What did we learn this week? Week 8

So some of may have noticed there was no What did we learn this week last week.  For Week 7.  Why you may ask? Well, for one I was short on time and exhausted from real life.  Two, after the complete and utter disaster of my Einstein post (thanks to the 4 of you that read it and are interested in science) I started to wonder if I should even bother.  Then I got some positive feedback and some view from my election blog, so I figured I would keep on going.  Plus what the hell us I’m I going to do in my free time?  So without further ado, here is What did we learn this week……week 8 (I couldn’t name it 7 since that would’ve been last weeks!)

Rich people really don’t pay attention when they drive……

So Sunday we went with my parents to look for baby furniture.  We also had to go to dinner the same night at a pretty good German place afterwards so we looked at furniture stores in that area.  Now the area we were in has a decent amount of well to do and actually rich people in it.  I hate driving around there because I maintain that the more money people have the less they care about their car (they’ll just get another) and the less they pay attention while driving.  Thus was the statement I made when someone swerved into my lane with no blinker.  As I pulled past I could see him texting away with 2 kids in the back seat.  What and ass.  So to further prove my point, after we got to the restaurant and we’re having a couple of drinks for my cousins birthday, the waiter came over and asked if we had a Mercury Milan.  I responded yes and asked why, then he told me it had just been hit….in the parking lot.

So we went out and sure enough a woman in her late 40’s to early 50’s had backed into our door not paying attention.  What was she driving? A BMW.  To further my point, she has enough money to not go through insurance, and just pay to fix our car, $1649 to be exact.  Don’t get me wrong, She is actually a very nice lady, and I feel bad for her, but she was from a more affluent part of the area and wasn’t paying attention.  Point, set, match me.

In other news….Is twitter more addictive then alcohol and cigarettes?

Well, I’m not sure, but Professor Josh has a very in depth chart on his blog that shows it just might be, why not head over and check it out at http://professorjosh.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/is-twitter-more-addictive-than-alcohol-and-cigarettes-infographic/

“no…really, follow me!”

What did the iceberg say to Titanic? Glub….Glub…Glub….

At 2:20 am on April 15^th 2012 it will be the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the titanic.  To this day explorers and scientists along with Titanic enthusiasts are debating and still trying to figure out how it sunk (other than the iceberg) and why it went down so fast.  The Titanic sits more than 2 miles down and to this day there are more and more pictures and video (higher quality than anything before) coming back from the murky depths and giving us a better picture of what happened.  For some great pics and the full story check out bisarbeats blog at http://bisarbeat.blogspot.com/2012/03/unseen-titanic.html#.T2xeMOa9qTE.wordpress

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Running low on energy? Want a little snack? Then put down that banana and pick up a cookie!  Wait?! What?!

Well, yeah, kinda.  A study by the university of  Sydney did a study to see which foods would satisfy your hunger and provide you with energy at the same time, and yes it seems that cookies and bananas are about the same.  Check out http://blog.massivehealth.com/infographics/bananas_vs_cookies for the whole story.

“Bring it Cookies!”

Good news everybody, Adobe has a brand new Photoshop coming out….

Now the bad news, its still like $700!  Yup for the first time in over a decade Photoshop is getting a completely new look, to me it was a bit similar to lightroom.  It’s also getting 65 new features.  Sadly the pricing is the same.  I tried it out and liked it myself, to try it out for free for yourself, check out Adobe Labs’ website at http://labs.adobe.com/  oh and by the way it’s a really large download so grab a sandwich or something while you wait for it.

NFL Blitz comes to real life….

You would think a team named the Saints would keep their noses clean, but nope.  Apparently as incentive to the players, the coach and management instituted a bounty system.  Yup, they would get paid for hitting certain players.  Let’s just be clear though, not just hitting.  The defensive players were paid $1500 for a knock out and $1000 for a “cart-off”.  The numbers would then be doubled or even tripled for play-off games.  Some of the players that were targeted were Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton, Brett Favre and Kurt Warner.  Some of the biggest names in the sport and some of the biggest crowd draws.  Also, to make it even worse, the Captain of the Saints defense Jonathon Vilma offered $10000 to any one that knocked Brett Favre out of the 2010 NFC Championship Game.  For more on the story check out http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7718136/sean-payton-new-orleans-saints-banned-one-year-bounties

“Wheres Bourbon Street?”

