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Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, it’s science. I don’t normally discuss serious matters on this blog, but this warrants it.
There’s no hope for any of us.
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More physics for you.
I’ve never ridden a unicycle but have always wanted to. It just wasn’t a priority.
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At least I’m not posting what everyone else is posting today.
But in all seriousness, I’m thankful for the time I got to spend with Alissa. That’s the best time I’ve ever had.
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Once again, you kids have wandered onto my lawn, so I need to set you straight. Consider the following meme.
In this meme, Kira Nerys (in the first column) is reacting to what’s going on in the second column, yet her reactions are placed to the left of the Bluetooth devices. How does that make sense? While not all cultures read left to right, most do, and more to the point, ours does. Ergo, the meme shouldn’t be organized this way. Nevertheless, this is how they usually appear, and when they don’t, I’m assuming someone made a mistake. Try this, and see if a better mental picture forms in your head.
“But Rob! She’s subtly facing the wrong direction!” Not really, assuming the camera is panning from the ear to her (which makes the original image wrong for a different reason), but if it really bothers you, then flip the image, Picasso. I used MS Paint for all of this.
Doesn’t this work much better? Get it straight, dipshits.
It ain’t fun growing old.
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Introduction
Every year without a new pandemic, I go to Las Vegas for blackjack. They say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but that’s not really a problem for me. I usually don’t even drink when I’m there. This year was a little different, but still not worth hiding anything. These posts are an assortment of photos and videos from the Vegas Strip. Most of the videos are from an aquarium I visited. The images are pretty big, so if you blow them up, you should still get good resolution.
I always stay and gamble at MGM properties. My credit card doesn’t get me gas credits or airline miles; it gets me gambling comps, so everything but tips are paid for because I paid my car insurance bill, got gas, or bought food at the grocery store. The comps really add up, so I use that card for everything I possibly can. I started the trip with $1,327 in available comps ($200 added just for reserving the room, so you can get those), and that was before I sat down at a blackjack table to gamble.
In all my years of going to Vegas, I’ve been off-strip only twice before this trip. Once was to visit my cousin’s aunt, and the other was to play D&D. For the latter, I connected with my now-friend Stephanie via Facebook. She picked me up at the hotel, drove me to a gaming store, ran one of the early DDAL adventures, then took me to In-N-Out so I could see what the fuss was about (meh), and then took me to In-N-Out headquarters so that I could say I had been there and Erik never had.
The Millennium Fandom
This year, Stephanie had a free day Wednesday, so she took me on my third trip off-strip. This was the first thing I saw when I entered the bar:
After this, the owner (Alex) took us into a section of the bar that was closed that night.
Alex took another picture, but it was a bit poorly timed. However, Alex pointed out that it probably caught me at a moment I was using the Force. I think he’s right.
Next, I had to pick up a passenger. She’s why I crashed the Tie Fighter into a bunch of chairs.
After this, I toured the rest of the bar. I didn’t get some of the references, so please fill in the blanks if you can.
The Fifth Element‘s Water Stone.
Lightsabers, a helmet from The Mandalorian, a helmet from 300, the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones (top left surrounded by red light) and some big-ass sword I didn’t recognize. The bottom left look like bullets, and above that is a shield.
Well, sure, you can just look at these things, but ….
What’s that above me?
Beneath the Aluminum Falcon was this guy.
What’s that hanging above R2’s “head”?
Some Raiders of the Lost Ark stuff and stuff from video games I didn’t recognize.
The Air Stone, Pac-Man, and a mashup. I didn’t get the reference on the license plate.
Lots of masks, the Earth Stone, and a katana I don’t recognize. Is it from Highlander? Suicide Squad? Maybe it’s simply a katana.
Wall-E thinking the band would let him play that night.
I almost went back here thinking it was where the men’s room was. No reason.
Enough of this. Let’s have some more Star Trek. And what the hell? Some Hellraiser too.
