It’s going to be a fun month of visitors. My dad and brother are here this weekend. Aydin is coming on Tuesday. Mike is coming on Saturday. Let no one say that we’re anti-family 🙂
Here’s a video of Dede and Amelia after swim class…
Ever the rule breaker!
And also a photo with Luka…
I’m posting this the next morning, but this is really Friday’s post
The final score is in. I lost a little bit of money, I saw a little bit of CES, and the rest of the time was better than it has been in years.
We stayed at both the Cosmopolitan and the Mirage. I’m too old for the former, and so I guess it’s the latter for me from now on. Vegas has definitely become a young person’s playground. The emphasis everywhere is clubs and pool parties. Blackjack and roulette. The slots are much quieter than they used to be…
CES was good. I didn’t get back to the emerging tech section like I would have liked too. Also, the partner device that I came to see wasn’t on display. I guess I can’t bail yet (let’s see if Ian is reading 🙂 ). All kidding aside, I do hope that they have it here next year. That would be a nice personal win.
The craps table was good while I shot, and bad otherwise. I threw 9, 6, 9 (win), 9, 9 (win), 11 (win), 11 (win), 7 (win), 8, 8 (win), 10, 9, 7 (out). That’s quite a good roll for me. After me no one hit anything. Oh well. I was happy with the strategy, and it was only my dad’s money anyway 🙂
The bonding is the best part though. Me, my dad, and my uncle – the three boys. We laugh about stupid stuff. Tell stupid stories. And all of a sudden the world doesn’t feel quite so big.
So final scorecard reads – another big win in Vegas
I think most folks know how much I love Las Vegas. I don’t think anyone really knows why. Here’s the history.
I first remember coming to Las Vegas when I was 12 years old. We stayed at the San Marino hotel which is right by the airport. If I’m not mistaken, it was actually for a conference for my mom, and my dad tagged along to gamble. That was 1996, and so no Paris, Venetian, Bellagio, City Center, Wynn…
We upgraded a few years later to stay at Bally’s, and this time it was my dad’s conference.
My brother and I entertained ourselves at the theme park that used to be behind MGM. We’d go play the midway games at Circus, Circus. Then there was the arcade in Caesar’s and in Treasure Island (now known as TI). The show at Treasure Island was one with real pirates fighting instead of scantily clad chicks fighting. Both the play area and the show are now gone 🙁
As Comdex became more and more a part of our lives, we became regulars in Las Vegas.
I celebrated my 16th birthday in the restaurant in the Eiffel Tower Restaurant at the Paris hotel. I’ve seen all of the Cirque de Soleil shows, Le Reve at Wynn, love the Improv Comedy that’s at Harrah’s, and even the Variety show at the Venetian.
When I turned 18, a friend of mine scratched out the 4 in my birth year, and made it a 1. Overnight I was 21 instead of 18, and then the fun really began. I found the craps tables, and I never looked back (in fact, last May I told a dealer who carded me that he didn’t card me when I was 18 and playing, so why did he card me now? He didn’t find it amusing. It was definitely the same guy 10 years later).
When my dad sold his company, we came out to Networld Interop, and then went to the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Zion national park, and this awesome pizza shop in southern Utah.
Bryan’s bachelor party at Hard Rock. First time out here with John. I brought Micky here, and she wore this smoking hot blue dress. My bachelor party at Aria. Microconf 2012. First CES I brought Amelia too. First time Luka came out here.
With Comdex out for the count after the Internet bubble burst, we’ve used CES as the conference to rally around. We meet up every January for a few days of conference, gambling, steak dinner, and laughter.
Most people have these types of memories at a beach, in the mountains, or at a relative’s house. For me, it’s always been Las Vegas.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I have such a love affair with this forever sinful city.
So it’s finally happening…
My baby boy Luka has started pre-preschool. He gets to the door, waves at the greyhounds, and proceeds to the toys. He doesn’t even look back to kiss us good-bye.
He’s just too brave, and too excited to grow up. He’s so desperate to be where Amelia is, and not get left behind. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him happier than this last week (and that’s saying a lot for Luka).
