Slaughter Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 Hi folks I just thought I'd give you an update on my trip to LA. This is just boring journal stuff, so if you're only interested in gaming stuff wait for E3. Early Friday morning I left Norway, and soon after landed in Frankfurt, Germany. Frankfurt is one of the worlds busiest airports, and the trip besides the runways with the airport shuttle makes that quite apparent. As I sat by the window in a restaurant I thought a little about the complexity of the logistics there, and it must be insane! Various airport vehicles moving all over and numerous planes makes for organized chaos. After spending five or so hours in the Frankfurt airport, we boarded the enormous Boeing 747-400 that would fly to Los Angeles. It was an 11 hour flight, and it's something I wish I wouldn't have to repeat so soon! I came through it well enough, but it is taxing with the limited sleep you get on a plane. When I picked up my luggage in Los Angeles, I stumbled upon two journalists from one of the largest Norwegian papers called Dagbladet. They were going to E3 like me, and gave me some good information. I also got their card, and some tips about an "Norwegian Evening" where the Norwegian journalists meet the first night of E3. When I finally got to the hotel I had been travelling for 21 hours or so, with hardly any sleep the night before leaving. I didn't want to fall asleep immediately however, as it was still rather early in LA. That didn't work out, and I ended up waking at 4 in the morning today. Luckily I managed to go back to sleep, and felt quite rested when I woke again. To begin with today I decided to look around the area, and try to get hold of a power adapter. I need it because Norwegian devices use 220V versus the US 110V. It wasn't easy finding a store that sold this however, so I ended up walking for quite a while. I finally did get one, and returned to my hotel to do a quick check of e-mail and the likes. What do you know! The adapter was defect! So I walked back to Radio Shack, and told them it wasn't working. They'd let me exchange it, but sadly they had no more in store. Therefore I had to go to this other Radio Shack to get a new one. After a lot of searching I found it, and guess what!?! They refused to exchange it! By then I was getting really pissed however, so I told them to call the other store. After some more talk they agreed to exchange it, and everything seemed fine. I even checked the adapter in the store to make sure it worked, as I didn't want to repeat the walk. So I got back to the hotel with the adapter, and plugged it in. It was working, and I could finally start up my laptop. I was just about to open the browser when I heard this sound from the power outlet. It didn't sound good, so I immediately unplugged the adapter. Guess what!?! There were smoke coming out of the adapter, and it was obviously completely fried! Next time I visit Radio Shack will not be pretty... Only good thing so far this day was that I got hold of Rebelstar: Tactical Command for GBA. A little later Mike came over however, so we finally got to meet face to face. He is very nice, and had even bought a new adapter to me! This one was maybe one tenth of the size of the one from Radio Shack, and it works flawlessly. BLOODY RADIO SHACK! Anyway, so Mike and me went out to dinner, enjoying ribs and a beer. We got to discuss E3 a little closer, and will be bringing you all the goodies from the show late next week most likely. Stay tuned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 Lucky bugger. Sounds like you're having fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baby arm Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 Not surprised about your "fun" with Radio Shack. I usually don't go there unless I know exactly what I'm looking for. Make sure you grab a copy of the LA Weekly (from nearly any record store, book store, coffee shop, etc) to see what bands are playing this weekend. There's always something going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted May 7, 2006 Author Share Posted May 7, 2006 Make sure you grab a copy of the LA Weekly (from nearly any record store, book store, coffee shop, etc) to see what bands are playing this weekend. There's always something going on.Thanks, I'll do that. Would be neat if System of a Down or something was playing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorondor Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 Tomorrow's LA Weekly front page headline "Nordic Mob runs down Radio Shack outlets". :: Good to hear you've survived the trip well enough, Olav. Be sure to enjoy the calm before the E3 storm... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baby arm Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 "Would be neat if System of a Down or something was playing" No such luck. They're bigtime now so they hardly ever play around here anymore.As far as metal goes, Goatwhore is playing at the Whisky (on Sunset) tonight and Devildriver is playing at the same place on Tuesday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JellyfishGreen Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 Hey Slaughter, interesting news with the power supply. I assume at home, you plug your power cord into the wall, which powers the DC PSU (typically the "black brick"), which then supplies DC power via another lead to the laptop itself. (At least that's what I do in the Emerald Isle.) Check the label on that DC PSU: Most of them nowadays are made with "110-240V input", which means you don't need any electronics to use them in the States, just a simple plug adaptor (or a new power cord). The RadioShack adapters - sounds like they were meant for low-current shavers or something, and you're trying to pull too much current from them for the laptop. Or else they were never meant to connect to a laptop which is grounding itself through a phone line as well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted May 8, 2006 Author Share Posted May 8, 2006 "Would be neat if System of a Down or something was playing" No such luck. They're bigtime now so they hardly ever play around here anymore.As far as metal goes, Goatwhore is playing at the Whisky (on Sunset) tonight and Devildriver is playing at the same place on Tuesday.Thanks for the heads up . I'm in Vegas now however, so I'll not be able to go to any concerts until this weekend. I'll check out the program for something heavy then. @JellyfishGreen: Yeah, you are right on both accounts. I have a simple plug adaptor now, as my Laptop has that black box. The Radio Shack one did mention such things as CD players in the note that came with it however, so I find it strange that the Laptop would kill it so efficiently (even if it was not needed). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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