Rally's Mobile Blog

The Slider Truck

2010-03-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

Still missing several recent events in the blog, along with Cirque part 2, I will catch up. In the meantime, I took a quick trip out for lunch today, to catch up with the new slider truck in town.

This was only their second day out on the road, but they were very happy and friendly to have some adventurous Twitter folks join them for lunch. @PokerVixen and I headed out there around 2pm this afternoon, to their location in a parking lot at Buffalo & Flamingo.

I ordered two of the Pep Pep Sliders ($2 each), classic burger with tomato, lettuce, cheese & bacon, along with a secret sauce of the thousand island variety. Joined it with a lovely glass bottle, real sugar coke for a filling and satisfying meal.

We chatted with Ricardo the driving force behind the truck and watched as the nearby high school kids also stopped in for a burger or soda. There were also many gawkers driving by on Buffalo wondering what was going on. I will definitely be looking up the Slider Truck again in the near future.

The Slider Truck can be found on Twitter (@SliderTruck), Facebook and at their website. You can also check out my Foodspotting submission for a picture of the meal.

Cirque Viva Elvis Bloggers Night Part 1

2010-03-04T12:55:00.000-08:00

We were back with Cirque a couple weeks ago to celebrate the opening of their newest show, Viva Elvis. This newest resident show is hosted at the new Aria Hotel in City Center.

It was my first opportunity to visit the recently opened City Center and although we spent most of the time in the Aria, over all the place was very impressive. My party arrived early to pick up our tickets, and were nearly rundown by Gene Simmons body guards. Quite an auspicious start to the evening.

We made our way to the ticket booth, procured our passes and headed out to explore the Aria before the show. We took a tour around the second and first floors, checking out the bars and looking for a place to have a drink. We finally settled on the centrally located City Bar for one of their signature cocktails. Some other friends found us there (thanks GoWalla!) and joined us there for a pre show drink.

We headed back up to the theater and watched a bit of the "Blue Carpet", most of the stars waited until really late to start heading into the show. There was really too many cameras and press to get a really good look at the folks "arriving". They had been partying at a pre show event next to the "Blue Carpet".

We all ended up heading into the show to find our seats, since we were scattered in a few different sections. @Stormyiz and I ended up in a row with some other friends and in a good spot to watch the celebreties. Notable, along with our decriptors were:

Chris "Mr Big" Noth, actually we watch the Good Wife, his current show, so we keep telling people how good a show it is.

Lawrence Fishburn, yeah the guy from the Matrix.

Hilton Perez, who cares, but apparently he knows that really short guy Ryan Seacrest.

Jeff Probst who looked just like he does on Survivor with little rolled up sleeves and epalets, I should talk, I just

purchased stock in epaleted shirts. The eighties are back!

That guy from Prison Break.

Regis Philbin and his wife, who ignored the ushers request to wait for someone to bring you to your seat, she thought we

had their row and they needed 3 seats, not the 2 empties between us and another couple.

Andrew Dice "you can see him from space" Clay

NPH, the NPH, with his bow tie shirt and boyfriend. If I have to explain this one, you really shouldn't be reading my blog, or back to the 2008 entries and figure out.

We spotted some others, but really there were a lot of Vegas celebs and minor tv celebs, still it was fun if you watch tv. A lot of our friends apparently do not, hence the interesting descriptors.

So on with show, in the next blog post, forthcoming.

Catching Up

2010-03-03T10:05:00.000-08:00

Falling behind on the ole blogging, I have one huge event in the Cirque Viva Elvis premier that I am working on now, trying to knock that out. There were some other small events in the past few weeks that may or may not end up getting covered, including a Hilton Tweetup, Snug Crawl and others.

Upcoming is the Lake Las Vegas Beer Fest in a couple Saturdays, St. Patrick's Day and many Gowalla inspired trips. Hoping to get caught up soon, really need to start pushing from the mobile again, because I am out there busy doing these things, leaving little time to write about them!

Beer & Blog, GoWalla, SuperBowl & More

2010-02-05T16:28:00.000-08:00

One busy week sandwiched in between two busy weekends had caused me to fall behind in my blogging duties. Not to make it sound like it's a job or anything, but it is a lot of work in my spare time. So let's do a recap of what happened this week.

Beer & Blog last Thursday on another side of town, nice dynamic, nice turn out and super great service and co operation from Gordon Biersch (@Gordon_Biersch). We had a good time and some great discussion that evening.

Friday night featured the new tapas style addition to Town Square, Cana. I enjoyed a couple cocktails and some tastes of serveral dishes, over all it was very good, but a tad pricey. They are rolling out a happy hour menu very soon, so we are looking forward to a return visit.

Also rolled downtown on Friday night and enjoyed the new Hardway IPA at the Chicago Brewing Company, nestled atop the Four Queens Casino.

Going into the weekend we had dinner trip planned to head out to the Nellis area of town and visit the Big Dogs Bar & Grill. Manya (@Manya) needed to add the location (along with a few from the Friday evening excursions) into her GoWalla Las Vegas brewery trip. So we headed down there for a nice dinner at the older establishment. Bit of a different vibe from the Draft House where we spend a lot of time, but same good beer and food.

Also did a ton of shopping over the weekend for our planned Super Bowl party this weekend. Got me a lot of stamps and visits in FourSquare (@FourSquare) and GoWalla (@GoWalla). Not as many as I would have liked in GoWalla as suddenly the ability to add new venues on mobile web for the Android platform was missing.

Moving into the week I ended up going out Monday & Tuesday, knowing I had plans on Wednesday for the previously mentioned GoWalla Swapmeet A large number of met up at Diablo's Cantina to exchange items, and get some swag that the kind folks that develop GoWalla sent along.

There may have been an excessive number of check ins that evening, but hey, when you are in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip... it's hard not to sneak a few drive by check ins.

Beer & Blog last night was back at the Frog, which had an excellent set of taps last night. All currently updated on Taplister.com (@Taplister), check it out to find out what craft beers are on tap around town. Another good turnout for Beer & Blog, the new year is starting out strong.

Finally heading into the 5pm on a Friday, anxious to get home and get prepping for the party on Sunday. Another huge week next week, pretty full with upcoming events.

Gordon Biersch HellesBock Tapping Party

2010-01-27T11:50:00.000-08:00

Give it up to Gordon Biersch, they know how to throw a good party. Last night was no exception as we were treated to a taste of their new brew and some good food.

I used to frequent GB in the SF bay area at their many locations. So it is not surprising that it has recently become my go to spot of choice. It also doesn't hurt that they have one of the best happy hours in town.

Last night was another tapping party, I had been to the Winterbock tapping party a few months back and had a great time. Last night was for their German style HellesBock, a nice hoppy number with ample bitterness, a nice amber in color, clocking in at 28 BPUs and 8% alcohol.

The brewmaster explained they made the beer to pair with the existing menu, as they had just revamped the regular menu and did not roll out a special menu for this particular beer. We enjoyed their tapas appetizer (pita bread with olive tapanad, roasted garlic, sundried tomatoes & hummus), garlic fries and pepperoni pizza at last nights tasting.

Neal (@NealMason) joined me for last nights event and we hung around after it was over, meeting some of the other folks in attendance. Although last night was not as jam packed as the Winterbock tasting, a good time was had by all!

Cirque Mystère Bloggers Night

2010-01-26T13:06:00.000-08:00

Las Vegas is a burgeoning social media hub, as casinos and businesses up and down the strip and through out the Las Vegas Valley continue to promote their wares. One of those businesses is Cirque du Soleil (@Cirque), spear headed by social media director Jess Berlin (@JessBerlin). They have been hosting bloggers at their shows for some time now and I finally had the opportunity to attend a show last night.

On a side note, I have been in Vegas for close to 7 years now and I will be living here for the for seeable future. So it may come as a surprise that I have never seen a Cirque show, or any show for that matter, in Vegas. Once you become a local, the strip casinos and it's offerings tend to be a place you go only when you have visitors from out of town.

