implications not only for H. pylori pathogenesis but for host tumorigenesis.

The mechanisms by which prostate cancer shifts from an indolent castration-sensitive phenotype to lethal castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) are poorly understood. Identification of clinically relevant genetic alterations leading to CRPC may reveal potential vulnerabilities for cancer therapy. Here we find that CUB domain-containing protein 1 (CDCP1), a transmembrane protein that acts as a substrate for SRC family kinases (SFKs), is overexpressed in a subset of CRPC. Notably, CDCP1 cooperates with the loss of the tumor suppressor gene PTEN to promote the emergence of metastatic prostate cancer. Mechanistically, we find that androgens suppress CDCP1 expression and that androgen deprivation in combination with loss of PTEN promotes the upregulation of CDCP1 and the subsequent activation of the SRC/MAPK pathway. Moreover, we demonstrate that anti-CDCP1 immunoliposomes (anti–CDCP1 ILs) loaded with chemotherapy suppress prostate cancer growth when administered in combination with enzalutamide. Thus, our study identifies CDCP1 as a powerful driver of prostate cancer progression and uncovers different potential therapeutic strategies for the treatment of metastatic prostate tumors.

Immunosuppression continues to be a necessary component of transplantation, despite its association with a multitude of adverse effects. Numerous efforts have been made to circumvent the need for immunosuppression by using various techniques to achieve donor hyporesponsiveness. In this issue of the JCI, Morath et al. take this endeavor forward. Prior to transplantation, the researchers infused recipients with donor-modified immune cells and achieved immunologic hyporesponsiveness. This successful phase I trial also provides a possible avenue for achieving transplantation without the requisite immunosuppression.

BACKGROUND Mirabegron is a β3-adrenergic receptor (β3-AR) agonist approved only for the treatment of overactive bladder. Encouraging preclinical results suggest that β3-AR agonists could also improve obesity-related metabolic disease by increasing brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis, white adipose tissue (WAT) lipolysis, and insulin sensitivity.METHODS We treated 14 healthy women of diverse ethnicities (27.5 ± 1.1 years of age, BMI of 25.4 ± 1.2 kg/m2) with 100 mg mirabegron (Myrbetriq extended-release tablet, Astellas Pharma) for 4 weeks in an open-label study. The primary endpoint was the change in BAT metabolic activity as measured by [18F]-2-fluoro-d-2-deoxy-d-glucose (18F-FDG) PET/CT. Secondary endpoints included resting energy expenditure (REE), plasma metabolites, and glucose and insulin metabolism as assessed by a frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance test.RESULTS Chronic mirabegron therapy increased BAT metabolic activity. Whole-body REE was higher, without changes in body weight or composition. Additionally, there were elevations in plasma levels of the beneficial lipoprotein biomarkers HDL and ApoA1, as well as total bile acids. Adiponectin, a WAT-derived hormone that has antidiabetic and antiinflammatory capabilities, increased with acute treatment and was 35% higher upon completion of the study. Finally, an intravenous glucose tolerance test revealed higher insulin sensitivity, glucose effectiveness, and insulin secretion.CONCLUSION These findings indicate that human BAT metabolic activity can be increased after chronic pharmacological stimulation with mirabegron and support the investigation of β3-AR agonists as a treatment for metabolic disease.TRIAL REGISTRATION Clinicaltrials.gov NCT03049462.FUNDING This work was supported by grants from the Intramural Research Program of the NIDDK, NIH (DK075112, DK075116, DK071013, and DK071014).

The editors of JCI and JCI Insight are revisiting our editorial processes in light of the strain that the COVID-19 pandemic places on the worldwide scientific community. Here, we discuss adjustments to our decision framework in light of restrictions placed on laboratory working conditions for many of our authors.

