Another long wait between posts. I apologize but I have good reasons, really. Good raisins, too.

I was at WWDC all last week (see photos here), which ran the gamut of emotional and physical responses: excitement, frustration, confusion and exhaustion. It was a good conference as far as I could tell (I attended quite a few sessions but much of my day was spent in meetings), but the best times were outside of the conference, spent with all of the many great friends I have back in my hometown.

I will be posting an article about WWDC over in the Norton blogsite and you probably either already know what happened there or just don't care. Suffice to say that the iPhone is rapidly becoming a legitimate technology platform and I think it's appropriate to say that the transition that this iPhone is a part of (if not helping define) is a big one. It will be very interesting to see what features we assume from technology in the next five years.

- I am a guest host on this week's iFanboy podcast. It was a lot of fun, and one of those items I was very happy to check off in my "life's to do list". I had started listening to the podcast several years ago and always thought it would be fun to be on the show, and now I can say, it was an absolute blast to do it. It was a real pleasure and the feedback has been very positive so far. It's a lot of prep work, getting ready for the show, I had to get a headset to use with Skype (for sound quality) and set up my desk so I could easily access the books we were discussing, my notes, water, coffee, chat windows...it was like doing a radio show, which, of course, makes sense. The thing about the show is that it's usually pretty entertaining even if you don't know anything about comics, since there are aspects to the conversation that everyone can relate to (characters, stories, art, etc). This was another "live" event that I really couldn't truly prep for (not unlike the stuff I had to do in Vegas), so I am relieved it went well.

It also underscores my belief that you truly achieve any goal you have if you make a consistent effort to achieve said goal. Now, sure, I didn't write out "Be on iFanboy" one day, but I did want to get more involved, to the point that getting on the show would definitely become an option. And, now, it's happened. Of course, now I am writing a weekly article for them, which I did not plan at all--but it got me a chance to be on the show. And, again, while I could control some aspects toward this goal (enthusiastic participation, making sure to keep in touch, etc, etc), the TIMING was not in my control at all. If I had any expectation of "being on the podcast by xx years," none of this would have happened. I know, I sound like a broken record, but life is all about living the moment and not trying to fulfill expectations (yours or others).

- Speaking of real time activities, I gotta admit that writing regularly is quite a challenge. I had a crazy time last week when I had both an article for iFanboy, a new story summary, the first 10 pages of my screenplay and my inciting incident due on Tuesday. Now, of course, I am to fault completely--I procrastinated like crazy, but that's how I am used to dealing with writing deadlines: I get the topics/scenes/sections figured out in my head, and then I sit down and write it out. That's how I got through college--all of my papers were first drafts, technically--and it worked out fine. And life is not all that different now, come to think of it. When I was in college I had homework and papers due all the time, but was in rehearsals until 11 almost every night of the week, so doing it my head was my only recourse, really.

Maybe it is more difficult because I don't have that crazy structure that made me so nuts back then. Whatever--I did all the work that I needed to do, and so far, so good. What is...stressful? interesting? just...different? about writing NOW is that there is nothing for me to refer to--everything I am writing is from my own head. I am being asked to take a topic, aim my brain at it, and then transform that chaos into text and pictures. Which is a challenge, let me tell you! It's a great challenge, but I can see why "real" writers make a schedule--if I had any kind of discipline, I would be getting up at 6am each morning and just get it done before I went to work. I might have to do just that, actually--the screenplay is going to be at least 100 more pages, right? It took me over an hour to get the first 10 done...that's at least 10 more hours...yikes...scary.

But it's all new--all of this is new, and I haven't been challenged like this in awhile. I am definitely growing creatively, which feels really good.

- I made quite a few Father's Day calls yesterday. It was nice. It's really quite an experience to watch my oldest friends become parents. Trips me out like crazy.

- We won't talk about acting right now. Nothing to talk about.

- Saw some great old cars at The Grove a few weeks ago. Check the photos here.

