They have that in Vegas???

We’ve lived here 3+ years and today was the first time we have been to Bonnie Springs. It’s on old west town just outside of Las Vegas. Man, what was I thinking? The place costs $10 for the entire car to enter and once inside they have a bunch of shows for the kids, horse back riding (extra fee), petting zoo and some “old west” style shopping. We met my sister and her family out there and had a fantastic time. If you have kids and you’ve never been, head on out there one weekend. It’s a grand total of 20-30 minutes away from the strip. Plus, while you are on your way there, the view of the mountains is just awesome. I definitely want to go back and visit Red Rock Canyon (another gem that I’ve yet to visit :/ )

Well, our first and second set of guests have arrived to spend Christmas with us. We are going to have 16-18 people at the house to celebrate Christmas. It should be a very fun time.

To you and yours, have a very Merry Christmas. I hope Santa brings you exactly what you are wishing for! (I hear that Olympic Gardens has gift certificates. Woo Hoo!)

;)

It’s the new Tamagachi

Earlier this year I saw a game online called Sudoku. I then saw it again, and again online. Then, a day later, I saw it at the grocery store. Then the toy store. And then, I started seeing in about everywhere I went. I have still yet to play it. But, if I do, you can bet it will be on this cool handheld game available at ThinkGeek.com, and it will probably be while I’m sitting in the bathroom. As it is now, we have a handheld Yahtzee game that helps pass the time in there…

Knowing how the Japanese tend to flock to new gadgets, I expect a million or two of these handhelds were sold the first week they were out.

If you are unfamiliar with Sudoku, here’s an explanation:

Sudoku (Japanese: ??, su-doku), sometimes spelled Su Doku, is a logic-based placement puzzle, also known as Number Place in the United States. The aim of the canonical puzzle is to enter a numerical digit from 1 through 9 in each cell of a 9×9 grid made up of 3×3 subgrids (called "regions"), starting with various digits given in some cells (the "givens"). Each row, column, and region must contain only one instance of each numeral. Completing the puzzle requires patience and logical ability. Although first published in 1979, Sudoku initially caught on in Japan in 1986 and attained international popularity in 2005.

Flights, Parties, Tequila and Poker

Friday night our company had it’s “Holiday Gala.” For the first time that I can remember, I wore a tie to an event other than a wedding or funeral. Since I had ZERO plans to drive home after an event where I knew there was going to be some heavy drinking, we rented a room at Green Valley Ranch Casino where the party was being thrown. Turned out to be a great move. Though, we paid $129 to rent a room that I was awake in for less than 90 minutes. I had checked in after work, drove home and got ready for the party. Between that time and the start of the party, we took our kids to the airport and put them on a plane. It was their first time they were flying alone. Any amount of nervousness that I had was completely overshadowed by my wife. She was a bit of a mess. We left the airport and went directly to the party. About an hour in to the party we received the call from the kids that they landed safely and my mom was there to pick them up. It was then and only then that my wife was able to relax and start enjoying the party.

To help the party along, I had bought 2 bottles of Chinaco Tequila. If you have never had this tequila, stop what you are doing and go buy some. It is the best tequila I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a few). We always buy the “blanco”, but, for Christmas, a buddy gave us a bottle of “Anejo.” So, for the party, I brought the Anejo and one of the blanco. We cracked the Anejo first. Holy crap, that was some smooth F’n tequila. With a group of us all sharing, it didn’t take too long for that bottle to hit the dust. Then, about an hour later, during dinner, one of the staff from the hotel informed me that bringing liquer in to the party was against Nevada law. Before he was able to swipe the 1/2 bottle we had left, I hid it under my chair. To cover our bases, we went ahead and polished off that bottle a few minutes later. I think I finished up with 7 shots.