☆ To see all of the parts in this series, click here ☆ I bet you thought I’d forgotten about this series, didn’t you! I never forget– sometimes I just lose steam, but I’m feeling good now, so lots of writing is coming! So, it was basically my 25th birthday. What did I write in my journal? It’s my 25th birthday in 3 days! :O So old!! I can’t believe that I ever wrote that… and also that it’s been more than ten years and I don’t feel any older. If anything, I feel younger! I have grown in a lot of ways, especially in the way that I relate to people around me and in how I take care of my health, and I guess I’ve matured in my general level of fangirlness…. No, wait. I’m still just as big a fangirl as ever, what am I saying? I’m still stalking the KuroKura tag on twitter every day, watching Lucifer mostly to see when he and Chloe are going to kiss or when he’s going to sleep with a guy again… but I digress! Let’s relive my fun first year in Japan instead! On my birthday, there happened to be a fanclub trip for Nagayama Takashi, the one and only actor whose fanclub I’ve ever been in. I went mostly because my friends A and M were going and to report on it for the internet at large, but it was really, really silly, and really, really fun! Well, silly is basically my #1 criteria for having fun, so that makes sense! We could all use more fun in our lives! The day started super early, and I was too excited to sleep, so I was dead tired. The event was scheduled to begin at 8:30 just outside of Tokyo station, where 288 girls (no boys, funny enough… actually, it’s not really funny) lined up in groups to get on one of the 7 waiting buses. Before that, we had to randomly draw for which tables we’d sit at, and were given this kind of horribly photoshopped and pixellated picture-card of Nagayan in front of Mt. Fuji that we were supposed to wear around our necks to identify ourselves as part of the tour (I wish that I still had it! How hilarious would that be!). On the back of the card were 4 empty squares and a little explanation that you were supposed to stamp them up along the way. Cool, sure! A, M, and I boarded bus 7 and ensconced ourselves in the back of the bus. It felt like everyone was staring at us, but well… we were the only non-japanese girls there. As the bus departed, a tour guide welcomed us over the PA explained how things were going to go. She said a little bit about the stamps, and then passed out fliers that we could use to order copies of the group pictures that we’d take later in the day with Nagayan (Wait, what did I do with that? I remember having a copy at some point). She also explained that our destination was going to be a mystery! Which, looking back, would have been a great setup for a horror movie! And theeeeeeen, we got the video. Oh, this video. Just watch for yourself (sorry for the bad quality, this was before smartphones, guys). There was a a short introduction from Nagayan, and then the song. And the dance. All of which he had created himself and wanted us to learn! The funny thing was that Nagayan is and was a serious actor. Outside of Tenimyu and Burimyu, his roles by and large were of and for adults. But that’s one of the things that makes Japan so great IMnot-so-humbleO– silliness is perfectly acceptable for adults! That given, I was still in the mindset of an American girl and in the beginning, my friends and I just sat there mouthing, “What the f—?” to each other. Sorry, Nagayan! It definitely grew on us, though! At about 10:15, we stopped at a rest stop for a potty break and a scavenger hunt! The tour guide told us to “get out and look for something special,” and that was it. It didn’t take long to find it, though, as by the time we’d wandered to the right location (the side of the building), there were quite a few girls lined up already! At the end of the line was Nagayan, sitting on the ground and wearing a green buddha mask. He didn’t say a word, so we followed the lead of the other girls, lined up, and said our prayers to Nagayan Buddha. For our piousness, we were allowed to choose a Chupa-Chups sucker to keep. It was so cute! Tell me if there is a single actor in the US who would do this? I doubt it! It’s certainly the kind of experience that you can only have in Japan XD Some girls looped around to get seconds, but ‘Buddha’ just pretended to be tired, slumping against the wall noiselessly. Btw, my sucker was a delicious strawberries and cream one!!! ♥ I ate it and tossed the wrapper…. which I wish that I’d kept for reasons that I’ll explain later! A and M on the bus next to me. We got back on the bus and left around 11:00. From there until the time that we arrived, there was no video, but this is where the IQ part of IQ TaiQ Barbequecame in! The tour guide administered us a timed IQ test on paper…… in Japanese! Er, yeah…. Well, I got one right at least!! Yay! Not bad for only being able to read a miniscule part of it. ^^;; I wrote “yomenai” (“I can’t read it” lit.