More Junk: A New Podcast

Some projects die on the vine, others... well, they're still growing. In addition to the Entertainment Earth podcast, I've started the Sunday Night Slog so I can complain about whatever in the wee hours between when the 16bit.com update goes up Sunday night and whenever it is I go to bed.



If all goes well, this week's will be about whatever I see in the first couple of days of Toy Fair.

FOTD2 Going OK, I think

So in the past week and change, the column was launched and I even figured out how to rig up a comments section of questionable value. (Does it count if it's only two or three dudes posting?) I'm not even sure what to expect-- my Galactic Hunter Q&A columns get nearly 2,000 reads a week and nobody ever writes ANYTHING.

Also, Google seems to like it, or I know the exact words to type in to make Google like it. This is, of course, a big part of the point. If I review enough weirdness that nobody else touches, the two guys who want to know about it will eventually find my page. It'd be nice if more people clicked the banners and bought stuff... because, well, I don't get paid per article on any of these sites I write for.

I've got about 50 16bit FOTDs in the can (with lots more in various stages of completion) which sounded pretty good until I remembered that the Star Wars one I write is closer to 1,400. 1,424 actually.

I figure that soon-- and by "soon" I mean "after I get a house"-- I'll shift away from new figures and go back into the archives, writing about the weird stuff that I bought in college and high school nobody should ever see let alone own. You know, back when toys were still meant to be played with by kids. It's probably mostly going to be an excuse to tack on stories at the end of the reviews about how I found those figures which, for at least a chunk of them, will be more interesting than the toys.

Macindeath + Cheap FM Adapter

Tonight's Sunday Night Slog is special, because the computer which has been the core of my projects for the past three years up and died last week. Last Sunday, my G5 tower started to act up. And die. I got to spend most of the last week troubleshooting and fretting rather than writing or, heaven forbid, sitting around and having a good time. This is particularly troubling as my Apple hardware is traditionally pretty sturdy. As far as I know, the Apple II+ at my parents' house still boots. The Macintosh IIsi I had worked fine for its seven years, ultimately getting traded in for a G3 tower (which is still here and still boots), and seven years, later, I got a G5 tower.

Which freaking died in less than four years. Very disappointing.

My iPod's FM transmitter broke the other week. (I kinda cracked it open and enhanced the antenna in 2005, and it just snapped off a few weeks ago.) So it's been fuzzy driving around, and I was more than a little surprised to see an iPod FM adapter at Target in their cheapo gift area for ten bucks. I bought it and early quick tests seem that it's actually just fine. Interesting. I'll post more later, I want to know if I should hate it or not yet.

Birthday Stuff

It was my birthday today. We went to a bunch of toy stores and basically didn't find much, although we did discover a posthumous comedy album from Mitch Hedberg called Do You Believe in Gosh? from Comedy Central records. Apparently this was recorded in 2005, two months before he died. If they're releasing a live set not meant to be made into an album for one of the greatest comedians that never really managed to be all he could, it can only mean one thing. They're making a ton of money from those other two albums. (Also, it's probably very funny, I haven't listened to it yet.)

Also, the Ontario LEGO store has the classic LEGO figure 5-pack-- you know, with the old-timey red astronaut, a classic fire fighter, and some other figures. At $19.99 for 5 figures, I passed. I thought it was going to be $10, and it wasn't. Thankfully there was a Fazoli's nearby so at least dinner would be about as exotic as one might hope.

I also didn't notice Rock Band 2 at any of the many places I went. I did see the massive Viva Pinata Trouble in Paradise strategy guide, and a lot of presell tags for this week's Star Wars: The Force Unleashed release. Which I still look forward to, despite an almost certainty that it's going to be (at best) average.

We also hit up this one area to check out a used book store (which we opted not to peruse) and a little CD shop (which was closed) in front of a giant dirt pit. I think it was in Pamona. Pamona sucks.

Am now working on the various blogs and pages for the Monday readership. I'd rather be playing Dig Dug some more.

Sunday Night Slog

Oh, the fun of Sunday nights! I'm getting all my sites in order, so you may notice things like a personal Twitter on this very blog (NEW), and updates to 16bit.com and Galactic Hunter. Q&A is shorter this week because the one question everybody wants to know-- "What Star Wars stuff will be out July 26?"-- has no answer.

A number of new photos were shot and are being edited-- and more still need to be edited to keep on top of everything. There are a lot of toy pictures to deal with.

Ahead of the Game

As you have no doubt figured out, my web projects will all be undergoing some sort of facelift over the next few months. This means I have to not only continue my daily and weekly columns, but shift stuff over, make new layouts, and try to figure out how to wrap the whole thing together.

Last week, I was out for a few days due to a road trip. This week, I'll be gone a few days due to a business trip. I'm testing (and taking) new equipment to work on this stuff, so hopefully I'll be in good order to further entertain my literally tens of readers even sooner.

16bit's updated, and so has my SW Q&A-- which is now at Galactic Hunter and my Star Wars News Blog, and it's likely going to be in both places for the foreseeable future.

I also had the good fortune to spend some time with Nintendo's Wii Fit, and I posted some rough impressions on today's 16bit.com update. It really is a unique piece of hardware with a piece of software that's essentially Wii Sports II with Yoga. It's not a bad thing, and these new input devices have lots of potential. I'm hoping to see someone say they figured out how to connect a Wii Balance Board to a Mac so I can use it to copy/paste things, or perhaps set it to certain keystrokes so I can increase my number of Zerg rushes.

Oh yes, and I also hit up Gregory's Toys in Encino. The store now has a massive sale going on, which they generally didn't do in the past. I started hitting them up for Playmobil, and while their prices are frequently more expensive than my favorite spot in Phoenix, that place closed down so I'm sort of out of luck. It's about on par with Playmobil direct, so I suppose I'll be checking them out in 2009 when the good stuff starts to hit. Today they had a new Pirates Super Set, some Specials, and the Water Zoo collection which FAO had many months ago.

I've got two days ahead of me before hitting up the airport for this trip, so odds are it's going to be slow posting for a few days. Which means, I'm sure, lots of exciting news will start to come out as soon as I turn my back.