That being said, I got out of work early, headed home to change and down to Treasure Island early to get some dinner prior to the show and to make an evening out of it. We started at Pho for a nice dinner, before heading over to the box office to meet up with Jess and a large group of other local bloggers.

Once we met up, we found out we would have the opportunity to meet some of the cast members and take photographs prior to the show. That was great, but I was poorly prepared with my phone battery in the red and not having brought even my camera. Luckily a lot of other people had their cameras and I will snag some pictures from someone else later.

After a round of pictures and questions, we headed to the snack bar to load up on some popcorn and soda before heading to our seats. For the next 90 minutes we were treated to an amazing display of arobatics, wonderful music, spattered with bits of slapstick humor and some dance routines.

I am not going to try and get too deep into the show, so much goes on at the same time, it's difficult to take it all in at a single viewing. There is constant movement in multiple parts of the stage, up high, down low, distractions to transition set pieces, yet the transitions in themselves are highly choreographed. I will say though, if like me, you have never seen a Cirque show, you should definetly make it a point to do so.

In speaking with others, most of whom have seen many, if not all of the other Cirque shows in town (Criss Angel Believe, Kà, Love, O, Viva Elvis & Zumanity), we discussed the flow and themes of the show. The general consensus was that this is the most acrobatic of the shows in town and for a number of other bloggers, their favorite.

It was definetly a memorable night and an amazing show and I want to thank Jess again for putting it together and being an awesome host. We definetly look forward to doing it again in the near future.

We wrapped up with some drinks at the Breeze Bar, with about half a dozen of the attendees. As usual we got into the Foursquare (@FourSquare) vs Gowalla (@GoWalla) debate among other topics. But those are for future blogs!

(Title: Green lizard Picture credit: Al Seib)

Affiliate Summit West

2010-01-21T09:59:00.001-08:00

Still recovering from CES, ASW10 was right on its heals. I was curious to attend but allergies had me none to motivated, so a few hours Sunday afternoon was the extent of my participation.

I skipped out on all the Saturday evening events, opting to stay home and test drive my new Android OS phone.

On Sunday I attended the "Meet Market" event, which overall was very crowded and not all that usefull. There were just too many people in too small of a space. Dropped off a few business cards, said hello to a few people, but really nothing more than that.

Also, unfortunately the exhibit hall was not fully open until Monday. I was unable to get back there for any amount of time on Monday or Tuesday, thereby cutting this show very short.

I hope to be able to attend this show in the future and give it the time it deserves. This week was just a case of too busy at work, and still too tired from CES to really put in the time.

CES 2010 - Day 3

2010-01-18T21:12:00.000-08:00

Third for me and final day for the most part... gotta take Sunday off for recovery and to watch some football. But this is the day my better half gets to stop in and check out the goods. She normally has to work OT during heavy conventions, she does tech for the Hotels.

Saturday was chill and swag day, but granted there was not much swag to be had. Did get a nice ice cold Bass beer from the *spreck booth, that was fun. Watched some crazy dude go to town on the DDR machine. The *spreck booth was fun, with lots of gimmicks to keep you coming back to their booth, but mostly iJunk products, which for the most part iIgnore.

Sweep of the South Hall and Central Hall, to once again play with the Samsung Moment, which we finally did purchase. Now it's under the real test... go Android. Still...

Overall I felt CES was fairly a let down this year, nothing all that exciting in terms of new technology, fun stuff for sure, but nothing earth shattering.

At this point, I am into Affilate Summit West and hopefully the rebirth of Beer N Blog Vegas, so let's put CES 2010 behind us!

CES 2010 - Day 2

2010-01-14T09:25:00.000-08:00

Friday was another late start to the show, but did a through pass of the North Hall and Central Halls. Played with the Samsung Moment for a long time, as it is probably going to be my next phone. Yeah, not too sexy, but an Android, so we will give that OS a try. Was cool that Samsung had not just working phones, but with service, at least the one I tried was live.

Watched some 3D television, a cool demo at the Polaroid booth, yes film is back apparently. 3D X Games & FIFA Soccer trailers at the Sony booth gave me a headache, not sure I will be jumping on the 3D bandwagon anytime soon. Also still have not seen Avatar, on a side note.

Saw some hardware that you hook up to your household appliances, so it can tell you when to run them to save the most money. Kinda cool when I saw the demo, kinda lame to everyone I told about since the show. That was courtesy of Intel.

Had a hideous orange phone case forced at me, not much swag this year. Last year tons of USB keys and Micro SD cards, this year, pens and that was about it. Just as well on Friday I was without my car, so I headed out early.

Next stop was the Las Vegas Hilton for the Tweetup, it went well thanks to their great work, @RobertGaines & the absent @PeterAcero. In addition to the great giveaways for food and stays that the Hilton gives up, @IntlCES kicked in some press bags. Still didn't win one... next year press for sure.

Rounded out the evening at the @LenovoSocial & @GDGT Bloggers Lounge Party, very nice, lots of food and drink. Spent some time with other Las Vegas locals and just enjoyed ourselves.

CES 2010 - Day 1

2010-01-12T14:13:00.000-08:00

While I did not make a huge effort to arrive early, I got there in plenty of time to hit a good hunk of the show. First thought, more crowded than last year, but also smaller.

Much like G2E the floor was re-arranged to seem bigger, but really there were fewer exhibits, just more spread out. No Gibson tent, they were palling with Monster Cables in the Central Hall. Monster is usually a South Hall staple.

No gaming stuff in the South Hall, they were relocated to the North along with the iCrap exhibits and a much smaller automotive section. Intel, Microsoft, and most of the big boys were in their usual spots.

I did the quick run through all three halls on Thursday afternoon and a couple double backs to the Central Hall. I would save the in depth looking for Friday & Saturday, plenty of time to browse.

I cut out of the show a bit early on Thursday to meet with a friend, before heading out to Beer N Blog.

CES 2010 - Day 0 Wrap Up

2010-01-07T07:11:00.000-08:00

It was a busy day for not much happening other than some meeting up with friends and meeting a few new folks. Hit up Firefly on Paradise for a little pre CES happy hour with some local Beer N Bloggers.

Firefly is always a nice treat and we enjoyed some tapas and a few pitchers of Sangria before I headed out to the Hilton to pick up my badge holder. The stop over was not long there and off to home to kill a couple hours.

Last night was the first of three Lenovo Blogger Lounge nights, co hosted last night by @SocialMediaClub. It was a really nice set up at Aquaknox in the Venitian, great party. It seemed to me that CES is already much more lively this year than last, we will see how the rest of the week plays out.

Met a lot of new folks last night, and hopefully the rest of the week and into the weekend will play out just as well. Today the real work begins!

CES Press Day

2010-01-06T08:39:00.000-08:00

I have yet to switch my CES affiliation over to blogger as yet. So once again no press day for me, just toiling away at work. My goal for CES 2011 is to be registered as a blogger and get to cover those cool press events. Although much of it is covered online these days, with live streaming etc.

At any rate, today will be spent blogging, finalizing my schedule and other such exciting tasks. Charging cell phone batteries, laptop batteries, camera batteries... trying to keep my payload to a minimum this year though. Just the netbook, two phones and maybe the small camera.

I have both the convenience and annoyance of a car, so who knows what I will throw in the trunk. Besides tons of literature, magazines and whatever swag type stuff the vendors are passing out this year.

Enough ramble, more later.

New Year, New Methods

2010-01-04T12:14:00.001-08:00

Hitting the ground running so far this year, with a big weekend of cooking and a lot of prep work for CES. I am hoping to do a lot of CES blogging this year, definitely a lot of tweeting from @Rally_CES account. Probably going to opt for the smaller mobile blogs that started this particular blog and take it from there.

Also going to try and get serious and start to advertise and eventually monetize this blog. Those also end up becoming de facto resolutions for the new year, let's see how it goes.

