Longklaw.com

I just spent about an hour working on my Amazon Wishlist. I use the wish list to remind myself to by stuff later. It ends of saving me from a lot of impulse spending. Some things I decide I don’t want and some things just aren’t at the top of my priority list. I reduced my list from 445 to 32 items. 32 is a more manageable number and I may actually purchase all of the items in my lifetime. I’ll probably circulate this list around Christmas. Maybe I’ll get lucky.

I wonder what the items on my wishlist say about me. Hmm.

I’ve had my new TV for almost a month and I love it! It’s 4 inches bigger than my last one. I didn’t think 4 inches would make that big of a difference, but it is a pretty good difference. I should’ve known. The picture quality on this TV is so much better. It took about a week of tinkering to get the optimal settings. I’m very picky about my settings. Now I’m happy. I’ll probably buy Samsung TVs for a long as they make them.

I didn’t know what to do with my old Vizio TV since there’s nowhere to recycle electronics nearby. It didn’t seem right to leave it on the side of the road. I ended up putting it on Craigslist for free. I had someone willing to take it off my hands within hours. Maybe they were able to fix it. To be honest, I don’t care. I just wanted to be rid of it.

Man, I haven’t had much to say since Comic-Con.  I have recovered, but I keep wishing I could go back.  I’ve even had dreams about being in San Diego.  I have made a few adjustments in the past month.

• I’ve started going to bed earlier and because of that I’m getting up earlier.  Who’d have thought that going to be earlier makes it easier to get up in the morning?  Weird how that works.  When I get to work early, I feel like I have conquered the day.

• I started eating bigger but also healthy dinners so I won’t have to snack as much at night.  When I do snack, I tend to eat fruit instead of chips and candy.  I did this because I had reached a point where I wasn’t losing anymore weight even though I wanted to lose another 10 pounds.  Since I made those changes I’ve lost 7 pounds.

• I cut back on the number of TV shows that I’m watching and the number of new fall TV shows that I want to watch.  It had become a chore to keep up with all the shows I was watching.  Now I have more time to devote to my other hobbies.  I’m thinking about picking up something new, I just haven’t figured out what it will be yet.

My first Comic-Con was a blast. I had so much fun. I got to meet people in person that I had only known online before, go to plenty of panels, see some celebrities up close, and do a little partying at night. It’s definitely something I intend to do again one day.

I did a lot of reading before the event on what to expect. Yes, I had all the supplies that I needed and I was expecting plenty of waiting and little sleeping. Even so, Comic-Con is something you have to experience for yourself before you can fully understand what it’s like. I was overwhelmed at times by all the people, the walking, the long lines, and trying to get so much done in so little time. It was a little stressful. I don’t mind big crowds. I kind of like being in a large crowd of people. However, I got frustrated sometimes when I had to walk 10-20 minutes in the wrong direction while carrying a backpack and a bag of swag just to find the end of the line. Then I had to go in the right direction for however long until I got to where I was going. I got so much exercise that I didn’t feel bad about missing gym time. I was back for 5 days before the soreness went away. Oh well, I guess that’s what you have to do at Comic-Con. I heard regular attendees say that some things were worse this year than previous years as far as lines and registration are concerned, so I wasn’t the only one feeling frustrated. I have a feeling that the system will be tinkered with like they do every year, so some of my frustrations will go away.

I spent the most time at Comic-Con sitting in panels. Some I really wanted to see. Some I was sitting through just to see ones that came later. The ones I was most interested in were in Ballroom 20, the second biggest room at the convention. Once I got in there, I just stayed until the last one I wanted to see that day was over. My favorite ones were the Game of Thrones and Fringe panels. I was most excited about those beforehand and they’re the only ones I HAD to see. I ended up enjoying 2 panels that I sat through to see later panels so much that I’ve decided to start watching those shows myself. Those are Psych and Futurama. People have been telling me about both of those shows for a while, but I’m finally going to take the plunge. I like that I got lots of swag from the panels that I attended, even if I had to go to a different place to claim it. What I liked most about the panels were being that close to the casts while they joked and answer questions and seeing whatever footage they aired.

