www.tasteslikepurple.com

Ok so I must first say that Vegas is awesome. Now that that's out of the way. Everyones first visit to Vegas should just be written off as just a getting your feet wet experience. You'll most likely spend all your time just walking around doing the touristy stuff. Which is cool since there's a lot of stuff to see, the strip alone is worth a couple of days, and especially nights, of walking around and just looking at all the casinos. If you can be on your feet for a few hours then walking down the strip at night is definitely worth doing. Between all the lights, 30 foot TV screens, fountains and the casinos all lit up it's like wandering around a Disneyland for adults.

Even if you're not up for gambling there is tons of stuff to do, I spent way more money on attractions than gambling. With all the different roller coasters and rides you could spend a couple of weeks just seeing stuff and not have to worry about hitting a show or a slot machine. The view from the Slingshot on top of the Stratosphere is also breath taking, being 1150ft above the strip gives you a great perspective of just what Vegas is all about. You have the strip and not a whole lot else. If you get more than a couple of blocks from the strip then you wander into just a regular small town, not unlike most of the small SoCal that are just across the border. Aside from the fact that most the waitresses in the casinos wearing little more than what you'd see at the beach, it's also pretty kid friendly. I'd probably take my son there for a few days when he gets a few years older and can be let to wander if he wants to.

I went down with my folks, which kinda led to me not doing all the heavy partying that I was planning on, but did have a good time. Next time I go I'm totally going either alone or with a couple of friends, 'cause it's going to be all about me and some heavy abuse of my own body through lack of sleep and alcohol ingestion. I'm trying to make plans for going out during the week in February when they host the porn conventions, not that I'm that into porn but hey if they're throwing a convention it's something I want to experience it.

Oh, almost forgot I got a couple of tattoos while I was there. I know, it's cliche but I've been wanting them for a while and figured it would make a nice souvenir. I got a couple of Japanese cherry blossom based tattoos, one on each shoulder. They're kinda the start of a chest piece I want, have it all planned just need to get someone good to do the drawing and ink.

I took a bunch of pictures that I'll be uploading to my Flickr account, they'll all be tagged with the Vegas keyword if you're interested.

-nurple

Since we last left our intrepid blogger much has happened.

I picked up a new digital camera, a Canon Powershot SD1000 Digital Elph. Really nice little camera, nowhere near the Nikon D80 that I want, but its definitely a very passable day to day shooter. Ive put up some of the shots I took of the fireworks on the 4th into my flickr, just hit up the photos section here to see them.

Speaking of the 4th brings me to my next topic. I spent the Wednesday of gunpowder worship at a friendsfor a BBQ. We had a good old time sitting in the back yard with thesprinkler going for the kids to play in. Eating ribs and bratwurst. An all around enjoyable time. After the food and revelry I went to meet my folks for some big booms and pretty lights. The small town they live in seems to have a Napoleon complex and puts on huge fireworks shows to make up for its relatively low population. Having Casinos and beer distributors as sponsors helps too I guess.

To go along with the frivolity of my personal life, work has been taking a larger chunk of my awake time than usual. Im trying to get several projects done at the same time so the number of conscious hours spent in the office has gone up by quite a bit. Im also trying to get ahead on work as I plan on spending all of next week in Sin City itself, good old Vegas. So aside from having a short week last week and having a short week this week, as I have a cousins wedding to attend on Friday, and not being in next week Im trying to cram 3 weeks of work into a week and a half. Im failing. Im trying but it just doesnt seem to be working as it should. Oh well, Im the only one around work who knows how half the stuff we make works so I never really get in much trouble when I mess up.

With all the non-work activities I already have planned for the next few months my friends and family just keep convincing me to go out and do more. Ive recently been talked into going to a little music fest thrown by a local radio station (ok it wasnt that hard, Smashing Pumpkins and Social Distortion are headlining so it was something I wanted to see anyway). Im also going camping a couple of times this summer. I appear to have been volunteered for a trip to Disneyland as well. Damn my friends and family. Dont they know that I should be just sitting home alone, staring at the wall and wondering why Im not doing more work.

-nurple