CES related blogging should begin Wed after work, with badge pick up and possibly a visit to the Lenovo Blogger Night event. Working on an invite to a Capcom event on Thursday, Friday night we have the Hilton Tweetup and going to be busy.

Can't wait!

Junior's Beer Tasting '09

2009-12-07T09:36:00.001-08:00

We hope everyone can join us, please feel free to DM Pam or I if you have any questions.

I will be adding details to this as they emerge, for now hear is a partial beer list and some suggestions for selections you might want to bring along.

To Be Served:

Anchor - Our Special Ale 09
Deschutes - The Abyss
Hot Polish Voodoo (Mikey)
North Coast Brewing Co - Old Rasputin
Sierra Nevada - Celebration Ale 09 (Manya)
Stone Brewing - Mulitiple Selections
Widmer Brothers - Cherry Oak Doublebock

Suggestions:

Firestone - 13
Samuel Adams - Winter Lager
Sierra Nevada - Kellerweis

I am working on a cheese platter, I have some cranberry goat cheese, red wax gouda, smoked gouda, couple others I cannot recall off hand, also working on some spiced nuts and a few other snacks.

Blog World Expo 09 - Day Zero

2009-10-15T00:07:00.000-07:00

Wow, ok no more whiny excuses about why I have not been blogging, forgetting buying my first home and moving, forget being sick, forget having a "real life" job, let's blog.

Kicked off #BWE09 with another great #Tweetup from the @LasVegasHilton, they do a great little gathering that is quickly becoming a Vegas favorite. Add Blog World to the mix and we get a ton of new folks, who were excited to meet the Vegas locals.

The best part for me was getting to befriend someone who I enjoy following on Twitter and introducing him to all the great local Vegas bloggers and social media folks.

I had to call it early tonight but it was a great start for the long weekend.

Friday Recap

2009-09-19T09:03:00.000-07:00

Friday ended up being quite a busy and exciting day. Early in the day a friend passed along some tickets to the San Gennaro Feast, so we made plans to attend that evening.

A short time later while glancing at Twitter, I saw @ClickBooth announcing the winner of their @BlogWorld contest that I had entered here. I am usually 5-10 minutes behind on my Twitter feed, so I jumped to their timeline to find out I had won. Happy days, I was starting to think I was going to miss @BlogWorld completely.

After work we swung by San Gennaro and grabbed some subs and desert before calling it an early night. We are headed out to Lake Las Vegas today for the @BuckbeanBeer sponsored Village Craft Beer Fest. Hopefully I will have a few reports from their later and of course lots of Twitter updates.

Until then, arrrrr mateys.

Another Blog World Post

2009-09-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

So I continue to try and find a way to gain entry to Blog World 09. Now from, XR.com, who request another posting.

So I thought I would just touch on a few more reasons, I really want to attend. If you check my posts from last year, you can see I attended New Media Expo. I did not get to attend the entire show, as I have a full time job. That job has nothing to do with blogging or social media.

My blogging is something I do for myself, and though I would love for it to become more than just a hobby... again my job gets in the way. So it is very frustrating when shows are expensive to attend. More so when they are in my backyard.

This year most of my trade show / convention schedule was shot down by the hopefully pending purchase of a house. It has put my life on hold for the past six months and left me with no room financially to attend much in the way of shows. Now that the house is almost a done, or not done deal I hope to get back on that horse.

Ideally I would love to start with Blog World / New Media Expo, but if it has to way until CES 2010, so be it. Anyhow, starting to ramble, thanks for your time.

Blog World 2009

2009-08-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

So today I blog, without a thorough explanation as to my lack of blogging. It's safe to say this year has been a fail when it comes to attending the many trade shows and events I aspire to.

However, I now have the chance to redeem myself, in my own backyard, by gaining access to Blog World / New Media Expo 2009. How you may ask, why by blogging about it, or course.

BlogCatalog is giving away an full access pass and that is just what I need to get my blog jump started. So here is my post expressing my extreme desire to attend this year.

Hopefully I can win, so I can attend this year and have a lot to blog about in the near future.

Updates

2009-07-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

So obviously I discontinued my weekly updates from Beer n Blog, and even though I have participated in several interesting events and one road trip, no updates have been forthcoming.

Basically I fail. While I am still debating whether or not to update on those events or not, I intend to keep blogging going forward. Including this week, Comic Con, the event that started this blog.

While I am unable to attend SDCC this year, I will be monitoring it and doing some blogging about the event. I am extremely upset at having to miss this year, but sometimes you have to make choices. Hopefully the choice I have made will be better for my family in the long run.

In the mean time I will also trying and knock out updates on the Whole Foods Beer Tasting we attended, the 4th of July Beer Bash at the NY NY Hotel we attended and our SoCal road trip to the beach. Also still hoping to squeak out Defcon in two weeks.

Bar Louie Night

2009-05-07T23:11:00.001-07:00

Just a quick trip, need to add to it later... #BNBLV had a pretty damn good night at Bar Louie in Town Square. We had a few bumps, but very nice over all. We were happy with both the food and drink (prices). I think we will try it again.

Beer n Blog is underway

2009-04-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

The latest Beer and Blog is underway with a bit of Red Hook IPA. The founders are here from Portland, Oregon, chatting now more later.

Just some post mortem additions, Justin brought along some cool buttons to share. Also a representative from the newly formed Indinapolis branch joined us. Good times and a good conversation as usual.

@nealmason It is on.

2009-04-04T18:46:00.000-07:00

Long Time No Blog

2009-04-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

Life moves fast, you better be ready to move with it, or something like that goes the quote from some movie. Dunno, my brain is on meltdown today. Such is the process of buying or I should say attempting to buy a house.

Last couple weeks Beer N Blog has happened, and I have attended but not blogged. No reason, just busy, and not pulling out the netbook much. But trying to avoid a third straight week of fail here.

Crowd is still working it's way in, a number of other events going on in Vegas tonight. So only expecting a moderate crowd, but we have about 15 at the moment. Drinking some Silver Bullet as I call them, Sapporo silver cans, the reserve variety.

May check back in later.

Another Round @ #BNBLV

2009-03-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

Finally the first live post from the BNBLV, via the Lenovo. Many conversations going on across the stretch of tables, and a couple outside in the smoking area. Had a couple Shiner Bocks and now onto my second Bass. Then we will probably call it early tonight.

Talked to my Mom on the phone during the BNBLV tonight, outside of course. Tried to explain it to her and she asked me if I Twitter. Well that is half the battle, she is learning for someone who refused to use a computer up until a few years ago.

Have not really mentioned it before, but they play the weirdest movies on DVD here, right now it's The Man In The Iron Mask, but earlier it was something called Fido, weird zombie thingy.

So enough rambling, we are going to get out of here before crazy open mic stuff starts.

Another week of BNBLV

2009-03-06T21:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, ok, so I still didn't post from the BNBLV this week, I was busy. Lots of folks to talk to and meet with, certainly I cannot be faulted for choosing to converse, rather than stare at my screen all night.

BNBLV continues to attract new folks each week thanks in large part to Twitter. We are also moving towards more orginization, it will arrive at some point.

Watching The Watchmen

2009-03-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

Who watches The Watchmen? Quite a few people I imagine, this week, I know I did. For the most part I have tried to steer clear of the movie, choosing not to read a lot about it's development. Kept on the changes, the law suit, but kept trying to hold off so I could dig out my 23 year old comics and read them for the first time in, well 23 years.

Well I never did drag out the comics, but I plan to this weekend. Now that I have seen the film and read some other opinions today, I still can't quite put my to mind what exactly I thought of the film. But here goes with the attempt.

My Twitter sized review: Bloody yes, music some good and some bad, acting uneven, visually stunning, pacing solid.

As a film, I was entertained. All 2.5+ hours of it, I was never bored, I was happy with how the story was drawn out. Thinking about it after, I could only come up with a few places where I felt the film dragged.

