Comic-Con 2014: Saturday

I can't believe it took a whole year to post this.


July 26, 2014

I woke up early to get in line for the Bandai line.  4am early.  After the lines finally let in, I made it to the Bandai table only to find all the tickets for the Green Rangers' Power Dagger was sold out.  It's a better system than last year, but I still wasted a whole lot of time.


Lumia 925: Conquest

Since I was skipping all the big panels, I decided to get some small stuff out of the way.  I finished the Adventure Time Conquest and got my third medal.


Lumia 925:Genderbent Captain America | Disco Stormtrooper

I spent the afternoon at Nerd HQ.  I waited in line for three hours to play 10 minutes of lasertag.  Ugh.  Avoid this the lasertag on Saturdays.  On the way out, I found CM Punk looking grumpy sitting on the floor.  I said hi and held up my hand and he hi-fived me.  I think that made the wait worth it.


Lumia 925: Games

Saturday night ended made use of the giant table in the room with a big round of Cards Against Humanity. 

Comic-Con 2014: Friday

I can't believe it took a whole year to post this.

July 25, 2014

Friday started early. Like 5am early. It's important to have a regular bowel movement every morning. I always use the hotel restroom on the second or third floor so that my roommates don't have to deal with the smell. Going this early usually ensures a freshly cleaned stall that I could enjoy in solitude.


Lumia 925: Speedsuits

I headed over to the Hilton Bayfront and got in line for the Indigo Ballroom. The doors opened around 9am and the first panel was at 10am for Uncle Grandpa and Clarence. Then came the Adventure Time panel, I believe was my 4th.


Lumia 925: Ventures | Rick and Marty?

Next up were the Adult Swim panels. There was the Venture Brothers panel of mostly q&a, a strange Triumph and Jack McBrayer panel. I made it through a bit of Rick and Morty before I I had to leave to find food.


Lumia 925: The USS Midway

I missed a cast signing with the Power Rangers. I attempted to get into CraveOnline's party on the USS Midway aircraft carrier. After two hours in line, the event hit capacity. They really overbooked with the RSVPs and turned away hundreds of people. I got dinner from a food truck stationed next to the new Headquarters shopping center. It was nice to see that place in business after being boarded up for so many years.


Lumia 925: Tim and Eric

I got back to my hotel room and changed for Tim and Eric's pajama party. It wasn't much of a party than just a viewing and Tim and Eric doing their weird schtick, but it was a fund end to the day.

Comic-Con 2014: Thursday

I can't believe it took a whole year to post this.

July 24, 2014

Thursday started with a few panels. First up was a panel for The Witcher 3. This was followed by a panel for The Toy Story that Time Forgot.  This was fun since Krysten Schall showed up. Next up was a panel for some Sean Bean show that Sean Bean didn't show up for. TNT spent a ton of money promoting this show, plastering the side of one of the towers at the Marriott and giving out tons of T-shirts that say "Don't kill Sean Bean" and he didn't show up.  I was so disappointed. This was followed by another TNT show, the Last Ship. Comic-Con favorite Adam Baldwin was on the panel and he mugged for his fans.


Nokia 808: The NASA panel

The reason I sat through all these panels was for the NASA panel with Buzz Aldrin.  The room was electric when he walked on stage and he got a standing ovation.  The panel also had astronaut Mike Fincke, Bobak Ferdowsi (the mohawk guy) and Dr Jim Greene and was moderated by his son Seth Greene.



Nokia 808: I encountered some weird cosplay combos between panels

With panels out of the way, I went over to Petco Park to find some food. I scored free pizza from a Ninja Turtle exhibit.  I then headed over to Hotel Solamar for the Hero Complex party.


Lumia 925: Too much alcohol

I was about 4 drinks in when the pizza started to rumble in my stomach.   I had to push away my friend as my dinner spewed out of my mouth.  After three more spews, security showed up and escorted me out.  I saw a regular cab across the street but ended up taking a pedicab.  By the time I got back to my hotel, the cabbie charged me a whopping $50.  I didn't bother to argue to I paid and waddled to my room and slept.

Comic-Con 2014: Preview Night

I can't believe it took me a whole year to get around to posting this.


July 23, 2014

The train ride to San Diego was non-eventful. A lot less people in silly hats. Picked up my bags and took a cab to the hotel. Had my friends check in ahead of time for me.


Lumia 925 | View from the Parlor Room at the Hyatt

We got the Parlor Room at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. It had a couch with a pull out bed, a fridge, a large table and an amazing view. We had 3 extra single beds as well. One night we had 7 people sleeping in the room.


Nokia 808 | Aircraft Carrier

While I was unpacking, an aircraft carrier came by. It was huge. Afterwards was lunch at Richard Walker's Pancake House followed by a supply run at Ralphs.


