Moving the Office

We have been working on rearranging things here. It has been a long, slow process, and it will be a while before it is finished. We moved my office into the former playroom and my office becomes a storage room. The family room remains the family room, albeit sharing the title and purpose of the playroom now as well. Our thinking is that the big TV is in the playroom, so it is better suited to play and entertainment, making it an altogether entertaining place for the whole family. That is our logic anyway. The other reason for moving the office is that it gets to be 90-100° in the office this time of year. With my marketing class starting next week and Accuweather saying it is supposed to be in the 90s all week, summer may finally be here in its humid and hot glory. I was not looking forward to another summer of long nights of study in a sauna, so this may work out better.


I worked on a couple of other minor things this weekend as well. We converted the bathroom window in the basement to frosted glass, for the sake of privacy, since the window is at the ground level. Also, since the bedroom in the basement is now the technology center and my office all rolled in one, we frosted that window so that you can only see blurry shapes through the window now. It isn't as if we have prowlers in the neighborhood (at least that I am aware of) but the neighborhood is growing, and we would prefer to avoid tempting any lowlife who happens to be wandering through the woods here.


Not coincidentally, I can't tell you how many times we have heard the teenagers and wannabe rebels (maybe one and the same, but not necessarily, in my experience) doing brakestands and smoking the tires on their parents' cars at the end of the turnaround behind our property. I say "their parents' cars" for two reasons. One, the wannabe rebels appear to be rebels without a clue, for the simple reason that only a clueless person would intentionally cause premature wear to the tread on their tires, in the name of stinking out the passengers in their cars and generally disturbing the deer and wildlife in the woods. Two, only an imbecile would due the same thing, wearing out their tires in the name of attention, and that would lead me to assume that these creeps are driving their parents' cars, since the lack of care for the hardware suggests that someone didn't work too hard for the vehicles they are abusing. Anyway, it is annoying, but one of these days, the Taxter cops will drive through the neighborhood and give them a place to spend their dollars (on tires and fines for stupidity and moving violations). Scratch that first one. It isn't illegal to be stupid. Want proof? Just look at the liberals who are destroying this country in the name of power and the buying of votes of gullible victims of society (read: victims of their own shortsighted errors in judgement). That reminds me... what will happen when 51 percent of the populace receive some manner of government benefits paid for by the taxes of the rest? Do you think these people will ever vote out the enablers who are taxing and spending us into oblivion? Just curious.


Okay. That is enough babbling for one night. I am still working on my PC and rebuilding the office structure as we, uh, speak. Heather needs more peat moss for the dozens of flower pots we have growing here, so we need to restock our gardening supplies. Ciao.

Saturday

We sat around today and didn’t do anything productive, but sometimes you just have to do that. We mainly watched a bunch of movies in the basement in our “home theater.” We watched Fool’s Gold with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. I think it is an entertaining movie, despite the panning by critics. But then again, what do those goofballs know anyway? Usually, it seems that if the critics dislike a movie, it is almost a surefire winner. Part of the problem is that movie critics read into a movie too much. If the movie is designed to entertain, is the movie entertaining? This movie was very entertaining, the scenery was beautiful in the Bahamas, and the story line was good for what it was, entertainment. Part of the problem is that self-important critics like Christy Lemire think that they are the be-all and end-all in judging a movie, when it seems that the average movie critic forgot how to have fun. Further, movie critics are offering a personal opinion, and their opinions generally stink and miss the mark because the average person is looking for amusement, not critical acclaim and a serious message. The average movie critic needs to stop acting their age and start having fun with the movies. As I sometimes do, I digress…

We watched a bunch of movies today, including the aforementioned Fool’s Gold. We also watched Dan in Real Life (another movie the critics hated but that I thought was actually a very good movie vehicle for Steve Carell). Also, we watched Juno, which did receive critical acclaim. I am not thrilled by the teen pregnancy, but the character, Juno, handles everything with class and a precocious maturity beyond her years. She is a little nutty, but the message is good. Anytime a pregnant teen thumbs her nose at abortion and gives the baby up for adoption, it is a good message. Admittedly, I would prefer if the average teen would wait until marriage to start having children, but with the garbage messages that are put out there by the major media, movies and television, what do you expect? I say this especially in light of the fact that so many parents think that the responsibility for raising children with a strong moral center lies with the schools. That is asinine and shortsighted, but I can’t raise the children for other parents. I sure as hell will never entrust our children to teachers who espouse the radical beliefs of the teachers’ union, but I can’t tell the rest of the world how to raise their children and remain true to my libertarian beliefs.