One day when I didn’t feel like waiting in line for Ballroom 20 and camping out in there all day, I went to a random panel taking place in one of the smaller rooms. It was a Star Wars comic book panel. The panel was boring, but it was crashed by Seth Green, which made it cool. Before a Locke& Key screening that night, I saw a panel on Reign of the Dinosaurs, which will premiere on Discovery in September. They showed a few clips and it looked good. I’ve never seen a dinosaur get high on mushrooms before. Werner Herzog is involved with it somehow and he made a surprise appearance. Back to Locke & Key. It was so good! It’s a shame that Fox decided not to move forward with it. Hopefully, it’ll get a lot of buzz coming out of Comic-Con and another network will pick it up.

When I wasn’t in line or in panels, I spent a lot of time on the Exhibition Floor. I had heard that it would be chaos and it was. Once you get on the floor you really just have to keep moving. There was so much to see and so many people. It took a very long time to get from one end to another. This was a good place for random encounters with celebrities. I saw Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, etc) and Robert Kirkman (author of The Walking Dead) signing autographs. I walked past Brian Tong from CNET. One time I wasn’t paying attention and almost ran into Stan Lee while he was talking to several people. Unfortunately, my camera didn’t work when I tried to snap a picture and he was quickly taken away when he finished his conversation. I got so much swag from the floor and from the panels that I had to ship it back before I left. There’s no way I could’ve gotten it all in my luggage.

I didn’t get a lot of autographs. For limited autograph sessions with bigger stars and the casts of TV shows, they had a lottery system. You had to wait in line for the lottery and if you won then you could get an autograph. I didn’t want to spend a long time in line for a chance at getting an autograph. The one time I didn’t decide to get in line, they capped the line ahead of me as soon as reached the end of the line. There were times when I’d hear about impromptu autograph sessions on the Exhibition Floor that I would’ve loved to have attended, but I was either already in line somewhere else or somewhere else not even close to the floor. The easiest autographs to get were from people who were set up next to the registration area. I didn’t want to pay to meet all of those people. I did get one from Steve Blum, who does the voice of Wolverine in the X-Men cartoons and video games. I could’ve met people from Buffy and Angel, Richard Hatch from Battlestar Galactica, and Virgil from the WWF/WCW, but I decided against it.

Other than at the panels and at the autograph area, I didn’t have a lot of celebrity sightings. When I was talking to a friend while wondering around the convention center, he spotted Joe Hill. Joe Hill is the author of the Locke & Key comics and Stephen King’s son. Cool!

I got to do a few things outside of the Con. Not long after I got off the plane a group of us went to Ocean Beach. I had never seen the Pacific Ocean before and hadn’t been to a beach in over 8 years. It was fun. The water was COLD! Thursday night I went to the live Revision 3 show at the House of Blues. A DJ, Mike Relm, had an entertaining performance. Then there was a recording of Epic Meal Time. Those guys are too intense for me. The show ended with a live Diggnation, in which Tony Hawk was a surprise guest. I watched the video and I saw myself once. I could be in there more. It was a great experience. One day I went to eat at Café Diem, which Syfy does every year. They take over a restaurant, name it Café Diem, and serve food named after characters from their shows. On my last night, I saw Nerdist Live at 4th and B with special guest Matt Smith and Karen Gillan from Doctor Who. Wil Wheaton was also a surprise guest. This was a blast! Great for any Doctor Who fan. It even made me like Wil Wheaton again. We got to see standup and songs that aren’t included in the podcast. Smith and Gillan handed out TARDIS burritos after it was over, but they had left by the time I got to the front.