It’s a bird! An Angry bird! In Space!?

Yup Angry Birds space is now live!  For all you casual gamers or people that just want a diversion the latest in the Angry Birds series is live.  This time in space!  Do I really need to say anything more?  Go get it!

“If you think we were angry before!”

For all you TMNT fans out there…..

It looks like Michael bay is planning on resurrecting the movie series about mutant turtles, that happen to be ninjas.  My good friends over at Anomic Office Drone are under the opinion that they will ruin it, but come on guys, its about a group of mutant turtles that are ninjas, how bad can it really get?  Anyway head over to them and read all about it here  http://anomicofficedrone.com/2012/03/21/michael-bay-plans-to-ruin-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles/

“Ruin TMNT? Really? Look at the pic and tell me that again!”

We’ve been slimed!

In food news more and more supermarkets are hopping on the “No Pink Slime” Bandwagon.  Which I am a fan of.   Granted the FDA says its safe and as far as I know in the time its been added to food no one has died from it, it’s just fucking gross.  I mean come on, you’re adding Ammonium Hydroxide to the stuff to kill germs? For a list of who does and doesn’t sell it check out Allergic’s blog at http://atomiclotusbox.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/more-supermarkets-refuse-to-sell-pink-slime-in-their-meat/

“So, they said no more pink slime, I guess this might be another option for filler!”

Did you check out the new Linux based operating system created by a group of hackers?

Yeah, I would trust them not to put any backdoors into it.  The Anonymous OS was released this week based on the Linux distro Ubuntu.  The main problem is that the hacking group of the same name isn’t the group that put it together, in fact they say its riddled with holes and security issues! So who did put it out? Apparently no ones.  For more details check out Danny Carbons blog at http://dannycarbon.com/2012/03/19/anonymous-operating-system-prompts-security-warnings/

“Seriously, this time it wasn’t us!”

So that’s it, the week in review, I’m sure I missed some things, but that’s it for me.  Enjoy your weekend and as always thanks for reading!

John

What did we learn this week? week 6

Well here we are another week of 2012 in the books, so what did we learn?

Apparently you can sue yourself…..kinda.

In an ongoing saga for the great Stan Lee, he is now being sued by himself….kinda.  He is actually being sued by a company he started…..then left…..which actually bears his name.  I wonder in the courtroom if there will be Stan Lee then an evil Stan Lee? That would be wicked….the full confusing story can be found here http://www.movieline.com/2012/03/07/stan-lee-vs-stan-lee-the-epic-legal-follies-of-a-comics-mastermind/ for those of you interested.

 

What the?! I thought I had the new iPad?!

Well, not me, I never would be able to afford one, but for millions of Apple users and fans the iPad 3 was released this week to….well…I’m not really sure.  There are some improvements over the iPad 2, but not to the extent most had hoped.  Most of my Apple friends say they’ll wait for the 4^th one.  I mean it’s nice and the new display is awesome, although calling it a retina display is a bit confusing, I thought it had to do with retinal scanning for security.  I’m sure it’s going to sell, I mean for 10 years Apple could’ve sold a ketchup popsicle to a woman wearing white gloves in the desert, but the latest iPad just doesn’t seem to be a huge jump.  While the new feature set is nice, better rear camera, better and faster graphics, better display etc, I think the biggest feature is that it caused a price drop for the iPad 2’s.  Which means more people will probably be giving them a look.  For the full specs take a look here http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/the-new-ipad-3-everything-you-should-know/

 

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a Bat!

Batman Year One Deluxe edition is being released on March 14^th.  For those that don’t know, year one is critically acclaimed and is one of the most important in the Batman saga.  It’s obviously about the crime fighters first year, one thing that makes this issue special is that it’s written by Frank Miller, with artwork by David Mazzucchelli.  So if you’re a Batman fan, this is a must have.  For more info check out http://firewireblog.com/2012/03/08/batman-year-one-deluxe-edition-new-printing-due-on-march-14th/

 

They do exist! Well maybe.

