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A bright light at the edge of the photo oversaturates this view of a mall.

Looking up at a huge Christmas Tree under a dome, flanked by palm trees.We are South Coast Plaza of Borg. You will be overstimulated!

Seriously, after only 20 minutes at the mall on Saturday, I was already feeling overwhelmed. The children’s choir singing “Holly Jolly Christmas” right outside the first store did not help!

I miss the Ghirardelli shop. It was my favorite way to just retreat from the madness that is South Coast Plaza during the Christmas shopping season and prepare myself for the next hour or two.

Oh, yeah…here’s a better photo of the bridge and the mall segment formerly known as Crystal Court.

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I tried out Google’s new Goggles app. Basically it lets you use the camera on an Android phone to do an image-based search. The examples include landmarks, book covers, artwork, logos, contact info, and places.

So I played with it for a bit at home tonight. It’s good at picking out book covers and logos, if you’ve got good lighting and a clear image. 50-50 at landmarks, at least when taking pictures of my monitor. In a couple of cases, it actually picked out the exact photo as a match. It’s not so good at objects, even obvious ones like a Coke can. I’ll have to try it out in the real world next.

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I’m pleasantly surprised that Comic-Con International and/or Travel Planners has gotten their act together for next year’s convention. Before attendance (and hotel rush) went completely insane, they used to send out hotel info with their fall newsletter or in a postcard around December (or maybe January), but over the last two years it’s been pushed later and later. For 2009, they didn’t even announce a date for hotel reservations until February…a month before they opened. The list of hotels went up even later — the day before, IIRC.

The fall newsletter, now an online magazine, went up today, and along with it not just the date for reservations, but a list of hotels…including distance, prices, and shuttle stops. Hotel reservations go online March 18, 2010.

Additionally, they’ve made some interesting changes that may help combat the craziness:

  • Reservations will now require an immediate deposit of one night’s stay
  • Deposits are fully refundable until May 14.
  • From May 15 to June 17, there’s a $75 cancellation fee.
  • From June 18 onward, deposits are nonrefundable.

With luck that’ll cut down on some of the “just in case…” extra reservations, now that there’s an actual financial commitment to it.