-“It’s not readable”) in hiragana at the bottom, which later on I regretted doing! ^^;; The quiet scenery rolling by. After that, we had a bit of quiet time where I just watched the countryside and lakes go by and fell into a light sleep. At roughly 12:00, we pulled into our final mysterious mountain location! It looked a lot like any mountain location in eastern Washington or Arizona — a bit arid, but lots of trees and hills and of course a nice lake. We were lined up in lettered groups (There was from A to T, I believe. We were in group M) and we got to take the group pictures with Nagayan! It was fun– they had us sit/stand in 2 rows with Takashi in the very middle. Once we were already sitting down, he just kind of appeared and melded in with the group, and it took a while for some people to realize it, ourselves included haha! He asked us all to come closer (no problem!!) and the girls on his right completely freaked out, squealing ???? Japanese fangirls NEVER die. I love it! Right before we took the picture, Nagayan turned and asked if everyone was ready in Japanese, and then he turned to us and said loudly, “are you okay?” in English! Embvaaaarrrrasssing!! So, after that it was on to the BBQ! Outside of the BBQ, there were tables where we could turn in our order forms, as well as a special pocket mirror that you could buy with the Strawberry Meet logo on it. We entered the BBQ area, which was basically in back of a small resort, a BIG picnic-type area with numbered tables. There were 32 tables in all…. 32. Wow! On to the BBQ. To me, BBQ still meant hamburgers and hot dogs, chips and soda. To the Japanese, it meant that we cook our own yakiniku at the table! What a surprise for me at the time! My first time cooking yakiniku. Although I don’t eat meat anymore, I’d like to think that I’m a real pro at grilling eggplant now. ???? The three of us were at table 2 with 7 other girls. At first, it was a little awkward, and they didn’t really talk to us much, but they opened up when it turned out that we could understand a lot of what they were saying (A was especially awesome at Japanese), AND that one of them had done a homestay in America, so her English was pretty good. ^^ It turned out that not only was it my birthday, but it was also the birthday of another girl at our table!! Birthday twins!! So, the idea at this point was that Nagayan would randomly draw numbers and come around to visit and cook/eat with each of the tables. Ours came up surprisingly fast (I think we were the 7th table or so that he visited), and before we knew it, there he was, finding a space across the table from me (;_;) and helping us cook. Apparently we hadn’t been cooking fast enough for his liking, since we still had a LOT of meat and vegetables left, and so he started throwing all kinds of things on the grill. We told him that it was mine and the other girl’s birthday and he was like, ‘really?! Congratulations!!’ (He said it to me in English, but the other girl in Japanese) Then he told us that birthday people get priority, and put meat on both of our plates. Umm, yay. XD Soon after that, he reached over and gave me more and said “Present for me”….. Okay, that was the CUTEST thing I had probably ever seen in my life at the time! We tried to correct his English but I don’t think that he got it since he gave up really fast. He was REALLY cute, and even managed to ask us, “are you okay?” again for seemingly no reason. And then, sooner than we’d have liked, he was gone. ;__; We spent the rest of the BBQ listening to other tables talk to Nagayan and to the background music, which was of course our theme song. Some girls even stood up and started practicing the moves that had been on the video on the bus. Also randomly thrown in between the renditions were “Kokoro ga…” (his first single), and the other original song that he’d sang at his last fanclub event. After a few hours, we were told that it was time to get ready to leave, and to get back on the buses for the last part of our trip. Some girls practicing the dance… they were really good! This last part of our trip ended up being the craziest. They took us to a set of tennis courts (I’m sure this was a conscious choice) where they had us correct each other’s IQ tests. Oh man, this was HARD! But it was fun… if you’d gotten 9 or 10 right, you could get a stamp, although there were only a few girls that did. It seemed that, like me, that most people only had 1 or 2 right………. and they were native Japanese speakers that could read the test. I don’t feel so bad now. They also gave out stamps to people that had chosen strawberry suckers! This is where I wish that I had kept mine, though it didn’t really matter since I had chosen the wrong flavor. I was better suited to taking video at the time. Now, though, I think I would have just gone for it! After this, it was dance time! To my utter horror (I can’t dance ^^;;; except at Anime Expo but that’s another story), we had to get up in groups and perform the dance that we’d ‘learned.’ Nagayan led us each time, which was REALLY cute because he was REALLY into it, but it was still pretty nervewracking. It also took a LONG time to get through everyone. (almost 300 people doing it in about groups of 20). There was a lot of idle time. AND THEN, Nagayan had the best people get stamps and perform again for the little kids that had come up along the side...