Another movie we watched today was Jumper. Amazingly, we are three for three in enjoying movies that critics gave the thumbs down. The critics hated this movie, too, but Heather and I both thought that it was original, fast-paced and fun. Samuel L. Jackson looked absolutely cartoonish and bozoesque (just made that word up; do you like it?) with his snow white fro. He looked like a clown, but what matters is that he was intense in his acting precision, so that made up for his ridiculously brash dye job. The screen writers were trying to bash Christianity when they had the plot point regarding religious believers who are self-appointed judge, jury, and executioner. That would seem to be more relevant to Muslim wackos, since they feel it is acceptable to kill anyone who does not follow their radical line. But it is politically incorrect and unpopular among liberal wing nuts to be critical of Islamists, while it is wholly encouraged to loathe and subvert Christianity at every turn, especially for political expediency or media-induced propaganda subterfuge. To underscore my point here, in the movie, the religious zealotry mentioned is the Inquisition, so it follows that once again, Christianity is the target of the bashing. Just keep in mind that the Inquisition took place hundreds of years ago and is not in any way synonymous with contemporary Christian beliefs. So there.

Despite the critics panning every movie that the populace loves, the movies were all entertaining. I am sure that I will watch each one of these movies repeatedly, despite the critical disapproval. As I said, I do not care what any professional critic says, since the critics are full of crap and miss the mark with their, uh, professional opinions, loosely defined. I am sure that the critics know that their job is to muddy the water and cause discussion and controversy in the name of increased movie viewership. Maybe these guys should get into network broadcasting and propadandist news spin to slant every story against traditional American values in the name of furthering the yellow journalism so prevalent today.

This post isn't about postulating with regard to the lies and distortions of the media. It is about the movies we watched today and how much we loved them. The critics are full of crap and have a snooty, highbrow lack of taste, in my opinion. Ultimately, I have a very simple credo regarding what constitutes a good movie: If the movie entertains, then it is good enough for me.

Friday, Part Two - Visiting Dad

We visited Dad at the hospital today. He is doing okay, but doesn’t really want to be there. He had some nausea, but given the different drugs he is getting, it doesn’t surprise me. He is a stubborn German farmer, so he isn’t the most cooperative patient, but I think that he is regaining his strength, so that he can go home. I am sure that he will go stir-crazy in there once he starts feeling stronger and gets his independent streak back in gear.

Dave and Josh rode along with us to the hospital. We met mom in Hutch and brought her along, too, so that she didn’t have to attempt to drive in the Twin Cities traffic. The passengers were grouchy, but that happens in dealing with a long drive. It would have been better to leave at 5:00 a.m. so that the boys slept for most of the drive, but some of the passengers hinted that leaving early would require them to get out of bed extremely early. The day was not bad and it was nice to visit Dad. We all want him to get stronger and get home, and that is what matters, not the petty stuff and minor inconveniences.

Politics, Family, and Stuff

We found out that Heather’s brother is coming to visit around the time of Jericho’s first birthday next month. His girlfriend will be traveling and he needs to be there to meet her at the airport, so he is coming a different weekend. Gabriel really enjoys spending time with Josh, so Gabriel will be excited to see his uncle. We are interested to hear more about Josh’s love interest, too, but that will come in time. He is a great guy and he deserves someone as nice as he is, so we are all hopeful. I am sure that things will turn out for the best. I guess what would make it easier for all of us would be if we could convince the authorities to move Indiana closer to Minnesota. Maybe Al Gore could influence these authorities, so that we could keep fuel usage to a minimum and avoid global warming as much as possible.

Oh, by the way, Accuweather changed the forecast. At the time I went to Las Vegas, the prediction was for a full week of hot weather with highs in the 90s next week. I see that now the temperatures are predicted to be in the 70s with lows in the 50s. this sounds like May weather, not July weather. If this is global warming, I don’t like it, because I am trying to grow warm-season crops and this global warming is just too cool to be useful for growing food for my family. Maybe if I buy some carbon credits, I can influence Fat Albert to send some excess carbon dioxide our way. After all, the more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the better the plants grow, and the more food we have to eat. Gee, that almost sounds like global warming would be a GOOD thing, if only it wasn’t a bunch of lies, distortions, propaganda, money-making schemes, and part of a global plan to transfer the wealth of the United States to the rest of the world, so that we can all be one big, happy, low-rent family of communists.

