I think the optimal number of cons a year is definitely not a number greater than 6.

Really busy at work. Anyone wants a job as a software test engineer for a fairly heavy-duty system platform that demands 100% uptime? Located in Midtown NYC, easy commuting by mass transit, get to eat at my digs… We’re hiring more than just a couple seats.

Otakon is this weekend and I am not prepared. Will try to do that at least by Tuesday EOD.

Started a soup. Mostly going to be seiyuu crap since that’s who’s on it that I am following…

Basics

• Plane tix – check
• Hotel – check, thx Alexd
• Admission – check
• Concert tix – check
• Concert Tix – somewhat check
• Ride from LAX to hotel – will figure it out once I land
• Ride from hotel to LAX – should be np.

Content

• Hocchan item – Manabi Straight, Love Destiny, ToraDora, Pickup Voice, Love hina wwww,
  
• KitaEri item – ToraDora, Working!!
• Yuu Asakura item – BGC 2040 Box Love hina wwww
• Masakazu Morita item – Interlude DVD
• Katsuyuki Konishi item – Some Gurren Lagann thing (dvd?)
• Nabeshin item – again? have to farm dealer room for him. Or maybe Narima Daicon Bros.
• Toshihiro Kawamoto item – again? I mean, uh. Xam’d goods? Bebop? Dunnos.
• Eden of the East crew – Probably an Eden of the East poster (from dealers? I dunnos). Possibly skip. Minipato.
• Mell – What did I get signed last Otakon lol totally forgot, USB wrists
• Mamegu – her cd, Tanabata Sonic booklet, mac+ movie booklet
• May’n – Streets or Styles, or Tanabata Sonic booklet, mac+ movie booklet

Deliveries

• Alex’s ninety bucks
• Alex’s Mouse volume 1

Social

• Begin talking to Tim – check
• Hook up with west coast bloggers – Saturday evening
• Press crap – tbd
• Mock up the tentative schedule – in progress
• Contact with Bob – got phone number, need to set time

To bring

• Money – when the time comes
• Lights – on hand, battery changed
• “Contents” – still listing them
• Stuff to survive – when the time comes
• All the cables – if I don’t forget

Others

• Budget this thing – done
• Raise some funds – in progress?

PS: I’ll take credit for the careful torturing here — that really *is* all me, and I’ve been doing it since before we announced L’Arc~en~Ciel wayyy back in 2004. I’ve been pretty up front about how much I enjoy that aspect of it, and I’m glad you guys seem to appreciate it. :)

But making musical guests happen takes more than just me; I’m just the boss, so I’m supposed to provide vision and direction and keep people on track. I do a fair amount of negotiating and strategizing, but it would all be useless without the right staff to pull it off.

There are years of groundwork laid by my immediate predecessors as Relations Chief (the Heaton brothers and Jonathan Harmon) — and by a guy named Jeff Kleist who has been involved in this stuff since the beginning and has really been bringing his A-game the last couple of years. Then when acts get onsite, I’ve got Jeff Kleist, my assistant Jeff Lee, and former con chair Terry Chu (who was chair in 2004) all taking point for various musical guests. Our main events staff (led by Mike Lee) and our tech ops coordinator (Walt Sysak), plus the guys from DSL Sound, make all these crazy things happen. And our interpreters make sure we can all communicate.

And then we have folks like our many contacts and friends in the industry, who campaign on our behalf. Folks at Sony and Geneon and Avex and King Records and Domo and Lantis…be very glad that there are folks on the business side who get it and believe in it and that really makes a difference. We earned their trust over the last decade, but they’ve also earned ours by playing fair in an industry not really known for that.

So when you’re sending your positive vibes and your thanks, remember that it’s not just “Jim Vowles”, it’s the entire team of people who make this happen.

This post has been edited by alabaster: Yesterday, 04:45 PM

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Maybe I should share his post about last weekend too. Or maybe I’m just getting old.