Lumia 925 | Mint Julep

Dinner was from Ralphs.  None of us had preview night that year, so we went over to the Noble Experiment for drinks.  They made the perfect Mint Julep.  Afterwards was ice cream at Ghirardelli.


Lumia 925

I saw this statue behind the hotel.  It was promoting some Xbox One game.  The Xbox Lounge was hosted at the Hyatt.  I never got around to checking it out.

Planning your day at the LA Auto Show

After going to the LA Auto Show for a few years, here's some tips I picked up.

1. The best days to go are weekdays. 

These days are the least crowded.  That means there's less waiting for you.  For 2014, the Auto Show ran from November 21-30.  I went on Monday the 24 and waited no more than 10 minutes for anything.

2. Prepare to spend all day there.

To get the most out of the Auto Show, be prepared to spend all day there.  If you scored free tickets, go multiple days.  Bring a backpack for snacks or medication.  Thick socks and gel soles for your feet.

3. Get there early.

The best part of the Auto Show is getting to test drive cars.  I arrived at the Auto Show this year around 2PM and missed a few brands.  In order to test drive at least once from every car manufacturer, you probably need to get there when the show opens at 10am.

Start at the main entrance at Pico and Figueroa and walk south towards Venice.  Find Figueroa Drive and there will be some test drives there.  When you finish, walk back to the entrance and then towards the overpass on Pico, there will be more test drives.  Next walk towards Staples Center.  You will find a lot of cars to test drive here.  For the last test drive, walk between the Convention Center and Staples Center.  Walk down Chick Hearn Court a bit for the last test drive from Ford.

My favorite drives from this year's show were the Fiat 500e electric and the Ford F150.  The F150 has massaging seats that blew my mind.
Test drives end at 5PM.  With a break for lunch, you should be able to finish all the test drives by sundown. Go have dinner and then buy your tickets to go inside.  That's right, you've had a full day and haven't bought tickets yet.  Test drives do not require admission, just your license.  You could go home and come back another day to go check out what's inside.

4.  Enjoy the show.

At this point of the show, I walk around and take pictures of cars.  Depending on the car and if there's a large crowd, I'll hop in a car to try the seats.  I love the interactive exhibits.  My favorite for 2014 were the booths that had an Occulus Rift setup. Don't forget to pick up free bags from Toyota and Hyundai for your groceries.  If you have any time left, go downstairs for the customs and exotics. 

Here are my photos from this year's show.

It's almost 2015 and I'm still using a Symbian phone

Well, not as my main phone.  For now, that's a Nokia Lumia 925.  However, my Nokia 808 Pureview is still raking up mileage.

Obviously, the camera is still its main use.  Most of the photos and videos on this blog were shot with it.  I found the Lumia 1020 too much of a lateral move from the 808 to purchase it.  Looking forward to the 1020 successor.

I prefer to use twitter on my 808.  Gravity is (thankfully) still being updated and I find it the easiest way to browse my multiple accounts and lists.  Windows Phone still has no app that can match its ease of use, speed and features.

The 808 is still amazing when it comes to GPS.  I drove for an hour yesterday with no cable plugged in and my battery was only down to 75% .  If I use my Lumia 925, the battery would have drained in 30 minutes.  Even plugged in with my old 1amp car charger, it still ends up dead after 3 hours.  Never had a problem with the 4-5 hour drive to Vegas with my 808.

GPS on Symbian works great.  Route commands come through the phone's speaker.  This is great on the 808, since the speaker is quite loud.  Route commands will only use the car stereo if I am connected in BT Audio mode and have music streaming from the phone.

Car navigation on Windows Phone sucks in my car.  It connects over bluetooth to my car stereo very strangely.  Route commands break the audio and use my car stereo's BT Phone mode.  This means the audio quality takes a major nosedive.  It is a really jarring experience because route instructions are delayed about 2 seconds.  Half the time, the route instruction doesn't even play because of that delay.  Even connected in BT Audio with music streaming, the route instructions still come over BT Phone mode.  Maybe it's my car stereo's fault this experience sucks.

If I only have the 925 on me when driving, I shut down its bluetooth connection and just use the phone's speaker.  This isn't too bad.  I can use Cortana and get directions to where I want to go easier.  Cortana over my car's bluetooth can never hear me.

Depeche Mode - live at Staples Center

September 29, 2013.  My second depeche mode show in a week after seeing them a couple of days earlier in Chula Vista.

I got downtown early enough to look for Seven Grand.  I had heard that this bar serves a proper Mint Julep, my favorite cocktail.  After a bit of walking around, I found the bar's upstairs entrance.  I had gotten there a bit early and had to wait for it to open.  I was happy to see it was prepared in a metal cup and packed with ice.  However, the cup was a bit small compared to the last one I had had and it left me disappointment. 

