JohnA lifeBlog

Sorry that I’ve not posted in a while. There has been a lot going on. Last Monday, I broke a drinking glass, and then proceeded to jump on it. Don’t ask. Anyhoo, that has taken up a bunch of my time, and even now, I sit on the couch with 5 stitches and the inability to drive myself anywhere. I mean, today’s excitement was walking a block to Quiznos Subs for lunch.

Yesterday, I did get my gimpy self down to the movies to see Casino Royale, the best entry in the series in 2 decades. Look for a full review soon.

Additionally, Jonathan & I did the whole Black Friday thing, we went to Best Buy, Staples, and Target. More on that soon.

Oh, and I have chosen to abandon my MacBook for a similarly equipped Windows XP laptop, which cost around 1/3rd the price. Look for a blog posting about this soon.

It has been a busy time, but what can you do? I wish I had some time for myself, but alas, no luck.

Sleep when you’re dead, or so Gustav Graves says.

Forgot to post the pics from Vegas…

Here is the gallery, in all of its glory.  We had so much fun, and to my surprise, I didn’t get drunk last weekend.  Sober in Vegas?  Who would have thought it!

Look for my review of the Blue Man Group show tomorrow.

Boing Boing: Findings fractals in the stock market

So once again, the self-absorbed Mandelbrot is taking credit for someone else’s work. In this case, he is claiming to have discovered a a fractal analysis pattern for traded markets. The problem is, R. N. Elliott discovered the same patterns in the late 1930’s.

Mandelbrot has refused to even acknowledge any similarity of his “discovery” to the work Mr. Elliott published decades earlier.

Bob Prechter, one of my mentors and the leading expert in Elliott Wave Theory, addressed this “issue” previously in a meticulously composed response which is available online.

I returned home from my whirlwind Vegas vacation earlier this morning. I had a marvelous time, and as I have done with previous trips, I’m going to post each day separately. I’ve already posted the blog I wrote while on the plane on Friday.

More to come!

Sunday was the ultimate whirlwind… I cannot remember the last time I did so much with so little energy.

As you may have realized, I didn’t actually get to sleep until around 4am, and then woke up again at 7am. I walked over to my mom’s hotel, stopping along the way to have a gourmet breakfast courtesy of McDonald’s.

After meeting up with Mom & Scott in their hotel room, we were off to the marriage license bureau. It wasn’t very crowded, and there were around 3 couples in front of Mom & Scott in line. The interesting thing was that every single female involved was absolutely gorgeous. I now know what I need to have a happy, healthy relationship… a HUGE diamond ring.

After the civil part, the limo picked us up and took us to the Viva Las Vegas! Wedding Chapel. We arrived early, so we went next door to the bar, where we all had a shot of liquid courage.

At noon, it was time. The king had arrived, and everything was in place. Mom was nervous, but that settled down when I decided to walk her down the aisle.

Mom cried during the dance. But again, mom cries all the time. But she was HAPPY, which made me happy.

After the ceremony, we all piled back into the limo and headed to the Luxor to celebrate. I couldn’t guarantee the full trip at the timeshare, so I had to stay the last night at the Luxor. It wasn’t bad, though, as I got to have dinner at the acclaimed Luxor Steakhouse. I had a $30 credit on my account thanks to hotels.com. Even still, the dinner was $45. And I had like 1 cocktail. But to be honest, it was the best steak I have had in years, and I enjoyed an amazing side dish of yukon gold mashed potatoes. To be honest, it was the best steak dinner I’ve enjoyed since my weekly visits to Stoney River in Atlanta.

After dinner, I took a cab to The Venetian to see the Blue Man Group perform. Thanks to a good friend, I was able to end up in the 4th row. The show was simply amazing, and I cannot wait to see it again.

So, there you go. Highlights always make a difference.

Saturday was my first full day in Vegas.  I was staying in the best kept secret in Vegas… a secret so awesome, I’m not going to write the name here.

Anyway, the day started with a run to the grocery store… I bought some basic supplies, as well as an unhealthy amount of Sugar-Free Rockstar.