Now we have the proton pack from Ghostbusters and some Nightmare Before Christmas stuff, as well as some other things I don’t recognize. It’s hard to see from this image, but in the top right corner is an archer with an eagle on its shoulder. I didn’t get the reference, but I’d love to have that in my home. It was pretty cool-looking. The reason it’s blurry is because the lighting in the room forced me to use a “night” setting on my camera phone requiring more than an instant of exposure, and the slightest movement blurred the picture.
Unless you had forgotten, you must have known that the Fire Stone had to show up. Also, we have references to Predator, Alien, Wonder Woman, and Nightmare Before Christmas (a movie, by the way, that I didn’t see until last year).
After the tour, I noticed a couple of other things around the bar itself. First, a Batman vs. Superman sign that was behind me as I entered the bar.
Remember what I said about the camera setting? In this case, the blur created a neat effect. This is a real image. These are real people, not a drawing or touched-up photo.
Okay, but what’s the crowd like? Well, the QAnon Shaman showed up!
Finally, as I was leaving for the night, I went to the men’s room and saw this hanging on the door to the bathroom stall. Brilliant. I love this movie.
As you can see, this is my kind of bar. If you’re reading this post, I’m guessing it’s your kind of bar as well. It’s worth the Lyft/Uber trip. Oh, and a self-delivered pat on my back.
If you think about it, between the mask and the shirt, I personally added to the nerd motif. Alex should put that picture of me on their website.
If you’re ever in Vegas, look them up. Their online store is here, though most of what I was looking for is sold out.
I bought a hat.
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Introduction
Every year without a new pandemic, I go to Las Vegas for blackjack. They say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but that’s not really a problem for me. I usually don’t even drink when I’m there. This year was a little different, but still not worth hiding anything. These posts are an assortment of photos and videos from the Vegas Strip. Most of the videos are from an aquarium I visited. The images are pretty big, so if you blow them up, you should still get good resolution.
I always stay and gamble at MGM properties. My credit card doesn’t get me gas credits or airline miles; it gets me gambling comps, so everything but tips are paid for because I paid my car insurance bill, got gas, or bought food at the grocery store. The comps really add up, so I use that card for everything I possibly can. I started the trip with $1,327 in available comps ($200 added just for reserving the room, so you can get those), and that was before I sat down at a blackjack table to gamble.
Shark Reef
Normally, I don’t do much more than eat, sleep, and gamble, but I added this stop to my itinerary on Wednesday. Here are a bunch of pictures and videos presented in the order I took them (to the best of my recollection). There’s a small bit of commentary, but these are mostly just for your viewing pleasure.
This next one freaked me out. Mostly, he kept his eyes closed but occasionally opened them. I caught him with eyes opened. Seemed annoyed.
This one was just weird looking. I thought it looked prehistoric, so it was worth a photo.
Next up is the touch pool. You’re permitted to reach into the water (maybe 1-1/2 feet deep) and, using only your index finger, lightly stroke the rays or horseshoe crabs. These were clearly juveniles based on size.
At this point, I realized I should be taking videos rather than taking pictures.
What the hell is the evolutionary basis for developing a hammer-like snout?
Tomorrow, the entire post will be dedicated to a single locale: The Millennium Fandom.
I love Vegas.
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Introduction
Every year without a new pandemic, I go to Las Vegas for blackjack. They say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but that’s not really a problem for me. I usually don’t even drink when I’m there. This year was a little different, but still not worth hiding anything. These posts are an assortment of photos and videos from the Vegas Strip. Most of the videos are from an aquarium I visited. The images are pretty big, so if you blow them up, you should still get good resolution.
I always stay and gamble at MGM properties. My credit card doesn’t get me gas credits or airline miles; it gets me gambling comps, so everything but tips are paid for because I paid my car insurance bill, got gas, or bought food at the grocery store. The comps really add up, so I use that card for everything I possibly can. I started the trip with $1,327 in available comps ($200 added just for reserving the room, so you can get those), and that was before I sat down at a blackjack table to gamble.
Luxor
I stayed at the Luxor, which has a pretty cool design. Here are a few views from the elevator lobby.
