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I’ve only been here for a few hours and I’ve already learned a couple of things.
- A Cheese Steak, Cheese Fry, and a Pepsi at Nathan’s Famous will cost you $16.02.
- A Cheese Steak, Cheese Fry, and a Pepsi at Nathan’s Famous is too much food for one person.
- Eating the aforementioned meal and then walking briskly for 20-30 minutes while trying to find your way back to your hotel may cause premature evacuation of your bowels.
I’ve also discovered that when I eat alone, I eat way too fast, because I have nobody to talk to. So, we’re off to a good start. A couple of small disappointments though. First, internet access in my room isn’t free. Of course, from a hotel owners perspective, why should it be? They know they’ve got you over a barrel because you’re out here on business, so you’re going to cough up $10.99 per day for internet access. Well, not me. I just can’t justify it. What I might do is pay for one 24hr period, then do all of my website updates and email checking at that time. Anyway, that’s a drag. Other than that, the trip has gone pretty well. Flights were uneventful. I’ll try to snap some pics in the next day or two and get them posted.
Monday, 11/27
I think last night was the worst night of sleep I’ve ever had in my life…or would that be “never had in my life.” Maybe it was the giant Cheese Steak from Nathan’s heaping with peppers and onions. Maybe I was having sympathy sleeplessness because subconsciously I believed that my wife was up with the baby back home. I don’t know.
This morning I timed myself as I walked to the convention center from my hotel across the street. 20 minutes, and I’m not a slow walker. My hotel, The Mirage, is shaped like a giant “Y”, with the elevators in the center. My room is at the end of one of the ‘legs’ of the “Y”. Not just near the end, but at the very end. The very last room next to the exit for the stairs.
Hey, at least I’m close to an exit in case of a fire. Can you imagine being near the center and having to stumble down a smoke filled hallway? Crawling on your hands and knees trying to count doorways as you look for an exit? “43…44…45…wait…where was I???” About a week ago, I bought a pair of Crocs to wear this week. I’m glad I did. They weigh almost nothing, and are very comfortable for walking. Just what the doctor ordered for this week. It would have been a good week to wear a pedometer. I’d be fascinated to know how miles I will have put on by the end of the week. It’s no wonder that they are feeding us at every turn. We need the carbs just to make it too and from our rooms. It’s like we’re preparing for a mountain stage in the Tour ‘de France.
There is a little break in the conference right now, giving me a chance to update this. It’s a welcome break too because it’s been almost a full day of geek speak. So far, it has been very motivating, as it should be. It’s neat to see some of the stuff that is being done it the world of design software. It makes me want to explore the limits of my own abilities. At 5pm we convene for the closing address, then there is a party for developers and trainers. Beer, pizza, and some sort of entertainment. In past years, they reserved the whole top floor of the ESPN Zone restaurant in New York, New York. That will be pretty hard to beat. There are lots of people walking around with Gellato…this is the Venetian, after all. I may have to grab me one of those. According to the agenda, we have some sort of activity every night. I try to treat myself to one nice dinner whenever I come here, but now I’m doubting whether or not I’ll be able to fit that in.
As I suspected, the ADN reception did not live up to the experience of past years. It was just another big conference room with tables, chairs, pizza, and beer. By 7:08pm, local time, I was ready to collapse. I think more from exhaustion than inebriation. It was time to move. I walked “next door” to the new “Wynn” hotel and casino. That is a mighty impressive building. After that I took the foot bridge over Las Vegas Blvd to a gigantic shopping mall. I wandered around there for a few minutes before beginning the long walk back to my hotel. I was back to the room by 9 with lights out at about 10. Another crappy night of sleep ensued.
Tuesday, 11/28
Today is the first day of the general conference. Today, the developers mingle with great unwashed masses; actual Autodesk users.
I had no class scheduled until 10:30, so I decided to eat breakfast in my hotel, rather than rush over to the Venetian at 7:30. I ate at Cravings, the buffet here at the Mirage. Eating alone gives one a lot of time to observe those around them. I saw one poor old guy put down his fork and take a deep breath. He was thinking the same thing I was. “How can I possibly cram more food into my overflowing pie hole?” I gave him a little smile and a nod, as if to say, “take your time, my weary friend, you can do it.”
