Day One - In the aftermath of a global event that devastates the world’s infrastructures, a small band of survivors strives to rebuild society and unravel the mysteries of why the event took place and what the future has in store. Told from the point of view of an eclectic group of neighbors in a Van Nuys, California apartment building, this journey of survival will show us that hope is found in the smallest of victories and heroes are born every day.

This is NBC’s attempt at what CBS tried 3 years ago with Jericho.  My prediction?  It doesn’t get the back nine order and falls off the schedule.

Trauma - Like an adrenaline shot to the heart, Trauma is an intense, action-packed look at one of the most dangerous medical professions in the world: first responder paramedics. When emergencies occur, the trauma team from San Francisco General is first on the scene, traveling by land, by sea or by air to reach their victims in time. From the heights of the Transamerica Pyramid to the depths of the S.F. Bay, our heroes must face the most extreme conditions to save lives, and give meaning to their own existence in the process.

A few years ago, TNT did a show called Saved that was like this and it was pretty decent.  I’m interested to see what NBC does this.

Mercy - You haven’t seen inside a hospital until you’ve seen it through the eyes of those who know it best: its nurses. Veronica Callahan is one of those nurses. She just returned to Mercy Hospital from a tour in Iraq and knows more about medicine than all of the residents combined. Together with fellow nurses Sonia and Chloe, she navigates the daily traumas and social landmines of life and love both inside the hospital and out in the real world.

It seems like everyone is jumping on the nurses medical show bandwagon.  I think NBC is the third network to put a show like this on their schedule.  I expect NBC’s version won’t be anything spectacular and will fail before the back nine order comes in.  I’ll even go so far as to say that NBC pulls this off the shelf quickly because of bad ratings.

Community - It’s been said that community college is a “halfway school” for losers, a self esteem workshop for newly divorced housewives, and a place where old people go to keep their minds active as they circle the drain of eternity. Well, at Greendale Community College…that’s all true. Community focuses on a band of misfits, at the center of which is a fast-talkin’ lawyer whose degree has been revoked (Joel McHale, The Soup). They form a study group and, in “Breakfast Club” fashion, end up learning a lot more about themselves than they do about their course work.

A sitcom about a community college with Chevy Chase?  I’ll give it a chance.

Parenthood - This is the story of the Bravermans – Sarah, Adam, Crosby and Julia – four grown siblings sharing the headaches, heartaches and unexpected joys of being a parent.

Decent cast and I think it’ll have enough to make it through the season, but it might struggle to get a second season pickup.

I think the big disclaimer here is that NBC just announced the new shows, not the actual schedule.  Until they release the full schedule on May 19th, it’s just a guess.

On a related note, my next 6 models that I’ll be building are set to arrive tomorrow.  Huzzah!

I waited for 4 and a half weeks for the model to arrive, and finally, on February 21st, it did.  Since this is going to be a pretty big project, I decided that I’d document everything step by step, so when the box got here, naturally I pulled out my camera and snapped some pictures of the unboxing.

I’ll admit, it was a lot bigger than I’d expected.  It’s one thing to look at 2 feet on a yard stick and another to actually be holding a 2 foot long model.  My Dad and I had had a conversation before it arrived about its weight and I’ll admit to being a little nervous about how heavy it could be given the size of the mode.  I was happy to see that they had hollowed out the center of the hull though, because otherwise, this thing would’ve weighed about 10 or 12 pounds.

The hull came very tightly wrapped in bubblewrap and the smaller pieces were in bags.  So, piece by piece, I pulled it out and put it on the table to examine my new project.  First the hull, then the nose, then all the small parts.  I took a few minutes to really look over the whole thing and get an idea of what I was up against for the coming few weeks.  After looking it over, I’ll admit that I was more than a little disappointed by the quality.  For what I paid, I expected the model to be a little more refined.  Instead, there are some problems with it.

First, the Seawolf submarine has 8 torpedo tubes.  This model has 10 etched in the hull.  Second, the center line on the hull is, in fact, not the center line.  Third, all the holes for where the parts go aren’t drilled all the way through, and from a quick eyeing of the hull, aren’t even lined up properly.  The worst example of this are the stabilizers where one hole has been drilled almost a half inch farther toward the bow than the other.  There are other small things, but I think the thing I took away from this was that the quality wasn’t up to snuff and there’s definitely a lot of work to be done.

I was pleasantly surprised to find painting and decal instructions which their website didn’t mention anything about.  One thing that did surprise me was that they recommend sanding the resin pins off the small parts and re-drilling them.  Once they’ve been re-drilled, they suggest pinning all the pieces with a 1/16 inch brass rod.  The challenge will be finding someone that actually sells brass rod that small.

