As with any convention day, we started out early in the morning. We didn’t take a chance on being late. But then again, this is the first of its kind in Long Beach. As usual, I met the Brillo’s at their place. I didn’t know at the time that Lawrence was still home and we had to pick him up. I thought he was already at Long Beach and attended the first day, yesterday. So we went to pick him up. On a tangent, this was the first time in a long time that I actually watched the moon set. It was an amazing sight as I drove west on Alessandro Boulevard.

The drive to Long Beach was a smooth one. We were totally early, about 7:30. When I pulled up to park at the convention center, the attendant told me that the convention started at 10. I think we didn’t know what time it actually started, or at least I didn’t know. But anyway, we thought there would be line already. When we walked up to the convention center, it was empty. I noticed people lining up at the entrance of the Hyatt. Then some guy carrying a box of comics came up to us to ask for info. We didn’t know what was going on, yet where the registration lines were going to be. So out of curiosity, we went over to the people in line at the Hyatt to ask what they were in line for. It was a line for a book signing for some author. It wasn’t for comiccon, so we left to find someplace to eat breakfast.

We walked over to the pier area where all the restaurants were, once called Shoreline Park. It was a nice, cool morning to walk around. This was a nice added change to the heat we’ve had in the Inland Empire during the summer. I was actually chilly. I guess I was already used to the heat. Now I have to adjust for the cooler weather coming up. We decided to take a short break near the Aquarium of the Pacific to snack on some cereal bars and cashews I brought along for such an occasion like this. I miss breathing in the ocean air, since I always had lived within 10 miles of the ocean half my life. A short while later, we continued our quest to look for breakfast. Nothing was going to open until 10. At one time, there was a woman who walked past us with a coffee and danish in hand. I remembered that there was a Starbucks nearby, but when we got to the place where I thought it was...nothing. It was a Seattle’s Beast inside Borders which was closed. Failure.

As we walked up to the convention center, the doors were already open. There were already a few people around, but nothing was still going on. Registration was already open so we got our “badges.” Samantha and Lawrence got real badges. The remaining three of us got these gay-looking red wristbands that had “LBCC Saturday” printed on them. Oh well, it can’t be helped. We still had almost a two hour wait before the con opened. So to kill time, we found some chairs, waited and made plans on what panels to attend. Like the plans we make always worked out!? More and more people started to show up. From the vantage point where I sat, I couldn’t see that there was already a long line to get into the exhibit hall.

Ten finally arrived and the doors were open to the exhibit hall. The exhibit hall was different from when Anime Expo was held there. The main differences are that there were hardly any cosplayers and nothing anime-related in sight. What a change...I guess. Samantha and I split from everyone else. We all had different agendas. Luckily we were early. It gave us enough time to check out the entire hall for what the dealers and retailers had to offer as well as for prices before the crowd grew. I’m glad I brought my iPod Touch with my comic database. It gave me a good idea what to look for to “rebuild” my collection. My age really shows when I realize I had no interest in buying any of the “newer” late 90s+ comics. All I was interested in was buying comics from the late Silver Age, Bronze Age and early Modern Age. I found a few places that had one dollar comics, which were mostly good to fair condition comics. People were already hoarding those places. There was also this vendor was selling comics for half off, so I decided to look. I found a few that I wanted and bought those. Samantha also wanted some manga (Japanese comics), so we went to this vendor that I found that sold used manga...for a bit cheaper than new ones. By this time, it was almost lunch. We went back to the main lobby to get away from it all. The guys met us with us soon after.

On our way to lunch, we dropped our stash in the car. We had lunch at Island’s, which was across the street from the convention center. This was a most excellent junk food laden lunch. Nothing of healthy value worth noting. After having lunch, a la cardiac arrest on a plate, we took a side trip to the bank. I was also refreshing to walk along Ocean Blvd. again after a couple years. It was good that it was such a cool day and the ocean breeze coming in. Back at the convention center, we all went back into the exhibit hall. Round 2. Samantha and I again walked around and took some pictures. As I walked around, I took notice of all the some of the guest appearances of some actors and actresses that were signing autographs. I saw Lou Ferrigno (the O.G. Incredible Hulk) and Richard Hatch (the O.G. Battlestar Galactica). Also not knowing by name, I also saw the guy to play Captain Christopher Pike in the O.G. Star Trek, Ms. Limelight on Who Wants to be a Superhero, the blue alien on Farscape and a few others. Samantha and I decided to take a break from it all again. We went to Borders, which was across the street, to look for some book Samantha wants. Well, they didn’t have it. Adrian and the guys took a break too and gave me a call. We met up with them again.

