Find me on Blue Sky now.

https://bsky.app/profile/orayzio.com

But I didn't purchase Bitcoin!

Question from a reader: I just received an email that says, "Thank you for your purchase", but I didn't make the purchase listed in the email. What should I do?

If you don't recognize the purchase, you should always ignore any links or attachments in the email and just go to the website for whichever account the email claims was used to make the purchase. For example, if the email says it's from PayPal or that your PayPal account was used, go to paypal.com. Or, if you have an app already installed on your phone for PayPal, launch that app. Log in normally and see if there are any messages there for you or if there are any actual pending or posted transactions that match the email. If you are still unsure, use the messaging tools within the actual website or app to chat or send a message to confirm the company in the email actually sent the email.

In many cases, these types of emails are scam emails and the scammer is using a "phishing" technique to try to scam you. If this happens to you, use the options in your mail client to report the email as a phishing email, or if you can't find a specific report phishing option, report the email as spam. Do not open any attachments or click any links. Once reported, you can safely delete the email.

Here are some indications that will tell you if the email is fake:

• The email address is from an individual with a yahoo, outlook, gmail, or other generic account, rather than from an official for the actual company (paypal.com, citi.com, etc.)
• The name for the email and the email address do not match up: For example, the spelled out name is Jane Doe, but the email address is richard123@gmail.com.
• The email body has no reference to your actual name or any greeting, but instead only uses your email address to address you. Or, it uses terms like "Dear customer" or "Dear client".
• There is an attachment to the email that details additional information - never trust an email attachment unless you know the sender and are expecting them to send you an attachment or you can confirm with the actual person that they sent you an attachment.
• Also, major companies will not email you an unsolicited attachment. Instead, they'll direct you to their official website or app where you can log in to your account to get the details.
• The email asks you to call a number, especially if it's not a toll-free number. If you google the number and your search results don't indicate that is an official phone number used by the company, that you usually tell you that the number belongs to a scammer, rather than the actual company.
• In many cases, the email is mostly harmless, as the scam officially begins when you call the number.

Kara and I have a work friend, Jim Stickley, who owns his own security company and who puts out videos talking about scams and scammers. Here's a good video to watch, but anything on his channel can be helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pPwPJnc2_M



Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JimStickley

You should really be following me on Twitter

It's been nearly 4 years since my last post here, but I'm fairly active on Twitter. So, follow me there.

My Thoughts on the 2012 Oscar Noms

Best Picture:

• "Amour", "Life of Pi", "Lincoln", "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and "Zero Dark Thirty: Haven't seen these and will probably only see "Zero Dark Thirty" before the Oscar telecast
• "Argo": Excellent movie
• "Django Unchained": Good, fun Tarantino flick, but a bit uneven with too many loose ends
• "Les Misérables": Yeah, the direction sucked and it was relentlessly depressing, but any movie that makes me "feel" as much as this movie made me "feel" (almost sobbing) deserves the accolades it gets
• "Silver Linings Playbook": Best of the bunch, in my opinion.

Acting Nominations:

• Best Guy: Of the nominees, I only saw Bradley Cooper and Hugh Jackman, but I put BC over HJ.
• Best Girl: OTN, I only saw Jennifer Lawrence and she was phenomenal, as always
• Sup' Guy: I missed The Master when it was in theaters, so I hope it comes back before the Oscar telecast, 'cause I love PTA and PSH. Arkin was great, DeNiro was better than lately, but Waltz was perfect (again).
• Sup' Girl: Only saw Anne Hathaway and Jackie Weaver and, while JW was great, AH was devastatingly good.

Directing:

In this category, I only saw Silver Linings Playbook, but I loved the movie and I, for the most part, love David O. Russell films. Actually, I can quantify that statement that I love DOR films from alternating decades;  I loved his movies from the 1990s and now I love his movies from the 2010s, but I Heart Huckabees left me flat (the 2000s).

Cinematography:

I love Roger Deakins and SkyFall may be the best Bond film I've ever seen. (I never saw the Connery ones; I know, I'm a bad person.)