Have a good week!

Tags: wwdc, san francisco, comics, ifanboy

lots of TVs, all of them with the same stuff on...

I just listened/watched to a few TED talk (I really dug the JJ Abrams one), which is a really nice thing to do while eating a turkey sandwich. It's interesting; I often scoff when I hear people talk about the Internet changing, forever, the whole television thing, but I do find myself using the web to find good stories once in awhile. However, I am at work in a cube, not in my living room and I am not, in anyway, in a relaxed state of mind. I needed to back up and re-watch the Abrams presentation quite a few times, especially when he was referencing something visual). Different screens for different times, I guess. (Related, check out David Lynch ranting on people watching movies on the iPhone.)

Watching the videos from TED made me remember the tech lunches we would have at Razorfish, where we would get so-called movers and shakers to come over and discuss their ideas on technology and the directions it was going. We do that here, but I really miss the broad range of people we would get. Sure, we would get some Linux zealot to tell us the wonders of open source, but I was far more interested in the classical pianist who found inspiration in Flash. Inspiration comes from all over, from all people, from all times of day, I suppose. I was thinking about the whole idea of a technically savvy person growing older: will I continue to care enough about all this or will I need some 12 year old around to help me program some household media device so I can watch the construction of the moonbase from a camera on some astronaut construction worker's visor? Who knows.

Things I am thinking about:

1 - figuring out a way to actively help kids in school; how can I do this?
2 - what am I "missing" in my thought processes that is frustrating my ability to figure out what's "next" for technology? entertainment?
3 - why am I not using my camera?


Actually, I think i am going to start keeping the video camera around, like, in my car, so I can use it on the fly.

Oh, here's what I was thinking about while I was driving:

It seems like everything that has been pretty stable for the past 30 years is facing a pretty dramatic shakeup. Let's see:

- You have the whole national car industry, which was pretty much the Big Deal for the past few decades, totally getting their asses handed to them by Toyota and other companies because of a stunning inability to innovate and make products that people actually want. So everyone's freaking out there.

- You have the whole damn oil situation really freaking out big time because all of a sudden oil is so expensive that it's making everything expensive and really forcing people to think beyond oil, which is great, but it's probably going to be pretty painful because we are living right at the beginning of this massive-scale transition. Exciting times for people who see a future in change, scary times for people who have been through enough change, thank you very much and just want to retire and get some sleep

- There's the whole entertainment industry thing, which is having this wonderful midnight affair with the Writer's Guild Strike, which is really freaking out people in LA, because the already hemorrhaging TV market is bailing now that their Tivo boxes are empty. So, you see the networks makings shows that you just know no one is going to want to watch or they recycle previously made stuff....

Everything is changing, right now. And everyone who cares is trying to figure out how to adapt to these changes. What's crazy is that these are fundamental changes, both industry-wide and worldwide, in many respects. The trick is finding ways to help people manage and enjoy these changes and transitions.

ugh, I wrote this a week ago and totally lost my train of thought. I am going to start a new one now.

Tags: tech, general

Big ass TV! run for your lives!

(Deeeeeep breath.) I randomly went to CES on Tuesday, which was pretty cool, if only because I have always wanted to go to the show just to check it out. I have some pictures here, but they are not all that good, you can see lots of stuff if you dig around the web a bit. But it was cool, I mean, it's always fun to do something you have always wanted to do, right? But still--if you can afford a TV that is 7' tall, you are probably going to have a separate room with a projector, right? But I guess perhaps this could be used in public spaces...


It's gonna be a crazy month, more crazy than usual. I have an actual pilot audition for an actual series regular on Monday, which is notable because: a) I haven't had one in awhile and b) there are not all that many pilots getting shot because of the Writer's Strike. So, if your brain needs some thoughts at 2:40pm on Monday, just say to your brainverse, "Hey Mike, break a leg, that would be fun if you had a good audition because if you get it you can take me out to dinner and we can make jokes." I am really excited because I am actively leveraging some of the stuff I gleaned from a repeat viewing of Special Thanks to Roy London which lives on my ipod and offers some great items to think about before an audition. I really, really love the character and the script, so I need to just enjoy the process and be grateful to have a chance without projecting too much into the future.

