Las Vegas Trip 2007

All That I Forgot To Blog About Part 2 - Monday Day 2

2007-10-21T08:49:00.001-07:00

Quick before I forget, I am trying to have total recall...

You may think blogging is ridiculous and dorky, but where else can you save snapshots of your life instantly and post them for the world to see?

Anyway...

Monday morning I woke up early and ~~wandered down to the gym and worked out~~. That is, I planned on working out, but I slept in instead and woke up to some starbucks coffee in the starbucks in the lobby and forked over the twenty bucks to connect to the lobby wifi (ridiculously expensive, most hotels around the globe offer free wifi in the lobby as long as you are a guest).

I hung out at Starbucks for about two hours while I waited for my colleagues to meet me and decide what to do in terms of checking out the room for the conference, etc.

Next we had a walk through of the conference area and I had to plan a dry run of the AV equipment later in the day with the resident AV guy. Here is a picture of me from the conference space taken as a still from my video camera built into my Sony Vaio AR:

The walk through went fine, and the managers assured us that all sixty of our guests would have their rooms ready when they checked in.... this was of course not the case, as we found out when half of the guests had to have their rooms moved to the Tropicana hotel for the first night because their was alleged "flood damage" but no one saw any flood damage, and it was probably a pathetic lie.

Either way, I gambled some more in the lobby and ate a glorious dinner over at the Paris with my work group and then awaited Jen's arrival at 1030pm.

Stay tuned for Tuesday, the first day of the conference....

All That I Forgot To Blog About Part 1 - Sunday Day 1

2007-10-21T08:18:00.001-07:00

Since there was such a disproportionate time period between the fury of blog posts on Sunday October 14th and the quick update later in the week, I figured that now since I am back to balmy Baltimore I could give a more thorough review and breakdown of the events that occurred during our stay at the Westin Hotel in Las Vegas.

SUNDAY (October 14th 2007)

(Ron Paul spoke at the Westin for a rally, but it was the Westin in Seattle instead of Vegas.)

So to begin from the beginning, I couldn't check in to the hotel until 4pm on Sunday, so I left my luggage entrusted to the hotel staff in the lobby and wandered to Panera Bread which ended up being on South Fort Apache.

When I did finally check in, there was a half naked gentleman already occupying my room, and it turns out he had the same last name as me so I guess I can understand the mix up.

I gambled a little the first night playing video poker conveniently setup in the main lobby and I was actually up about twenty dollars by the end of the night.

Oh yeah, I also wandered around The Forums mall that is attached to Caesars Palace... and I snapped the above photo inside The Paris, and the picture turned out a lot better than I thought it would considering I took it from my lightweight low-tech Samsung cell phone with the sub standard 1.3 mega-pixel lens and no flash. Sometimes low-tech works I guess.

Monday will be coming up next....

Quick Update - Busy in Vegas

2007-10-18T10:14:00.001-07:00

We have been playing hard and I have been working hard during the days here in Las Vegas so I haven't felt much like blogging... but I figured I would give a quick update...

Last night (Wednesday Night) we saw the Cirque Du Soleil show KA at the MGM Grand.

TUESDAY NIGHT (October 16th):

We went and drove super fast go Karts at an abandoned warehouse off of the strip! We also ate at the In and Out Burger for a change from the uber expensive over priced restaurants along the strip.

Go Karts with Geoff and Brandy, who are stationed at Nellis AFB.

2007-10-15T19:19:00.001-07:00

Carnage band

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Delicious Lunch - A $777 Dollar Hamburger?

2007-10-15T15:56:00.001-07:00

Well I had a perfect hamburger at a place called the Le Burger Brasserie.

On the menu was a 777 dollar burger. It came with a bottle of expensive champagne and some other amenities that would probably add up to that amount.

Working and Gambling

2007-10-15T14:45:00.001-07:00

Been working all day, tweaking presentations...

I did manage to win a small amount of money in between.