Just to be clear: Piscataway High School produced 3 first-round NFL draft picks in two years. It became the seventh high school to produce a first-round pick in back-to-back years when Anthony Davis got selected by the 49ers (since 1990). When Jets selected Kyle Wilson (I guess Rex Ryan likes corners or something w) later on, it became a 3-fer feat that is not going to get topped any time soon. And for the record, that makes PHS the second school to have two first-round picks in the same year.

Malcolm Jenkins was picked last year out of Rutgers and now will get a Superbowl ring. What a lucky fella.

Read about it here and here.

I think my kid sister had classes with both Jenkins and Davis. LOL. I guess that is not a good thing?

In a vaguely related note, the town budget passed this year. I think producing first-round draft picks are a great way to get that message across huh… Oh well there goes our property taxes.

One week later…

Do I like the Nexus One? Yes, coming from somebody who has not had the smartphone experience so to speak.

But I think if I had an iPhone I would probably stick with it, if I was app/OS neutral. Ok I hate iTunes on windows and I don’t own a mac, so that is where I’m from. Besides that there was nothing influencing my decision heavily either way. I paid a premium for the N1 to use on AT&T, so my views might be colored slightly via cognitive dissonance. W/e.

There’s also that there’s this thing called flash 10.1 that Android doesn’t have yet. Which didn’t matter much–the only things I would have done was being able to view Nicovideo and CR (both have iPhone apps). So i can actually go through my twitter without skipping everything Link tweets, lol. Viewing streaming video on your iPhone or your Nexus One is a sure way to kill your battery life anyways.

The other sure way to kill your battery life is taking pictures.

Oh hay at least you can swap batteries with the Nexus One. It comes with a 1400 mAH battery and you can pick up another one for like, $25. There is also like a 2700mAH battery for like $60. I think it’s something worth looking into, because power use is something you have to be mindful of. If you plan to do some serious work on your phone, pack another battery.

For the daily grind, one battery holds just fine. I’m on the computer most of the time anyways and I hit 20% only at the end of the day.

The N1 needs more accessories. Like a proper headphone adapter (tho those iPhone ones will do in a hurry) with play/pause/ff/rew controls. And a separate battery charger if you have an extra battery. Cases and such are all available now.

The iPhone comparison are just for ease of discussion, and for AT&T wireless users, it’s a damn certifiable alternative. That said, for some reason they still have not changed my data billing to the correct plan…knocking on wood here. And if I were to compare it with the iPhone (which I used a good deal, but not enough to see all its flaws), it would be that the Android 2.1 experience is still not as polished. It does a lot of stuff better, but some of the stuff not so much, and it can get annoying. The stuff N1 does better tend to be important things so that is good. Small details like better keyboard etc can be fixed with apps. But things like lack of multitasking means I would never be able to have the twitter experience I have on the N1 on an iPhone unless I jailbreak it. Or being able to idle on IRC while doing that, lol.

Given the ability and flexibility of the N1, I’m hard pressed to think ill of it. At least most of the shortcomings can be overcome with skill and modification or third party parts. It is probably true for the iPhone as well, but the Nexus One is designed to be open from the start, so that advantage, while subtle and not directly affecting much, makes a big difference.

It all sums up with this anecdote. More than a few reviews of the N1 complained about the lack of sync software. It’s a valid complaint if you find operating a thumb drive with file folders too annoying. (And it can be if you’re an iTunes/iPod person). But the big deal about sync (as any WP7 fanboy could tell you) is cloud. Sync to PC is mainly just for moving media from one storage to another storage. Where’s my iPhone cloud synching? It’s just as advanced as Android’s, which is via Google. I realized this, and I thought that is where things have to go. And devious Apple has roped in a whole convenience factor into its ecosystem, that people expect that sort of compatibility across a walled garden as guarded as syncing with iTunes. On the Nexus One, I can just drag and drop the big files, and let my 3G or wifi connection do everything else. What is there to sync? It’s always in sync anyways.

I think Apple has done a great job building its own software echosystem, so if living inside of that bubble is your most comfortable place–and it is a very nice place–then few things will ever beat out the iPhone experience even just in theory. However if you are echosystem-agnostic like I am, or just have the slightest anti-Apple or anti-iPhone inclination as I am (well, I just hate iTunes for Windows namely), then I think the Nexus One is the better choice.