Screenplays:

• Argo and SLP are both excellent, but if I have to give it to Argo under the "truth is stranger than fiction" heading
• Django Unchained: I really enjoyed the movie and I really enjoy QT dialog, but as a whole, not worth the nomination.
• Moonrise Kingdom was the single most enjoyable, wonderful movie I saw all year long and ranks up there next to Fantastic Mr. Fox as my favorite Wes Anderson films. I love this movie and I hope it wins Best Screenplay. It's a shame that it wasn't nominated for Best Picture.

If you believe in god, you probably don't want to read this

I would like to make it perfectly clear that I am an atheist. There is no god, no heaven and no hell. When I die, I will be gone. I won't be in the skies watching over you, I won't be with my departed friends, family or pets and I won't be in a "better place". I'll just be gone. Sure, my friends and family will still remember me, so the memory of me will live on, but that's all that will go on. (That and my Facebook and Twitter posts, apparently.)

I have a friend that just died who also happened to be an atheist. Most of his close friends knew he was an atheist and he surely never made any secret about it. He even spelled out instructions, in the event of his death, that any services NOT be held in a church and that they be strictly non-religious. (This is the same thing I want for myself, by the way).

The reason I am writing this post is because I am incredibly frustrated by people who write about my atheist friend and use terms or phrases that I can paraphrase as, "he was blessed", "he had faith in god" or "he's surely in heaven now", because it's all such bullshit. He is none of these things. I miss the guy and I would prefer that he were still alive, but if he were still alive, he too would be pissed by these comments.

As a decent person who has attended funerals of family and friends that were religious, I would never dream of saying things to the gathered such as, "too bad he's worm food now" or "wow, I'm sure glad I still exist, unlike so-and-so", because that would make me look like an ass-hat. When I'm at a Christian funeral and someone says, "well, he's in heaven now", I just smile and say nothing. I don't say anything antagonistic because that would just be rude. Unfortunately, too many religious people have no such common sense.

Oh, and in the distant future (hopefully very distant), when I'm dead and they have a memorial service for me, if anyone says, "well he's in heaven now", I want all my friends to slap that person in the face for disrespecting my memory. If you are my friend, I expect this.

I hope Qwikster Survives

I have friends that think the Netflix/Quikster split has sounded the death knell for discs, but I don't believe DVD or Blu-Ray is going away any time soon. When Netflix decided to add a fee for streaming, the decision was easy: I canceled streaming and am now paying a dollar less per month than I was before. I'm on the two-DVD per month, with Blu-Ray, plan and that's all I need.

These are the reasons why I prefer DVD/Blu-Ray

• I have a 56" HDTV, a Blu-Ray player and a nice sound system with DTS decoding. At best, HD streaming video looks about the same as a DVD, but can't come close to Blu-Ray picture quality. Streaming audio is much worse than DVD and is nothing compared to Blu-Ray; streaming audio is usually two channels, while even DVD is 5.1 in most cases.
• DVDs and Blu-Rays don't pause or stop if there is a network problem, something that happens quite often with streaming.
• The selection. I've watched thousands of movies, which means that I have a hard enough time finding something good to watch on DVD or Blu-Ray, and the selection of streaming video doesn't even come close to the selection I can get on DVD or Blu-Ray.
• Subtitles/Closed-Captioning. Unless it's a foreign movie, in which case you have no choice, I've never seen an option for closed-captioning or subtitles with streaming. When I have to turn down the sound because the wife is sleeping or if the accents of the actors are difficult to understand, I rely heavily on the subtitles and captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing that are almost standard on DVD or Blu-Ray.
• Extras. Even ignoring BD-Live, which is pretty much a joke, I like to watch deleted scenes, making-of features, alternate endings and all those other "extra features" that you find on DVDs and Blu-Rays. You don't get any of that with streaming video.

So, for me, the choice to go with physical disks over streaming is an easy one. I get better quality video, audio, selection, and extras than with streaming.