Right now I am actually positive about 30 dollars.

Jen is on her way, should be about a five hour plane ride for her.

Hopefully I will be doing a dry run of the equipment and gadgets with the resident AV guy here at the Westin tonight sometime.

Waking Up and Breakfast

2007-10-15T08:40:00.001-07:00

Ok, just a quick note so everyone knows I made it through the night in this strange town.

I actual won a few dollars last night, and had a delicious french sandwich for a late dinner at 8pm.

I have to do some work stuff this morning, but this afternoon I am supposed to meet up with old friends from Monterey who happened to be stationed at Nellis AFB and we are supposed to go ride Go Karts in the desert or something like that.

Jen arrives tonight late around 10pm local time.

Wish me luck finding some good breakfast place.

Finally in the Room, More Problems - Laughable Ridiculousness

2007-10-14T15:44:00.001-07:00

Well, I finally made it to my room.

The kind Westin frontdesk ladies gave me a key to room 628. No problem, I went to 628.... guess what I found there... I barged in on someone already occupying my room.

It turns out he has the same last name, so no big deal there.

NEXT,

I get my real room key on the 10th floor....

I get in the room only to find that I cannot connect to the wifi Internet in my room because my COX cable box needs to be reset or some crap like that.... so I am stuck waiting for 15 minutes after waiting half a day to get a room after flying to Vegas early, arriving at 8am this morning local time....

So the technician checks the TV, pulls the plug out and puts it back in and it works.

I could have done that myself, but I was warned by COX cable on the phone that I would be held accountable for any damages that may occur due to my activity.

I actually laughed at the COX cable guy as I logged onto the internet.

I knew it would make a good blog entry.

So continues my virginal day in Vegas. I think I may head downstairs and play some slots, why not. The hotel credited my room fifty bucks for the whole identity mix up and connectivity debacle... so I might as well waste it wisely.

If you get bored reading my rants, please refer to the interesting archival data over at http://www.constantskeptic.com/ especially the posts about RFID implants, those stories will sober you up real quick daddio.

Technorati Tags: westin , hotel , vegas , lasvegas , las vegas

Waiting for a Taxi at Panera Bread

2007-10-14T15:34:00.001-07:00

Well I am on hold trying to get a cab from Panera Bread back to the Westin Hotel...

Vegas is dirty so far.

Low men have tried handing me cheap girl thrill flyers and others have enticed me to enter their casinos under the guise of "free money". There are no free rides cowboy.

I think I am going to head back to the hotel and see if I can check in yet... (how long does it take them to prepare a room)

I haven't had any urges to gamble yet, just a healthy thirst for a cool drink and some good seafood.

First Thoughts on Vegas

2007-10-14T11:57:00.001-07:00

Well, here I am in Vegas.

I am at a Panera Bread, which cost me a 15 dollar taxi cab ride and 10 minutes in the opposite direction from the main strip.

Why?

Turns out that my room is not ready at my hotel, which I am not surprised about considering I tried to check in at 9am...

So I had to find free wifi to start things up for the conference I am helping with, and to generally waste time until I can check in.

NO Free wifi in the lobby. Ridiculous.

NO pay wifi at all at the Starbucks adjacent to the lobby. Unheard-of.

NO wifi within five miles?

Now that I am logged on and checking out the wifi locations, I see that there allegedly is wifi access at the starbucks about 1 block from the hotel, so I will probably go there tonight. There is also a local chain called "Its A Grind", their website is crap, it looks like it hasn't been updated since 1983, so hopefully they are still in business.

Coffee and delicious free wifi just go together don't they?

Wait, I am in Vegas, I should head to the slots.

Technorati Tags: vegas , coffee , wifi

First Day Pictures

2007-10-14T11:23:00.001-07:00

weirdo faces inside the prestigious Caesars Forums Shopping Center

Outside Caesars

Across the street from Caesars

Off the plane at Las Vegas airport, and of course there are slots before I even get to the baggage terminal.