I've been in Las Vegas this week for the ISC West. ISC stands for International Security Conference and there is a series of them all over and this is the West one. I suppose it stands for Western US. There are a lot of foreign people here so the International is certainly apropos.
Mom, this week, is visiting the grandkids while I'm in Las Vegas. We'd talked about her coming with me, but she said that she didn't want to stay with a boring person who just came back to the motel and wanted to stay in his room at night (she knows me very well) so she went to visit the grandkids instead. I thought that I wasn't coming on this trip because of the government funding problems, but last Thursday I found out that the trip was back on.
Here's the funny experience. Funny as in "Dad you're an idiot" funny. I made a reservation at a hotel that was 1 mile from the Sands Convention Center called the Holiday Inn LAS VEGAS FLAMINGO AT PARADISE. That's exactly the way it is written on my itinerary. All I saw was FLAMINGO. I'm pretty sure that I saw the Holiday Inn part but I just thought that Holiday Inn must own "The Flamingo" When we got into town I was dropped off by Scott McDuffie at "The Flamingo." After I got dropped off I walked through the hotel casino complex (that's the only word for these things they're immense) and found the check in which had a hugh line which I waited in for half an hour, and then was told I was in the wrong place. The receptionist was nice and gave me a minimal map with the general area where I should go. I take off walking and after I hit a street that I thought should be called Paradise but was Korval, I realized that I was going to need a better map to find where I needed to go. Then I realized I had an iPhone and I was excited. I entered the address, which was 4055 Palos Verdes, and presto a map with directions. I love technology. I've really liked the GPS feature on the iPhone, but never this much. The hotel isn't even actually on FLAMINGO or PARADISE it's just "at," or near those streets. It was a about a mile away from "The Flamingo" and I had to drag my suitcase. I thought it was pretty funny. It would have been fun, maybe, to stay in "The Flamingo" but I think that I actually like this place better. There's not 10 gazillion people every where, and the building isn't designed so that I never want to leave but just stay in one place and eat, drink and gamble there until I leave town.
The spectacle of walking down the strip is pretty overwhelming. I mean the hotels are huge and marvelous. It amazing. I've always been amazed when I've been here and it doesn't ever seem to get less amazing. I've never stayed in Las Vegas just passed through it a couple of times and walked down the strip. I think I once even rode the monorail, which all I remember is that it was boringly slow.
The conference is pretty good. I've been going to classes and only took a little stroll through the exhibition between classes. It was the biggest exhibition that I've ever seen. It was pretty spectacular as well. They actually had a semi in there that was pulling the Bosch mobile presentation set up. I didn't get a chance to see it, but I mean a semi in a convention center! That's pretty good. I'll bet the CES is just amazing. I'd like to go to that someday, especially if I can get work to pay for it.
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