The view from my room wasn’t so great, but very few rooms get an unobstructed view of the strip. In all of my trips to Vegas, I’ve gotten that kind of a view only once. This time, however, I got a partially view of the T-Mobile Arena (I almost bought a ticket to the Monday night game between the Ravens and Raiders), as well as my former preferred spot, the Excalibur.
Don’t knock the Excalibur. I always get what I want there. Whenever I’m down, I walk away from the table, head over to Excalibur, and win it all back. I was up $1,000 this year but headed there anyway because I know I could do better. I started with $900 and played for 4-1/2 hours, bouncing between $650 and $910, never gaining ground. Then I went on a run of about 15 straight winning hands, jumping from ~$700 to $1,900 (as explained, I gradually increase my bet as I win, and with ~15 straight wins, my chips explode). Once I finally lost a hand, I walked away. The Excalibur is always awesome to me.
Back to Luxor, one thing bothered me. I stayed at the Luxor once before, but my room was on the first floor. This year, I was on 17, and, well, I’m not sure why more people haven’t fell to their deaths at the Luxor.
If you click through to You Tube, I cite a story about strange deaths at Luxor, but that includes things like a UNLV player dying after a fist fight. Few of the deaths that occur are from falling over these ledges. Considering how short they are, and how drunk may guests are, that’s surprising to me.
Bellagio
Tuesday night, I took a walk down the Strip, stopping at Bellagio for the fountain show. I’ve done that four times before, so it wasn’t a new experience, but it wasn’t as good this time.
I had to wait another 15 minutes for the next song. All Night Long by Lionel Richie was next up. I thought the choreography was a bit weak, but I’m a child of the late 70s and 80s, so I can live with that. The copyright holder is allowing the video to stay up, but there will be ads.
Why What Happens in Vegas Need Not Stay in Vegas
On the walk back to Luxor, I passed a few shops and knew I had to tweet about them.
Sorry, hippies, but this just ain’t my sort of thing.
On Wednesday, I visited Mandalay Bay‘s Shark Reef aquarium and virtual reality show. To keep these posts short, I’ll post those photos and videos in a separate post tomorrow.
I love Vegas.
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I recently took to to social media to whine about how disappointed I am with Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s final season.
This led to a quick back and forth. Two friends agreed but characterized the failure as jumping the shark. I don’t think they’re wrong, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. There are very few new ideas under the sun. Moreover, as I reminded you on Monday, there are only seven stories one can tell. While there can be other factors, putting this together, jumping the shark occurs when the stories a show can tell run their course among their particular set of characters and settings. In other words, the combination of characters, settings, and stories grow stale even if, as with Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Office, and Parks & Recreation, the show has talented writers. It often manifests itself with desperate attempts to try something new that stray too far from the show’s premise. When Happy Days did this, it gave the phenomenon its name.
Now that comedy is being killed by a small minority of the perpetually and intentionally outraged, writers are afraid to take any risks, giving rise to a new way in which jumping the shark manifests. They don’t just take stupid chances to keep the show interesting. They also choose to exclude a wide variety of available stories for fear of losing their positions in the industry due to the controversy they cause. That means that shark-jumping occurs far earlier in the life of a series (c.f., Community), and it manifests as recycling the same tired themes with only meaningless differences from episode to episode.
In my humble opinion, with only a few exceptions, Brooklyn Nine-Nine started to lose its originality somewhere around season three, which isn’t even halfway through its life. (I keep watching because I can’t help but finish things I start.) Sure, we remained attached to some clever, well-delivered one-liners (Bingpot!), and the Halloween competition as a recurring theme, but overall the episodes, and even the characters’ personalities, grew tiresome and/or annoying long before the final season started. (I’ve wanted to punch Charles Boyle in the neck for months now.) The writers on that show both recycled themes and also, by the last season, strayed too far from the premise. I fear the stagnation of shows will only accelerate as we continue to fear those that are offended by everything. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the current crop of writers are among those demanding these changes. In that case, they’re wasting their own talent.
Much like another phenomenon that involves premature action, the cause is often psychological.
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