At least after a day of use.

Let me just address all the key points of my Nexus One experience as they are:

3G: I am using AT&T and I live in NJ. I work in Midtown. I commute via NJ Transit. Sufficed to say reception is actually great. I get anywhere from 2 to 4 (max) bars of 3G coverage between home and work. At work I get also anywhere between 1 to 4 bars 3G, and 4 bars at my desk (most important!). I do notice the 3G bar likes to wildly vary at times, which is a bit of a reoccurring theme for this phone. I’ve heard plenty of horror stories (as far as anecdotes from real life people) about ATT 3G, and seen how it is on the iPhone over the past year from others who has it. I’ve not seen any of that so far, on this phone.

3G part 2 – Web: I’m generally impressed. Partly because of the good reception, but things load quite fast, as far as websites and downloads go. I pulled a couple podcasts at work today and they went down in seconds. The default browser is zippy, I even pulled up JP sites pretty fast. I use Google Reader and that is generally fast enough, but I ran into a couple hiccups today.

Web part 2: I actually tried the New Opera browser as well, but it was somehow slower than the default browser when I pulled it up just to try. It’s not any serious indictment though, since I didn’t measure it scientifically.

Apps: All the apps I need are there, at least off the top of my head. And free. Anything else I can pull down from the web. Like there’s this paid app for NJ Transit bus/train schedule, but lol wut. NY MTA has a free app that pulls down the subway and bus maps for you. I don’t game much, so that’s not a real concern for me (…yet). I think if there was an Android version of Bisei Tokei, then I’ll be all set. That said, I am sure once I spend more time I’ll find apps I sort of need/want, that are missing. But at the same time I haven’t had a good look at what’s out there yet, so maybe what I will think up later will be found by spent more time finding whatever I will think up, lol. For example, like a good remote desktop client…

Overall User Interface: This is what bugs me the most about reviews from people coming out of iPhone-land, because most of them probably have not had the intimate time with a device similar to an iPhone, so there’s a bit of a first-impressed-duckling effect. But one thing that I can agree with them is that the UI can be more polished. I’m all thumbs when it comes to capacitive devices on both iPhone and everything else. The N1 is the same. Generally I was able to figure out everything with the minimal amount of reading. I didn’t even watch all the youtube videos they had online. But it was slightly more annoying to use than I like. It’s as if it’s not enough to just be intuitive. Some icons should be bigger, the way things are layered should make more sense as far as switching between running apps go. The “media/’my stuff’” section isn’t too hard once you get the hang of it (and the gallery could use more filenames). The problem is, though, there is still too much learning-by-trial-and-error at the end. For someone like me, it’s no big deal–in fact I expect something similar if I were to take up an iPhone, so as a matter of comparing it to the iPhone, I can’t say conclusively. As far as a value thing, it’s nothing to really worry about as it is something you’ll get used to if it is your first smartphone with a touch screen (like it is for me).

Screen: 480×800 AMOLED. ‘nuf said. iPhone doesn’t even come close I think. I watched some anime off it today. Color accuracy is slightly better on the iPhone display but man, the Nexus One kicks ass in every other visual aspect. I can’t really speak enough good about this display.

Call quality: Good enough. Speakers are on the weak side but they do just fine. I think the noise reduction thing kind of works.

Minor irritations: There are a lot of little things that sort of irritates me about the phone so far, so I’ll list them–like there are too many menus to navigate. Like how auto-dimming isn’t turned off when you’re watching a video (so brightness changes on the fly if you’re watching something next to the window on a vehicle). Like how the keys could be space a tad better. Like how bluetooth support is…really bare bones. Like how the adapter it comes with is the only way to control music forward/backwards. Like how the trackball is mostly useless yet takes up so much space. Like how the search key is also mostly useless except for being there for me to hit on accidentally (can I config those?). Like how the Gallery app needs filenames in the top level file view so I can tell episode 45 from 46 as the thumbnails tell me not very much. The desktop shortcut icons are just too small I think.

