Phone Movies

Before we left for Boston I decided I would use the trip to experiment with my new phone. It would be invaluable in getting us around the city. Knowing which T to take without wring our hands at posted maps was awesome. Besides being a map, it was my gaming buddy, got us around PAX and feed us, but I wanted it to make movies too. Like I've said, life in the future is good.

I decided I would capture and edit a short film about our trip. There would be lots to see and do and sharing those experiences through video is more appealing. We own a semi fancy HD camera that has a small body, but taking it in and out of a messenger bag the whole trip is a pain. Having the phone in my pocket to take out and record in an instant is a big draw. I've edited 5-6 movies on the computer in the last year. We are both comfortable with the process, so editing on the phone was really just for geeky curiosity.

The product of that experiment is going to end up in two parts, but you can view the first already. Experiment complete I can now reflect on the experience here. Capturing video with the phone can be a shaky affair naturally. Learning to stand with a good base, pace my breathing and holding the phone with a feather touch all helped. The quality was no where near what our HD cam can capture, but I didn't expect it to be. That is the trade off I am willing to make. Vertical video is out too, as it doesn't play nice with any player on the web. We are a horizontal society.

As for editing, the interface of iMovie is great. Cutting and cropping through gesture and touch work really well. The big issue is performance though. I shot everything in 5-15 second intervals. Opting for lots of jumps to try and share a lot of story. Around two plus minutes of edited video the app slowed to a crawl. Taking a second or more between each action. It is why I ultimately split the video into two days. Now that iMovie is a sunk cost though, it will be nice to have around to make quick edits to short video. I have tasted possibility and I like it. Given the current state though, my desktop will still have to do the heavy lifting for the foreseeable future.

PAX East 2011: Day One

Bright and early Friday morning we awoke to make what is now an annualized trip to PAX. The flight out of Richmond was uneventful, save a bit of delayed landing due to a storm front moving into Boston. It was that very same storm that pushed our day one plans indoors. Friday was supposed to be our bean town tour, but because of the rain we ended up at PAX a day early.

Before we made it to nerd Mecca though, we grabbed a bite at Caffe Nuovo for breakfast. I had the seafood omelette (yum) and Crystal had waffles with fresh fruit (burnt). Stomachs full we trudged through the rain to our hotel. It was nice, but it was not Mandarin Oriental nice. It was about a fourth of the cost though, so it all worked out. We dropped off our bags, were back down stairs and on the T to the Boston Convention Center in no time. A venue that felt double or even triple the size of last years spot.

The expo floor reflected that increased size. I immediately felt lost in a sea of blinking lights and nerd stink. There was so much to see and do that we ended up taking a break after seeing half of it to play some board games. We picked up Gloom and it only took us about hour to learn and play it. It's a card game that is one part strategy and two parts dark humor story telling. It is something I'd definitely consider buying in the near future.

Back in the expo hall it was on to touring the rest of the games on offer. We still want a Geek Chic table in our dinning room, but will have to wait till we get a new house. Those things are massive and wicked cool. The lines to play Portal 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic were epically long, but I wish I could have tried them. Red Faction looks like it will capture everything I loved about the last game in the series minus a sledge hammer. Machine Gun Jetpack made me want an iPad more than the game itself, but it seems cool in it's own right too.

What can best be described as life sized D&D was a highlight of the show floor for us. A party of six, picked characters in the form of laminated simplified character sheets on lanyards. Crystal was a Warlock and took the Cleric. Each party member had two powers to give you an idea of how simple we are talking. We faced off against 6ft tall cardboard cut out monsters (Strahd). Rolling basketball sized rubber dice to see if we would hit. I think every group conquered the encounter, but ours did so with style. I got the killing blow from a flank.

Board game and expo hall'ed out we grabbed some dinner. Pizza and mountain dew for +5 nerd points and then went to sit in line for the Joystiq Podcast. Last year Crystal had never heard the boys from Joystiq, but walked away really enjoying the mix of humor and game talk. This year was more of the same with Bob Ball cruising the crowd in a dinosaur costume the whole evening before revealing himself (giggle) to read an email.

After Joystiq let out we rushed over to the line for the Giant Bombcast. Crystal enjoyed this panel less and ended up playing Sudoku for most of it. I explained after the fact that Giant Bomb is my go to voice for video game opinions. That their podcast is usually funny too, but it can go long and get really into game talk. After the Bombcast panel we hitched a taxi ride back to the hotel. Hitting the bed hard for some much needed sleep.

Up Next: Boston/PAX Day 2, Sam Adams and the trip we didn't take the the Boston Aquarium

PAX East: Day Two

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And now the thrilling conclusion of our tale...

Saturday morning we took the rare opportunity to sleep in, without child and in a city far from our own the Z's came easily. "Sleep in" is a bit of a misnomer I'm afraid, when you have been waking up for a year at 6 or 7 anything beyond that is gravy. We were up, showered and in a Dunkin Donuts by 9am. A Boston cream in Boston tasted the same as one Richmond, but the pleasure centers of my mind were all hands on deck just at the thought.

