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Tuesday, July 27, 2010 19:10:48
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"We must meet this threat with our courage, our valor, indeed with our very lives to ensure that human civilization, not insect, dominates this galaxy now and always!"
- Sky Marshal Dienes (Starship Troopers) |
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010 10:00:34
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This year's vacation led me to San Diego, CA, for Comic-Con International 2010, the biggest geek-fest in the universe. After watching the highlights last year, it looked like it would be pretty fun, so I decided to give it a try. I bought the tickets and booked the tickets back in October, and even that was late enough that I missed out on Wednesday "preview night".
Here's a breakdown of the weekend - way more information than you care about or ever wanted to know...
Day 0: Wednesday
I took the day off of work on Wednesday to prepare. My plan was to go to sleep early on Tuesday night, wake up early, sleep 5 or 6 hours on Wednesday afternoon, then leave the house around 11pm to get to San Diego with plenty of time to spare on Thursday morning. Unfortunately, my stupid brain doesn't let me sleep on my schedule, so I ended up sleeping only about 2 hours on Wednesday evening.
Day 1: Thursday
I made the drive on schedule, and got to San Diego around 7am, after a couple of quick stops on the way (IHOP for a 3am breakfast, and a casino to stretch my legs and throw away 25 bucks). Knowing that parking at the convention center is not a good idea, I parked at the trolley station and took the train downtown. Unfortunately, an employee at the station misinformed me about the special "red-line" schedule, so I ended up waiting about 30 minutes longer than I needed before finding out that the red-line didn't come this early, so I'd have to take two trains. Of course, the wait at the next station was another 20 minutes or so, so I ended up getting to the convention center a little before 8.
Once there, I saw the line to get in - pretty long, but bearable. It wrapped around the back of the building, so I followed it back there. From there, it ducked around a corner, no big deal. But then it kept going and going and going - this had to be the longest line I've ever seen. The longest Disneyland lines were nothing compared to this line. But after about a half mile of walking just to get to the back, and another half mile to get back, I was finally in. Pre-registration/badge pickup moved surprisingly well considering the number of people there.
First stop, another line. The three USA shows (Burn Notice, White Collar, and Psych) were scheduled back-to-back-to-back in Ballroom 20, starting at 1pm. At 8:30, I saw the line was already growing, so I got in place. Three and a half hours in line in the hallway, alternating between standing and sitting in an uncomfortable position on the floor, while I was sleep-deprived, kind of sucked. For about an hour, there was a fairly steady stream of costumed attendees walking by, which was fun to watch. As big a TV nerd as I consider myself, I really had nothing in common with the people around me, so I didn't have much conversation, just a book to read (Dave Barry's History of the Millenium).
After another hour of waiting inside the auditorium, the panels began. I was in about the 8th row, so decent seats in a room of more than 4,000. The Burn Notice panel came first, and was pretty entertaining. Bruce Campbell was very funny, and the rest of the panel provided some fun and interesting answers to the prepared and audience questions. There was even an announcement of an upcoming Burn Notice prequel movie centering on Campbell's character. There was also a video describing how to do spy stuff to pitch your ideas to a Comic-Con executive, done in the style of the show. White Collar was next, a fun show starting its second season. The main cast was all there, including my favorite actress, Tiffani Thiessen, who of course looked great. The panel started with a funny video showing the planning of a caper to steal the new Tron footage, and moved on to some fun Q&A. Psych, probably the funniest show on TV right now, also had a very entertaining panel, including some singing and dancing.
The panels were fun, but honestly there wasn't much there that I would have gotten from watching the clips that will inevitably be on YouTube shortly if they're not already there. With such a large audience, there wasn't much of a chance to interact with the panelists. Also, both of the cameras I brought weren't able to take decent pictures of the panel - all of them had a horrible glare that made it impossible to see anything.
On the way back to the hotel at around 6:00, I realized the only thing I'd eaten since about 3am was a couple Oatmeal Creme Pies that I packed, so I decided to stop for dinner. I took the advice of a co-worker and stopped at Phil's BBQ, which also had great reviews on Yelp. The place has a line that wraps around the building, but since I was just going to eat at the bar, I could skip the 30 minute line and walk right in. The dinner menu is pretty much just beef ribs, pork ribs, and chicken - kind of limited for a BBQ place, but I tried the beef ribs and chicken combination, with fries. The dish came out, with tons of food. There were three giant beef ribs with lots of meat, and probably at least a half pound of chicken, along with a ton of fries. The sauce was excellent, thick and just a little spicy. Both the beef and chicken were great, and the fries were pretty good as well. Definitely the kind of place I'd frequent if I lived nearby.
