Sin City (and adjacents)

Vegas, baby.  Multi-day drinking binges, gambling thousands of dollars at the blackjack table, snorting coke off of naked dancers.  It's party city.


Or, at least, it probably was for some of the people there.  Me, I was getting up before 7 to go stand (well, sit, mostly) in a booth in a largely-empty convention hall for 10 hours a day.  There'd be a few people coming in during breaks and lunch sessions, but I spent most of my time playing Civ:BE and chatting with the two women who I was theoretically "training" on how we do this sort of thing.


I gambled $3 - one $1 a day on a slot machine outside the elevators.  Didn't win anything.  One of the women dropped $300 or so on roulette, I think, but that was about it.  No shows, nothing exciting.  Heck, I didn't even look up what gay nightlife there was, since I was basically stuck with the coworkers.  The only cute guy I saw at all was on the plane over (30s finance guy, we chatted about 401ks and how guilty he should - or shouldn't - feel about screwing around in Vegas while his girlfriend was back home).


I do have to say, the hotels are huge.  It doesn't help that they kind of run into each other continuously, so that there's limited division between one and the other.  And even then, half of them are owned by the same company or two, so it's more branding than any real difference.


I think, if I were to go back for any reason, I'd drive next time.  I swore I looked it up and saw it was seven hours, but that may have been at peak traffic in LA; it should only be about four most of the time, and I wasted that gets to the airport and waiting for the flight.


I was dead tired when I got back, though, and only just yesterday (Saturday) really managed to catch up.  I got a massage on Tuesday to try and relax a bit, but it didn't help that much.  So I then asked C and D is they wanted to go back to the spa on Friday night; they asked if we could do it Saturday night, so we did that instead.  I had to have L drive himself to the bar, which he wasn't too upset about, but it made it much easier.


... I guess is this where I say that C and D and I finally fooled around a bit. Not at the spa; they apparently saw some people getting it on in one of the steam rooms, and then someone else out on the patio, but that was all.  I was there to actually relax and use it how it's meant (timing myself in the steam or heat rooms, cold shower afterwards, repeat, etc.).  Afterwards, they invited me back to their place to "help" D give C a massage, and I said sure.


The massage went well - I'm actually really good at it; I ought to be, I've had enough of them - and then we of course slipped into fooling around.  D kind of passed out tired, but I got C off before he and I hit the sack.  Then more blow jobs and jacking off in the morning for all three of us.  Fun stuff.  No awkwardness in the morning, no real problems during the night.  We'll have to see if/when it happens again, though I'm pretty certain it will at some point.  It's nice having friends you can just screw around with and not have to worry about consequences.


I got home about 9 am, showered (and took my pill, since I didn't have any with me), and then slept until noon.  When I woke up, I was (and still partly am) completely sore all up and down my body.  I think it's a good thing, as I think it's from the heat/cold treatments in the spa (I had a little of this last time), but only massive hunger got me out of bed.  And I'm sitting here right now trying not to fall asleep while my Indian food delivery comes for dinner.  Definitely going to be an early night.


I'm also on call for jury duty this week; I checked earlier, and don't have to go in tomorrow, but of course I'll have to check up ever night after 5 pm to see.  I doubt they'd ever put me on a jury - I'm like every litigator's worst nightmare, what with being both pretty well-versed in legal process and law itself and a pretty vocal proponent of jury nullification.  But if I have to go down to the courthouse, I'll just catch the light rail straight there.


The guys have plans for Easter weekend, so I'll have to figure out what I want to do.  Might just staycation it, maybe do a few day trips places.  Should be a decent time of year for such.


Anyway, food should be arriving shortly.

RIP: Terry Pratchett

In many of Terry Pratchett's novels, the character Death appears.  He is a bony skeleton in a black robe with a scythe and speaking in all caps, but he's also curious and interested and actually cares about people.  In many ways, I see him as Terry Pratchett writing himself into his novels: Pratchett the atheist, Pratchett the curious, Pratchett the caring, and Pratchett who never quite "got it" as far as people were concerned.  All the characteristics that made him a great author and an even better person.  The following are two of my favorite scenes of his that really show who Death is.

From Hogfather:

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.

And a longer section, perhaps the ultimate example.  From "Reaper Man":

The journey took an instant that would have taken mere light three hundred million years, but Death travels inside that space where Time has no meaning. Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.