No repeats of our day one e-celebrity sitings at the repository of confectionery toruses, sadly. Upon entering the convention center at 10am though we saw the Tycho Brahe (Jerry Holkins). I was giddy and Crystal was more amused with my amusement than anything else. For the better part of the rest of the morning we toured the expo hall. The first place we went was to the Geek Chic booth to get a brief demonstration and pitch on the Emissary. An object I thought ownership of would be pure fantasy for the entirity of my mortal life, but was left in open mouthed amazement when Crystal expressed interest in it as our new dinning room table. I won't believe it till we are eating a meal at it, but there now exist hope.

There were tons of games to see in the expo hall as well. Split Second (pic) was a fun mix of Mario Kart and Burnout that will probably end up on my shopping list. Joe Danger (pic) caught Crystal's interest as a mix of Excite Bike and Trials HD with a cartoon aesthetic. Shank is a beat'em up that looks flipping incredible and will be mine on XBLA this year hopefully. Seeing Puzzle Quest 2 inspired Crystal to start playing the first game for the rest of the weekend. AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! (pic) was a game I had read about a number of times, but never played, I remedied that on Saturday. Finally, I played in (pic) a mini MW2 tourney and did horrible with default controls and free for all.

After a quick lunch in the mall it was back to the convention center to see even more. The board game rooms were packed (pic) with folks playing all kinds of games. Before we could checkout a game though I was drawn to the siren song of Surfacescapes. Simply put it is D&D 4th edition played on the interactive screen of a Microsoft Surface. Impressive stuff for sure, but better expressed through their videos. Drooling complete we played a quick demo of Zombie Dice (pic) and then checked out Ninja vs Ninja. Being two folks of limited time, NvN was a great game for us to cut our teeth on. Next we played Zombie Fluxx and were sold pretty quick on it. We ended up playing for more than an hour and then hunting for a set to buy. They were sold out, but I have since ordered it online.

Dinner was more of the same, a trip to the food court and then right back to PAX to get in line for the live Joystiq Podcast. We ended up waiting in line for an hour and a half (pic). Thankfully the time was spent sitting and playing our DSes. We were rewarded for our wait though, as the first 10 or so rows of seats (pics) had video games waiting for their recipients. Crystal got a copy of Tropico 3 and I the Force Unleashed: Sith Edition. The live cast (pic) was great, my face hurt from smiling and laughing through the whole hour.

We wrapped up our night with another line, for an hour this time, to see the Scott Kurtz's panel. A semi drunk Scott showed up on time and just started telling stories. He is an amazingly funny story teller, we laughed, things got emotional and we laughed some more. His panel ended up going an hour over and we did not get back to our hotel till 1am. A bit discouraging given our 5am wake up call for our flight, but well worth the lack of sleep.

Sunday was an early morning flight and reflection on a whirlwind weekend in Boston. We had a ton of fun in the city and even more at PAX. We are already planning to go at the very least to two days of PAX next year. Hopefully we can shoot for all three.

PAX East: Day One

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As mentioned previously, at the end of March Crystal and I went to the first ever PAX East in Boston. So without further ado, our tale...

Arriving in Boston at 8:30am Friday morning to a snowy city, we made the worst mistake of the trip by choosing to take a taxi from the airport to the Museum of Fine Arts. Fifteen minutes and $48 later, we were at the museum doors only to find it didn't open till 10am. So we made do and found a place to grab a bite on the Northeastern University campus. Bellies full we went back to the museum and toured it for nearly two hours. The pictures we took can not do the art we saw justice I'm afraid, but they are worth a look all the same.

Following the museum we some how snaked a free ride on the subway north to the Freedom Trail and arrived just outside of a visitors center for a map. I mention the map briefly, as the travel apps I purchased for my iPod Touch were a colossal waste. I guess it is time for a real smart phone and a data plan later this Spring. Moving on, the trail was a great way to see a fairly concentrated portion of Boston's history and have a tasty seafood lunch near Faneuil Hall.

Our fill of history and our tired legs had us on the subway headed south to our hotel by 3pm. At our stop I took us on a two mile detour to the Sheraton. It wasn't fun getting kinda sorta lost, but we found a few options for dinner and saw the cast of the Joystiq Podcast in doing so. When we finally arrived at the hotel we were met with the news that they were overbooked, despite my booking the room two months in advance. Before we could get upset though, they were already describing the new arrangements they had made for us, all on their dime too.

We would be staying in a hotel just a hop skip and not even a jump from where we were. Slightly peeved and ready for a nap we cut through the mall that connects to the convention center and it's surrounding hotels and arrived at the Mandarin Oriental. Being unfamiliar with the company, were pleasantly surprised at the level of service and the incrediable room they put us in. It included a king sized bed, 42" LCD, office/living room area, a marble bathroom as big as the other areas combined and a great view of the city. A steak dinner and a trip to the Apple store later and we found out just how big an upgrade we had recieved. Where two nights at the Sheraton was going to cost us $400 the stay at the five star Mandarin Oriental was $1,250. I should say "would have been" as we paid zero dollars.

Tomorrow will be a retelling of our day at PAX, but I will leave you with pictures of the hotel rooms bathroom. Images Crystal wanted to capture for ideas for our next house. Note the rain forest shower head in the first picture, a pleasure I had never experienced before, but now demand as a matter of course. Picture 1 & Picture 2.