353 Nails, Colossalcon, Anime North, Canada

So far the final tally on nails I had to clean up with a metal detector
stands at 353 nails. The lady in Apt. B says she still picked up a nail
in a tire. I've not had much of a problem there, but I will see to
getting out again and seeing if I can find more.

Got to watch my DVD of Memoirs of a Geisha. Finally!!!

Got to see some members of the main Colossalcon staff. Good people. Got
to see the hotel. OMG. There's a swingers bar. OK, maybe not best
described in that way, but I'm not ever going in there unless they have
Japanese Ladies Night.

I am sadly going to pass on Anime North. Not because we couldn't get the
time off, but because the convention is too big and too corporate. As
one friend put it, it's just a huge Anime Industry trade show now.
Corporate sponsors squeeze out the rights of fans to sell "unlicensed"
items like doujinshi. When fans get trampled on, it's no longer any fun.

My friends and I are hoping to plan an excursion to Canada later in the
year, but hopefully not too much later. Maybe by then gas prices will
come down from their gouging levels. There is no incentive for those
companies to get their refineries up to 100% capacity AT ALL. We need
one "blend" of fuels that can be used year around. It's always when the
refineries "switch" from their so called Winter blend or Summer Blend
that this price hike happens, and boy are they loath to lower prices as
fast as it went up.

Plans to build new refineries are usually met with resistance due to
concerns for the environment. Well, people, what do you want to do?
Cheap plentiful gas or pay $5 a gallon and continually complain about
how much you're paying?? Figure out what the heck you want and then DO
IT. And Oil companies - When you get the Go Ahead for building a
refinery, get the damn thing built FAST, get it online NOW, and make it
SAFE. No freakin' explosions or accidents that drive up the cost to
consumers when it doesn't cost you any more to get the raw material! I
hear it costs $9 to refine a barrel of crude oil into gas.

If I could afford a Hybrid car that doesn't have operational problems
and was cheap to repair if needed, you bet I would have one. In the
meantime, we ALL need to conserve as much as possible. If we could cut
back by 11% all the time, it would have a huge difference in the long
run.