// Intro
Wasn't planning on writing a blog post for the day but it was a fun hangout and I got some sick ass photos so I feel like it deserves a quick short post lalala. Trip took place yesterday July 26, 2026. Got to meet a friend's friend and finally put a face behind the legend. If you guys are reading this you know who you are hi.
// Airsoft Store
I went into a GUN STORE and there were GUNS!!! Just kidding it was an airsoft store. My friends had stuff they needed to buy, I was just there to follow them around. There really is a whole 'nother world out there, eh? I find it fascinating that one of the muzzle (?) or whatever extension thing you add to the end of the gun barrel was an "officially licensed" product. There was a shooting range there and I got to try out my friend's handgun which was pretty cool. It needed this thing called the "green gas" to shoot the pellets which is kind of an ominous name.
For some reason this store also sells fishing gear? I assume they're actual fishing gears. They have a fish tank too. Someone drew this anime girl holding a gun on a chalk board which is pretty tough.
// Lunch
Went to this authentic Chinese place for lunch the food was goooood. Restaurant was decorated in an unexpected way but I liked it. Think abstract painting on the wall, dim lighting, and sofas around round tables. I didn't have anything with me to do oshikatsu today because I wasn't planning on it, so I ripped this button off of my itabag insert LOL. SLS and Starship my beloved. Got some romantic lighting going on in the photo too it's pretty fitting for them. I really should get back to drawing the standees of these two I need to take them out on romantic dates.
// Frank & Son
After lunch we went to Frank & Son and also got boba. I didn't take a single photo at Frank & Son because there wasn't much to see there bruh I don't even know what I can write about it. I was only there to look at Transformers and there really weren't much. Transformers fell off man /j
// Puente Hills Mall is on its dying breath
The Puente Hills Mall is pretty much a dead mall on its last leg held together by Round1, HaiDiLao, and AMC. We were there to watch The Odyssey but had some time to kill so we walked around the mall before the movie. When I say it's a dead mall I mean it. Picture any urban exploring video where they go into abandoned malls and look at all the stuff left behind in stores. I got some really cool photos from the day, I'll definitely add them to the Photography page in the future. I wish I had my camera with me — I finally bought an old digicam off Mercari but it got lost in transit!! It's been 10 days since USPS tracking last updated where is my package </3
Fascinated by this abandoned I AM THE BOSS mug sitting on a trashed register. One of my friends was going around trying the lock on all the locked gates (bro has a habit of trespassing) and somehow managed to unlock one of them and barely managed to close it back down LOL. I saw a Twin Pines Mall sign sitting in a closed store. I'm not too familiar with Back to the Future, but according to Wikipedia, the mall was the filming location for the fictional Twin Pines Mall, and the replica sign used to be in the parking lot. We also heard from a security guard that there was a horror movie filmed in the mall recently. Pretty sure it's They Follow.
Here's another fun anecdote. After we came out of The Odyssey it was like 9:30 pm and pretty much the entire mall is closed. We couldn't exit the way we came in, but the same friend who was going around unlocking the gates earlier just straight up walked passed the DO NOT ENTER barriers because "what are they gonna do? kick me out?" Two dudes who were standing near us also witnessed the Situation and they took a selfie doing the soyjak pointing meme with my friend walking away in the background it was really fucking funny.
// The Odyssey
The Odyssey is the first movie I saw in IMAX actually! And I don't get the hype LMAO. People hype it up like it's some life-changing experience but to me all it was was larger screen and louder sound. Movie was a banger though I give it a 4.5/5. Didn't touch my soul like the way Project Hail Mary did but damn it is a good movie.
The only portion of The Odyssey I've read was Odysseus's encounter with the cyclops so I pretty much went into the movie blind. There were precisely three things I've heard/seen about the movie:
- Robert Pattinson yelling "somebody get these BEGGARS out of here!" because the clip was making rounds on Twitter and I thought it was hilarious. I was waiting the entire movie for this scene to show up and it did not disappoint.
- That one frame of Matt Damon getting tied to a post on the ship and suffering.
- A Twitter post saying Elliot Page's performance was the highlight of the movie. Can confirm this is true. His first scene was like mehh whatever, the Hades scene though WOW I was impressed. It's my favorite scene from the whole movie!
In the beginning of the movie I was desperately trying to remember what Zeus's law was about. The three lectures I had on The Odyssey in my first year of college paid off I remembered how goated my professor was.