Archive for September, 2010

The DVD (and Blu-ray) backlog of “need to watch.”

7
2 years ago
by Tom in ,

I am a firm believer of making proper use of things I purchase and own.  More specifically: books, Blu-rays, DVDs and video games.

If I own (or someone gives me a gift of) a movie or TV series to watch, then I insist of watching it as least one time before putting it on “the shelf.”  The same applies to books… thus there are a couple of novels sitting on the end table next to my bed that are unfinished (with apologies to Jimmy Buffett and my friend Cynthia Gralla.)

Last weekend I did some housecleaning and got an inventory of the “to watch” stack of video discs sitting near the TV.  Here’s the stack waiting to be watched:

  • Braveheart (Blu-ray)
  • Cowboy Bebop: Remix (The Complete Series)
  • Darkwing Duck (Volume 1 )
  • Darkwing Duck (Volume 2 )
  • Gone with the Wind (Blu-ray)
  • Gossip Girl (Season 1 ) *
  • Gossip Girl (Season 2 ) *
  • Knight Rider (Season 4 ) **
  • Logan’s Run (Blu-ray)
  • Magnum P.I. (Season 4… almost completed)
  • Quantum Leap (Season 5 )
  • Starship Troopers (Blu-ray)
  • The Godfather (Blu-ray)
  • The Godfather Part II (Blu-ray)
  • The Godfather Part III (Blu-ray)
  • The Powerpuff Girls (The Complete Series… currently on Season 4 )
  • The Transformers (The Complete Series)
  • The X-Files: I Want To Believe (Blu-ray)
  • The X-Files (Season 6… almost completed)
  • The X-Files (Season 7 )
  • The X-Files (Season 8 )
  • The X-Files (Season 9 )

* Someone bought the Gossip Girl DVDs for my wife.  I wouldn’t count on me watching those… but she will.

** I do not own Knight Rider (Season 3) yet because I refuse to pay more that $20 for a classic TV box set, thus I am patiently waiting for it to go on sale.

Speaking of TV series box sets… I wonder if Joey Snackpants has picked up his copy of Battlestar Galactica yet. :)

My Top 10 Favorite Android Apps (so far)

3
2 years ago
by Tom in

So I recently got a Sprint version of the Samsung Galaxy S phone called “The Epic 4G“.  I can safely say that after owning it for almost a month it is THE best phone I have ever owned.

For those of you that know me, I have had a long standing boycott of the iPhone due to the fact that I need a physical keyboard on any texting or smart phone that I own.  I have tried time and time again and I just can’t seem to get used to the whole touch screen keyboard thing.

Thus the Sprint version of the new Samsung phone was a total win for me since it includes the sliding keyboard.  Buying this phone also introduced me to the world of Google’s Android OS.  Previously, I owned a Palm Pre which used the WebOS platform… and even though I LOVE my new phone, there are still things that the Palm OS did just a little better.

Anyway, in playing with Android, I have found some pretty snazzy apps.  If you like to suggest some others I should try, please let me know.  Here’s the ten that I have been the most impressed with/enjoyed the most so far…

AndFTP - the best of the free FTP apps I could find.

Angry Birds – when is the full version coming out??!!!  Even Palm’s WebOS has a full version already.  Dammit!

Google Goggles – I am yet to actually use this app for anything practical, but there is something to be said about the fun involved in taking pictures of things and see what Google finds as a result.

Google Voice – the ability to call from my Google Voice account on a whim gets built into my phone via this app.  This is extremely useful when using the phone for the business line (which is a Google Voice number.)  Pure awesome.

gReader – I still keep track of websites via RSS, and this little app allows me to keep plugged in to my Google Reader and updates the articles.  This is a great for when I want to keep caught up on reading and there isn’t a PC around.

Hootsuite – just like the online website, I can manage and play with a number of the Twitter accounts I manage.  Now if they’d only get Facebook integration built into the Android app, too…

Mojo NES – old school Nintendo goodness that plays classic NES games on my phone.  I am using the free one and it seems to work fine.

