Left vs Right

I am so Left brained its pathetic. Here I am with the world's simplest essay of all time, to basically make up a description of how the universe was created. Just describe where human's came from, who was in charge of creation if anyone, and make up some whack story of how things came to be the way they are. Yet I've been staring at this blank page for like an hour.

Creative juices never really flow through me. They don't really flow at all. When it comes to making something up from scratch, improv, randomness, this kind of thing, I just suck. Unfortunately neither of my siblings are available at this late hour, because I'm sure both of them could instantly go rambling off for pages about something of this sort. I even IM'd some friends who had no trouble, the funniest of which involved "toilet goblins." I have some funny friends.

I consider it to be one of my faults, the fact that I basically suck at being creative. I occasionally dabble in creating levels and mapping for various first person shooter computer games, and when it comes to coming up with an original idea, I just hit a dry well every time. I can recreate someone else's idea from another level or game perfectly, I can take an idea someone has begun with and develop it and take it to a whole other level, but I just can't start anything myself.

I suppose if someone said to me that I could be creative if I was willing to give up something else I was good at, I'd probably be unwilling to make the trade. Unless they said something like wiggling my ears. Yes, I'm a world class ear wiggler. Stop giggling, damnit. :/

One Door Closes, Another Door Opens?

Just got off the phone, and it was a bit stuffy in here, so I pulled back the curtain to reveal more of the open window and allow some breeze in. There framed in the upper portion was the moon, the only visible light in the sky tonight. It's not full or anything, but strangely directly in the center of my window, which is weird given I barely ever even see it when looking out my window at night.

About an hour ago I had a typical pointless conversation with my most recent ex, which covered just about everything, and as usual was a clash of ideologies. It ended abruptly as usual, the same way someone would walk out and slam the door if it was a face to face meeting. I stared at the ceiling for a while afterwards, actually more towards my new dolphin poster that's quite a peaceful thing to stare at. I've finally come to the conclusion tonight that I've been putting all this energy into maintaining a friendship that just isn't maintainable. It occurs to me that when it comes to people around here who have taken the path that she has and done the types of things that she does who I'm friends with, we tend to just drift apart, stop hanging out, basically not associate with each other, other than the random hi how are you's in the hallways. This is the normal path between friends who end up becoming totally different people, with totally different beliefs and ideologies. For some reason I've been blind to the fact that this is what has been going on between her and I. Based on the good times we shared together before she changed dramatically, and all the times I'd confided in her and trusted her, I felt like a friendship could be based on those things, on the past. This just isn't the case. The other main problem is that I've yet to replace her with someone, in every sense of the word. I don't have any really close friends who know anything and everything about me here, since I'm surrounded mostly with kids about a gazillion maturity levels below me, at different times in their lives. They just got here, they're all about having fun, don't think twice about the future, or anything else.

Unfortunately due to this living circumstance I'm not exposed to very many people who are at the same stage in their life as I am. She and I used to be in the same place, but now it seems like I've moved on, whereas she feels she can be happy right where she is. Some of the things she does these days, and the way that she rationalizes them, just totally clashes with my ideas of what people should and should not do. Everyone has a right to live their life the way that they choose, but just as they say birds of a feather flock together, we've joined different flocks. I think if I'd found someone since then to fill that void as "best friend" and someone who knows all about me and is always there, I'd have grown apart from her much faster. I've just been in a rut, and the months have turned to years.

I guess it's time to stop being belligerent, and open my eyes to the fact that we're not best friends anymore. We're different people living different lives, and that's not going to change in the near future. It's just really sad. It's like the girl I knew died tonight, officially.

Then there's the future. That doorway is now open even more than ever for someone to pop in and say hello. Who knows whether in the short time I have left here that will happen. I guess there isn't really any hurry. Next year I'll be pretty focused on the whole graduation concept, and then following that will either come a stint in the military where having dependents wouldn't be ideal anyway or a stint trying to get a job and get on my feet independently. Either way I guess there's plenty of time to fill the space. Just feels lonely in here tonight, more than any other. But if there wasn't loneliness, would we ever appreciate friendship?

Go Yoda Go Yoda Go!

For those who haven't seen Episode II: Attack of the Clones stop lollygaggin around and get to it! You've had like a week to claim everyone who has seen it is a geek, was born a Wookie, and runs around with plastic light sabers all day, now it's time to swallow your pride and go witness the spectacle for yourself. Gonna go with 6 M's out of 7 for this one, largely because of the atmosphere I saw it in. Nothing like seeing the 12:01am showing of a Star Wars movie, with all the kooky lookies and whackos that have been standing in the cold for like 3 days waiting in line. Wish I had a decibel meter or something during the beginning of the movie, I know my hearing will never be the same. There were like six previews, all of which were met with a resounding chorus of boos, until finally up popped the 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilms symbols, which brought out loud cheers. Then there was a whole lot of shhhhhhing as the famous in a galaxy far far away line faded into the screen, until the theater was utterly silent. This all changed seconds later when the orchestra slammed into that initial note, and the Star Wars logo appeared gigantic and dead center. I couldn't even hear the rest of the song, as the standing ovation and thunderous applause drowned it out. The movie itself was quite entertaining, some very cool scenes that all little boys would like, from the CGI to the saber battles, all exciting. The part many Star Wars fans had been waiting for for about twenty years now came later, but I won't ruin it for those who have been under a rock for a week and haven't seen it yet.

Ended up paying for the fun, I unfortunately had to drive to Camarillo to see the movie because the Arlington theater here was sold out, and on the way back my car basically exploded. Well, not exactly a ball of fire or anything, but it ended up being its final hurrah. Hung out in a Jack in the Box parking lot after managing to coast there from the fast lane on the freeway mostly thanks to the downhill offramp and the lack of traffic at 3 in the morning... Eventually around 4 after getting lost the tow truck showed up, and carted me over to a repair place that didn't open til 8, so I got to sit around in the car for four hours, weeee.

To make a long story short, if anyone wants a basically thrashed 86 Celica, I recommend going to 51-57 Victoria Avenue in Ventura, its sitting in the parking lot. Basically stripped it of everything useful, from the license plate "Fourth Generation Californian" thingy to my registration sticker. I stopped short of taking the spare tire, although my family might go pick it up at some point.

So, after getting a ride back to school with a wonderful fabulous friend who was nice enough to come get me in Ventura, and then a ride home to LA with another wonderful fabulous friend (well she was headed that way anyway, but still gets brownie points ;) ) I picked up the family's old minivan, which I'll be carting myself around in until probably the end of the school year at least. So beware of Mad Matt's in Minivans, coming to a street (or sidewalk) near you. I've only run over like eight curbs in the first few days, and parked diagonally a few times, other than that I'm all over it.

We Now Return You To Your Regularly Scheduled WHAT IN THE HELL

I'm back... Again... Unscheduled trip back to LA occurred in the middle of last week, along with the passing of something quite close to me (note something is very different from someone, I'm not THAT depressed).

Will update in the morning, got a few days to catch up on.

Las Vegas, Day Three.

The following is a description of the exploits of a certain twenty one year old individual during his hiatus from his university during which he made the trek to Las Vegas, Nevada for a period of three days in which he had one of the most enjoyable weekends of his life. Sunday’s description follows, see below for the previous two installments.

Check out time was at 11am, but due to some late night activities the previous night, I ended up pounding my fist into the alarm clock one too many times, and sleeping through it. Luckily that didn't become a major problem, I was able to call down to the concierge and they checked me out without a problem. Was quite depressing as I looked out over the expanse one more time through the window and slowly closed the curtains, knowing it was the beginning of the end. Still had a few hours left to live it up though, so after checking my bag, I headed upstairs to the entrance to the Stratosphere Tower. Ended up screwing myself out of four bucks by checking out a few minutes before that, since you need to show your room key at the ticket counter to get the discount. It happens. I bought the entrance to the Tower fee along with a dual ride pass, ended up $16 total. A bit steep given I'd already seen the view, but if its your first time seeing it I HIGHLY recommend it. Decided to test fate with the High Roller coaster first, the roller coaster that makes its way along the outer rim of the top of the tower. I can now add the world's highest roller coaster onto my list of conquests, which was already populated by the world's fastest and the world's tallest, among various other impressive stats. The ride is relatively weak on the scream machine scale, about the same speed as the Matterhorn at Disneyland. The difference of course being that you're a thousand feet above the ground. Riding on the outside is fun, but you don't really feel like you might go careening off into space, since just below you and to the outside is the outdoor observation deck, blocking most of the "straight down" view. The ride circles the top three times, and does two loops of the full track, but still is only a minute or two long. It's a good warmup for the main attraction on top, but might not be worth the price for anyone other than the die hards trying to add that notch to their stick.