So, in Peru a mummy was found, nothing new there, except that it has an elongated skull.  Yup, this things skull is almost the size of its small body and as usual everyone is baffled.  Did I mention the larger than normal eyes also?

An anthropologist believes it to be a child of under 2 with an enormous head which possibly a human sacrifice.  Let’s be real for a minute, chances are it’s just a deformed human, but I’m sure that crazy greek dude, Giorgio A. Tsoukalos from Ancients Aliens (I love that show) will be talking about it soon enough!

Check out the full article at http://reinep.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/mummy-with-giant-head-discovered-in-peru/

 

I just bought the game! What do you mean there’s already DLC that I have to pay for!?

So the hotly anticipated ending to the Mass Effect trilogy, Mass Effect 3, was released this week…..along with the first DLC (downloadable content)  Some people see this as just another way to get more money from the already popular game by offering the DLC at launch.  We as gamers are always surprised to see a patch needs to be installed for a game that just came out, but to have DLC on launch day just makes it seem like we bought an incomplete game, jeese, give us a month to think that our 60 bucks bought a full game before you release the DLC! Anyway that’s just my thought on it.  As long as it’s not important to the finale I guess no one’s twisting your arm to buy it.

“What do you mean there’s already DLC?”

 

Glad you’re back from the injury, now if you would look at this pink piece of paper…….

It was announced this week that after 14 years the Indianapolis Colts decided to release Peyton Manning.  I guess the main concern was the amount of surgeries he had, but in 2011 they signed him to a 5 year deal, worth 90 million dollars.  I guess the prospect of another injury was too great for a team that went 2-14 last year.  With Peyton gone and their Superbowl winning coach, I guess it’s time for rebuilding.  I’m sure Manning isn’t retiring anytime soon and plenty of mediocre clubs would pay millions more for him.  For more about it check out http://anomicofficedrone.com/2012/03/07/peyton-and-the-colts-part-ways/ and http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d82777827/article/peyton-manning-colts-part-ways-in-most-appropriate-fashion

“Seriously, I always thought you’d get cut before me!”

 

From the “What the hell?!” department…..

Conservative Christian Pat Robertson wants Marijuana legalized.  Yeah I know of all people right?  His arguments actually make sense on this one though.  He talks about the cost of the war on drugs and even thinks the US has gone too far when it comes to drugs.  Pointing out how many juveniles are being locked up for years over a joint, unless you’re rich of course (he points that out)  He also says that he believes it should be treated like Alcohol.  He even points out that since 2006 47,515 lives have been claimed in Central and South America (granted not all are related to Marijuana)  Any way, if you’d like to read more, and I’m sure some of you would like too, here’s the full story http://20poorandfabulous.com/2012/03/08/pat-robertson-wants-marijuana-legalized/

“Is it 4:20 yet?”

 

What’s it take to be an internet star?

Well apparently not doing an informative beer show on Youtube, blogging about beer or this blog either.  Apparently you need to be a rebel leader for 20 years in Africa kidnapping and terrorizing villages oh and keeping them as slaves, normal and for sex.  In an effort to catch him a video about Joesph Kony was released on Youtube.  The 30 minute video shows his atrocities and had 32 million views by Thursday.  For more on Kony check out http://www.freep.com/article/20120309/NEWS07/203090359/Hunt-for-jungle-militia-leader-Kony-goes-viral-aiming-to-get-him-arrested?odyssey=nav%7Chead   or Wikipedia him.  If you want to check out the video of this scumbag for yourself, take a look here http://youtu.be/Y4MnpzG5Sqc

“Joseph Kony, putting the infant back in infantry since 1986”

 

Take him down Red 1!

12 years ago a little game called Counter-Strike was released, well, to be fair it was a Half-Life mod.  It quickly became one of the most played PC online tactical shooters ever, in fact many still play the original today.  Then a few years later Counter-strike Source was released, bringing a new level to the genre of tactical shooters.  Not only were the graphics better, but using the Source engine made the physics way better as well.  Even though the Call of Duty and Battlefield series have kind of taken the lime light, both Counter-Strikes are still played today.  Now, 12 years after the original, Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment are releasing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.  One of the coolest features? Cross platform play across all supported systems! Yup, whether you have a Mac, Windows machine, Xbox 360 or PS3, you’ll be able to blast your friends full of holes.  I for one can’t wait.  For more info and a trailer check out http://store.steampowered.com/app/1800/

“Here Kony, Kony, Kony.”