Thank goodness for the DNC and the Democrat party. What does the DNC stand for again? I would think that the name should be changed. How about Distortions Nonsense and Communism? I need to think about that a bit, because I am sure I can find other names that fit better for what the Dems and libs REALLY stand for and espouse, besides enslaving the American people to fuel their wealth and hunger for control of the people. When you hear the crap that people like Nancy Pelosi and King Obama are spouting, you hear lines taken directly from the Communist Manifesto. Funny how these jokers are not suggesting confiscating THEIR wealth measuring in the millions of dollars, but just the evil oil companies and entrepreneurs. What a bunch of propaganda. I feel pity for the average person who takes the propaganda published by main vein newspapers and network news as gospel. It is all happening in the name of reprogramming to get the people used to the idea of a much stronger centralized government. Oh, by the way, I heard today about Obama’s tax plans if he is elected king. The effective tax rate would be approximately 60 percent. Is that the change we need, as he claims? God help us all if people are ignorant enough to vote for this communist fiend.

EBay Issues

The EBay games were released for play after extensive testing. The casino management got a kick out of how the games are going over, so that is a good thing. I drove to another casino to help them iron out the communication issues, and then the games there were released for play. Ka-ching! Ka-ching! I can hear the dollars coming in eventually, as I believe this is going to be a big hit in the casinos.

With the cost of everything going up with the cost of fuel, we need every penny that comes our way. Maybe I will get to move to the country someday yet, though I would prefer to do that while our children can still learn the work ethic that goes with living in the country, even if the only farming efforts are on a hobbyist level. I just want more room for a big garden, room for grape vines and lots of fruit-bearing bushes, chickens and other small animals. Then our Lake Country Zoo will seem more like a farm, but that suits me just fine.

EBay SNAFU Continues

The install didn’t get any better today. It turns out that we can’t get the server to work properly and you can’t even get the machine to register a door open. I am sure it will be something simple, but we haven’t had time to troubleshoot the problem yet. The casino is getting antsy to get the games in service, but tomorrow, all I need to do is to fix that door-monitoring problem and have the games tested, verified, and checked by compliance. Then the games will be released to the public. I think the games are going to go over big with the shared bonusing. Let’s hope so! I am saving for retirement and of course to buy the land and get out of town.

EBay Underway

We are installing an EBay system at a casino near here. The first day of the install went badly. The schedulers or coordinators forgot to send parts and the games were installed with whatever trim was available. There are four different configurations of games, when there was only supposed to be one. This is a new product and production is still ramping up, but it would certainly have been smart to wait another month while everything got in order. I am sure that we will find that there are lots and lots of problems with the install, but we will get through it eventually. I obviously can’t go into the details of the work or the hardware here, as those include company trade secrets, but the games are neat, if we can get everything in working order in the next couple of days.

Dad

Mom called in the middle of the night to say that Dad had an accident in the barn. We don’t know exactly what happened, but the evidence suggests that a calf (a 400-pound heifer) either kicked him or bumped a gate. In either case, Dad fell in or across the gutter. He ended up with some bad injuries, including broken ribs and a punctured lung, and was airlifted to a medical center in the Twin Cities. His injuries were severe but he is going to be okay. Dad isn’t a young man anymore, so that certainly exacerbated the extent of the damage. We will go visit him in the hospital later this week, but we are waiting for clarification on his injuries. I am sure that he is looking forward to being home again, though this may change his working life as a lifetime farmer. Dad is one of the old-school guys who shows that farming isn’t just a job; it is a life. Maybe some day we will be in the country raising a few animals, but we will never farm like my brothers and uncles do. It is a hard life, but the living is good for you. I think that our kids would do well in that environment, but it isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Glad to be Home

How great it is to be home! The weather in Minnesota has been nice, not too warm and we haven’t had to run an air conditioner once yet. Thank goodness for global warming and Al “The Liar” Gore. Where is this evidence for human-induced global warming? It is just a bunch of lies and distortions intended to confiscate American wealth and hand it over to the United Nations to be redistributed to third world nations whose own governments and systems of economic activities keep them in poverty. The dollars that liberal wackos propose to use to fight global warming would be better used for many other things, including supporting democratic regimes in all of these totalitarian countries where our confiscated wealth will be given. In five years, global warming will be the outright joke that it is privately now. Take a look at the financial statements of Al Gore and see that he is now many times more wealthy than he was five years ago, as he “buys” carbon credits from HIMSELF via his shell company. Anyone who says that conservatives do not care about the environment are spouting sophomoric rhetoric. After all, conservatives have children and want to leave a better world for their children as well. We just think that people should stop whining and should assert themselves in an effort to make their lives better through hard work, instead of complaining and mass victimization. How does that help anyone when the tax dollars from hardworking entrepreneurs are confiscated and handed over to people who do nothing to contribute to the well-being of society?