(Very much enjoying the just-purchased Juno soundtrack, by the way.)

What I am trying to with the audition, by the way, is to use the moment of actually being in the office auditioning for the part as the emotional foundation/intent of the actual scene. Like, when I talk about loving my job, I am just going to be basically talking about how I love to audition, how I love the chance to act. It's the same intention, right, and I am not doing any substitution or anything like that. If I am nervous, I will just be nervous, and that's that. why fight it? Acting is reacting, sure, and acting is exposing, yes and above all, acting is about letting go and just living. I am fighting the normal impulse to imagine the moment and to provide an idea of how I want things to go--why add that kind of pressure? Why worry about it, really? The moment will come, it will happen, and then it will pass. That's all I want to have as far as expectations go...it's hard but I gotta try, otherwise, I'm just gonna fall into the same traps that I used to fall in. No more!

On a somewhat related note, Whit's surgery is a week from now, which is also quite a big deal and something that I am trying to prepare myself for without getting too crazy about it. She's probably going to be in the hospital for 2 nights and I assume it will all be quite intense. Rocco asked if I was ready and I was like, "I guess, I have no idea"--I really don't know what is going to happen, so it's actually irrelevant if I am ready or not--it's gonna happen and I will do everything I can to make it easy as possible for her. Doesn't matter, right? Accept the moment and deal.

But in-between those two events, I will be in San Francisco for MacWorld to check out the new announcements, see what my competitors are doing, say hey to friends, talk to a few press folks...should be a good time. It's being cut short due to Whit's surgery, but that's okay. I'm usually done with MacWorld after a day on the floor anyway.

Tech rants/hopes/predictions:

1 - Warner's Blu-Ray announcement sucks; I bought my HD-DVD player (it's a better system, IMHO for a variety of very consumer-friendly reasons) and now I'm stuck waiting for the Blu-Ray folks to come out with a reasonably priced, fully-functional player that's not the PS3 (I have a tendency to get burned by Sony products). None of this matters, of course, given the Internet distribution model that is rapidly becoming a fine alternative to buying discs...

2 - I have no idea what's happening at MacWorld, but I would guess that the an updated AppleTV will come out. If it can play Blu-Ray discs, that would be awesome, I admit. I bet they will introduce that sub-compact flash ram MacBookPro, and I can see them releasing the 16GB iPhone. I assume we'll have to sit through the Office 2008 stuff during the keynote, too.

Okay, let's post this thing.

a pic of a postcard that I made for one of our shows way back when in New York.
We actually did a whole photoshoot down in the in the subway, late at night.
I was on my hands and knees with a dog collar on...

Tags: CES, mac, macworld

Tags: tech, HD, HD-dvd, games

Tags: iphone, acting, tech

I had a whole entry about the new iPods, but then a bunch of stuff started happening, including the revelation that the 4GB iPhones were being discontinued and going for $299 while they still were in stock, which kind of changed everything, as the screenshot above shows. Yes, after fighting the good fight, I capitulated and got an iPhone. You've probably already read all the good stuff and bad stuff about the device, so I am not going to go into it too much right here, but suffice to say, I have used it much more for web browsing, emailing and messaging than I have actually using it as a phone! The mantra seems to be true--this is more than a phone, it's basically a very nice mobile communications device.

I have a lot of rationalizations (including that damn broken screen on my old, lame, slow Cingular 3125 phone) but in the end, it's become not why I ended up getting the phone, it's about what I can do now that I have it in my now often less greasy mitts. Basically, it's really, really nice too have a solid way of emailing and getting on the web while I am on the road dealing with auditions. Today, for instance--I was at another last minute audition and I had forgotten the address of my last minute call back (everything has been "same day" for the past week, which has been really crazy) that was happening an hour later. So, i was able to email my agent and she was able to email it to me right back and, if I needed to, I could then map out the address and get the directions all on the same screen. That's just sick, you know? And yes, I know, I could this with my old phone but, really? I couldn't.