At 3pm I ambled back to my room to try and grab a nap, however it was not meant to be. I swear that a door is programmed to slam precisely every four minutes. Instead of napping I went over my hand written notes from the day before and cleaned them up so that I can present them when I get back to work.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the menu for this evenings activities included a lot more than just pizza. Actually, it didn’t include pizza, but it had tons of other food. Roast beef and ham, mashed potatoes, pasta, veggies, and lots more. Oh, and they had a full bar tonight, not just beer. I stuck with Coke…not much of a beer drinker, I guess…even when it’s free.
And for those keeping score, here’s what I ingested today:
- Breakfast: pancake, pineapple, watermelon, bacon, an omelet with cheese, ham, bacon, and onion, two cups of decaf coffee, and a glass of orange juice. (And I grabbed a Coke to drink in class)
- Lunch: Grilled mahi mahi, salad, strawberries, two fancy little desert cups with whipped creme and frosting.
- Break time: Coke, huge white chocolate chunk cookie.
- Dinner: Roast beef, ham, mashed potatoes, pasta, veggies, two Cokes.
Wednesday, 11/29
Today can only be described as crazy. Classes from morning till night, a technology presentation until 8pm, a quick dinner, a change of clothes, then off to see a 10:30 show. My classes today were very worthwhile. It’s days like this that make coming to the conference a good value. Even if I pick up only a few tips and tricks to take home, they can have a major impact.
Thursday, 11/30
Today was another busy one, with classes right up until the big closing dinner. This evenings closing entertainment was a very funny comedian, followed by the Blue Man Group. They were good, but can’t hold a candle to the show that I saw Wednesday night. I was invited to see “O” at the Bellagio. “O” is a Cirque Du Soleil show. It was amazing. It’s really impossible to describe it appropriately, it was that good. A special “thank you” to Dave Mitchell from CHI LLC. CHI is one of the technology partners of Herman Miller. He treated me to the “O” show. Probably the highlight of my trip.
On a much more somber note, the travel forecast does not look good for tomorrow. Chicago is getting hammered with the first big winter storm of the season. It doesn’t look much better in Michigan. I plan to get to the airport early and see how things are going. I’m not sure what else I can do. Hopefully I’ll be sleeping at home Friday night. I almost forgot, it’s my birthday tomorrow. I’ve always dreamt of spending my birthday stuck in an airport. Happy birthday, right?
I apologize for not posting more photos. The old digital camera that I took along has had some trouble focusing. All of the pictures that I took initially turned out pretty crappy.
Probably the funniest thing about this blog post is that my spell checker keeps wanting to change both “Gellato” and “Bellagio” to “Fallatio”. At least I got a chuckle out of that.
Friday, 12/01
12:05am (All times are PST, unless otherwise noted. Add 3 hours for EST)
Okay, so things are rapidly falling apart in Chicago. The lady on the Weather Channel recommended calling your airline right away to make alternate arrangements, so that’s what I did. After 45-60 minutes on hold, I was told that there was nothing they could really do. From Vegas, the only other option for them would have been to fly me to Dallas/Fort Worth, which is also experiencing massive weather related delays. Not a very satisfactory result after an hour on the phone. They did tell me to check flight status before leaving for the airport. (Which, as I look at the clock, is getting closer and closer) I just set up a 6am wake up call, so we’ll see what things look like then.
7:57 am
So far, so good. When I got up, I checked the flight status online. On Time, was the report. I couldn’t believe that so I called the travel agent for Herman Miller. They confirmed that AA was indeed claiming that the flight would be on time. So, I headed to the airport. In all the excitement I forgot to check out of my hotel. A quick call to the Mirage front desk took care of that. Now I’m at my gate in the airport, enjoying the free WiFi access. The departure board is still reporting “On Time” for this flight. We shall see. And if I do make it to Chicago, can I make it to GR? That flight is also being reported as “On Time”.
9:20 am
Well, the wheels are really falling off now. We just got word that everything going to Chicago today is cancelled. I had a little heads up because I was checking flight status on my laptop. I quickly called the Herman Miller travel service and asked what to do. They said I had better get myself to ANY American Airlines ticket counter to try and get rebooked. I managed to snag a seat on a flight leaving at 12:40am tomorrow and going through Dallas, to hopefully arrive in GR around noon tomorrow. At this point that’s my best shot. I’ll keep updating this as long as I have access to free WiFi. I have to go back and get the bag that I checked. Not sure what I’m going to do with that all day. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with myself all day. It’s my birthday, after all. Maybe I should head back to the strip for a nice dinner.