Following the first ride you're led into an area where you can buy pictures of yourself, which leads directly into the waiting area for the "big cahuna," the Thrill Shot. This is a type of ride seen in many places, I've personally ridden one at Cedar Point in Ohio called the Power Tower, and there's another at California Adventure in Anaheim. Its a variation on the ride called Supreme Scream at Knott's Berry Farm, in that one you are slowly lifted to a height of something like three hundred feet, and after being held at the top for a few seconds, are slammed downward with a force even greater than gravity, before bouncing up before hitting the ground, and getting to a height smaller and smaller each time before slowly coming to a rest of the ground. The Thrill shot is the opposite, you go from sitting in a chair minding your own business a foot or two off the ground, to being launched by compressed air with a force of 4 G's up a huge needle protruding from the top of the Tower, eventually slowing down in a hurry and plummeting down again, which allows for a period of weightlessness each time you reach the peak height and begin to fall again. Many rides such as the ones at Cedar Point and California Adventure are made up of four of the pillars, two to raise you up and then drop you, and two to launch you up before letting you fall. Having ridden both, I can't really decide which is more visually intimidating or causes me to be more apprehensive. They're both quite intense. The Thrill Shot however, had me quite worried. In sheer size it was only about half the height of the types of these rides I'd been on before, but when you tack 150 feet onto a thousand foot tower, you're ending up 1150 feet above the Strip in broad daylight, and that's a long way down. Luckily, I happened to be getting on the ride at the same time as two twelve year old or so girls, so that was enough of a blow to my ego to get me onto the thing and locked in without much of a fuss. My goal as a kid was just to get into the car and get the safety restraint down, and then scream bloody murder if necessary. I chose an end seat facing the strip (there are four on each side) and I highly recommend that position for future ridegoers. On the way up if you're on the edge you can't really see the tower or the side perpindicular to you in your peripheral vision, so other than the restraint of the person next to you, it literally seems like you're being launched to the moon, with no apparent falling point in sight. Within one second or so you also can't see the platform you were launched from since its blocked by your seat and feet, so no evidence exists that you even have somewhere to fall to. Needless to say, it's quite exhilerating. They play rave-like music during the loading period and while you wait, which then climaxes with a hard low bass note, about a half a second before you're flying. I wasn't quite as loud as the girls next to me, although I put up a good fight.

After returning to earth from my spacewalk I called my parents from the pay phone they have on the outdoor observation deck, and proceeded to brag about how I was higher than them, and discussed some of the PG-13 versions of my exploits over the past few days. I then wandered around enjoying the view one last time, before heading back down to the elevator to the normal world. This was the first day I wasn't spiffed out, and I was glad, it was maybe 90 degrees outside, and a t-shirt and jeans were much more appropriate. I decided walking would be fastest in order to get over to the Sahara, the location of my next conquest. Speed: The Ride, actually ended up being my favorite roller coaster in Vegas (Thrill Shot fitting into the thrill ride category, but isn't a traditional roller coaster). For 8 bucks you can buy a double ride, which is good because the ride itself is about a minute long. This one is very comparable to Superman: The Escape at Six Flags Magic Mountain, in that you are accelerated by magnetics to a great speed almost immediately, before flying through the ride and up a vertical tower, and then returning through the same track and slowed down by the same magnets to arrive back at the station. The additions to this one were many however. Rather than a pure up and back ride focusing purely on speed (Superman is the world's fastest at 100mph) you immediately go into a diving curve once you're out of the station, through a tunnel, and up into a huge loop. You then reach a section of the track that's straight and uphill, which proceeds to FURTHER accelerate to an even greater speed, before you're slung around a curve and up the tower. This acceleration in the middle of the track is something I've never experienced before, and that "pedal to the metal head slammed back against the seat" feeling was quite awesome. You then experience similar weightlessness to Superman and are decellerated by the same track before procedding backwards through the loop, always a cool feeling, and returning through the tunnel and curve to the station. Short, but very satisfying. The second ride is merely an added bonus. After clinging on for dear life the first time, I decided to keep my hands up the whole time during the second go round, and that just doubled the fun. Waving your arms in circular motions as you fall backwards through a loop gives you a sense of chaos, of course if you're worried about the shoulder restraint failing I recommend avoiding this tactic like the plague. :)

From the Sahara I headed back to the Stratosphere to pick up my bag, and then took a taxi back down the Strip to the New York New York, in order to complete the Vegas coaster trilogy. Checking my bag there almost became an issue as they asked me whether I was "checking out or checking in." Not being a guest I replied I'd just checked out, but unfortunately they went to check my name in the computer. As luck may have it, someone with the same first and last time had just checked out that morning, and when they asked if the room number was correct I just said "Yeah, that sounds about right." Bent the rules a bit, but it worked out. Headed upstairs to ride the Manhattan Express, the major roller coaster the circles around the manmade skyline of the New York New York. I'd heard rave reviews about it, and was looking forward to the section of the roller coaster they call the heartline roll, where the track literally just rotates lengthwise so you're inverted for about a second before you hit a curve that returns you to an upright position. You end up traveling back the way you came just below the track you entered on, and that wasn't a manuever I'd experienced before, other than a somewhat similar style curve on the Six Flags Magic Mountain coaster Flashback, which became unpopular in a hurry after it caused more headaches than it was worth. The restraints on this one were unlike any I'd seen, instead of your classic U shaped shoulder restraint, it was if they'd cut off the bottom part of the U, so you just had two curved padded bars that rested on your shoulders, and then a waist bar you pulled down to take the place of where the lower part of the U would have been. It looked comfortable until I actually got on, and then I found it to be not as cool as I thought. The first part of the ride shows promise, you get carted up a large lift hill next to the structure of the hotel, and can see your reflection in the wall of glass, so you can see how far you have to go up the hill, a neat effect. It isn't anywhere near the height of such other rides I've experienced like Goliath at Six Flags Magic Mountain (I don't work for them, its just an awesome place thrill rides wise so I'll continue to plug it), but after a somewhat small drop down the first hill you go over another and go down a much larger drop the second time, still didn't seem that humongous or anything. This is where the ride started getting violent, and I'm going to have to give it about an 8 on a violent scale of 10. Through the loop, and especially through a lot of the curves, I was banged around quite a bit. The fact that it includes a Flashback like turn probably means it had to involve Flashback style cars or track, causing it to be a bit painful. It's a relatively long ride by way of pure length, and yes that one turn is a pretty neat feeling as you remain inverted a bit longer than your traditional loop, but I came off it with a bit of a headache. I'd decided to buy a double ride like on Speed, which unfortunately came at double the price at $15. The second time through I tried putting my hands up, but rather quickly had to reluctantly grab onto the shoulder restraints again, trying to keep my head from slamming into them as much as possible. Gave me a decent workout anyway, and I got to ride on the other side of the car and closer to the back, but it still was far below what my expectations were. I recommend once on this ride if necessary, otherwise head down the Strip for Speed or the view and thrill rides on top of the Stratosphere, for a much more comfortable and exhilerating experience.

Unfortunately due to my late wakeup I ended up having to nix a couple of the other activities I had planned for the day, as well as due to the horror stories I'd heard about security at the airport taking up to two hours on average. I did get a chance to go over and see the lions at the MGM Grand, which is free, but I didn't think it to be anywhere near as amazing as the Secret Garden of Siegfried and Roy at the Mirage. The crowd around the glass enclosed cage was about four people deep, so it was hard to get a good view. The hotel had been redesigned since I last visited, you no longer walked through the legs of the giant lion out front, which is what I thought was the coolest part back then. Ended up deciding to just hang out there until it was time to head for the airport, I'd been hoping to get down to the Eiffel Tower at Paris and hopefully get a look at the Fountains at the Bellagio, but I wasn't even sure if the Fountains would be running as they'd been off for the previous two days, and I wasn't sure how long the Eiffel Tower would take, and paying the $9 just to rush up and down didn't sound like too much fun. So there's plenty to do on the next trip anyway. :) Kept winning the "last hand" on Blackjack and then the next two, before losing a couple and coming back to the "last hand" and winning again, so I finally just had to pry myself away and head for the door. I did throw in a random dollar "on the way out" into this one machine with like four separate reels, and ended up winning on two of them, and cashing out at $15. So I left a winner, always a good feeling. After snagging my bag and a taxi the trip to the airport was relatively uneventful, other than me throwing longing glances towards the Strip, as it became further and further away. It turned out the wait at the airport was minimal, and so I killed about an hour with a personal pan pizza and yummy TCBY yogurt with M&M's mixed in, always a good combination. And yes I spent a couple more bucks at the airport slots, and no I didn't win a million. :)

For the flight out I was on the window seat Strip side this time, so I was able to see the Luxor Pyramid, Eiffel Tower, and lastly the Stratosphere all disappear into the fading light. Was I sad? Very. The return to the real world was not a welcome one after living like a king for a period of three days. Anyone heading that direction? Need a tagalong? [wink] Frankly I think that trip was one of a kind. I hope someday I'll be able to afford to take myself back on my own bill, and try to recapture some of the glory. When I'm old and gray though, I'll be able to think back to my 21st birthday, and remember what it felt like to have the time of my life.

Las Vegas, Day Two.

The following is a description of the exploits of a certain twenty one year old individual during his hiatus from his university during which he made the trek to Las Vegas, Nevada for a period of three days in which he had one of the most enjoyable weekends of his life. Saturday’s description follows, Friday's is below, the next installment will come later.

I was unconscious pretty much instantly upon hitting the pillow on Friday. It had been close to a twenty four hour day, and it was finally hitting me. With the amount of incredible things I did that day, I really didn’t think it was going to get any better. I was of course, dead wrong.

