Tuesday 21 September 2010

Electronica Moronica



There is a reason I haven’t been here in ages, honest. First there was the whole jetlag thing, which as usual, I don’t believe in until I realise that I’ve been walking around for three days as if I’m just visiting from a different planet. Now, normally, this would not be anything out of the ordinary, but for some reason this time I just felt really detached from everything going on around me.

Then there was the whole “I suddenly have a burning need to put everything in my flat in order” thing. First it was the bookcase - I went through all of the books on said piece of furniture, and basically chucked out everything that has been there for years without me ever having touched it. Then it was the DVD and VCD bookcases, and I have to say there’s an entire canvas shopping bag full of rejects ready to be split among mates. Then came my wardrobe and chest of drawers, which have quite happily housed all kinds of similarly untouched shite for the past two years. That was fun!

And then there was the whole “everything here works wrong, and I’m going to do something about it” thing. Which included me buying an official pair of Apple in-ear headphones, and a Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset. First of all, let me explain why I was trying to eschew my Skull Candy ‘Noise isolating bass-rich ear buds with in-line microphone compatible with iPhone and Blackberry Curve and Storm’ in the first place. You see, it all started a couple of Fridays ago. It was the weekend before I was going away to Dragon*Con, and I thought I had to put a few of my things in order before I went away. I spent two and a half hours in the 3 shop, picking up my supposedly “reserved” iPhone 4. Once this was done, I just about had time to race home, plug my new iPhone into my iTunes, have it load my iPhone 4 from the last backup I did of my iPhone 3G, and then get back to work. I was impressed that it took so little effort to accomplish all this, and I certainly kicked the arse out of my new iPhone for (called JT) taking close to 300 photographs and about 30 videos at Dragon*Con. She also worked wonders data roaming in the USA, picking up my e-mail and also using the mobile site for Twitter. I would have preferred to use my third-party app for Twitter, but Twitter themselves decided to change the signing-in authorisation procedure just a few hours before I left Hong Kong. This meant that not one of the three third-party apps on my iPhone 4 were able to sign in to Twitter. I was not a happy camper, as you can probably imagine.

Anyway, it wasn’t until I returned to Hong Kong and had time to get reacquainted with my iPod aboard my new iPhone 4, that I realised my Skull Candy headphones repeatedly used the sound suppression blip, normally reserved in case of incoming mail or text messages, while just playing music or video. While not exactly the most vexing thing that’s happened to me recently, it did start to annoy me after a while. Deciding that I had tried it out every single kind of in-ear headphones during the last three years, I thought perhaps it was time I gave the official Apple earphones a chance. After spending HK$600 on a pair, I was monumentally peeved to find out that they lack any kind of proper bass - by any stretch of the imagination. Inevitably, I have gone back to my Skull Candy headphones, and now I am quite happy to put up with the occasional suppressive blip if it means I can have proper fucking bass.

So, on to my new Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset. Within minutes of turning it on, I had it paired to both my iMac and my iPhone. It works wonders with both Skype on my iMac and also receiving or making calls on my iPhone. However - and this is a huge fucking ‘however’ - it takes a little bit of ingenuity and patience to enable it to work with MacSpeech (which is completely MacSpeech’s fault). It is entirely possible, seeing as that is how I’m writing this blog post at the moment. All you need is Soundflower and LineIn. A little bit of jiggery-pokery later, and here we are dictating a blog post.

The headset itself gives good sound and obviously works quite well with MacSpeech, without being too heavy. Being wireless also means I can wander off away from Jarvis my iMac, and still be heard whilst on Skype. However, having it jammed in your ear for anything up to two hours while you’re talking on Skype can mean it starts to make your ear ache just a tiny bit. This could be due to the fact that the earpiece is roughly the size of a dinner plate. That said, I am enjoying using it immensely.

I think I should leave it there, as it is getting quite late and I’m supposed to be up relatively early tomorrow doing private lessons before work. Oh, and I do have a Supernatural/Doctor Who crossover fanfic to finish for my sister.

Soopytwist!


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Friday 10 September 2010

I’m back!



Yes, I’m back from Dragon*Con. What can I say, except it’s changed my conventioning life. Creation, you suck. Dragon*Con, you are king. I wish my flights had been direct and the pool had been open more at the motel, but hey, you can’t have everything. Suffice to say, the convention was bloody fantastic, and I can’t wait until next year! All I have to do is find a costume this time… So here we go:



Things I’ve Learned From Dragon*Con 2010
(and a reminder for next year):


Take only 2 t-shirts. You will buy more there.

Do not take toiletries. The hotel leaves you sixteen million refills EVERY MORNING.

Pick up your pre-registration convention passes before 11am Thursday. Everyone else will wait in line for 4 hours. No, I’m not joking.

Buy a Breeze card for the Marta lines.

Take as many photos of people’s costumes as you can - by Saturday you’ll have forgotten who you saw on Thursday.

Do not attempt to remember which hotel is which. Just ask the concierge. That’s what they’re there for.

Get in the unofficial line for the next event 90 mins before the official line starts.

Do not use highlighter pens to mark on your schedule what you want to see. It doesn’t show up under bar lighting.

Energy drinks are not for being tired through being up all night, they’re for bolstering queueing stamina.

Just because there’s a bar on every level of every event hotel does not mean you need to test the vodka. Vodka is the same everywhere. But now I know this for a fact, and I will sleep better for having tested it.

If you’re buying alcohol in a bar or convenience store, take your passport or government-issued photo ID. Seriously. Being refused a beer when you’re over 30 is Not Funny.

When getting autographs or photos with The Stars, if you can’t do owt but squeee, opt to keep your mouth shut. You’ll be so glad you did later.

If you’re hunting for a particular costume, realising that Trekkies are in the Sheraton and Whovians are not in the Marriott is really really useful. Make use of those schedules they give out - hotel awareness is your friend.

Do not be afraid to stop people to get snaps of their costumes - calling their character name and taking photos is The Done Thing. It’s why they dress up, after all.

Keep your phone on ‘airplane’ (that’s ‘aeroplane’ for folks that can spell) mode if you’ve come from outside the USA - and disable MMS if you’re in from HK and don’t want sixteen thousand promotional 3 MMS arriving all hours of the day and night (which you will be charged for). Likewise, keep data roaming turned off unless you’re actively using the net or your mail (NOT ADVISED).

If you have a connecting flight that is a domestic flight within the US, make sure you have at least THREE HOURS between flights or you won't make it. It took me over 90 mins to get through Immigration in Detroit, and another 45 mins to get my luggage and myself through to the next flight. Luckily for me (or is it due to the amount of people who don’t make flights because of this farce?) Delta fly domestic about a million times a day, so I only had to wait another hour for the next available flight. Still made me want to burn down Zuji's offices for selling me a ticket for a connecting flight there was no way in or out of Hell that I could make.

Americans. They look like us, but they’re not us. Don’t be embarrassed if you have to ask them to repeat what they’re saying to you. Three times. Just concentrate and you will get it.


I’ve got to say, I loved Atlanta much more than LA. Peaceful, relaxed, friendly - FRIENDLY - amazingly helpful, smiley, welcoming, nice, sunny, and just so GODDAMNED NICE. Such a change from HK. Maybe I’ve been in HK too long - I wouldn’t want to live in the US (yet), but perhaps HK is starting to get to me.


That will conclude my first Dragon*Con post. It will not be the last. I’ll be back. Just as soon as the clock is the right way up again and I’ve realised which end is morning and which end is night.


Peach and lube, people. Peach and frelling lube.


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