(3 days later)

I have been starting and stopping this all week, apologies for that. Yes, the iPhone is rad, no, I don't think that everyone needs one, but I can basically say that everything you read is basically true: it's a pretty amazing device, having Internet access wherever you want is fantastic, having a pretty solid camera is great, being able to watch videos, listen to music, show people photos, check your email, deal with calendars, etc, etc--it all works great. Whit used it a lot this past weekend and commented how great the user interface and loved being able to give me driving directions based on actual maps. Yes, there are problems that just seem weird to me:

- how do you add an attachment to an email? There's gotta be a way, but the only attachment process that I have seen is the "take a picture, send it" process. It works, but if you wanna add more than one photo, etc...I'm lost.

- Apple makes a big deal about having a full featured mail program but it's odd there are no font options? Not that you need to italicize everything, but, I mean, what's with that?

- So, there's really no way to send a single text messages to multiple people? really?

- How about switching the "from" account when sending an email? How do you do that?

- The camera desperately needs to have a zoom feature (or at least a cropping feature available in some kind of edit mode) and it's really lame it can't take video (yes, I realize we are talking about a phone, but honestly, phone stopped being phones awhile ago. they all have cameras, and so far, all of the camera phones I have used have had both zoom and video capabilities). There also needs to be some kind of white balance or something--these pictures can get dark when it's not all that dark outside.

Luckily, most of this seems addressable by software updates...so, let's update and fix this stuff, apple.

But hey, I'm happy. I'm really enjoying taking pictures throughout the day, I must admit, like this one I took after going to the Mexico City restaurant on Sunday. Hmm...Sunday margarita...

Here's a shot of the lovely Silverlake area in LA; we were looking at some houses (for fun) and this view was pretty terrific.
The place was trapped in 1979 (complete with glittery white ceilings) but the views were nice.

So what else? I had some good auditions last week (which have resulted in some good callbacks) but no bites, which bites. I guess there is still some time for things to happen but whatever; I actually went in for a pretty funny fast food spot, but I did not get a chance to do the character I had originally done because they had this other guy who was just doing it so deadpan that I am pretty sure he got the part immediately and they were just looking for someone else to play opposite him. I'm okay at deadpan, but, really, I think deadpan stuff only goes so far, humorwise. I think--no, I know, that being earnest in an unusual/odd situation is actually more honestly funny. Anyone can be weird/unnatrual in a weird/unnatrual situation; the key is being normal in that situation and not judging it or commenting on the moment by doing something artificial. Ah, well...I may not get cast, but at least I am going down in dreamy opinionated flames.

Had a really good chat with Ravi about Australia, meditation and parental motivations/agendas which warrant their own post, but these ruminations will have to come later when I am in a more thoughtful frame of mind. Suffice to say, it was more than excellent to talk to him and I am looking forward to more musings later. Right now, I am just trying to tie up some loose work threads before I bust out of here for a callback this evening...where, this time, I am getting called back because of my earnestness.

Tags: apple, tech, iphone

One of my favorite pictures of Whit from our time in Tokyo

Well, I was having quite the slow week, one of those weeks that are basically forgettable, which is sort of distressing. I mean, live every day like it's your last, right? Well, not when you are living past 40, I guess. On the acting front, I have had a few voiceover auditions, which are great, but I just am especially good at not thinking about them anymore. Do your best and forget about it, Kelly the manager says, which is seemingly the most Zen way to go about this whole process. Do your best and forget. (Insert 2 paragraphs thinking about how weird it is to live through time that you are pretty sure you are going to forget about a month later.)