I walked over to Staples Center and checked out the merchandise table.  I bought a really nice and comfortable hoodie, but you could barely tell it was branded.  What I really like about the hoodie is that the pockets are really deep.  My keys or phone never fall out.

I went to find my seats and was pleased to find that two rows in front of me were empty.  For a short person like myself, I was in heaven.  No shoulders to look over or heads in the way.


Here's some videos from the show recorded with my Nokia 808 Pureview.


Walking In My Shoes


Precious


Behind the Wheel


Sooth My Soul


A Pain That I'm Used To


Enjoy the Silence


Just Can't Get Enough

This last video is interesting.  One of the band members fucked up and they had to start the song over.

Proposed Lumia naming scheme

I don't like the current Lumia naming scheme.  Right now, there's a mix of three digit and four digit names that make no sense.  I propose a new name scheme for 2015.  The four digit name scheme from Nokia's early days needs to return. 

Let's start with the Lumia 1000.  This would be the equivalent to the current Lumia 520.  It should cost $50-$70 and have the basic needs for your parents or a kid or anyone on a tight budget.  Next would be the Lumia 2000.  This would be the equivalent to the current Lumia 635.  Same as the Lumia 1000 but with LTE.

Next would be the mid-range series.  The Lumia 3000 would be equivalent to the current Lumia 735.  Skip the 4000's because that's bad luck. The Lumia 5000 would be like the Lumia 830, minor spec bumps from the 3000 series.  The Lumia 6000 would a mid end phone with a giant screen like the current Lumia 1320. 

Next would be the Lumia 7000.  This would be equivalent to the Lumia 930.  Top end specs with a normal size screen.  The Lumia 8000 would be like the Lumia 1020.  Throw in whatever huge camera or other new technology from the Microsoft Mobile labs.  Finally, the Lumia 9000 would be the top end Lumia with a giant screen like the Lumia 1520.

Simple and logical.  Please steal my ideas, Microsoft.

I built a PC

The day before I left for San Diego Comic-Con, my PC died. 

Back at the Comic-Con in 2012, I scored an AMD A8 3870 K APU at a Geek and Sundry Felicia Day signing.  I remember it rained that day.  It's been sitting in the box with a bunch of other SDCC swag.  I decided to build a new PC around this APU.

My old PC was an HP M9400f.  It was heavily damaged in shipping, so I got it a new case.  Here's a list of upgrades I made to it:

Rosewill mid tower
Mushkin 128GB SSD
Seagate 3TB hard drive
DVDR drive
Thermaltake 500W power supply
Coolermaster Hyper 212 fan
Asus GeForce 210 GPU

I bought the fan to help quiet the PC down, which it did immensely.  The old fan was caked in dust.  The HP power supply needed replacing.   I bought the graffics card because the original had sound issues.

I figured the motherboard was dead, so I took it apart.  I had planned to upgrade my PC eventually and had already made a list of parts I would need.

Asus F1 A55-M motherboard
Crucial 8GBx2 DDR3 PC1866 ram
Asus Radeon HD6450



It took me about 2 hours to take apart my old motherboard and install the new parts.  I made two mistakes here.  At the time of purchase, my budget was tight.  The motherboard I got doesn't have HDMI out.  For a second mistake, the ram I bought have heatsinks that get in the way of the CPU fan. 

This is an optimal configuration for the fan, going from right to left:
Exhaust <--- CPU Cooler <--- Fan <--- Air
My set up works like this:
Exhaust <--- fan <--- CPU Cooler <--- Air
The cooler is still cool to touch, so I'm not worried.

I changed the GPU from GeForce to Radeon just to keep the drivers all lined up.  The A8 APU comes with a feature called Crossfire.  So with the Radeon I got that feature and HDMI out.  The Crossfire feature is kind of lost on me, since I don't play video games much.  The drivers took a few days to get stable, but I eventually found the right settings.  Only problem is that my computer gets cranky when it comes back from sleep and the Windows taskbar stops working right.  Reboot takes like 30 seconds so not a big deal to me.  I remember when computers took 5 minutes to reboot.

CPU performance has been stellar.  Moving from 8GB to 16GB of ram has been nice.  No slowdown at all.

Note: This post was drafted in July of 2014.

November backlog

It's November.  Which means I should attempt to write something every day.  I have barely touched this blog all year, as I've been on tumblr posting junk there all the time.  This will be hard, since I'm in the middle of a move.  There's a ton of stuff in my draft folder from product reviews to event recaps I'll be posting.

Enjoy these ducks and stay tuned.