There was company on the ride - galaxies, stars, ribbons of shining matter, streaming and eventually spiraling towards the distant goal.

Death on his pale horse moved down the darkness like a bubble on a river.

And every river flows somewhere.

And then, below, a plain. Distance was as meaningless here as time. but there was a sense of hugeness. The plain could have been a mile away, or a million miles; it was marked by long valleys or rills which flowed away to either side as he got closer.

And landed.

He dismounted, and stood in the silence. Then he went down on one knee.

Change the perspective. The furrowed landscape falls away into immense distances, curves at the edges, becomes a fingertip.

Azrael raised his finger to a face that filled the sky, lit by the faint glow of dying galaxies.

There are a billion Deaths, but they are all aspects of the one Death: Azrael, the Great Attractor, the Death of Universes, the beginning and end of time.

Most of the universe is made up of dark matter, and only Azrael knows who it is.

Eyes so big that a supernova would be a mere suggestion of a gleam on the iris turned slowly and focused on the tiny figure on the immense whorled plains of his fingertips. Beside Azrael the big Clock hung in the centre of the entire web of the dimensions, and ticked onward. Stars glittered in Azrael's eyes.

The Death of the Discworld stood up.

LORD, I ASK FOR -

Three of the servants of oblivion slid into existence alongside him.

One said, Do not listen. He stands accused of meddling.

One said, And morticide.

One said, And pride. And living with intent to survive.

One said, And fighting with chaos against good order.

Azrael raised an eyebrow.

The servants drifted away from Death, expectantly.

LORD, WE KNOW THERE IS NO GOOD ORDER EXCEPT THAT WHICH WE CREATE...

Azrael's expression did not change.

THERE IS NO HOPE BUT US. THERE IS NO MERCY BUT US. THERE IS NO JUSTICE. THERE IS JUST US.

The dark, sad face filled the sky.

ALL THINGS THAT ARE, ARE OURS. BUT WE MUST CARE. FOR IF WE DO NOT CARE, WE DO NOT EXIST. IF WE DO NOT EXIST, THEN THERE IS NOTHING BUT BLIND OBLIVION. AND EVEN OBLIVION MUST END SOME DAY. LORD, WILL YOU GRANT ME JUST A LITTLE TIME? FOR THE PROPER BALANCE OF THINGS. TO RETURN WHAT WAS GIVEN. FOR THE SAKE OF PRISONERS AND THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS.

Death took a step backwards.

It was impossible to read expression in Azrael's features.

Death glanced sideways at the servants.

LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?

Interlude

Ever have one of those days when you wake up and every part of you feels off?

Yeah, that's my day today.  Headache, slight nausea (had some breakfast, seems to be going away), sore muscles, tired (damned DST change)... about the only thing I don't have is sinus problems; if I did, this would be a classic sick day.  As it is, I'm just hoping it wears off enough that I can focus for work.

Part of the malaise is because I hiked on Saturday: 7 miles to the top of Mt. Allen/Sandstone Peak, which is the highest point in the Santa Monica Mountains.  It was fun, and I'm glad I went, but it was hot enough that the effort pretty much killed me for the rest of the day.  Or, rather, it should have; I went out with L anyway, including a point where he said, "I'm just going to use the restroom and then we can go," and then proceeded to walk over and chat with someone for twenty minutes.  I swear I was about to get up and tell him to take a cab because I was going home just as he came back and apologized.

And then on Sunday I had to head up to my parents' place to mow their lawn (their on vacation), then hung out with C and D by the pool for a chunk of the afternoon.  And then tried the new Civilization: Beyond Earth for a while and was up far later than I should have been without the time change.

So, all in all, I can't blame anyone else for how I feel this morning, but that doesn't make it any better.

Heading to Vegas for a conference this weekend.  It'll be my first time in Vegas in over 20 years, though I'm not going to have a whole lot of time for sight-seeing.  I'm basically spending the trip baby-sitting others at the conference booth, teaching them how to sell the product.  We'll see how it goes, but I'm anxious for them to take over as much of the responsibility as possible.

Starting to plan a mini-vacation for Easter weekend.  Might rent a cabin up in Big Bear with C and D - one with a hot tub.

Anyway, back to work - query's done.