It's Not A Bender, It's A Lifestyle.

So, I DL'ed and played the MGM MyVegas Android and iOS game last week. I was...not impressed. The game itself is actually pretty engaging, it keeps you interested and you can fairly quickly advance to other slot-style games (some of them MGM themed) so you don't feel stagnated on one game. The graphics and especially the sound effects are very Vegas-esque, you feel a bit like you are playing a genuine slot machine, and you do feel genuine excitement as the reels spin. It's in the chips system and rewards that the game falls flat. You get a small kitty to begin with and winning at the start is pretty easy, I got from around 500 chips to over 40,000 on the first day, only to lose it ALL on the next day. I DL'ed the game separately on my Nexus 5 and my iPad Air, and both times the pattern was the same. Build you up, give you the illusion that the game will be easy then cut you down to size rather quickly. Accumulating chips allows you to continue playing and gaini...

So the plan on this trip is simple, and two-pronged. 1) See Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden. 2) Get to Mlife Platinum. NIN have become one of my top 3 bands over the last few years as I've belatedly discovered a lot of their back catalog. They are now in the Cocteau Twins/Radiohead level pantheon of All Time Favorites. I have also never seen them live. They appear, from the hundreds of YouTube vids I've watched, to be an amazing live band. Soundgarden too is among my top 20 or so best bands, especially for the album they'll be pushing, a re-issue of Superunknown. Limo Wreck is an amazing tune and I can't wait to see it live. That dual-headlining show is Saturday night and should be amazing. Then there's the matter of Mlife. Gotta hand it to MGM, they have sucked my ass in with this rewards program. I'm at just about the midway point between Gold, where I am now, and Platinum, where I want to be. I need 200,000 points to get to Platinum, I am at 92,000+....

http://www.vice.com/read/las-vegas-is-the-most-depressing-place-on-earth-to-be-alone?utm_source=vicetwitterus Couldn't disagree with the premise of this article enough, what a tired re-hash of the stereotypes of solo travelers. If you travel alone, you must somehow be broken, or sad, or depressed, or unlovable, or desperate. Just the mere suggestion that someone may actually CHOOSE to travel, or god forbid, LIVE alone is unthinkable to this writer. So condescending and shallow. Just like media and society portray single people over the age of 30 as damaged, or crazy, or surrounded by dozens of cats in a small apartment. Media and advertising naturally reinforce the "nuclear family" trope. Families buy a lot more useless shit than single people. Think about it. In my 8 trips, I've never once felt alone or lonely in Vegas...you're surrounded by, for the most part, friendly people of all ages and from all walks of life who typically are in town for a few days o...

Check out THIS hilarious thing. HE'S a big guy, no? This is what Genting is "planning" to build on the dusty plot next to Circus Circus on the north end of the Strip. This was already under construction as something called the Echelon project that was summarily executed when the '08-'09 financial crash hit Vegas hard. Apparently it's going to be re-imagined into a massive, $4 billion, 3000 room Asian themed mega-resort with all kinds of bells and whistles. It's also vapor ware. Sure, SOMETHING will get built, construction is under way, but if you see as much as half of what's in that rendering when all is said and done I'll be surprised. There's a reason the north end of the Strip is a wasteland right now...it a FUCKING HAUL to get there from the heart of the Strip. I made the mistake on my second trip to Vegas of staying at the Stratosphere, north of Sahara Blvd. Just getting from there to the site of the old Sahara is a long walk, it...

The Cosmopolitan has been sold to a group that also owns and runs the Hilton and Wyndham hotel chains. Not a lot of details yet except that Blackstone now will own and presumably run the property. Hoping that this doesn't see the property lose its "Identity". The Cosmo has carved out a niche as the "young, hip, edgy" venue on the Strip, and the place really does have a different feel to it than the other, mostly MGM resorts on that side of the Strip. The clientele is different, celebrities hang out there, the rooms are all pretty unique and modern (and pricey) and the vibe is amazing on a weekend night. You don't see a lot of older (i.e. older than me) guests and there are few of the mid-western shlubs in cargo shorts and fanny packs roaming about, and if there are, they're lost and don't stick around. Ladies tend to dress up (or down) to the nines. When you walk into an MGM resort like the Bellagio, for example, it's nice and all, you fe...

I've already established in this blog that I'm an amazingly selfish person. I'm self absorbed, self centered and don't play well with others. This has translated to other aspects of my life as well; I've gravitated to solo sports like tennis and golf as opposed to team sports, and at work I tend to find a way to be isolated as much as possible. If I do well or badly at something I want it to be all on me either way. But I still do, for some unknown reason, want to be liked, at least on some level, by other people. As this pertains to gambling, I think I gravitate toward slots because it strikes me that nobody likes a winner on table games. If you're a good poker or blackjack or baccarat player and you're winning a majority of hands, the other players on or around the table, unless they are family or close friends, may feign happiness for you but in reality secretly hate you and wish you would be eaten by rabid yaks. Look at the best poker players in th...