Day 2: Friday
After 36 straight hours with only about 2 hours of sleep, my brain needed to be recharged. I decided to sleep in and skip day 2, which included Stargate: Universe, The Big Bang Theory, Bones, and The Joss Whedon Experience. I heard the Big Bang Theory panel was great, but somehow I doubt it was worth another day of 6 hours standing in line. So I played hooky instead.
With all day to kill, my first stop was lunch. I was in the mood for Philly cheesesteaks, so after a quick Yelp search, I ended up at Gaglione Brothers Famous Steaks & Subs for a Cheez Whiz steak sandwich with onions, with garlic fries. The sandwich was pretty good, but not as good as Corleone's back home. The garlic fries were a little weird, not something I'd have again.
I spent most of the day just kind of checking out the city. I checked out a few beaches and played some pool, and then it was time for dinner. I felt like Italian, and found one that looked kind of appealing, Paesano. I had the minestrone soup followed by baked lasagne and garlic bread. I really wasn't impressed.
Day 3: Saturday
Today was the Chuck panel, my favorite show on TV right now, and really the whole reason for attending the convention. The panel started late, and being scheduled for only 45 minutes, it ran pretty short. However, we did get a video and performance from Jeffster, and some insight into next season. Linda Hamilton will be making some appearances as Chuck's mother, and there will be several other guest stars as always, like the Old Spice guy. Unfortunately, with the time constraints, there was no time for audience Q&A, leaving the crowd a little disappointed.
I wanted to see one more panel later in the afternoon, so I stuck around and toughed out the next several panels. Family Guy was first - I'm not a fan of the show, but Seth MacFarlane is a funny guy, so the panel was bearable. The Cleveland Show was next, and that was horrible. Don't know how this show is on the air. Somehow Futurama is back on, and that panel was next - this show gave it a good effort when it started, but never really was funny, but it has a new home on Comedy Central, so Groening and crew were out there talking about it. The Simpsons was next, wrapping up the block of panels I didn't want to watch. Every time I watch the show anymore, I'm lucky to find one funny thing in the whole episode. It's another one of those shows that was great for awhile, but should have been ended about 5 or 6 years ago. But there was one funny moment in the panel; while answering a silly question about a Simpsons spinoff, someone brought up the fact that Seth MacFarlane has three shows, to which producer Matt Selman responded "Seth MacFarlane has one show three times", getting mixed reactions from the crowd.
The other panel I wanted to see was V, the remake of the old sci-fi miniseries, which will be entering its second season soon. The show is good, but the panel really didn't accomplish anything. The moron who was moderating it kept asking the actors questions about how the show is unfolding, and pretty much every answer was "Umm...well...I hope that...". The types of questions he was asking should have been directed at the show's creators and writers, and the actors should have been asked questions that they could actually answer.
After the panels, I was thinking about food, and I can't come all the way to Southern California without stopping at Shakey's. They currently have a special for a $9.99 large with BBQ sauce, bacon, ham, pineapples, and jalapeno sausage. It wasn't bad, but next time I'll stick with normal pepperoni pizza.
Day 4: Sunday:
There was nothing of interest in the Comic-Con schedule, so I took another day to relax. I figured I'd take this opportunity to find a day spa to get a fancy massage (and I mean a real massage, not a "massage"). I found one that looked promising, but never was able to contact them. The next place I found with good reviews was Suki Day Spa. Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to the location - it was downtown, just a couple blocks from the convention center, which meant parking was impossible. I ended up parking about a mile away in some hotel garage's "guest only" parking, and luckily the car was there when I got back. I went with the 4-handed massage, something I've never tried before. Totally worth it - a little expensive, but having two parts worked on at the same time is a different experience, very relaxing.
Dinner was at Hunter Steakhouse. I started with a caesar salad and a chunk of a pretty good oat bread and sweet butter. The main course was a filet mignon served medium rare, small but very flavorful and perfectly cooked. Sides were excellent au gratin potatoes and ordinary onion rings. For dessert, a good sized turtle cheesecake. Overall, an excellent meal.
