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I’m writing this blog entry from an airplane. I just finished up my first ever (and too short) stint in Las Vegas. To wrap up this scheme in general, since Pat and I are doing an independent study through the Journalism school, part of it was that it would be beneficial to go to the National Association of Broadcasters’ Conference, which just so happens to be held in Las Vegas. Sounds like an educational experience to me! J-school decided to support us, and sent us out there expenses paid. We stayed at Caesar’s Palace, which is the biggest hotel I’ve ever been in (mainly because it has like a mall, casinos, restaurants, and a bunch of nightclubs inside of it. We both flew out on Thursday night, and unfortunately I could only stay until this evening (Saturday) before commitments in Canada called me away. However, here is a post summarizing my trip to Vegas and all that fun stuff. Unfortunately, my original plans of waiting until Pat was so drunk he would willingly marry a hooker didn’t work out, which is a shame because that would have been the greatest story ever told.

First night in Vegas, go from the airport to the hotel/Palace. When you first get the Vegas, the airport seems the same as any other place, a bit ghetto even. As soon as our shuttle approached Las Vegas Boulevard (“The Strip”), it was Neon City. And you thought Tokyo was ridiculous. I think everything that could be made of lights and neon was done just that way, and they have giant video screens everywhere and every building has a theme pretty much. Think of it as a Japanese Love Hotel district on crack. On The Strip alone, and just of the ones I walked to/by/in, I saw a pyramid, the Arc d’Triumph, the Eifel Tower, a pirate ship, the rainforest, an Arabian castle, and of course Caesar’s Palace has its own Colosseum in which you can try and fight Sephiroth and then not win. Also of note is the hotel “Wynn,” named after rich-as-balls-and-not-shy-about-it Steve Wynn, who didn’t seem to have a specific theme to his new massive hotel, instead just trying to go with the theme “I have more money than your entire state does.” The Wynn is an enormous metallic black building with video screen surrounding it, the word “Wynn” written in giant gold letters on the side of it (seriously dude, we know you’re rich, you don’t have to put your name on everything), and also the backyard of the place is the famous 18-hole Sands golf course. Pretty much every decently-expensive hotel/casino on The Strip had a ridiculous theme, which was carried out moderately throughout the rest of the place.

We met up with Pat’s friends Neil and Josh when we were in line to check in, and also there was some Korean TV show taping a scene in the lobby of Caesar’s. I don’t know what show it was, but thank god Pe Yonjun wasn’t in it or I would probably be in jail for attempted murder right now. Anyway, I think the star of the show (or at least of this scene) was the only Korean guy in the shots, with a bunch of American extras and other minor characters. The crew had 3 huge and tall lights, a nice camera (possibly a HD), and 1 shotgun mic for the whole thing. The Korean guy might be some kind of famous man-idol, but he was definitely not a good actor. I think they only shot 2 scenes in the lobby; one of people walking through a gateway, and the other of the Korean guy coming up and confronting some white chick. It was supposed to be a serious scene or something, but the guy kept cracking up every time. I seriously think it took them like 10 takes to actually get the guy to make it through without breaking character. After what seemed to be a very long check in process, I went up to my room in the Roman Tower. Wow. This room was amazing (I’ll post some pics later). It had a HUGE bathroom with 2 sinks, a shower area, a toilet area, and frosted glass doors for each of these sections. Then the actual sleeping area of the room had a giant king sized bed with a mirror above it (OK this was kind of sketch), 2 easy chairs, a nice wardrobe that had the TV in it, and a freaking Jacuzzi about 6 feet from the bed. It was in the bedroom. Who the heck does that? I seriously felt like I was in a love hotel at that point. I also had a huge window view with a non-accessible patio that had a nice view of the Strip, and a direct view at the Flamingo casino. I was so paranoid about how awesome the room was, that I called the front desk to make sure they were charging me what they said there were. Sure enough, it was right. Pat says that his room (that him and his 2 friends used) was pretty close, but they didn’t have the Jacuzzi in the bedroom. Hoo-ah!