Well, it's Friday and I was all happy to sleep in a bit and shave and have a nice relaxing day, I'm wearing shorts, I'm in before it gets too hot, and I am pretty much ready to do some work as the rest of the office and Los Angeles gets in their car and vacates the area. Then I get to work and I find that I totally missed a meeting and then I get a call and now I have an audition in North Hollywood in the middle of the day, which is doubly bad news because I am in shorts and now I gotta go home and change and then go to North %$(%*@ Hollywood and do my thing then rush back to work. Plus I just found out I have a meeting about an actual movie role next week with the Weinstein Company. Holy crap! It's just a meeting, no script, so it's all new and I am very excited. I am going to go early to clas--ARGH! no class next week. Dammit. Well, I will figure it out. Exciting, and suddenly the week is a little more memorable.

On the anguished tech nerd side of things, I read this very good article on Blu-Ray/HD-DVD and now I am in a quandary. Long story short, despite some very tempting titles exclusive to HD-DVD, it looks like Blu-Ray is the way to go. Sure, the HD-DVD players are cheaper but there are really only two options--the Microsoft HD-DVD player for the Xbox 360 or the Toshiba boxes. I think, honestly, that the prices are going down because they know the format is going down. So, I am thinking that if I really want to do it (and I am still not even convinced of that), the best way to go is to get the HD-DVD player for my Xbox and just hang out for the Blu-Ray prices to come down. Such a pain. Oh, and I know, everyone's talking about streaming and downloading and all that, but for some reason, I guess I like having a library of books and movies. I like taking a bunch of movies with me on the road.

Looks like I am on my own this weekend; Whit's going to Jackson to hang out with Kristi and her boy Rivers so I am probably gonna go to yoga, get my comics, maybe organize the comics, play records, maybe even go out dancing, go to Gary's bbq, and find a few pools to soak in.

Hope you have a good weekend!

Tags: acting, HD, DVD

They're fixing that restaurant in LAX because pieces were falling off. I think they should keep it this way.

All right, I have been thinking about writing this for a bit so I am going to officially rant a bit about what bothers me about my Mac, Mac OS X and other technical stuff that many of us have to deal with every day to see if someday these issues will be fixed up or not.

1 - The "reboot" experience in Mac OS X is abysmal. Yes, I know that stuff has to get cached, but, I mean, why is it that, for the first 3-5 minutes after you reboot, you get the spinning beach ball of insane rainbow frustration with almost every mouse click? Usually you have to reboot because something crashed or hung and you are just trying to get back to what you were doing, so this extra lag time just adds insult to injury. I hate it. I also hate how dashboard doesn't preload, so if you have a few widgets, you have to wait for them to ping out to the Internet, get their data, and then redraw. Yes, it sounds minor when you read it on some dork's blog (that's me), but when you have to actually deal with it often and it's pretty easy to address, it's infuriating. And yes, I know there's some shareware thing out there that will preload the dashboard for you automatically, but the OS should do it on its own.

2 - I hate how hot my Macbook gets. It gets so damn hot it's dangerous. The only way I can use the thing for any length of time (like work), I have to use an external keyboard. I mean, this is what's up with my machine right now, and all I am doing is typing while listening to music via iTunes (Marcus Intalex). Why is it over 100° on the bottom of the case? And why are my fans up so high? What the hell is going on? And it's not even funny when you are burning a DVD. I have to stack the machine on top of books to get proper airflow underneath. If you use a Macbook on a wooden desk, forget about it. So, yeah--and I also hate when it doesn't really go to sleep and I end up taking it out of my backpack and both fans are on and it's white hot and you feel like all the keys are just going to melt off when you open the case. That's happened to me quite a few times.

3 - I don't need to go into this too much because so many others are already ragging on Apple about it, but the new iMovie is a big piece of junk. And iPhoto's not all that hot, either. And guess what? I've been using 10.5 and I don't like that much, either (transparent menu bar? Coverflow? reflective dock? Can you say waste of CPU power which makes for an even hotter machine?). So, yeah, I am turning into a grumpy old man, I guess.