One of my favorite memories of the Con was when I went to visit 2 friends, Matt and Meg, at the Suvudu booth on the Exhibition Floor. They are a married couple who live in Brandon, MS. I keep meaning to go down and visit them, but I don’t get out of Starkville much. I met Meg once when I was down there, but I had never met Matt in person. I promised them that I would see them in San Diego. The first time I went, Matt was at the booth, but Meg was gone. The next day I returned just as they were setting up to do an interview with George R.R. Martin and Christopher Paolini. Matt conducted the interview. I didn’t know who Paolini was. Meg explained to me that he’s the guy that wrote Eragon. Of course I knew who Martin was. He’s the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, a book series that I am a major fan of. The HBO show Game of Thrones is based on this series. The name “longklaw” that I use online comes from this series. It was so cool being that close to him. I was definitely star struck. He walked right past me at one point. Before the interview he saw me standing there and I got to wave and say “Hi”. I listened to the entire interview while they recoreded it. It should be showing up on Suvudu.com if it’s not there already. After the interview was over, some fan pushed forward and started talking to him. I knew he had somewhere to be, so I didn’t want to wait to try to have a word with him next. Maybe next time I’ll get to geek out and tell him how much of a fan I am. Next time.

My biggest regret is that I didn’t spend as much time hanging out with people after dark either at the hotel or at places as I wanted to. Because of other plans I made in advance of the convention (Diggnation, Nerdist, etc.) and needing to sleep because of the day’s activities or in preparation for the next day’s activities, I went days without seeing people that I had planned to spend to time with. Some people I didn’t get to see at all. I wasn’t able to keep my phone charged during the day, so it was hard to communicate. Also, I wish that I had taken more pictures of people in costumes.

I had a great time at Comic-Con this year. Next time I want to hang out more with friends and go to events that aren’t officially part of the Con. The Nerd HQ stuff would’ve been a lot of fun and I saw some video game stuff that I didn’t get a chance to check out. Also, I would probably go to more of the smaller panels. Oh, I would bring more batteries too. That being said, this trip was some of the most fun I’ve ever had. It was exhausting, but well worth it. I’m glad I didn’t come down with the con crud/nerd flu like a lot of people I know did. I took Halls Defense for 2 weeks leading up to the con, all during the con, and for a few days after I returned home. I’ll be repeating that next time. If I don’t go back to Comic-Con next year, I definitely want to go the year after that. Maybe I’ll even dress up. As much fun as I had, it’s good to be back home with Reese.

You can find my photo album on Flickr or on Facebook or Google+ if you’re friends with me on either of those.

San Diego Comic-Con starts Thursday. I’ve wanted to go for years, so I’m glad to finally get to go. I’m excited. I’m at the point where I’m panicking a little because it’s so close and I’m not ready. Everything should be okay by the end of the day.

I’m spending Tuesday night hanging out with John in Jackson. I’m heading to the airport and leaving early Wednesday morning and I’m getting back late Sunday night. I’m looking forward to spending some time at the beach, attending the con during the day, and going out at night. I hope to meet many people that I’ve met online, but have never met in person. It sucks that a lot of people who have gone previous years aren’t going this year. Oh well. There’s always next year.

I’ll try to remember to take lots of pictures. I’ll mostly be using a point-and-shoot camera, so I won’t be able to post the pictures right away. Eventually, all of them will end up on Facebook, Google+, and maybe Flickr.

Technology is great, except for when it’s not.

One day I came to work and I couldn’t sign into my PC. I went and got one of the user support people. He logged in as an administrator and determined that something had turned off the services on my machine. He, of course, thought that it was a virus. I’m not sure though. I’m pretty careful, but I do sometimes click on links that people post on Twitter without thinking. He turned on the services that he thought needed to be on and ran a bunch of scans, which turned up nothing. I couldn’t get any work done that day, but at the end I got my PC back. It has really been the same since. I wish I could get a new PC.