Soundgarden X nine inch nails X Hollywood Bowl: August 25, 2014

Lumia 925 - Hollywood Bowl marquee

Got free parking at the Metro in North Hollywood.  Paid less than a dollar for in Metro fares to get to Hollywood and Highland.  Broke a bit of a sweat getting up to the Bowl.  Stopped halfway at a cowboy sports bar for an Adios.  Wait a second, why is there a cowboy sports bar in the middle of Hollywood?  Stopped again at a small park next to the Hollywood Bowl entrance to empty my backpack of alcohol. In hindsight, I probably could have left my single serve alcohol bottles in my bag.


Lumia 925 - Hollywood Bowl at sunset

It was about 7:20 when I got to the gates, so I missed the opener Cold Cave.
It was really crowded trying to get in.  Lines for everything and people just standing in the middle of a crowd made navigation difficult.


Nokia 808 - Soundgarden

I decided to buy a tour shirt and hope I'd be done before Soundgarden started up.  The credit card machines were malfunctioning but I got lucky when it was my turn to pay. 
I went to find my seats and found I was in a 4 seated box.  This was really cool.  The last two times I was at the Bowl, I was stuck on a bench.  I didn't find out until afterwards I had a table to use as well.  The Bowl has hi-def monitors on each side of the stage and a few more for people in the middle and nosebleed sections.  I think those were new since my last visit.  One more note about the Bowl, the men's bathroom is stacked with urinals.  The line may seem long but it moves fast.


Nokia 808 - Soundgarden - Spoonman

Soundgarden played a shorter set compared to when I saw them in Vegas.  They started about 10 minutes later than the set times I saw posted on twitter.  Chris Cornell said it had been a lifelong dream to play the Bowl since he saw it on the Brady Bunch.  He also talked about how nice it must be for the people who lived at the top of the hill to get to watch shows all the time.  He then complained about how the whole show needed to be finished by 11PM.


Nokia 808 - Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun

The band's show was a bit different from Vegas.  Aside from being shorter, they didn't have a curtain drop to kick off the show.  At the end of the show, the band left one by one.  Guitarist Kim Thayil walked to the left side of the stage, picked up a beer, raised it to the crowd and walked to the other side of the stage.  When he got to the other side, he poured it out on the stage.  That was strange.


Nokia 808 - nine inch nails - 1000000


Nokia 808 - nine inch nails

nine inch nails put on a great show as usual.  The setlist was almost the same as the last time I saw them.  Sanctified sounded a little different from recent past performances, but that's about it.  Although my distance from the stage was the same, it seemed smaller due to the band shells.  Unlike Vegas, the show went down without a hitch and finished with 1 minute to spare before the 11PM curfew.   


Nokia 808 - nine inch nails - Closer


Nokia 808 - nine inch nails

I was really surprised with how many bootleg t-shirt salesmen there were.  I think it was because of my path back to the Metro station that I ran into nearly everyone salesmen.  Other big shows I've been to probably had more that I never saw. 


Nokia 808 - nine inch nails - head like a hole


Nokia 808 - nine inch nails

Las Vegas: Soundgarden X nine inch nails at The Axis at Planet Hollywood powered by Monster, July 19, 2014

Okay, first let's talk about about that ridiculous venue name.  The first time I went there, it was the Aladdin Theater for the Performing Arts where I saw Boingo.  A few years ago, I saw nine inch nails play there and it was called the Planet Hollywood Theater for the Performing Arts.  Now it has a fully corporate sponsored name.  Blah.

So anyway, this was a fun weekend, but mediocre show.  Had a nice dinner at Gordon Ramsey's BurGR before the show.  The line to pick up tickets was a bit long, but no big deal.

Oneohtrix Point Never was a strange opener.  There was one guy behind a DJ station.  The performance felt like something out of an abstract art gallery.  Lots of slow build up to nothing.


Nokia 808 - Oneohtrix Point Never

I went to the merch booth to pick up a new keychain.  Soundgarden started up before I could get back to my seat.  It was a bit strange, since their bassist was in the crowd for the first song and slowly made his way to the stage.  I guessed right that they would play Spoonman as their second song and tried to record it, but the girl in front of me was both too tall and liked to dance so I never had a good shot.  Because it's the 20th anniversary of Superunknown, their set was heavy in songs from that album.  I enjoyed the simple imagery of an eclipse used for those songs.  At one point, lead singer Chris Cornell stopped to talk about how when they formed the band, the world was bleak and things sucked.  He said pop and modern music is fine and all, but the world aint any different.  I really enjoyed their performance, even though they didn't play one song I wanted to hear, Been Away Too Long.


Nokia 808 - Soundgarden

I probably would have enjoyed the show more if I wasn't stuck in a shit sandwich.  I had to manuever a lot to look around dancing of the tall girl in front of me. It got worse when she switched with her even taller boyfriend.  Behind me were an incredibly obnoxious couple.  Every time a singer would say thank you, she would yell "NO THANK YOU!" or "I LOVE YOU!" Her boyfriend was dancing a lot as well and often bumped into my friend.  Vegas being what it is, I noticed a group of four leave halfway into Soundgarden's set two rows up.  It wasn't until halfway into nine inch nails' set that me and my friend moved up to their empty seats.  The show was much nicer at that point.



