Sitting in Ft. Lauderdale Airport

I am sitting in the Ft. Lauderdale airport waiting for my 4:30pm flight home, going through Denver. It is HOT and HUMID here, 95 but feels more like 105. What an adventure this trip turned into.

Everthing started last Thursday night catching 10:30pm red eye flight, going through Philly. I didn't book this trip myself because I sure wouldn't have gone through Philly. I arrived in Ft. Lauderdale around 12 noon on Friday. It was not the most direct route, I was probably in the air close to 8 hours. Landing in Ft. Lauderdale is when the adventure really begins, because US Airways didn't have my luggage, as well as the luggage of about 20 other people on the flight. There was plenty of time for the transfer in Philly, I guess one cart of luggage was just forgotten by the ground crew. Ok, it wasn't lost and was to arrive on the next flight in about 45 mins and they would then send it to my Hotel, The Westin Resort and Spa in Hollywood. Didn't happen quite like that. During the day I checked or tried to check multiple times on the status. The phone at the airport they gave me to call was never answered and the toll free number could only say they has no tracking details and the maybe it would show up. By 8pm with no luggage, getting very pissed at US Airways (your customer service is really BAD!) I decided to head to Walmart and buy some clothes. Remember is HOT and HUMID on the beach and I only have blue jeans and a long sleeve black shirt. Plus I had been in these clothes for 48 hours. I get some shorts, shirts and sandles and feel much better. Guess what, around 2am my luggage shows up. Better late than never.

This turned into another wild business trip. The hotel was amazing, right on the beach. The event had the entire hotel so things were pretty loose. Pictures will be coming in the next couple days from the wet t-shirt contest and 4 hour boat ride.

One activity from the trip that was the coolest was a half hour ride in a 47 foot high speed race boat. This boat has 3 1200HP engines and can hit 12oMPH. I stood in the left position next to the driver. Braced in very tightly and grabbing on even more tightly. We hit about 90MPH and flying over 6 foot rolling waves. We were moving so fast that I couldn't focus on the waves approaching. By time I saw one we were already past it, things were just flying by.

Check out this live webcam of the hotel pool and beach, this is what my room overlooked.

Now I have two hours to kill in the airport before my flight. At least this flight is much more direct and about half the flight time of coming out.

108 Degress in Las Vegas

So I arrived in Las Vegas yesterday, staying at the Hard Rock Hotel, for another business trip... the XBiz Convention. Guess what, IT'S DAMN HOT! They keep saying, "it's a dry heat." Well screw that, it's still 108! My oven is dry heat, I'm not going to sit in it, lol!

Anyway the Hard Rock Hotel is awesome, the pool area is amazing. Especially since our show took over the entire pool area. Here's one picture of the sights, more to come.

It's Thursday

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day. I was fortunate enought to spend mine with someone very cool. We had dinner at Cafe Mozart, "the most romantic restaurant in San Francisco". Well, that is their claim not mine. It was a nice little place, but more like eating dinner in your grandma's living room. The food was ok, not anything great. We had fun, and a number of laughs. After dinner we came home and opened some gifts and had some fun.

Still looking for a good teacher for guitar lessons.

At work today I booked my trip to Phoenix for the Phoenix Forum on March 29-31. Word is this a really good event. Also spent some time rebuilding some of the web pages on the portal site. In addition spent time preparing for my new hires first day on March 1.

I have a call next Tuesday with a couple music industry managers about a future web project, more later.

I'm Going Home!

Yea! I am in the Vegas airport waiting to board my flight back to SF. I have been here since last Friday and it is time to go home and do some cuddling and maybe a bit more. This trip was a blast, but there is nothing better than going home. Plus even though I don't really gamble, Vegas got $240 from me and it's time to leave the temptation of just one pull on the slot.

Just How Cold Was It In Las Vegas?

This is how damn cold it has been in Las Vegas!

From Misc Pictures

Piss Off!

Came across this game in the restroom at the Barbery Coast, unfortunately nobody wanted to play.

From Misc Pictures

The Big Elvis

Las Vegas is great, especially the smaller hotels. You never know what you might find and tonight I found The Big Elvis! I only caught about the last 10-15 minutes of his show, but it was great. Sounded just like Elvis, but looked... well not quite. Big Elvis was BIG, REAL BIG! I'm talking maybe 300 lbs! Big Elvis Website.

Last Day in Vegas

Today is my last full day in Vegas, I have been here since last Friday. I am TIRED! Spent most of yesterday in meetings on the show floor. I have a pile of business cards and stacks of notes to sort through... but, lots of huge future business was setup. It's still cold as crap here, the waterfall in front of the Tropicana is frozen, gotta take a pic of that today. Gavin and I had a real nice dinner with one of our biggest clients, Al, and his wife.

