Another day with Addy

So, today we were planning to go to the Memphis Zoo, but we were rained out. I guess we'll try again tomorrow. After that...I must confess I was really unsure what we'd do with the rest of the day. We'd gotten up early to go, and now I was stumped on what we could do. I was pretty sure that we wouldn't do anything dragonific today, but I was wrong!

Ha, now...what we did was only dragonific because we made it dragonific! We went bowling, and we entered very interesting names.

Addy was Hiccup (One of us certainly was going to get that name!)

I was Toothless (Oh yes! Addy even met me with the username of Toothless online!)

And my younger brother was Link (He's a big Zelda fan)

So we start bowling, and none of us are exactly good...In fact I am sure we are all amateurs, but that didn't stop us from having fun! It was pretty enjoyable to see this kind of a thing displayed onscreen each time we made a strike!

In bowling, an X is a strike and a / is a spare. I just recently learned that. So, that was really fun, but after game one I started stinking. I mean STINKING! I guess I just lost focus and got sloppy, and I made Toothless look about as accurate as a Gronckle after sniffing dragon nip. It was pretty bad, and the others noticed it for sure! They tried tons of things to encourage me, they told me to focus, but really none of use were doing all that well. Finally, I knocked down about three pins and walked back to recover my ball. Adrian said, "See those pins? Let's say they're a Skrill." And then my brother kindly put out one hand to look like a stick figure, laid it flat, and then started mock eating it with his other hand while going "Omnomnom!" That was it; I had to clobber those pins now. So I walked to the very back of the building, sprinted forward about twelve feet, launched the ball, and got a spare! So, we all agreed that I had saved Hiccup, and then ironically after that Adrian started getting strike after strike! I was a bit funny because being really annoyed/angry with the pins/Skrill sort of helped me focus I guess...Nothing like thinking of a Skrill attacking Hiccup to give me an adrenaline rush!

So, here below was that final score. My first spare (I'm the T), the one in throw six, was that Skrill spare, and you can see that I improved a good deal after I started "dive-bombing" Skrills, Alvin, Mildew, but mostly Skrills... Yeah Mostly inhonoredglory Skrills.

So, that was a fun afternoon! This evening, after we go to our church service, we plan to watch GotNF and maybe some RoB episodes! Very fun afternoon, much to my surprise! I was sure that us getting rained out would sort of ruin the day, but we had tons of fun bowling!

A busy, crazy, dragonific, random, and unbelievably amazing day!

Woohoooooooo! Yes, that little wet Hiccup shouting "Yeah!" was a whole lot like me today!

Man, where on earth to begin? Well, Adrian and I got up at six in the morning (I had had a poor night's sleep...I'll explain why later.) to go and drive to a water theme park about three hours from my house. Long trip, but we listening to HTTYD and other soundtracks on the way to pass the time. And then of course we had tons of fun discussing HTTYD, HTTYD2, RoB, GotNF, and any other random HTTYD tidbit that could be imagined! That was pretty cool, but the ride back was far better...

Then, we got there. Really, really fun park. Honestly, I went all out on the HTTYD fanboyness! Every. Single. Ride. Had. To. Tie. In. To. HTTYD. And that was fun! One ride was done on matts. You would lay down on these foam matts and slide rapidly down a very steep and rippling slide. The matts had, well, handles. And these handles just happened to be right were Hiccup's handles on Toothless's saddle are! So, yeah...we kind of raced Nightfury saddles down a slide, and I shamelessly did Hiccup quotes the WHOLE way down! Haha! That was extremely fun. You even got this nice splash in the face, and Adrian and I agreed that that must have been caused by our Night Furies diving beneath a Thunderdrum wing. Think I'm ridiculous yet? Just wait.

Next rides! One slide was an absolute drop from about ten stories or so. So, yeah, skydiving off of Toothless anyone? Next slide was extremely, extremely cool. It was a complete tube, and it was pitch black. So you would go down it, and every curve would jolt you randomly to the right and left. There was no way to anticipate which way you would be thrown. So...what do I do? I start quoting RoB episode 19 Hiccup. "Ok, where are you going, and how are you seeing!" Yes, then I yelled at the top of my lungs the whole way through and thanked my imaginary Bud when we made it out! Ok, could I get any more random? Seriously?...oh yes, it gets even better!