Get this now. Are fuel-cell vehicles the answer to minimizing vehicle pollution? Not anytime soon, that is for sure. The dollars required for fuel cell vehicles are ridiculous! For example, in Santa Clara, California, there is a fleet of municipal buses that use fuel cells because those are “zero emissions” vehicles. Consider this: the cost of using a diesel bus is $1.61 per mile. The cost of using a fuel cell vehicle per mile is $51.66. Got that? PER MILE. You KNOW that liberals are in charge of that boondoggle. If you ever want to read some truth in science, spend a few minutes browsing at junkscience.com and get some enlightenment. Good luck and God help us!

Day Six - Coming Home Part Two

I never lost sight of this, but just walking in the door of my own home reminds me how much I missed my wife and our two beautiful sons. I love getting home. Damn, I am lucky. Thank God for that, and it is really good to be home again.

Day Six - Coming Home

I got home today at about 11:00 a.m. I am thrilled to be home, to see the boys and Heather again. Minnesota’s weather feels great compared to that wonderfully dry heat in Nevada. I know that I heard that comment five to ten times a day, and I still say that is ridiculous. When it is hot, it is hot!

The taxi driver was a Muslim guy, and he and I talked about religion a bit. It was not uncomfortable conversation, though. He asked why I was in Nevada, and when I mentioned gaming, he said that he “was prohibited from taking part in gambling.” I just figure that he is a smart person for doubling his money the easy way, folding it in half, and putting it back in his pocket. He did not strike me as being a militant person. I know that not all Muslims are wacko fundamentalist wing nuts, and that some of them make things look bad for the rest of the group. You cannot generalize and say that just because 19 Muslim radicals flew two planes into the World Trade Center, all Muslims are crazy. A lot of them are nuts, some claim to be moderates but are not, but there are still some out there who are levelheaded and tolerant. The same can be said for any religion.

If some people think that being of another religion is justifiable cause as self-appointed executioner of a death sentence, then those people may eventually face the same treatment at the hands of others. Religious nuts follow all the major creeds and faiths, and it is not my place to dictate what others do with their lives. We are told that the judgment for each of us is reserved for God alone. I just do my best to work on my personal relationship with Jesus Christ as my savior and try to help others to see the same light as the solution to the problems of the world. I figure that when God calls, we have a choice to either listen or ignore the call. We have free will and if we miss our chance to know God in a personal relationship, that is our own fault. I do my best, but God, I am only human. Thank goodness, He understands. I didn’t plan to make this a religious forum, at least not today, so I will leave my religious comments at that.

I am home with my family in Minnesota. I love this place. I am going to go see what I was missing out on for the last six days. Sweet! I am home. Ke aloha nô me ka mahalo kâua! Hello and good-bye until next time, with rich blessings for you always. To my two or three regular readers, later days!

Day Five - The Adventure Continues

Today is the last day out here, sort of. I checked out of the hotel this morning, and after training is complete, I have about six hours of time to wander the area before I return the rental car and check in for the flight back home to Minnesota. The departure time is ten minutes to midnight, and I will end up traveling through the night due to the shift back to central time. I figure I will be home before noon on Friday. I have missed being home, missed the boys and Heather, too. Traveling is interesting, but like Dorothy Gail lost in Oz, there is no place like home. That statement was cheesy, but it is true. I like being home. Heather wrote me an email to tell me that she has been planting flowers like crazy all week. The temperatures at home have been much more moderate. Las Vegas is not in the high heat of late summer yet, but for a Minnesota guy in Nevada, this is uncomfortably hot weather. Fortunately, I have been reminded about ten times a day that “it is a dry heat.” Call it what you want, but from my perspective, it is just very hot in Las Vegas. It is a nice place to visit, do the training, and take some pictures, but I prefer Minnesota any day.