 

It really is bigger on the inside.

So apparently the babies room, formely my computer room/office/catch all is a T.A.R.D.I.S (Time and Relative Dimension In Space for you non Doctor Who fans) because it seemed to bigger on the inside.  For the last for weeks I have been sorting through 15 to 20 year old crap and throwing out countless garbage can loads.  I then moved the rest into a much bigger space in the basement….which apparently couldn’t hold everything, so I went through again and finally the basement is about 90 percent done.  How an 11×11 room wouldn’t fit in a 40×20 space is beyond me.  How I accumulated that much junk is also beyond me, I guess old John is less tolerant of crap and throw more away then young John did.

“Yup, there is 25 years of crap in here, including a Sony sports cassette walkman and a socket 3 486 motherboard! Old Skool bitches!”

So yeah, that’s it for this week, it’s actually kind of a lot isn’t it?  So I hope you learned something and enjoyed it.  Thanks for reading!

John

What did we learn this week? week 5

What did we learn this week? Well I learned that this is a lot harder to do when I’m in Vegas for 3 days, cleaning and painting a babies room and working all week so I don’t have time to read any blogs! But for my fans I’ll see what I can throw together.

If you’re ahead….stop! then shop!

While in Vegas I made my money back the 2nd day and decided not to gamble anymore, I did spend money on food and a shirt but that was about it.  My friend that was with me on the other hand was winning at the machines then “reinvested” in the tables….lets just say the market collapsed!

What the hell is leap year anyway?

Well, if you were paying attention to my blogs you’d know!  Yup I explained on leap day, so if you want to know the history, or at least a brief history, check the blog at https://johnsbluebox.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/leap-day-and-leap-year-why/

R.I.P Davy Jones.

Yup, no snarky comments, no jokes.  Just R.I.P Davy Jones, who was a member of the Monkees.  Davy was probably the most famous and popular of the Monkees and died way to young at 66.  You could read more about him here https://johnsbluebox.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/rip-davy-jones/

What are the odds that United would fail me 4 out of 4 times?

Apparently very good.  I’ve had 3 bad experiences on United, not horrible, just bad delays and luggage lost for a few hours.  So for the Vegas trip we booked US Airways (we were delayed leaving!)  So when we got to the airport to find that the “US Airways” flight home was actually a United flight I thought, “What are the odds I’d have bad luck with them 4 out of 4 times?”  Apparently better than I thought because we had a 2 hour delay that got me home (in my house) at 2 am instead of midnight.  Should’ve bought a lotto ticket that day! I will say the flight crew, ground crew and gate staff did a commendable job getting us off the ground and home quickly, albeit 2 hours late.

A burger by any other name…..

While in Vegas I also learned the Le Burger Brasserie has awesome albeit expensive burgers.  I had the Italian burger, that consisted of the burger, pancetta, arugula, fresh mozzerella, with tomato and red onions on the side if you want to add it, I also had my choice of buns, I picked the parmesan crusted roll.  It was awesome.  If you’re up at the casino, stop by Paris and try them out.  Oh did I mention the Waitresses look like this?

Welcome to the John Potoky Retro Junk and Computer Museum………

So as I cleaned out the closet in the babies room, I found all kinds neat old things.  The oldest was probably a light up schlitz sign from the 70’s that I didn’t even know I owned! (know to find out how much its worth!), next would be the 2nd generation Commodore 64 and 2 small boxes of Commodore and DOS software, then the pink M.U.S.C.L.E characters.  Some where in that mix was also a Socket 3 motherboard (for you non geeks that I believe was a 486 board and was probably about 20 years ago) and an even older server board. So I am glad to say that stuff is not in the closet anymore….or the house.

So thats what an F-Stop is……

I also watched a little video from B&H Photo and Video about taking portraits and started reading a great book, understanding exposure, 3rd edition by Bryan Peterson, that explains how to use the manual mode on my Canon T3, so now I can actually use the camera the way its supposed to be used.  Here’s a sample…..