I guess the time has come for another baby…
Note: This blog was started on the 7th, and therefore I’m back dating the publish date. I’ll work on publishing on time moving forward 🙂
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to read one book per month. One of the books I’ve started this month is titled, “Astrophotography – A Step-by-Step Approach” written by Robert T. Little. The foreword is written by Isaac Asimov.
I’m fascinated by astrophotography. I think the ability to make photos of the Milky Way, other galaxies, planets, the sun during an eclipse is awesome. It reminds me of how small we are, and yet how special it is to be able to capture that hugeness in a 35mm frame.
But…
It’s really hard to do. You see, the earth moves, and so the stars blur. And it’s hard to really nail a galaxy photo without a telescope. And I don’t have a telescope 🙂
But this book is fantastic. It was written in the 80s, still talks about film, and has stamps in the front from being checked out with old school library cards. Further, the author is super clear, and makes everything really easy. I just need to photocopy the one summary page per chapter, and I’m set.
So… who has a telescope I can borrow to test it all out 🙂
I scored some sick goals tonight, but we lost 9 – 13. More details to come after my shower
Note: This is being updated a day later because I passed out and fell asleep
We showed up at a brand new gym ready to play soccer. The other team was half the normal team, and half ringers who came in to play. The quality was really good, and we had a lot of fun. I had 2 goals I’m really proud of. The court size was tiny, and it contributed to some challenges, but I think as a team we handled it really well. If we could just find a goalie, then I think we’d be in great shape for playoffs, but that’s not easy :-/
On to the goals…
The first goal was really the more slick one. It’s a basketball court, and so I had the ball at the top of the key with a defender on my right hip (with my back to the goal). The spot to shoot was actually directly behind where my left foot, and so I had to turn on a dime and shoot while holding the defender where he was. I faked right by stuttering that direction, and then literally turned in the same spot (semi-shielding with my left hip), and nailed it with my right foot. The goalie was actually in good position, but couldn’t get enough hand onto the ball, and I scored. That made it 6 – 8, but we just couldn’t get closer 🙁
The second goal was off of an inbound from Gustavo. The ball gets passed in from out of bounds. I was making a sideline run on the right sideline facing the goal we were scoring on. I took the ball on my right foot, and shielded the defender off with my left hip. I let the ball roll to about the equivalent of the free throw line, and then used my positioning to toe poke the ball towards the near post. The goalie, again, had good position, but just lost his post, and the ball snuck through. The defender (as I was in the air with my left leg wrapped around him), then air lifted me into the corner, and dropped me off. The landing wasn’t smooth, but the goal sure was 🙂
We would have easily beaten them without the “subs” there. It’s fine for a regular season game, but I’m keen to make sure that the playoffs are just players from a team’s roster.
Next week is a double header, and it’ll be tons of fun I’m sure…
Every Sunday night, I’ll do a weekly update of life because it’s too hard to keep up otherwise.
This was a week of family bonding. Over last weekend, we took advantage of not having any kid’s activities to head south. We hit up Costanoa (we love this place) for elephant seals, s’mores, and some camping. The kids got to take their scooters out, and they loved it. Elephant seals are huge, and the babies handled the hike really well. My back not so much 🙂
For New Year’s Eve, we got together with Christian and family. We hiked Tennessee Beach and had a blast. Amelia really became fond of Astrid to the point where leaving turned into a flood of tears. Amelia worries me in that she connects so deeply with people so quickly. I think it’s a wonderful thing, but gosh do I know the downside of it…
Saturday night, Micky and I headed to Meg’s 40th birthday party. Meg is such a huge part of our family. It was a blast catching up with the gang, holding baby Renzo, and hearing Paul’s toast to his lovely daughter. I really had a great time, and it was a fantastic celebration of a really fantastic person.
The rest of the week was filled with parks, getting back to work, soccer, swimming, and getting as much family time in as possible as the holiday season came to an end.
Amelia wanted to do it herself. I wasn’t ready to let her.
Key ingredients – a scooter, a helmet, and a rapidly beating heart. Mixed together, it’s a cocktail from hell. And I don’t drink to begin with.