General Notes:
This was the first time I've done serious driving in San Diego, and it's as bad or worse than Los Angeles. There are lanes merging with no notice, through lanes turning into turn lanes forcing you to change lanes to go straight, ambiguous stop signs, interstate freeways dropping to one lane (not construction, just the way it's built), freeway entrances inside neighborhoods, random onramp locations, endless business districts, unmarked freeway exits, unmarked intersections, 45-degree drops, and the same old California drivers.
My cats were happy to see me when I got home - they've been extra friendly since I've been home. I've never left them alone for more than about 2 days before, so I was worried that they'd be mad at me, or that they would have torn up the house while I was gone. But aside from a few things knocked over, the house was fine, nothing broken or damaged.
Comic-Con really isn't for me. Sitting on the floor or standing for 5 or 6 hours at a time just to be in the same room as my favorite TV actors isn't worth it to me. I'm not interested in the other pieces: comics, video games, or buying crap, and I really don't get a thrill from seeing a big movie star from across the room. It was fun seeing a bunch of people in costume, and the panels were generally entertaining, but not enough to get me back next year.
Yelp reviews
Phil's BBQ
Gaglione Bros.
Hunter Steakhouse
Paesano |
Tags: review vacation food tv
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010 19:07:03
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Tags: review food
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Monday, July 19, 2010 22:07:26
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"I challenge you... Strike a blow for motherhood! Strike a blow for the American justice system! Put the 'can' back in American! Put the 'ju' back in jurisprudence! Put the 'con' back in the constitution! And put the 'dom' back in freedom!"
- Ned Ravine (Fatal Instinct) |
Tags: quote funny movies
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Saturday, July 17, 2010 15:06:56
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Just wanted to take a quick minute to rant about something that bugs me. Every commercial break on TV, there's some insurance company talking about how great their product is, based on how many discounts they offer. No mention of what the original price is, or how it compares to other companies.
Attaching discounts to an arbitrary price is basically meaningless. In my mind, it's the same as ridiculous advertisements featuring "up to 30% or more" off of the regular price - in other words, it could be absolutely any price whatsoever, from zero up to and including the regular price which is never stated.
Discounting your own unstated rates means nothing. Let me demonstrate: I will gladly insure your vehicle, and I'll offer discounts for having a job, owning OR renting your home, having children, owning a television set, being left-handed, knowing how to play poker, liking polka music, being taller than 6 feet, being shorter than 5 feet, having seen all 11 Star Trek movies, knowing how to say "Hello" in at least three languages, preferring paper instead of plastic bags at the supermarket, drinking 1% milk, knowing the difference between Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton, actually liking the new Star Wars trilogy better than the original trilogy, being a lacrosse fan, knowing how to integrate a polynomial, playing the trombone, memorizing all of the state capitals, preferring Jessica Biel over Jessica Alba (warning: NSFW, PG-13 link), owning an original Nintendo Entertainment System, being able to understand Ozzy Osbourne, admitting you like Miley Cyrus's music, owning the complete works of William Shakespeare in Pag Latin, and having a pet iguana. I could go on, but I don't want to get long winded.
Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah, I could make that offer, complete with a hundred various discounts, but it costs you $75,000 per month, and each discount only knocks 50 bucks off of the price. Would that be a good deal? (That's a rhetorical question, but for those of you who haven't been following along, the answer is 'no'). So when Allstate, Progressive, and every other insurance company talks about their "discounts", make sure you don't fall for their little game - there's no substitute for shopping around for the best deal.
And if anyone is interested in my insurance offer, give me a call. I'll just need your first 12 payments as a non-refundable deposit in cash or gold bullion.
Video: Progressive Commercial Spoof - Discount!
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Tags: rant funny
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Sunday, July 11, 2010 14:05:57
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Anyone who knows me knows that I may just be the biggest football fan alive - not that American gridiron thing, but REAL football where you actually use your feet. Of course, my favorite holiday season is the World Cup Finals - the monthlong tournament where the greatest football players in the world compete for the right to hold the solid gold trophy for the next four years, and bragging rights around the world, except for America, where they're too busy eating their cheeseburgers and watching TV to care about football.
Still, as an American, I had to cheer for our team, which unfortunately, didn't win the Cup this year. That honour went to Spain, hereafter referred to as the greatest footballers of our generation.