That’s about it, like I said I am way behind on my reading, so next week I’ll be more on top of it.  Hope you enjoyed it and if you want more to read I did post a new post over at http://thebeershow.wordpress.com/ so have a good weekend! Oh and always, thanks for reading.

John

RIP Davy Jones

So about an hour ago I saw a tweet about Davy Jones being dead, I have to say I was pretty surprised by it.  For those of you who don’t know who Davy Jones was, I’ll give a short explanation.  Jones was a member of a pop rock band that was put together for a TV show named the Monkees, I believe they were the first completely fabricated band, many have appeared since then.  The thing with the Monkees was that originally only one could play an instrument or write, Davy wasn’t that one, hey usually played the tambourine or sang.  By the end of the show, they were all playing their own instruments.  Funny, in today’s world of pop music, no one seems to play their own music, but back then it was kind of a big deal.  So, in tribute to him (I always liked some of his music) I thought I would do a little tribute.

Jones was born in Manchester England in 1945.  His first acting gig was on Coronation Street, a very popular and long running soap opera, when he was 11.  Sadly, when he was 14, his mother passed away.  He soon left acting and due to his short stature, 5’3″, he started training as a jockey.

Eventually he returned to acting and played The Artful Dodger in Oliver!  After the London run of Oliver! he also starred in the Broadway version in the states, this led to him being on Ed Sullivan.  Lucky for him, it was the same show The Beatles were on, and as a young lad standing on the side of the stage watching The Beatles and seeing the girls go crazy, he decided that he wanted that.  Because of the Sullivan appearance he was noticed by Columbia Pictures who then signed him to a contract, also, at the same time he recorded an album for Colpix Records, while Davy couldn’t play instruments (well at least not well) he could sing.

Shortly after the record and signing with Columbia, in 1965, he joined the cast of the Monkees.  his popularity sky rocketed and girls everywhere loved him, giving him his wish from that day on the Ed Sullivan show.  The TV show that Monkees ran for 3 years and went off the air in 1968, but by this time the group including Davy could all play there own instruments and continued to record.  They even had there own movie, Head.  The movie was no where near successful, I’ve never scene it and I really don’t have plans to but apparently it has become a cult hit.

Davy continued to tour and record throughout most of his life, putting on a great show and playing a mix of classics from the Monkees catalog as well as from his own records.  I believe he even had a stint in Vegas.  There were multiple Monkees reunions also, some with others without the full line up.  There was even a new album in 1996.  The band reunited, all of the members, for the first time in along time, in 2011 for a North American tour and UK tour that was successful.  Sadly some dates were to be rescheduled for 2012, but with the death of Davy Jones, from a heart attack today, those shows may never occur.

So there it is, the short version.  Davy Jones accomplished quite a lot in his time, and both he and the Monkees influenced many current and past bands.  If you don’t know who The Monkees or Davy Jones are, why not give them a listen.  The most notable tracks would probably be, Last Train to Clarksville (one of my favs), I’m a believer (which was remade for one of the shrek movies by Smashomouth), (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone (another of my favs) and A Little bit Me, A Little bit You.

Well, I hope you’ve read enough to be a little interested in The Monkees and Davy Jones.  RIP Davy and I’d like to thank everyone for reading.

John

Vegas baby! Day 3

Vegas baby day 3

How did it end?  Well not bad….overall.  We checked out at 11 then decided to grab lunch.  We decided to go to the Paris buffet.  So we got there and saw one hell of a line.  Now I’ve eaten there before and thought it was good, just not 30 minute wait good.  So we walked a bit further to the little “outdoor” cafe.  We checked out the menu, but decided tobstill go somewhere else.  My only requirement was tht it wasnt Bill’s again.  So as we walked back towards Ballys we so a gourmet burger place, Le Burger Brasserie. Now I had heard the place was pretty good so we decided to check it out.  Of course the waitresses dresed in a red corset kind of top and black hot pants may have influenced the decision also.  My buddy oredered the kobe burger, I ordered the Italian burger, medium of course. 

The burger was awesome, it had mozzerella, pancetta, oruguella, red onion and tomato.  It had a choice of buns also, we both picked the parmasean roll, which made the Italian even more awesome.  My buddy got the kobe burger, which he said was pretty good also.  If you’re in Vegas and want a unique and good burger (and dont mind spending 16 bucks for the combo) you should try it.