Sometime over the summer, I saw a video on Facebook about a little town in Oregon where it’s Halloween all year long. Halloween? OMG YES, I LOVE HALLOWEEN! You’re not the only one dressing up for once, so it really doesn’t feel awkward to let your geek shine! Especially now that “sexy” halloween costumes aren’t the only “cool” option. I mean, as if nerdy costumes were ever less than cool, but I digress. History has been hard to us nerds. Anyways! So, I saw a video for this Halloweentown that made it look really, really cool, and I thought, hey, I have to go!  Guess what? I did! ???? Here is my report.  First off, did you know that this isn’t a Halloween thing, as much as it is a movie set thing?? I had never even heard of the Halloweentown movie until a week before I went, much less that there was an entire series of movies that I guess kids my age grew up with! I was more of an It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and The Worst Witch kid. Side note: holy cow, why is that movie so expensive now?! Maybe because it’s awesome, but still… So, in order to get myself into the mood, I watched Halloweentown the night before. It was cute, but it’ll still never mean to me what it means to people that grew up watching it. Here’s me and Joanne (my traveling companion — she and my cousin used to be an item, but she’s too cool for him now) at the “famous” gates! We let our Ravenclaw banner fly high all weekend! So, we drove from western Washington for about two hours to get to St. Helens, where all of the festivities take place. From the video, which I had bookmarked and is no longer available(!), it looked like this place would be huge and chock-full of Halloween everywhere we looked. Yay! There were events listed including coin hunts and rides in hearses, and because we went on a weekend in October, some of the movie cast would even be there taking photos (for a price)! It sounded really neat, and we planned to stay the night in the closest drivable town, which was 40 minutes away. There were only a few hotels in town and they were all booked up, boo. So, here’s where I want to mention something… St. Helens is a small town on the bank of the Columbia River. Right across from St. Helens, on the opposite bank of the river, is a town called Kalama. You can stand on the riverbank in St. Helens and look at Kalama on the other side. But there is no bridge. Nada. Nothing! So if you want to drive to that town that you can see happening over yonder, you have to either drive all the way up to Longview,  or all the way down to Portland, and then back. So it’s an hour’s DRIVE to cross the river, and you have to go through other cities to do it. WTF. I don’t understand this at all. Who planned these cities?!?! I just had to say something because it still boggles my mind! Alright, whew! Let’s look at some cute photos to feel better. ???? There was a band performing in Town Square, the center of all activity Halloweentown. Here’s the taxi from the movie. And this big steel pumpkin. It didn’t get crowded until night, but it was still hard to get a shot without people all over the place. I didn’t feel like waiting around, so this was the best that I could do. There was one huge parking lot, and this guy was there to welcome us in… Looks like he’d been waiting for quite a while! City Hall was at the front of the Town Square, and in the movie. This woman is apparently the ideal resident. Someone had a drone, and I thought it made for a cool shot. Looking at Mt. Hood in the distance! I’d love to go hiking there in the spring! Well… to be honest, there wasnt’ actually much to do. There were a few food trucks next to town hall selling noms and running charity drives, a haunted house around the corner, a street full of consignment/used goods shops, and a hair salon selling t-shirts and mugs of the event. During the day, there was also a shuttle to take you uptown where you could do a scavenger hunt and win a commemorative coin. It took Joanne and I over an hour to figure out where the shuttle came, even though you could