Ok, so I'm in Philadelphia at the moment, at the Newgrounds office. It's been a hectic weekend, what with WizardWorld (three day conference - I made it the first couple of days, but was so tired on Sunday that I skipped that day. I feel bad about that, as I wasn't around to help out AND I'd promised a guy on one of the stalls opposite newgrounds' booth that I'd buy a Bobba Fett print...)

I was trepidatious about coming out here for two reasons:

1. I hate flying. And I'm really under-stating that. I HATE flying. On the list of the things I would least likely want to do, next to dying, would be flying (shwoo, that rhymes).

2. I knew that there'd be fans coming into the convention and other fans hanging out at the office for the duration of the convention.

Now, that might sound weird / obnoxious, but what I mean by this is that many people who I knew were coming out here I'd already had dialogue with online and gotten along wiht great. I was nervous that I'd come across totally differently in person, or the people I knew I'd be meeting would be different to how I imagined them to be. And I'm just not good at meeting people for the first time. I shyed away from doing that at the conference. Anyway...

As I met Tom for the first time, despite having known him for nearly 7 years before that online, he admitted to me that he'd felt like that - like we got on great online, but maybe we wouldn't get along in person and that could ruin any chance we had of getting along online again afterwards.

I shouldn't have worried, though. The guys I've been spending time with this past few days are honestly the most kind, balanced, well-humoured, friendly bunch of folks you could ever expect to find yourself in the company of. The flight was ok, too.

A bunch of guys (other than staff members) have stayed on at the office after the conference. Timmy stopped by yesterday after the conference ended. Tomamoto left earlier on today. The others (I won't list them because I'll miss someone out and then feel bad about it) are leaving (with the exception of HappyHarry) throughout the week. I wish we'd all got a bit more time to spend together, but there's always next time, amirite?

Finally, summary of WizardWorld below.

Is anyone, other than me, disappointed that there haven't been more MTV unplugged releases on CD/MP3?

For those of you who were born after all of this happened, in the early nineties, there were a series of sessions:-

Nirvana, Eric Clapton, Pearl Jam, Neil Young, REM, Stone Temple Pilots, etc.

Pearl Jam recently re-released "Ten", a re-mastered version of their album, which includes a DVD of their MTV unplugged session - but still no CD to listen to.

Once Kurt Cobain had died (perhaps even before that), the sessions from Nirvana unplugged were immediately released to CD. Clapton's unplugged session was also released.

I'm wondering what's stopping the rest (other than the record companies who own their asses) from releasing the other material that was produced in these shows.

With the digital age as it is, times are harder for the record industry more than they ever were when it comes to them making some money, so it seems to me like a good time to release these recordings in formats that we can listen to.

I maybe alone, but anyone with me? Also... I miss the unplugged stuff. I wish MTV would bring that back, or some other show would take up where they left off. Jools Holland's show would be a good start.

It's rubbish, I hate it. Particularly the online play. I got my xbox back after nearly 12 months of wondering whether I should send it off for repair, and this is what I'm welcomed back to. Makes me want to throw the xbox in the trash can.

After having a creative zen mp3 player that packed up on me (admittedly, after a good few years' worth of service), I decided to buy an iPod classic. Can't remember how long ago that was, maybe a couple of years, tops.

So, whilst I was in Japan earlier this month, the iPod started making clicking noises as I turned it on. That starved me of music and a couple of videos that I'd intented to watch on the plane ride home.

I've spent the past couple of nights looking through apple's self-help tech support for information on how to fix the problem, even down to the point where I'd copied and pasted some commands into a batch file (wtf? what kind of 'support' is that?), and spent even more time googling around for the answer.

Having tried everything I'd read about, I decided to give apple's tech support a call. 10 minutes later, after trying to decipher what the lady at the end of the line was saying to me (and her trying to figure out what I was saying to her), it turns out that they want to charge me £130 (around $210 USD) to repair the unit.

I can buy a brand new one for £30 more than that. Reluctantly then, it looks like I'm going back to Creative... unless anyone has any other suggestions.

I'd forgotten how much I love (and, at the same time, loath) music production.

Listening to the same thing over and over again, whether engineering or producing, can drive you nuts, and it gets very, very repetetive: to the point where you get to the end of the day and don't want to hear anything musical for the rest of the day.

Aaaaanyway, things have moved on significantly, especially when it comes to digital music (and music programs.)

Rather than having to listen to the tracks you've recorded and try and balance them as best as you can in a mix down, you can also see them graphically.