But, beyond all the reasons above that work for me, there are several reasons why DVD/Blu-Ray is not going to die any time soon:

• There is a large percentage of the population that either does not have the high-speed internet required or has it but has no idea how to or any inclination to hook their internet up to their TV. For those people, they're either going to watch regular TV or they're going to rent, borrow or buy a DVD.
• Sadly, people (and, less sad, kids) watch movies in their cars and, for most people, the only way to do that is to pop a DVD in the car DVD player. Most people do not have streaming movies in their car.
• DVDs and Blu-Rays are still impulse buys and many stores still stock them near their cashiers because people still like to own a movie that they can hold in their hand.

I vote

I voted today.

I'm registered Green, but I voted mostly for the Democratic candidates out of fear that Republicans would win.

I voted for Prop 19 even though I've never smoked marijuana in my life, because I think the "war on drugs" has done more harm than good.

I voted to raise my own taxes to help fund schools, even though I will never have any children and will, therefore, never directly benefit from those schools.

I'm heartened by the early returns that show some of the tea party candidates lost, but I'm very disappointed that so many Americans have forgotten that it was the Republicans during the Bush years that caused our current depression and have seen fit to put the Republicans back in charge of the House, even though their "change" is just "business as usual".

I'm saddened that so many people believe the lies of corporations and their lobbyists. (And, although I was thinking about the propositions on the ballot when I first typed this, I realize it also applies to Fox News and their own lobbying masquerading as news.)

I am an atheist, so I have a healthy fear of all religious groups, but I have to admit that Christians in America scare me more than any other religious group.

My first 24 hours (or so) on Droid X

I got my Droid X yesterday and, although I started researching the implications of a move from BlackBerry to Android over a week ago, I've figured out a lot in the last 24 hours and I want to share with everybody what I've done.

My old setup:

• I used Outlook 2007 for all my work mail, contacts, calendar and notes.
• My work email uses generic web hosting (BlueHost.com, no Exchange server involved) and I accessed it via IMAP using Outlook on my laptop and using the built-in email client on my BlackBerry
• I used BlackBerry Desktop Manager 6.0 to sync Outlook contacts and calendar to my BlackBerry Storm

My new setup is a little more complicated....

Calendar: I’m using Google Calendar Sync to keep my Outlook 2007 and Google Calendars in sync and then I use the standard Calendar app on the Droid X, which reads the Google Calendar. As an additional precaution, I publish my Outlook calendar to iCal Exchange (it’s a free WebDAV server) and I’ve also subscribed to that calendar in Google Calendar.

Email: I don’t try to sync my email. Instead, I kept my work email where it was and I use Outlook on my laptop and the K-9 Mail app on my phone. I also set up GMAIL to pull in my email from my web host using POP3 (but keeping a copy on the server) as a backup option. I’m using K-9 since it has better IMAP support than the native email client on the Droid X (technically, I could use either).

Contacts: I've not found a sync option that works yet. I exported my contacts from Outlook (don’t pay attention to the Google instructions: you’ll want to use the "Comma Separated Values (DOS)" option, not the "Windows" option to get all the contact fields) and then I imported them into GMAIL using their standard import function. The Droid contact list syncs with GMAIL, so any future contact changes will need to be manually synced between Outlook and Gmail until I find an application that I know works (there are no free ones that do this reliably, as far as I can tell).

Tasks: I was rarely using this in Outlook, so I won’t use it any longer.

Notes: I exported my Outlook notes to a CSV file and then I imported them into ResophNotes, a fee Windows application. ResophNotes syncs with SimpleNote, a free, secure web application and there are several Android apps that sync with SimpleNote. I (almost) randomly chose AndroNoter and it seems to work fine.

The biggest hiccup in this process was when the Google Calendar Sync application got stuck synchronizing for many hours and I had to kill it, uninstall it and then re-install it. It seems to be working OK now, but I will probably exit it before I hibernate my computer and try to remember to turn it back on when I wake my computer back up.

On a non-office note, I've also tried out a few different apps...

For Twitter, I first added my Twitter account to "My Accounts" on my Droid X, but I don't really understand what that does and I wanted a real Twitter client. (I used ÜberTwitter on my BlackBerry and it was awesome, but they don't have an Android version.) I tried out "Twitter for Android" and Tweetcaster, before settling on Touiteur, which seems to work pretty well.

For Facebook, I'm using the official Facebook app and it's better than the BlackBerry version.