Ala 300 the film was quite bloody with the slow motion pummeling of body parts, and a few other graphic sequences that were as gratuitous as the blue dong. Yes the blue dong was distracting, I kept thinking, really, really? You couldn't have Ken dolled Dr. Manhattan or something?

We saw the film in digital theatre, are they all this way now? Honestly, I don't go to the movies much any more, usually only go when it's for free. Sometimes, not even then. But visually the film was amazing, I imagine it is one you will be able to watch many times and always spot something new in many of the sequences.

I love the opening credits, they were interesting and I felt did a good job of setting up the film. Overall the music was either dead on or dead wrong, the lack no score was only apparent, to me, in the one sequence where they did actually have some.

So overall, it entertained. I was not blown away by the film, ready to declare it a masterpiece. But overall I think I enjoyed it, this one will require another viewing at another time to be sure. I think Zach Snyder did an amiable job, I did love 300, but I am a bit biased towards that film as we saw it in an incredible setting that lent itself the film.

Our Watchmen crowd was a bit tepid, only showing any kind of real emotion at Rorschach's prison mess hall sequence. I really can't say what the audience thought overall, maybe they like myself, are still digesting it.

Happy Hour @ Yard House

2009-03-04T09:59:00.001-08:00

Oh Yard House, how many ways do I love thee. I first stumbled across the Yard House several years ago at their downtown San Diego location. It was love at first site, that huge wrap around bar with endless taps of beery goodness. The food was pretty damn good too.

So when the Yard House opened at Town Square last year, we needed to stop in and check it out. The evening we were their last year, I remember it being noisy and kinda on they hip side. We being the anti hip crowd, decided to avoid visiting it again on a Friday night.

Well we finally made it back last night, before our screening of Watchmen. Our timing was good as we made it for happy hour and with many lovely half price appetizers to be had, we went crazy. I started out with a Stone IPA and poured over the menu. We finally decided on a fine array of items, heavy on the seafood and for the most part very good.

My inner Gordon Ramsey prompted me to pick the Blue Crab Cakes first, they were good but a bit bland. They had a mango relish on the side, and very little filler in the cake itself. But still for the most part not a lot really good crab flavor. We had no problem eating them, none the less.

Next up we went for the other hot item of our quad, they Moo Shu Egg rolls. These were easily the highlight both for flavor and ease of eating. The applesauce ish dipping sauce on the side was a bit meh, but the egg rolls themselves were spicy of ginger, filled with lots of chicken. Very tasty.

Next up the crazy California Roll, this thing was a challenge. Set on a giant cake of rice, about 6 inches in diameter, it was tough to navigate but tasted great. A mix of cucumber and crab layered on the top of the rice and fish roe on top of that as well. Garnished with additional crab, avocado and pickled ginger, it was surrounded by a plating of oil and a wasabi, soy concoction.

Last we had the huge Poke stack, not sure why I chose this rather than the seared ahi. Storm was about done by then opting to polish off the California Roll. I went straight for the tuna and avoided the accompanying carrot bean sprout mixture that was in the middle.

I managed to polish off a couple more Stone IPA's along the way, too busy eating to look for another beer to drink. All in all very nice and another enjoyable meal at this establishment.

Another - hopefully my last post BNBLV blog!

2009-02-28T07:55:00.000-08:00

What a crazy weird Beer N Blog we had the other day. With a lot of the regulars out of town, sick and / or busy, it opened up to a new cast of characters.

I was tired as hell from a 12 hour work day on Wednesday and wasn't anticipating staying too late. But as the evening wore on, the fun just continued. We had three or four waves of new folks that came in pairs and bunches, with a lot of humor and interest in the BNB.

Many snarky tweets aimed at the absentees and of course lots of beer. We all did our part to consume extra quantities to make up for our missing allies. I had some Shiner Bocks and Rogue Hazelnut, Stormy joined in with a few Guinness.

As to why this will hopefully be my last post I have to do after the fact and rely on memory, well that post comes next. Stay tuned as always...

Beer N Blog Postop

2009-02-21T06:44:00.000-08:00

Not so much on the living blogging this week, brought along a groupie to join the crowd so had to keep an eye on her and not my play with my phones too much. Another fine turn out this week, a few new faces from what I could tell.

Drank some Brrr Ale and some Red Hook ESB. We showed off our new Beer N Blog badges that arrived in the mail that very day. So basically another evening of chatting and drinking, fun as always. We missed Jackie and Neal who were busy with real life and I am starting to ramble.

Next week will be the real challenge Todd, @VegasGeek will be at WordCamp Denver. I may need to be working late and I think @StormyIz is going on her KLAS tour with @CourVo. Hoping that if I have to work, I will at least get to pop by later in the evening.

All ur prizes belongs to us

2009-02-12T21:54:00.000-08:00

Woot we won... yes prizes, with our procrastination... what can I say... we win. Waiting until last minute for buying raffle tix was for the win. We happily took home the top two giveaways.... Thank u Twestival.

Twetini's n Cheez

2009-02-12T20:43:00.000-08:00

Enjoying some twitinis and cheese at the Las Vegas Twestival. Playing with the touch screens and just chilling so ... early yet. Storm likes the dj mix and just realized after party is at Jet.

OTW to Las Vegas Twestival

2009-02-12T18:54:00.000-08:00

Sinus headache be damned... got out of work early. Headed home, got an early dinner and home again to change clothes...

Now we are on our way to the Las Vegas Twestival and also the displaced LV Beer N Blog. Should be fun, live blogging as time allows.

Blue Vino

2009-02-05T22:00:00.000-08:00

Call them Blue Vino or Blue Balls... they still suck.

Alice Cooper in the House

2009-02-05T21:06:00.000-08:00

Enjoying Elf Machine at the Freakin Frog open mic night after the #BNBLV .

#BNBLV Week Four

2009-02-05T19:15:00.000-08:00

Things continue to expand at the Beer N Blog, they even saved all the tables for us this week. My drinking menu included Shiner Bock, Thunderhead IPA and Strongbow Cider.

So far no "Creepy Guy" but the night is young.

Pre #BNBLV Lunch

2009-02-05T13:29:00.000-08:00

Can only hope the extra shot they threw in for free helps... because the thrill of the ACT upgrade and the Backup Exec maintenance does not.

Must find something exciting for last half of work... toner inventory, weekly report, new pc set up... not so much.

Pre #BNBLV Breakfast

2009-02-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

Off to a long day already but starting out with a fabulous cinnamon sugar bagel and coffee from Einsteins.

Hoping this day passes quickly and I can move onto the Beer N Blog to chill and have some fun.

#BNBLV Week 3 - Still Growing

2009-01-29T17:56:00.000-08:00

Strongbow Cider is the starting drink this evening, we filled up fast. Reserved three tables for us, they were full in about 45 minutes. Things are definitely growing around here, more laptops, more cameras, more people.

The owner of the Freakin Frog stopped in for a visit tonight, to say hello and check out the group. Also a representative from the Las Vegas Twestival, more info on that can be found here:

http://lasvegas.twestival.com/

Next up, Giddy Up Ale made with espresso, nice beer on the light side Belgium Ale, and dun dun dun the guy at the bar starts talking to me about it. He is drunk and annoying, the only thing I took from the conversation was a crack about "and I like to say from cocaine to Rogaine".

Later as the crowd at the BNB break into smaller groups, I wander up to get my second beer, trying to avoid the creepy drunk guy. Unfortunately he has another victim cornered who introduces herself to me in order to break off from him, and I am spotted. I get another 20 minute drunken tale, about what he did on New Years Eve.

After a long chat with @NealMason about World of Warcraft, it's time to head out to the Fail Kitchen to make some food for the work pot luck on Friday. But I cannot resist introducing drunk creepy guy to Neal and his friend Brian.

They thank me for this...

Needless to say, shenanigans ensued and I did not get out of their at my intended target time, but much later. Now officially named "The Creepy Guy", he set out on a barrage of victims and tirades that would make a sailor blush. But I will let the video evidence speak for itself, my poor quality cell phone vids can be found here on You Tube.