Nokia 808 - Trent Reznor

  I was pretty impressed with the stage crew.  They tore down and removed Soundgarden's stage in about 5 minutes.  After about 20 minutes, a stagehand put out a lamp on the stage and a small music device on a podium.  5 minutes later, with the house lights still on, Trent Reznor casually walked out on stage and started the show.  Eventually the three other members of the band made their way on stage and the lights went down and the stage formed.  






Nokia 808 - nine inch nails

The performance was riddled with faults. Lots of the stage effects were malfunctioning. Robin Finck's guitar would crap out and he threw it away in disgust.  Trent would later say, "Hey its the first show, things are bound to go wrong."  In the past, he would have thrown a tantrum and broken instruments or parts of the stage.  Musically, it was very interesting to me since a few songs were done without live drums or different instrumentation than past shows.


Nokia 808 - nine inch nails

After the show I went to the Cosmopolitan in search of a proper Mint Julep.  I was told to go to, the Chandelier Bar, but they didn't have the cups to serve one in.  I walked down to Caesar's Palace to visit the Forum Shops, but it was closed.  With that, the night ended.

Sunday I returned to the Forum Shops to find Max Brenners had closed.  Afterwards I headed to the pinball museum and blew some quarters.  The day concluded with playing my DC Deck Builder game.  Here's a tip, if you're driving from LA to Vegas, stay until Monday morning.  The Sunday afternoon drive is always a nightmare.  The Monday morning drive back was a breeze.

Upgrading at&t U-Verse

Nokia N8 - at&t logo - (I must have been drunk when I took this photo)

I am subscribed to at&t U-Verse internet. My rate was $36 per month for 6Mbps down / .5 up.  That pricing expired in July, so my August bill went up to $46.  Last week, I called 1-800-ATT-2020 and asked for a better deal.  They offered nothing.

I called again, this time asking to cancel my bill.  I was offered $41 for 12Mbps down/ 1 up.  I mulled it over and said I would call back after shopping around.  I was then offered $34 for said speed and with homewire protection.  This would be great, since my current set up has a phone wire connected from my modem to the box outside.  The line between my wall jack and the box outside mysteriously went out years ago.  As soon as the weather gets better, I'll call up at&t an have them fix the wiring.

Backblog: nine inch nails at Jimmy Kimmel Live 11/7/2014

This post has been sitting in draft as I have been attending my tumblr blog.  Since I am seeing nine inch nails tonight in Las Vegas, I thought it would be a good time to push this out.


Nokia 808 Pureview

It was November 7, 2014.  I got off the subway in Hollywood around 1:30PM and was 8th in line.  I was expecting cooler weather and wore black but it was very sunny and warm.  Spent the next few hours chatting with people in line while waiting for my friends to show up.  Learned a lot of info that would come in handy for tomorrow's show at Staples Center.


Nokia 808 Pureview

After they showed up, sound check started.  They played a small bit of 1000000.  They played All The Love In The World, which they had just debuted a couple of days ago.  I would have shot some video, but a trailer truck was in the way.  It sounded great with the back up singers.  They did Various Methods of Escape multiple times, which ended up being broadcasted.


Nokia 808 Pureview

By now wristbands were being given out and now there were 20-30 people in front of me.  After moving to the priority line, All Time Low was sound checked.  I recorded this, but there's so much talking going on I didn't bother to upload.


Nokia 808 Pureview

After being let in, everyone took a spot behind a yellow tape.  After the security guy gave the signal, he dropped the line and everyone moved to the front of the stage.  While my friend made it to the front and secured a spot on the rail for me, some girl ran across from my left to my right and got a spot as well.  The security guy yelled at my friend for getting in front of him.  Nothing made any sense and I was incredibly worried she was going to get thrown out.  She got off with just a warning.  Right before the show she scored a poster so everything balanced out for her.  The girl who cut me off decided to give up her spot and my other friend took her place.

For her troubles, my friend scored a nice poster for the night's show.  nine inch nails opened with Various Methods of Escape and followed with All Time Low.  I took a bunch of photos.  These songs used to be up on youtube, but they're private now. Then the cameras went away and I switched to video mode as they played Sanctified, Came Back Haunted and The Hand That Feeds.  Enjoy my videos from the show.


Nokia 808 Pureview


Nokia 808 Pureview


Nokia 808 Pureview

Kraftwerk: The Man-Machine at the Walt Disney Concert Hall

Lumia 925- View of LA City Hall from the lobby at the Walt Disney Concert Hall

It's been so long since my last concert, I forgot to take any pictures.  There was a rule not to take pictures anyway, so there's not much I can post.