The other notable apps I've installed through the Market are:

• Yelp
• Battery Widget
• FlickrFree for Android
• IMDb Movies & TV
• Google Translate
• Google Earth
• Poynt
• WorldMate (yay! although, it's not yet as cool as the BlackBerry version)
• Barcode Scanner (love it)
• Google Sky Map
• Pandora Radio

I've played with some of the above very little, so I'm not yet prepared to review them.

Droid

I've suffered with the first generation BlackBerry Storm since last year, so it wasn't that hard of a decision for me to leave BB behind and switch to Android. I ordered the Droid X last week, and though it's been on backorder, I received notification that it shipped today and I should have it in my hands by Wednesday. It'll be a vast improvement over my old phone, but I am dismayed at the lack of a utility to keep my new phone in sync with Outlook. If my company used Exchange or Google Apps, this wouldn't be an issue, but we don't use either.

My research has led me to one conclusion. I must stop using Outlook and move everything (mail, contacts, calendar and notes) to Google. I've been an Outlook user since before it was Outlook (when it was the mail client that came with Windows 95) and I have almost 1300 contacts, over 1700 appointments on my calendar and over 4GB of mail in PST files (although about half of that is offline copies of my IMAP mail), so choosing to abandon Outlook was not an easy decision, but I don't see any other good solution. Android phones were designed to work with Google and Google and MS do not like to play together.

Of course, I don't have this all worked out yet. Since there is no "Google Notes", I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my Outlook notes yet. And since half of my archived mail is in PST files, I'll have to figure out how I'll get those archives into gmail. I'll probably be happier in the long run, but it all looks pretty daunting to me right now.

If anyone has any suggestions, please comment here and let me know.

Gracie Church: 1998-2010

Today, Kara and I said goodbye to our beloved Gracie. Gracie was a great, loving dog, who loved and protected her family. She enjoyed long walks and barking at the UPS guy, but most of all, she loved to swim. As a matter of fact, the only time she would ever play fetch was in the water at dog beach.

Gracie was adopted by Kara from the Escondido Humane Society (as was her younger adopted brother, Buster) and it was love at first paw for Kara and Gracie. I met Gracie a few months later when Kara and I started dating and Gracie turned me from someone who didn't like dogs into someone who loves dogs.

Although Gracie suffered from separation anxiety (and left a trail of destruction, in some cases, when she was left alone), she handled separation from Kara and me much better after "we" adopted Buster. And when I say we, I mean all of us, as Gracie also adopted Buster, always keeping a watchful eye on him at the park, scolding him if he got out of line, and grooming him whenever he would sit still long enough to take it.

Gracie loved people and got along with most other dogs. She was a protector of her "pack", though, so she was suspicious of any dog or person that she felt was acting "inappropriately", which included being a little too rowdy with Buster. She would bark or snap at other dogs when this happened, but mostly, they were warnings to "keep your distance". With suspicious people (and the UPS guy), she would bark, but never bite.

Gracie had mostly good health over her lifetime, but she had started suffering from arthritis over the last year or so. Her health, however, really started going downhill in the last month of her life, when she stopped eating almost completely. After a few weeks and a few visits to the vet, we discovered that she had cancerous tumors in her liver, lymph nodes and on her back. For the last few weeks until she died, we just tried our best to make her comfortable. Probably her happiest time during this tragic period was when we took her for one last visit to the beach. Even though it was an impromptu visit and we hadn't brought her throw toy for water fetch, she still headed straight into the ocean for a short swim.

Gracie is gone, but she will never be forgotten. And, her family will miss her terribly.

Gracie, we love you.

Go go gadgets

I am what you might call, technology-savvy. But, at the same time, I'm not someone that wants or needs to be on the leading edge or that wants to be particularly "connected" in all ways possible. Even though I took my first computer class in high school in the early 80s, my major in college was computer science, my first job was doing data entry, I've worked in the credit union software industry since 1992 and I've been on the internet since 1996, I didn't own my very own PC until the 2000s. I was also late to music CDs, staying on cassettes until the early 90s. I also went straight from VHS cassettes to DVDs in 1999, skipping laser disks entirely and I was never a PC gamer. (If I have to be completely honest, I had a pong game in the late 70s, a color TRS-80 MC-10 sometime in the 80s - I actually still have it in storage - that I could hook up to my TV set, but that wasn't much more than a toy. I also did have an Atari 2600 and I even remember playing E.T., the game that nearly killed the gaming industry, on it.) I also never had a beeper or a pager and didn't have a cell phone until about 5 or 6 years ago.