Monday Night Draft House

2009-01-26T19:27:00.000-08:00

So, I cannot stand keeping my house keys on my car keys ring. Small car, short legs, the keys bump my leg when I drive. So I keep it light.

This however has led to me locking myself out of the house. We have to lock the door to the house, in the garage locked because my girl won't stop feeding the neighbors cats. Trust me all this randomness does collide into a point of commonality.

The neighbor cats think they live in our garage now, so girl also leaves the door cracked so they can go in and out as they please. Hence why the house door must be locked. Did I mention the pigeons?

So I have on occassion forgotten to throw my keys in my bag. Today was such a day. So with a couple of hours to kill I made my way to Big Dogs Draft House, our local watering hole.

Hey how can you say no to two for one burgers and cold micro brew. My favorite Red Hydrant Ale so not too bad a night for locking myself out of the house.

BNBLV Week Two

2009-01-22T19:48:00.000-08:00

Another successful Beer N Blog in Vegas... details and editing later. It was another good showing and managed to meet some new folks tonight. Alas had to call it in a bit early.

We tried to gain some structure this week and plan for some constructive get togethers in the future. I am looking forward to seeing how the group progress and evolves. For now, we are definetly still growing and forming, the Tweets point to a number of people that still have yet to attend.

For now I will just sit back and watch it form, do my part as I can and enjoy the ride.

Escaped For Lunch

2009-01-22T16:23:00.000-08:00

Exciting lunch at Starbucks, so I can run a test mobile post. Hopefully everything is working well so I can report from the Beer N Blog tonight! Move along nothing to see here, just getting out of the office for half hour to enjoy the weather.

Beer N Blog - Las Vegas Edition

2009-01-16T11:48:00.000-08:00

So, I really should learn not to flash my phone rom before I head out to a social networking event. It makes it difficult for me to mobile blog when my phone will not send the message out properly, add alcohol to the mix and well you get the idea.

At any rate, the first Beer and Blog in Las Vegas was a huge hit last night. Expectations varied but with over 30 people attending, it's safe to say that a second event will be in order. Apparently Twitter really is an effective social media tool, because it propagated quite a bit through the Interwebs.

I certainly did not have the opportunity to meet many of the attendees, but did chat at length with several of them. Definitely looking forward to meeting some other folks in
the future.

But really, on to the fun stuff. As #bnblv crowd thinned out, the college crowd began to fill in, and to our "delight" we found ourselves amid open mic night. There was quite a cast of celebrities, especially if you are a fan of nineties alternative music. We had Lisa Loeb, the lead singer of Midnight Oil and the late, great (op‌ions may vary) Kurt Cobain in attendance. Oh and some guy with a Mac singing about Star Wars, looked so bored with himself, I thought he was gonna go all narcoleptic in his chair.

While I am known in my circles as a ham in Rock Band, especially when I sing and play guitar at the same time. However, I generally tend to keep that to the privacy of my living room. Well except for that time last week at Harrah's, but we won't talk about that. Still it was great fun mocking the youngsters with references they really didn't understand.

Lots of good beer, some tasty fried food, not a bad little joint, the Freakin' Frog, btw, helps to mention the place you are talking about. Big shout out to everyone that attended, hope you all had as much fun as I did.

CES09 - Day Four Wrap Up

2009-01-11T19:57:00.001-08:00

After the fail of Saturday, I needed to get off to an early start on Sunday. Although the scary folks, in line in their pajamas at Starbucks had other ideas. I managed to get down to the convention center just after nine.

Sunday was pretty quiet, but I had a lot of ground to cover. I worked from the North to South halls before deciding to head over to the Sands. A quick bus trip over there and the crowd was a bit heavier thanks to the Adult Entertainment Expo.

Normally I really enjoy the Sands portion of the show, but this year, not so much. I grew bored pretty quickly as my mind and stomach became more interested in lunch. The next big decision of the day, Gordon Biersch which would be taxi or on foot or shuttle back to the CC and a hike to the Hilton.

I opted for football and the Hilton, made my way over to the theatre for $1 hot dogs and $2 beers. Watched the end of the Giants / Eagles game and the start of the Chargers / Steelers. That was a nice break that gave me the energy to make another pass through the convention center.

Admittedly I got caught up in the last minute swag opportunities at the show. I got some of my best stuff in the last hour, lots of Micro SD cards, card holders, hats, shirts and orange pens. Why so many damn orange pens? Well I take those to work at any rate.

Surprisingly I stayed until the show closed at 4 before getting in my car and finding myself home by 430 to watch the end of the game. I definitely did not cover the show as much as I had intended, but I did have a good time. In the end, that's all that matters.

CES09 - Day Three Fail Blog

2009-01-11T13:58:00.001-08:00

Fail so hard it gets posted on Sunday...

So a long night Friday, shopping and real life Saturday morning. Follow that up with two power naps and a craving for steak... and you end up with failing to attend CES on Saturday.

But that is pergoative you can have when you attend on your own dime and time and live in Vegtas. Had a nice day at home, watched football, had a good steak dinner.

Back in action today @CES09, working my way through everything. Stay Tuned.

CES09 - Day Two Firefly

2009-01-09T15:23:00.000-08:00

Finally landed at Firefly Tapas Bar, having some mojitos and sangria and tapas. Good stuff. We sampled the watermelon and blood orange mojitos, the watermelon won.

Now we have to decide on the tapas, everything looks excellent. This may take a while... no rush the parties don't start until five.

CES09 - Day Two Lunch

2009-01-09T12:06:00.000-08:00

So a couple disappointments starting with the often legen...wait for it...dary Gibson tent. Looks like no concerts or happy hours this year.

We toured the booth and got to check out the Marcus Henderson guitar, but no sign of the Joan Jett. We will try again later.

We then moved over to the food court behind the tents. Not much selection and pretty crap food. This in no way is anything on par with my pulled pork.
Anyway, time to head back to the floor.

CES09 - Day Two @ Microsoft

2009-01-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

Working our way around, many interesting things so far. Just stopped in at Microsoft for a number of reasons.

First checking on the after market availability of Sync. Playing with the touch screen interface of Windows 7. Off to gaming next and hopefully a normal W7 demo.

CES09 - Day Two

2009-01-09T09:08:00.000-08:00

Finally arrived @ CES09! Things going smoothly so far, we got great parking, whisked through the badge holder pick up, grabbed breakfast. Now just waiting for the magic 9am hour to hit the show room floor.

We have about six hours today before heading over to Firefly tapas bar for an early dinner. Plans to hit the It Won't Stay In Vegas party. Also hoping Gibson will have it's usual great events planned.

More to come, so stayed tuned.

CES09 - Day One

2009-01-08T22:55:00.000-08:00

Day one, spent oh so close yet so far away. I work just a few miles from the Convention Center, but I never got to lunch today, little lone a drive by on CES. I got some early glances at Twitter, following up on some party invites and wishing I was there.

At any rate, it was a busy day not at CES, now I have my gadgets packed and am ready to get an early start in the morning. Except for the fact I left my extra phone battery at work, so an early stop by work is now on the books for Friday.

No parties for me tonight, no CES love, just some love through the tweet lines and some tv coverage on G4. All is well, the weekend is here and the next three days I can enjoy, can't wait!

Also a few of us are going to happy hour at Firefly tomorrow 3pm.

CES09 - Media Day

2009-01-07T18:23:00.000-08:00

One of the most frustrating parts of being in town, is that when the pre convention stuff starts, I am stuck at that 40 a week grind that pays the bills. So I followed the Tweets and Feeds and such as I could today from a far. I have yet to pay my dues enough to garner a blogger or press type badge. Also bowing out of day one until after the 5pm bell rings out the end of my work week.

Still getting excited for the event, updating my phone and my blog and my many online hang outs in preperation of a long weekend of texting, blogging and taking pics of coold stuff. Going to try and keep the updates brief for the most part, be sure and follow the Twitter updates as well.

