Pre Labor Day Redux
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!
monday tech run
(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.