First night out, we all were playing in the casinos downstairs. Mainly (and for the entire trip), I played video poker and some video slot machines. Didn’t really want to get ambitious, and didn’t want to lose a lot of money. Beginner’s luck must have been present though, since playing those video games the first night I won about $80. That helped fund pretty much the rest of the Vegas trip. We also walked all over the place that night, in fact way too much. We walked at least a few miles I’d say, although it was really cool to see what Vegas is all about. I felt either too young or too old to be there, but it’s a cool city regardless. The next morning, we woke up and checked out NAB. I unfortunately am already leaving before the conference exhibits start on Monday, which I’m really disappointed in (even more than missing out on gambling more), since everything looks pretty amazing. I did get to attend 2 days of the Post Production Conference, which was awesome because the first day I got to learn the basics to Flash and After Effects, 2 programs I’ve been meaning to get to. These were the “Boot Camp’ classes they provided; pretty much 3 hour lectures to teach you all the basics of certain programs. Really cool. I wish school were like that, actually teaching something interesting and practical. I went to a session this morning that was just talking about field shoot gadgets, which was really awesome also. I’m a huge nerd, but still a lot of the people there (professionals, I guess you would call most of them) are even bigger dorks, so I don’t feel that bad.

We went to “Dishes” the giant buffet at Treasure Island casino. I do have to admit, at first when I saw the $26 price, I was a little daunted, but it was well worth the cost. This was probably the biggest and best buffet I have ever seen, up there to compete with the Yakiniku buffet in Chicago (which I will write about sometime soon, in my Nova post). They had stations that each were like a mini-buffet in themselves. There was a sushi one, a pizza one, a BBQ one (with prime rib), a seafood (shrimp and crab legs) one, a made-to-order pasta one, salad one, and one that I think just had awesome side dishes. The food was all amazing, and I ate way too much. What was the killer, though, was the dessert section. These were gourmet desserts for sure. I had a chocolate mousse that was about 10000 times too sweet to eat on a regular basis. They also had cotton candy, crème brulee, ice cream, cupcakes, mini donuts, and a few other specialty cakes and stuff. Definitely the best desserts I’ve ever eaten. I think with those desserts, the 4 of us were all admittedly defeated. It was a long hike back to the Palace, but well worth it.

I really wish that NAB and the Mantech Conference that I’m going to work in Vancouver weren’t during the same week, since I would have been able to spend a few more days in Vegas. But I’m at least getting paid in Vancouver. Overall though, Vegas wasn’t too bad at all. With my casino winnings the first night, I was able to gamble, eat, and travel for a lot cheaper than my per diem payment that the J-school is going to be giving me. So overall, a net gain for Vegas! I’ll bet not everyone can say that, haha.

It’s the big number 2-5-0! That’s right, according to Blogger, this is my 250th blog post here. Bust out the party streamers.

So it was a really good day today. I found out I got an A on my test from yesterday, I had no classes, weather was good, and there is a box of Hibiki Disc Animals waiting for me in the apartment leasing office just waiting to be picked up tomorrow morning. However, as the title implies, I had a near-death experience earlier this evening. That is actually a huge overstatement, but hey, it was annoying. I went to St. Louis Bread Co. (er, Panera I guess for everyone else) earlier today for lunch; I got a sandwich and a salad. More on that later. The first story is about the bagel of death.

I ordered some bagels before getting my lunch. I specifically asked the old lady working the counter “do any of your bagels have nuts in them?” (If you didn’t know, I’m allergic to tree nuts. Jokes welcome.) She says no, only the banana-walnut something does. So OK, I figure, I’m cool. A dozen bagels was only like $6, so I figure I’d order a dozen, and they should tide me over for a week or so. I got some blueberry, cinnamon crunch, french toast, and mocha swirl (which are pretty freaking good). No nuts, no problem. Apparently a dozen bagels is bigger than I imagined, and I ended up getting this giant cardboard container full of bagels. It was reminiscent of the dumpster that space explorers opened to release Rita Repulsa. Later in the evening, I tried one of the mysteriously crunchy-topped cinnamon crunch bagels. Nothing seemed funny, until I was almost done with the thing, and noticed my mouth was feeling itchy. Having 22 years of experience with this DISEASE, I knew what was happening. I was allergic to the bagel, which apparently had some kind of nuts in the crunchy part, or maybe just some remnants. The old lady said there was no nuts in it! SHE LIED AND TRIED TO KILL ME. Luckily, I did not die and thus am around to tell you this tale of interest. Worry not, I will be calling them tomorrow to ask what the deal is, and why they put nuts in my bagel that was supposed to be nut-free.

Also, second small story. They were out of caesar salads, so I asked the old lady what else was good. She said “I like the Asian Sesame Salad.” After quickly realizing that she was not trying to hit on me, I decided to try it out, so I ordered that as the second half of my “You Pick Two.” I asked her again, specifically “does that salad have nuts or anything on it?” She looked at me like I was an idiot, and I know she was thinking to herself “why in the world would there be nuts on this salad?” Well guess what, I walk around to the food part of the counter, and see on the menu that one of the salad toppings in the salad I just ordered was ALMONDS. Yes, old lady at Panera, almonds are a nut. I was luckily able to tell the cook to not put them on in time, but COME ON. Stupid old lady, trying to kill me twice.

