Last Week

Or…

A Short(ish) Dissertation on the Extent to which I love Technology and hate Las Vegas.

This past week has been a blur. I know, so cliché, but it really has. (Is it cliché to refer to a popular cliché as cliché when other people undoubtedly do the same?) Last Saturday, I boarded a plane and flew over the country, all the way to Las Vegas, Nevada. If you’ve never been to Las Vegas, I suggest you go. If you’re a gambler, you’ll love it (and most likely you’ll end up broke). If you like to see new things, you’ll find plenty in LV. If you have ever wanted to see the epitome of human depredation condensed into one thick, seething, noisy, obnoxious conglomerate of people, then Las Vegas is the place for you.

Las Vegas is one gigantic money-sucking pit. The entire purpose of the city is to squeeze every last coin from its tourist’s pockets. The first thing I saw when I disembarked from the plane was an array of “one-armed bandits” (slot machines). They sat there dinging away and hungrily flashing their ever-beckoning lights, and people sat in the seats and fed the slots, watching their credits dwindle to zero. Gambling. When one goes to leave the airport, one must find transportation, right? Of course right. Transport. Now that you’ve wasted some money in the slot machines and paid a taxi driver or bus driver or rental car fee, you can hand over some cash for lodging! Hotels. Of course, now everyone’s hungry. Care to spend $45 for a burger? Food. Oh, good, now that we’re where we wanted to go and comfortably rested, why don’t we check our emails? It’s only $10 a day for wifi! Internet. Maybe we could play some cards while we’re wandering through one of the countless casinos in the bottoms of all these hotels. More Gambling. Perhaps we could go see a show or visit a local attraction? Entertainment. Maybe we have loose morals and we’d like some company tonight. Erm… Entertainment? I could go on, but I have the feeling you get the point.

I did enjoy seeing the fountain show at the Bellagio, the volcano at the Mirage, and the luxurious decor in the other high-end temporary lodgings. I couldn’t help but feel, though, as I walked through all of the semi-opulence, how much waste was all around — the ridiculously expensive hotels and the fancy clothes and the pricey food and the silly trivialities on which people spend their money! The entire city centers around the gambling; it’s where the casinos really make their money, but then there’s the high price of everything else. The interesting thing is, everything combines to create an attraction in and of itself. People pay to see Las Vegas for Las Vegas! They pay to ride in limousines and helicopters and all of modes of exotic transport. All to see what? The product of their waste.

Oh well. This, I suppose, is why I’m not extremely wealthy. I’d spend it all on technology and charity.

Oh, I said technology up there, didn’t I? Did I mention that I actually went to see the NAB show? More on that tomorrow.

~ Chris

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Awesome April Fools’ Jokes

The Post-Game Report

Ok, well, this has nothing to do with sports or anything like that. This, my friends, is a post-”April Fools’” report.

I really did enjoy April 1st. Google Nose, Youtube shutting down, toasters that tweet and make logos…. yeah, my kinda internet.

Here’s a run-down of my favorite jokes yesterday.

Google Nose:

I’m sure a lot of people saw this one, but I think it’s mention-worthy. Google introduced a technology that allows you to smell your search results! How awesome is that? Well, just be careful what you search for…

Rhett and Link

This was probably my favorite prank of the day, and it might even still get you if you’re not careful.

Super Toaster

This was shared with me by a friend of mine. I would be very tempted to buy this toaster if it were real.

Winning at Youtube

Youtube threatened to pick a winner and shut down Youtube.com. They proclaimed that the site would be re-opened in ten years with a single video: yesterday’s winner.

Others

Twitter announced a new service, Reddit made everyone on the site mad, and Steam drove a few gamers crazy.

Me…

And, I had a little fun of my own. I actually topped out my record number of visitors/views yesterday with an application for best friend! Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, the position had to be left unfilled. Also, nobody could answer the Monty Python reference. I am disappointed.

Have a great week! I’ll be at the NAB conference in Las Vegas next week, so I’ll try to get some posts up here with pictures and write-ups on the coolest stuff there.

~ XK

Writing for all the Right Reasons

For what reasons do I write? Who knows! I’d like to say I write to right the writing rites of rightfully written right rite rights, but that really wouldn’t make much sense.  

Writing, for me, is an extension of myself, in that it represents the less-inhibited, non-verbal, expressive social arena in my life.  Translation: you’re reading what I would say to you if I were perhaps more talkative.

I write how I feel, and my mood influences and often dictates content, style, and probably quality. While I usually don’t blog on personal matters, my life still heavily influences my writing. When I am happy, my blog posts are likely to be light-hearted or simply crazy. When I am feeling down, I very likely will not even post anything, but if I do, you can expect it to be melancholic or drab. When I am feeling tired, as I often do these days, one really can’t predict how my blatherings will read. Perhaps I’ll craft a masterpiece, but I really do doubt it. 

Lately, I have been tired, down, and ever so slightly bored with everything. Everything that I’ve tried writing has turned into an unfinished draft. That which I’ve completed has been terribly dark, and nothing has been incredibly interesting. No one seemed interested in my essay on the compensation for the incremental increases in effective circumference when using ribbon with a winch system… 

I’m not sure if it’s Writer’s Block or Something Worse. I suppose I’ll figure it out eventually.

Now that I’ve bored you to tears with my own story, I have a question for you;  how do you write? How greatly does your mood affect your writing ability?

Cheers,
Chris