I WANT TO EAT A NUT OF LAERMA!

YOKOHAMA MONTREAL KAIDASHI KIKOU (Montreal Shopping Log)

Hmm... I went downtown this afternoon. First, I was just doing my usual store-to-store browse along Sainte Catherine's from Centre Eaton in the east to Chapters in the west. At Metro Video, I had a peek at the back of Stitch: The Movie, direct-to-video sequel to the film I still think should have won the Best Animated Feature (as well as being the pilot to the Lilo & Stitch TV series). I've heard mixed reviews, but I'll still rent it. Someone at the RottenTomatoes.com forum said that, if you go in with low expectations, you may be pleasantly surprised. But, still, obviously it's not Oscar-worthy... I wish Disney Feature Animation would do a full budget theatrical Lilo & Stitch sequel... the original film was not based on anything, so there's no childhood memories to rape.

Then I went over to Chapters, where I purchased French translations of volume 6 of the Fruits Basket manga, and volume 25 of the Ah! My Goddess! manga. Ah, the French version of Ah! My Goddess! has finally caught up with the Japanese version... the English-translated Studio Proteus/Dark Horse version (Oh My Goddess!) won't reach this point for years.

After that, I went to Central Station to make some copies of documents at the Bureau En Gros (Office Depot) store. I needed those to send to get a student loan. Damn, why do they have to be so pedantic? See, I was born in Britain but came to Canada in 1977, when I was 2� and became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1980... and I've never moved out of Quebec since I got here. But do they have a "naturalized Canadian citizen" checkmark on the "Attestation of Residence" if you weren't born in Quebec or Canada. No, for some reason. I forget what the exact answer I checked was, but it made it sound like I had just gotten of the "boat".

I wanted a KFC Colonel's Spicy Big Crunch for dinner, but the only "PFK" (Poulet Frit Kentucky) location in downtown Montreal is in the Place Ville Marie shopping concourse food court, and that opens and closes by store hours. The closest stand-alone one is way up on Park. And, for some reason, I didn't feel like a Wendy's Spicy Chicken sandwich... so I just went to the McDonald's in Central Station and had a Big Mac.

After dinner, I played Golden Sun: The Lost Age a bit, and then left for my next destination.

Along the way, I noticed a folded up bill on the road. It's a $20! But I noticed that it looked like it had been through a lot of washings, or had been on the ground for a while, and the "holographic" portion of the bill with the little 20 had been nearly rubbed off completely somehow. I showed it to my father after he got home and he doesn't think it's a counterfeit, but I may go to a bank and ask before I try spending it.

I got to the Second Cup on Sainte Catherine's between Peel and Stanley. Second Cup is a Quiet Country Caf�... no wait... actually it's a noisy city caf�. I was there because of Anime Meetup, a service for meeting other anime fans. But this one wasn't "official", and there was just me and two other people there. We had a nice hour-long chat about just the basics, how long we've been into anime, what anime we like, what we've seen at FantAsia. Nothing too heavy. If you're an anime fan in Montreal, I suggest you attend. You can meet me, not that that's much incentive, but oh well.

That's about it.

posted by Steve Brandon @ 7:26 AM