The other place I expected to possibly use it (but hadn’t yet) was the car. The Camaro is pretty connected that way and there’s a USB port in it. If you hook up the iPod, you can control it from the radio. I never really used it because I was usually playing with XM. The XM trial ended a little while back and I was on the fence about renewing. It was cool and I had waited long enough to get the $77 offer, but there were only a few channels I really listened to regularly.

Google Music on my phone encouraged me to check out the Camaro’s Bluetooth Audio feature. I’m glad I did. If terrestrial radio isn’t sufficient, I’ll just use my phone. Between Pandora, the iheartradio app and Google Music, I have access to my entire personal music collection, radio from around the country and ‘personalized’ stations based on my preferences. Sorry, XM. I have no need for you.

And the phone can just stay in my pocket or console and I can snag calls with the hands-free feature. Pretty cool stuff.

In all honesty, I never really loved the iPod. I wanted to, but it’s one of the few tech/gadget/electronic purchases I sort of always regretted. It’s a unitasker gadget and that’s unacceptable and archaic (see my Kindle hate – sorry, Jeff). If a device I own can do the same thing at least mostly as well, there’s no need to a standalone device. That standalone device has to be pretty exceptional. The main thing the iPod had going for it was that it was my music specifically as opposed to music I like including some specific songs. Google Music just took care of that.

Best part is, today is also my renew date for a new phone. Looks like Santa just might be leaving me a shiny new phone (any advice on an Android phone?) this year. The timing feels right.

I don’t take coasters too seriously. A lot of the dork community does though – to the point where it’s a turn off. Seems like the more ‘passionate’ someone is about roller coasters, the more time they spend complaining – this ride has the wrong restraint system or too many brakes or it used to be great and the park ruined it or the third screw on the back seat of the fifth car was turned a half-turn too tight. It really gets that silly. Like people get emotional over it. For real.

All I’ve learned over the past 10 years is that the more of an ‘enthusiast’ you supposedly are, the more it seems like something coming out of your mouth on the subject is going to be a complaint. Makes me wonder why people spend so much time and money on a hobby they seem to hate so much.

Be a coaster dork, not a coaster tool. I mean the whole scene is full of social misfits as it is, don’t make it any worse for us. I don’t mind that as a whole you’re overwhelmingly gay, fat, cheap and ugly. Just quit fucking complaining so much about things that matter so little – even in the context of a hobby that’s ridiculous to begin with.

I’ve been lucky to find a social circle within the hobby that keeps it reasonable. Thanks guys (you know who you are) for not being one of them (they probably don’t know who they are) – and a few of them do play in the backyard. Which is why I get annoyed that I occasionally overhear their stupidity.

(On a side note, I wonder how many of these people have ever ridden a wagon down a hill in the woods, because based on the complaints, that’s apparently the ‘purist’ ride they’re after.)

1. lord gonchar
2. uncle jesse
3. every piss begins with pee
4. homies
5. i wanna do flo
6. my body is a lockbox of diamonds
7. brown sugar fountain
8. usps clown commercial

Least used:

“I love that thing you do. You know, that thing. With your mouth…and the ice cubes…and the blowtorch and the 13 trained poodles and the autographed photo of Merle Haggard made out to someone’s Uncle Norman and the mp3 of La Bamba. That thing. I love it.”

It doesn’t appear on the list anywhere.

Let me try to sum up our feelings – we were disappointed and enoyed it at the same time. That’s the parental view. My daughter couldn’t have cared less either way. My son had a pretty good time.

It felt a little too much like we paid $20 a ticket to play with someone else’s Lego collection. I think I expected less “here you go, have at it” and more “look at this, here’s how this works, try this” from things. It seemed like too many of the areas were just “build something here” stations presented in different ways. For instance:

- There were Monochromatic Group Build areas. A neat idea. Tons of 2×4 bricks in one color for you to get creative on – by yourself and with others. Particularly notable creations got placed on pedastals and dispalyed for the duration of the session. Neat enough. Except that there were four of these areas (one pink, one green, one blue and one yellow). On top of that there was a Target-sponsored area that was essentially the same thing with red bricks and the added twist that you were designing a structure for the Target dog (whatever its name is – spot?). So five of the activity areas were building something with one color and one size of brick.

