Intensified my sword engraving shop search.
Got up today and did some laundry. I then sat down to watch Revenge of the Sith on my computer that Peter downloaded and gave to me the other day. Watching it in English made it soooo much better. Most of my issues that I had mentioned before the nite I went to see it have changed. His transition into Darth Vader is much more believable and all the more tragic. I was quite surprised by the acting. There were still some pretty bad parts, but for the most part, I was quite pleased. The worse was, I think you can all agree with me, during the emotional climatic part on Mustafar when Padme confronted Anakin. I was like, damnit, but it was a small price to pay for a movie that actually provided you with an emotional response that doesn't result with fans demanding the head of George Lucas. Order 66 seemed more powerful than in Chinese and also the duel at the end.
As for the cuts that I thought were done by the chinese, there was only one and that was the amount of footage they showed of Anakin getting charred up. All the other cuts that I thought were done by the chinese were in the actual version, which shows just how bad some of those cuts really were.
i will have to watch it again all the way thru because I kept on getting interrupted as I watched it. It wasn't a problem, but I was removing my focus from being engulfed in the film. I sure hope it lasts 1 month in Hong Kong, because I will go see it in English on the big screen when I go to see Batman Begins. ROCK! I am a total nerd.
Jolene showed up for lunch with Amy and Moses and was going to go with me at 2pm to find a engraving shop that could do my sword. Also, Yumi came over with Mayu about 1245pm to let me copy some of the fotos that she took from yesterday and to have lunch. It was an enjoyable lunch. Yumi and Mayu had to leave at 120pm.
Jolene and I headed out at 2pm to this shop that was recommended to her by her contact in the Xiaolan Travel Agency. We got to the agency and she asked if I wanted to go in and I was like, I will wait out here, i don't like to enter that building or give them business since they screwed up my Beijing trip and refused to refund me anything. Punks.
The girl came out and tooks us down the street. It was a small shop and right away the guy was like, "I can't do it." So the girl said she will contact another place to find out about it. So Jolene and I went to chill in McD's and have an ice cream to wait. About 15 minutes later the girl came and got us and tooks us by bike to the place she recommended. It was near the Bond office. This place looks quite professional actually. This may be the place to do it. I dont know how much they charge yet though. The guy will go over it and see about the programming of the machine that will use a laser to engrave it. He will then give us the price. I am thinking it will be over 100RMB. I hope it aint to expensive. At this point, if its over 150, I will do it. I am sick of having to try and find places. It wastes time and doing business with Chinese people is like having root canals...not that I have had root canals done, but from what I hear its not pleasant.
So, i left and headed back to McD's becacuse there was a Baleno store selling some REvenge of the Sith shirts i wanted. They were pretty cheap so I got 3 for what amounts to $12US. They seemed pretty nice. I headed home to write up some journal entries.
The sky was getting dark so I took down my already dry clothes and then it started storming with thunder and everything. Now, its gorgeous outside. Its 550pm.
Now, for the reason why its so hard to find someone to engrave the sword. I think some of it has to do with the fact that they don't want to make a mistake on the blade and therefore replace it. If it was their own material, they could make as many mistakes as they can without having to really worry about anything. The reason that they give me is: "The blade is not level and can't be balanced so the machine won't work well with it." I kinda understand where they are coming from, but come on....its metal work - trying to engrave a hunk of metal, not rocket science or nuclear fusion! All you need to allow this to be level is get a couple of vices and position them in a way to hold the sword level for the machine and pad the vices so they don't scratch the blade or anything. They just don't want to think. Ugh.
It was very nice for the girl of the Xiaolan Travel Agency to help us out as much as she did. I appreciate it greatly. She didn't have to do so. Just some of the very nice things done for me that were totally unexpected.
Yumi came over to crash at my place around dinner time before she had a nite class at 730pm. I ordered a small spicy pizza. It was pretty good. When Yumi left, my dad finally loaded up SKYPE on his brand new iMac G5. I am jealous. 250GB Harddrive. My mom, dad, and I spoke with each other for free for 1hour and 17minutes on a connection that sounded like they were next to me. Awesome. Aint technology amazing sometimes...when it doesn't piss you off.