So there we were, heading to see the Sloan’s new house. Amelia, wanting to copy everything that Lindy was up to, was on her scooter. I couldn’t let go. She kept asking me to let her do it herself. After some tussling, I let her go to see what would happen… and she road her scooter.
She went downhill expertly. She was able to adjust direction (not very well, but she did it). And she knew the speed she was comfortable with, and stopped the scooter if it went too fast. It’s as if she grew 10 years in front of my eyes.
I know exactly what’s going on, but I don’t know how to fix.
You see, Amelia and Luka are at school (Luka starts Monday), or with Genevieve, for a huge chunk of their week. Micky and I get to be with them for a few hours every morning, and a few hours in the evening. So when it comes to the weekend, and I get to be in full on parent mode, it’s hard for me to realize that they’re not frozen in time.
That where I left them last weekend isn’t where they are today.
It’s somehow conceivable that they would have learned, grown, become more capable, or simply just changed.
It’s a really hard reality check, and it’s proven impossible to pull off.
And so, I’m pro-actively making sure I back off. Letting them run around the playground themselves. Giving them the marker, and watching the chaos ensue. Letting the scooter run down hill. It’s so, so hard, but the smile on their faces is also so, so gratifying.
Micky started watching the CBS sitcom, “The Good Wife”, and we’re both hooked. I know the show has been on for a while, and that the reviews have been good, but we haven’t gotten into it before.
It got me thinking about how I consume TV these days.
I really got into “Bones” during season 6. I then found it on Netflix, and binged through it. Same thing with “Burn Notice”. And now, I’m working my way through “Star Trek: TNG” since I saw them in real-time, but I was 7 – 10 years old.
I actually get upset about the Christmas and Summer breaks that shows go on in real-time. I hate having to wait one week at a time to catch the next episode. And it really bugs me that I can only catch shows that are either on Hulu or only after they get to DVD and onto Netflix.
My model of consumption is a completely different model of consumption from how TV is designed.
Netflix gets this. That’s why House of Cards was released all at once. I didn’t get it when it was released, but as I jump from episode to episode of these shows, I totally get it now.
Once sports leagues figure out how to make money from the cable-free crowd (and MLB is leading the pack on this one with MLB.tv), I’m going to be an epically happy, TV-watching dude.
All you can eat seems to be swarming media. Music had it forced onto it; TV is being disrupted by new players; but books are sticking to the old ways.
I’ve been looking for a mass consume way to do my one book a month resolution. The SF library has a pretty awesome e-book collection, but a lot of them are browser only. Classics seem to be really hard to find in e-book format, and I’m not finding a simple way to just have a small, digital library from which I can pull books and read.
I wonder if this gap in the market is something that will doom books.
I also wonder if this gap could be filled not for finished books, but as a way for author’s to connect with their audience, crowd source different endings of a book, create an environment for fan fiction to grow, and make distribution a central part of the entire process.
If music artists need concerts and to sell t-shirts in a post-CD world, then what’s the platform for authors? And how do I mass consume books?
Luka started singing the “ABCs” today.
Our bedtime routine is quite consistent. The kids tend to watch an episode of Curious George (movie or TV version is a nightly debate). Then, after a bit of a temper tantrum (but less so than before), we head to their bedroom to read, sing songs, and then go to bed.
Our book choices are plenty, but we tend to have the same book over and over again for a few nights in a row. Right now, we’re jamming to “One fish, Two fish”, some Maisy books, and “We’re going on a bear hunt”. Other favorites include anything by Susan Boynton and “Goodnight moon”.
After reading (anywhere from 1-3 books), Amelia turns the light off, and we sing.
The first song is always the “ABCs”, and then we do any variety of “Old MacDonald”, “Baa Baa Black Sheep”, “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, and then we always put the kids to bed to “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”.
Clearly, through it all, Luka has heard his “ABCs” enough to start to sing it now, and tonight it was super cute. He got to “E”, and then when we joined him he got so embarrassed that he dug his head into the ground.
It was fantastic.
Long may he sing.