Basically, I've always avoided being the owner of the newest gadgets because I had enough gadgets in my work life. I've been on the internet since 1996 because work gave me a laptop to use back then.


Times, they are a-changing. About two months ago, my employer told me that they wanted me to get a Blackberry so that they could always reach me and I could always get my work email. I understood the reason they wanted this, but I was in no hurry to be that much more connected. Well, after several weeks of delays due to misplaced equipment, scheduling difficulties and ineptitude on the part of a Verizon Wireless store employee, I finally got my Blackberry up and running. It's the iPhone-alternative for those of us not on AT&T, the Blackberry Storm and, for the most part, it's actually pretty cool. Sure, it's buggy as hell, it crashes for no apparent reason and the touch/press typing and mistyping can be tedious, but there's no beating having full access to my address book (over 1,000 entries), calendar, my email, gmail, IM, and internet. I even got a Bluetooth earphone for this thing, something else I've avoided until now, and it actually works great.

But, since the post says gadgets, I wanted to just quickly mention that I seem to be on an inadvertent buying spree of technology since November, starting with a new car (I had no choice, my old car was destroyed by a drunk driver) with a very nice climate control system and XM radio (love First Wave and Cinemagic, although I would cancel XM in a minute if I had to pay more than the $5/month deal I got). After the car, my old PC started dying, so I have a new PC with a widescreen 24" 108op monitor. I also bought a Blu-Ray player, networked it and my DVR, bought a wireless inkjet printer (the old printer was not compatible with Vista x64, the OS of my new PC) and, just yesterday, purchased an iRobot Roomba.

Right now, most of my spare attention has been given to trying to figure out this Blackberry, so I've not yet even opened up the box for the Roomba. Hopefully, I'll open up that box and get that going sometime this week, which is a far cry from the time it took me to get around to hooking up a brand new AV receiver a few years ago - about a year and a half after I bought that, I opened the box and hooked it up.

A blog in search of a new identity

Now that Dweedle Dum and his evil administration are about to be replaced by a man that I consider a personal hero of mine, my views will no longer be considered "aid and comfort to the enemy" by the executive branch. Thus, I am retiring the "Comfort for the Enemy" name and my blog, for the time being, is untitled.

Star magazine? Really?

I was a subscriber to Premiere magazine for its entire 20 year existence until it folded in 2007 and I loved that magazine. When it folded, they tried to convert my remaining multi-year subscription to US Weekly, but I asked for and got a refund.

I was unhappy about Premiere, but luckily, Radar Magazine had just re-started publishing and I, at least, still had that.

I just got the postcard in the mail today that "due to marketplace conditions, Radar Magazine has stopped publishing" and they offered me three options for the remainder of my subscription:

• Star
• Men's Fitness
• Shape

I'm not gay nor am I into sports, so I'm about as interested in the last two options as I would be in a magazine about pig farming (not at all, in case you're sarcasm-challenged). But Star magazine? Did the new owners of Radar really think that people that read Radar would want to read a celebrity gossip magazine that you find at every single dentist and doctor's office in America? I mean, I read Radar because it was smarter than that (at least in the beginning). And the worst part is that the postcard includes the disclaimer, "You will receive Star if no response is received by January 12, 2009".

Of course, there was no option on the postcard for a refund and no contact information. I had to search "The Internets" to find out that AMI purchased them and then contact Star magazine to ask for a refund. Of course, the very nice girl that answered the phone didn't yet have any information about the Radar cancellation and no way to process a refund for me; she was good enough to contact a supervisor, take down my information and tell me that she'll try to process the refund once they do get the information on "their system".

My brother-in-law is an artist in metal

We now interrupt our irregular programming...