I have learned quite a lot in training out here and I am glad that I had the opportunity, but I am still looking forward to feeling that familiar rush as the plane lifts off the ground at McCarran and heads over the Spring Mountains and turns northward. Better yet, it will be wonderful to see the recognizable landmarks like the Mendota Heights water tower that I see every time I fly to the Twin Cities. When I fly in to Minneapolis in winter, the Koch refinery is the landmark that really draws attention, because there are so many lights there that the entire place is lit up like a Christmas tree, and that place is huge! This time around, the sun will be well above the horizon by 5:15 a.m. and the landmark of note will be the downtown Minneapolis skyline, reminding me that I am nearing my destination, and, “Oh, Auntie Em, there’s no place like home!”

Oh, and though I don't mind visiting Las Vegas, I can understand why they say, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." I prefer Minnesota; Las Vegas can keep its secrets, though my visit was about training, working, driving, blogging, company paperwork, and photography, not necessarily in that order, because the best part of it was the photography, other than the homecoming which will soon be underway. I love that part.

Day Four - Part Two

I went out to see Red Rock Canyon tonight. What an incredible site! I took about 400 pictures. True to form, there will be 3-5 pictures that I feel are good enough to be part of my online photography site which I hope someday will be part of my portfolio if photography ever becomes my sideline or my business. I wish! I will keep working on it and see what happens later. Anyway, I digress…

Red Rock Canyon is about 190,000 acres of desert canyons and chaparral in the Mojave Desert and in the Spring Mountains near Las Vegas. The views are spectacular! I am so glad that I took the time to drive out to the canyon. There is a scenic drive that extends for 13 miles through the canyon, though the entire recreational area is huge, extending for miles beyond the areas I saw today. If I had more time, I might consider revisiting the canyon, though I hear that this time of year, the rattlesnakes and scorpions are most active. I did not see any evidence of either today, so I am not sure if I am relieved or if I missed out on something that would make for great photography. Oh well. I did get some nice pictures, and I will retouch those and post them to the photography site as soon as I can.

I brought along three bottles of water and stayed for about three hours. I figured that was enough water, but I was wrong. I wish I brought at least double that. I spent an hour exploring at the first stop along the trail, focusing on the plant life and flowers on the succulents in the desert. The air temperature when I left the parking lot at the first stop was 119°, but that may be a bit dubious, as I was sitting on a huge rock baking under the Mojave Desert sun. When I got back to Vegas, it was only 107°.

I read a quote that said, “If your pictures are not good enough, you are not close enough.” I took more close-up photos and macro shots at Red Rock than I did of the horizon, the canyons, or the mountain ranges. What amazes me is that despite the fact that Las Vegas averages around 4-5 inches of rain a year, when you drive the 17 miles to Red Rock, you find out that the desert is alive with birds and wildlife abounds. The desert in this area is green and full of flowers and vegetation. Red Rock Canyon is spectacular!

Day Four

Today in training, we were introduced to the new gaming platforms that we will see in the field soon. Honestly, the only thing that changed dramatically was the physical appearance of the exterior of the slot machine cabinets. The interior, the hardware, has not changed that much. One thing that we are seeing is a trend towards off-the-shelf components and a gradual convergence with PC technology. That is to say that our slot machines are becoming computers, either Windows-based or Linux operating systems. A few components are standard off-the-shelf items now, especially for handling data storage and video processing. Future generations of the hardware will be very close to actual computers hiding out in slot machine cabinets. Every hardware roll-out is a step closer to that convergence, and that is good for various reasons. It saves us money in development, makes parts acquisitions easier and less expensive, and reduces costs for the casinos in replenishing and repairing the machines, not that our machines are particularly prone to hardware failures.

I found out that we will install these new cabinets in the field in Minnesota within a couple of weeks, so the training seems very timely. The one thing that I am missing here in Las Vegas is a preview of the hardware for the EBay systems. I will begin installing those in Minnesota next week, so a preview would be nice. There is one more day of training yet, so it might happen, but I would not guarantee it.

Day Three in Vegas

It was 110° when I left the office. I am thinking about going out to the Red Rock Recreational Area, but not today. I think I will go out there just before I leave, either on Wednesday or on Thursday. Ironically, the federal government runs Red Rock through the Bureau of Land Management, and yet BLM does not take credit cards anywhere. That is odd because you would think that tourists would use either credit or travelers’ checks for obvious monetary security reasons. I never carry cash because of the slight possibility of issues when testing machines in casinos if you happen to be carrying cash. I will figure something out.

