I'm about to head out to the Big Apple with capricious_k and fresne . This trip will definitely be full of awesome!

It'll only be my second time ever visiting New York City. The last time we went was in 2006, and I had an absolutely magical time. Perhaps the thing that struck me the most was that I'd been seeing that city in so many movies, comic books, and TV shows for so long that to actually walk around in it gave it an almost Disney-like feeling. I can't wait to recapture that sensation. And as a bonus, fresne 's never been before so I'll get to watch her head go all 'splody the same way mine did.

We'll be gone for a whole week this time too, which will give us more time to explore more nooks and crannies. Our plan is to do lots of touristy things, take a ton of photos, drink a lot of cocktails and eat at a ton of great restaurants.

What'll be different about this visit from the last time I was there? This time I'll have an iPhone. :-)

I attended the So You Think You Can Dance performance finale last night!

With last minute invitation from kevbot and his wife to capricious_k  and I, and a lot of last minute scrambling, we managed to pull of a day trip down to LA for the show. It required a lot of things to go right, but the stars aligned and we had a blast.

Kev had signed up for tickets a while ago, and only just got notification that some vouchers had been assigned to him. Mind you, these were vouchers, not tickets. The FAQ explained that you had to go stand in line to pick up tickets, and getting a voucher was not a guarantee of a ticket. It seems that much like airlines overbook flights, SYTYCD overbooks shows.

We got up early on Tuesday morning and with just the clothes on our backs (thanks again ScotteVest!) and a nice shirt in my patented disposable dress shirt transportation system (aka a plastic bag from the supermarket) we drove to the airport. Kev and Rachel had some upgrade coupons for the airline that were about to expire, so to make the day even better they upgraded us to 1st class airplane seats (which is also the first time I've ever done that).

Short hop down to LA and a taxi ride to Hollywood got us to the Kodak Theater (the same one they do the Oscars in). It was also my first time in Hollywood; I'm not sure how I managed to go this long with out ever stopping there. We stood in line, which was thankfully in the shade, and got pretty good seats. We actually had a couple of extra passes, which Rachel conveniently had organized to give away to some folks she'd only communicated with via FriendFeed. We all sat down for an early dinner, and got prepared. Part of that preparation was ditching our cell phones -- no phones or cameras were allowed in the theater -- which Kev took care of by slipping a few bucks to the concierge at the hotel next door.

Into the theater we went. First off, the Kodak theater is huge an gorgeous. Needless to say, there were a lot of teenage girls and the staff definitely sat a lot of them in the front of the orchestra section. That turned out to be not so great for some of them; the staff had a mandate to keep 100% of the seats filled at all times so no empty seats ever showed up on camera, and when they led in all the choreographers, competitors from earlier in the season & earlier seasons, and special guests the teenage seat-fillers were booted out (and I think banished to the upper mezzanine).

The whole experience took about 4 hours: 1 hour to seat us all while they performed some final technical checks, then about 3 hours to tape a 2 hour show. They taped it almost as you see it, with occasional re-dos when there was a technical boo-boo. Needless to say, it was fantastic to see the dancing performed live instead of edited for TV, so you could actually take in the whole piece (and the dancers' whole bodies instead of occasional close-ups of feet or heads).

All of the dancing was great, but the real stand-out was Jeanine. She's always been an underdog and isn't my favorite, but her solo was the best she's ever done and won an instant standing ovation. There's also a paso doble at the end that's amazingly good. Other highlights included the whole theater shouting "EVAN! EVAN! EVAN! EVAN!" right after Nigel gave him a bad review, Cat's funny improvs, all the children they interviewed in the audience during the "commercial breaks," and Phillip getting up on stage to do a spontaneous performance during another of the breaks.

We rushed out of the theater as they wrapped up. Kev had ordered a car for us to get us back to LAX, where we made it in plenty of time to catch our flight home. A very long day, but well worth it.

Comic-Con was once again a blast this year. We took the whole week off, spending two days on a leisurly drive down replete with nice wine tasting in Paso Robles. Then we  spent a couple of days bumbing around San Diego. We hung out on the beach, I visited my sweet 3-year-old nephew, and I even re-connected with a college girlfriend whom I hadn't seen for probably a decade. Oh, and instead of a normal hotel room, this year we slept on a yacht. :-)

The con itself was overwhelming as always. We started out on preview night, where they open the doors to early attendees before the con truly begins. This year fresne , capricious_k  and I were joined by one of our co-workers who's been a closet geek for some time, and took the plunge into the grandaddy of all pools. :-) She was immediately shocked at the size and density of the dealer's room, and fell in love with some tribbles she found at one of the booths.

