faboo mama

I’m in Las Vegas. Just like the last time I was in Vegas, I’m staying at the Riviera and attending a conference with internet people.  Unlike the last time, the chances of me having fun are really, realy high and Mark Warner’s not throwing a party in the Stratosphere’s tower.

But this isn’t about that stuff, this is about Vegas.  It’s been 2 years, 2 months and 2 days since I’ve been here and the city has shifted again like sand dunes in the desert.  Old buildings gone, with new ones being built or already built.  The Stardust was demolished soon after my last visit and across the street, Steve Wynn built another edifice to his ego, aptly named ‘Encore’.  The Aladdin has been revamped and is now Planet Hollywood, the Hooters Hotel & Casino isn’t brand new and the Trump tower is complete.

For the Strip, keeping fresh is paramount.  Some places do it, some even do it well…others struggle.  But it’s not just the Strip that’s getting revamped.  The suburbs, exubs and outrings are also being revamped.  The people of Vegas like the new.  So, as new housing developments go up, they move further and further away from the city center so they can have a 5000sf cookie-cutter house, leaving their 2 year old house behind.  Drive around the city in concentric rings and you can actually see the decay.  Places that 10 years ago were the hot neighborhoods to live in are now rundown and neglected.  I’m sure you see something similar where you live.  It definitely has happened in Los Angeles, but in Vegas it happens so much faster.

Flying in, I almost broke down in tears.  One of the best things about flying from Los Angeles to Vegas, was looking out the starboard window and seeing the desert, with mountains and then the glorious Lake Mead.  Well, the desert and some of the mountians have given over to grids of tightly packed cul-de-sacs, with houses stamped onto the tiny lots.  The lake…my goodness, the lake…looks like it has lost a good 30 - 40 feet of depth.  There was this little cove we used to go.  It was sheltered by a lot of trees and even the water was right at our feet.  About 60 feet away was a tiny island that almost rose up out of the water.  The first time I went there in ‘93, it was completely underwater.  It was protected so the boats and jet skis wouldn’t hit it.  By ‘95 it was a 10′ x 6′ island.  Now in 2008, our cove looks to be about 200 feet away from the water, the island is a large hill barely covered by water.  On the other side of the lake, the shelf where we’d anchor down the houseboat is very visible.

As much as I adore Las Vegas (to visit), I’ve always been turned off by the water wasting.  I always thought it was a big loss that a city that rose up outof the desert, never embraced it’s sandy roots, instead choosing to mimic landscapes found in less arid regions.  Las Vegas wasted prime opportunity to show the rest of the world that you can build, build large and do it with less impact and environmentally sound.

It seems Reality has hit the city and hit it hard.

In the ridiculously long shuttle ride to my hotel, I found I was smiling a lot more and it wasn’t just from being childishly dazzled by the lights.  The water-wasting, high-maintenance grass is being ripped out.  In its place is beautiful xeriscaping, with drought-tolerant and native plants.  River rock swales have been installed to reduce flooding when it rains.  The architectural beauty of the palms, cycads, cactus and succulents actually help make the Strip look a lot more natural.

Another thing I noticed is that the City is finally using its best resource: the sun.  Solar panels abound and it was nice to see that not only were they on new construction, but also going up on some of the older buildings.  From what I understand, the City gets a lot of it’s energy from Hoover Dam.  I never thought it was wise to rely on a crumbling and outdated structure like that, so the use of solar panels on businesses, hotel and homes is a welcome sight.

Viva Las Vegas…if you keep on this track, you can become an environmentally sound City of the World.

Image via Wikipedia

I wrote an entry about the suckitude of NBC covering the Olympics back in 2006.  NBCs coverage certainly fell off 10 years previous, but since Sydney, it’s increasingly painful to watch.  It’s not the just the fluff pieces on the athletes where a knee scrape at the age of 6 is told with overwrought music and fraught with drama.  It’s not just the insufferable focus on American athletes, many of whom don’t stand a chance to win a medal, let along a gold one.  It’s not even the fact that if you do not have cable, you’ll miss 95% of the coverage.  The worst part of NBCs coverage, at least for me here on the west coast is the utter lie that is that taunting “LIVE” icon in the top right corner of my screen.

Opening Ceremonies carried that “LIVE” tag, even though earlier in the day I heard about all the technological feats from European friends a good 9 hours before I even had a chance to watch it.  Yesterday, people were talking about swimmer Michael Phelps wondering if he’d win his gold medal.  3 hours before it was shown here on the west coast, I already knew that he did.

I had this rant ready to go, but I just reread what I wrote in ‘06 and it still stands today.  The 2 points I made then, I wanted to make today:

Not to knock on my fellow countrymen, but the best part about the Olympics is the internationality of it all. I love seeing people excel in sports that they shouldn’t have or surpass all kinds of odds just to get to the Olympics, but I have a feeling that Americans don’t have a corner on hardship*

AND…

Now let’s get to programming. Remember the days when the Olympics were carried live? Remember when you had to set your VCR to tape figure skating at 2:45pm? Well now, we’re subjected to 3.5 hours of highlights. By the time the Olympics air here on the West Coast, I already know who won. Hell, Comcast On-Demand has the winners up before NBC plays their stinkin’ highlight reel. And that’s exactly what it is: a flippin’ highlight reel. I have no idea what’s edited out until I see who’s competed. On the computer. Where it’s already tomorrows in Torino. You’d think that there are really only 6 people competing in any given sport. Those other names? They’re just ghosts of Olympics past.