I'm not a total relic - that sort of thing was available in programs like Cubase VST years ago, but it took a HELL of a long time to for those programs to compute said waveforms.

Will hopefully have some new Music for you guys to listen to soon. Unfortunately for those who hate the stuff I've already done, it'll all be remixes of old band recordings.

Before I even start, I'm going to say that I agree - smoking is a very bad thing.

However, I AM a smoker, and as such, this really irritates me....

The UK Government (and most constituent countries in that Government) have passed a number of laws in the UK over the past few years, all of which I agree with. To clarify as to what's already been done, in no particular order:

1. Upped the age of those eligible to buy cigarettes from 16 to 18.
2. Banned smoking in the working area.
3. Banned smoking in pubs, restaurants, and other public places, which have a roof and so many walls (whether brick, wood, or glass.)
4. Put warning messages on cigarette packages.

What REALLY gets my goat are the plans for the new images on the packages of cigarette packs, which will roll out in 2009, and here's why.....

1. Anyone 18+ in the UK can vote in elections, so they can nominate which party is to be in Government.
2. If they're eligible to vote a Government into power, do they really need to be put through some of this crap (below)?

I know what's going to happen here... The people the Government are trying to target are going to buy a pack of cigarettes, having already bought some sort of container to put the contents of the pack in, and just discard the pack, wherever they are, and then fill their container with the contents of the pack.

New problem... Litter.

The top image is what we already have. Bottom is one of the images that the Government propose to put on packs of cigarettes.

I have a HUGE collection of CDs. I started collecting them as a student and used to frequent a store that sold albums for around $2 USD a piece, way back when.

I recently replaced a Creative Zen mp3 player, with an iPod. The Zen was great, since I was able to transfer files to and from it. However, I felt it was time to upgrade - the Zen was a bit of a brick....

So, I got another mp3 player (an iPod), thinking I'd be able to copy all of the music I have to that device, and then back again, should the iPod start to give up its life (as I'd done with the Zen). My music collection is worth FAR more than the iPod (both in price and in sentimental value).

And yet, I can't convert anything. Anyone else have any similar experiences?

I know that these creatures are miracles of evolution, stemming back millions of years (or a few months, if you happen to be stupid enough to be a Creationist.). What are these creatures good for, other than:

a) making other little slugs and snails with each other
b) eating all your plants
c) i: if you're from France and it's a snail, eating it, or ii: just... getting in your way.

?

In all the millions of years of evolution (or two months, if you're stupid enough to be a Creationist [before anyone pipes up, I know the true length of time that Creationists think upon]), why have these creatures not learned to get out of the way?

In the picture below is a partially squashed snail...

Now... I smoke (I know, a very bad thing), but I go outside to do it.

I don't weigh much and when I step outside for a smoke in the pitch black, I tread carefully when it's raining, because I know that there's going to be a few of these creatures about.

However, if these creatures, who have been around longer than man, had any sense, they'd have been prepared for me. Or at least grown tough enough shells to withstand my weight, or just stayed away.

Between taking the first picture and writing this up, I went outside again and destroyed another snail accidentally. Surely, they're their own worst enemy.

Well, I already had a rant about USB stuff, so I can't really continue on all of that.

I got one up on those guys, though. My card reader came through today, so I don't have to worry about USB cords any more.... for the two cameras I have, at least. Who knows, it might come up as a party pleaser, given that I have several weddings to attend in the next few months.

I'm not up to Wade's standards with photography, but I've been awake very early in the morning over here for the past few weeks and that's the best time to catch spiders in action. So here's one. Sorry, it's not the greatest of shots, but it's not too bad. Looks like that bad boy knew what his dinner was, cocooned it and went in for the kill.

I can't be the only person on the planet who's as pissed off as I am with USB devices (or, more specifically cables.)

I have a PS3, with a USB cable. I have a flash drive, with a USB cable. I have a camera, with a cable. I have a cell phone, with a cable. - All of which, could work from the same cable.

I have another camera, with a totally different cable. What the...

My lounge looks like there's black spaghetti all over the place. Fucking cables.

What I'm really annoyed about, though, is the connection to the devices... That's usually pretty much the same for EVERYTHING USB related I have, but not the newer camera. I have to have a DIFFERENT USB cable for all of that.

Of course, with my luck, I lost that cable. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay Fuji for another cable (which I'm sure is their ploy), so I ordered a card reader.

I'd take pictures, but there'd be some irony in all of that. Given that I can't get pictures transferred to the PC.