Nokia 808 -Kraftwerk goodies

So anyway, my first concert of the year was seeing the German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk. Late last year, they announced they would be playing each of their albums in their entirety.  I signed up for a mailing list in order to get tickets.  On a whim, I picked The Man-Machine.  I had forgotten to check my calendar and got lucky as a friend got me tickets for The Book of Mormon the next night.

This was my first visit to the Walt Disney Concert Hall.  It is conveniently located off the Hollywood Freeway.  If the show hadn't run so late, I would have taken the subway.  I bought a shirt and received my 3D glasses as I found my way to my seat.  Kraftwerk started at roughly 10:35.  I was surprised by all the late comers.  I think too many people in LA were used to bands starting late. 

The show was amazing.  Kraftwerk were stationed behind 4 platforms.  They were wearing black unitards and helmets with white grids like something out of Tron.  They stood there playing music on their knobs and keyboards without much motion.  The real show was up on the screen.  Kraftwerk's simplistic beats were often matched with simplistic video.  Some songs looked like animation from the early 80s, others from the early 90s.  What made the videos awesome was the 3D.  A few songs had lyrics on screen that looked great in 3D.  The second song, Spacelab, featured flybys of a space station before a UFO descended on Los Angeles and onto the Walt Disney Concert Hall itself. At the end of the show, each member did a solo, took a bow and left the stage. 

Normally, I would shoot video or take pictures, but I followed the rules since I didn't want to be disturbed by an usher.  Turns out I would be distracted anyway.  A girl in front of me recorded a lot of the show on her iPhone.  I kept wondering why.  The show was in 3D and it the video only filled up half the screen.  So futile.

How T-Mobile gave me the run around

Black Friday

T-Mobile was offering no money down on the iPhone 5s.  No activation fee as well.  My bank was offering $50 cash back if I open an account with T-Mobile.  Win-win, right?  I was long out of contract with at&t, so I decided to take up the offer.

I went to www.tmobile.com and tried to place an order.  I qualified to get a Nokia Lumia 925 and iPhone 5s for no money down.  I almost finished check out when I got to an error screen saying something like "oops your cart is empty".  I tried again and again and kept getting the same error.  By the end of the day, I finally finished an order, except this time it said I would have to pay $500 down.

WHAT

I just realized all those attempts to order phones were credit inquiries.  My credit was fucked now.  I called back on Sunday around 7:30PM.  They told me they would fix those orders and open a new account for me.  I got far enough for them to take my credit card number and read off all the terms and conditions.  I was put on hold.  At 8PM, I was hung up on.  WTF.  I called back and got a message to call back during business hours.

I called back on Monday afternoon.  After 45 minutes on hold, I get an operator.  She says all those orders are still there and she would close them.  An hour passes because it's Black Friday weekend and their system is under a lot of stress and acting slow.  I still got the offer for $0 down, but I would have to pay sales tax.  Sounded good to me.  Finally after 3 hours on the phone my order is placed.  I printed out the confirmation and waited for my phones to arrive.

They're not done fucking with me

It's Wednesday and I get a call saying my order didn't go through.  They told me I have to go to a T-Mobile store to clear things up.  I get to the store and they tell me my order was cancelled 8 hours later after I had placed it on Monday.  The store representative says all those orders are still there.  He says he cancels them and tries to set me up with a new account.  However, he can't give me the Black Friday pricing.  That was the last straw.  I had enough and told him to cancel the order.  After all this bullshit, I walked out empty handed.  I'm not even sure those credit inquiries are gone.

Epilogue

I got back to my car and saw the meter expired.  Luckily I got no ticket.

Depeche Mode - live in Chula Vista

I went to see Depeche Mode in San Diego last Sunday.


Nokia 808 Pureview | San Diego Bay

My sister planned the whole weekend.  She was staying at the San Diego Airport Hilton on Harbor Island*.  Despite many trips to San Diego, this was my first visit to Harbor Island.  I arrived around 9:30am and took this photo mid-morning.  It's a little dark due to the 808's ND filter.  I spent the day eating, drinking and watching football from the hotel bar.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Sleep Train Amphitheatre

Depeche Mode was playing at the Sleep Train Amphitheatre.  The traffic was a little heavy on the way in after exiting the 805 freeway.  Parking was terrible.  It took about 30 minutes to find parking which was half a mile away from the venue.  It took over an hour to get out of the parking lot after the show.  While this place may have free parking, do yourself a favor and buy the VIP parking. 


Nokia 808 Pureview | Personal Jesus

The search for parking meant we missed the opening band.  Sleep Train Amphitheatre has two sections for concessions.  One big area right after the entrance and another on the other side of the seating area.  The far side was a lot less crowded which made lines easier to deal with.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Just Can't Get Enough

The concert was amazing.  Depeche Mode got the right balance of songs from their new album Delta Machine and classics from their massive 30+ year catalog.  Quite a few songs got new arrangements, my favorite being Precious.  Enjoy these videos I recorded from the show.







