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

Whelp, that didn't take long. Going back to the LV in July to see NIN and Soundgarden. First time seeing them both. Excited to see NIN, they have become a top 3 band for me over the last 5 years or so, and SG has also been a fave over the years. The new NIN album is really good too, and it looks like they've been putting on great shows on all the tours supporting it. This will be the first show of the SG/NIN tour so there should be some amazing energy. Have already requested and been granted the time off at work, including an extra day at the end in case I want to stay an extra day. Don't have a resort lined up yet, but already have offers in hand for 2 nights at both Mandalay and NYNY, so just going to wait a few weeks or so until the 3rd night drops in somewhere. Worst case scenario I'll just have to get one night of the three. Flights are already hovering around $220 and will no doubt drop in the coming weeks. Show ticket is paid for, so the only expense co...

Been back for a couple weeks, time for a wrap up, I guess, but there's really not much to talk about on this one, pretty standard trip. Got into town around 11a, took a cab to MGM and went into the new Tap pub for a quick lunch. This was one of the highlights of the whole trip, good beer, a GREAT Cajun turkey sandwich. Nothing but chubby white guys in there, and they're still clearly working out the kinks (the channel I requested to watch got changed about 5 minutes later with no one noticing), but overall a good experience and definitely a "do" on the next trip. Stayed at the Luxor Towers this time. More check-in drama on this trip, which has become standard for all MGM resorts now and I suppose shouldn't even surprise me. Got to the desk prepared to surrender my $100 a night "hold" on a non-amenities-having room simply b/c it's comped; I've resigned myself to this by now and saved the extra money so it wouldn't affect my trip, but now M...

I've been using Evernote to keep all my snippets organized for this trip. I've used note-taking apps for various phones on previous trips, but Evernote is the best one I've used so far. I'm able to easily add notes from my home laptop and then those entries are synced to both my iPad (which is going with me) and BlackBerry automatically. I'm finding that it's really helpful to remind me of things like making sure to use Player's Club cards wherever I go to eat or drink, and I've also got notes with new bars or restaraunts I want to check out or just general reminders like when my sports teams are going to be playing while there. I've got a note with names and locations of a few off-strip dive bars I may want to check out if I feel like breaking away from the usual spots. Had a plan to do that last trip but ended up in NYNY all day so maybe this time. I've also got a note with current totals of comps, what casinos they're at an...

Raining tits and monkeys today here in SF and I'm stuck home because...it's raining tits and monkeys, and also because if I was out right now (on one of my last two days off before Vegas) I would be spending money that could be spent on the trip, so it's a hibernation day. Have had a really good Vegas playlist that I've been honing over the last few trips and I've been really loving to listen to while I'm in my room there, mostly while getting up and getting ready to go out in the mornings or after a nap and re-shower at night. My taste in Vegas music is a little unconventional I would think, it's bereft of almost all the traditional "whooo parrrrrty!" tunes most people probably would put on a Vegas playlist. You will find no Motley Crue or fucking Pitbull on this list. Nope, I go the other way and try to load up atmospheric tunes that put me into a relaxed, calm state...although there is an uptempo track or two in here. Below is the list b...

Well, this one should be obvious to anyone who's read the blog, like, at all. Solo Las Vegas is how I roll, and I can't really imagine doing it any other way, for me. Sure, Vegas is the stereotypical "girls/guys party scene", and that's fine, but I find it a lot easier to navigate through town by one's self. To be honest, I've never done it any other way, so I don't know that for a fact... So why solo? Well, mainly it's a practical matter; I don't have any friends. Don't cue up the "awww" sound or feel sorry for me, I want it this way. When you combine shyness and moderate insecurity with massive impatience with other human beings, you get a loner. Me. Balancing out the insecurity though is a very well developed sense of who I am. I know my limitations, I know my strengths, and I'm very (maybe overly) self aware and tend to think that my own counsel is really the only counsel I want to follow. That's gotten me to...

Society wants you to be normal. Have a mortgage. Have a wife. Have 2.5 kids and a dog and a cat. Have friends and have BBQ's and have a high-paying stressful job. Have a garage full of useless shit that you'll never use and have crushing debt that you'll never pay off. HAVE. Conform to societal and family pressure to be some ridiculous Cosby Show ideal and be a political "moderate" and live out every sick lyric of "Fitter, Happier". FUCK normal. I say embrace simplicity. Embrace living with freedom. Be solely responsible for your actions and choices and choose to live your life the way you want to. I choose to travel lightly through life. If necessary I could fit what I really feel like I NEED in life into a backpack. I don't own a home, and I don't own a car, ergo I have no mortgage, no car payment, no insurance payment. Everything I own I own outright and fits easily into the tiny room I rent. I have no wife, no exes, no kids, no...

A few of the places I make a point of getting to pretty much every time I go to Vegas, and why. -The Henry at Cosmopolitan. Will always get in here on every trip I take to Vegas. Why? Cosmopolitan was the first Strip resort I set foot in there, and The Henry was the first bar I sat butt in. Even before I gambled a penny there, I lubed up with a couple cocktails here and have always loved the classy yet laid-back vibe of the place. It's just to the right as you walk in the front  (Strip) door of Cosmo, there's always great people watching as the "main drag" of the resort is right behind you, and the service and appetizers traditionally have been amazing. The first handful of times I returned after that first trip I was greeted by name or at least recognized and in a couple cases the tender remembered my drink. That's some next level shit in a place that has that many tourists come through. The formerly amazing app menu has changed for the worse and the sta...