The next four days were a whirlwind of panels and shopping. One of the great highlights for me was the iGoogle Comics Themes launch, which I've already blogged about. Shortly after I posted that blog entry, I met up with several other members of the Comics Launch Team at the Marvel booth and we handed out free posters to the crowd. It was amazing being on the other side of the great schwag frenzy and was definitely one of the highlights of the con for me this year. You can find a photo of it here.

Other con highlights included Edward James Olmos at the Battlestar Galactica/Caprica panel (he's a really intense and funny guy!), seeing Alice on a horror panel, laughing at the gaggle of teenage girls trying to catch a glimps of the Twilight stars, and hearing Kevin Conroy moan in a highly suggestive manner to Andrea Romano. And of course, the amazing costumes and energy you get just from wandering the enormous dealer's room floor.

Needless to say, we've already purchased our tickets for next year.

Actually we're doing the beyond part first, then proceeding to the con. But no matter what the order of operations is, capricious_k , fresne , and I are about to depart on our annual pilgrimage to San Diego Comic-Con, the largest geek convention in the world.

We're going to take a couple of days to drive down this time, so hopefully we'll get a little wine tasting along the way. We're actually staying on a yacht in the marina which I'm very much looking forward to checking out even if it is a little far from the convention center. We'll spend the first couple of days bumming around San Diego seeing the sights, visiting with friends and family, and generally having a lazy time of it.

Then the 4 day geekfest begins. For those of you not familiar with it, SDCC is far more than just a comic book convention. It's also where Hollywood comes to showcase all their movies that have big special effects budgets coming out in the next year, upcoming scifi/fantasy/horror TV shows, cool cartoons, etc. Lots of stars come out to play. Fan groups like the California Browncoats have a great presence, tons of people dress up in amazing costumes, video game producers show off their latest wares, and so on. And then there's the shopping... oh the shopping! The entire main convention floor is turned into a gigantic nerd mall for all your geeky needs -- action figures, tomes on the philosophical relevance of comics as a medium, pirate costumes, imported anime... you name it, it's probably out there somewhere.

Also, this year capricious_k  and I have an extra treat because one of our coworkers, who I think of as a budding geek, is coming to join us for the con and I'm really looking forward to watching her head go splody as soon as SDCC starts to overwhelm her. Trust me, if you've never been to SDCC before your head will go splody.

For those of you I'm expecting to bump into in San Diego, I look forward to seeing you there!

I'll try to post an blog update or two from San Diego, but I expect more timely and relevant (if shorter) updates to be on my Twitter feed @wintergr3y.

Last Friday I was introduced to "Rap Chop," the Slap Chop remix:


And then today, I stumbled across Auto-Tune The News. They're all brilliant, but this one was my favorite:

Ooo, this looks interesting! When Vampires rule the Earth...


 

This morning miss_emelia  called me up to ask a favor. A co-worker of mine had borrowed a petticoat from her for a costume event, and I was well-positioned to facilitate its return. So the co-worker and I just started an email conversation about the logistics of returning said petticoat.

Of course, our email conversation was taking place via Gmail, which includes automatically targeted advertising based on the content of the message. Imagine my surprise when I see this alongside our conversation:



Well yes, I am a man and yes, the conversation was about ladies undergarments. So technically this is a well-targeted ad. But, ummmmm, no.

I'm reposting something I wrote this morning on PriusChat, arguably the preminant Prius website. It's a detailed essay on my initial impressions of my new 2010 Prius.

Since it was initially posted on PriusChat, it referrs to capricious_k  as "my girlfriend" and miss_emelia  as "my friend."



I've had my III w/ nav for a few days, and I'd like to share my initial impressions. Overall, I'm extremely pleased with this car!

( Most of the review is behind this cut. )

Boy am I happy with this car! My last car was a 1995 Honda Civic which I purchased brand new and drove for more than a decade. Unless all of us early adopters discover something horribly wrong with the Gen3 Prius, I expect I'll keep this car for many, many years. By the time I'm done with this car, I hope the next generation of eco-friendly cars (plug-ins, fuel cells, cold fusion, whatever) are into their 2nd or 3rd generation and I'll move on to that happy and guilt-free.

Apparently this is what I missed at Friday Night Waltz last night:

 

The first generation was cool and high-tech for its time, but kinda funky and new:





The second generation was refit, rebuilt, sleeker and better:




The third generation is the new hotness, the sexiest one that everyone wants; faster, more efficient, more high-tech, and even sleeker:




So for my new wheels, I dub thee: EXCELSIOR!


(And yes, before you start making cracks about how Scotty pulled the spark plugs, remember that Sulu kicked some serious ass with that ship, and the entire Excelsior class was still in service in NexGen. Thhhhhptt!!)