12:50 pm
T-minus 12 hours and counting. After my last update I trudged back to the main terminal to claim my bag that I had checked earlier. Then, just for kicks, I logged on to AmericanAirlines.com to confirm that I was, in fact, going to be on the 12:40am flight to Dallas. One bright spot in this whole business was that when I pulled up my reservation, it allowed me to choose my seat. I found that there was a seat available in the first exit row. At least that will make the flight a little more pleasant. I then went back outside and checked my bag in at the curb, so that I wouldn’t have to babysit it all day. They couldn’t give my boarding passes, however, so I went inside to wait in line to do that. The ticket agent was impressed that I had managed to switch my seat online. She thought only platinum members could do that. I don’t know what I did, but it worked for me. After that I just headed back toward my eventual gate. I had to run the whole security gauntlet again, but I just wanted to get it overwith. I’m sure lots of people would say that I’m crazy for spending this whole delay in the airport….why not go to the strip, right? I’ve spent the last five days walking through casinos, and I was just burned out on all of that. And did I mention free WiFi?
4:30p
This is getting to be a long day. As far as I can tell we are still on for the 12:40a flight to Dallas, then 8:30a to GR, arriving around noon. I finished reading The Ever Loving Truth, by Voddie Baucham. A very good introduction to Christian apologetics. Then, on the opposite end of the spectrum, I purchased and read Letter To A Christian Nation, by Sam Harris. In it, he sets out to “demolish the intellectual and moral pretensions of Christianity in its most committed forms.” Well, I’m still a Christian, so clearly Sam has some work left to do. Nothing particularly compelling in here. He attributes many horrible things to the interpretations, (or, more likely, misinterpretations) of scripture. Anything good that has happened as a result of Christianity, he says, could have happened without believing in the message of the Bible.
Oh, and I have a question. Do we really need to keep making the announcement, “…please do not check-in baggage for unknown persons…do not accept items from persons unknown to you”? Is this sort of thing really happening? “Um, you want me to check in that heavy, metal briefcase for you?….I don’t know…um, okay.” Come on! Isn’t this like telling people not to put the dry cleaning bag over their head? Or telling people that need they need to apply shampoo to WET hair. No kidding. Anyway, I’ve only heard that announcement like a thousand times today, so I thought I’d pass that along…free of charge.
7:40p
When I attended AU in 2004, I treated myself to a nice birthday dinner at Emiril’s in the MGM Grand. This year finds me at Ruby’s Diner in concourse D at McCarran International Airport. I like Emiril’s better, although Ruby’s does have a certain charm all its own. Anyhow, the airport has really cleared out. I’m starting to second guess my strategy. Maybe I should have been trying to get on earlier flights on standby. I was just at the gate from which I hope to depart in 5 short hours, and a guy, confirmed on my same red eye flight later tonight, was able to get on the plane leaving at 6p for Dallas. Maybe that wouldn’t help me…even if I get to Dallas sooner, there’s no guarantee that I’d be getting to GR any sooner. I’m sure they don’t have that many flights going direct from Dallas to GR. Actually, I don’t know why you’d have any flights direct from Dallas to GR. If I’m going to sit in an airport, I may as well sit in one that I’m familiar with. I feel like I can pretty much find my way around concourse D in the dark. They have this really cool kids play area that is completely unused. I laid on the floor there for a while as my laptop and phone recharged. It even has cool telescopes that you can use to get a view of the strip.
11:25p
Well, nothing new to report. I was all bummed because I couldn’t get on an earlier flight to Chicago, rather than going through Dallas, but now it turns out that that flight is delayed. It will be leaving at just about the same time my red eye will. I’ll stick with my plans to go through Dallas. Besides, I got a great seat for that flight…9C. First exit row = lots of leg room. My next update will either be from Dallas or Michigan. If I have to pay through the nose for web access in Dallas I’m going to skip it. Please excuse any typos. I’m not seeing very clearly at the moment.
12:40p (12/2)
The flight from Las Vegas to Dallas/Fortworth as great. I had an exit row seat right in the front, and I ended up sitting next the gate agent who had helped me out earlier. She had said that she was going to have a Bloody Mary and go to sleep. Instead, that Bloody Mary wound up making her even more talkative. That helped the two hour flight to pass very quickly.
Sadly, things went downhill from there. I couldn’t find a comfortable place to lie down, the chairs were awful, the list goes on. I passed 3 miserable hours somehow. One bright spot, however, is that when we finally did get in the air, we made great time, allowing us to arrive in GR 20 minutes ahead of schedule. After hacking at the ice and snow covering my car for about 20 minutes, I headed for home, arriving at 12:40 EST. Roughly 26 hours after arriving at the airport in Las Vegas.
