Sunday, 13 June 2004
11:25pm
| H |
And man, was it ever a blast. I hadn't had that much fun in a long, long time. I most definitely recommend it. It was especially cool because we actually went on Monday and it was mostly cloudy and somewhat cool out, so there was hardly anybody else out there on the water. We practically had the entire bay to ourselves, with maybe like 3 other groups out there. Didn't have to worry about getting in anyone's way, or anyone getting in our way... just tons acres and acres of open water and no speed restrictions. Woohoo.
Tonight Leanne threw a little wine tasting party. We all brought a bottle of wine, but then soon after arriving, the identities of the wines were obscure, so we really had no idea what we were drinking while evaluating how it tasted. We took notes as we sampled each one so we could later compare our notes, and also see how our recorded experience matched up to the winespeak descriptions on the labels. The results were pretty interesting, especially considering that the wine we collectively rated as being second best was a bottle of two buck chuck cabernet sauvignon that Leanne slipped in without us knowing. Or at least, without me knowing. It stood out even next to a bunch of $15 and $20 bottles of wine, so I guess it's actually pretty good and not just pretty good for being two bucks. Also, at least among the eight wines we sampled tonight, it seemed that the more lengthy and detailed the description of the wine's taste was on the label, the less tasty the wine actually turned out to be. And of the top three favorites as selected by our expert panel... none of them had any description of the taste on their labels. Very interesting. And all the food Leanne made was absolutely fabulous, and I'm still totally stuffed.
I've been getting more and more settled in to the new place. It's really starting to feel like home to me now. Just need a few more pieces of furniture to fill things out. Late last night while cruising the craigslist listings in San Diego, I found a listing for a bookshelf stereo system. I've been wanting to replace mine for a while now (I've had it since I graduated high school, and the CD section has been broken for at least 5 years), and this one had everything I wanted. 5 disc CD changer, dual cassette decks (I still have TONS of old cassettes that I listen to from my jr. high and high school days), and even a MiniDisc recorder.
He was asking $225 for this thing which normally costs $500, and I thought I'd contact the guy to see if it was still available, because the ad was already two weeks old. He still had it, and I took it home for $200. Man this thing is so cool. I can record from anything to anything... cd to tape, cd to minidisc, minidisc to tape, tape to minidisc, cd to tape and minidisc simultaneously... and it can even do CD to minidisc at double the speed. And if you record to minidisc from the radio, it actually starts recording with material that came on the air 6 seconds before you hit the record button so that it records the stuff you missed during and just before the time you hit the button!
It can also do MDLP recording which lets you put double or quadruple the amount of music on one MD. My car deck for years has been able to read MDLP discs, but I didn't have anything to record MDLP discs with until now. So right now I'm testing it out by copying (at double speed!) the two discs of Metallica's "Garage, Inc." onto one minidisc. Even though the sound quality won't be as good as a regular MD recording, I'll mostly be listening to this MD in my car where I most likely won't even be able to tell the difference anyway.
I guess the coolest thing about it though is that it's practically brand new. The guy bought this thing, used it once, then put it back in the box, intending to return it. But then he forgot about it, and he couldn't return it anymore, so he decided to sell it on craigslist. He said he never even used the speakers. Anyway. I got a super killer deal on this thing, and so far I'm very happy with it. I'm sure most of you out there have absolutely no interest in my interest in minidiscs and have zoned out by now, so I'll finish this paragraph off by saying "body massage!"
Ah yes, and it also has a line-in so I can hook up my mixer to it (which normally has my computers + whatever musical instruments I want hooked up to it). It really does have everything I could have wanted in a bookshelf stereo for my bedroom. Yay internet!
Monday, 14 June 2004
10:00pm
| G |
There's a well known card
counter. They have a camera crew with him in the limo on the way to the casino.
They show him check in. He leaves, and the front desk lady calls upstairs to say
"I just checked this guy in but he popped up as a flagged player." --
miraculously, at this exact moment, they had a camera crew in the office upstairs
with the guy who received the call. He then calls down to the surveillance room to
alert them of the situation. Wouldn't you know, they had a camera crew down there
recording the other end of that phone call too?
Another thread in this show is
following this group of frat boys who are trying to hook their shy friend up with
some girls by throwing a big party in their hotel room and inviting girls from
around town. Some girls show up, and they start partying.
Meanwhile, Mr. Known Card
Counter who would never be allowed to play in any casino on the planet is
downstairs trying to hook up with anything that has boobs. And wouldn't you know
it, the same girls (who are just regular girls of course) that were upstairs at
the frat boy party are now downstairs
gambling with Mr. Known Card Counter. Hmmm....
Then Mr. Known Card Counter
starts trying to get it on with this chick. And my first reaction was to say "Um,
that looks like a guy". Wouldn't you know it, they just revealed as I'm typing
this that yeah, it really is a guy. Not only is it totally staged... but totally
predictable as well. What great "reality" telivision!
But no, this isn't staged or
scripted, it's reality tv!! LOLOL This is such a sad and terribly obvious attempt
by the new owners of the Nugget to try to recapture what the Maloof brothers built
with their brilliant marketing plan of having MTV's The Real World use their
property as their home... which took them from being a little known locals casino
and turned them into the hottest spot for the young, the rich, and the famous.
Sorry guys, you missed the boat.