Off to watch the Ballmer keynote online.

New Year

2009-01-05T18:17:00.000-08:00

The opportunities to blog on the go have been few and far between these winter months. But what better way to start out the new year then lots of posts from CES. The annual invasion of Las Vegas by the tech industry begins this week.

The posts should be plentiful over the next few days, stay tuned.

2008-10-25T22:59:00.001-07:00

Waiting for Guitar Hero World Tour, small line, big Vegas. Standing in line for the release of GHIV:WT at the lone Best Buy in town, that is participating in the midnight release.

Bite of Las Vegas

2008-10-18T21:53:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas is known as a party town, they feature a lot events as one might expect from a major city.

However, some of the execution is less than optimal. Events can be a let down compared to many of the San Francisco Bay Area events that I have attended in the past.

Of course, our memories are hard to surpass, so we will get with the present.

BOLV 08, the music, food festival of Las Vegas featured many local restaurants and some fine bands, headliners incluced Puddle of Mudd and Lifehouse.

We arrived to POM playing and they were good, definetly going for crowd participation. Our long wait in the beer line was accompanied by their "tribute" to AC/DC, doing a cover of TNT. That was cool, especially on the cusp of the Black Ice release.

They were followed by Lifehouse, whom seem to frequent LV and the events of the sponsoring radio station. This is the third time I have had the chance to see them play life in LV and they are certainly a guilty pleasure band of mine. Their set started with a number of lesser know, but excellent songs. They were excellent as always, becoming a consistent band that flys under the radar for the most part.

Food wise, it was unimpressive, the problem with the LV bite event, is that too many fast food / chain restaraunts participate. Pizza Hut, really? Really? Panda Express, Fuddruckers, and a number of other places that, I am not thinking oooh, I need to sample their food. We kept our sampling light as we arrived late in the day and went more for the music then the food.

We did have some greasy but awesome lumpia's from a local place, oh but they were good. Other than that, I did not sample any food, nothing caught my eye and even late in the evening the lines were long.

We settled on hitting our local brewpub for a late night snack after we left the event. There I had some lovely beer cheese soup and we snacked on an assortment of brats and the most delicious saurerkraut ever. Washed down with a lovely Big Dogs IPA, excellent meal but for our overly obnoxious waiter who so busy trying to upsell us everything under the sun, that he did not see to our needs. Oh well it was his tip.

LV Renfair

2008-10-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

Otherwise known as The Age of Chivalry blah blah blah, some other crap, whatever. We attended renfair last Friday afternoon and I failed to post my blog from there, may have been the whole being in costume thing. It really doesn't allow for easy phone usage, or eating or drinking or movement of much kind, such is costuming.

Although we missed last years event, we have been going fairly regularly for the past 5 years. As the fair grows, it turns more into a cross between renfair and San Francisco's Folsom Street Fair. It is more BDSM and less SCA, oh and almost as many damn Captain Jack Sparrows as there are at SDCC.

At any rate, we had a fun few hours, the weather was good for being in costume, not so much if you were in normal Vegas gear, shorts and a tee. It was windy, a bit chilly and dusty, could have done without the dust.

We had some fine Rogue Ale and Stout, purchased a new hat and very tasty Scottish meat pie. Ran into a few friends and aquaintances, and quickly headed it out before dark. Not much more to say about it, just another weekend in Vegas.

NOT @ Blizzcon

2008-10-10T11:15:00.000-07:00

In a perfect world, I would be typing this out from Blizzcon. This however is far from a perfect world we live in and dreams do not always come true. Unable to secure tickets to Blizzcon, I am sitting at home, at my computer typing this while I listen to, try to listen to the opening ceremonies on a choppy audio stream. My phone is a chippering away with endless Twitts from the WOW podcasting & blogging community. A community I continue to build towards becoming part of, yet fail miserably doing so, since they are all in Anaheim and I am in finally pleasant (temperature wise) Las Vegas.

I will get to do an awesome live blog from the fabulous Las Vegas Renfair this evening. Until then I will continue to QQ in my blogs and Twitts and try to follow the action online.

NME Final Day or Maybe Felicia Day

2008-08-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

Final day of the New Media Expo and we are just saying goodbyes to the folks we met. Also picking up some swag, which as usual is easy to pry. Vendors don't really want to haul it back to there far corners of the world.

Pretty quiet over all today, we see Felicia Day wandering around getting a lot of attention... again. Just couldn't find a good reason to talk to her, and wanted to let her have some peace.

We were quickly distracted by being cited, once again on the WOW Insider Show podcast. We listened in live on my phone.

So we headed out, and home to spend the rest of the day playing some Rock Band and watching some exibition football.

Coverville 500 & NME Friday Night

2008-08-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

So we continued our Twitter stalkings @ the New Media Expo. On a side note, Twitter is really the ultimate stalking tool, and we made full use of it, following the Twits to the Rev3 party at the Doubledown Saloon. On another side note, the DD Saloon is the biggest dive in Las Vegas, in what the locals, at least the gay locals refer to as the Fruit Loop. It's small block that is mostly full of gay / lesbian bars and business, the DD Saloon is not one of those. I grabbed a beer there and watched Felicia Day completely pool shark Veronica Belmont. It was pretty funny.

Not much else to do there, it was standing room only and everyone was enjoying the relatively fairly priced alcohol. Hopefully the rest of the crowd enjoyed more than I did because, at the concert the bar prices were outrageous. Now I realize that the Casino is mostly to blame for the prices at the concert, but c'mon. I get an Anchor Steam at the DD for 4 bucks, but it's gonna cost me 9 bucks for a Corona @ the concert. CRAZY shit.

Other than that, the concert was great, but I could have done with a little shorter sets. The Dr. Whatchamacallit guy skit went on a bit long, the suicidal lyrics chick with her guitar was pretty depressing. Jonathan Coulton was awesome, Chance and the Choir showed promise, but at that point we were way to tired to stick around for Richard Cheese. So we missed all the drama from that part of the concert, which I won't further discuss, because it's been talked to death.

I got to briefly stalk Randy Deluxe from The Instance and let him know how much I enjoyed the podcast. Figured it was my last chance to get in a hello since, Saturday at the show as a relatively slow and short day. He was very nice and introduced himself formerly, I really wish I had more time to chat with him and some of the others (NotPatrick) from that group.

Also got to watch Felicia do her crazy little dance around the ballroom, not that we were ya know, stalking anyone or anything like that. Yeah ok, so concert, guess that is about all I have to say, good job Brian Ibbot on the concert.

Kill All Pirate Pink Pigtail Gnomes

2008-08-14T16:02:00.001-07:00

So apparently wacky table neighbors are easy to find in Vegas. They have pink hair, think they are a pirate and apparently drink their hubbies under the table.

They are also obnoxious, loud and drunk. But I will let the picture speak for itself.

Borgsphere

2008-08-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

So we popped over to the Hilton to get some late lunch. We have been plied with drinks today and why stop now, it's a con. That means drinking in the circles I run with.

So we wandered into the Star Trek area and decided to eat at Quarks. First up the lovely melon Borg sphere, it bubbles, it smokes and apparently attracts Klingons.

The place is pretty crowded, apparently there is an Everquest con here or some such thing. Also with the Experience shutting down everyone is getting in a visit.

Time to eat.

New Media Expo

2008-08-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

So we survived the Joan Jett concert and awoke to find the out the encouraging news about additional Blizzcon tickets. You can read more about that on my gaming blog, Rally's Gaming Notes, regarding that entire fiasco.

After breakfast we made our way down the strip to the convention center to the 4th annual New Media Expo.

First impressions, these people like to talk. First stop outside of the exhibit hall was the hospitality suite for podcast-tuneup.com. They treated us to Jackson Hole Soda and cool swag.

Second impression, being at the convention center when it isn't CES and not crowded... damn Comic Con needs to move here.

We are heading back to up there for the one pm podcast demo, should be fun.