My brother-in-law, Fritz Church, is an incredible artist and metal worker. He lives in Tacoma, Washington and owns his own business, Fire Works Forge, which creates custom metal railings or other custom metal work that are both practical and beautiful. (He also does metal sculpture, which is beautiful, but not meant to be practical.)

I encourage you to visit his web site just to see the artistry in his work. And, if you need any custom metal work, I highly recommend him.

How you should vote on Tuesday

I'll make this simple:

President and Vice President: Barack Obama/Joe Biden

If you live in California:
Prop 1a: Yes
Prop 2: Yes
Prop 3: No
Prop 4: No
Prop 5: Yes
Prop 6: No
Prop 7: No
Prop 8: No
Prop 9: No
Prop 10: No
Prop 11: No
Prop 12: Yes

If you live in San Diego:

City Council District 3: Stephen Whitburn

City Attorney: Michael J. Aguirre

Prop A: No
Prop B: No
Prop C: Yes
Prop D: Yes
Prop S: Bonds-No

My dad started dialysis today

My dad's side of the family has been hit hard by Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD). We know that my Grandma "Kitty" had it and my dad tells me she was on dialysis for 20-25 years before she finally got a kidney transplant in the mid-to-late 80s. She felt much better after the transplant, but due to other health issues, she died within a few years of her transplant.

Her brother, beloved Uncle Nick, also had PKD and he also died from complications in the mid-90s. My dad thinks that several of grandma's other siblings also had it.

My dad was officially diagnosed with PKD in 1992, so I went in for an ultrasound shortly afterwards and found that I also have it. My PKD is still at the very early stage with normal creatinine levels. I do have to take blood pressure medication, but I have no PKD-related pain.

My dad is a different story and he had to go to the hospital earlier this year because his potassium levels were through the roof. At the time, we thought he would have to go on dialysis immediately, but thanks to an extreme diet change (the incredibly difficult renal diet) and changes to his meds, he was able to postpone dialysis for several months. Unfortunately, he has now reached the stage where he must start dialysis and that's what he did today. I took him to his first appointment this afternoon and I'm about to head out the door to pick him up as I type this.

My dad's a fighter and I know that dialysis will be really good for him, even if it will be a hassle. But if he doesn't eventually get a kidney transplant, he will remain on dialysis for the rest of his life. That saddens me, but it also makes me all the more driven to raise funds and volunteer for the PKD foundation so that all PKD sufferers will have much better options in the future.

If you would like to support the PKD foundation, I encourage you to do so.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains

As mentioned previously, I first saw parts of Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains in the mid-80s when it showed up on late night TV (Night Flight on the USA Network), but since it was never released on video or DVD, I never got to watch it from start to finish. I remember that I really liked what I saw, though, and I've kept my eyes open for it for the last 20 years.

When I found out that it was finally getting a real DVD release, I pre-ordered the movie, waited for it be officially released and finally watched it in its entirety a few weeks ago.

Actually, I watched it twice in the same night: the second time while listening to the highly entertaining commentary track from Diane Lane and Laura Dern. Ms. Lane was 15 and Ms. Dern was 13 years old when they shot this film surrounded by punk rock legends.

Since I watched it twice, you probably already realize that I really liked this movie. I can't write film reviews to save my life, but I found the story fun, the characters very believable (and grounded in reality, even if the plot is a bit absurd) and the music is just great. But, the music has to be great when you have two Sex Pistols and members of The Clash and The Tubes not only playing music but also acting in the film as musicians. For me, though, the greatest thrill I got while watching this film was realizing that the fictitious rock band The Looters, which included the aforementioned Sex Pistols and Clash members, was fronted by none other than (an incredibly young-looking) Ray Winstone. I had only known Mr. Winstone from his roles in recent years in films such as Sexy Beast, The Departed and that abortion of a franchise movie starring Harrison Ford earlier this year. Ray Winstone is a great actor, but I now know that he is also a great punk rock singer.

I'm walking for PKD again

As I have for the last several years, I am walking again to fund research to find a cure for Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD). My walk is on Sunday, September 21, 2008 at 9:30 am at the Spanish Landing Park on Harbor Drive in San Diego, but similar walks will occur that same weekend all across the United States.