Today’s class was on another table game product. The company bought a significant interest in another company and is perfecting the technology and marketing it for what is now our de facto subsidiary. The training was not difficult, but I don’t see this product coming into our local market anytime soon. Minnesota’s gaming environment is different. We don’t have stepper games (traditional mechanical reel-type slots). Minnesota is strictly a video gaming environment in casinos. Arguably that means this product WILL come to market in Minnesota, because it is a video-based gaming table, but I still see this as a long-term prospect as it takes up quite a bit of gaming floor space. Casinos tend to not want to give up space to large gaming devices, because the cost in revenue per square foot has to be high to make up for the large size of the games.

I am going out to see Red Rock tomorrow if I find a way to pay the admission fee without having ready access to cash. The company office and training center are halfway between the hotel and Red Rock, so it makes sense to visit Red Rock Canyon from the office instead of from the hotel.

Day Two in the Desert

The first day of class was interesting. The topic was radio frequency table games and the technology behind it. We learned how to install radio frequency antennas and how to set up the system that works behind the scenes. Every poker chip will have an RFID chip in it (like the anti-theft devices in retail stores), so that when you lay your chips down on the poker table (or baccarat or roulette or other gaming tables), the system automatically takes an accounting of your chips and credits you for the player tracking system. Then you earn rewards on the casino’s in-house accounting system, just like when you use a player’s card. It doesn’t help the house or the player to win or lose more effectively (depending from whose perspective you are viewing the winning or losing). It is all about better accountability and rewarding of customers. Interesting.

When I left the training center and got in the rental SUV, the ambient temperature was 109° and it was still windy. I heard that the reason it is so comfortable out there is that “it is a dry heat!” Yeah, and in Minnesota, when the air is stifling, everyone says, “It’s not the heat; it’s the humidity” and that is just as goofy. Any way you slice it, it is just hot and uncomfortable, but what are you going to do? That is why we have air conditioning!

The drive to the office is not too long. It takes about fifteen minutes from the hotel to the training center. The only comment I have about driving in Las Vegas this time around is that the locals drive as if they are in the hunt for the pole position on a NASCAR track. I have driven in enough big cities that I have learned that when you are in an unfamiliar city, you have to drive just like the locals, and if that means you get a bit pushy or cut in close when you change lanes, and then you learn to adjust. I have not crashed so far, so I guess that mindset is working.

Las Vegas, Here I Come (Can I Stay Home?)

Today is the travel day to Las Vegas for the new product training. I hate leaving on Father’s Day, or any day when I will miss time with my kids, but that is what happens sometimes, when job duties call a person away from home. I had to leave the house at 7:00 this morning for the flight to Vegas. It was 56° at the Minneapolis International Airport. When the flight arrived at McCarran Airport, it was 104° and windy. It is no wonder… I would say that it did not occur to these people to plant some trees, but in the desert, what are you going to plant but a bunch of saguaro cacti and sagebrush? Those are not exactly going to slow the hot, desert winds.

I am staying at a nice hotel that is only a couple of minutes from the car rental place. Vegas is convenient, if a bit odd, in that you get off the plane, claim your luggage, and then ride a shuttle bus about fifteen minutes from the airport to a car rental depot, where all of the car rental agencies are located in one central location. The hotel is about two minutes from there. The other techs in the training are staying out in Henderson, about fifteen miles from here and quite a bit farther from the new office. I was supposed to share a car, but thankfully, the hotel there was full, so I was forced to have a hotel reservation far from the rest of the techs. I am so bummed about it, too. After all, had I been required to share a rental car with three other techs, I would have to either stay in the hotel after training each day, sort of stranded because I was not quite the joiner that I could be, or the alternative would be to go where they went. I am so depressed that I am going to miss the skanky strip clubs and over-priced bars and nightclubs, the Las Vegas strip, and all the touristy places where frustrated married men go when they are a couple thousand miles from their wives. Then again, I could be completely sarcastic in that statement and I would rather do my work and come back to the hotel to read, study, do my paperwork, and just relax in an air-conditioned room with the thermostat set at 65°. In fact, that is exactly my plan, to avoid the seedy gambling environs and to research locations to take pictures for my photography site.

I did not mention my photography website. I will roll that out before the end of the month. I have about a hundred pictures on the site, but I have many more to add, and I only want to add my best work. I will tell you about that in the next posts. I am going to get some sleep in this desert hotel before I head to the office in the southwest Las Vegas metro area. Oh, joy! Not really, but I may get to see some new sites and check out some photo opportunities, so that isn’t all bad (though I would rather not be away from the boys and my wife). Friday will come soon and I will stay busy until then. Anyway, over and out for tonight.

Aloha kâkou!