RockPlayer – this lets me play DivX files on my phone.  With the extreme prettiness of the screen’s resolution, this is VERY important… and it looks DAMN GOOD.

WordPress – how awesome is it that I can make posts like this from anywhere?

ScanLife - an app that scans bar codes and then looks them up on the Internet for price comparison.  I see this getting a lot of use this Christmas while shopping.

The LiveJournal Project: July 2003 (Part 1 of 2)

3
2 years ago
by Tom in

Yikes… I had 21 posts in 2003.  It’ll take a bit of time to restore/fix some of these, so I’m making public the half I have done:

More as time permits.

Well, it looks like I’m going to go see the Grand Canyon.

1
2 years ago
by Tom in

A couple of details got confirmed yesterday for a trip out west this November.  While there, Shannon and I plan on staying an extra week to visit someplace we’ve never been: The Grand Canyon.  Here’s a photo of the hotel I just booked us at:

Gladys Knight And Ron Winans’ Chicken And Waffles in Atlanta, Georgia…

5
2 years ago
by Tom in

For those of you just joining us: my wife and I (and my friend Joey Snackpants) are fans of a popular Travel Channel show called Man v. Food.  The series showcases a number of unique eating spots and meals across the U.S.  With all the travelling I do lately for Wasabi Anime, it has become a pseudo quest to seek out these places and grab a meal.  To date, I have been to:

A few weeks ago, while attending Dragon*Con, I took my wife and her cousin to lunch in Atlanta.  The place?
Dragon*Con 2011 in Atlanta, GA

That’s right. Chicken AND Waffles.  Check it out:
Dragon*Con 2011 in Atlanta, GA

That glorious meal you see in the image above is called the Midnight Train. The meal consists of four southern fried jumbo chicken wings and one original waffle. I upgraded my waffle, though, to blueberry.

AND IT WAS AWESOME.

The restaurant is nice and (for lack of a better word) comfortable. You get a very welcoming vibe from the look of the place the moment you sit down, and the service and staff help enhance that feeling.  Good food + good restaurant = a good time.

AND YES… I ate everything on the plate.

I got quoted in a local news story about @Foursquare and Social Networking…

1
2 years ago
by Tom in

Right before hitting the road for Dragon*Con, I got contacted by a local newspaper and asked if I wouldn’t mind answering some questions about playing with Foursquare.  Here’s my quote that appeared:

Indian River County resident Tom Croom has been the mayor of 32 places in Vero Beach. He treats Foursquare like a game, playing to win.

“As I started checking into places in Vero Beach, I discovered one other person doing it about the same time,” Croom said. “At that point it became competition and a game in the truest sense.”

That other person is my “arch-nemesis” Thomas B. I’ve never met the man, but we do talk from time to time via Twitter.

You can read the full article here:
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2010/sep/23/its-hip-to-be-foursquare-new-social-networking/

My #DragonCon 2010 Report, Part 3 of 3: The Ugly

12
2 years ago
by Tom in

Registration.

I mean, COME ON Dragon*Con.

Seriously.

There are dozens of blogs, Livejournal posts, forum discussions and websites all preaching the reasons why Dragon*Con’s registration sucks.  Instead of some epic post going on and on forever – I prefer to just illustrate the problem and solution using math.

<math geekiness>

EQUATION #1:

I have never preregistered for Dragon*Con.

Here’s the math: If I did preregister, it would save me about $40.  Then I would have the privilege of standing in line for about three hours.

If I show up with $100 in cash, then I don’t wait in line.  I walk straight up to the window, give my money, and get my badge… all in less than 10 minutes.

Thus,

170 minutes of my time > $40

EQUATION #2:

Dragon*Con is attended by about 40,000 unique paying attendees each year… give or take.  The average ticket price clocks in at about $50.  The event (not including revenue from dealers and advertisement sales) grosses about $2,000,000.

Thus,

$2,000,000 = enough money to hire a professional paid staff to run registration instead of volunteers

</math geekiness>


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