Max Engel - the 8BitKid
living bit by bit

Today I had my first real earthquake since moving to the west coast.  My apartment felt like a moon bounce.  Only Megaman and two Transformers were taken for a ride, but luckily, they survived.

I spent last weekend at Comic-Con in San Diego. It was my second visit to the show, and I had a blast reveling in the nerdy debauchery. MC Lars played at the G4/STRANGEco party, and unleashed this awesome song:

I spent a good bit of time perusing the show floor. While I didn’t have time to test out Street Fighter 4, I did discover an amazing booth for an American animation art dealer: Van Eaton Galleries. They had a mind-blowing assortment of work that spanned the last century. I spent hours digging through their collection rediscovering my childhood (I had completely forgotten about “Road Rovers”!). It reminded me of when I used to dig for vinyl, searching for the needle in the haystack. I really can’t describe how cool it was to see so many treasures from american animation, but it has definitely gotten me to consider a temporary transition from anime cels to those of the american variety. Luckily, the gallery happens to be nearby in Sherman Oaks, so I’m sure I’ll be spending more time there.

Well, I have had an exhausting day today at Comic-Con, and as I am recovering, I realized I didn’t make a post today.  Here is the new Futurama trailer.  It isn’t really comic-related, except that it is nerd-related in title.

Well, I’m on my way to the San Francisco airport after enjoying a nice whirlwind trip up here for Facebook’s F8 event. It was great to catch up with friends and wax web for a bit.

Now my travels continue as I take an even geekier adventure. As soon as I’m back in LA I hit the road to head down to San Diego for Comic-Con. Last year was a blast, and I’m looking forward to some nerdy decadence. Expect to see my pictures from the field up on Flickr.

Also, this is my first post with the new Wordpress iPhone and everything is smooth sailing so far.

I can’t even bother referencing all of the other posts I have written about anime movies getting the tinseltown treatment. “Akira”, “Ghost in the Shell”, “Neon Genesis Evangelion” are just several of the titles near and dear to my heart that are going before the gauntlet, and now it seems “Cowboy Bebop” is going to join that company.

Granted, this could actually make an awesome film. I keep thinking of Travolta and Samuel L. waxing philosophy while dining in “Pulp Fiction” and how I’d see Spike and Jet engaging in a similar level of banter. My real concern isn’t about staying true to the characters, but about preserving the role of Yoko Kanno’s score in the unfolding drama. Her soundtrack sets the tone for the show, and I can’t imagine removing her jazz vibe from a remake. I’ve got a little more hope for this one, which I guess means there is a greater opportunity for disappointment.

- via Anime News Network

A great video from College Humor.  The old newspaper editor in me loves this.  I know it isn’t Friday, but I was up all night with the workies, and this is the best my brain can handle.

I’ll be up in San Francisco for Facebook’s F8 developers event. Definitely excited to get to geek out and meet up with friends. If you’re going to be around and about, give me a shout.

Also, someone told me that there is an all-eggs-benedict restaurant in San Francisco, does anyone have info?

Finally, work is going well, but also taking up a fair bit of time. Please excuse the brevity. I have an interesting post on Schumann’s resonance in the wings (seriously).

I am still worried about them ruining something I love, but I like what I see here…

If you are a fan of Stanley Kubrick’s romp in the world of ultra-violence and want to see what happens when Pavlovian conditioning goes far too far, you should check out “A Clockwork Orange” at Cinespia this weekend.  Cinespia is the film society that screens movies in the Hollywood Forever cemetery.  I actually have never been, but I hear it is an excellent time.

check out this link for more information: http://www.cinespia.org/calendar/

So I am now an owner of the new “iPhone 3G”.  I picked up the white version (it matches my Nintendo DS), and am digging the high-speed internet acccess and location-based services.  The main attraction, however, is the application platform.  I love Yelp, Shazam, and a bunch of others that are really making the iPhone more of a tiny computer to me, and less of a phone.

Perhaps this exists, but one app I would love to see is one that turns my phone into a wireless modem.  Back when I was in college I had a Sony-Ericsson T610 that I could tether to my Mac and use to connect my laptop to the internet while I was taking the train to and from school.  With the iPhone, my understanding is that it doesn’t support OBEX, which is a bluetooth protocol necessary for dial-up networking.  However, the iPhone does have wifi, and I have seen apps using Apple’s Bonjour zero-config networking protocol.  It seems possible to create an app that would share my iPhone’s 3G data plan with my laptop via wifi.  I haven’t dug through my terms-of-use with AT&T, so perhaps this isn’t possible, but it would be incredibly useful.