Joan Jett and The Blackhearts

2008-08-13T20:55:00.001-07:00

So here is my pool side live blog from the JJ concert. Only in Vegas baby... more later.

Defcon Sunday & Postop

2008-08-11T08:57:00.001-07:00

So I did not get around to posting yesterday, so I will one shot it here. If I had to describe Defcon in one word, that word would be Beer. There was beer everywhere, everyone it seemed like, was drinking at all hours of the day. At least the hours I attended. Which is cool, I love beer, but it just made me want to drink and I had to limit that participation.

At any rate, I hit a few panels on Sunday, "Mobile Hacking Spaces", "Internet Wars 2008" and "Hacking the Internet, No Really". All of them were very interesting, ok so the first one was not all that interesting from anything other than a curiosity stand point and was thusly attended by the small crowd I had seen all weekend.

The Internet Wars panel / debate was quite lively and interesting, made more interesting by the presence of beer and Dan Kaminsky. The biggest drawback of this panel, as well as all the others, was the lack of microphones for audience questions. The beers this panel was handing out for good questions, however, encouraged folks to walk to the stage and use a mic up there to ask the questions.

The final panel of the day, running right up until the Awards / Closing Ceremony took place, was the technical panel on how the convention wireless network was highjacked and rerouted through a server in NY.

I decided to pass on the Closing Ceremony to have a night home with my honey and we watched a bootleg of Dark Knight. Thus closed my first Defcon, I will be better prepared for next year, to hopefully attend and get a much fuller experience from the con.

Mobile Breakdown

2008-08-10T07:32:00.000-07:00

So my best-laid plans to blog mobile from Defcon were foiled by my phones not allowing me to log into my blog. I usually post via SMS messaging and then edit the post for grammar and better photos later on... However, I have since modified my phone and did not have the correct address to mail to and could not log in order to look it up. So my one drafted post got sent when I was home last night and nothing else.

Which brings me to the evolution of this blog and my audience of one. I would like to spend more time writing and less with the random one or two line off shoots. Of course part of that was the chaos of Comic Con, Defcon is a bit more mellow. Not as much happening at once, but still a lot happening. I will be spending the day there today and hope to have a little more of interest to write about then yesterday.

Tomorrow I will know whether or not we can successfully procure Blizzcon tickets and add that to upcoming events. New Media Expo is next week, but I will probably only be there on Thursday, have to work Friday and probably won't go back for Saturday unless something good comes up.

Possibly one other event between now and then, will have to see how I feel about doing a blog from that event, as I may not have a lot of my gadgets with me at that time.

So hopefully with the technical difficulties behind me, on with the show.

Defcon 16

2008-08-09T22:07:00.000-07:00

Defcon has landed in Las Vegas and in a bout of spontaneous geeking out, I am here to cover it.

License plate in hand I am off to the "Taking Back Your Cellphone" panel to see what I can learn.

This place is packed with people and electronic devices. A few very amused tourists keep getting lost in the shuflfle of the crowds. It's like Comic Con stuffed into a much smaller venue. This is both exciting and makes me nervous about my having enough geek cred.

Surived the Con

2008-07-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

So the 08 SDCC is in the books. There were some improvements over last year, but also a lot of the same mistakes. Such as, just because a bunch of unwashed 20 something masses camp out all night for a panel, does not mean that those of us who don't should have no shot at seeing that panel. That is until we get back and watch it on YouTube. In terms of swag, we kept it simple this year, and I have only spotted a few things on Ebay that I feel the need to procure.

All in all not a bad trip, but need to re-evaluate again next year. The crowd may have been relatively the same size as last year, but it always feels bigger.

SDCC Final Day

2008-07-27T16:40:00.001-07:00

Would you dare to sit next to us?

Take Two

2008-07-27T14:44:00.001-07:00

Enter next victims... boring couple are seatmates number two.

But it's all good because our buddy Mark is here so we are happy. And our new boy Colin and he now understands that "the hammer is my penis".

Life is good but they need to get us more interesting tablemates.

Ohhh My... Now you've gone to far

2008-07-27T13:36:00.001-07:00

"Hey I remember you guys and I have been fired and hired again since."

anonymous waiter @ dick's

You know you are in trouble when they remember you. Also when your table mate starts wiping up salad dressing with cloth napkins.

Table Report

2008-07-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

So first report, we have table mates. A browncoat, a bleeding fat man, the quiet one and the hand washer who thinks we are both cool and not @ the con.

At least two of them are drinking so that is a plus, they are moderately amusing and annoying at the same time.

More to come...

The Return

2008-07-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

Dick's Last Resort, where else we would finish the weekend. Just settling in to people watch and have some frosty beverages.

Hopefully many pictures and blog entries to follow.

Sat Post Op

2008-07-27T09:15:00.001-07:00

So Saturday night we kept it pretty mellow because we were all pretty wiped out. We had a few beverages on the veranda, shot some photos and just chilled.

It's Sunday morning now and we are all packed up and getting ready to head out for todays adventures.

First stop Seaport Village.

Stalking Happens

2008-07-26T18:05:00.000-07:00

One of the more interesting, or boring, depending on your perspective, things that happens at cons, is running into the same people.

Someone catches your eye and you notice them time and time again. It happens.

So upon trying to leave Coronado Island (actually a peninsula), we were once again assaulted by the Plastic Wine Glass Witch tm and her evil league of evil golden girls, as they followed us to dinner.

BALLS

But dinner was tasty.

Around San Diego Update

2008-07-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

Much water today not so much sun but that did not keep me from getting sun burnt. Bay tour, back to the hotel, ferry to Coronado and sipping over priced cocktails.

People watching the mundanes, they are every bit as freaky as the con geeks.

Especially Plastic Wine Glass Witch tm, watch out for her and her pack of followers.

FIX IT

2008-07-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

Sooooo, I have a lot of problems with the organization at this year's Comic Con. We had some pretty bitter disapointments on Friday due to poor planning... and putting a warning on the web site that you need to get in line early for a panel does not constitue fair warning.

Case 1: Red Sonja on Thursday - We arrived for the panel to find it full and rather large line of people still waiting to get inside. We quickly scratched that off our list and bemoaned why it was in the very small 6cdef block of rooms.

Case 2: WOW Panel on Friday - Again in the dreaded 6cdef rooms, we arrived early to find the room filled to capacity and the line already capped. The line was longer than the amount of space in the room, and as they have been so gleefully rubbing in our faces all year, they are not clearing rooms in between panels.

Here is a free clue from me to SDCC, 10 million people play the game, perhaps a room with a seating capacity of greater than 1000 would have been more appropriate.

Case 3: Dr Horrible Sing Along - 6b even smaller than the others, 2000 people in line 3 hours before it begins. WTF, for a convention that is supposed to celebrate the pop arts, they know jack about what is popular and what is not.

When I have to miss three panels, because I didn't want to sleep overnight in a line to see one of them, it is time to make some drastic changes. Either stop selling so many damn memberships or move to Las Vegas. It's really simple, the con has outgrown San Diego.

Don't get me wrong, I relish coming to SD every year, I love it here. But this is the second year in a row where the event has been marred by poor planning, horribly long lines and throngs for rude smelly fan boys (and girls).

FIX IT

Bones

2008-07-26T08:00:00.001-07:00

The Bones panel, was noticibly missing Emily Deschanel, but the rest of the gang was along for the David Boreanaz show. Anyone who saw him a few years back when they brought along the Bones pilot for viewing, knows how crazed the man can be on stage.

I think it would be really interesting to see him and Nathan Fillion on stage at the same time, that could be quite interesting.

They showed some extended sequences from the new season of Bones and discussed some of the hooks ups that will happening this season. Apparently everyone is going to be spending a lot of time in bed with various hook ups. Also Zach will be back.

Among DB's quotable's was the assertion that they should do a Some Like It Hot episode where
Booth needs to dress up in drag, because:

"I would look great in high heels"

Dr. Horrible

2008-07-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

"Its actually shaped like a little hammer."