After relaxing for about half an hour, Round 3 of the exhibit hall. All the plans we made about what panels we wanted to go to were thrown out the window. The good thing is that the panels were all comic related, unlike San Diego’s comic convention. Tim mentioned that this convention in Long Beach is all comic related. San Diego’s has been completely taken over by Hollywood. I guess this could be a good thing to most people, but in my opinion, it takes away the real purpose of having a “comic” convention. This is another case of Hollywood forcing itself into a niche genre and taking it over. Has anyone noticed all the “comic” related movies that come out in the past decade?

Walking around the hall had become boring a tiring...seeing the same things over and over again. By this time of day, it was really crowded in the hall. The Nintendo area was interesting. Only that...interesting. There were a lot more autograph signings and more long lines of people waiting for them. It became like the 405 or 91 freeways during rush hour(s). We picked up a couple more things and waited for guys out in the lobby again. Samantha fell asleep because she was really tired from walking around and from having to wake up so early. I was beginning to fall asleep too, but for different reasons–boredom from this point on. But to keep myself from falling asleep, I kept looking around–hint, hint, hint–to see what was going on. I’ll remind myself about the couple who sat down in front of us.

The guys showed up again. We were contemplating whether to leave or stick around. I did have one more reason to check out the hall one more time. So...Round 4. After picking up the last few things I wanted, we happened across a wrestling match that was about to begin. We stuck around to watch. I was kind of worried that Samantha was with me for this. But my worries soon faded away after watching this staged wrestling match. It was so staged that it was comedy. That’s it. We’re all tired so we went home, but....

There was a damn accident on the 91 and 241 that made the 91 into a parking lot!

As for the first comic convention held at Long Beach, it was very, very good. It wasn’t very, very bad either. It stayed true to what a comic convention was about. It wasn’t overly crowded unlike the other one–based on my one time experience. Comiccon was a success for it’s first time. Let’s hope it continues the way it is.

For the longest time, I had people ask me to help them with their computers. All problems stem from how to copy files to a diskette, yes they still exist, to no boot up due to missing or corrupt system files to system crashes. Sound familiar? I sure they do. So why do I help them? That’s an excellent question. One that think about seriously too. My answer is “because it’s good to help out friends and family,” “because it’s my job,” and “because I got cornered to help.” Do I really want to help them? No. Through experience, those problems will happen to the same people again and again, it’s a total waste of time for me and I get no financial gain from it. Look around you. How many ma-and-pa computer stores you see now-a-days? How often do computer shows come around? And if they do, how many vendors show up? A decade ago, I did build computers as a part-time business and because of competition, small profits and ungodly amount of problems, I gave it up. Don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy building computers, but I to it for personal gain and satisfaction. Still sound familiar? Here’s a hint–Wintel computers.

As with many of my generation and socio-economic background, I want to use a computer without any problems whether it’s for play or for business. So why am I writing about this now? A couple days ago, I was reading–yes, reading–news about issues with the new Mac OS upgrade. Most of it stems from some Macs becoming bricks–unusable to system crashes and failures. What a rarity! If you look at this from a computer tech point of view, this is not new to upgrading any system software. Historically, service OS system upgrades pose more problems on Wintel machines as opposed to Macs. The next biggest headache is the upgrading from a previous OS version. The third most problematic issue is the issue of system drivers. Regardless of which OS you use, these issues causes the biggest problems when improving your system.

Whenever a new service pack or system patch comes along, many of us jump on the bandwagon to get it and install it. I, too, have to admit I’m prone to such hype. Remember service packs 1 through 3 or the OS X updates? Vividly. When the media gets hold about a new update coming out, all hell breaks out–litterally. Everything about the service pack, features and fixes, are hyped to a point where the user feels that it’s a necessity to obtain it. OS updates for the Mac are not so hyped. Instead, whenever the software update window pops up, it’s always an option to download and install the update. Without the hype, as opposed to the hype of the Windows service packs, how many of us Mac uses actually read the new fixes and features for the system update for OSX? I admit I read what’s given, but not more extensive view with the “ see more” option.