- There were a couple of different areas that were essentially the same ‘free-build’ areas presented under different pemises. Creation Nation took your creation and placed in on a large, blank floor map of the USA, creating a sort of skyline from the things the kids built. The Lego Construction Zone was the same thing, expect instead of a on a map, your creation was placed in one of several glass display cases where it stayed until more room was needed. The Big Brick Pile was just a big-ass pile of legos that kids were climbing on and throwing at each other. A neat idea on paper, but just a bunch of Lego bricks to dick around with in reality. Two large areas were also taken up by Duplo Build Areas where younger kids could fuck around with the oversized baby version of Lego bricks. The Mystery Mural Build let you take a small, numbered tile place colored 1×1′s in a predetermined patter on it and then place it on a big lego wall that, when finished, created a 2D mural of a city skyline with a nod or two to Pittsburgh tossed in. The Race Ramps was more of the same but with wheel pieces. There were some small ramps set up so you could race with friends or family or whatever, but nothing organized. Mostly kids whipping he cars down the ramp to crash and break them.

- The Model Museum and Brickscapes were essentially the same thing – cool Lego creations you could look at and take photos of. The Brickscapes were in glass display cases and often little “Eye Spy” things you could try to find. The Model Museum was just a small collection of those bigger statue-like creations…and even then, it turns out those are hollow with steel skeltons. They also has an “Adult Fans Of Lego” area where bonafide grown-ups were showing off creations. Simultaneously interesting and horrifying.

- Lego Games was exactly what it sounds like – sign up and wait 10 or 15 minutes to play one of the Lego games they sell. Lego Universe? Same thing. Wait in line for 20 minutes and sample the Lego Universe online game. The Video Game Gallery consisted of two (yes two!) kiosks. One had Lego Rock Band 2 set up to try (one game) and the other had three DS units attached running the Ninjago DS game. That’s right. A total of four kids at any given time could be checking out the video games.

- The Lego Retail Store and the Lego Marketplace were exactly what they sound like – chances to spend money. The catch was that the Marketplace had next to nothing beyond what looked like a small collection of the least popular licensed Lego items – watches, bracelets, shirts in odd sizes and a Bissel Brick Sweeper thing. Looked like a non-powered push vaccum to me. The Retail Store had nothing you couldn’t find in any Wal-Mart, Target or Toys R Us…and it had a 20-to-30 minute line the entire time. People were waiting a half hour to buy Lego sets that they can get anywhere.

- There were also some areas with local groups trying to sell you something – Boy Scouts, Radio Stations, Schools, the Pirates, whatever. There were raffles and Legoland info with a Legoland trip giveaway too.

- The best parts (and what I expected more of) were the areas with actual Lego builders interacting with the kids. The Master Builder Academy was a chance to get hands-on with the MBA product (yes, a sell, but…) and have a Master Builder there to answer questions and help out and stuff. The catch was that there was a limited number of classes. We got in line to sign up within 10 minutes of entering, waited 15 minutes and got one of the last spots of the day. The Activity Area also has a Master Builder on hand with various group activities and games going on. It felt a little unstructured, but was fun. There were also supposed to be Master Builders there with live Demonstrations, but we either missed them or they weren’t very prominent (I suspect the latter).

And that was it. The place really started clearing out about halfway through. We left about 45 minute or an hour early and felt like we were stretching to make it that long. As I said, I expected less “here you go, have at it” and more “look at this, here’s how this works, try this” – the Builders are fucking Rock Stars to these kids. There should have been more opportunity to see, hear and talk to them and less piles of Legos lying around for you to dick with presented as something more than Legos lying there to dick with. Set up little clinic areas. Set up a small stage and chairs and let these guys talk to groups all day. Let them give tips, answer questions and get the kids excited about the product and the possibilities. That’s where this thing really missed the boat to us.

With all of that said, I’d still give the experience a positive review. Definitely go and check it out. The price is right and you can blow a few hours surrounded by all things Lego. On the same note, I wouldn’t go again unless I knew there were major changes made. There’d really be no reason to.

