2008 January | Vegas Geek

Brain Overload, Time to Chill

January 31, 2008

My new position at the office has kept me really busy these past two weeks. On top of the many new projects I have on my plate, I’ve also been added to several new weekly meetings. This has made it fairly challenging to keep up. This morning I got to work just before 7:00 AM. Between 7:00 and 12:00 I had spent a grand total of 6 minutes at my desk. The rest of the time was spent in meetings. Ouch.

Don’t get me wrong, these meetings have all been useful. Knowledge transfer is one of the things I need most right now. I need to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible. But, when you spend 5 hours in meetings, you usually come back to your desk to find 2 or 3 voice mails and a slew of emails that need attention. Get caught up with those and now you have about 2 hours to get 8 hours worth of work done. Sweet!

After a couple weeks of that and I was in need of a night off. It was time to turn the brain off and just chill the fuck out! So last night, that’s exactly what I did. I got home from work, plopped down on the couch with some dinner and then watched a couple movies with the wife.

The first movie we watched was The Man From Earth. This was on the recommendation of both Rob and Todd. One word: Fantastic!

The movie is about a Professor who attempts to convince a group of his colleagues that his 14,000 years old. They spend the better part of an afternoon and evening trying prove or disprove his claim. Each of his colleagues goes through a roller coaster ride of thoughts and emotions as they go from thinking he’s lost his mind to thinking that he’s telling the truth and back again. The bulk of the movie takes place in a single room with nothing more going on than some conversation. The movie was like no other movie I’ve seen before. I can not recommend it highly enough.

Our second movie required a lot less thinking. Waiting…, staring Ryan Reynolds and Justin Long is about a group of friends who all work at a restaurant together. The guys all spend their time playing a game where they try to get the other guys to look at their junk. Succeed and you get to kick them in the ass. There’s all the typical relationship issues (waiter who’s too smart to not being doing something bigger, waiter lusting after the hostess, manager trying to hang with the group of “cool kids”, bitter waitress who puts on the fake smile all day until she’s in the kitchen where she rants and raves like a lunatic). There are several funny parts strewn through the story, but overall, the movie didn’t really do it for me, though I can’t exactly pinpoint why.

Next on my Netflix list are 3:10 to Yuma and Shoot ‘Em Up. But tonight LOST returns. WOO HOO!

Filed Under: Movies, Work

Softball, Social Distortion and Love

January 27, 2008

What a busy day yesterday! I got up and headed over to the park for the first softball practice. It was a perfect day for it. It wasn’t nearly as cold as it had been the previous few days and the park was basically empty so we had no trouble securing the baseball diamond to play on. About 18 of us showed up. For the first 30 or 40 minutes we were taking turns batting and fielding. When it was my turn to hit I realized that it was probably the first time I swung a bat in more than 10 years. After a few warm up swings I belted a few of them deep in to the outfield. That felt really good.

We broke up in to two teams and played a few innings. The other team ended up being stacked and they basically destroyed us. But we had a good time and got some exercise in the process. Win Win. We are supposed to hit the batting cages one night this week. I sure hope I can find a left handed bat.

More than anything, I’m just glad to be able to report that after hitting, fielding, running and throwing, I’m not injured. I am a little sore today after using some muscles that I haven’t used in quite some time. But other than that, I’m fine!

After baseball I came home and worked for a while and then took a nice nap in the afternoon. I don’t know if there is anything better than an afternoon nap. I seriously think they should be mandatory. After the nap it was time to get dressed and head over to the House of Blues to see Social Distortion.

Technically speaking this was our second time seeing Social D in about 45 days. They played 3 nights at the HOB back in December. We went and saw them in concert the same night as the Las Vegas half-marathon that we ran. Thanks to being overly exhausted and sore that night, we saw them do about 3 songs and then we had to head for the door.

For the show last night we met up with Jake and Diane (and Diane’s brother, Mark). We found a decent spot to stand near one of the bars and chilled out through the opening band. By the time Social D hit the stage, the place was absolutely packed. They sounded great and the crowd was really in to it.

One thing I did find funny, though. If you take a look at the average Social D fan at the show, they are pretty hard core. Both guys and gals alike are heavily tattooed and just a bit rough around the edges. But so much of Social D’s music, and especially their concerts, are filled with country music. I’ll bet if you ask all the fans in attendance, away from the show, if they liked country music, I’m sure you’d get way more “Hell No” responses than anything else. I dunno, to me, that’s funny.

But tonight we are heading out to the Mirage to see the Cirque Du Soleil show, Love. Our daughter is a Beatles fanatic and we are taking her to see the show for her 15th birthday. I’m sure she’s going to love it.

Filed Under: Entertainment, Music, Sports

Good bye bass, hello Les Paul

January 27, 2008

For Christmas we got our son a guitar. Since Christmas he’s had it out of the case and plugged in to his amp less than 5 times, I’m certain. I asked him last week how it was going with learning to play. He explained that the guy on the instructional DVD was boring. Sigh. I guess I can’t complain too much since it’s been over a year that I have owned my bass guitar and I have still yet to learn how to play it.

