Vegas Stories

Just came back from an absolutely wild trip to Las Vegas. Calvin and I stayed at the Mirage hotel on the Vegas strip. Here's the quick rundown:

Friday night... Fly into Vegas and go clubbing at the Ra in the Luxor hotel. Pick up a table and a bottle of belevedere... Calvin enjoys a little too much and ends up getting carted back to the hotel in a wheelchair. Calvin apparently made 800 off roulette before I even got there.

Saturday... After spending most of the day sleeping, Calvin, Sarah, Lara and I go out to dinner at the Renoir at the Mirage. Apparently, this is one of the top 12 French restaurants in north America. It was a total blast, and we even got to start and end dinner with desert. Unfortunately for me, one of the bizarre French appetizers was filled with something I was allergic too, so after dinner I started to turn bright red and had to take some meds which unfortunately ended my night really early. The decor was amazing, we were surrounded by authentic million dollar reniors.

Sunday... Making up for lost time, Calvin gets up at 6 am to start on the Calvin roulette strategy. After a brunch at the mirage, Calvin and I sit down for some roulette. Within minutes some guy walks by yelling "I can't lose, just won 2800 on poker" He asks Lara red or black and sets down a chunk of chips. He hits it, and then tosses Lara a quarter (Vegas talk for $25 chip) which she proceeds to turn into a couple hundred. I went up 600 but then dropped it all. Calvin and I spent the rest of the day on a 10 hour roulette trip that includes the Bellagio, Luxor and MGM grand. I end up hitting my birthday (23) for a 350 payout, but then blackjack and this evil dealer at the MGM takes all my winnings. So I end up right at 0, which actually is not a bad place to be. I think calvin is still up 7, but he hasn't left Vegas yet...

Check out my Belagio payout:

San Francisco pictures up

Two weeks ago, I went up to San Francisco to do all the touristy things with a few other interns from Google. We took the Caltrain up to the last stop and started to explore San Fran. Everyone else had bikes, so I rented one from a local vendor and we biked up to the Golden Gate Bridge and back. I got a couple of nice pictures.

Infinite Gmail

If for some reason you still don't have a gmail account, mail me and I'll get you one.

ESPN.com Sources: Mavs deal Jamison for No. 5 overall pick

ESPN.com - NBA - Sources: Mavs deal Jamison for No. 5 overall pick: "The Mavericks, according to league sources, have acquired the No. 5 overall pick in Thursday's draft from Washington as part of a package that features Antawn Jamison, the newly minted Sixth Man of the Year, as the prize catch for the Wizards."

Hell yeah, the wizards can't pick talent right anyhow (see kwame brown), so jamison is a welcome addition

GIF free!

www.nordlander.com is now GIF free! Read why you should burn all your GIFs. Switch to PNG instead. It's an open format and seems to compress better than LZW anyways.

ESPN.com - David Aldridge: From Washington to world champion

ESPN.com - NBA/PLAYOFFS2004 - Aldridge: From Washington to world champion
David Aldrige tells us why the Wizards just won the world championship.

Cost of War in Iraq

The cost of the war in Iraq. A nice counter:

what's this?

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16, 1953

New Layout and Photo

Spent a little time after work playing with the layout of the site. I like the new colors (makes me think MIT). There is also a random image selected from my photo album each time the pages loads placed on the link to my photo album. Hit 'Reload' and check it out.
Here's a demo of the random picture system:
" alt="Random Thumbnail" />

Getting my blackjack skills on

Last summer I won $1000 on online blackjack, well then I lost $1000 the next day. Good thing none of it was my money. I had this handy table though:

I'll be brining a couple of copies of this to the tables with me to help me win a free stay... In other good news, Netflix is giving me a free month of their 5 DVD plan.

VEGAS!

Next week baby...

sickness

ugh... just had the worst two days... I hate being sick... puts me behind in my work and no drinking allowed. Got to watch a bunch of daytime TV, hasn't improved much since 9th grade... I think that was the last time I watched a bunch of that type of stuff. Jerry Springer is still entertaining, however. It's great to see the trailer trash husband fight the man turned woman turned man who stole his wife from him.

Stallman comes to Google

RMS the guy who wrote emacs and most of the GNU system is coming to Google tomorrow. I wonder if we will get a lecture on why all of Google should be open-sourced...

Super Size Me

I saw the movie Super Size Me, yesterday. Really good film, even though everyone knows the premise (and almost the entire storyline) going in. I don't think I can ever eat at McD's or fast food ever again... and I'm somewhat inspired to keep myself healthy now... trying the South Beach diet, which promises to have you lose 8-10 lbs in the first two weeks alone. It's basically the low-carb diet except that you can add back most "good" carbs once you reach a target weight. 10 lbs less puts me at 185, which is the exact right weight for my height. Biggest setback: no beer.