*It's really a peninsula

Queens of the Stone Age at Jimmy Kimmel Live

Nokia 808 Pureview | Queens of the Stone Age

I went to see Queens of the Stone Age last Monday at the Jimmy Kimmel Live stage.  Despite being up at the very front, I got a lot of blurry photos. Should have played with the iso or something. 


Nokia 808 Pureview | The Vampyre of Time and Memory

What was strange about this show is that it wont be airing until tonight, July 31. I know that other shows such as the Late Late Show cut and paste segments from multiple days.  It was strange to me that Jimmy Kimmel Live started doing it.  Must be due to the new time slot.


Nokia 808 Pureview | I liked how often they switched from guitars to keyboards

The concert started very late.  They said they wanted to wait for daylight to go away.  When I saw Depeche Mode here last April, they were already done by now.   They finished the taping of the show around 7:15.  There was a long wait until the band started to play. QOTSA played song extra songs before the ones that would be recorded for the show.  This was weird, since every show I've seen at JKL has had the TV songs first and extra songs afterwards.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Queens of the Stone Age full set on flickr

Comic-Con 2013 - Sunday

Nokia 808 Pureview | Hall H line at 5:30am

Sunday morning I tried to hit the Bandai booth one more time.  I went to the front of the exhibit hall at 9am.  I went from hall C to hall E to find a door that would open.  When they let me in, they made me go upstairs.  It seemed like they wanted me to go to the regular line behind Ballroom 20.   Instead, I camped the stairs over by room 4.  I got there at just the right time as they took down the barrier tape.  I raced downstairs and found the Bandai line capped again.  This time I hung around and got in line they opened it for a split second.  It didn't matter, they ran out of Power Rangers stuff again.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Biollante and King Ghidorah figures

I walked the floor a bit more.  I snagged the fifth princess pin from the Adventure Time booth and scored a poster from the Lionsgate booth.  I headed down to the food truck, bought a breakfast sandwich and headed back to the room to make sure everything was packed and ready to go.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Superman suits at the DC booth

Late Saturday night, my friend Amber told me she scored a Sunday pass.   She arrived around 11am.  After checking out and leaving my bags with the bell hop, I took her around for her first Comic-Con.  We made our first stop at the Nintendo Gaming Lounge, but they were out of the lanyards I wanted.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Pacific Rim at Sideshow Collectables

We walked around the floor a bit and got halfway through the floor when I noticed the Adventure Time quest was still going.  We backtracked to the west end of the floor and started collecting all the clues.  Along the way we saw the Pacific Rim statues at the Sideshow Collectables booth, the Superman suits at the DC booth and Tom Hiddleston at the Marvel booth.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Tom Hiddleston created a traffic jam at the Marvel booth

We made it the east end of the floor and were nearly finished.  A security guy mistakened me for a Japanese person, that was weird.  We headed outside to see the Hello Kitty booth at Petco Park.  We made a stop at the Warner Bros lawn where the giant Teen Titans were.  There was also a hut from the Hobbit made of Legos.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Teen Titans

It was at this point we found out we were missing a clue.  Luckily one of my friends was nearby the last clue inside the exhibit hall and got it for us.  We went over to Petco Park and I got a free milkshake from the Coffee Bean truck while Amber was seeing all the Hello Kitty stuff.  We finished the Adventure Time quest and picked up her medal at the Shiftylook arcade.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Hobbit house made from Legos

We walked over to the Samsung Galaxy Experience.  Again, the line to get in was short, but the lines for everything else were long.  We got in line for drinks and they had a cool method for ordering.  There was a Galaxy S4 set up with a menu on its display.  You wave your hand to swipe over the screen to pick your drink.  Then you bump the S4 with the attendant's S4 who relays the drink to the bartenders.  We walked over to an info booth and Amber switched out her Note II's junky battery for a fully charged new battery.  She also got a blue case just for signing up with her email.  We tried to get the case laser etched, but the line was too long so we took off.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Sunday Cosplay

We headed back to the con and split up so I could go see the talkback panel.  With only 30 minutes left, I didn't get to hear many complaints.  I mostly hung out at the water cooler and hydrated.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Space Ghost and a guy with giant wings

Amber offered me a ride home, so we went back to the Marriott to pick up my bags.  We wandered through the Gaslamp trying to find where she was parked.  After 9 blocks, we found the car and were on our way.  We made a pitstop in my old stomping grounds in Mira Mesa.  We had dinner at a Dennys, our waiter was a con veteran so the experience was excellent.  I fell asleep on the drive back and when I woke up, we were almost home.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Goodbye Comic-Con

Chasing the Dragon Ranger kinda ruined my con.  All that wasted time going to the Bandai booth could have been put to better use.  I missed a lot of parties due to exhaustion.  I never walked into Hall H or Ballroom 20 this year, that's a first in over 10 Comic-Cons. Still, this was an amazing experience and I'm looking forward to doing it all over again next July.