The weekend before this past weekend, DirecTV came to install a 2nd receiver. This one went in the bedroom. From what I understand, the DirecTV installers are usually people that work at third-party companies that DirecTV hires to do the work. The installer got there at the beginning of the 4-hour range they gave me. He did all the wiring and connected the receiver in a decent amount of time. However, he couldn’t activate the receiver because DirecTV’s systems were down. He didn’t know how long the wait would be. He said that his supervisor (I’m assuming the one at whatever company he works for) wouldn’t allow him to leave a receiver that wasn’t activated. He would have to take the receiver and reschedule for another day, which would be 2 weeks later. Of course, I was angry because I had already waited 2 weeks for him to come in the first place. He called DirecTV to reschedule and they said he couldn’t reschedule for that reason. After sitting on my couch for a couple hours, he finally got approval to leave the receiver with me. He told me to call in later to activate it myself. He finally left after about 3.5 hours. I finally have satellite in my room. It’s great to have another option for TV viewing. Sometimes I get tired of sitting on my old couch. Also, I can sit in bed and watch Golden Girls reruns.

It’s a good thing I got the new receiver in the bed room because my big living room TV is dying. On Friday when I turned on the TV the screen was flickering rapidly. I could hear a clicking noise every time it flickered. I’ve only had this TV for 3.5 years, so I was mad that it was malfunctioning. It’s a cheap Vizio, so I shouldn’t be surprised. It was my first HDTV, and at the time I couldn’t afford to get anything more expensive. After talking to Vizio and the company Vizio uses for repairs, we determined what the problem was and that it would be better to buy a new TV than fix this one. When I bought this TV, I also bought an extended warranty. I remember that I didn’t want to, but my roommate at the time convinced me to do so. Well, all of my warranty coverage expired on January 31, 2011, which was less than 6 months ago. If it had done this before January 31, I could have gotten it repaired or replaced for free. Oh well. I’m getting a new TV. It definitely won’t be a Vizio. I’ve already picked out a Samsung that I like. I’ve had great luck with Samsung products in the past and they’re not as expensive as Sony products. I’m going to wait until after my vacation this week to order so it won’t be left outside my door and stolen while I’m gone. Sometimes the Vizio will come on and not flicker, but when it does flicker I can go watch TV in the bedroom.

These are first world problems if anything.

The The Girl With the Tattoo, Stieg Larsson. This is the first book in the Millennium Trilogy. I’ve heard a lot of great things about the books and the Swedish movies based on the books. Now, they’re coming out with an American version of the first movie. This book was nothing like I was expecting. For some reason I was expecting fantasy, but it’s actually a mystery/thriller. The fact that it wasn’t what I was expecting might be why it took a while to get into it, but after a while I had trouble putting it down for long. It has 2 separate storylines that ended up coming together. I know some people had problems with that, but I thought it was cool. I definitely recommend it.

The Walking Dead Vols. 5 & 6, Robert Kirkman. I’m still slowly working my way through this series. These 2 volumes were great. They were a change of pace from what I had seen recently, and I enjoyed them.

I’ve started on 3 or 4 other books. I can’t seem to focus on 1 for too long before something else comes along. Right now I’m focusing on A Dance With Dragons. My goal for this year was to read 15 books and Goodreads says that so far I’ve read 11 if you count the Walking Dead volumes. It looks like I’m going to hit that goal.

