Tokidoki... at Target????

Simone Legno at Target

What is this world coming to? You can now buy Tokidoki (or Simone Legno) designs at, of all places, Target! Good thing it's not that other store that starts with a "W", or I'd start crying. Not sure what to make of this, but I'll reserve judgment until I got to Target and check out the goods. In the meantime, you can click here and shop online. :D

The bag to the left is only $20! Very cute, but I'm sure it's not of as good construction as the Le Sportsac bags are. And the price tag is right. It looks like this whole line is for school kids... but... I likey!

~Allie

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Day 4 of ComicCon, and I'm exhausted!

Comic Con 2009

This year's ComicCon has been a wild rollercoaster ride. I got to meet my girlhood idol, Richard Hatch aka Apollo on the original Battlestar Galactica. (Yes, I'm old!!) And I got to meet the creator of Dr. Who and Torchwood, Russell T. Davies and the cast of the new BBC drama Being Human (cast photo to the left), and get all of their autographs. Yes, I'm a sci-fi nerd. I didn't to upstairs to the panel rooms. There were just WAAAAYY too many people there! This year's attendance topped 125,000 attendees, and I think at least half of them were trying to get into the ballrooms where the panels were being held. 

A lot of the vendors thought that this year's ComicCon was a lot more sedate that last year's convention. I think that due to the economy, people were spending a lot less money. Most of the lines were for the limited edition ComicCon exclusive merchandise. You know all of this stuff is already up on eBay!! One thing I did notice about this year compared to last, is that a lot of vendors set up shop outside of the convention hall. The majority of the freebies were being given out along 5th street, which is right across the street (across the trolley tracks). Heroes set up a mini-carnival, where you could win Heroes keychains and raffle tickets for autographed scripts and t-shirts. SyFy turned a small cafe in the Hard Rock Hotel into "Café Diem," the cafe on the show Eureka. They had their "Street Team" handing out SyFy bags, t-shirts and buttons all weekend long. EA games set up a Gamers Lounge in the Hilton Gaslamp Hotel right of 5th street. They were previewing 4 unreleased games: Dragon Age, Left 4 Dead 2, and 2 Battlefield games. I also got Mythbuster bags, True Blood t-shirts, Amp drinks, and "9" movie cards just by walking up and down the street. 

ComicCon is a lot less about comics, and more about movies, video games, and tv shows this year. Comic creators are taking a back seat to movie stars like Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. I heard rumors that the organizers of SDCC want to take the convention to Vegas, but that would make it a bigger circus that it already is. The SD convention center wants to keep the convention in San Diego, and are trying to purchase more land in order to expand the halls. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm finding that the bigger ComicCon gets, the less "fun" it is. You now have to pick and choose what you want to do. It's not longer possible to just walk into a panel. Now, you have to line up at least 4 hours before 

the doors open. SDCC has turned into another Disneyland ride, where you line up with the masses for just one attraction.

(Leonard Nemoy to the left).

The up side to this convention, however, is for me to see all the wonderful friends that I've made over the years. It's amazing that even though there are 125,000 people here, I'm managed to run into just about everyone I know! There's one last day of ComicCon, and I hope to grab a few more freebies before I leave. I'll post more pictures when I get back home. 

~Allie

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Bite-me!!

Vampires are all the rage now. They're no longer the worm eaten, decaying, reanimated undead blood-suckers that they once were. Now they're hot, sexy, and well, to die for! Tweens (and some older adults... you know who you are!) drool over Edward Cullen. And really, who would complain if Eric or Bill from True Blood wanted to nibble on their neck. It seems like drool-worthy vampires are coming out of the woodwork lately.

I guess maybe that's why there will be the first ever Vampire-Con on August 14-14, 2009 in Hollywood, California devoted to Vamp-Pop culture. There will be a film festival, panel discussions, and a danse macabre ball. Burlesque and go-go girls and boys. Hmmm... it's sounding to me like... Yaoi-Con! I'd consider going, but to tell the truth, vampire fans scare me! But I think the point of all this is that vampire fans are not just your typical goth wanna-be vampires anymore. Everyone seems to have jumped on the vampire bandwagon.

Vampires have come a long way since the first Dracula movies. Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise were pretty hot in Interview with a Vampire, but I didn't want to jump their bones. Buffy the Vampire Slayer got her share of slayer on vampire action. And if I have to choose between team Edward or team Jacob... I choose team Edward.

Luckily we have Twilight: New Moon, True Blood Season 2, and The Vampire Diaries to look foward to on TV and in the movie theaters, and more of Charlain Harris' Southern Vampire series, and Kresley Cole's Immortal Series in novels. There's even a ton of vampire yaoi out now: Necratoholic, Vampire's Portrait, and Pathos just to name a few.

So, to all the hot and hunky vampires out there, I only have one thing to say. "Bite me."

~Allie

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More Twilight Manwha

In the Entertainment Weekly I got yesterday, there are more images of the new Twilight manwha. While Edward looks a bit more like a vampire and not a surfer boy in this image, I'm still reserving judgment on this graphic novel until the book is published. I think the wolves on Jacob's shirt is a teeny tiny bit much...

In the EW article, it goes on to say, "The graphic novel is essentially Meyer's brain on paper. 'Stephenie is reviewing every page, every panel,' says Kurt Hassler, publishing director for Yen Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. 'People should feel like they are getting a rare glimpse insider her vision of the property.'"

Who knew Bella was so pretty?

~Allie

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Amateur Detective Work

I've been having a lot of bad luck with my banking institutions lately. The free checking account which I've had since 1983 is no longer free. It's now being assessed a $8.95 monthly fee! My ATM card was "compromised" and a replacement sent. And on Monday I got a call from my credit card company, asking me if I had charged an airline ticket for $220. The order was placed in Barcelona, Spain. Unless I magically teleported to Spain, then, that would be a "no"!!

So, being the whiner that I am, I posted about the fraudulent charges on my Facebook status. Tissie and another friend replied that they too had had airline tickets charged on their accounts. Then, yesterday, yet another friend told me that she found a fake airline ticket charge on her account.

What do the four of us have in common? We all used our credit cards to guarantee hotel reservations with Travel Planners for ComicCon. Tissie and another friend used their credit cards last year, and the fake charges to their accounts occurred within the last 2 weeks. The charges on my card and my other friend's card happened this week. And guess what? Next week is ComicCon! I'm betting more people will find charges on their cards while they're away.

My friend alerted Heidi MacDonald, and she's posted the info on her blog: The Beat.
So far, 4 other people have had problems with their credit cards.
Update: Travel Planners has responded to Heidi's blog, saying that there was no breach in their security.

Coincidence? Or fraud? The scary thing is, the credit card companies can't trace the fraud because Travel Planners doesn't always place the charges. They send the information directly to the hotels. And, if someone cancels a reservation, Travel Planners still has their credit card information. I'd totally forgotten that I had used my credit card to guarantee my hotel reservation since I made the reservations back in February.

~Allie

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