Remember the switch to Windows 98 to XP? Most thought it was the greatest move in history. I do concur that it was. I used Windows through most of my computer experience. I still remember all blue screens and system crashes that occur very, very frequently in 98 that was taken care of in XP. The most memorable problem are the driver issues. Moving from a 16-bit OS to a 32-bit one caused many hardware manufacturers to update their drivers, most not perfect. It’s true that basic driver issues were taken care of with XP, most still need drivers from the manufacturer to the hardware to work to its full potential. Now, when Vista came on the scene, it was also thought to be the best version out there. When users go their hands on the very expensive monster, they were treated to a lot of aggravation, not to mention spending more money on hardware upgrades to make Vista work “as advertised” with it’s Aero interface. Vista is where I drew the line on helping out.

The Mac OS fared no better. All long-time Mac users remember the transition from OS9 to OSX (OS 10). A lot feared that this upgrade will be a bumpy right. It was. On top of that, the OS was completely rewritten and based with a version of the Debian linux OS. How terrifying was what? Even I had serious concerns with the new OS, for personal and work-related issues. But what concerned all users with the new OS is “will my current programs work?” Many of us Mac users invested a lot (or not) of money in programs that were written for OS9. It was good that Apple had enough foresight to overcome this serious issue...Rosetta. Even with Rosetta, there were still OS problems to overcome. At least the new was a lot more stable then previous OSs. Again the driver issue came up, just like its counterpart. As with XP, Apple did a better job at porting device drivers to the new OS. Still, there were some devices that worked at the basic level and not to its full potential. The initial transition was difficult, but with constant updating, the new OS became better, less buggy and more stable after each subsequent version. And then in the mid-2000s, Apple made that all important decision to switch from PowerPC to Intel processors. All believed that it was the best move Apple has made. It was. No longer I had to explain the why a slow PowerPC processes information much faster than a faster Intel processor to the “not so well versed” person. Now, Apple is on almost equal footing with hardware. Consumers could now compare hardware directly to other manufacturers. With comparable hardware, the Mac OS was faster, stable and user-friendly than XP.

What I’m trying to get at–is that what ever OS you use, upgrading and updating will have issues. Each OS developer tries their best to take into account these issues and make the transition less painful for their users. Unfortunately, most people don’t realize or understand some issues when they upgrade or update their systems. It’s like “a new update is out and I have to install it” mentality. There are a couple major things to do when you do upgrade or update; always back-up your files or your entire system drive, check for system requirements, and, if you have the knowledge and patience to do so, instead of updating system software with a new version, do a complete re-install of all software whenever a new version comes out.

At one time, a friend of mine asked me [to paraphrase] “why pay for an update when there’s linux out there for free?” I do use linux, but for experimentation on an old Pentium II machine. I installed the Ubuntu version of linux on the beast and it runs a lot faster than Intel Core 2 Duo. Really. So why doesn’t everyone use linux? Well, here’s what I think is a good answer…usability and money. Most people use a Wintel computer because they’re cheap, readily available and useful to most people, but tend to forget the problems that come with such machines. People use Macs to get good hardware, ease of use and very little problems, but you pay a premium. Linux, on the other hand, is cheap (free in a lot of cases), doesn’t use a lot of system resources, but is somewhat difficult to use. So what would I choose? Most of you probably already guessed. I use a Mac. Why? For all my personal history in using computers, I know firsthand all the problems and costs that come with owning a computer. There’s too many manufactures making too products…some are good, but many more, cheap and unreliable. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for all the choices out there, but the hodgepodge causes too many incompatibilities. And many users don’t understand them at all. In addition to that, I don’t like the fact that whatever hardware I buy becomes obsolete in a few months, therefore wasting more money in upgrades. So with a Mac, I get good, reliable hardware and software, it’s easy to use, saved money I would’ve wasted in constant hardware upgrades, protection from obsolescence and it’s also used as a standard for creative people in the graphic design industry. But on top of it all, it just works.