Third Party Sellers on Amazon

Need some new paper towels. Searched on Amazon. The cheapest was from a third party seller. He only had one review. But since he was the cheapest, I gave him a try. The shipment came. They were the wrong type of paper towels.

Amazon did not let me get a refund or return on this order through their web site. So I called Amazon. They contacted the seller, who said he would work on a replacement ASAP. When I inquired when exactly that would be, they said one week.

I am now not too confident in this seller. Luckily Amazon has a A-to-Z guarantee. I might be making use of that guarantee to get a refund if I get the run around from this seller.

Back From the Con

Momoko and I attended an anime convention this weekend. I took Friday afternoon off so we could drive up. We stayed at a hotel that was close to the convention hotel. We caught a panel on Voltron. All the paladins were played by girls. They had a lot of insider meme jokes. We bolted two thirds through the sessions.


We slept in a bed that had a slope down towards the ground where our heads rested. Breakfast was a cook to order meal from the hotel. One elevator was out of service the whole weekend. We left out car parked in the hotel parking lot the whole weekend due to overcrowding.


I went to a panel on Sheera by myself. It was a whopping one and a half hours long. Catra had organized the thing. Glimmer was a star. Sheera was played by a friend of Catra and did not offer much. They answered every question I could think of asking.


We finished up the panels with one on Saiki K. I thought we were doomed because there were two lines to get into the small room. The real doom was the presenter. She could not offer any compelling reason to watch her presentation. Almost everyone left early. We persevered to the end.


After leaving the hotel and conference, we drove a ways to the vendor exhibit at the old Hobby Lobby. I found a super deal of two prints for $5. I purchased a total of 4 prints from Jonathan Miller. Momoko loaded up on buttons. We drove my McDonald's for sweet tea, large fries, and McChicken before driving home.

Anime Convention

Momoko and I are out visiting her dad. It just so happens that an anime convention is being held a few hours away. We were excited that we might be able to attend. Unfortunately the hotel hosting the convention has long since sold out of rooms. We checked back to see if anyone cancelled their reservations. No luck.


Today I just happened to notice that a part of the convention is happening in a nearby hotel. And they had a few vacancies. The price is a little higher. And we would have to walk over to the main hotel. However Momoko and I decided we would do it.


We went outside in the oppressive heat today to practice what it would feel like to walk the distance between the hotels. It was hot. But it was doable. We are now booked for a room with a king size bed. I am getting off early from work on Friday so that we can get on the road for the trip.

Little Kat the Chauffeur

I drove the family up to Kit Kat's old theater to see a Miyazaki film. It was an old one. The theater was showing it for one day only as a special presentation. Some lady on our row was chatty with us prior to the movie starting. Then some other lady in the front row kept talking aloud until she was shushed.


Little Kat drove us home. I was hungry for a snack, hoping to swing by McDonald's. Little Kat took us to Burger King instead. I got a double hamburger for $1.79 off their value menu. The next day, Little Kat drove Momoko and I to the airport. We got there in plenty of time to check in. Some lady was holding up the fast security screening line with all her belongings taken out of her luggage. Momoko was also delayed because the screener wanted to know about the inhaler she packed.


Once through security, I wanted to eat breakfast at Chick-fil-A. Momoko thought the line was too long. So we went to Arby's instead. The guy in front of me was short a French fry. So I checked out order diligently to find we too were short a fry. We refilled our drinks and headed to the departure gate. There Momoko and I played head-to-head Scrabble.


I barely made it in the A-section of boarding. The flight was not full. We made the trip to Momoko's dad's house in record time. The stewardess asked if I wanted a second drink. Of course I needed an extra coke. Took a long time for me to receive it. The passengers had to shut all the windows on the plane to keep it cool in the hot summer weather.

Concert Ticket Prices

I watched a video of the band Live playing life in the 1990s. They rocked hard. Recalled that I saw them perform as an opening act for Blink-182. Great music. Speaking of Blink, they are coming back to a venue close to my house. The seats I had the last time I saw them run $180+ now. Oops. That is just too high.

The real problem is that there is only one original member of Blink-182 left in the band. And I think he is washed up. Things fell apart when his partner left the band to pursue other non-music related endeavors. Old school fans are poking fun at the band, because they are touring with Lil Wayne now.

Are there any old school bands worth seeing any more? It might not be hard core, but I would love to see the Backstreet Boys. Believe it or not, they are on tour now. They are coming to a city near me next month. They have a huge venue here lined up. But tickets for the highest nosebleed seats, furthest away from the stage, also run $180+.

Access to Boxing Matches

Today I found out that my brother subscribes to ESPN+. It is a streaming service for assorted sports events. He uses it to purchase MMA pay per view fights. Apparently they also cover heavyweight boxing. Today, lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury defended his title.

At first I got confused. I thought the boxing match was a pay per view on ESPN+. I had no interest in that. The pay per view fights sometimes run around $50. My brother found out that the fight was included in his subscription.

So we set up our family room firestick as an authorized device for my brother's ESPN+ subscription. Then we watched the fight. There were a lot of pre-fight shenanigans. Fury is a Brit. But he came out in an Apollo Creed USA outfit.

Fury's challenger was some no-name guy from Germany. Fury jabbed him for the whole first round. Fury did not even sit down on his stool after the round. In round two, Fury went on the offensive and the fight was stopped. Fury won via TKO.

Last time Fury fought local favorite Deonte Wilder, it was a draw. I am ready for the rematch.

In Search of Looper

Momoko has been watching K-dramas religiously. She just binge watches them. Sometimes I join her for a few episodes. I want to watch other genres with her. So I proposed we also watch some movies. We started with "See You Yesterday". It was a time travel flick. That got me interested in other time travel movies. Watched the movie Primer again by myself. We talked about watching Looper. I bought a digital version from Amazon by mistake. Luckily I cancelled the order and got my money back.

We spent a lot of time searching for a good movie tonight. Scoured through the B-movies available on Amazon Prime. There were a few that were okay. I think we found a gem in Morning Glory, a movie about an executive producer for a morning show (think a low budget Today Show). Figured that there has to be a better way to find good movies quicker. Netflix has B-movies online like Amazon Prime Video.

I did recall the great days of Netflix DVDs in the mail. So do you know what I did? I signed up for a Netflix DVD collection by mail again. The biggest plan seemed to be 2 DVDs out at a time. Can't wait for my first movies to arrive. I hope this plan gives us enough movies to watch. Otherwise I will have to inquire about any other special plans, or maybe even purchase a second plan.