At the start of the party, with our first drinks, the wife and I took Chasers. These are supposed to help you avoid a hangover. For me, they worked like a charm. After the part ended at 11:00 PM, we played poker until 3:00 AM. We went to the room and were asleep by 3:30 AM. Woke up at about 10:00 AM and I had no hangover symptoms at all. I got called a few names when I told that to a few people who probably had less to drink than I did but woke up feeling pretty wrecked. :P

Saturday was a pretty lazy day. We pretty much laid around all day. Did a little shopping (very little) and then watched The 40 Year Old Virgin. We had started it pretty late so it was hard to keep awake through it. It’s a funny movie but we both hate the ending. When they break in to song it just completely loses it for us. When they broke in to song in the middle of Anchorman, it was funny and short enough that it was able to remain funny. But, in Virgin, it’s a 5 minute interlude which breaks right in to the credits. After sitting through that, it’s a real bummer that they didn’t put an extra scene at the end of the credits. Even if it was just the foreign employee jumping on screen to yell, “Go fuck a goat.” That would have been funny. (I could totally write for Hollywood.)

On Sunday, with no kids to look after, I was able to sneak out and play in 2 poker tournaments. Both at the Sahara casino. In the first tournament, I did really well in the first hour. So well that I didn’t even bother buying the optional add-on. In the second hour, I chose a bad spot to try to bluff a guy off a hand after I missed my draw. Actually, I almost got him to lay down his hand. He took a full 2 minutes before calling. So, I didn’t feel too bad about my play. I hung on and doubled up a few times and had a decent chip stack before putting in too large a raise with K/Q of spades in early position. When a player in late position re-raised, I had put too much money in to the pot to fold. I had to call off the rest of my chips. I was happy to find that he had 10/10. This put me basically in a coin flip situation. It was much better than if he had A/Q or A/K. Then I would have been in real bad shape. But, the board bricked for me so I was done. Then, in the evening tournament, I didn’t have quite the same ride, but the result was the same. I got knocked out about 2 1/2 hours in to the tourney. At the end I lost 4 good sized hands when going in with the best hand. The final 2 hands for me went like this:

Hand 1
A/Q (me) Vs K/9. K on the turn and I’m dead. This isn’t a horrible beat, I know. But, with the amount of chips I have at this point, it hurts not to win with the better starting hand.

Hand 2
A/Q (me) Vs K/Q. On this hand, I’ve got the guy basically dead to one of the 3 remaining Ks. Of course the K showed up on the turn again. This knocks me out of the tourney.

Both hands were against the same guy.

I had a blast this weekend. My company put on one hell of a party that included a VERY funny video production that had shots of our CEO and COO talking about what it is our company does. The cut back and forth to movie clips and clips from TV shows like the Three Stooges. They poked fun at all facets of the company and I don’t think anybody was spared. Also, we had a toy drive for Safe Nest. A great many of our employees brought an unwrapped gift to donate to a great cause. I’m not positive who’s idea it was to set up the toy drive but I aplaud you, whoever you are. What a great way to provide some cheer to some people who could really use it.

Enough rambling for me. I gotta get some sleep!

Google and Yahoo have one! I wanted one, too!

No, I’m not talking about multi-million dollar advertising budgets. But, I certainly wouldn’t mind having one of those, either. But, in fact, I’m talking about a browser toolbar.

The nice folks over at EffectiveBrand.com have a spiffy little editing tool that lets you create your very own toolbar. Fully customizable through a web interface and then they even provide the place to send people to download it. Everything is automatic and takes only minutes to build, customize and install.

I was actually looking for this type of service for the office but figured I should test it out beforehand to see if it’s even worth our time. I’ve installed it and it seems pretty darn cool.

NO! Don’t go build your own! Go here and check mine out! I found it first! :P

The best band I’d never heard of…

On Saturday night we went to the House Of Blues to see Dierks Bentley. This is the second time this year we’ve seen him, but he was so good the first time, I definitely wanted to go see him again. Man, am I glad we did. We got there early and ended up getting to stand right behind the mixing board. We had a good view of the stage and didn’t have to fight through hundreds of bobbing heads to see the show.

Before the show, I heard several people in the crowd talking about the opening act saying that they are likely not even going to stay for Dierks as they’ve come just to see the opening act. Well, this got my attention. Makes you wonder just how good somebody can be if you have never heard them on the radio, or, never even heard the band name before… I had no idea what we were in for.