Not sure how it’s possible to think of something positively, but also be able to say it was disappointing. Somehow Lego pulled it off.

We’re SO happy with the choices we made with this one. Black on Black is just stunning on the shape of the car. We questioned the little bit extra we spent for interior upgrades and bells and whistles, but once you’re in the car it’s not even a question of good choice/bad choice – it’s obviously worth every penny. USB, Bluetooth with voice commands, XM radio, OnStar, the Heads Up Display on the windshield, the gauges by the shifter that glow red, rear parking assist, built-in universal remote, ambient lighting on the door panels, soft leather – it’s all good. It’s amazing how these cars get more and more technology in them each year. The exterior upgrades are what make the Camaro special and we never questioned those. After getting the car, I don’t understand how anyone goes with the base model without an exterior package – the halo headlights are what give the car personality. Regular headlights would be stupid. The spoiler is a must and subtle enough to add style but not be obvious. The upgraded wheels make it intimidating. We’re rolling on 20′s. The back tires are 9 inches wide. It gives the car such an agressive stance. Even the upgraded tail lights just ‘finish’ the overall look.

It’s really the perfect ‘fun’ car. The look and performance satisfies the kid in me who grew up in rural western PA, the interior appointments scream luxury car and the gadgets and toys satisfy the easily amused tech geek hiding inside of me. Win/win/win as far as I’m concerned.

On a cute side note, my son now recognizes Lemmy’s voice because of Triple H’s entrance music. If he hears a Motorhead song he instantly associates it with the people who do Triple H’s music.

Now I can finally start coverting my VHS collection that spans as far back as 22 years and includes roughly 6 gazillion tapes.

…along with people talking about how accurate the ‘predicitions’ are some 17 or 18 years later. (Damn! Was 1993 really that long ago? Kids graduating next year – and maybe the earliest ones this year – were born after Kurt Cobain died? Fuck, I’m old.)

It is fascinating to see how much of what was considered ‘futuristic’ then has come to be part of our everyday lives, but those are hardly predictions. Or at the very least they’re loaded ones coming from a company developing the tech – which I think is the greater point. It’s more commentary on how long it took those new technologies to go from concept/development/early stages to mainstream, everyday stuff.

Still is neat though. I remember those commercials like yesterday.

1993. 18 years ago!? Really!?

I’m not some illiterate fool when it comes to computers and technology. I’m quite adept, if I do say so myself.

Last Xmas when we got a couple of new laptops, I figured it was finally time to set up some sharing between PC’s. My desktop has the printer attached and an external drive that holds all gazillion mp3s we have. I simply turned on file sharing and printer sharing and in no time had the laptops accessing our music collection and printing from the desktop.

Fast forward approximately 11 months.

All was fine until a few weeks ago. My daughter suddenly couldn’t print. It wasn’t anything major so I kinda blew her off. A few days (a week or two?) later she needed to print something again and kept getting an error. I asked if she could access the music and she couldn’t. So I grabbed my laptop and had the same issue.

So this weekend I finally got around to trying to figure out what’s up. 4 days later and my brain hurts. There’s no reason it shouldn’t be working. It now wants a username/password. There isn’t one set-up and it never needed it before. I’ve tried a million combinations of things and nothing works. At one point while messing around I got the printer to spit out a bunch of stuff from her laptop, but couldn’t make it happen at will.

Then today I was messing again (because this is driving me nuts) and tried printing from her laptop. Nothing. I went to mess with the desktop and closed her laptop and suddenly the printer came to life and spit out my test print. I opened the laptop back up, clicked on her name to get back to the desktop and was able to print whatever I wanted. I then tried to access the mp3 drive and had no problem.

I had a hunch though.

I rebooted her laptop. Then I tried to print. Nada. Then I tried to access the mp3 drive. It asked for user/pass.

ARRRRGH!

And I can’t replicate whatever makes it suddenly spit out prints. Not sure what was common in the two times I managed to get it to work. I think it was closing the laptop, but that alone doesn’t do the trick when I want it to.

It’s literally eating away at me. I hate when shit isn’t working.