walk the entire downtown area in 5 minutes, because it wasnt’ on any map and none of the shopkeepers or staff that we asked knew where it came to pick up people! Organization points: 0 We did find it, though, around the corner from all of the fuss, and boarded to do the scavenger hunt. I wasn’t really expecting anything, and it basically was a piece of paper asking us to go into 10 of 15 or so listed shops on the street and find a plaque with numbers on it. If we collected ten numbers and then took them to a certain gas station on the way out of town, we’d receive our coin. Alright, well it wasn’t super imaginative, but I get what they were going for. We did get to see some cute local shops (and I saw my second pot store in a town that takes 1-2 minutes to drive through… I’m not sure I could ever live in Oregon, as I despise any kind of smoking). I also found, of all things, local vegan caramel, so I bought it fully aware that I would try not to eat the entire bag, but would probably fail (I finished them all before I went to bed). It was delicious, though! Soft and chewy and so, so buttery….. yum! Well, after the scavenger hunt, we decided to get the car and drive around a little bit because we had run out of things to do and, guess what? According to a map that we picked up in town, apparently the Twilight series was also filmed there, and all of the locations were mapped! Forget Halloweentown (sorry!), I am a sucker for Edward and Bella’s tale of fated love. I’ve visited Forks and La Push, the real towns that the books are set in, but never the actual movie filming locations. This sort of made my weekend! There were also some old cemetaries marked on the map as places to visit. Both of those things will be in my next posts! After having a bit of an adventure, we returned to the town square to check out the nightly festivities. I think, honestly, that just coming at night to St. Helens would have been enough, because when we returned to Town Square it was starting to get packed. Apparently, at night is when the real town comes alive! Although there still wasn’t a lot to do, the atmosphere was really eerie and the throngs were thick enough that we had trouble getting through. There was a pumpkin-lighting ceremony at 7:30, but it started really late, so we abandoned it to go to the adults-only haunted house. I’m on a perpetual quest to find a haunted house that is actually scary, and this one turns adults-only after 7pm, so I was hoping for something great! Here’s the coin that we got for our scavenger hunt. It was plastic, not metal as I’d been hoping for, but it had been a nice afternoon looking in shops that we otherwise would have probably passed by. Jack was hanging out. You can see how thick the crowd was after dark! These girls had on mermaid-sparkle witch hats. I approve! I wonder whether they attended Ilvermorny. I had to have one of these necklaces. Can’t wait to rock them on halloween! I wore it into the haunted house, which was… well, it was very well done. It was probably the best put-together haunted house that I’ve ever visited in America, but I wasn’t scared at all. So, in terms of usual haunted houses, it gets an A+ rating! But on the honestly-scared-o-meter, it doesn’t register at all. This is probably what most people want, so give it a go when you visit, though! I just have really, really high expectations! Oh, and we did get a photo with Marnie’s actress. She was a real sweetie! Sure, I had just watched Halloweentown for the first time the night before, but why not! So that’s our little visit to Halloweentown! Final Verdict: If you’re nearby and a fan of Halloween, it’s definitely worth a stop! It’s only a half-hour’s drive from Portland, so it’s easy to take a little nip up and check out the festivities! It’s definitely kid-appropriate, and probably actually the most fun for the little ones. If you’re a fan of the movies, this place should definitely be on your bucketlist! Don’t plan for a whole day, though. It’s mostly a nighttime thing. See you tomorrow to share my photos from Bella’s!

