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Well, as it turns out Vegas and I didn’t end up being as good a fit as I thought. Now don’t get me wrong, NAB as a conference was amazing! As you can see in the pic below, a certain suite of products that I use EVERYDAY got a significant upgrade that I was able to check out first hand. Additionally, I had the opportunity to absorb 4 days of in-depth classes taught by industry experts which for the most part was fantastic. I could have done with a few more truly “advanced classes”, but all in all the Post Production seminars were great. The keynotes were a waste of time, but I can’t blame them for wanting to toss in a few headliners to make the conference more attractive. But back to Vegas.

I don’t mean to offend anyone who is a big fan of Vegas, but it just isn’t our kind of town. We (Teressa and I) checked out almost all of the big Hotels/Casinos and spent more than a few evenings walking around trying to find some swank place to eat. Our two faves ended up being rather unusual, Ah Sin which had the best asian style bbq pork I’ve ever had, and a little pizza-by-the-slice place in New York New York. I had grand plans of eating like a king at all the wonderful restaurants in Vegas, but when I looked at the menu everyone looked the same. Steak and some kind of side, some fish and some salads.

Now I love steak, don’t get me wrong. I used to work in a meat shop for crying out loud, but I’ve gotten to the point that I don’t trust other people to cook my steak…especially when it costs 50 bucks a plate. So we ended up avoiding most of the super-swank-restaurants. Some of you might be thinking, but Matt what about the buffets? Well dear friend, the gf doesn’t do buffets so there was no checking that stuff out. I only get to indulge myself in the gluttony of all-you-can-eat on special occasions…i.e. when she isn’t around.

Some of the things I really did enjoy included (obviously) checking out the latest and greatest tech at the conference, the Las Vegas monorail (even if the commentary gets old) and the CLS airport bus drivers. On the way up and back both drivers were very funny and made the trek from the airport to the hotel bearable.

Again, sorry about the lack of updates lately. I’ve got a couple of posts all but in the can, and I’ve got some updates to make over at the laug blog in the next 24 hours…but I plan on posting round here much more regularly. Really, I promise.

Until next time…courage.

We are hanging out at the Southwest terminal getting ready to board our flight so I figured I’d hop on and post while I wait. The wifi here (@ KC) isn’t great but it is enough to keep me from going crazy waiting for the plane with nothing to read. I grabbed a copy of Player Piano (one of my favorite Vonnegut books) to read on the plane, but somehow the chaos of everyone going through security was to much for me to concentrate on reading. So instead I thought I would pollute the interwebs with more nonsense.

Keep an eye on the site as I’ll be posting pics from throughout the trip. I’m also planning on posting some pics from the conference as well as a report from the Apple booth on the Lawrence Apple Users Group site. Hopefully Apple has something cool to announce in light of Leapord being delayed, but as Mike said I’d rather have a completed OS than a half-baked one.

See you from Vegas.

Update: Sorry about the lack of updates. The wifi at the conference has been sllllloooowwww. Hopefully I’ll get something up later today.

I can think of few other people, let alone authors, that shaped my formative years more profoundly than this gentleman. While I don’t think I’ve picked up one of his books in more than 6 years, his writing openned the door to my love of literature in a way few authors could. I’m not sure how excited I am about my birthday being the date of his passing, but I definitely owe the guy.

Thank you for your contributions Mr. Vonnegut, you will be missed.

Via: Brent Simmons