4 - The iPhone is great, but the EDGE network is, in my opinion, its Achille's heel. It's really tough for me to imagine getting that phone until that situation changes. Yes, I know, there's more to life than surfing the Internet and going on google maps and checking your email, but...wait--is there, really?

5 - All these billboards you see about cell phone networks having the least amount of dropped calls really crack me up. There should be NO dropped calls in the first place. "Hey, check us out! We suck just a bit less!" Ridiculous.

okay, I can't maintain the rant for that long, but still, I needed to at least get the first two off my chest. I've been rebooting a lot lately because my machine has been crashing, I think because I have had network volumes mounted and then did not unmount them before going home for the day, which should just result in a time out, but lately have been causing my entire system to hang. So frustrating.

I have an audition for one of the new network shows that I am pretty excited about. I am trying to be cool about it, but I am failing. I really, really want this gig.

hope you are well!

Here's a picture of the bridge that went down in Minneapolis. So crazy.

Tags: apple, macos, imovie, tech

(all the cables that are behind my TV/Xbox/Cable box/Airport/Router)

Wow, that weekend went by quick. Not a whole lot to talk about, other than how zonked I am from staying out way too late on Saturday night and how everything seems really bright today, which is beyond irritating. I keep putting eye drops in my eyes to counteract the drops I put in this morning, which have basically dried them out like crazy (they're allergy drops, which are supposed to help my eyes not be so red, so now I look like I just stopped crying every time people come by cube. I'm fine, people, I'm just fine.

Though I was loathe to discuss the whole HDTV vs. BluRay format "war", I figured I would toss out the idea that I am actually leaning in favor of the HD-DVD format. You can get the Toshiba HD-A2 model for $249 and so far, the reviews for that device have been pretty solid all the way around. It wasn't really thinking about this stuff to much (my Oppo 970HD does a nice job of upconverting my current DVDs to some semblance of 720p), but with the announcement of Heroes on HD-DVD I've been looking at the format a bit more closely. Plus there are many HD-DVD titles that come with Standard DVD format on one side, the HD on the other, so one could, in theory, buy these hybrid DVDs and, when the players get below $200 (give it 2 months) have a small HD collection already set to go. I dunno, just some ideas, but given Sony's poor performance in pretty much everything and my own poor experiences with Sony hardware in the past, I am resistant to going down the Blu-Ray tube. Of course, the format war is a big pain the butt anyway and there are plenty of other things to think about that are a bit more important. But what can I say, that's what I am thinking about this afternoon...I know, what a life.

Apple's gonna introduce some new machines tomorrow. Let's assume new iMacs and hopefully a revamped MacBook Pro line with a small model...that probably won't happen; let's see how it goes. I have been pretty happy with my MacBook Pro but I think the thing just gets way too hot, especially on wood desks. The bottom of a machine should not be too hot to touch, and though my friends will say I am just being psychosomatic, I tell you, when I am using it on lap, I feel really unusual. Like, not good unusual. Like, my head would feel after talking too long on cell phones in the late 90s unusual. I swear, man, with all these waves going through me, I am either going to have a very short life or a very, very long, Twinkies like life.

Other than that:

- still annoyed that my Cingular 3125 phone has a damaged front window, above. I have no idea what happened but now the LCD on the external screen is damaged. One would say, "Perfect excuse for an iPhone purchase" but

- I still think the iPhone is too much money. I just can't imagine paying that much for a phone. I have no doubt (at all) that I will end up getting one of these damn things, but it won't be for awhile.

- I added another thing to the sidebar, that Technorati thing. We'll see if it is useful or not. I must admit, I like updating the twitter thing. I have no idea if anyone is reading it (other than those "following" me) but it's fun nonetheless.

okay, let's post this thing.

Tags: HD, DVD, phone