Weekend Rundown (Finally!)

Finally, a moment to breathe and time to recount the weekend.

As most geeks will know, this past weekend was the NY ComicCon at the Jacob Javits center. Some of us gomo bloggers decided to attend. The short list of attendees in my group was myself, MacboyX, his traveling companion R, and Mike P. of Blather and Bosh.

Saturday was the first opportunity for MacBoyX and I to meet in person since we fostered a friendship online. We were both looking forward to it. Expectations were high in general for the the ComicCon and our first meeting, so it would reason that things wouldn't go well.

Problems started before we even got together. Mike P. called to inform me that MacBoyx and R had arrived at the Javits Center to discover that there were no more tickets being sold to the event. Bother.

A few, quick phone calls had Mike P. heading to Jim Hanley's Universe to pick up one day passes while MacBoyX waited at the JJC. Everything was back on track or so it seemed.

Arriving at the JJC, I headed downstairs to the cafe to meet up with MacBoyX. He is much cuddlier and huggable in person. It was a general relief that we finally met, since it seemed that we never would. But we did. It was cool. We fell right in to a conversation, like the old friends that we are. It was great.

Impressive was MacBoyX's traveling companion R. He has similar interests as me, ie. anime, die-cast japanese robots and was very knowledgeable. We discussed the merits of old style die-cast in Bandai's Soul of Chogokin line and the new engineering. All the while, Mike P. trudged crosstown to meet us.

When he arrived, we located him online with his two friends to get in. The line was ludicrous long and we learned that the FDNY had closed the event to any new entries. Double Bother.

Some traded in tickets for refunds and some of us grabbed wristbands for preferential, express admission for the next day. After that we hightailed out of there.

Walking along as we made our way to ImageAnime, to make up for the not getting into ComicCon, I fought with Mike P. to prevent him from polluting his body with hot dogs or any other assorted street meat.

R got quite a reception from the proprietors at ImageAnime. "Where have you been? What have you been up to? Why haven't you been in?" Even I, who has been in the store quite often, have never received such a spirited greeting. I picked up one two items and R picked up a few more. He out-bought me on robots.

Crumbs.

Mike P. stank up the place with a street dog that he surreptitiously acquired, eating and gloating. um… Gross.

We grabbed a bite at Mustang Harry's with more good conversation there. I coined the term "Yellow Anger" of which I wish Mike P. would exhibit less of.

Quick pitstop at MacboyX and R's hotel for check-in and drop-off their bags and robo-spoils.

We herded down to the Apple Store to check out the MacBook Pro. Its fricking sweet and fast especially with the Apple suite of natively written applications. iTunes opened in a snap as did iPhoto and iDVD. Overall the system ran smoothly and you could feel the speed. Checked out the image/video quality of the built-in iSight, nice. I want a MacBook Pro, but I'm holding out for a 17" version with a dual-layer DVD burner. Breath-held, turning blue… bah!!!

Not to mention, I've read too many reports of problematic iSights, DOA machines etc. It is the shakedown machine after all, so I'll wait a few more months while they work out the kinks.

After our run at the Store, it was time for me to bid adieu. It was great to hang with everyone and especially nice meeting all the great people, MacBoyX, R, Zell, Steve, Peter, Paul and Wally. Oh and Mike P., quit picking on me. >:P

I headed off to meet up with my old friend Peter, who from now will on be known as Mutant. It was awesome catching up with him and meeting his girlfriend. She's sweet. I stopped by their swanky love nest for a shindig they were throwing. Nice place with cool people, plenty of eats (White Castle burgers!!) and drinks.

However, it'd been a long day, I couldn't last any longer, heading home early. Exhausted yet satisfied.

Oh, I did make it to ComicCon on Sunday. While I was there for only an hour and a half overall, I'm disappointed. It felt thin. Perhaps they were hit harder than expected the day before, but I didn't find much to hold my interest. If I had more time and went to a few of the sessions, maybe I would had a better experience instead of feeling gypped.