I walk because I have an extensive family history of PKD, including, my grandmother (who died from PKD), my dad (who is on a special renal diet to keep him off of dialysis), at least one cousin and me. My PKD has not progressed to the point where I have to worry about dialysis or a kidney transplant, but I'm still relatively young and there are many others who are not as lucky as I am.

If you want to support me in my walk for PKD, I've set up a page where you can donate money on my behalf to the PKD Foundation or, if you want to walk with me, you can join my team. The link is here.

For more information about PKD, check out the PKD Foundation.

Thanks,
Ray

Sea Rocket Sputters

I was a fervent fan of The Linkery until they moved into their new, much larger space and decided to do ass-hat things like charge for ice tea refills (I think the charge for Kara's ice tea alone was $15 on our last visit!) while providing much slower service than at their old location. But, I'm still willing to give Jay the benefit of the doubt and I do plan to go back again in a few months, well after the growing pains have eased and they're more comfortable with their new size.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Sea Rocket Bistro, the restaurant that took over The Linkery's old location at the corner of 30th and Upas. I love seafood. I could eat seafood every single day and never get tired of it. So, naturally, I was ecstatic that a new seafood place with the same values that The Linkery espouses was moving in as soon as The Linkery moved up the street. And, it was natural that Kara and I tried the place during the first week it was open. My impression at the time was that the food was quite good, but the service was unbearably slow. I chalked this up to both the restaurant being brand new and this also being the restaurateurs' first restaurant. We left that first meal convinced that the place had real potential and that we would return after it had been open a few months to allow the owners some time to work out the kinks.

Sea Rocket opened their doors in June, had their "Grand Opening" in July and then had two favorable reviews last week in both the San Diego Reader and San Diego City Beat. So, I figured, now was the time to go back and try again. We tried again last night and we have no plans to return ever again.

First, I was disappointed they were out of the seafood paella, which looks quite good. But, I can understand that when you use only local sources and you're running a small restaurant, you will sometimes run out of stuff. After scouring the menu, Kara and I both decided to order small: we both ordered the Green salad, mine with the scallop topper and Kara's with the sardine starter, all served at the same time. I ordered a lemonade and Kara ordered an ice tea and we had a carafe of water to drink as well.

The water and the lemonade were both brought to the table in a timely manner, but the ice tea took much longer to come. (Perhaps they had to brew the tea, I don't know.) Then, the waiting began and we had to wait a very long time for our dinner to show up. I could excuse this if the place was busy or if they were short-staffed, but they were only half-full and looked to have 4 servers for 6 tables. I mean, seriously, how long does it take to make a salad, saute scallops on the rare side and grill up some sardines? The longest time might have been to prepare the sardines... but that could not have been the case (more in a second on this). I think we waited at least 30 minutes for the food, during which time I almost finished my lemonade and we drank most of the water.

The food did come, finally, and while the salad and the scallops were delicious, something seemed wrong about the salad. I quickly remembered how the salad was lovingly described as containing fresh figs from a North Park garden and, since I love figs, I was really looking forward to the salad. Hell, I decided to order the salad based on the figs. But, there were no figs in this salad and, instead, the salad had dried cherries, the kind you might buy in a sealed plastic bag from Ralphs. I summoned our server and asked about the figs and she said something like, "oh, they must have forgotten to put the figs in the salad, I'll go check in the kitchen". Seriously, WTF? How do you forget the main ingredient and worse, substitute with a vastly inferior product? The server did return shortly with a small bowl with a sliced whole fig, which was as delicious as I expected it to be, but it just seemed an incredibly careless mistake to make. Putting that aside for a moment, let me return to the sardines.

