Downtown

It’s funny hearing people bag on downtown Las Vegas. To me, it’s more interesting and more fun. A lot of it is gaudy, but a lot of it is more historic than what’s on The Strip. Learning about the history of Binion’s and the Binion family is pretty cool. Checking out the antiques and elegant decor at Main Street Station is fun (plus they’re really good with comps for my level of play). MSS has a fantastic buffet that’s way, way, way overlooked. Locals and frequent visitors hit it up all the time. I was thinking about it last night when Karen was raving about The Bellagio buffet. Yes, it’s quite decadent and excellent, but the buffet at MSS is almost as good and costs half as much. The Italian journos went downtown last night. I kind of wish I was there to show them around since there’s a lot of crap to bump into if you don’t know where you’re going. Oh well. It’s not like I really knew them anyway.

$7.77

I’m at the Hard Rock being a nerd. The $7.77 steak and shrimp special is still alive. While the steak isn’t as good as Ellis Island’s, you get three grilled scrimps and a mountain of yummy garlic mash. I’m hanging out with Kenny until I leave to the airport. His friend bailed on him early. This friend blew 10K in two days and just drove home. That’s crazy. Even when I was gambling a lot, I never went through that kind of money. Of course I was more disciplined about it and used a lot of the Las Vegas Advisor’s tricks and hints.

Well That’s Still There

Today I took a break from videogame people. A bunch them are off doing touristy things–Death Valley, Star Trek, etc. In general, that’s what they’re more into. That’s fine and all, but I’ve been here so many times that it’s mostly boring for me and I see it as a real waste of money. Plus there’s this one amazingly annoying girl that I really don’t want to see (pretty much ever again in my life).

When I travel, I like eating at and hanging out in places the locals go to. Kenny, my NY friend, was game for a little side trip to Ellis Island. The $5 steak special is still alive and well. More importantly, it’s every bit as delicious as I remembered. Last night, Kohler, Kit, and I had the prime rib special at Barbary Coast ($13.95). It was good, but still not nearly the value because of the casino’s location on the strip. It’s a shame they weren’t more patient. That $5 steak is worth waiting for.

Tonight I might try to drag Kenny downtown for a more real Vegas experience (well, as real as this place gets anyway). I’m really curious to see what Binion’s is like these days (haven’t been there since Harrah’s bought it). I meant to call Brian’s sister to see if she wanted to do something more off the strip. The locals’ casinos are way more fun for me. Plus it’s the weekend, so all those idiots from LA are here. Perhaps an evening at Suncoast or ACE is in order.

Noooooooo!!!

I haven’t been to Vegas in over a year. Tonight I discovered that the Luxor spa is no longer open 24 hours. This was my favorite way to relax in this crazy town…and now it’s gone. This totally sucks. This town is now 28 percent less attractive to me as a destination.

Stupid Scientists

This is a totally unnecessary scientific breakthrough. If these ever became a mass market products then you can bet on dozens of college kids dying by caffeinated donut overdoses. That felt ridiculous to type.

Made Just for Me!

My Dream Machine

I want this. It’s so awesome. In Thailand, I got used to getting around on a motorbike. I quite miss it. A hydrogen-powered motorbike would totally rock. It’s green (though I’m not sure if it uses a reversible fuel cell). It’s convenient. It’s unusual. Hopefully it’s safe too.

Down on the Farm

Her stories are really cute and endearing. Here are two of my favorites from the last two days.

- She was telling me about one of her family’s two cows. This cow was bought when she was still a young girl and she helped raise it. Her parents told her that they would kill it for meat when she got married. Now she says she wants them to buy a new cow to eat, since she likes that one very much. They’ll probably go that route anyway since they expected her to be married years ago. On an interesting note, I’ve learned that they keep cows over there for 15 to 20 years. In America, cows are usually slaughtered after five years.

- Yesterday she found a baby bird that fell from its nest. Its mother was in a nearby coconut tree, but wouldn’t or couldn’t retrieve its baby. She worried so much about that baby. She tried calling to its mom. After several hours she tried to feed it rice. I told her that mommy birds eat food first and spit it up for their babies to eat (at least I think that’s how it works). So she chewed up some rice and spit it out for the baby bird to eat. This made me want to hold her for a good five hours. Hopefully that can happen soon.

More Reasons I Don’t Want an iPhone

- Apparently Apple isn’t allowing third-party applications for the iPhone, only Widgets. That’s a pretty big distinction. One of the things that would have made the product more interesting to me was the potential to run Skype on it and place calls through WiFi. Oh well.

- I ‘m hating Cingular more with each passing day. Here’s a lovely quote from Cingular president Glenn Lurie taken from PC Mag: “While ‘there are bad guys out there that unlock phones,’ Lurie said, Apple and Cingular are taking unspecified steps to make the phone more difficult to unlock and use on other GSM carriers in the US.” In the US, it’s perfectly legal for a consumer to unlock his or her phone. It’s also legal for carriers and hardware manufacturers to make this extremely difficult. Lurie’s an @sshole for calling consumers “bad guys” for wanting to something that’s absolutely their right.

- Here’s another gem from Lurie, also taken from PC Mag. “If you want an iPhone, you are going to get the luxury of being on the Cingular network.” You’ll also have the luxury of crawling at speeds slightly faster than dial-up on its EDGE network. More importantly, I resent that he’s saying that using Cingular is the customer’s luxury. FU Lurie!!! You should think more highly of your customers.