Comic-Con 2013 - Saturday

Saturday sucked.


Nokia 808 Pureview | It's not Comic-Con without campers

I planned to be in Ballroom 20 for the final Futurama panel and the Simpsons panel.  However, I was determined to get the Power Rangers Legacy Morpher from the Bandai booth, so I got up early and got in line around 4:30am. There were two lines, one for Hall H, one for everything else.  The everything line eventually got condensed and snaked around the lawn in front of Hall H.  Around 7am, they released the lines to the inside of the convention center.  People ran off to the Sails Pavilion for tickets to either buy stuff or get autographs, some went to the Ballroom 20, some went for the other meeting rooms.  I got in line for the exhibit hall.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Waiting for the exhibit hall to open

The exhibit hall line got crunched around the escalator above Hall G.  It would snake its way back towards the Ballroom 20 line and then towards the Sails Pavilion.  Around 9:15, they let us in the exhibit hall.  I raced my way to the Bandai booth.  I was really surprised with how many people were already there.  I got in line before it got capped.  All this effort was for naught.  They sold out of all the Power Rangers stuff. 


Nokia 808 Pureview | Meeting the lovely Ciara Hanna and the cast of Power Rangers Megaforce

I walked the floor for a bit.  I finally got that Fox poster tube.  I hung around the Nickelodeon booth since they had a Power Rangers signing at 11.  It was fun taking to the other fans in line.  The guys behind me were also in their thirties.  Meeting the cast was fun.  They are all like models.  After the signing, I went to the food truck and picked up lunch, then hit the con suite for a free soda. 


Nokia 808 Pureview | This cosplay group makes total sense

For the past two days, I tried to finish the Adventure Time quest.  I never got to the end before the time was up.  This time I finished.  Luckily, some guys who were also doing the quest got me some answers so I didn't have to criss-cross the floor.  Once I finished the quest, I headed over to Nerd HQ.  I got lucky and scored a ticket for the conversation with Doctor Who.  When the tickets went on sale, they sold out instantly.  After a few tries, a ticket opened up and I bought one. It was really cool to be surrounded by so many Whovians while waiting in line.  The talk was fantastic.  It should be able to be viewed at thenerdmachine.com.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Nathan Fillion moderated the talk with Doctor Who's Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman and Steven Moffat

Afterwards I headed over to the Wired Cafe.  The place was packed.  President Obama was back, which only made the crowding worse.  My friends weren't there and the regular DJ was gone as well.   I made my own little oasis on the terrace by the telescopes and relaxed while watching the crowds on the street below.


Nokia 808 Pureview | The Mario Brothers at the Samsung Galaxy Experience

When the Wired Cafe closed up, I checked out the Samsung Galaxy Experience.  There wasn't much of a line to get in.  Inside, they had a photobooth, t-shirt printer, laser etching, info booths and an open bar.  Since I didn't have a Samsung phone and I didn't want to wait in the t-shirt line, I took off.  I stopped by the Shiftylook Arcade to complete the Adventure Time quest and get my medal.  While I was in line, I hooked up the people behind me with the answers for the quest.  After checking in, I scored a t-shirt and watched Rob Paulsen finish up the Countries of the World song.  I got my medal and then took off.


Nokia 808 Pureview | Sonic and an Axe Cop

I saw a lot on the way back to the hotel.  I walked by the Sega Arcade where there was a giant Sonic out front.  Nearby, I got in line for a hamburger and chatted with a Norwegian goth chick.  I saw the San Diego Zombiewalk procession for the first time.  I stopped by the Vikings mini ship races and the Axe Cop area.  They were out of free pizza. 


Nokia 808 Pureview |Marvel Zombies with an expecting mother

I went back to the hotel and dropped off my stuff.  There were a couple of parties I could hit, but I was too tired to walk out to the Gaslamp.  I headed downstairs to the con suite for a soda and went to the films room to watch Cockneys vs Zombies.  Slow beginning with a meaty middle.  The movie crashed before the ending, so I went outside to see if I could catch the fireworks from the San Diego Symphony.  I ended up at the 5th avenue landing and saw the Jackdaw pirate ship from Assassin's Creed IV.  Nearby, I saw the Hall H approaching.  It was 9:30pm and the line had stretched out to the marina already.  I started walking back to the hotel and at 10pm the fireworks started while En Vogue were performing their final encore of their hit Free Your Mind.  I went back to the hotel and crashed.


Nokia 808 Pureview | The Jackdaw