Boulevard of Broken Dreams (and Empty Wallets)
The things I do for my job: This week I was in Vegas for a conference where I ended up meeting for the first time a bunch of people I had been working with on a handful of projects for a number of years. Such is the nature of the Internet, I guess.

A trade conference is a trade conference: a handful of speakers, some panels worth watching, others worth heading to the tables, some impossibly gorgeous sales reps for businesses which may or may not be around next year. Plus, there were a handful of fantasy drafts and even a poker tournament (where I finished sixth out of 60 and got a little money that quickly went elsewhere).

There was a Seinfeld moment at one point when Mitchell & Ness gave out bags with shirts and caps. Unfortunately, they were fitted hats, which prompted some rummaging through bags to find the right size. I just stopped bothering trying to find one for my Barry Bonds-like melon and just stuck with the hat.

The Vegas experience this time around was interesting since I really beat up my feet the day before the conference by walking the length of the Strip from Excalibur (where I was staying) up to Stratosphere. Granted, it took all day and I stopped at almost every casino along the way, but it was still a blast. Of course, when you do something like that, most of the really nice casinos just start blending together. Everyone asked me how nice Wynn was, and all I could think was that it was similar to Paris or Venetian or Bellagio; and that I may or may not have won some money on video poker there. After a while, that Green Day song does come into play when you consider the cash being thrown around.

Unlike last time, I wasn't so lucky at the roulette and blackjack tables, getting smoked at both nice places (MGM Grand; New York, New York) and not-so-nice (New Frontier, Boardwalk). Eventually I'll have to learn how to lose my money at those other table games. On the other hand, I did get a nice view of the city from the top of Mandalay Bay.

Another strange thing about this trip was how I somehow ended up working on East Coast time, even though my schedule is usually a West Coast one. How else to explain getting up at 6 and 7 in the morning? On the other hand, it made that 3:30 a.m. trip to the diner at Excalibur after a night at the tables seem reasonably normal.

There's still more to see in town, and maybe one of these days I'll go without having conference duties hovering over me.