To recap, I was in Las Vegas to help man the booth my employer operates at the NAB Show, so it was mostly a working week for me. That being said, an all-expenses paid trip to Sin City is never short of adventure. The wife joined me on Thursday night to make it a proper vacation through the weekend.
There are many details to share, but in order to avoid my effusive writing style from chaining my wrists to the keyboard for the next week, I'll limit the tale to a Letterman-style Top 10 summary. Mr. Shaffer, the theme, if you please.
Top 10 experiences Tim had in Las Vegas:
Number 10: Stayed at a 5-star Hotel. The Big A treats us well. The Wynn is a classy place and actually quite understated by Las Vegas standards. After spending most of the week there it was disappointing to switch to the nice-but-aging Hilton timeshare at The Flamingo. I just couldn't justify the cost of The Wynn on my own budget.
Number 9: Rode the Las Vegas Monorail. Buried within me are bits of train geekery and Disney geekery. I got a little thrill by taking advantage of a public transportation system descended from the Disneyland Monorail and that's not on Disney property, birthed fifty years ago by Walt's passions for trains and futurism.
Number 8: Saw the Lions at the MGM Grand. We stumbled on the lion habitat while trying to find the exit. A pair of young lions were frolicking in the glass enclosure, barely older (but much larger) than our own kitties at home. They were biting and chasing each other and playing with their toy balls like any carefree kitten. When they tired, they laid down and got pets from the trainers. Very cute.
Number 7: Didn't pay for dinner most of the week. Granted, I was on an expense account so my meals were covered regardless. But every night until the wife and I were on our own, at least one co-worker was present and the senior staff member was responsible for the bill. I had some mighty fine meals this way.
Number 6: Pulled over by the LVPD while riding a motorcycle for the first time. A co-worker rode his bike down to Vegas and wanted to take me out to dinner at a Japanese place way off The Strip. He only had one helmet, which he gave to me, and I rode bitch while he took it slow. We got lost, teasing the odds of being seen by the coppers, and indeed we were pinched. We played dumb about helmet laws and got off with a warning and a suggestion that I find alternate means of transportation.
Number 5: Earned $100 for five minutes of work. On the first morning of the NAB Show a pair of desperate staffers from another company brought me a DVD that needed editing before the show opened. The video they were going to run at their booth contained an advertisement for a product they weren't offering. That's a rather simple job with the video tools that my own company makes, so I quickly had them fixed up. In gratitude they left me a $100 bill, which I politely refused, but they just left it on the desk and ran off. I didn't have much of a choice but to take it. I meant to go by their booth and at least say "Hi" and try to give it back, but I was so busy with my own booth that I didn't find the time.
Number 4: Broke a slot machine. Most Las Vegas casinos have a novelty-sized slot machine with giant reels. At the Golden Nugget, yard-long daquiris in hand, the wife and I waited in line to try our luck with the oversized one-armed-bandit. When my turn came up I landed a $10 prize on the third pull. I cashed out, expecting ten neat "clinks" into the coin bin. "Clink... clink...", and that was all. Error 3300. We had to wait for the service man to come around; the machine was simply out of coins. The wait, however, was enough to disappoint and disperse the remainder of the line.
Number 3: Discovered that Jean-Luc Picard is my descendant. Any good geek who journeys to Vegas must stop at the Hilton to partake in Star Trek: The Experience. We got tickets at half-price (thanks, Tix4Tonight!), but arrived kind of late. We did the Borg Invasion first (the "4D" flight simulator is lackluster, but there is a decent thrill in being chased by actors in Borg costumes), and then we lined up for the Klingon Encounter show at closing time. Since this older show isn't popular anymore the wife and I were the only ones in line. Despite the tiny audience the actors worked very hard to make the story come alive. I would have tipped them had they not all disappeared after their bits were done. Now, I have to spoil the plot a little bit for you to get the joke: In the ST:TNG era, a rogue Klingon captain tries to use time travel to kill Picard's ancestors and thus prevent his birth. He screws up and the audience, one of whom is supposedly said ancestor, is transported into the future and sci-fi adventure ensues. Follow the logic here- since the wife and I were the only two people in the audience, and we can reasonably assume that we don't divorce or have children outside of wedlock, the conclusion is that we're both Picard's ancestors. Jean-Luc Picard is our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson! Neat.
Number 2: Participated in a video podcast with Warp 11. In a very different kind of Star Trek experience, I hung out with Karl and Kiki from Warp 11 at Quark's, the ST-themed bar at the Hilton. Karl also works for the Big A (Kiki just has a nice A) at a different office; he was at the show and we met via a common co-worker. Karl and Kiki were being interviewed for a video podcast for a web site I didn't quite catch the name of. (Google wouldn't cough up the details.) Once I get the info from Karl, I'll post a link so you can watch me enter the scene and slurp Warp Core Breach out of Kiki's lap.
And finally, the number 1 experience that I had while in Las Vegas:
Number 1: I made Penn Jilette laugh. We saw Penn & Teller at the Rio, which I recommend highly. 90 minutes that just fly by. After the show P&T very graciously greeted the audience to sign autographs and take photos. Since Penn had released his long, black locks from his ponytail at the end of the show, I did the same for my pulled-back hair as I walked up to have my photo snapped. That elicited a chuckle from the big man, "Yes, yes, I know your hair is longer than mine!" Frankly, Penn is an easy audience, but it still feels good to have got the laugh.
