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    Gear and Bromance: Gizmodo's CES Experience in a Meta-Nutshell

    Buffet Portions Consumed: Six
    The Computers: 9 Macbooks of varying vintage and a Dell (belonging to Adam Frucci)
    Gambling Results: Down $30.

    Number Who Went to the Spa after Their Flights to NYC were Canceled: Three

    The Cameras: Nikon D700 and D300, Canon 5D Mark II and 40D and some XT Rebels, Olympus e510, various point and shoots
    The Camcorders: Flips, Kodak Zi6, Flip, Panasonic HDC-SD1
    iPhone Chargers and Batteries: All by FastMac
    Alcohol Induced Sickness: One
    Writers Who Pulled All Night Benders: Four
    Writers Who Are Too Old for This Shit: Two
    The Net Connection: EVDO by Sprint via Evdoinfo.com Rentals, and the surprisingly capable press room ethernet.
    Device of the Show: Palm Pre (And more on our Best Picks Here)
    Number of Unexpected Gizmodo Shoutouts: One (at the Palm Pre announce for our 3G data test)
    Cookie Ladies in the Press Room Making the Time Go By With Less Hunger: Zero
    Zicam Bottles Consumed: One
    Number of Terrible Gadgets Not Worth Posting On: Thousands and Thousands
    Thinnest TVs that Aren't as Thin as OLED TVs: Two, Plasma and LCD
    TVs Bigger than Last Year's 150 Inch Plasma: Zero
    The Boost In Morale and State of Mind Resulting From Sleeping in Discounted Luxury Hotel Rooms: 30% to 40%
    Lifetime obsessions with Steve Wynn developed: One
    Wedgies Endured: One
    Tech Getting Jammed in the Cracks Of Every Device Possible: Blu-ray
    Number of PR Collisions Claiming "First": Two, Projector Cellphone and Blu-ray TVs (1,2)
    Booths Making Rows of TVs Attractive: Two (Samsung, Panasonic)
    Set Top Boxes that Seduced Us: Three (Samsung's Thin Blu, HDi's Streaming and Bittorrenting Blu, and Dish's Sling enabled DVR.)
    Nosebleeds: Zero
    Number of Pico Projectors: Countless
    Number of Pico Projectors I Think are Worth Buying: Zero
    Headaches: Three
    PR People Wilson Rothman Knows: 99.95%
    Nipples Spotted at AVN: Just Jason's
    Number of People Who Mixed Up Jason and Blam's Identities: Four


    We're all home. This CES was a little different from years past.

    Little things. Like lunch in the press room. Although the sandwiches were good, the lunches weren't hot this year. There were some empty booths on the show floor, too. So some cost cutting is happening. But it was still very much a crowded show floor. The usual choke point between Panasonic and Motorola was less gridlock-y, but was also redesigned, so its probably the new layout more than anything.

    We also left a day earlier than usual, because the show has one less weekday in its schedule. But given the lack of big news, we didn't miss much. I mean, we could have done 150 posts a day, but that would include a lot of garbage and noise. What we saw that was great, we wrote about, and left the rest of the cutting room floor.

    The best thing about this year's show — speaking meta — was that the lack of great gadgets made coverage manageable, and so we had time to see our favorite friends from across the internet. I had a great time meeting folks at casino royale and caught up with rob and joel from BoingBoing Gadgets after what seemed like ages. The night before, we got to see our friends from T3. (Thanks for the shirt and beer, Kat, and congrats on the engagement!) This is the kind of thing we wouldn't have been able to do at a busier show and in some ways, I am grateful for the slower pace.

    So, after all these years of despising this show, I have to say that I've finally found something to appreciate it for: It gives me the perfect excuse to see almost all the Giz writers and fellow editors I know in one place, at one time. And how can that not turn into a good time, if work isn't getting in the way?


    Send an email to the author of this post at blam@gizmodo.com.