I drove from San Diego to
Las Vegas and back this past week. I was driving a
car that could do 177 mph, but, I never did more than 77 mph...I was so paranoid about tickets. I also drove out at night, which was no fun. The desert is strangely captivating during some drives. It's as close to being on the moon as I'll ever be.
I never tire of Las Vegas. I don't care what
Frank Sinatra says, Las Vegas is the city that never sleeps.
While I had not planned on it, I stopped by a craps table after dinner one evening, no joke, for 1 whole hour and made $500. After a bit of research 20 years ago, I learned that (unless you can count cards like the rain man) craps, when played properly, provides the best odds - and most fun - in a casino. I always play the same way: $10 bets on the pass line, followed by adding full odds on the point, and then repeat twice using the come line. that's it. three bets maximum on the table at one time. I never mess around with those "8 the hard way" sorts of bets in the middle of the table. The beauty of craps is that on those odds bets you actually get paid off based on the probability of winning depending on the point(2:1 for a roll of 4 or 10, etc). The one downside to craps, to some folks anyway, is that you must stand the entire time.
My love of
craps has remained for years. Here's a true story: in 1999 with some colleagues, I took out 10 Wall Street financial analysts to
Bellagio one night from 11 pm to 2 am and played craps with them. Not all of them knew what to do at the beginning, but by 2 am, NOBODY had won LESS than $1000. Even the dealers had never seen anything like it. Unlike blackjack (which I also like) craps is a "team" sport: everybody is playing the same role. In comparison, the other Vegas games seem like masturbation, particularly slots. Don't believe me? Next time you are blearly eyed at midnight playing $1 video poker and hear lots of people cheering at the same time, look around. It will be a craps table. You never really get that at the blackjack tables. Instead, you get some people angry at the newbies "...you were supposed to hold with that hand you moron" since they would get the face card the "expert" was supposed to get. Well, I'm glad that for me anyway, I can just as easily stay in a casino on business 10 times without playing at all, and play once in awhile and still have fun. When you look around, you see folks for whom.. the gambling bone is connected to the smoking bone and the driking bone, etc. Somebody I was working with pointed out that it's always entertaining after the morning jog/workout to cruise through the casion at 7 am to see who has been up all night and still drinking. Only in vegas...
Well, I was not paranoid driving home. I made it from LV to SD in just under 4 hours, including stopping for gas. Here's my observation: after living in Germany for years, I still HATE certain American drivers. There are several funny/aggravating types. There's the "let's see you pass me now" guy - the driver that intentionally blocks you when you try to pass up a hill - deliberately driving the same speed (55-65 mph) as the guys in the other lanes making it impossible to pass. Once everybody has gone over the top of the hill, he then matches everybody else as they speed up to 75-85 MPH going downhill. THEN he pulls over to let you pass....."let's see you pass me now" seems to be his mantra. Look fella, I don't really want to have to go 90 to pass you. If your car struggles on hills, why are you insisting on hogging the passing lane?? Then there's the "ENFORCER". He has decided he is personally going to stop all the porsche driving assholes from going faster than him. Of course he's speeding himself, doing 75-80 in a 65 -70mph zone...BUT THAT'S AS FAST as anybody needs to go...says he. He will drive side-by-side the other 75 mph driver for miles - just to piss you off. Hey, look guys - this is not personal. I really don't care about you or your car. There's no shame in simply pulling over one lane (you can keep going the same speed...whoopy!) to let somebody pass you. I don't really mind the typical absent minded Mr. Magoo driver who has not really noticed the last 50 guys that have been passing on the right to go around. It's the guys that are aware of the situation and seemed hell bent on causing an accident to prove their point. OK. Rant over.
I've never been to a NASCAR event...but it looks like a blast. I've had the fun of once again seeing wireless WIDE AREA broadband at, of all places, the planning for an upcoming event this weekend. It is clear that mobile broadband is inevitable - not WiFi, but wide area broadband. Ideally using 1XEV-DO...although there are some other great technologies that have been developed and may work well too...just too early to tell for certain. EVDO is being used by SK Telecom and KTFreetel in a big way, and as it says in the most recent Fortune magazine article, "For there is no more convincing sign of a technology's impending arrival than a naked woman writhing on a color screen". I missed that one. Porn, driving technology, once again.
Still using the 