Saturday morning consisted of me slamming the alarm clock around the nightstand and eventually onto the floor trying to figure out how to turn the friggin thing off, eventually crawling over to its socket and ripping the cord out of the wall… With that task completed I immediately dropped back into bed, only to remember where I was, and bolt upright like a cannon. Into the shower I went and spiffed up again I became, ready to get the fun rolling again. I decided to try the public bus system since I had some extra time and it was theoretically cheaper, and managed to get on the express going the wrong direction to the point I ended up downtown… I was hoping it would loop around and head back down the Strip so I wouldn’t have to pay again, but no such luck. Two more bucks were forced out of my pocket and about a half hour was wasted as I eventually made my way down to the Bellagio. The ride was actually pretty interesting, when I entered for the return trip a bearded African-American man near the back on the aisle called out to me, and pointing at my sunglasses, asked me if I had “X-Ray Vision.” Not really the type of person to randomly respond to weird looking strangers I pondered ignoring him, but given the dead silence on the rest of the bus and the number of pairs of eyes staring at me awaiting my response, I said no. He said good, and proceeded to whip out a newspaper on which had three bottle caps, under one of which was a small ball. I’m sure you’ve all seen this game before, around and around they go, where does the ball end up is the question they asked. I humored him, and after some attempted rapid movement by him it was still relatively easy to tell the ball ended up in the middle, which was my answer when he posed the question as to where it was. He said congratulations, and handed me a hundred dollar bill. First thing I did was check to see if it was fake, but it wasn’t. Of course there was a catch, and his goal was to have me put up a hundred dollar bill of my own, and if I could correctly locate the ball a second time, both bills would be mine, otherwise he’d keep them both. Double or nothing if you please. I had the money, but pretended not to. I generally don’t make bets I’m not relatively sure I’ll win. So he took the money back and found a taker a few seats away from where I was standing, and did the same thing with him. The second time he made the movement much more difficult to track, but I was still able to tell where it ended up. The guy however got it wrong, and lost his hundred. Then he gave the guy next to him a chance to guess from the remaining two, and he too got it wrong, although he had only put up a twenty. Eventually after several stops by my guess he’d made about two hundred bucks off of people, and had to pay out about a hundred and twenty, two bills to people who ended up guessing right. It seemed to be relatively legit, when it was in my clear view I was able to tell where it ended up, and there was no sleight of hand or anything involved. Obviously his goal was to pay people out who won, but find more suckers than winners. Probably makes a hundred bucks an hour doing it all day long riding the buses. I never did give it a shot, but I’m pretty sure I would have taken a Benjamin off his hands. :)

Anyway, eventually I arrived at the Bellagio, to pick up tickets for the show I was seeing that evening. I’d gotten up earlier than expected, so I had some extra time to wander around, and enjoyed the sights of one of the more ritzier hotels on the strip. I must say, Las Vegas is definitely not lacking attractive people. I must have walked into at least three telephone poles, and probably more like fifteen slot machines, stools, and chairs, while my gaze was averted elsewhere. The only thing I said more often than “Oops I’m sorry” during my stay was “Excuse me, would you be kind enough to direct me to ____” with the blank filled in with whatever I was looking for at the time. Generally I’m pretty anti-asking for directions, but I got over it with flying colors during this trip, as from the get go it was clear that if I wanted to get anywhere in Vegas in a timely manner, it was going to require directions the majority of the time.

Now we come to my two pet peeves involving Las Vegas, both of which I first noticed while wandering around the Bellagio. The first being the fact that these casinos involve wandering around beautiful padded carpets all day long, and then proceeding to touch a metal slot machine, door handle, or elevator button. Needless to say, I received the shock of my life literally countless times. By the third day I eventually started catching myself and using the back of my hand or something a little less surprising, but it was pretty ridiculous how often it occurred. The second one is unfortunately the weather, not necessarily the heat, but definitely the dryness. I’ve never had a problem with chapped lips, and literally have used chap stick like twice in my life and not because it was necessary, but by trip’s end my lips were pretty irritated. It’s two days later now and they’re just now getting back to normal. It’s an awesome city, but the whole desert concept is a big negative when it comes to living there on a more permanent basis. At least, for those of us spoiled enough to live in basically perfect weather all the time. :)

From the Bellagio I wandered next door to Caesar’s Palace, on the way discovering that due to high winds the fountains at the Bellagio would not be operating that evening. As it turned out they weren’t operating on either night that I was in the area, and thus I was forced to miss out on what I’ve heard is one of the Strip’s more amazing attractions. Unfortunate, but I was pretty busy as it was. At Caesar’s I stopped by the exact replica of Michaelangelo’s David, and was pretty amazed by its size. The idea of taking a block of marble that huge (like twenty feet tall) and creating a frozen image of a human being is definitely beyond my comprehension. I also checked out the Fall of Atlantis show in the Forum shops. That one involved a lot of animatronics, fountains, fire, and lights, and drew quite a crowd. I read somewhere that the Forum shops at Caesar’s are the most successful retail operation in the nation, at almost double the total sales per square foot of second place. I didn’t doubt it, the place was pretty incredible when it comes to shopping. I’m glad I’m not a compulsive shopper, or I woulda had a tough time getting out of there without spending loads of money. Luckily throughout the trip whenever I had the urge to buy something I’d realize I had nowhere to put it, and was able to talk myself out of it relatively easily. Caesar’s was the only casino where I tried one of those machines with the rotating car on top, mainly because it was a convertible Mustang, rather than some ugly PT Cruiser or something as in most of the other ones. Yeah, I lost. DOH. I also saw the brand new Coliseum they’re constructing mainly for Celine Dion’s upcoming show, the thing looked GIGANTIC. Of course I hadn’t seen the inside of Bellagio’s theater, which ended up about the same size. Wondering how much they’re going to charge for Dion’s show, I’m guessing upwards of $100, maybe even upwards of $150, which would make it the most expensive show on the Strip.

From there I continued my northward trek up the western side of the Strip and ended up at the Mirage. I had been hoping to catch Siegfried and Roy’s show there, but I’d managed to pick the weekend that they were dark, and decided to replace it with the show I saw at Treasure Island, which ended up being my favorite anyway. I did however get a chance to see the habitats at the Mirage, and got to see many of the animals involved with the show. On the backside of the hotel they have a dual attraction they call the Dolphin Habitat and the Secret Garden of Siegfried and Roy, which they charge you $10 admission for in order to tour both. At first I had somewhat of a “I’ve been to Sea World and the Zoo, this probably won’t be that interesting” attitude, but that quickly changed. The underwater viewing areas in the dolphin habitat were quite cool, the dolphins were trained to swim right up to the windows and make sounds, flap their fins, and even carry around a Frisbee to play with. The tour guide showed us video of two of the dolphin’s actual births that had taken place in that very tank. Always interesting to see the miracle of life take place in other species, watching the cute little dolphin pop out and struggle up to the surface for his first breath of air was quite adorable. After that they led us outside, and had the dolphins do a bunch of flips and tricks, such as launching a beach ball up into the crowd or spitting water all over the tour guide. Was quite fun, I’ve always loved Sea World and those types of shows, and this was no different. Afterward I headed into the Secret Garden, which was even more impressive. The animals there were the most tame I’ve ever seen, they had no problem lounging behind the glass wall just two or three feet from dozens of onlookers. Many of the animals I’d never even seen before, so it ended up being a real treat. Among the creatures were these gigantic lions, just chillin out in plain view, much unlike the ones I generally see at the zoo, who tend to be cowering in the shade or their cave and make it basically impossible to get a decent view or picture. The whole garden was in the shade basically, and all the animals seemed right at home in front of people. The snow white tigers were equally cool, their ice blue eyes seemed to always be staring back at me, it was almost as if they were big kittens. There was also a gigantic Asian elephant bathing itself in a large pool, and a black panther stalking the grounds in another area. One of those times I would have liked to have had a camera, but alas. I hung out in there for quite a while, not too often I’m just chillin out on a park bench next to a huge Bengal tiger, or a gigantic elephant. Riding one of those is on my life to do list, gotta get around to that at some point. :)

Next I hopped on the tram over to Treasure Island, and to my absolute delight, found a Krispy Kremes right outside the tram’s exit. Here I thought I was hundreds of miles from the nearest outlet, but no, I was able to down two original glazed in quick succession. I picked up tickets for the show I was seeing later that night, and then wandered out front to the area in front of the casino where the Pirate Battle is peformed on a nightly basis. Unfortunately as luck would have it, due to high winds that one was cancelled as well. I guess this just leaves me various things to do the next time I return. :) I ended up enjoying the buffet instead, stuffing myself on a little of everything, for a mere $13.99, much better than the similar fares offered at prices closer to $22.95 at other hotels. I basically had one big meal each of the days I was there, surviving the rest of the day with random smoothies or stops at Haagen Daz (can’t say I know how to spell it, that’s a guess) for some of the world’s yummiest ice cream. Killed time with some machines while I waited for the show I had picked up tickets for, and had some pretty amazing luck on The Big Cheese machine there, getting the three 7’s in a row, which on that one pays you $25.00 and then multiplies it by a number between 2 and 25 that gets selected from a wheel. At the Chumash casino here I’d gotten the 7’s two other times and gotten the 25x and the 10x, the two highest values, paying a total of around $900 combined, but unfortunately there I managed to only get the 2x, turning a huge payout into still a decent one, but much smaller. That’s basically why I was even for the trip, I had several opportunities where I had great odds of getting a huge payout because I only needed one spin or one more card, but alas, it became a big fish story as they generally do. :)

After a quick stint at the Blackjack tables where I was of course in a hurry and thus ended up tripling my money very quickly, I hopped on over to Mystere, the Cirque Du Soleil show performed at the Treasure Island. I pronounced the name of it wrong for most of the weekend, it turns out its “misstear” rather than the “mystery” and “missteeeeer” that I’d been butchering it as. Luckily I got there early, because soon after I arrived a guy who eventually became part of the show began posing as an usher, and leading people on wild goose chases around the theater pretending to be leading them to their seats. One unlucky couple’s tickets got pulled up to the ceiling on a string, and shredded into a thousand pieces, another elderly couple was ejected from their seats in the front row nearby me so that an African-American couple could have those prime seats, in order to secure “proper representation” in the audience. It was all in good fun, popcorn and champagne ended up being sprayed in various directions, and the audience had a good laugh before the show began.