Camera: It’s good. Autofocus, 5mp, flash, how can you lose. I’m no photog. But I think it beats the iPhone hands down, and you can already do a lot with that crappy one.

Data portability: This is one of those minor irritations, but there really needs be a more convenient way to stash data from PC to phone. And I’m not talking about a sync thing. Right now you can treat it like a USB drive, but that’s if you got that cable handy. You could always rip out the memory card and do it that way, but that’s a lot of work (and you need a microSD reader). I had problems to get bluetooth to work. I can stash files on the cloud, but it’s annoying to put videos up there. Maybe one of the apps will solve this problem (by using cloud-style storage) but it looks like the usb device method has to be it. Oh, I guess that also goes to the problem how once you “disconnect” it from the PC, you have to physically unplug the cable and plug it back in to get the PC to re-detect it. Not the phone’s fault but it’s yet another irritation.

Import/export: The setup process for this phone is a cinch. I can’t express this enough. I spent about 30 minutes setting up my dad’s dumb phone. Which is about 20 minutes more than it took me to set up my Nexus One. From my old phone, I copied over the stuff on my old phone’s (SE W580i) memory card (which was actually a Micro M2), which included a vcard backup of my old phone’s contacts. I then imported that data to the N1 after I was done doing the initial setup/google account synch. Flawless victory it was. Well. One thing–it took me a while to figure out the wallpaper has to be 960×800 in size. Partly because I didn’t realize the wallpaper scrolls with the different desktops until way later.

ATT Wireless Part 2: Googling on the Nexus One support forums, you will see that AT&T is trying to charge $30/mo for this phone’s unlimited data plan. Sensible I suppose, but a lot of the reps you talk to will just add the $10 or $15 plan for you. I’m fine with whichever (and obviously cheaper is better), but I hope they straighten this out.

That’s a lot for day one. And I didn’t even get to the exciting stuff besides that AMOLED screen. That thing is awesome I tell ya.

Because she post pics like these.

It’s not exactly a secret, but I can’t read Japanese. So why do I read Japanese blogs? I’m subscribed to Makkun’s blog, out of some misguided sense of duty–the same reason why I buy almost every solo CD she puts out I guess.

I also follow ItoShiz’s blog, but because she usually posts some interesting pictures and she doesn’t post much anyways, so it isn’t as if it makes a difference.

I follow a few other Japanese blogs for non-informational purposes, but they usually have some actual utility even if I can’t read it.

(BTW this post will get crossposted to omonomono.com in a slightly different form.)

PAX East would be fun, but it could also be just a waste of my time. It is slotted in early April, so if Japan were to happen this will not, and vice versa. But either is sufficient for idle amusement, tho PAX is much affordable.

Boston also means I can meet up with some folks. Steve, Alex, Wah. Whoever.

I guess I have to make a call in the next week at any rate.

Drilldown to pro/con:

Pros:

• Hang out with Moy (and others?)
• Maaya’s big concert
• TAF?
• Cherry Blossoms
• [new!] UBW, Eden, Nanoha, MacF films on screen!

Cons:

• BAD for budget constraints, really bad.
• May not have enough vacation days, need to survive on boss’s graces
• Going now means means no fun for later on in the year, and I can always just go later on in the year when the cons are not so … con.

The exact date range is going to be late march to early april. Maaya’s show is on 3/31, and TAF runs to like, April 3rd or so.

Maria and JP already set their travel plans for the last 2 weeks of March. I know I can probably run into Dave if I try. If fortune shines, maybe even Seizo. If I feel daring, maybe Taguma. Or Qix.

If you know any good (meaning very simple) single column themes (no sidebars!) that offers page templates like “archives” and “links” etc and must have a dynamic mouseover page link implementation, let me know.

Another 2010 thing is I joined a gym. Because it was $20 a month and they have a pool. Now it’s just a matter of seeing if I can make the time to go. I am plenty motivated if the facilities are good, actually.

Maybe I can squeeze in some time to actually migrate this thing today. Or perhaps a blog post…