Kara is not the fish lover that I am. She likes fish, though and she wanted to be adventurous, so she selected the sardines. Now, I had read raving reviews of the sardines and I expected that they would be at least as great as the grilled green bean in ginger soy sauce (yum!) at The Linkery. I also understood that they were whole sardines on a skewer, but neither Kara nor I had much experience with whole fish. No big deal, I stopped one of the employees that was walking nearby (I think it was one of the owners) for some help. I explained that this was the first time we had ordered the sardines and we asked her the best way to "eat" the sardines. I can't believe no one has ever asked this question (hell, I think I read in one of the reviews last week that the reviewer asked the same question), and she seemed mostly bothered by the question, although she did offer some help, suggesting that we slip a knife or fork down the side to remove the fillet from the bones. Not the best attitude, but it was an informative answer and Kara and I had one each of the three sardines. I liked it well enough, Kara less so, but neither of us could understand what any of the raves were about. It was a messy proposition with little flavor and little meat once you took off the skin and bones. I liked it more than Kara, so she offered the third sardine to me. I took it, ate a little bit of the meat and immediately sensed that I had eaten the "bad" part of the fish. It tasted soft and bitter, so I slid the whole thing open and quickly realized that half the fish was still bloody and uncooked!

I had gotten the impression that the place had two signature dishes, one was the sea urchin (which I don't much care for) and the other was the sardines. So, how the frak do you mess up your signature dish by not cooking it, especially after it took half an hour to get it to the table in the first place? Once I realized that the fish was uncooked, I also realized that there was a small puddle of fish blood on the plate. We stopped our server, pointed out the problem and they offered to either replace the dish or take it off the bill. Since Kara had lost her appetite at the sight of the uncooked fish and fish blood, I asked that they remove it from the bill.

I should also mention that the sardine dish is described as being "on a bed of greens and lima bean salad". I'm sorry, but a single 1 1/2"-diameter piece of lettuce does not a bed of greens make.

By now, we were both discouraged and ready to leave. We had also been out of water for about 10 minutes and, even though we had stopped servers three times for problems with our meals, none of them had noticed that our water was empty and we were too distracted to notice until we were already thirsty and waiting for the check. I could say that we skipped dessert (which we did) and left quickly, except nothing quick happens here. The various servers passed the bill and my credit card sitting on my table a few times before noticing it was there and picking it up.

As I said at the beginning of this review, we will not be returning to Sea Rocket Bistro and I can't recommend it to anyone. Some of the food (the salad ingredients and the scallops) might have been really good, but the food preparation and wait staff are both severely lacking and have only gotten worse since they opened, not better.

Comic-con has come and gone

Life-size Iron Man (P1020556)
taken by me

Thoughts on my 4th Comic-Con...

Wednesday through Friday seemed busier on the dealer floor than did Saturday and Sunday was much slower than last year. It was absolutely crazy on Wednesday.

Last year, I sat in Hall H all day for two days. This year, I only sat through Kevin Smith on Friday night and Heroes and Lost on Saturday.

Kevin Smith's panel was OK, but not as funny as in past years. I love Seth Rogen, but I hope he has more than one note in him (stoner dude).

Seeing the first episode of Heroes for the new season two months early was pretty cool. I just with Kara had been there to see it with me. Now I have to keep all these secrets!

The Lost panel would have sucked, except for the funny gifts for the people that came up and asked questions. They didn't give anything away about the next season, so it seemed like a waste of time.

The line for the big rooms — except for Hall H — were just ridiculous. I lined up 90 minutes before Dexter and still missed the first 10 minutes. I'm also pissed that I lined up 90 minues before the Battlestar Galactica panel and still didn't get into the room, plus I was only 20 people from the front of the line when they announced that no one else was getting in to BSG. I should have stayed in Hall H to see Terminator Salvation.

Triumph insults Comic-Con (P1020586)
taken by me

The TV Funhouse panel was hilarious and it was great fun being insulted by Triumph (Robert Smigel). Last year, the funniest panel was the Sarah Silverman Show, but I skipped out on Sarah this year....

Instead, I got free passes (and a free set of anal beads, the coolest freebie ever!) to see Choke, the newest Chuck Palahniuk adaptation (by Clark Gregg) starring Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdonald and Brad William Henke. I haven't read the novel (I seldom read fiction), but the movie was really good. Plus, there was a Q&A session after the screening with the director and writer (and supporting actor) Clark Gregg. I highly recommend the movie, but you should probably leave your anal beads at home and just enjoy the show.

Oh, and of course, I took pictures at Comic-Con and posted them here. I took a lot less photos this year and only a few with a scantily-clad female, but I hope you enjoy them nonetheless.