The show itself ended up my favorite part of the vacation, it was utterly amazing. Some of the most simple looking acts became the most astounding. One example was these two amazingly buff guys, who just did this ten minute or so set of strength poses, the easiest of which was one guy standing vertically with his arms over his head, and the other guy doing a handstand on his hands inverted, basically forming a two person tower. I say “easy” sacrasticly, of course. There were several minute sections where the upper guy would hold a pose like this, while the lower guy maneuvered in insane ways, with impressive feats of strength and balance. Some of the poses just left me with my mouth gaping open, in disbelief that someone could possibly be that strong and be able to hold that kind of position. The most amazing one in my mind was when the lower guy laid on his stomach, but with his heels in the air thus forming his legs into an L shape. The upper guy balanced on his hands as usual vertically, but holding on to the lower guy's feet. The lower guy then proceeded to excruciatingly slowly lower his feet, until his entire body was horizontal, basically supporting the entire weight of the upper guy on his calves as he did so. As if that wasn’t insane enough, he then let out a grunt and began to slowly raise his legs again, again lifting the entire weight of the upper guy with solely his calves, as they bulged and appeared about to explode. The crowd went nuts with amazement, and when the two guys finally relaxed and just stood side by side in their final pose flexing, they got a standing ovation. I’ve always said there are buff guys, and then there’s people who work at Cirque Du Soleil. There are amazingly built guys, and then there are Cirque Du Soleil performers. They’re great at what they do, and it impresses me every time I see it. One thing did happen however that I had never seen at a Cirque Du Soleil show, and that was the fact that they screwed up a stunt. You know they’re going to do something difficult when they lock themselves into a bungee cord or safety mechanism, because of all the insane things they do with no net, you know if they require an extra level of safety that the stunt must be especially difficult. This particular one involved a seesaw type mechanism in the middle of the stage onto which they were having pairs of people leap, launching someone on the other end high into the air into a somersaulting twisting thing and eventually landing someplace far far away. Near the end of this section they moved a three person tower of people standing on each other’s shoulders into position, as a young woman strapped herself into a safety mechanism and positioned herself on the end of the seesaw. Off went a pair of guys, launching her into a double somersault and then an attempt to land on the tower, and she basically just missed. She landed shakily, causing the whole tower to wobble and eventually collapse. The whole crowd gasped as she fell, but the cord caught her and she was gently lowered to the stage. “What are they gonna do now?” was the thought running through my head, but to my amazement, the live band playing the soundtrack just continued playing the same measure for several seconds, the same rhythm, and nearly before you could tell what had happened, they were back into the same position for the previous stunt, the pair slammed the board down, up she flew, and she nailed the landing. The awesome thing about the front row is not only could I see the disappointment on the faces of the performers when they screwed up the stunt, but I could see the utter joy and excitement when they nailed it the second time. The crowd just went crazy. Many people stood up, the rest just cheered and whistled, basically the loudest I heard a crowd during the entire trip. The music for this show was quite fitting, the rhythms and strong bass with crescendos during the climax of the different stunts was icing on the cake to go along with the great performance. The entire stage was made up of many platforms that raised and lowered, leading to some cool effects involving fog, and people flying in and out of pits, and disappearing into holes that didn’t appear to be there in the first place. I didn’t look at my watch once, and the hundred minute or so show seemed shorter than it really was. At the end the entire cast came out and took off their masks, standing all around the edges of the stage, literally three feet from me. I felt like a teeny bopper near her favorite pop star, I was so excited. The standing ovation was inevitable, the performer’s huge grins showed they were affected by the audience’s shameless display of their appreciation for the incredible performance. To describe all the amazing things they did though, and the hilarity of the clowns during the interludes, would take a lot longer than I’m willing to devote to it, and ruin the fun for those planning to see the show for themselves. At $88 it isn’t the cheapest thing in the world, but I felt it was money well spent. If you’re only going to see one major show in Vegas and you’re pondering the ones I saw, make it this one.

Crazily enough, that was only the first of two shows on my agenda for the evening. I ended up screwing up the timing, thinking the second one at the Bellagio was at 10pm, when it turned out it was at 10:30. So here I am basically jogging between the Treasure Island and the Bellagio around 9:20 thinking they’re going to be seating at 9:30, when really I had an extra half hour. The casinos look like they’re pretty close together, but it’s a pretty decent distance if you’re hoofin it. I ended up there in plenty of time, and ended up making small talk in the little lobby area outside the theater doors, wandering around pretending to be someone who’d just inherited millions, or something. Just about everyone there was decked out, golden jewelry abounded, as did large security guys for some individuals. I didn’t recognize anyone, but it was clear that this wasn’t a poor man’s show. At $121 a pop, it had been a tough decision for me as to whether it was worth it, but given the multitude of reviews making it the highest rated show in Vegas, I decided to see what all the hubbub was about. After the quick walk/jog from Treasure Island I was quite thirsty, so I waltzed on over to the bar and asked if they charged for water. “Would you like some bottled water Sir?” was the reply, as he displayed about a sixteen ounce bottle or so. “Sure” I said, pulling out a buck, “How much?” “That’ll be $4.10, Sir.” I wasn’t able to hide my disgust, as I pointed out the soft drinks (poured into a much larger glass) were a mere $3.50. “This is really good water” the bartender replied curtly. Let me go on record saying that it didn’t taste any different than tap water around here. The Bellagio label is apparently pretty expensive to make, or something. Hmph. Worse yet was the fact that they were trying to sell programs for $8 or something. You’d think paying $121 to get in you’d get a program and a glass of water. Sheesh, the amount of money some people are willing to spend without blinking is just pathetic. I’m really not a fan of people buying $300,000 cars they don’t drive, or $10,000,000 houses with rooms they’ve never been in. That’s just living in excess, and I don’t think it’s necessary. I know I’m lucky to be able to afford this kind of trip, a trip many people only dream about, and I appreciate that fact. That doesn’t mean I take advantage of it on a regular basis. Anyway, eventually I got into the theater, and quite the gigantic and lavish theater it was. Unfortunately this was the one show I wasn’t able to secure front row seats to, as it sells out generally a month in advance and I was only able to yoink a seat in the upper orchestra. This didn’t turn out too bad, as much of the action was in the back part of the stage and below the surface of the water, and it was more clearly seen from the height I was at. If you have a choice though, I’d recommend a seat in the lower orchestra a few rows back, so you can clearly see the performer’s facial expressions, and yet are still able to see both the action right in front of you, at the back of the stage, and up in the rafters. The focal point of this show entitled O, was the fact that a gigantic circular section of the stage was made up of several hydraulic platforms, which when lowered revealed a pool that rose to the height of the surrounding stage. This allowed for some neat effects, at times people would be diving from great heights into the water, at others they’d raise the platforms to just below the surface, so when a performer ran across and you expected him to fall into the water, it would give the appearance that he was walking ON the water. The performance was very elaborate and clearly expensive, with many of the same types of stunts as the show I’d previously seen. The addition of water to the mix created new possibilities, but overall, I just wasn’t as impressed by O as I was by Mystere. Its possible this was because I’d just seen the other one immediately previous and was just blown away, and it's also possible I was bitter about this one being so much more expensive. Don’t get me wrong, the show was good, it just wasn’t astounding or anything. I much preferred the intimate atmosphere of Mystere, with the audience basically surrounding the stage and the action taking place all around you and above you, than the O theater that was basically designed to cram as many $121 paying customers into one space, even if they’re basically segregated from the performance itself. The theater for O was beautiful, as were some of the effects and the costumes, but it just wasn’t what I thought it would be. I guess living up to being the “highest rated show in Vegas” is hard to do. I didn’t regret the ticket purchase, I’m glad I saw it once, but I wouldn’t pay that much to see it again.

After the show I wandered out to the taxi pickup, and the line was about sixty people long, so I decided to go waste some time at the Blackjack tables. This ended up making me a decent amount of cash, and after a quick few machines I decided to check the line again. My eyes sometimes give me problems when a lot of bright light is involved, so I’ve been known to don shades even in the evenings when in areas of bright lighting. Yeah, I’m weird, sue me. So anyway, out I come in my long sleeve silk shirt, slacks, and shades, pausing outside the revolving door as I survey the fact that the line still has about thirty people in it. “Excuse me Sir, can I help you?” asked the suited worker running the line. “Yes, I was planning to take a taxi to…” “Right this way Sir” he interrupted, waving me towards the area in front of the line. Confused I stepped forward, as he let out a whistle towards a waiting cab in a different area than the huge line of others waiting to pick up passengers in the line. Within seconds I was in, and being whisked away to my next destination. I’m still not sure what it was that allowed me to cut the line, and I felt bad. Well, for a few seconds anyway. :) Apparently my attempts to look regal succeed at times. Made me feel pretty cool.

Eventually, back to the hotel I went, utterly satisfied with the day and all its glory. And alas, although this would be my final night in Vegas, I had one more day of fun on the way. I mean come on, I hadn’t even ridden a roller coaster at that point. :)

Las Vegas, Day One.

The following is a description of the exploits of a certain twenty one year old individual during his hiatus from his university during which he made the trek to Las Vegas, Nevada for a period of three days in which he had one of the most enjoyable weekends of his life. Friday’s description follows, the next two installments will come later.