After lunch we went back to the Wheel of Fortune machine.  My buddy started playing, I decided that since I was up, I wasn’t going to play at all.  So we had about 3 hours till we needed to head for the airport, and based off the day before, my buddy thought his last 25 bucks would last the 3 hours.  He was wrong.  So after maybe an hour tops we headed for the airport…..nows when things would get interesting.

So we headed for the US Airways check in, only to find there was no record of us or the flight…because it was serviced by United Airlines.  Those of you that know me, know my luck with United, 3 flights and problems with all 3.  I figured what woukd the odds be that it would be 4, besides we didn’t have a choice anyway.

So we went to the self checkout, which went fine.  It even asked us if we wanted to look for an earlier flight, since we were so early, we fugured why not.  So we went through the whole proces, only to get an error and confirmation code.

So went and talked to a nice lady at the counter that said it would be 75 bucks.  We dnidnt remember reading that, but we probably just didnt pay attention.  So we declined and with our flight, she was nice enough to put us in economy plus for no extra charge though, which was awesome. 

So we got to the gate and hung out for awhile.  We were way early so we walked around the D concourse at McCarren,which I thought was very nice.  I even found and bought a shirt I liked.  We went back to the gate and saw that the flight was on time and that boarding would start at 6:03pm Vegas time, putting us into O’Hare at around midnight Chicago time.  So we ran over to the California Pizza Kitchen.

When we got back to the gate, I noticed that it had been pushed back till 7:30pm….4 times I’ve flown United, 4 problems, I know its not really their fault, I just have bad luck with them..and will now pay the little extra for American, since I’ve never had problems with them.  Oh, and remember, our US Airways flight Saturday was delayed also, what are the odds twice in one weekend with two different airlines!? 

So after a few more minutes it was pushed to 8:00pm.  Which puts us into O’Hare at 1ish.  I was a bit irritated but what can you do?  Then came the announcment that the plane would come in about 735 and that if we weren’t boarded with the door closed by 8:15pm the pilots would illegal and we couldn’t leave….until God knows when tomorrow! 

So, again I was irritated but holding it together.  I will give the crew a ton of credit, they pulled it off.  They deplaned a 757 and boarded us before 8:15.  In fact, we got asked if we wanted the emergency aisle seats, which have awesome leg room.  Also, its funny how much more forgiving you are when the first class flight attendant gives you a free mini bottle of Bicardi Superior to go with your Coke.  She along with the rest of the crew, grounf crew and gate agents did a great job of getting us airborn.

That being said, I still doubt I’ll fly United again,  I’ve only flown US Airways twice and got delayed once, so I’ll probably give them another shot.  Because of the delay I am typing this in the air and when I finally get home at like 2am I’ll turn on my wifi and post it…..if I don’t pass out first…..still though…..Vegas baby!

Stay posted for a recap of the trip in the next day or two, hope you enjoyed reading.  If you did, please share the link, oh and as usual, thanks for reading!

John

Oh and in case you didn’t realize, I did in fact fall asleep at 2am before posting.

Vegas baby! Day 2……

Well day 2 in Vegas turned out alright, we woke up and hit Bills Saloon and gambling hall for their world famous 13.99 prime rib.  I’ll tell you, it was pretty darned good and worth the 14 bucks.  Plus the horseradish sauce it came with was excellent, talk about clearing out the sinuses, that’s what horseradish sauce should be. 

After that we went back to Paris, I of course hit the slot machines and my buddy hit the tables.  I was playing this Dean Martin’s Wild Party machine which at least made it fun to lose.  So after my buddy was done on the tables and I had lost a little we went to Ballys casino. 

While at Ballys we walked around a bit and ended up finding this Wheel of Fortune slot machine.  For 90 credits (90 cents) a play you played all lines and had the chance to play all 3 wheels at once.  If you spun the right things anyway.  There are 4 that were all ties together then linked to a big screen,  the two we were in were good to us, the people in the other two, not so lucky.  In fact we did well enough that our “names” were on the daily leaderboard in 5 out of the top 8 spots, my buddy was on the all time leaderboard in i think 5th.  So if you see the names Sterling and Archer up there, that was us.  We actually made some of our money back on that one, we were at it for like 3 hours.  Until we got hungry.