Last ride I went on was called the Backsplash. It shot you at REALLY nice high speed straight up a five to seven story slope, and then you slowed, and then you soared backwards down the ramp. The line was monstrous, but it was worth the wait. I could not help it! This was the teaser moment where Toothless zooms up and then free falls backwards! It was the most INCREDIBLE feeling! Flying along so fast, getting so high, and then slowly free falling back at first until is turns into a lightning speed decent! Ah, I am a SUCKER for feelings! I tried to get just a little taste of what Hiccup and Toothless get, and it could not have been more fun.

Ok, so all he's done is talk about applying HTTYD feels to slides. Big deal. Haha! that's still not it! I am walking along, gabbing to Adrian and my younger brother, when I see something that drops my jaw. Someone, about the age of eighteen I'd guess, is walking in front of us with a GRONCKLE backpack! My HTTYD radar was going crazy for a reason! What on earth are the chances? I slapped my younger brother in the chest and pointed. None of us could believe it. I wound up running up to the guy just to say, "Excuse me. I really like your backpack!" He seemed a little surprised and just said thanks. Ah well, he made my day whether I made his or not. I probably just freaked him out... Man, I needed to be on a leash or something!

Ok, as IF, AS IF that wasn't enough, one person, an absolute stranger, got into a conversation with us. He wound up asking us how we met, and we explained the whole HTTYD wiki meeting. He was more of a Minecraft guy, but he appreciated our fandom as a cool hobby, so we were on pretty good terms. After about half an hour of going through rides with this guy he finally says, "Um you kinda really look like Hiccup. I mean, your hair and stuff. Oh, and your voice too..." Then I, well, I'm not sure what I did. I think it was a sort of double fist pump while shouting through gritted teeth, "Thank you!" He was actually a little relieved because he said that he felt I might take it the wrong way. I told him he had not just made my day, he'd made my week! Ahahaahaaa! To have a random stranger call me Hiccupish! Oh, I still can't believe it! I had been blasting down slides all day, not even messing with my hair, and not really even trying to put on a Hiccup accent, but this random stranger said I looked, sounded, and acted like him. Don't know how perceptive this guy was honestly...or how familiar he was with Hiccup, but he certainly made me happy!

So, that was the water park! I was a little glad to get a shirt back on. None were allowed on the slides, and I did feel an odd mix of embarrassment and amusement as I looked at all the other guys. Embarrassed because I'm horribly pale and rather grossly thin (according to my mom and extend family who all claim I am trying to starve myself, which isn't true; I'm just not hungry) under my tees, and amused because, maybe, just maybe, Hiccup would also be embarrassed to be forced to be shirtless. Anywho, that is kind of even more random than the other stuff!

On the way home, tons more HTTYD music, but then we did something a little more special. Adrian started to watch videos from The Circle (an amazing Youtube group who makes HTTYD music videos). So, as if being able to quote the movie to the soundtrack wasn't enough for me, I decided to describe what he was seeing in the videos. He had his laptop turned away from me. Through an entire HTTYD music video with the song "Make a Man Out Of You" I described what he was seeing, made comments on it, and even smiled and laughed at images I could not see! He was actually quite impressed, but I just love those circle videos! That made three hours fly by!

Then I get home. Surely that's enough HTTYD for one day, right? Nope. I then discovered the tee shirt contest was finally up, and Yahoo! I had a lot of fun looking at what others did. Some stuff was just amazing, though I must admit to being a tad bit, well, brutally critical of images that I did not think were great. It was sort of a mix between me rating tee shirts as 1's thinking, "Well, it just isn't that good...and I can't bring myself to give that anything other than a 1." and me rating shirts 5's and wishing I could rate them tens or twenties! Some stuff just grabbed me ad made me either laugh, sit there beaming, or shout "AWE! That is so cool!" So, yep, I rated all three hundredish entries. My entry doesn't stand a chance, but I am so happy to have participated! Stunning, stunning contest!

Oh yes...and I am pretty tired now because I told my friend Adrian about a certain Skrill story and then woke up in the night and couldn't get back to sleep. If any of you don't already know, I am now really disturbed by Skrills...really, really, deeply frightened by them. So...all that to say, I started this day being scarred of an HTTYD dragon, went through the day feeling remarkably like I was getting a tiny taste of Test Drive, was called Hiccupish by an absolute stranger, and am now ending my day by rating amazing HTTYD tee shirt designs! This day couldn't have gotten much better. If any other random HTTYD thing happens I think I'll go into a coma.