Disclaimer: There is the possibility that certain aspects of the trip will not be brought to light here, for reasons that will not be disclosed. For the most part, it's just to allow the reader to wonder about what aspects those might be, and why they will not be disclosed. I have no doubt that due to length the majority of the people who read this will be skimming for interesting portions, but I’m doing this more for myself so years down the road I can look back and read about how much fun I had. :)

Literally feels like two weeks ago that I was driving down Highway 1 last Thursday night on my way home for the trip, I vaguely remember singing very loudly to whatever was on the radio or the various tapes in my car from the 80s… (I have no cd player, and the last time cassette tapes were around was basically the 80s) That section of the trip was relatively uneventful, ended up going to bed early and getting up early, sailing over to the airport in basically no traffic and discovering the lines for security and whatnot were actually not as long as expected, and ending up with an hour or so to kill before boarding. The one hangup was when I discovered I’d forgotten to take my swiss army knife off my keychain, this poses a problem given the level of security and the fact that anything even resembling a sharp object cannot be carried on. I only had my one duffle, and although it wasn’t dinky I was carrying it on, so I figured if they caught me I’d just have it checked, no biggy. I was pretty sure they’d noticed the knife when they pulled my bag off the conveyor belt and held everything up while they sent it through again, and had my speech about “Oops I forgot” all ready, but eventually they said “You’re clear Sir” and waved me on. Go figure, you can’t take box cutters or portable drill sets on board planes, but a large bladed knife can be taken on by any Joe Schmoe. I was sure I had it made until I got to the gate and noticed that they now have a section set aside to random security checks as you hand them your ticket, the whole “Terrorist for a Day” process in which they go through every nook and cranny of your bag, checking cameras, pagers, and cell phones for function, and doing basically everything short of a strip search to try to find something bad. For some reason, although the people in front and behind me got “lucky” and were chosen for a search, I got waved right onto the plane. Works for me.

The flight over was also relatively uneventful, I had a window seat as usual and spent most of the time either staring out of it or flipping through the SkyMall magazine gasping at how expensive the most retarded items were… Anyone for a seven hundred dollar ear hair trimmer? :/ Upon disembarking I was welcomed by the sight of the first slot machines I’d ever seen in an airport, it makes sense though, what else are you supposed to do if your flight gets delayed. Popped in a buck, on the last hand got a four card straight flush dealt, didn’t come through though. :/ The shuttle trip to the Stratosphere where I was staying consisted mostly of me staring out the window at the huge hotels, signs, and everything that is the Strip in Vegas. Now I’m a city boy, spending most of my life in Los Angeles, so the thought of big buildings isn’t a strange one, but I felt like a kid in a candy store, a country boy who had never been to the big city before, clawing the window, eager to get out and enjoy the scenery. Eventually I made it over to the Stratosphere, which happened to be the last stop for the shuttle out of about ten hotels. I didn’t mind too much, got to learn my way around and see a lot of the places I’d be visiting and how to get to them, and the driver was friendly. That’s one thing that was very enjoyable about the trip, nothing but very friendly drivers when it came to taxis and so forth. I heard one horn honked the entire trip, and that was because some car with Virginia plates blatantly cut off the taxi I was in and almost caused an accident. Other than that, it was nothing like L.A. or NYC, everyone seemed cheerful, letting each other into and out of the right turn only lane, waving their thanks, and going on their way. Going to be using a lot of “anyways” due to the fact I foresee myself interrupting myself very often to tell side stories. It happens in real life too, it really sucks when I can’t remember what I was originally talking about.

ANYWAY.

So I arrive at the hotel and try to check in, only to find out the computer is down. Its about noon, and they tell me to try back in an hour or so, so I check my bags and ponder what to do with my time. Well I didn’t really ponder too long, given I was standing in the middle of a casino. I won’t go into detail about all my gambling experiences, basically had absolutely loads of fun, and ended up close to even on the trip, quite a feat given the fact that I was in Vegas for three days, and they’re notorious for robbing people blind. Played just about anything and everything at some point on the trip, the majority going into my favorite types of big money machines, and another large portion to tables, be it Blackjack or Let it Ride, along with some other random stuff here and there. I was keeping track on paper all the money that was going into machines and onto tables, and everything that was coming out, so I always knew where I stood, and what was paying and what wasn’t. The big winner machine wise was one called Razzle Dazzle, a really fun but rather expensive one that seemed to pay much more often than not. It’s a quarter slot and to make the big money you have to play all five lines, so at $1.25 a pop its not for your typical nickel player. It seems to pay at least your money back at least 50% of the time, and thus lasts a lot longer than your typical slot. However if you get the word Spin anywhere on the third reel, not JUST on the payline like the majority of your money yoinking slots, it spins a second wheel and pops out a number from ten to fifty, multiplying that by your bet (most likely five) and spitting out that many credits. There’s also a Razzle Dazzle symbol on that wheel, which if you manage to hit pays eight hundred times your bet, which for those math whizzes is four thousand credits, or a cool grand. I never hit it, but I got the 50x a few times, and ended up making almost two hundred bucks on that machine overall. So for those of you gambling phenoms out there, I recommend it.

It was actually quite strange, whenever I was going to be in the casino for a while and was trying to win so my money would last longer, I’d usually lose. Whenever I had like an 11:30pm dinner reservation and absolutely HAD to be at the taxis in like five minutes, and just randomly put a five or ten in a Razzle Dazzle machine on the way out, I win like seventy bucks and have to go cash it, then find another one and do it again, and end up almost late for whatever I was going to, although with much heavier pockets. The “Hurry Up And Win” strategy ended up making me more money than anything else, go figure. The one frustrating thing about Vegas when compared to the Indian casino here is that nothing is computerized and prints tickets, they all just pop out buckets and buckets of nickels or quarters you have to collect. Thus every time you win you have to go stand in the line to get bills again since you can’t carry more than one bucket without leaving one someplace accidentally or getting it jacked. It’s much easier to just collect tickets and bring them all at once to exchange for bills, without ever having to worry about dropping a random nickel and ending up with $19.95 or some lame total. Anyway rant over.

So eventually I get checked in, was a bit disappointed to be facing the downtown area of Vegas rather than the Strip, but I got over it since I was on the 23rd floor out of 25 or so, and thus could see quite the beautiful view out the window. The room wasn’t extravagant or anything, but I’m not too picky when it comes to such things, if it serves my purposes then it does fine in my book. Eventually I got spiffed up in my nice clothes and headed toward the south end of the strip, itinerary in hand. Yes I’m obsessed about these types of things, I like doing the maximum amount of stuff in the minimum amount of time. I’m not a tightwad though, well I am at times, but I’m also capable of going to a theme park with someone who isn’t quite so gung ho, and just wandering around doing whatever. When given the choice though, I’d rather have the most fun possible. :) The first thing on my list was picking up tickets for the show I was seeing that night at the New York New York, and then checking out the Shark Reef at the Mandalay Bay, which was quite cool. I’d never seen a golden alligator before (there’s only like twenty in the world or something), and at one point you’re in a glass tunnel with gigantic sharks swimming above, below, and all around you. The windows were floor to ceiling in many sections, and at times the sharks would swim right up to them, to the point you could see every row of teeth when they party opened their mouths to grin at you. I was glad there was glass there, anyway. At $14.95 it was quite expensive though, there were cheaper exhibits at other hotels of different kinds of animals and wildlife that were just as good.

I’m going to be including prices along with my personal opinions on the different attractions and stuff I did, just so those planning trips themselves can decide whether its worth it or not and make decisions about what to see and what not to. Its going to seem like I spent a truckload of money, and basically I did, but this was literally a once in a lifetime experience for my 21st birthday, and to me worth every penny.

After the Mandalay Bay I took the tram over to the Luxor, the pyramid shaped casino with the huge spotlight shining over the top each night visible from miles away. The tram station led right out under the huge Sphinx, was a pretty neat effect. One thing I didn’t do during my trip was take any pictures, I figured since I was by myself there wasn’t really any point, and the different sights would live on better in my memory. If I ever go back with family or friends I’ll be sure to be hammering away at the shutter button though. :) My plan was to see Beauty and the Beast at the IMAX theater there, but it turned out the last showing of it had been the day before, and had been replaced with a different film. I was bummed, that was one of the only Disney movies we didn’t have on VHS back in the day, so I’d only seen it once or twice, and I’d never been to an IMAX theater and wanted to see what forty thousand watts of sound or what not sounded like. :) It turned out okay though, I ended up spending some of the extra time hitting up the casino downstairs, and finding a machine called Little Green Men much like the ones at the Chumash casino here, but with notable positive differences such as the bonus lines working right to left as well as left to right, and payment amounts being higher. Mobbed those machines of fifty bucks or so, and the Luxor was where I first discovered the Razzle Dazzle machine, taking fifty bucks off it too on the way out over to the New York New York.

It was there that I’d managed to snag front row seats to Lord of the Dance at 9pm, a show just about everyone has heard of as being Michael Flatley’s personal spinoff of Riverdance, the wildly successful Broadway show that originated in Ireland, and is based on traditional Irish dancing, most notably their style of tap. Now I’ll admit this type of show isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I’ve always been amazed by that type of dancing, where their feet move at a mile a minute and the clicking seems almost continuous at times. The performance was similar to the original one starring Flatley in Ireland, but of course had different performers in the starring roles, all of which were just as talented if not even more so. There were also some different scenes and variations on the theme, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. The two fiddlers were very cool, they came down off the stage and were chatting with the front row, smiling away as their bows moved like the wind. The sound system in there seemed incredible, possibly because I was close to the speakers, but whenever the bass boomed you could literally feel your seat vibrating, and your heart vibrating in your chest. Was almost like that one scene in Jurassic Park where they realize the T-Rex is coming from a distance. My favorite part of the show as most people would agree was when the entire cast lined up at the end and hammered away right on the front of the stage, speeding up continuously until the ending crescendo. The audience went crazy, and enough people were yelling encore that they redid the final sequence one more time, with the audience on their feet clapping along in time. The energy in the room was great, I ended up whistling the main theme for the rest of the night.