"I love you with my hammer."

The ever so quotable Nathan Fillion reigned over the Dr. Horrible panel. It was great to see the cast and creators. Joss is always a showman at CC panels and he surrounds himself with funny talented people.

Felicia got caught Twittering and apperantly Jed Whedon is the man behind the Dr. Horrible Twitters.

NPH also on hand got to play "straight man" to Nathan's constant barrage of quips. Including a lot of hammer references.

The soundtrack should be available in a couple of weeks. Also The Evil League of Evil is recruiting for the DVD.

Big Bang

2008-07-25T14:00:00.001-07:00

Big Bang Theory Panel this morning, good highlight reel, boring panel. The cast was cute and had good chemistry but the moderator questions were a bore along with the usual self indulgent audience fare.

No real spillage on season two, just more of the same. More into Leonard and Sheldons backgrounds, learning more about the gang.

Picture later.

No love on the Joss / Dr. Horrible signing tickets, oh well. Quick bite to eat and off to the Dr. Horrible panel.

Day Two

2008-07-25T07:52:00.000-07:00

Friday is on, breakfast at the pub. Then off to convention for day two. Today is Dr. Horrible day and whatever else we can squeeze into the day.

Last night finished out early, tonight we need to having a bit more staying power. Because the Dr. Horrible sing along is tonight at 10:45.

The hammer is my penis

2008-07-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

And so it begins... our evening at Dick's Last Resort. The waiter steps into it early, and often. He asks what is with the hammer on my shirt. I Jossfully, faithfully answer...

"The hammer is my penis"

Felicia Sightings

2008-07-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

We cut across the sails pavilion to hit the Red Sonja panel in the lower 6 spectrum. It was way over capacity and we were forced to jettison that from our schedule. We did get to see a few shots of Rose Magowan as RS.

Also along the way we passed a very frentic Felicia Day, finally escaped from the awful traffic and at the show. She had been twittering updates of her ordeal.

We grabbed a quick snack and headed down for the signing of the Guild DVD. Where we had our second Felecia sighting of the day. Got the DVD (purchased earlier that day) signed by Felicia and Jeff "Vokk" Lewis.

We chatted for a few minutes about WOW, her drive into SD and Dr Horrible, she was very sweet. Mentioned we would see her tomorrow and parted.

"Anything goes... and it did."

2008-07-24T13:54:00.000-07:00

Torchwood panel, pretty freaking hysterical. John Barrowmen is hysterical, they all are pretty funny and engaging.

They just finished a deal to air Series Three on BBC America. They all really are into the show and seem to get along well.

So far no James Marsters questions, thankfully. However there has been way too much over sharing in regards to fan fiction.

It never amazes the length that some fans will go to in order to get a reaction or stand out. Right now the panel is singing tunes from Miss Saigon.

Panel should be wrapping up and off to Red Sonja.

Epic Poster Tube Fail

2008-07-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

The idiots at the Fox booth created the traffic jam from hell by constantly shutting down their line and chasing people away.

As expected, the moment you turned your back they would begin letting more people in line. Finally someone as frustrated as I was called security and got the line opened up.

Also as expected they stopped giving out the item as soon as I finally got into the line. This kind of thing is one of the most frustrating aspects of the convention.

Into The Bowels

2008-07-24T08:14:00.000-07:00

And so it begins...

Into the line for registration, not quite at Seaport Village, but close enough. Apparently some people were lining up last night, that is a bit insane.

But the line is moving and that is all that matters. We hope to have most of the moning to spend in the exhibit hall, gathering swag.

Lots of fun updates once this begins in earnest.

Day ZERO in the books

2008-07-23T23:28:00.000-07:00

The Wonder Twins are already in bed and half asleep. So I suppose it is time to put the wraps on SDCC day zero.

At any rate, we have a long day ahead of us at the con tomorrow, so off to bed I go.

Dick's Last Resort

2008-07-23T22:11:00.000-07:00

Our usual hang out, we stopped by for a night cap. Tamer than usual, but still pretty crazy, especially Red Satin Jacket Man tm.

Some geeks are cool, but some just need to be left in their cages.

Rockin' Baja Lobster

2008-07-23T20:13:00.000-07:00

Having a few cocktails and dinner at the Rockin' Baja Lobster. Another great place to eat and sit outside enjoy the weather.

@The convention center

2008-07-23T19:36:00.000-07:00

Just landed at the convention center, hopped the shuttle over and now walking downtown for dinner.

Already pretty crowded but not nearly as bad as it will be tomorrow...

the train just broke down in front of us, wonderbar.

Nap time is over...

2008-07-23T17:30:00.001-07:00

Just finished up a power nap and time for a few drinks and make a decision on dinner. Fish, we are thinking... plenty of choices. Think we are leaning towards Rockin Baja Lobster for some buckets of grub.

Elephant & Castle

2008-07-23T13:38:00.001-07:00

Settled into the hotel, stopping for a meal at the pub attached to the hotel. After that it's anyone's guess as to what we will get ourselves into.

Just chilling for the moment, having a pint.

Touchdown San Diego

2008-07-23T11:42:00.001-07:00

The breeze, the mild temp, we must be in San Diego. Ahead of schedule and in one piece, now fingers crossed for an early hotel ceck in.

Fabulous Barstow

2008-07-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

No not really, expensive gas, expensive fast food, we are definetly in California now. Pictured is the Barstow train station McDonald's thingy where we grabbed a quick snack after gassing up the vehicle and Storm getting her nicotine break.

Not much exciting there just some homeless bumming smokes from Storm... and a lot of bees. Did not even buy any scratchers from the convience store, maybe on the way home.

We are hoping to land at the hotel noonish, we are just getting started.

Zzyxx

2008-07-23T08:07:00.000-07:00

The first of many fabulous sights to see on the drive from Nevada to California... the famous Zzyxx road.

My travelling companions and I are just chatting about past road trips as we close in on Barstow. My companions being my girlfriend Storm and our good friend Rainee.

We are currently being visually assaulted by a slew of Ron Paul for president signs amongst all the tumbleweeds.

Next update from Barstow.

On the road

2008-07-23T07:08:00.001-07:00

Quick stop at the ole Starbucks and hit the ole road and leave the desert behind. We are on the road for the next sixish hours, the trek from Vegas to San Diego.

We just crossed the border into California, woot.

Last bit of packing...

2008-07-23T05:20:00.000-07:00

While they certainly have grocery stores in San Diego, it is sometimes easier to bring the neccessities along for the ride.

That is why all the important packing comes right before we hit the road.

Dr. Horrible Swag

2008-07-22T21:00:00.000-07:00

A couple hours before I found out the California Browncoats would have shirts for sale, I had placed an order with Jinx.com.

Just means I get to show off my spiffy new shirt at dinner tonight, gotta love the self portrait...

Also picked up another shirt for the con on Friday, and one for Storm. Friday is pretty much Dr. Horrible day @ the con. Joss and the cast will be there, Neil, Nathan and Felecia.

Check it out on Itunes if you missed it last week.

The clowns have arrived...

2008-07-22T17:52:00.001-07:00

Apparently the clowns are my two travelling companions... the vacation is officially on.

We aren't in Cali yet...text n drivin

2008-07-22T17:48:00.000-07:00

Faster than a speeding bullet, racing home to finish up packing. Beer run, cat food run, then chilling for the rest of the evening.

Last hour of work - SDCC Countdown

2008-07-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

This is about the only thing to carry me over and into vacation... I about lost it when my boss was singing to "Send in the Clowns" in his office.

The last two hours of work before vacation truly are hellish. *-(

Countdown...

2008-07-22T15:35:00.000-07:00

Here we go, I have set this up to kick off my mobile blogging starting with San Diego Comic Con this week. At the moment I sit at work waiting to get the HELL out of here and home to finish packing and prepping for the trip.

Going to start mobile posting from my phone, as I try desperately to survive until 5pm PST without losing my mind.