So we decided to go towards the monorail station,  we had seen a sushi place there on day 1 as we were exploring.  It was a nice little place, pricing for rolls was a bout the same as anywhere else and it was pretty good, it was called Ichiban sushi.  If your in Ballys stop in and try the Las Vegas roll.  So after dinner it was back to the casino. 

Well,  actually we went back to Paris, it just has a nice atmosphere.  So I, for some reason, went back to that same Dean Martin machine, well mainly because my buddy wanted to see the bonus round.  So this time I decided to play 90 cents a turn instead of 30, it wasn’t going so well at first.  My buddy, who still hadn’t seen the bonus round, went back to the tables.  Like 5 minutes later it hit the bonus, and with 90 cents instead of 30, I was up to 135 bucks!  That was almost my losses from the day before!  So I played off that money for a bit and cashed it out at 120.  Pretty good, I thought, then I said, “what the hell” and sat back down and put another 20 in, I ended up cashing that out at 124 and some change.  I did try it with a 3rd 20, but the 3rd time wasn’t the charm.  Even though, by the end of day 2 I had made up all my losses and even had more than I started with.  Then we headed off to Bills again for the famous 6.99 steak and eggs breakfast, it starts at 11pm.

As happy as I was with their prime rib, the steak and eggs left a little to be desired, I mean, I didn’t expect a Tbone or Porter house, but a steak slightly larger than the palm of my hand would’ve been nice.  The flavor wasn’t bad and I guess for 6.99 you really can’t complain, but spend the extra and get the prime rib.

So that was the day 2 recap,  its about 945 in the morning on day 3, which is the last day.  I don’t plan on gambling myself today, especially since I’m up at the moment.  It’s going to be a long day though, check out at 11, find some where to hang out for a bit, then head to McCarren at probably 330. Or 400 for a 6 o’clock back to Chicago, whic wouldn’t be bad if it wasn’t for the time change, I mean we’ll be getting back at midnight Chi Town time.  But as soon as I have time I’ll recap day 3.

Thanks for reading.

John

Vegas baby! Day one In the books….

You maybe wondering why i’m blogging at 7 in the morning Vegas time.  Well, for some reason, even on vacation, by body won’t let me sleep more then 6 hours. So while I have some time to myself (the friend i’m with has no problem sleeping more then 6 hours) I thought I’d share how day one went.

It was actually a long day, we got to o’hare airport in chicago around 10 and were supposed to fly out 11 to Phoenix.  Well the plane was delayed 45 minute, so we had to reschedule the connecting flight, so instead of being in Phoenix at 2:30 and Vegas at 2:45 (time zone difference) we got to Phoenix at 3:45 and Vegas at 4:15, I did have a rather good philly cheese steak in Phoenix’s airport though.

After checking into our hotel, Ballys, we hit the casino next door at Paris.  I know some of might think it’s campy how the casinos mimic places but I enjoy it, to me its like a little get away.  Now when I gamble, I’m like a n old person.  I find a penny slot machine, I put 20 bucks in, and I play 5 lines at 1 penny each.  8 also enjoy my free rum and Coke’s and people watch.  On one 20 I can use play for well over an hour, and drink 4 or 5 drinks.  Don’t panic, they aren’t full size drinks that they give you so it’s not really that much.  After 2 hours at Paris we headed to the casino at Ballys where I repeated my procedure (which was actually my moms way of playing).  We didn’t spend nearly as much time there, then we headed to Bills Saloon and Gambling Hall (I think that’s the name) to grab something to eat. 

While there I had a pretty nice run going on a Battleship slot machine until we got called for dinner.  Now I had the fish and chips, which wasn’t bad, but someone at the table next to us had the famous 13 dollar prime rib, which looked really good.

After eating we headed back to the casino where my buddy had a nice run on a Wheel of Fortune machine.  We then headed over to Cesaers and walked around a bit, then back to Ballys for a bit before going to bed.  Apparently we went to bed to early since I am up at 7 and he is hibernating.  Well hopefully I’ll have time to tell you how day two goes also!  Thanks for reading!

John