After my inspection was over, it was time to clean the hull.  The last model I did, I used hot water and Comet.  Only problem with that was that the Comet settled out of the water and found its way into all the small markings.  So I learned from my lesson and decided soap and warm water would be enough.  The small parts and metal pieces went into a small container with hot water and soap, but I didn’t have anything large enough to put the hull in, so I scrubbed the kitchen sink out good and used that.  I’d bought a cheap toothbrush at the grocery store and went to work scrubbing the hull good with the soap and water, then rinsing it and letting it air dry for about 30 minutes.  I did that three times so I was sure that the release material was off the model.  With it washed, I laid it out to dry on the dining room table and called it a night.

Tomorrow’s task is to get it down to the shop and start cleaning things up.  The nose has a platform of resin that needs to be sanded down before it can be dry-fitted to the rest of the hull and the small pieces have a lot of resin crap on them that’ll need to be taken off with a hobby knife and sandpaper.

What was interesting though was something I read on The Apple Blog.  There’s a lot of rumors about MMS and background services as well.  In the last few hours though, people are starting to say that they’re hearing less about it and it may not be in the 3.0 software.  Same thing about video recording.  Some bloggers have even gone so far as to say that they’ll have to consider other phones if iPhone 3.0 doesn’t have MMS, background services and video recording.  First of all, to those fools, you’re not going to find a better phone.  Period.  Second, just because it isn’t in the SDK doesn’t mean it isn’t in the next generation iPhone.

Let’s stop and think about this for a second.  The SDK is the public API that developers use to create their own applications.  What if Apple decides that they don’t want every app being able to record video?  Does that mean they can’t develop their own application?  Take MMS.  Do you really think Apple is going to let anyone jump in and create MMS apps?  Absolutely not, because AT&T is going to charge for MMS.  Just because it isn’t in the SDK does that mean it isn’t in the phone?  Absolutely not.  Let’s remember folks, tomorrow is a software preview, not some preview of the new iPhone.  You have to separate the two because they aren’t interchangable any more.

Then, about 3 years ago, I decided I wanted to get back into model kits.  But this time, I thought I’d take a stab at resin model kits.  Now, most of the kits you see in the stores are styrene plastic.  But resin kits are solid and require very different assembly and painting techniques.  So I found the model I wanted and started in on my research.  I went out and bought an airbrush for the project, ordered the model, got my paints, and I was off to the races.  My model of choice?  A 1/350 scale Seawolf-class submarine.  Fully assembled, it was about 11 inches long.  Not a bad starter model.

I got the model in the mail and as soon as my winter break started, I got down to business with the model.  Assembly was pretty easy.  The sail, diving planes, stabilizers, and rudders went on without any issues.  The kit also came with what I can only describe as thin sheets of stiff aluminum foil.  Very small.  Very thin.  Those dozen pieces made up the prop.  The hardest part was assembling the prop because each blad had to get a small dab of glue and then get placed into a tiny hole.  I think gluing the prop took me about 2 hours.  But after that, the duct went over it and I was almost home free.

I decided that I was going to pain the model in an operational color scheme, meaning the whole thing was black.  The airbrush worked beautifully and the paint went on like a charm.  Of course, something had to go wrong, right?  During the process of painting the model, it rolled off the small stand I’d built and snapped one of the forward diving planes off.  I did my best to fix it, but couldn’t, so I decided to go sans diving planes and pulled the other one off.  It took a little finesse work, but I managed to clean it up well enough so you can’t notice it.  After that, decals went on and it was home free.  Until the masts coming out of the sail snapped when I was transporting it back to college.  Lovely.

So today, the model sits in my bedroom in a case that wasn’t designed for it without diving planes or masts.  Still, it was a great experience and I had a ton of fun doing it.

Around Christmas, I got the itch to try my hand at another model.  I’d remembered when I found my Seawolf model that there was a company making a bigger one and I’d thought that I might do that one after my small one.  Of course, I never did.  But now was as good a time to try as any.  I searched high and low for over a week to find the company that sold it, and finally, I did: J&D Productions in Annapolis.  Turns out, it’s a guy and his wife doing these amazing kits.  So, I took the plunge and placed an order a month ago.  They had to cast the model for me which has taken a few weeks, but I just found out that they’ve shipped the model and it’ll be arriving in the next few days.

The model I ordered is a 1/192 scale Seawolf-class submarine (putting the final model somewhere around 22-23 inches long).  I’m planning on painting it in the “as delivered” paint scheme and building my own display case for it.  There will be lots of posts coming with pictures of the whole process, from unboxing to sitting on the shelf in my living room, so stay tuned over the next 2 months or so for lots of info about it!

Wrong, Mitt.  Those companies have gotten taxpayer money from the federal government.  Until those companies pay us back, we ARE the shareholders.  We have the final say.  It’s downright criminal that a CEO makes $15 million and almost all of that comes from the taxpayer bailout money.  No Mitt, you’re wrong on this one.  The federal government absolutely has the right to limit that money.  It’s not business as usual with these companies.  They screwed up and they need our money to fix it, so we get to lay a few conditions down with that money.  You can absolutely live on $500,000 a year, so get over it and get back to paying the American people back.