I walked next door to the Monte Carlo and this is where the “Hurry Up and Win” strategy became most apparent, as I needed to catch a taxi to my 11:30pm dinner reservation and see if “the one” was waiting there for me. It was about 10:45 when I walked in, and what can I say, every time I tried to pop one more bill in and leave it multiplied, reproduced, had grandkids, and continued to make me rich. It was unfortunate, as there were about ten Razzle Dazzle machines there, and I only managed to rob four or so for mad cash before I literally HAD to jog towards the lobby. That was the most of those machines at any casino, so if you’re wanting the big bucks, head there. :) Eventually I did make it to the taxi though, and he took the freeway route and got me to the Stratosphere with five minutes to spare. Its quite a walk from the lower casino to the tower elevators, as you have to walk through this meandering path of about a hundred shops and tourist traps, as they try to weasel as much money out of you as possible while you’re there.

The service I received during the entire dining experience while at the Top of the World rotating restaurant atop the Stratosphere absolutely astounding. There’s a private podium downstairs where they check you in, and once your name matches a reservation you’re whisked up an escalator to a private elevator. The elevators in the Stratosphere tower are double decker, with television monitors in them showing you the interior of the one immediately above and below you. It was just myself and the worker in mine, while the one heading for the observation deck below us was crammed with like fifteen people. I giggled. At the top I made a quick stop in the restroom to make sure I was as spiff as could be, and made my way out to the area to make my appearance known. After fielding the “Um, is anyone else going to be dining with you?” question, and realizing that alas, my call to the world had gone unanswered, the young woman led me to my table. It was during this walk that I must have looked like an absolute idiot, due to the fact that as I came around the corner I finally noticed the view, and stopped in mid stride with my mouth gaping open. The height of the restaurant is about a thousand feet off the strip, and you can see just about all of Vegas from up there. The colorful hotels and signs of the strip lit up like a Christmas tree, and it was quite clear how the restaurant coined its name. Eventually I recovered enough to chase down the woman and arrive at my table, which luckily was right on the edge of the room, literally a foot from the window and the thousand foot gap to the ground outside. The entire area the tables are on rotates completely around about once an hour, so its almost unnoticeable unless you stare at one spot enough. The inner area where you entered and where the kitchen is at remains stationary as does the outer windows, but during the course of the meal you end up getting to see Las Vegas in every conceivable direction, at a height high enough you can basically see the curvature of the earth at the horizon. My waiter was possibly the most ideal waiter you could possibly ask for, I’ve never felt more like royalty than I did during the meal. I knew it was going to be quite the experience when he asked me if “regular” water would be okay for the evening. I was starving having not eaten much of anything all day, knowing I was going to have possibly the most exquisite meal ever that night. I’m grateful I was, because I ended up stuffing myself to the brim. The foods all had really long names and are really hard to describe, the kind that the presentation is almost as important as the taste, and you don’t even want to eat them because they look so pretty. :) The appetizer was jumbo shrimp scampi in like a cream sauce, with these weird triangle shaped pastry things sandwiching them, by far the best shrimp I’ve ever had. For the main entrée I ended up enjoying a type of sea bass which is basically indescribable, it was in this delicious sauce and garnished with yummy spices. Okay this is lame, I can’t think of good enough adjectives to describe the food. I feel like I’ve used the word amazing like eight hundred times. I guess I’ll just say the taste of the dinner as a whole was utterly FABULOUS. Dessert was this ice cream apple tart creamy pastry thing that was not only huge, but utterly beautiful. Yet another time a camera would have been great, because the creation ended up way, way, down in the bottom of my stomach. Well actually the top, since the rest of the meal had filled up the rest. I ended up sticking around a while even after I was done eating, just to stare at the view and daydream. The nice thing about the restaurant is they let you ride the elevator up to the indoor and outdoor observation decks free of charge, when the general public pays eight bucks or so. It was pretty deserted up there, as it was around 1am and very windy. I circled the outdoor deck at least three times, enjoying the feeling of being on top of the world staring out at a gigantic city of lights. There are only a few views that I feel can compare to that one, including the one from the top of Mt. Whitney, and the view that could formerly be seen from the top of the World Trade Center. The feeling of the wind in your face, your shirt flapping away, as you stretch your arms out and pretend to fly, is something any little kid (and some big ones) will always enjoy.

Eventually I reluctantly stepped back into the elevator for the return trip, and after a quick stint at the tables, padded off to bed after the most satisfying evening in quite some time. Alas, this was only the end of the first day however, and I had two more to go.

I'm Back.

And I'm alive. I'm not dead. (repeated in two formats to make sure there's no confusion)

Hi. The trip was amazing. I'm tired. The description will start tomorrow. It'll take a while. I have a lot to say. :)

VEGAS BABY VEGAS! YEAH BABY YEAAAAAHHHHH!

Okay so I should probably be asleep by now, but I'm just a tad excited. That and me the idiot forgot to bring home my itinerary for the weekend, so I had to redo it. Luckily I'd planned on making changes anyway, and this one is much more relaxed and better planned. Luckily I do have the sheet with all my reservation numbers for show tickets and flight numbers and so forth. If my head wasn't attached... well you know the joke.

So the theory is heading to the airport tomorrow morning (eh like five hours from now, but I got twelve hours of sleep last night so who really cares) and showing up in Vegas at 11:30am local time. Yeah I know they're in the same timezone we are, it just sounds more official that way. Then comes three days and two nights of fun in the sun and wining and dining (well, at least dining) and eventually trapzing back here on a flight that leaves at 6:30pm Sunday, and leaving here around 9 and making my way back to UCSB around 11 or midnight. Then comes the collapsing for three days aspect, unfortunately it will be interrupted due to various classes Monday.

Feel free to scroll down to read about my dinner plans for tonight, they're pretty elaborate and with under twenty four hours to go, fate has plenty of time to work its magic.

Looked into internet cafes and so forth in Vegas, and they all charge a pretty penny, so I'll see what I can do blog wise, but most likely there will be a complete recap whenever I get back to normal sometime early next week. :) Have an awesome weekend all, because I know I will. Twenty one has its privledges.

VEGAS BABY VEGAS! YEAH BABY YEAH! WOOHOOOOOOOO!

The Five Minute High...

For those looking for a quick fix, try going to a section to find out your paper grade worth 25% of your grade in a class was an A, an immediately following going to get a midterm for another class worth 20% and finding out it wasn't. Luckily plenty of room for improvement in that class that happens to be financial economics, but pretty sure we're going to be steering clear of the nitty gritty aspect of the subject in the future. Not sure where that means we'll be going job wise, but still plenty of time for that. The best part of today is now that its over, I'm going home tomorrow! Well, today now even! Who knows what time I'll leave, probably whenever I get bored and actually get packed.

The other good news is I have two more midterms to get back, both of which should be cheerer uppers. Oh, and the word of the day is wheelbarrow. Inside joke.

Fire Alarms and Rental Cars...

So it turns out I won't be able to rent a car as planned due to the fact I'm lacking a credit card... This caused much rearranging in the Vegas itinerary to allow for easy transportation between destinations, but didn't cause too much trouble. Only two days or so til I'm on the plane, woohoo.

This morning we had a cheerful fire alarm around 8am thanks to someone on the 5th floor burning the sausage they were cooking... Actually I've been counting my blessings in that department, we've only had two this year total when last year we averaged about two a month, generally at the worst possible times.

Just have to get through tomorrows trilogy of sections with random stuff due and midterms coming back, then its basically kick back til the weekend with the next major thing not until next Thursday. Doubt I'll be updating when in Vegas unless I find a cool internet cafe thingy for free, which would actually be nice because telling the stories in sections rather than all at once would be much easier on the fingers and the readers. :)

I've been spending a bit more time than usual lately seeking out and reading blogs by people much like myself from around the world... Quite cool how much you can totally understand what someone is talking about even if you've never met them, or aren't fully aware of the whole situation. Some people just amaze me, the number of hats that they wear, the number of things they're able to accomplish. Some people's lives make your own feel so insignificant, or make you feel like you can do so much more. I've been reading about one young woman from British Columbia who's going to Uruguay through a Youth Exchange program, that's pretty amazing to me. I'm pretty sure I'd drown if I was in a country in which I didn't speak the language. I'm sure I'd learn an incredible amount of things about that culture and what its like to live somewhere other than here, but I don't think I'd ever actually have the willpower to go through with it. More power to those people who can, I admire them.

Hmm...

Suppose I should say Happy Birthday to the older one. Now she's even older. Like, hella old. Man, hope she's invested in a good pair of spectacles. And like, a walker. I'm sure the next time I see her in the supermarket she'll be exclaiming "WOOHOO! TWO FOR ONE SPECIAL ON DEPENDS!" much to the dismay of those in her party. Turning 21 is pretty neat, after that there just isn't a whole lot of joy in saying YAY ANOTHER YEAR OLDER. Not looking forward to it. :) Least no one I know is getting married off yet. That would be irksome.

We Now Return You To Your Regularly Scheduled Life.

Well, at least temporarily anyway. All the fun screeched to a halt tonight as I crammed in a few hours of studying for my Greek Mythology midterm tomorrow at 9am. Had a blast of a weekend anyway...

Got around to seeing Spiderman today, after hearing nothing but praise from everyone around me... I guess my problem is I was never really into the comic book scene, so I wasn't as jazzed about the movie as most. Basically it was very "comic-book-ish" in terms of not at all realistic and more computer generated effects than not, but I hear it stayed very true to the comic book itself. Gonna go with 4 M's out of 7 on this, pretty good action, some very good effects when it comes to wall walking and swingin around and so forth, pretty cheesy dialogue especially between the main character and his damsel in distress, but it gets points for being one of those movies boys can say "wouldn't it be cool if" about when walking out. Pretty sure I'm going to like many of the movies I saw in the previews as well as others upcoming in early summer more however.