I think that if I want to watch soccer and avoid gymnastics, I shouldn’t have to use a chart to determine when it will actually run and on what channel.  I should be able to watch an entire competition all the way through.  Instead, last night we got a chunk of gymnastics (US, China and Japan only, even though 5 other countries also competed), some swim races, a volleyball game, interviews with the US Women’s fencing team and highlights of other sports that weren’t televised at all.

How do they think  that is watchable?  That was just on the Universal HD (where it is so not HD) channel.  I popped over to USA Spain vs. Greece basketball and the commentators were calling color from a studio in New York!  I haven’t caught anything on MSNBC, Oxygen, Telemundo or CNBC mostly because I find it ridiculous I have to flip that much to watch old news. But I wish I knew the reason why content couldn’t be aired live across all timezones at the same time.  NBA finals, Super Bowl, World Series, Wimbledon, US Open, etc. are all aired at the same time in the US.  Why not the Olympics?

I really, really, really detest NBCs coverage and you can let them know at nbcolympicsfeedback@nbcuni.com

That’s right, I won the Easy Green Living book by Renée Loux that was being given away on Seesmic. Want to watch the whole thing? Below is the video of the when Ms. Loux took our questions on what we viewed as important in living “green”:

Yes, that’s not Renée, but if you click on it, you’ll see here (yes, I’m laughing at a pretty frantic email I received).

About a week and some days later, the winner was announced:

I laughed. I cried. I want to thank the Academy…

Then today…the book arrived:

I’m kinda busy with work, but I’ve had a chance to flip through the book and it’s pretty interesting. There are a lot of items in the book that I already own/buy not because of any greenness on my part, but because of price, locality and prettiness/smells. The book is more a shopping guide than a lifestyle guide, IMO, but even flipping through it, it was struck by how many items in the book are things you don’t really need in life. Or the lack of actual greenness of them, i.e. paper towels/napkins. It’s much more green to use cloth towels, and thankfully, the author does point that out. Which brings me to the second cool thing about the book.

Everything is pretty accessible to anyone who can read and shows that you don’t have to drop big $$$ to be green which is stunning to me considering Loux hosts a show on Fine Living. The best part is that Loux does explain why certain things are better than others. Unlike other “green” books, there doesn’t seem to be those not-so-unsubtle judgment calls on your purchases. Take the section on cookware. It’s extremely detailed explaining why Teflon or non-stick cookware isn’t in your best interest vs. stainless steel or cast iron cookware.

Check out the book at your local library or you can find at Powell’s.

*Disclaimer*: I’m one of many people who never thought George Carlin was funny and who believed that he ruined Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Now, honestly people…why is it that just about every political blog has been spammed with the 30 year old “comedy” bits that weren’t funny 30 years ago?  I don’t get it.  Carlin didn’t contribute anything to society, at least to the world I lived in, beyond obnoxious holier-than-thou types quoting him like he was a genius or something.  And don’t act shocked he died.  He was 71 years old.  That’s a long time to annoy the hell out of me.  Is Carlin another sad icon of “speaking truth to power” by desperate, sheltered and too-afraid-to-defend-themselves liberals who are going to put him on a pedestal like Hunter S. Thompson?

Please tell me because I’m ’bout ready to go upside some heads.  What kills me the most are the atheists/anti-religionists are talking about how Carlin is part of some “comedy trinity” (among these types that includes Lenny Bruce and Andy Kaufmann (Y-A-W-N).

Yes.

Can the corpse-fucking end?

Now?

Please?

You’ve Made Me Dumb 

Teh stoopid is strong with this one.

I’m not usually big on Olbermann’s Special Comments, but sometimes there are really brilliant ones. This is a really brilliant one. The subject is Sen. Clinton’s remarks then half-assed sorta apology for invoking RFKs assassination (for the 2nd time) as a reason to take it to June. This time, unlike her remarks from March which very few people seemed to have noticed, she got caught out, making them to the editorial board of the Argus Leader in South Dakota. An interview that was streamed live.

I don’t have anything to add. I’ve been saying Clinton should have dropped out of the race since the end of Feb. This is the cherry on top, that proves what I’ve been saying for the past 3 months, this woman is not fit for the job of President of the United States.

MSNBC is disgusting.  They just spent the last 3 hours eulogizing Sen. Ed Kennedy and he ain’t even dead yet.

Gross.

It amuses me when I see article from the corporate media that echo something I’ve read in the liberal blogosphere.  It’s even funnier when it’s a blatant lift.  For a while, I was convinced that Joel Stein was cyberstalking my blog posts and comments.  His articles from ‘06 - ‘07 were way too close to mine.  If I blogged or long-commented on something, I could guarantee that Stein would have an article about the same thing in 2 - 3 weeks.  So I was absolutely tickled when I opened Milbank’s This is an Ex-Candidate article and noted that it lifted a reference from a March article from Booman.

I’ve been having some serious issues with my blog and an “unresponsive script error”.  That’s why I haven’t been posting as much.  Well…drumroll…I not only figured out the problem, but I also fixed.  Be ready for a flood of my most inane thoughts.

Terry implies that Tim’s dad is dead. He isn’t.