So last week I had an idea. Since I haven’t learned to play the bass yet and he’s unlikely to take the initiative to learn to play guitar on his own, I decided to trade in my bass and buy a guitar so that we could learn to play together. Genius, huh?

After a (not so) quick trip to Guitar Center, I am now the proud owner of the Les Paul you see here.

Les Paul guitar

So when I got home with the new guitar, he was pretty excited to check it out. He then suggested that we compare our guitars. So upstairs we went and out came the amps. We both plugged in goofed around for at least 30 minutes. It’s probably too early to call my plan a success, but it sure is encouraging!

Near the end of our “jam session” I asked him to bring me the instructional DVD. We threw it in to the computer and started watching a few minutes of it. Ya know what? The dude in that video IS boring! Not to mention that he moves too quickly between steps. No wonder he lost interest so quickly!

Filed Under: Music

Welcome back, Netflix

January 26, 2008

I was an early adopter of Netflix. I was a member back when they had only 1 or 2 distribution centers. That never really was an issue since I was in Redondo Beach and they were in Anaheim. I’d still get my movies the day after they were shipped. But, at some point I got so busy with other things I started holding on to movies from Netflix for 2 and 3 weeks at a time. “But there are no late fees” you’ll say. But I’ll say paying $19.95 a month to watch 1 or 2 movies per month is not my idea of a good deal. Netflix benefits most the people who can watch at least a handful of movies each month. If I’m going to pay $10 or $20 to see 1 or 2 movies, I should just buy the DVD and watch it whenever I want.

I reactivated my account yesterday and I opted for the 2 DVD deal. I can rent unlimited movies and can have up to 2 DVDs out at any given time. Plus, I have unlimited access to their downloadable movies. This is a new feature since I was a member previously. I put several movies in my queue and am now waiting for the first to arrive. On Rob & Todd’s suggestion I put “The Man From Earth” as my #1 movie. I’m looking forward to seeing it.

After a great dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with Todd, Justin and Jessi (happy birthday, Jessi) last night, I came home and checked out the downloadable movies. I was a little bummed that you are FORCED to use a PC (meaning I couldn’t lay in bed with the Mac and watch a movie) and Internet Explorer (I’m a Firefox junkie). But, after a quick update or two I was elbows deep in a zombie comedy. Todd had sent me a list of the best 19 movies of 2007 that you didn’t see. One of the movies on the list was called “Fido” and stars Carrie-Anne Moss and Billy Connolly. I won’t even try to explain the movie to you. I’ll just say that it was quite entertaining.

I’m heading out the door to go to Softball practice. My company is putting together a softball team. I haven’t played baseball in probably 30 years and I don’t know that I have ever played softball. This should be interesting. I fully expect to end up in the emergency room at some point.

Filed Under: Entertainment, Movies

Cloverfield: 1, Me: 0

January 20, 2008

This weekend ended up being pretty busy, though I didn’t really start out with many plans. I capped it off with a trip to the movies with Todd & Sarah to see Cloverfield. If you haven’t seen it yet, let me just say…. MOTION SICK!!! The way it’s filmed is very similar to Blair Witch Project. Single camera angle, hand held, bouncy as hell. With about 15 minutes left in the film I started feeling sick. By the time I left, I looked like this:

John Sick

I am amazed that I didn’t throw up. Seriously, I felt THAT bad. But, I went home, crashed on the couch for a while and felt better after about an hour or so.

“How was the movie?” you ask. It was so-so. The story isn’t new. It was just shot from a different angle. I will say that the new Rave theaters by my office are fantastic! First off, they are all digital projection. Second off, they are hidden away in the back of Town Center and not a lot of people know about them. So even though I went to see the #1 movie on opening weekend, the theater was only half full.

As for the rest of the weekend, on Saturday I spent the morning at work trying to get a head start on the weekend. Then Saturday evening Todd and 4th Place came over to play some Rock Band. Sarah, who had originally suggested we have Rock Band night, pulled a big no-show. She claims to have been sleeping. I don’t know that I buy it, though.

This morning I bailed out on my Sunday run. My knee has been feeling funky still. This week I’m going to make a point of riding the stationary bike at least 3 times to try and build up some strength in my knee. I think I may need to hold off on running until I’ve had a few weeks of the stationary bike under my belt. No sense going out and hurting the knee even more.

Filed Under: Entertainment, Movies Tagged With: Cloverfield, Movie

The end of week one

January 18, 2008

This has been quite a week. Prior to this week it had probably been more than a year since I had needed to stay late at work. So far this week I’m 5 for 5 on staying late. Don’t get me wrong, this is by no means a complaint. To be quite honest, even though I have been crazy-busy, I can also say that I haven’t had this much fun at work in over a year, either.