Birthday greetings to you today, sir!

Not really, it's a fan-made trailer edited together from a lot of different sources. But it's still a lot of fun! Originally spotted at SciFi wire.

By the way, If you're unfamiliar with Green Lantern and are intrigued there's an animated movie coming out later this summer that will retell the origin story. Warner Brothers also have a feature film in pre-production.

My new Prius should be ready for pickup on Tuesday, and I'm getting really excited. I'm very ready for a new car. Bigger, better, greener, lots of modern amenities... all of these add up to something I'm very much looking forward to. If all goes according to plan, I'll probably keep this Prius for years and years.

But it was years and years I was contemplating earlier this afternoon as I was clearing out my 1995 Honda Civic EX, which I affectionately named Stormchaser (or Chaser for short). Chaser is a medium-shade gray with just a hint of purple. Chaser really glows in the rain; when that paint gets wet the purple gets iridescent and the color is beautiful. That car earned his name the first time I noticed the paint after a rainshower. We've been together for a long time.

Chaser is the 3rd car I've ever owned, but is my first "adult" car. I had one in high school and one in college, but Chaser was brand new right off the lot, and I paid for him with my own money after I negotiated a raise. I'd actually researched the Honda Civic the year before when my girlfriend at the time bought her first car. Even though I'd broken up with her, I realized that all the research I'd done applied just as equally to me as it had to her, so I went for it. With that history, though, there's always been a tiny association I've held in my soul between that car and that ex.

But Chaser and I had a life together for more than a decade, and I hadn't really realized how much until I was cleaning him out. Stuff that'd built up in the car for years, old dings and paint scratches, and that comfortable feeling of sliding behind the wheel... something I've done so many, many times over the years.

The very last things I took out of Chaser were a charm that Lindaloo made for me to keep me safe, and a Celtic knot that symbolizes my indoctrination into the local Celtic rock and Irish ceili scene, both of which hung from the rear-view mirror. As I took them down I thought about all the things I'd done with that car, all the places I'd been... the commutes, the vacations, the visits to friends and girlfriends, the drives back and forth to the Starry Plough, the trips to Tahoe (oh the many blizzards we've shared!), and just lazy drives through the hills I grew up in.

Those times have come to an end. Thank you Stormchaser, for everything. May your next owner have as fulfilling a life together as we have.

Ganked from Gizmodo, I give you... Han Solo, P.I.!

And here's how they did it, in a shot-by-shot comparison with the original:

I've been car shopping, and my heart is set on the 2010 Prius (aka Gen3 Prius). Everything the Gen2 has, plus better looking, bigger interior, and most importantly better mileage (average 50mpg). The local dealers all seemed to be selling them for the same price: exactly MSRP, no negotiating.

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from the Palo Alto Toyota dealer that they got 3 cars fresh off the boat that were available for test driving. So after work I dashed over there and took it out for a spin. It definitely drives better than a Gen2. Gone is the "mushy" steering, and the car now has a more responsive acceleration. It also has 3 alternate driving modes: EV (battery only for speeds under 25mph), ECO (reduced air conditioning, mushier acceleration so you don't burn gas by stomping on the peddle) and PWR (pretty much the opposite of ECO, useful when driving in the hills or if you have a guilty urge to burn gas in your hybrid). That nasty Prius blind spot is still there, but it's not as bad over the right shoulder (and is practically eliminated over the left shoulder).

Better mileage + better driving experience = time for me to commit. And since the Palo Alto dealer was more polite than the Sunnyvale guy, and he called me immediately after he got some in for test driving, I decided his dealership deserved my business. So I plunked down $500 to reserve a spot in line. I want Package #3 (cloth seats, smaller tires) with the nav system (no sunroof) in Winter Gray (squeeeeee the car comes in a color that's my favorite username!!!!).

Now I wait. All of the dealers are only getting a handful of cars every couple of weeks, and there's probably several people in line in front of me who want the same configuration. It'll probably be a couple of months before I get a car. In the meantime I guess I'll figure out how to dispose of my 14 year old Honda Civic, and keep pining away for the day I can christen it (I already have a name picked out).

But when that day finally comes, I'll be as cool as these guys:

A follow up to my post the other day about Reddit.com users using social engineering to strike back at the car warrenty robocallers. The Federal Trade Commision has gone to war with the two companies responsible for most of the madness.

"This is one of the most aggressive telemarketing schemes the FTC has ever encountered," said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. "I’m not sure which is worse, the abusive telemarketing tactics of these companies, or the way they try to deceive people once they get them on the phone. Either way, we intend to shut them down."