• Last Argument of Kings, Joe Abercrombie
• Awakening, Kate Chopin
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
• Go, Mutants: A Novel, Larry Doyle
• Serenity Found, Jane Espenson
• Incarceron, Catherine Fisher
• Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks, Mick Foley
• The Associate, John Grisham
• Ford County, John Grisham
• The Fourth Hand, John Irving
• The Turn of the Screw & Daisy Miller, Henry James
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemison
• The Walking Dead, Volume 3: Safety Behind Bars, Robert Kirkman
• The Walking Dead, Volume 4: The Heart’s Desire, Robert Kirkman
• The Walking Dead, Volume 5: The Best Defense, Robert Kirkman
• The Walking Dead, Volume 6: This Sorrowful Life, Robert Kirkman
• The Walking Dead, Volume 7: The Calm Before, Robert Kirkman
• The Walking Dead, Volume 8: Made to Suffer, Robert Kirkman
• The Walking Dead, Volume 9: Here We Remain, Robert Kirkman
• The Walking Dead, Volume 10: What We Become, Robert Kirkman
• The Walking Dead, Volume 11: Fear the Hunters, Robert Kirkman
• The Walking Dead, Volume 12: Life Among Them, Robert Kirkman
• The Walking Dead, Volume 13: Too Far Gone, Robert Kirkman
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
• The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson
• The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson
• The Stormcaller, Tom Lloyd
• I Am Number Four, Pittacus Lore
• The Giver, Lois Lowry
• The Day Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Twilight Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Final Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• Busted Flush, George R.R. Martin
• Suicide Kings, George R.R. Martin
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller
• Batman: Year One, Frank Miller
• Either You’re in or You’re in the Way, Logan and Noah Miller
• The Final Crusade, Chaite Naasiri
• The Darker Mask, George Phillips
• The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson
• The Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson
• The Hero of Ages, Brandon Sanderson
• Towers of Midnight, Brandon Sanderson
• A Memory of Light, Brandon Sanderson
• Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare
• Private Parts, Howard Stern
• The Way of Shadows, Brent Weeks
• Shadow’s Edge, Brent Weeks
• Beyond the Shadows, Brent Weeks
• The Optimist’s Daughter, Eudory Welty
• The Dragonbone Chair, Tad Williams
• Stone of Farewell, Tad Williams
• To Green Angel Tower, Tad Williams
• Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1 – Unmanned, Brian K. Vaughan

It’s Wimbledon time in 3 days.  I don’t think I’ve seen any of it the past two years, but for some reason I’m pretty excited about it this year.  I think DirecTV is going to have 7 glorious HD channels devoted to it during the first week.  I’m just going to root for people that I like.  Maybe I’ll be introduced to some new people that I’ll end up liking.

The Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup last night.  I understand that fan support is important to a team, and that it’s a big part of a team’s success.  However, I don’t understand why Boston fans were being congratulated like they were the ones who won the championship.  Also, some Boston fans were acting like they won it themselves. 

Maybe I’m just jealous.  Maybe I would understand if Mississippi State won a national championship, but I don’t think it would be the same as the local professional team winning it all.  I might one day I’ll understand what Boston fans know, but I don’t think I’ll ever be as big of a sports fan as I used to be.

This has been a good week to be a geek.  With E3 and WWDC going on at the same time, I now have a lot of stuff to look forward to.

E3 has made the gamer in me very happy.  I haven’t been keeping up with the announcements and videos as much I wanted to, but what I’ve seen is great.  I had already heard about most of the games, but seeing/learning more about them made me excited.  I’m most looking forward to Mass Effect 3, Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, Bioshock Infinite, and the Tomb Raider game that made me think I was listening to a porno.  I’m sure there are many others that I’m forgetting.  I’m not that interested in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or Battlefield 3, but I’ll probably give them a try at some point.  I’m lukewarm on the Kinect stuff that was shown off.  It could end up being fun.  I’m not all that excited about the console announcements.  PSVita looked okay, but I’m not into handheld gaming anymore.  Wii U is a weird name, but I thought Wii was a weird name when I first heard it.  I’m sure I’ll get one eventually, but will I use it?  It will be nice, though, to play Nintendo games in HD.

The WWDC is also taking place.  I’m not a big Apple fanatic, but I am interested in iOS5.  I hope the notification system is better than what they have now and I hope it doesn’t make my 3GS slow.  iCloud could be cool and exciting, but right now it doesn’t seem like a big deal.

Back to drooling over stuff I can’t have yet!