Much of the reason I’m so busy at work is because the new position I’ve taken on is dealing with aspects of the business that I haven’t been involved with in a couple years. I’m spending a lot of time researching things I once new like the back of my hand, but have since forgotten after not having them be part of my day-to-day life in quite some time. It also doesn’t help that in the time that I was away our company has been on a meteoric growth rate. I expect about a month at this pace before I’ve really got my hands around all I need to know.

Or, at least most of it.

Filed Under: Work

Cross Canadian Ragweed at HOB:LV

January 14, 2008

Last night was about the 6th time we’ve seen Cross Canadian Ragweed in concert. I have to say, the definitely DO NOT disappoint!

We got to the show about 10 minutes before the doors opened. While picking up my tickets at will call I asked who the opening act was going to be. The lady informed me that there wasn’t one and that CCR would be playing for about 2 hours. SWEET!

We found a spot on the left side about 4 feet from the stage. We had about an hour to kill so we had a few beers and just basically hung out. The lights finally went down and CCR took the stage. At the end of their first song the lead singer announced that they were audio and video recording the show for a possible something or other. If the video does end up getting used, we’ll most likely be in it as we were right in front of the guy who kept taking shots of the crowd.

The band ended up playing for 2 hours and 20 minutes including playing Primus’ Wynonna’s Big Brown Beaver. But, this is the second show in a row where they have removed Carney Man from their set list which is a bummer.

I was stoked to be able to take my buddy Sean to the show and turn him on to CCR. I had let him listen to my CDs of their music, but they don’t hardly compare to how great the band is live.

Last night’s show did have an extra twist, though. About 20 minutes before the show ended, two young girls (early 20s) pushed their way in front of us and stood between us and the stage. They had obviously been drinking a lot. They immediately started making out. There was a lot of boob grabbing, ass slapping and your basic, run-of-the-mill girl-on-girl tonsil hockey. While it was definitely distracting, the guy standing next to me summed it up perfectly when he said, “Too bad they aint perty.”

Indeed.

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: concert, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Music

A New Challenge

January 13, 2008

Last week I received a promotion at work and am now the Director of Online Marketing. Sounds pretty fancy, huh?

So, what does it mean? For starters it means that I have probably just given up my nights and weekends for the next 4-8 weeks while I dive in and get my hands around everything I have to manage. Even though I have been with the company for 10 years, for the past 2 years I haven’t been deeply involved with one side of the business that is now a key portion of my responsibility. I’m going to spend the next week familiarizing myself with all the elements that I will be managing and then I’ll start dicing it up in to manageable chunks.

I’m quite excited to take on this new position and the challenges that come with it. We’ll see how excited I am about it after a month of sorting through revenue reports.

Filed Under: Work

Mel Fisher & National Treasure

January 13, 2008

Last week I borrowed the movie National Treasure, but I didn’t get a chance to watch it until yesterday. After watching the movie (which is really good, BTW) I had some extra time to kill so I decided to watch all the bonus features. They had the usual deleted/extended scenes plus some on-the-set documentaries and such, but the coolest part had to do with modern day treasure hunters. Most notably, Mel Fisher. If you have never heard of Mel Fisher, here’s a quick snippet from his web site:

Mel Fisher, a dreamer, a visionary, a legend and most importantly, the World’s Greatest Treasure Hunter! Mel Fisher did what many have not – he realized his dream during his lifetime. Everyday he insisted, “Today’s the Day”! His mantra continues to inspire the search for the rest of the treasure from the Nuestra Senora de Atocha and the Santa Margarita, the Spanish galleons that sank during a hurricane on September 6, 1622, near Key West, Florida.

Mel Fisher suffered many personal losses to keep his dream alive during his 16 year search and endured over 100 court battles which ended in victory in the US Supreme Court. The riches Mel Fisher, his team and investors had worked so hard for all those years were finally theirs. The $450 million dollar treasure cache or “Atocha Mother Lode” would be found on that momentous day, July 20, 1985. Over 40 tons of silver and gold were located including over 100,000 Spanish silver coins known as “Pieces of Eight”, gold coins, Columbian emeralds, silver and gold artifacts and over 1000 silver bars.

Many years ago I went on vacation with my grandparents. We drove in a motor home from Los Angeles to Key West Florida and back. While in Key West I had the privilege to meet Mel Fisher and somewhere I have a photo of Mel, my grandpa and myself with a gold chain that must be 20 feet long wrapped around all our necks. It was definitely one of the highlights of the vacation.

While we were at the Mel’s museum my grandpa purchased one of the silver coins from the Atocha which he wore around his neck for many, many years. When he passed away a few years back he passed the necklace on to me. It is, without a doubt, one of my most prized possessions.

If you are ever in Key West, be sure to check out the Mel Fisher Museum. The treasure on display is absolutely amazing. I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to share that experience with my grandparents all those years ago, and I hope one day I’ll get to share it with my kids or even my grandkids.

Silver Coin from the Atocha

Filed Under: Family, Movies