HTTYD 2 Trailer

What else we did today

Welp, other than seeing the HTTYD2 teaser in 3D we also went to the mall. Adrain and I spent quite a lot of time just browsing around the city before the movie started. I decided to buy some more of the HTTYD books (I own them all on mp3, but I am kicking myself for NOT owning solid book copies of these amazing stories!) After I bought the books, Adrian went and purchased Gift of the Night Fury! Turns out it is not available in Germany, so we were both pretty excited to find it in Blu Ray. Not a bad day of dragon shopping! I always get a little happy feeling when I walk up to the checkout people with HTTYD stuff! Ah, I love the whole franchise! Movies, books, shorts, everything!

And then after all that the day just got better when we finally got to see the teaser in 3D! I was a little worried that they would not play it, but thankfully my worries did not come true! That was great! My heart was beating so fast from excitement during that whole thing! So...pretty cool, dragon-filled afternoon!

Oh...and I'm wearing my HTTYD shirt that Adrian actually made for me! Ha! I only wear HTTYD shirts on very special occasions because I am terrified by the thought of ruining them...

A simple question...

Adrian and I went to watch Turbo. It was a fairly decent film, and I must say the BEST thing was the 3D...not Turbo's 3D though; the 3D on the HTTYD2 teaser that they played before it! Haha! Yes, we totally payed 11$ each to go and see a two minute teaser, and It. Was. Worth. IT! It looked absolutely splendid, and it honestly made the trailer look twice as good as before. I'll just give a quick run through on what really popped out more in the 3D! Honestly, I would HIGHLY recommend any really big HTTYD fan to hit the theaters just so as to catch the 3D teaser! Ah! It was hilarious! We sat there, and it was the LAST trailer shown, so we had to suffer through all the others first (Planes, The Lego Movie, and Rio2)! Every time a trailer would come up we'd hold our breath, and then it wasn't it, and then we'd groan REALLY loud! Finally, when we heard that Night Fury whistle, we both CHEERED! Haha, then we whooped way to much as we watched the trailer, and then we clapped at the end! Thankfully there were only a couple other people there because I am sure we looked like dorks!

Ok, now to tell you about the teaser's 3D.

First off, it did EXACTLY what the first movie did: It added DEPTH. It didn't just make things come out, it made you feel like you could go IN! That really gripped me in the first movie because the environment was so real and the 3D immersed you in it! So...the movie (and trailer) did not need to do a bunch of cheesy gimmicks to make things pop out because everything, absolutely everything, felt like it was sitting in its proper place. Things moved in and out so NATURALLY, and honestly I think the feeling of deepness was more impressive than when things shot out! After all that, add a bit of dragons or ash or clouds flying into your face and you have a brilliant 3D experience!

The splash at the beginning was clearly right in your face, but I expected that!

Then, this, THIS was gorgeous! His big old, beautiful face came right up to us smiling! That was the closest I've felt to that Nightfury in quite a while! Made me so happy!

Then, much to my surprise, this was also amazing! Toothless's back stabilizing wing felt SO close! It doesn't look like much here, but trust me, it really made Toothless feel actual size!

And then you had this bit! Hiccup felt so much closer than Toothless did, like they were both really taking up actual space! I swear, the way the the cinematographers use 3D in HTTYD is simply amazing! It doesn't distract, it makes it feel real!

Finally, ALL the clouds looked incredible! This final bit where Hiccup cut through them shot a bunch of them right into your face. Actually very realistic feeling! The clouds blew into view quite a lot during the whole thing! You really can't tell in 2D, but there are clouds obscuring your view and swirling around quite a lot! 

So...all in all Turbo is worth seeing just for the HTTYD2 teaser! I was sooooo worried that they were not going to show it, but it definitely made my day! Thank you Turbo for giving me an excuse to watch this teaser again! Haha! Ah, this second film is going to be a beautiful thing to watch!

HTTYD2 images...just for fun!

Hooray! I am so happy looking at my two favorite characters of all time as they take their next bug step! Less than a year away! HTTYD2 is looking great, deep, convicted, and awesome...June 20, 2014 can't come soon enough!