Let's take a look at some of the reasons why I love this game:
Low Score
Most other sports involve an offense that scores at least once every game. This is way overrated. Football features more shutouts and more zero-zero ties than any other sport in the world. This proves how exciting the game is, and illustrates the incredible skills of goalkeepers and defenders who specialise in preventing scoring. When I sit and watch a world-level tournament game for a couple hours, I don't want to see any offense whatsoever. It's incredibly exciting to watch a bunch of guys kick a ball around for 90 minutes and never once hear "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL". Thankfully, scoreless games happened several times during this year's World Cup tournament, and those games were among the greatest I've ever seen.
Ties
Not all games can end in zero-zero draws. Some games actually have some serious offense. In a high-scoring game, you may even see a one-one draw. In either case, it warms my heart to see a game end where neither team loses. It's like watching little league baseball, where everyone gets a trophy at the end of the season, because everyone's a winner. In certain games, however, ties aren't allowed, and the game is decided by penalty kicks. So rather than a team winning by playing the game they've been playing for the past 120 minutes, they start a brand new game to determine the winner. This is a great idea that should be adopted by other sports - for example, a free-throw shooting contest in basketball after overtime, a home run derby in baseball after 12 innings, or a field-goal kicking contest in gridiron after overtime.
Timekeeping
Most other sports end when the timer runs out. Football is much more civilised - there is a timer, but it doesn't actually mean anything. The game ends when the referee thinks it needs to. Teams can waste several minutes just walking around, arguing with officials, or performing substitutions, while the clock continues to run. After 90 minutes, the officials determine that they should just keep playing for a few minutes to make up for those delays, instead of stopping the clock during the game. Clearly, this is a more logical way of tracking time. After all, why should the players or coaches know how much time there is left in the game? If they knew, then they'd actually use that information to see how urgently they need to score or prevent a score, and that would just be silly.
Vuvuzela
Only the greatest sport in the world would feature a musical instrument known to cause permanent hearing loss. America may have the occasional air horn sound during sporting events, but only world-class football has thousands of fans demonstrating their creativity by blowing a ludicrously loud and monotone horn constantly during every game.
Using Your Head
As the only major sport to not allow its players to use their hands, football requires players to use all other parts of their bodies, primarily their feet and heads, to direct the ball. This is perfectly reasonable, since scientific studies dealing with brain damage from repeated blows to the head have been inconslusive at best.
For these, and many other reasons, football is the most popular sport in the world. Nearly all countries have a national team in FIFA, with such creative and catchy official nicknames like the Australian "Socceroos", the "Elephants" of the Ivory Coast, South Africa's "The Boys The Boys", and the "Representative Team" from Slovakia. Countries are passionate about their football teams, especially the smaller pissant countries like North Korea, where beloved leader Kim Jong Il would reward a win handsomely, but punishes an embarassing loss by forcing the team to work in the coal mines.
Who wouldn't love this game? |
Tags: rant funny sports
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Tuesday, July 06, 2010 20:44:14
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"We'll try to cooperate fully with the IRS, because, as citizens, we feel a strong patriotic duty not to go to jail."
- Dave Barry |
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Sunday, July 04, 2010 14:29:10
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As we commemorate the 234th birthday of the United States of America, I think it's important that we take a minute and remember what we're celebrating. It wasn't easy to form our own nation, as the Revolutionary War proved. But George Washington, Thomas Edison, and Abraham Lincoln stood their ground and bravely fought off the British invasion to ensure that America (or Texas as it was known back then) would be free for centuries to come.
On June 17th, 1775, George Washington, John Adams, John Hancock, and a young Ronald Reagan met in Des Moines, Iowa (the nation's first capital city) to discuss the dispute regarding the taxation of trade routes by the greedy British Trade Federation, who stopped all shipping to the small port of Naboo. Washington, known to his friends as "Big George", came up with a plan to stop England's policy of "taxation without representation" that had been in place for several years. After months of planning, Big George's concept became reality. He spread the word across the colonies, and by March 1776, it was a success: everyone just stopped paying their taxes.
