San Diego Photo Galleries

It took me a month, but I finally finished uploading my favorite pictures from my San Diego trip. I was there for a convention, so I didn't really have a lot of time during the week to explore and shoot. A couple of friends and I stayed for a long weekend afterwards, and that gave us some time to relax and explore. The conference hotel was located right at the Seaport Village, which allowed us to explore the shops and restaurants, and to wander along the shoreline. We also got to visit the USS Midway, Hotel del Coronado, Old Town, La Jolla, the San Diego Zoo, and Sea World. San Diego is a very beautiful city - the harbor provides some amazing views, the weather is very comfortable, and the coastline is simple beautiful!

Photos galleries are at these links:

• San Diego


• San Diego Zoo


• Sea World San Diego

Enjoy!

I won't be touching the iPod touch!

From the first day I saw it, I thought that the iPhone was a pretty cool device. Problem is, as much as I love all it does, I really don't need the phone, nor the EDGE data transfer capability. I'd be happy to simply use it as a video iPod, and to use wifi to access the web and my e-mail. I kept saying, "Can't they just build an iPhone without the phone?"

Well, that's exactly what the recent rumors had been for the next generation iPod - music, video, and wifi without the phone. I was so looking forward to today's announcement, hoping that they'd be offering something closer to my dream gadget. You can imagine my disappointment when I started hearing the details of the new iPod touch. My biggest frustration: no e-mail application! Why the heck not? What were they thinking? They already have an e-mail application that works on the platform, it's not like they'd have to write something new.

I am so disappointed, I have even started fantasizing about picking up a 4GB iPhone from the clearance sale and using one of those hacks to activate it without signing up for the AT&T service. Seems like a waste of money, though. Plus, I'll probably outgrow the 4GB pretty quickly.

Here's hoping that Apple comes to its senses and makes the iPhone's mail application available on the iPod touch.

Time To Start Planning!

My much anticipated Walt Disney World Annual Pass Exchange Certificate arrived in the mail today! I had ordered it last Monday for my upcoming December trip. Its arrival means I can really start planning the rest of the trip - booking a room, arranging flights, etc.

I'm not used to doing all this so early; usually I book about a month out from when I plan to travel. However, when I tried that for my trip last December, I was unable to get a reasonably priced room (like one much less than a few hundred dollars per night) at a Disney resort for the days that I wanted. This year I decided to book early and prevent that from happening again.

After some difficulties logging into the Passholder web site with my Exchange Certificate (the trick seems to be to enter only the last 4 digits of the last group of numbers), I managed to snag a room at the passholder rate of $59/night. Next step is to book my flight. I have to decide whether I want to drive all the way up to Albany Airport just to use a Southwest credit from last year, or fly on JetBlue from the much more convenient Stewart Field.

I've also begun my list of new "Must See's" (in no particular order):

• The refurbished Haunted Mansion;


• The new Golden Dream montage in The American Adventure;


• "National Treasures," the new American Heritage Gallery exhibit;


• The new "O Canada!" movie;


• The Gran Fiesta Tour in the Mexico Pavilion;


• The refurbished Spaceship Earth (including the new Project Tomorrow post show);


• The Muppet Mobile Lab [Update: this is only at Epcot for a couple of weeks, after which it will be shipped to Hong Kong Disneyland. Maybe I can catch it there next year!];


• The Laugh Floor Comedy Club;


• The Country Bear Christmas Special (rumor has it that it will be back);


• Finding Nemo, The Musical (so I can take photos this time);


• Dream-Along With Mickey (to see the new articulated faces).

Any other suggestions?