After the movie had a bite at McConnells, which is either a direct rip off of Coldstone's or is owned by the same company. Basically the exact same layout and offerings, you pick a hand made flavor, and they "mix-in" a topping that can be chosen from just about every kind of candy bar as well as many of your other typical topping fares. VERY yummy, and it had been an at least a few hours since I had some equally yummy sushi for dinner, so I had created some room through digestion. Needless to say between that and the enormous amount of chocolate and food I've received due to the whole birthday concept I'm definitely going to be hitting the running trail and the pool tomorrow.

Finally got the roll of film developed that I'd been working on since about September... Always a treat as I find pictures I didn't even remember taking, and some that turn out really amazingly. I've been pondering purchasing a digital camera to further my dabbling in photography, and so I don't have to be quite so stingy about not taking a picture unless its perfect. Also have some finalists for the first picture to appear on this page, one of these days they'll pop up. :)

21 For Fun...

The sand crumbles beneath the young man's toes as he walks towards the water, gazing out towards the islands on this early Saturday morning. He says hello to the waves, as they lap up against the shore, as they have for the last twenty one years and millions more prior. He notices a particularly clear area of the wet sand, and decides to create. He digs his heel into the sand, and drags it along the shore, the sand parting for his foot as he moves. He curves around, starts another line, checks his work, goes back to clean up the rough edges. He circles the entire creation with a large oval, and stands back to admire his work. Satisfied, he goes to sit on the sandals he's left nearby, and listen to the ocean. A small boy comes bounding across the sand, being trailed by his mother, who is holding a small girl's hand. He stands before the area, and appears to be thinking very hard as he surveys the scene. "MOMMY MOMMY! There's a 21 in the dirt!" "Yes dear, please walk around it" the mother replies, glancing at the young man as she passes. Waves continue to break, and an elderly man approaches along the shore from the other direction. He's hunched over his cane, taking very small steps, as if each one is an effort. He reaches the spot where the young man is sitting, and gingerly pauses to catch his breath, resting both his arms on his cane as his gaze as well passes over the young man's creation. He looks up at the young man, and with a big grin, says "Happy Birthday." The young man chuckles and responds with a cheerful smile "Thank you Sir." As the elderly man continues on, the young but slightly older now man turns to return to his campsite, leaving his creation to be washed away with the tides. He wonders where he'll be twenty one years from now, what life will be like. If its anything like the twenty one years prior, he has a lot to look forward to.

Only a third or so of the day is gone, and its already been a great one. The camping trip was pretty awesome, got down there around noon yesterday and had a grand ol time all night long, enjoying the fire and scenery, and all the friends from the hall that also made the trip down to Carpinteria. Had a somewhat eerie experience on the way down there, was plowing down Storke doing around 40mph when I suddenly noticed a large bird that looked much like a raven flying alongside my car just outside the passenger window. The strange thing it was matching my trajectory and velocity exactly, other than the flapping of its wings, it appeared like the bird was suspended from a mobile, it was moving neither up or down, nor side to side as far as I could tell. This continued for about a hundred yards, before it peeled off and shot up into the sky out of sight. I could have been seeing things, but I could have sworn it glanced over at me as it flew, peering into my window while it flew alongside. Very strange.

Highlight of the night was during the Taboo game, as I randomly happened to glance behind me towards my car, and notices several people hunched over what appeared to be an open flame on my trunk. "What in the hell are they doing to my car?" was the exclamation that resulted, and "I'm sure they're trying to light it on fire" was the witty response from the guy next to me. I then clued in to the whole candles aspect of what was going on, and the fact that they were about to bring over the surprise cakes for both myself and the other girl who came along who shared the same birthday. Oops.

So, I'm older now, but wiser? Well, there's still time for that.

Midterms and Tents...

It would appear the internet is back to normal, you wouldn't believe how pathetic I end up without it... A whole lot of TV/movie watching, working out, eating, and that's about it...

Took my Econ 2 midterm today, pretty sure I did very well, but with that class its more of a competition to try to get an A rather than an A-, rather than the usual B instead of a C. Also went through and planned out a schedule for the Fall quarter, the wonderful thing about upper division classes is they're small enough that you don't have to enroll in a section, which means less class time per week. It turns out my Mondays and Wednesdays will be somewhat back, but I'll only have one class on Friday like this quarter (which rules) and NONE on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which has never happened before. Crazy...

T-minus two days until someone around here gets a little older... Crap, gonna have to edit the little mini description of this page, won't be accurate anymore. :) Looks like I'm gonna spend most of the day down in Carpenteria tomorrow, camping overnight and then coming back sometime relatively early Saturday, which should leave plenty of time for celebrating the rest of the day. Actually don't have anything planned, but that will probably be part of the fun.

Wow, now this is sad, I just noticed on the F and J keys there are little raised bumps, so that when you put your fingers down randomly you can tell whether your index fingers are in the proper position or not... I've only been typing for like 3/4 of my life, and I just now figured that out...

[shakes his head]

Internet Issues...

The internet in my tower has been down for the last twelve hours or so, I'm only able to connect due to a workaround through another gateway, will update later once things get fixed up.

Room With A View...

Finished off basically the last of my Vegas reservations today, everything set for an amazing weekend in less than two weeks now. If anyone wants to know where I am on Friday, May 10th, at 11:30pm, let it be known I'll be at the Stratosphere's Top of the World restaurant, rotating once an hour looking out at a view of the entire area from a hundred stories up. I made the reservation for two, one because I didn't want to look like an utter and complete loser, and two because I'm quite convinced the girl of my dreams is going to float down out of the sky and appear across from me. :) [watches the reader smile and nod and reach for the phone and the number for the asylum] No really! It's too bad I had to delay it a week, otherwise I would have ticked over to my 21st bday while on top of the world, pretty cool. :) I'll have to just pretend its my bday when I'm there, maybe you get a free dessert! Actually given its probably that kind of place where dessert is another ten bucks, probably not.

So yeah, Girl Of My Dreams Who Is Reading This, now you know where to find me! :) I suppose this could be inviting some whacko stalker prison inmate from Nebraska to come freak me out, but I'll take my chances. ;)

The Phantom Menace...

No I'm not talking about Star Wars, I'm referring to a run in I had this morning with a ghost twig. At least, I assume it was a ghost, because I never saw it coming, and even after tripping hard over it and having to go down on two hands to maintain my upright position and stumbling several feet, and jogging back to see what it was, I never did find it. Don't you love those? I swear someone with the power of invisibility just wanders around tripping people just to get a kick out of it. Found out I'm pretty consistent, my time from last week on the pier run was within one second of this week. Guess it'll be a few weeks before progress appears. Think I'll go run the steps at Harder Stadium tomorrow, although I'll have to see if I can make it all the way out there first. ;)

Today I really should have been called M.P. Clumsy W. actually, while walking past Pulse the copy store here I was looking inside and turned basically right into this large indoor plant, much to the appreciation of the people eating lunch nearby who were desperate for entertainment. Then in Ortega I did basically the same thing when heading out, they have these tall plants in there that lean out into the pathways and just snag people as they go by, someone really needs to take a weedwhacker to 'em. I'm not bitter or anything.

Blog Issues...

Lately its strange, I've been having to hit the post and publish button, then edit the post, then hit the post and publish button again, and repeat this process 2 or 3 times in order for the post to actually appear on the page. I changed the archive settings to monthly, this ends up leave some pretty giant pages, but at least the archive list doesn't take up quite so much space in the right column, we'll see if this fixes the problem. Darn, it didn't, guess I'll have to deal. :/ Anyone have this problem or know a solution?

Monday Blunday...

Can you believe it! Up again at 7 even though I was up til like 2! Go me! Note to self though, don't stay up until 2, makes it a big tougher, oi. Think I'm gonna make Monday distance day. Well, the distances at this point are somewhat laughable, but ya gotta start somewhere. Then I'll do hilly/sand/workout routines like the lagoon and the steps at Harder Stadium on Tues/Thurs, with a medium distance on Wed, and some time trials on Fri to check my progress. Okay, on three on three, BREAK!

Forging New Trails...

Headed out into the wild blue yonder again today for another hiking trip... Ended up off of Hot Springs road north of downtown at a pretty awesome trail... We originally missed the one we were shooting for and ending up climbing steeply up a ridge and popping out at a paved road up on the other side, somewhat anticlimactic to hike for an hour or two steeply up a hill and then finding out you could have driven to that same point. :) To make up for it we did a little off roading up a drainage chute that was basically solid pebbles, made it real interesting both going up and sliding down, mostly on our asses. On top though was a pretty awesome view, not only of the Santa Barbara area, but also the Montecito and areas further South, I'd never hiked a trail that far east so that was all new to me.

Eventually we did find the intended trail on the way down, which let along a creek and involved a lot of rock climbing and balancing acts, was quite fun. :) The goal on this one was the large waterfall at the top, which was really quite peaceful. All along the way there were the sounds of nature and running water, a sound I'm a real fan of. Highlight was me chucking rocks into one of the pools, gradually choosing larger ones, until I managed to dump in this rather large boulder which splashed in such a manner that it shot a stream of water out to the side, nailing the friend I went with pretty good. Almost had me rollin on the ground giggling, not quite. :) Ended up getting a decent amount of exercise, the first trail was pretty steep, and the off trail work and then the second one kept my hands busy, its more fun that way though.