That was my interesting story for the day. I just ate a blueberry bagel and did not get a reaction. The poison must just be in the cinnamon crunch.

Last night I went with Brian and Nick to the good ol’ China Buffet on 3rd street. We go there somewhat often, since it’s cheap and not too bad. Your standard cheap Chinese buffet restaurant. Also pretty much every entree they have there is some form of chicken, not that that’s a bad thing. Anyways, the main point of this story came at the end of the meal, when it was time to get some dessert. This doesn’t count Nick’s half dessert half meal, which was banana pudding and rice on the same plate. No, Nick, this still isn’t how you make rice pudding.

Now, before I go too far, I must mention that back during the A-Team Halloween weekend, we all went to China Buffet and saw some guy with a super mega ultra mullet. One of his offspring (there was about 20 of them with him) also puked while we were waiting in line to eat. Nothing whets your appetite like some redneck kid puking all over the floor. For dessert, we got the China Buffet brownies. I’d never eaten them before, and they didn’t look that bad. I think either Ari or Fatla had theirs first, and apparently it tasted horrible. You’d think to yourself that if something tastes bad, you wouldn’t want to try it. That’s not how it went down. I think this best relates to that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine has the stinky pen. Even though she knew it was a stinky pen, she kept on smelling it. Something about doing such a stupid thing is appealing or something. Thus is the CB brownie. It was bad, and yet we all tried it. Instead of tasting like chocolate or a brownie, it has some kind of weird bubblegum or otherwise NOT CHOCOLATE flavor.

Back to the present (er, yesterday). The brownies were back on the dessert tray; the first time I’ve seen them in months. Actually I had forgotten about the Halloween incident, probably because I blocked it out of my memory. Nick and I each got one, and he reminded me of how bad they were last time. You’d think we would have just left them uneaten, as we’d experienced the horror once before. You’d be wrong. We each tried them again, and they are indeed as bad as they were before. Seriously, they taste like some kind of chemical loaf with brown food coloring. Brian, who hasn’t gone to CB with us back at Halloween, was even coaxed into trying the evil dessert. The moral of the story is: don’t eat the brownies at CB. No matter how much time has passed or how good and chocolate-like they appear, they will taste like nuclear waste and should be avoided at all costs.

I think my blog’s been boring lately, with too much stuff about my life. I was reminded today by Seth of a story from Japan last fall. I will now share it with you all. I have no idea if I wrote about it back when it happened, but if I did, it’s worth re-telling.

So last fall, in Japan, a bunch of us were hungry for some cheap American food, so we all went to Costco. Yes, there is a Costco in Japan, and it’s pretty much the same as here in the states. In addition to pizza, hot dogs, donuts, and giant bags of everything, they have a few more Japanese offerings, like giant plates of sushi, which Ari ate in their entirety. They even had the samples of food, served by African ladies who can’t speak Japanese let alone English. American Costco cards work to get in, but they can’t scan them because apparently the Japanese Costco system doesn’t work with the American one. So if you have any American Costco card, you can get in real easy. Seth used the “Phillip W. Leong” Costco expired card for a good 7 months after I left.

So we’re sitting there eating our pizza in the food court, and we see this dude buy 2 slices. One for him, and one for his wife or mother, we couldn’t tell. What a nice guy, getting food for this female he was with. He walks over from the counter, pizza on plates, and goes to the napkin and condiment stand. Here’s where it gets disturbing. The guy used every single condiment available, and put it directly ON TOP of his pizza. This included salt, pepper, Parmesan cheese, mustard, ketchup, relish, mayonnaise, and raw onions. Probably some other stuff as well. He ended up with 2 pizza slices covered in ooze a few inches thick. Seriously, WTF. Anyway, that was the story, it’s just funny seeing how foreigners mess up other countries food. May I point out the soy sauce on white rice, you Americans?

Tried Wasabi Ginger ice cream today at Cold Stone. It’s as bad as it sounds.

I`m going tonight to eat some Fugu fish with Ari and his bro, I think. Hopefully there won`t be poison in it and I won`t die. If something goes wrong, this is the last post ever.

Haha this is supposed to be funny, not morbid. I`m sure it will be safe….right?