The name of the band, Cross Canadian Ragweed. And, even though this was a “country” show, I’d say this band is more of a flat-out Rock n Roll band. They are from Oklahoma and they tour extensively in Texas and Colorado and apparently their video gets some air time on CMT. But their sound is more of a rockin’, not quite heavy metal sound. Great guitar work, the singer has a great “Rock” voice and they have a BIG following. I was amazed at how many of the people in the audience knew all their lyrics.

Turns out they have 7 albums they’ve put out over the past 11 years. I’ll definitely be picking up a few of ‘em. You should do the same!

Functional art

I received a link via email from my buddy Dan the other day for a cool site called skellramics.com. They have all sorts of unique products like the handmade bottle to the left. My wife and I got to see much of their work in person when we went to the crafts fair here in Las Vegas 2 or 3 years ago. I had visited their website right after we saw them, but haven’t been in quite some time so I was very happy to see the link in my email. I don’t think I’ll be buying any of their one of a kind pieces any time soon as they are a little pricey, but, I may have to pick up a t-shirt.

Why can’t people drive???

It pains me to see all these really bad drivers! Hell, this guy is driving a plane and can’t even follow the instructions on the road sign directly in front of his window! No wonder he crashed. If we can just get people to learn how to drive and obey traffic signs, the world would be a much safer place!

On a related note, on my way in to work today I was certain I was going to see an accident happen in front of me. Or, perhaps it was going to be road rage. A lady sat through an entire light because she wouldn’t turn right while the light was red. There was no sign telling her she couldn’t and there was no traffic coming that would have preventer her from turning… When the light turned green, she makes her turn and so do 3 other cars, including myself. She turns in to the first lane, the second car turns in to the 2nd lane.The 3rd car and I both take the far outside lane. After about half a block, the car in the 2nd lane has almost caught up to the car in the inside lane. It’s at that point that the lady in the first lane turns on her blinker and immediately starts changing lanes INTO the 2nd car… I’m fairly certain they didn’t bump, but you wouldn’t have been able to squeeze a quarter turned sideways between the two cars… It was no surprise at all to me when I passed the car to find that it was a woman talking on a cell phone…

It’s not a typo

I’ve had a few people email me and tell me that “genius” is spelled wrong in my previous post’s title. But, actually, it’s not. This requires a little explanation.

Jason had sent me a URL to a site where a guy had come up with an awesome way to make far more money than he should by selling something that’s value appears to exist, but likely doesn’t really… Here’s the original ICQ conversation:


JasonM: holy shit! http://www.finestimage.com/makeamillion.htm
Hawkins: GENIOUS!!
JasonM: for the guy selling yes. for the buyers, I’ve had turds that were smarter.
Hawkins: oh, and also not for the guy that tried to add an “o” to the word genius
JasonM: umm…and the guy that didn’t notice too.

So, since that time, the word “GENIOUS” has come to mean somebody or something that has taken an idea and really packed in a little extra to make it that much better. With that in mind, it’s clear that the product in the previous post is in fact genious.

I rest my case.

Everything scrolling in one spot. GENIOUS!


Can I move this to the top of my Christmas List? Damn this looks like a cool little tool. This thing checks your email and displays header information, displays instant messages from ICQ, AIM and Yahoo, plays MP3s, stock ticker, local weather, RSS feed aggregator and it may just wipe your ass. OK, I made up that last part… For a guy like me with ADHD and OCD, I need all this data scrolling on something other than my 4 monitors. I need to save that real estate for playing online poker and watching TV.

Online Holiday Shopping

If you plan on doing your holiday shopping online, time is getting short. With shipping times to consider and such, you should probably be ordering sooner rather than later. But, for you last minute guys, have no fear. Sav-on is open 24 hours even on Christmas Eve. I’m sure they’ll have exactly what your wife is looking for…

OK, but seriously… if you plan on doing any shopping online, have a look at my online store at himx.com - the domain is nice and short so those of you with ADD won’t get sidetracked while typing it in the browser…

Tonight, the wife and I are headed to House of Blues to see Gary Allan. YES, I have the tickets. NO, they are not at Will Call. Thanks for asking! Should be a good show. Sorry to those of you who were looking to play some poker over here tonight. We’ll make up for it soon.

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