After breakfast and a nap, I took the shuttle to Harrah’s Casino, where I proceeded to lose like $150 on blackjack.  On the plus side, I got to know Clara (my cocktail waitress) really well, and she even gave me her e-mail address… and she’s on MySpace, but you’ll never get her address from me.

After a few hours, I was sufficiently sloshed, so I headed back to my condo and took a nap for a few hours.

I got a call around 7pm from Mom, saying that they had one hell of a travel day, and would just meet me at the MGM Grand.  We met up in the lobby, and then we all went to see the Rolling Stones concert.  While Mom & Scott thought their Austin performance was better, I had a lot of fun.

After the show, we gambled a little bit in the casino, then hired a town car to take us to the Marriage License place.  It turns out that they changed their hours, but not their website, so we were greeted with a security guard telling us that the place was closed.

That pissed us off nicely, so we asked “Zee”, our driver, to take us downtown to see the Fremont Street Experience, which was over by the time we arrived.

The saving grace was our $2.99 steak & eggs breakfast at the Golden Nugget.  It was delicious, which was surprising, as I was expecting a Waffle House style steak.

My first blog for the Vegas trip is actually coming to you from the plane. Yes, thanks to sophisticated Lithium-Ion Polymer technology, I am actually able to write a blog post from the plane. Yay for technology.

Anyway, the aircraft is a really tiny turboprop. In case I am unable to be recognized from the wreckage, I’ve included these photos.

This is my first time flying out of Merced, and I must say that it is quite convenient, and quite lax in the security front. No check of ID, no screening of my carry on. But to be honest, no worries. I mean, if the “terrirsts™” are trying to target a essential air service flight of 16 people from Merced, they have much larger problems.

My flight lands at 9:50pm, so at this point I have to decide… do I just go to bed, or do I drink the 24oz Rockstar® in my suitcase and pull an all nighter. I think that depends on the availability of hard liquor.

Oh, and FYI, I do intend to spend this entire weekend in a drunken stupor. I’m not driving, I have no responsibilities except for spending time with mom and Dad 3.0, so I’m not going to make any excuses.

One last comment… one of our largest customers, and one of my good friends, was able to score me a front row ticket to the new Blue Man Group show at The Venetian Sunday night. Words do not describe how cool that is, or how excited I am. I’ll blog the whole weekend, but expect a special entry talking about the show.

So, I’ve been holding this one back, since it is BIG news, and I wanted to be sure that everything is in place.

I’m going to be spending the weekend in Las Vegas!  I leave tomorrow evening, and return Monday morning!  Isn’t that exciting?

But that’s not the big news.  The big news is the reason I am going… on Saturday night, my Mom & her fiancé Scott are getting married!

I am so filled with emotion… I am so unbelievably excited that they are doing this, and I am so grateful that the chose me to be there as the witness.  It is quite the whirlwind trip, but through it all, I am so filled with happiness that my mother has found her perfect partner,  the person with whom she will share everything for the rest of her life.

As always, I’ll be in tow with my crappy Kodak digital camera.  I’m hoping to borrow Jonathan’s camcorder to record the actual ceremony… there is talk that Elvis may be presiding…

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

Tonight I went and saw Borat.  To be honest, I was absolutely floored at how crowded it was… especially in this small town.

Anyway, for those who are not familiar with Borat, it is a Kazakhstan reporter portrayed by Sacha Baron Cohen. In this film, directed documentary style, Borat traverses America and interacts with people from every walk of life.

This is, by far, the funniest, and most offensive, movie I have seen since South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut.  A number of people walked out at various times throughout the film.

If you are easily offended, this is NOT the movie for you.  But if you love anything from low-brow scatological humor all the way to subtle and biting political satire, you will love this move.

Be sure to see it in the theater, though, and the shared audience experience is key, much as it was for South Park.

Work is incredibly busy, so I’ve not had a chance to write up my description of the remaining days at Disneyland. I have, however, completed tagging and commenting my photos, so at least that’s something.

Click here to see the photos from day 3!

I’m going to try to put something together sooner rather than later, but I just don’t know when things are going to slow down.