Nothing planned for the remainder of the weekend, cept for some food, man I'm hungry. :/

Today's Sign That the Apocalypse Is Upon Us...

Man, I'm glad I was awake early to go running this morning, because they're running a gigantic vacuum outside to clean up all the broken glass, and it sounds like a freight train. Sucks to be those who were sleeping before that thing started, sounds louder and more annoying than the fire alarm.

Quick note before I head off about today's world news... In Germany this morning a student that had been expelled returned to his former school with two handguns and killed fourteen teachers, a policeman, and two young girls, before killing himself later. This is the type of tragedy that continues to flood the headlines month after month, another child with access to a gun, another school shooting. I'm thankful that it wasn't in our country, but I wonder world-wide what its going to take in order to open people's eyes to the need for better control. I'm not anti-guns, there's never been one in my house other than an old relic of my father's that isn't functional, but even that we were always taught never to touch, and we never did. However I do support gun control, it really isn't that big a deal for those who know how to use one to take a few extra steps in order to acquire one or posses one, rather than them being able to fall into hands they shouldn't. For heaven's sake, its not like teachers are overpaid as it is, they really don't deserve to have to live in fear of former or disgruntled students on a daily basis. This isn't the military, they shouldn't be paid "job risk" bonuses, but they should be able to have some sort of protection against these kinds of monsters.

Anyway, my morning beef, now off to breakfast.

Could You Be Any More STUPID?

Okay so I thought I was going to bed about an hour ago, until I walked outside on the way to the restroom to brush my teeth and witnessed a bizarre scene. Tape was stretched completely across the hallway blocking it at two locations between my room and the bathroom, and a CSO officer was standing between them, looking quite irritated. It was only after I asked what was going on when I noticed the very large amount of glass scattered around the floor. What in the hell...

I wander into a nearby room where I wasn't surprised a conversation about the incident was going on. For those who want background information on the idiot responsible, see Monday, March 4th, for a description of one of my personal run-ins with him. So, the eventual story I get is apparently while I was downstairs working out, (no wait, couldn't have been or I would have seen it when I came up, must have been while I was on the phone...) a couple of the guys on the floor including the aforementioned were having somewhat friendly wrestling matches in the lounge. They were drunk on a Thursday night for some reason, and this ended up causing the aftermath. The matches degenerated into "your mom" jokes in retaliation when someone would lose, and moves such as choke holds were prevalent throughout. I wasn't there so I can't explain exactly when or how, but apparently at some point the idiot decides to punch the window of the lounge door with all his might. Its an inch thick or so, and reinforced, but hit it hard enough and it'll shatter, and shatter it did, outwards into the hallway. Apparently during the punch and as he pulled his hand back through the hole, he severely cut himself on the glass, to the point that blood is now smeared around the hall floor and bathroom. 911 was called, and he was carted off to the hospital. I'd love to say I feel remorseful, but I'm going to have to take the asshole route and say he had it coming to him. The best part about it is that not only does he get charged for the door ($500) and the hospital, but the basically assured result is that he will be removed from the dorms completely and have his contract cancelled, due to this and many previous incidents. It really couldn't have happened any better, no one had to take the fall getting involved with him in order for him to make that final stupid move, he did it completely himself, to himself. Talk about throwing away a lot of money, if he's removed from the dorms there's always the possibility of his financial aid (somewhere in the vicinity of ten grand a year) being cancelled as well.I personally, and just about all the other residents here, will not be sorry to see him go. I'm generally not the hateful type, but when someone is so immature as to do his best to lower the quality of life for everyone on the hall on a regular basis, I feel he should be appropriately disciplined. Good riddance, idiot.

Good night, after this short delay I still must be up with the sun. :)

A Cheesy Story.

So I lumber into Ortega tonight for some dinner after what for some reason was a grueling three hours of classes, even though the first half all I was doing was watching the movie version of Othello. Anyway, I'm glad to see that Alfredo is the sauce of the day, and after snagging a tray out of the reach of the outstretched fingers of the guy in front of me I move with all due haste towards the pasta area. The type of pasta is not my favorite, its that very large very wide very flat sort of tube noodle, no idea what its called. But with Alfredo anything's good. I lop on a decent amount (not too much, just because it tastes good doesn't mean its healthy) and follow my usual path towards the parmesan cheese. I've got my dining habits down to an art form, you can almost predict what I'm doing next if you've seen me walk around enough times. The next step is casually picking up the tongs thingamajig, snaring a healthy amount of parmesan cheese in its grasp, and sprinkling about 1/3 of it around the pasta in an even layer. So today I move in that exact manner, except for some reason as I go to sprinkle, I have some sort of muscle spasm that causes my grip to loosen. Down goes this truckload of parmesan into a humongous pile in the center of my noodles. Well, shit.

Luckily I've passed out of another one of my EVERYTHING irritates me phases, and I just chuckled on my way over to the juices, getting strange looks from people as they stared at my pasta bowl. This woulda been a good third person thing, but comedy doesn't fit as well with that I don't think.

The good news is I turned in a somewhat decent paper, on time even, was done even early enough for an hour long nap before class. Go figure, new leaf hasn't cracked yet. Big test tomorrow though, to see if I can not only go running for the third day in a row, but even go to my only class on Friday, the Classics lecture I tend to blow off because the lectures just regurgitate the reading, so you can do one or the other. Actually I'll sort of be cheating, I have to for sure make up a quiz at an alternate section at 11, so getting to my 9 lecture might as well happen too. Its all good. :)

Skeptics Abound...

I see my guestbook has been tagged by one of the family skeptics... Doesn't bother me too much, I've had people laughing in my face when I tell them about it on multiple occasions. Ended up getting in a good swim yesterday as planned, definitely could tell I've been away from that for a while too, felt like my arms were going to fall off at times. Had to pay another five bucks for towel rental for the quarter too, lame. Think I'm going to look into buying a pair of running shoes, I have a pair of Air Max's but they're more for cross training and stuff like racquetball, I think an actual pair of running shoes would make it easier.

Day 2, up with the tide again, off to run the lagoon. Today will be more interesting in respect to whether I can stick to the schedule as I have an essay due at 2pm, and tomorrow I only have my 9am Classics lecture, which previously was pretty hard to get up for, but with the "new me," shouldn't be a problem! :)

Day 1, Later.

[grunts, moans, groans, and collapses]

Okay that was far. These legs aint exactly what they used to be. Started up a little file thingy I'm going to use just to keep track of my daily times, not trying to push it or anything, but wanting to see if my jogging pace improves any over time. Gotta get some proof that progress is being made in order to stay focused. Coulda sworn I saw people walking their dogs passing me at times though. :/

Now for the other important aspect of the day, food! Well after I do a bunch of ab work. [grunts, moans, groans, and collapses again]

What A Man Was Overheard Saying Having Jumped Off A Building As He Passed Each Floor On the Way To the Ground...

So far, so good...

The plan's workin, I'm up! Who bet me I wouldn't be up at 7, I'm sure someone did, so nyah nyah! Time to exursize.

A New Leaf...

I feel like a broken record, I've probably talked about getting into a new exercise routine like fifty times in this journal, but this time I swear, I'm serious! :) Spent some free time today planning out a daily schedule that I'm going to follow during the week, which includes time for running in the morning, swimming in the evening, as well as pushup and ab work time following both workouts. I even fit in BREAKFAST of all things, something I haven't seen here in quite some time. Obviously I'm going to be getting up a bit earlier than usual on a daily basis, but frankly this afternoon sun when you wakeup thing is getting old. Starting on a Wednesday is going to be a little weird but we'll see how it goes. Part of the plan is up at 7am every morning, which will require going to bed around 11, latest midnight on a nightly basis. Stop laughing. Okay I mean it. Seriously knock it off. Damn you! :/

The overall goal here is to become more physically active, get back to a stage when I'm not horribly worried about jumping into an indoor soccer game without dying after 10 minutes. Yeah losing that twenty or so pounds I talked about before New Years would be nice too. We'll see how it goes. Man, I'm starting to sound like a girl.

It Starts...

First midterm of the quarter tomorrow, followed by a paper due Thursday, and your typical once or twice a week grade making or breaking events through the rest of the quarter. The good news is I actually have full weekends planned upcoming, got a hike scheduled for this weekend the 27th, May 3rd and 4th will be spent camping with the hall down at Carpenteria Beach, 10th through 12th being in Vegas, 15th the hall trip to Magic Mountain, and 17th and 18th camping up at Lake Cachuma at a reunion of the hall from last year. Luckily going to be missing basically no class, and have plans to study and get the reading done around things so that it doesn't pose a problem down the stretch run.

Trying to get out of this going to bed at 3am funk, my plan is to wake up at 10 tomorrow in plenty of time for my 12:30, and then 8 the next day for my 9, and then get on a new schedule where I wake up at a relatively early hour every day to take care of things like exercise before my first class. We'll see how this pans out...

A Journey With A View...

Headed out earlier today for a bout with nature (today being Sunday, time is earlier due to a test post being replaced from last night), ended up on West Camino Cielo road up above Highway 154, basically just to "see where this one goes." In the past I've taken a few journeys of that kind, among them the infamous one all the way over Refugio road from Highway 246 to the 101. This one ended up not quite as impressive, after a distance the road became impassable for anything but a large offroad vehicle. Course that then involved a wonderful 46 point turn (or so) on a steeply banked uphill curve to get back where we came from, which in my car can get somewhat interesting. If you drive up the road to shortly before the gun range however (up to that point its still paved), you'll see one of the more impressive views around here of the airport, UCSB, IV, and the greater Santa Barbara area. One of these days I'll try out some of the other roads around here that lead up into the mountains and see where they take me. :)