Steve Jobs (and Apple by proxy) are very forward thinking.  As they launched the new iPods a few weeks back, they already have a group of engineers working on the ones they’ll be launching next year.  In a backroom behind the backroom the engineers are in, somebody is thinking about the iPods that’ll be released 2 years from now.  That’s just the way Apple is, and I think they can credit that attitude for them being a leader in digital music right now.  They aren’t content to just get a product out there, they want to take that product and best it.  But what do iPods have to do with this iPhone app?

I think part of the reason that Apple isn’t allowing something similar in the US is first and foremost AT&T.  I’m sure AT&T would find a way to make money off MMS, so having that done entirely over the data network is a lost source of income for AT&T.  I’m sure that has a lot to do with it.  But I think there’s a “backroom” explanation for it as well.  Clearly Apple had this stuff planned out well in advance.  Let’s take a look.

First, in January of 2007, Apple announced the iPhone to much fanfare.  Six months later they launched it.  But before they launched it, you knew they were already talking about the second generation.  They’re not stupid.  The whole argument about the iPhone not being 3G at launch wasn’t lost on them; they were already thinking ahead to the second generation and adding not only an SDK, but the App Store, 3G, and GPS.  I guarantee you those were all planned at the time of the first iPhone launch.  Besides, do you really think Apple could’ve pulled together the App Store in a couple months?  I don’t think so.  It was a huge endeavor that was months in the making.

So why do I think Apple is blocking an MMS app from the US?  Because they already know what the third generation iPhone is gonna look like.  My guess?  Better camera that takes video, better GPS chip, more power friendly 3G chip, and wait for it … full, native MMS right in the same application you do SMS with.  Tack on to that the possibility of a 32GB iPhone in January and there you go ladies and gentlemen, a pretty good idea of why Apple (might have) nixed an MMS app in the US.

Today’s topic: Google.  How cool is it that Google has decided not to sit back on their heels with Gmail and keep going after Yahoo and MSN?  Yesterday, they rolled out what may be the single coolest feature on the web: video chat.  That’s right, you can now video chat with your contacts from right inside Gmail.  What’s even better?  Mac users are the first to get this update.  Take that, Windows losers. 

Then Saturday rolled around.  The same issue was happening, even without the bad RAM module.  Uh oh.  I made some efforts to do another backup of my desktop just in case, but after a few attempts, it was working again.  Sunday morning rolled around and it took 6 attempts to boot into the operating system.  I called my buddy Daryl to see if he had any ideas and we talked for a good 30 minutes just trying to figure out what was happening.  In the end, I decided (at Daryl’s suggestion) to call the Apple Store and see if they charged for hardware diagnostics.  They didn’t and I quickly had an appointment with someone at the Genius Bar for an hour later.

Now, for anyone who’s ever dealt with a G5 iMac, you know they’re a heavy beast.  So of course, I had to park half a mile from the mall.  Oh well.  I carted the machine in, checked in for my appointment, and was on my way to seeing what was wrong with my dear machine (named Lancelot for those of you confused by the title of the post).  The tech who helped me only need about 30 seconds inside the machine to tell me what was wrong: I had a handful of blown capacitors.  The only way to fix it was to replace the logic board at a whopping $900.  Um, no, especially considering that I was planning on replacing my desktop and laptop in 6 to 8 months.  I thanked him, packed up my computer, and headed home to mull over what to do.  It didn’t take long for me to realize what I was going to do: buy a new computer.

I knew exactly what model I wanted and I knew that I was going to manually upgrade the machine with a bigger and faster hard drive, plus double the memory.  I ordered the parts and decided that I was going to go get my new computer on Wednesday after an appointment for my car.  It’d be perfect.  Of course, I couldn’t wait that long, so on Monday, I went and bought my new 15-inch MacBook Pro.  I named her Guinevere in keeping with my Arthurian naming scheme (my wireless router is Camelot, last PC was Arthur, laptop is Merlin, iMac was Lancelot).  It’s so fitting too because Gwen is a beauty.  I don’t have the parts yet, but they’ll be in tomorrow.  In the meantime, I’ve been getting acquainted with Leopard and my new best friend.  (I had decided not to upgrade Lancelot and Merlin with Leopard when it came out, so I’ve been on the Tiger ship for a good long while now.)  Once I get the parts, I’ll swap ‘em out and start migrating all my data to this new machine.

So how have the first 24 hours gone?  It’s been sheer bliss.  I’m constantly struck by the awesome construction.  This is the first MacBook Pro to use the unibody enclosure and it feels a lot more stable and sturdy than my PowerBook.  The glossy screen is amazing.  Everything about it is just so well thought out.  I’ve watched the video on the manufacturing process four or five times already and am constantly amazed at the level of detail that went in to designing this machine.  I’m sure I’ll spend the next few days discovering new things about this machine, but it’s probably the best purchase I’ve ever made (and definitely one of the most expensive too) … but in the end, so worth it.