jimsjournal
| Viva Las Vegas -- 01/08/05 |
jimsjournal |
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Viva Las Vegas. Blah! Yeah, I have to fly to Las Vegas bright and early Sunday morning. I mean dark and early. I have a seven a.m. flight -- which, thanks to the National Transportation Security and Full Employment for Those Unable to Keep Fast Food Jobs Administration -- means arriving at the airport around five a.m. -- which means leaving my house around 4:15 a.m. -- which means waking up at -- I dunno, why even bother to try to sleep? Fly Brand-X Airways (or whatever they call themselves, some low cost subsidiary of Continental) to Las Vegas, changing planes in Newark. Yuch! A horrible airport, one I usually try to avoid (at any time of year). And what is the result of this travel torture? I'm going to be stuck in Las Vegas. For the whole week. The best part of this will be the opportunity to meet in person with colleagues from around the world. There are many people I deal with on a regular basis but only through telephone calls, e-mail, and instant messaging. It's nice to be able to sit down together in real life. Another good part will be attending some technical presentations, lectures, demonstrations... We will also be treated to an endless number of speeches by upper management executive types. Thrilling as you can imagine. And we'll be in the lovely town of Las Vegas, noted for its civic beauty and cultural and artistic accomplishments. Sorry for not being thrilled at that, but this will be the third time I've been stuck in Las Vegas for a week. Outside of the conference itself and seeing friends, it's pretty much a boring waste of time. Once you have spent a few hours wandering around and marveling at the gaudy over-the-top neon nonsense, what is there to do? I think the dancing fountains in front of Belagio are interesting, but how long can you watch water spray? The shows are really over-priced. If I want to suck in vast amounts of second-hand smoke while watching a bunch of total losers feed their money into slot machines I could visit the Newport Grand (former jai-alai fronton) here in Rhode Island or drive over into Connecticut and give my money to the Indians. Based on past experience, the hotels in Las Vegas do not offer high-speed Internet connections (they want you down in the casino throwing your money away) and the dial-up connections were really slow and flaky, so I do not think I will be able to post any entries while I am there. Ah well, I think I'll bring my camera, see if I can snap any interesting pictures. Last year's trip: Getting together with a few friends and Why Las Vegas is wasted on me. And just for fun and totally unrelated (other than the involvement of decks of cards) is this site -- if you've ever tried building anything with playing cards -- this guy didn't stop with building a house of cards, he's built skyscrapers and cathedrals out of cards. See you in a week or so... |
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