Today I am going to really just take it easy. One person I have to meet with, but other than that not much scheduled. Maybe tonight I will head downtown to Fremont Street, I have never seen the light show.

More later.

Still in Vegas - The Rat Pack and Whorehouses

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2007 AVN Award Show

It's the morning after the 2007 AVN Awards Show. I am a bit tired and a bit hungover. Not too bad. 7000 people converged on the Mandalay Bay Events Center for the first awards show open to the public. Most people were dressed to impress, suits and evening gowns. Much more impressive than the trade show. I arrived around 8:30 to watch the "red carpet" with another co-worker. Man so many of these adult stars look the same, there is just nothing unique looking about many of them. I found my seat at 9:45 for the show. The main floor was all tables except for a few rows of chairs right up front.

When the show kicked off it was loud, the mix for the live band was terrible. I had a great time at the show and found it very entertaining. What struck my most was how they are trying to be so serious. Just like the Academy Awards they had star presenters, they listed the nominated stars or titles, shows brief clips and the winner would come up on stage accept their award and give a thank you speech. But, it is just hard to take too seriously because it is for porn. These are awards for things like best girl girl, best group sex, etc and let's be honest some of these girls can't manage too much dialogue in a film, let alone a thank you speech. One group of girls presenting got lost walking out to the center mic stand. Some of them were so touched by winning, one of the early winners said she was so happy to win for something not involving anal this time. How can you not just laugh at an acceptance speech like that! Another said nothing more than "I love sucking c$%#!" Of course when the winner for Best Interracial Series is "My Hot Wife is F$%#ing Blackzilla" you just have to laugh! Please, this is not and will not ever be something serious like the Academy Awards, but it was extremely entertaining!

The show production was top notch with lights, video, music. Comedian Jim Norton was a riot! Buckcherry ended the evening with a performance of Crazzy Bitch. Gene Simmons was a special guest and he was even awarded with the Golden Tongue Award, something that caught him by surprise. There is no reason why this awards show shouldn't continue to grow bigger and bigger, but eveyone just has to remember to not be too serious... this goes for those watching and attending as well as those producing and presenting.

I can't wait for next years show!

Las Vegas AVN Show

Saturday morning in Las Vegas. Arrived yesterday for the AVN expo... Adult Video News expo. First you need to know it is COLD in Vegas. Currently it is 26 degress, there were even snow flurries yesterday. Today it should only be about 40 degress.

Wild show, the AVN sexpo, I mean expo. Huge convention hall filled with large and loud booths. Lots of lights and loud music. Everywhere you turn you see blonde, boobs and butts and much of it does not look that great. Saw Skreech promoting his film, saw Jenna Jameson --- wow is she a twig, like maybe 90 lbs. She must be starving herself. Gene Simmons was walking around with his Family Jewels TV crew, causing a stir like only Gene can do. Couldn't get close enough to say hi to Uncle Gene. He is around today as well, maybe I will run into him. I had quite a few meetings yesterday, yeah I am here working, and have a few more today. Tonight there are a number of parties after the awards show. I may attend the Vivid Alt party with my director friend Octavio, otherwise I will check out the House of Blues.

I will post some photos so you can what this is all about.

I needed a space heater in bed with me last night to keep me warm, unfortunately my heater is back home.

Today Should Be Interesting!

So this afternoon I am spending a couple hours working at the Folsom Street Fair, our company has a couple booths and I volunteered to help out. Lots of leather and much more! I am sure I will have more to say when I get home later today.

On a side note... Touchdown Vikings! Vikings 13 Chicago 9!

Back home

Back home from Hawaii, what an amazing trip! Five days in Oahu! Spent one day over on the big island touring the Volcano National Park. My new picture is taken on a lava flow. It is so hard to describe what it is like to walk on old lava flows. Very hard to top something as exciting as that, but swimming with sharks did. Saturday we spent a half hour in a shark cage three miles off the North Shore of Oahu surrounded by 15-20 sharks, 10-12 feet long. Total rush! Just before leaving the cage one shark bit through one of the ropes connecting the cage to the boat and got hooked, the shark then started to pull the cage under on one side. We weren't too scared, but the crew on the boat wanted to get us out pretty fast. I will post some photos later this week.

Tomorrow is day one at my new gig with Gamelink. I am very excited about this job and company.

The only thing you can count on is change.

So life just has a way of surprising you, throwing you a curve ball, keeping you on the edge. Yesterday FaceTime had a companywide staff reduction and I was part of the reduction. In a odd way I had a smile on my face as I was told the news. Nobody likes looking for work, but the light at the end of the tunnel excites me, what does life have in store for me this time. I know it will be great, exciting and even better. But, the trip through the tunnel to the light is just a bitch. There is a greater will controlling our lives and we just have to have some trust and belief.

The times they are a changing!