You read that right. Joanne and I visited a Masonic Cemetary. Alone. It was one of the most calming experiences of my life. We were kind of invited, by the town, and when we arrived, we were definitely welcomed by the residents. This all started when, in the brochure listing the “town attractions” that we received in St. Helens, were two cemeteries. The addresses as well as short descriptions were listed, as well as a short missive asking us to please be respectful and not make loud noises. It sounded really creepy and really interesting, so both of us jumped at the chance to drive out there right before sunset. They weren’t what I expected at all… Well, the first one was actually roped off with a “no trespassing” sign hanging from it, so we didn’t go inside. It was right alongside the highway in Oregon, across some old train tracks, visible from the road, and named and marked on a tourist map, yet they didn’t want visitors. I wonder what happened there. In any case, we headed for the other cemetery. This one was removed from the main road, and rumored to be a lot larger. It was also known to be haunted, but visitors were welcome as long as they were respectful. Off the map it was, but when we arrived, it was also gated off. A sad Joanne looks through the gate at the second destination that was cut off from us. Ah, but unlike the other cemetery, this one didn’t have a “no tresspassing” sign. There was a clear path around the sides of the gate, the ground bare of grass and obviously well-traversed. Apparently a lot of people walked around the gate. Maybe they just didn’t want us to drive. We decided to walk. There was even a sign. And a long, winding, steep road through the forest.  It was quite a hike to reach the top of the large hill where the cemetery was supposedly located, but the view was breathtaking. It took us a good ten or fifteen minutes to reach the top, and the road was quite steep. For some reason, to the immediate right of the trail, someone had been excavating land for quite some time, and there was a deep quarry. Why someone would dig a quarry next to a burial ground is beside me. I don’t doubt that the residents were unhappy about it. I wondered if maybe I would feel some spirits, but I didn’t expect what really happened to me. As soon as I stepped off of the road and onto the grass, a calm unlike anything I’ve ever felt descended upon me. It enveloped me in a warm cocoon, and Joanne and I immediately separated and wandered quietly alone between the gravestones. I know, 100%, that not only was I welcomed, but that the residents were happy to have me there. I talked a bit with some of the gravestones, but mostly wandered about, amazed at how much serenity I felt. We must have spent around a half hour wandering quietly alone, together, before we left in order to return to the festivities in town. But I’ll never forget the experience. It was something really, really special. I took some video footage too, but I’m not sure yet whether I want to use it. We’ll see! Someday, I’ll set up a tripod and get a shot of me walking like this. But for now, have Joanne instead. ???? <3

☆ To see all of the parts in this series, click here ☆ Although it seemed as if my little fangirl heart couldn’t have taken any more, the day after the Nagayan Fanclub event, I went to see the Hyoutei myu for the first time. Just in case you’re reading this and going Huh? What’s a Hyoutei myu??, I can summarize by saying that it’s one in a series of musicals based on The Prince of Tennis. Yes, the manga that I ended up working on a few years later. ???? I was such a fangirl! Before I copy/paste my report on that musical, I want to say that the reason that I’m making this public again (they’re long gone now, and a lot of it was written privately) is because I want to show how much of a “silly,” squealing fangirl I was. I went from fan to insider purely because, later on, I took crazy-sounding chances and worked hard. And I sincerely believe that you, whomever you are, can do the same! By the way, all of this is eventually becoming fodder for an online comic that I’ve been formulating for a long time! No release date, though. I’m still working on Denkiki, this blog, my Youtube channel, and a few other things. And trying to put a new life together for myself. ???? In the meantime, let’s get to it! My friends and I ready for our dreams to come true, and our dreams were to see the Prince of Tennis musical! August 11, 2005 Tenimyu ~ Imperial Match Hyoutei!! This is the most detailed report on a musical that I’ve ever written. I’m going to do my best from now on to do the same each time!! (I did, for years) As Seigaku said, ♪♪DO YOUR BEST DO YOUR BEST!! DO YOUR BEST DO YOUR BEST!!