One more thing...

Before I retire for the evening for a good night's rest...

Home from ComicCon

...and have been for a few days of course. It's been hectic getting back into the swing of things back in the real world. For those who are interested, pictures of the show are now available for your viewing pleasure. I would say more here, but I need to continue to upload these pictures to various and sundry social networks...my work never ends.

However, I do have some things to say, positive and negative about the show, and that will most likely be tomorrow evening.

Enjoy!

I'm at the airport...

I got up at the ungodly hour of 4:00 am to finalize getting ready for my flight to San Diego for ComicCon. I'm so tired right now I could throw up. Nobody should have to see this time of day ever. It's inhuman. But I think I remembered everything for the trip. If not, there is a convenient Ralph's near the convention center. Hopefully the sense of dread and unease I feel is just due to sleep deprevation. Getting thru security in Eugene was a snap. Hopefully I'll have a similar experience leaving San Diego, but I doubt it...

Almost time to board. Better shut everything down now....

100th post

It was just like yesterday, or a year ago that I started this mess as I went off to India and circled the globe in search of adventure and mystery. Look where we are today. I've add in social networks in the links on the right and now you can even follow me on Twitter. Where will the fun stop?
My next travel destination will be lovely San Diego, California for the San Diego Comic Con. Let's hope this year that the Fire Marshals won't be called in due to overcrowding. Since it's been about 5 or 6 years since I last went, it will be interesting to note the changes from my last trip. Apparently it takes over the entire convention center now, and with the stories of the overselling of the tickets and hearing all four days are sold out, I expect a crowded time. But I get a chance to see my pal Bill again and hopefully check out the TV Batmobile if it's there again this year.

I'll be leaving bright and far too early on Thursday morning and arriving back in town on Sunday. Get yer requests in...
I've also been working on something new as well that's been getting positive notes from Mike and Jamie. As soon as I finish the second pass at the treatment, I think we're good to go for scripting. Fingers crossed.

Not much else to say, other than I now have a lovely ghetto iPhone stand as seen above. Krusty the Clown and Batmobile not included. Actually, the stand is more clever than ghetto. Instead of paying an outrageous sum of money for some stand that the seller would describe as "hand crafted from the purest titanium and custom molded to the contours of the iPhone itself" I just went down to Wal-Mart and found a cell phone/PDA stand for a car instead. Adjusted the bendy arm bit to move the center of gravity around when the phone is put in the cradle and boom. Instant iPhone cradle. Exactly what I needed and less than $10.00!

Do you like video games?

Hey kids!

Do you like video games?

Do you like swearing loudly?

Sure! Who doesn't? We all do!

Then you'll love Super Monkey Ball for the iPhone! Buy it today from the iTunes App Store. Brought to you by our friends at Sega.

Really. It's a fun game, but vicious. You need finesse to move the Monkey Ball around the play field using the iPhone's accelerometer. It's tricker than it looks. But, hey - 100 levels for $9.99? Cheap!

Next up is magic post number 100...

I got my iPhone 3G

It took an extra day, but I managed to get one. This time I was first in line. Lucky me. So now that we have this...

Let's ponder briefly what next year's iPhone model will bring while I wait for all my music to load up. I'd say realistically (because a hardware keyboard just isn't going to happen unless Steve Jobs gets replaced by a Pod Person) we might see:

1. Better battery life - this is a given. They love to tout battery life and how it's much better now than it was. With the addition of the battery-sucking 3G technology, you'd better hope they're working on adding in some higher capacity batteries.

2. Double the storage - another given. I'm going to a 16 gig iPhone from a 16 gig iPod Touch. They have 32 gig iPod Touches now, and while I'm actually quite comfortable with 16 gigs, I'm sure I'm like most people and wouldn't turn down double the storage.

3. Haptic touch screen feedback. This will help with people trying to type on the virtual keyboard as they would get feedback that they can feel as they type. It could also be used for other programs on this theoretical iPhone, but for those who complain about the current keyboard situation, it would be a boon.

4. Stereo Bluetooth. Now I could get a little envious of this. Stereo Bluetooth means I can listen to the iPod portion of the phone without all those pesky wires tethering me to the device. But this wouldn't make me sell my soul in a year to get one if it were true.

These are all keen things, but not killer apps for me if these were to appear in an iPhone refresh in a year or so. This is why I took the plunge this morning and I'm not waiting another year. The software updates have been free so far, so no worries there. So I'll just wait for the model after the next one when my new AT&T contract expires in two years.

But this thing is gonna rock...

Top Gear - US Edition will suck...

This was pointed out to me by a Mr. N. Worth, and I quite agree. Top Gear is a rather brilliant motorcar show on BBC 2 that will be brought to the US with new hosts for NBC. This is why it will fail. Spectacularly. In that US version of Coupling sort of way. It may not be apparent at first, and the hosts I have no doubt will know what they're talking about, and might even get the same level of energy and chemistry that Clarkson, Hammond and May have in the UK. However, as the BBC is an broadcaster that gets funding from the TV License in the UK, NBC relies on advertiser revenue. The moment that the US version goes out on a limb while reviewing, say, a Ford or a car from a division of Ford, and gives a very honest and critical review if they don't like the vehicle calls will be made to NBC corporate the very next day, if not that evening and discussions of sponsorship and current and future ad sales will be made, and it won't be pretty.

Which means that a US version of Top Gear will be limited to the challenges, the star in a reasonably priced car and so on, but if you're going to go in and expect an unbiased review of a vehicle, don't hold your breath.

Getting an iPhone?

I sure am. Or I hope I am. They go on sale this Friday and I'll be in line at my local AT&T store to pick one up, because going to an Apple Store in Portland really is too far to drive for this sort of thing. Of course, AT&T has provided a helpful guide for everyone who will be wanting to get their iPhone with a minimum of fuss come July 11th...

Fan-tastic. Thanks AT&T! I did especially enjoy the important note there about getting your old phone number from a different carrier ported over to AT&T. While the movie was playing I heard this important note - which was to make sure to bring in a copy of your bill to the store to get the account number and so on to help with the number porting. This was playing while I was in the middle of shredding documents. Specifically at the time my Verizon bill. I believe this may count as irony. I'm not sure right now. However, I will not let this small issue stop me. Somehow.

I forgot to mention...

Episode 12 of Doctor Who this year was fantastic... My all time favorite episode used to be Steven Moffat's The Girl in the Fireplace from series 2. While I'm still looking forward to Moffat taking over the series in 2010, The Stolen Earth just left that episode in the dust. Total Fanservice...

...and to prove what a nerd I am, I've got the Doctor's cell phone number in my address book and synced to my phone and iPod... 07700 900461.

Actually, that would technically be Martha's cell phone, wouldn't it? Hate to see any roaming charges on that bill...