Unfortunately, when April 15th came around, the British IRS began to notice that no tax returns from across the pond had been delivered. At first, they just thought there was a problem with the post office - after all, we had just gotten past Sears Catalog season, and the postal workers were tired and starting to show signs of disgruntlement. But after a couple more months, the government came to realize that they weren't going to pay. This upset Her Majesty the Holy and Beloved High Queen Lizzy the First, who wasn't going to let some pissant colonists get away with such a brash action. She immediately ordered aerial bombing of the colonies, a move that seemed a little premature, especially since airplanes wouldn't be invented for over 120 years. The House of Commons immediately took steps to impeach Lizzy and replace her with King George, known to the American people as "Little George".
Washingon, Adams, Edison, and a unanimous Congress signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776, declaring once and for all that a united and non-partisan government in America would live and flourish forever. In response, Little George's first official act in office was to stop the American uprising and regain the trust and love for England that they had lost during the last few decades. In order to accomplish this, George did the most sensible and reasonable thing he could think of - he negotiated a peace and partnership that would provide both countries with stability and strength. Just kidding! He bought a bunch of Hessian thugs to come over and kill as many Americans as they could. In addition to these mercenaries, Georgie sent over a bunch of redcoats (so called because of their ties to Communist China) to fight for the crown and prevent freedom and representative government that was spreading like a plague among the colonies.
America had only a small organized army - the majority of the fighters were ordinary people who used everyday ordinary tools, like pitchforks, shovels, and baseball bats to hold off the British troops. Luckily, when the first British weapon caches were being packed, a typo on the requisition orders gave the colonists a slight advantage. Originally, each troop of 100 soldiers was supposed to have 1 trumpet and 99 rifles. Instead, upon opening their suitcases, they discovered that they had 1 rifle and 99 trumpets. The soldiers, with nothing better to do on their long marches, decided to play their trumpets anyway, while lined up 2-by-2 like targets, so it was pretty easy to tell when a group of redcoats was on the way. And since it took an average of 45 minutes to reload their one rifle between shots, the Americans were able to defeat these troops pretty easily. This luck didn't last, as future troops were more prepared for combat, leading to a long and bloody war.
The war lasted for several years, with many casualties on both sides, with battles on the ground and sea, and foreign alliances on both sides. Eventually, with no other alternatives available, Big George travelled to Yorktown, Pennsylvania, to take on General Charles "Creamed" Cornwallis, in a one-on-one cage match to decide the winner of the war. The fight lasted 12 rounds, with both contestants exhausted by the end. Washington just wanted it more, and by the end, he was the last man standing. News of the defeat made it back to England about a year later (internet speed was very slow back then - it took an average of 3 months just to send an email from Virginia to Georgia, so you can imagine how long it takes to get a message across the ocean), and a year after that, the last British troops left American soil, finally officially recognizing it as American soil.
After a few false starts, a united government, broken into three branches was formed, with President Big George leading the way. The new U.S. Constitution defined the legislative branch as the houses of senate and representatives, and defined the judicial branch into two groups as well: the group that has 4 people that vote one way on every issue, and the group that has 5 people that vote the other way on every issue. Over the years, various political parties have been born and retired, such as the Federalists, Whigs, Anti-Masonics, Pro-Masonics, Know-Nothings, Know-It-Alls, Greenbacks, Jeffersonians, Fillmorians, Rutherfordians, and the Flat Tax party.
The prosperous and free United States that exists today only exists because of the courage and strength of our founding fathers over 200 years ago. The 4th of July is a time when we can all think about some of the great things that this country has done since its beginning: many of the greatest scientific and medical advances in the world, saving the world from multiple power-hungry dictators in WWII, and of course, Chuck Norris. I'm proud to be an American every day. |
Tags: funny misc
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Saturday, June 26, 2010 08:17:18
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"Well, I guess if a person never quit when the going got tough, they wouldn't have anything to regret for the rest of their life. But good luck to you Peter. I'm sure this decision won't haunt you forever."
- Lance Armstrong (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) |
Tags: quote funny movies sports
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Wednesday, June 23, 2010 00:26:45
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"I wasn't like every other kid, you know, who dreams about being an astronaut, I was always more interested in what bark was made out of on a tree. Richard Gere's a real hero of mine. Sting. Sting would be another person who's a hero. The music he's created over the years, I don't really listen to it, but the fact that he's making it, I respect that. I care desperately about what I do. Do I know what product I'm selling? No. Do I know what I'm doing today? No. But I'm here, and I'm gonna give it my best shot."
- Hansel (Zoolander) |
Tags: quote funny movies
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