♪♪ So far I’ve went to the opening performance of Hyoutei musical last night and to the second performance, which was tonight. ^^ I waited to write my report until seeing it a second time because I took very detailed notes the second time and added things and clarified things that the other people had seen afterwards! We had a tenimyu conference. =D (a tradition afterwards!!) It was a solid conclusion that cast improved a lot between the first and second performances. I can’t wait to see the last Tokyo performance, this Sunday. My bet is that they’re going to be VERY solid before then!! Oh wow. Deliciousness on a stick!! My overall feelings can be summed up in the chant that Hyoutei led, *clap clap* “Katsu no wa – Hyoutei! Makeru no Sei-gaku!!” 勝つのは氷帝！負けるの青学！！ (‘The winner will be Hyoutei! The loser will be Seigaku!’) Well, let’s start at what happened today before the musical!! Being hungry and having little other choice in the area for food, we went to the convenience store down the block from the musical… first off, I stopped and stared at this guy who was about to cross the road– who looked a lot like Ishibashi! But I couldn’t tell for sure because he’s changed his hair recently according to his picture set. He stared back at me, but it might have been because I was a tall red-headed foreigner wearing a Hyoutei jersey and a short black skirt.. ? LOL I don’t know if it was him, but I think that it was! He turned and looked back, and I think that he recognized me? I think.. maybe.. hmm..! He definitely recognized me yesterday, but that story is at the end of this report~ In the convenience store, while we are browsing the food sections, who do I notice has walked up alongside our aisle, but quite a few of the cast members! From what I remember, it was Yuu (Tezuka), Aiba (Fuji), Adachi (Kikumaru), Konishi (Kawamura), and Araki (Inui). Araki was wearing a cute hat so it took a minute to recognize him, and while most of the boys wandered along next to me without trouble in the aisle that I was in, Adachi stayed well away by the magazines. He was wearing a mask– which likely means that he has a cold!! Poor boy!! I only talked to Yuu– because I feel most comfortable talking to Yuu out of that group… ^^;; err, sorta. I (stupidly) shouted too loudly, “Yuu!!” when he came into my aisle, and of course he couldn’t ignore something like that. ^^;;; I feel a little bad, because I think that he gave me one of those, ‘why are you talking to me?’ looks. It’s not normal for a fan to actually talk to an actor here if they see them. I said, “hisashiburi!!’ (“It’s been a while!”) thinking that it’s been a while since I talked to him at all, to which he replied, “kino mita….” (“I saw you yesterday”)… Oh yeah…….. he’d obviously seen me at demachi yesterday (more later), and I felt kind of stupid and like I’d been really fannish, so I smiled and left him to do his things with the other boys. It wasn’t until later that I realized that I should have wished him good luck. Ah well, next time!! Itte yosh~! I probably acted way too familar, since we aren’t friends or anything, but it’s the way that I’ve always been with anyone that I’m fond of, friends or acquaintences. So it naturally carries off to them, without me even thinking of it. ^^; Ah well… in any case, I wish them all good luck for the future and rest of the performances!! On to the myu itself! (again! lol) Tenimyu ~ Imperial Match Hyoutei!! KENN special guest star. For both of these performances and for tomororw’s two shows also, KENN (Yuuta) is the special St. Rudolph guest star!! After that is Shiozawa for the next 3 days and Shinoda for the last day. I have tickets to shows with both of them (Thu and Sat for Shio, Sun of course for Shino), so I’m going to note the differences in separate posts. ^^ I can’t wait to see the differences!! ^____________________________^ This is my favorite~ I think that this is the best of all of the musicals. Hands down. Hyoutei was…. droolworthy. Hyoutei rocked the world, and they didn’t even show up for a little while. I’ll start at the beginning~ Tenimyu tenimyu tenimyu tenimyu tenimyu yaaay! <—— (me) First, as in all of the musicals, the curtain wa down andthere were suddenly the sounds of sneakers hitting the pavement. Cue the excitement level to rise and everyone to quiet down suddenly. The lights went down, and the curtain raised silently. A spotlight appeared off to the side, and onto the stage walks Sengoku (Wada) from the right, who does a short introduction. “Welcome,” etc. From the other side, lit with another spotlight, Yuuta (Kenn) made his entrance. They noticed each other and started to walk towards the center, but Yuuta suddenly stops as his cell phone goes off — with his ringer being Ore wa ore no namae de!! XDXDXD Wada starts to interrupt him, but his own phone goes off — with his ringer being Oretachi Jimi-su from bukimyu!! ROFLOL!! So hilarious!! They both managed to get off the phones shortly and walk over to each other, and began to argue — Sengoku asks Yuuta ‘So, who is the coolest player?’ Kenn begins right in saying that his buchou is the coolest, just look at him! And up above them on the screen appears a rather dorky shot of Akazawa and Kaneda from an earlier musical! Yuuta was embarrassed, saying, ‘ack!! I didn’t mean to put both of them up there!!’ Sengoku corrected him, saying, ‘My team is really cool’ — ‘Hey, who put that there?!’ Up on the screen had appeared a shot from Bukimyu of the Jimis mid-dance! Definitely NOT cool! XDXDXD In the end, they couldn’t decide who was the coolest, because music started up behind them…. Cue them to run off of stage and the second curtain to raise~ Starting with Fuji, all of Seigaku minus Ryoma took their places among the strong opening beats of the new Seigaku fight song, ♪Do Your Best! They did a long typical number for the kind of song- with lots of group singing and solos, the whole team going all out on their dancing just as they’d done for Bukimyu. Then they gathered in the center and Ryoma (Yanagi) was raised above! The crowd went noticeably more silent, this was the first time that Yanagi would be performing Ryoma on his own again!! How recovered WAS he? Yanagi didn’t move too much during this song, but he did do a bit of posing, and tried his very very best at singing. He still can’t sing well, but he’s obviously working on it. Hard. (So basically, he sounded terrible, but much better than he had at graduation myu!) Throughout the musical, Yanagi did very little dancing, and mostly posing. When he walked, he mostly walked without a limp, but there were a few times when it was noticeable, especially in the second performance. He could mostly manage it though, but he could not manage any kind of turns, as he stumbled slightly pretty much every time he tried. ;__;  Ganbarou Yanagi!! He’s improved a LOT!! Though there’s still a long road ahead, I think, he really seems to be trying hard. Everyone talked about it afterward and felt the same, very very respectful of what he must have to face and what he’s going through. What a strong boy~~ After Do Your Best, the lyrics consisting mostly of the team outlining their strengths and how they would try their hardest, Seigaku exited the stage and it all went dark. When the curtain raised again, the ichinen trio were sitting at desks on the left side of the stage, puzzling over the answers to their english test. Horio kept copying Kachiro, who shouted at him for it, and when they noticed us, they started in on another hilarious song, led by Horio, and beginning with english!! Horio belted out, “Hello, good day, how are you?” while Kachiro and Katsuo start chiming in. Kachiro seems to think that Horio is copying too much, so he stands up on the desk for his next refrain, and very very slashily (to me), Horio offers him a hand down. Then…….. they start a tap dance across stage that somehow incorporates the lyrics “A B C D”!! XDXD They have their usual display of awesome and hilarious dancing and suddenly rush off stage in the middle of the test when they realize that they’re about to miss the tennis team’s ranking tournament!! Most of Seigaku’s ranking matches are glossed over quickly, with the actors coming in and out quickly, pretending to hit a few balls or so. They give special attention to Ryoma vs. Oishi, after which Ryoma is congratulated for becoming a regular again. Next is the most important match, however. Inui vs. Momo and Inui vs. Tezuka. They do both matches at once, by having Inui stand on the right in the background, and Momo on the left in the background, with Tezuka in the front center (like a triangle). There is scary data-like music playing in the background (hard to describe.. it sounds like data). Inui is hitting balls and every other time that he hits a ball either Tezuka or Momo hits it. He finishes the Momo match first, and lo and behold ~ he beats Momo, who is no longer a regular because of it. Momo can’t believe it and stalks off stage. Then the Inu-Tez match is stopped, and the stage is resituated for a proper viewing of the rest of the match. The entire team is talking about how scary data tennis is, and I agree after seeing that. Inui is powerful in the musical! On to the real InuTez match. Inui tells Tezuka that he can break him with data tennis, because data doesn’t lie. In fact, after he counters Tezuka’s zero-shiki drop shot with data, he...