1:41pm  I’m having lunch right now at the Rio World Carnival buffet.  It took a while to get here, but it was a good call.

I started off trying to walk to bank of america, but, what I found is that Vegas makes it very easy to walk on the strip, but ridiculously difficult to walk anywhere else.  The city’s main streets are huge, and often turn into overpasses with no sidewalks.  So, I gave up and caught a cab.

After filling up at the bank, my cab driver suggested I try the buffet at the Palms.  Before I ate, I played a few hands of blackjack.  But both of my dealers panned the Palms buffet, so I decided to try the Rio, which is right down the block.

It was a good call.  The buffet here is incredible.  And it’s not even the famous seafood buffet - it’s the ‘world’ buffet that’s open at lunch.

This place has different foods from around the world - sushi, chinese, mexican, Italian, etc.  The selection is very impressive.  They even have a peking duck hanging thing, a wood fired pizza oven, and mongolian BBQ cooking area.  All for $16!

And I’m going to get my money’s worth.  I have all five seasons of Curb on my Zune so I can stay here all day.  I’m waiting for my third wind right now.  Gotta love the vegas buffet.

 3:41pm  Relaxing right now in the Caesar’s Forum Shops.  Caesars has grown so quickly over the past decade or so.  But one problem is that new towers and shops have been added on in such a haphazard manner that the place is a maze.

Same thing with the forum shops, the latest addition, which is right on the strip, winds back and forth with dead ends and fountains here or there.

I’m doing a bit better today.  Been sticking with the 6-8 deck shoes, instead of the 2-4 deck shoes I was playing last night.  I’ve made up about $400 at the Rio, but I still have a long way to go to get even.

One thing about Caesars, their blackjack tables suck.  You can double only on 10 or 11, a big ripoff, and the casino is so prominent and is in such a high traffic area you get all kinds of retarded gamblers.  I mean, I don’t play super conservative myself, but hitting when you can bust when the dealer has a 6 showing?  come on.

I’ve been trying to get online, but although there are a million wireless networks around the city, they are nearly all protected or are unprotected by lead to some hotel wireless site where you have to pay to log on.

Anyway, I just stopped at the Sony store to pick up earbuds for my ear phones.  I have those ear phones that fit in your ear canal, but the dumb thing is that when you keep them in your pocket, the bud parts, which are removable, tend to fall off.  When that happens, the only way you can use your earbuds is to stick the uncovered hard plastic in your ear, which doesn’t sound very good, and doesn’t feel very good either.

I don’t know what I’m going to do now.  Just playing it by ear.  What I do know, however, is that I need some $25 table action in order to have any possibility of breaking even.

4:22pm  Back at the hotel for a break.  I tried to get into Mesa Grill, but they don’t open until 5.  Plus, they were booked for tonite anyway.

I wouldn’t have thought vegas would be this busy now, but it is absolutely packed.  When you’re crossing the street, and people walking opposite directions meet, it’s like a football drill or something.  You just do your best not to get knocked down.

Anyway, I’m going to take a shower and head out again.  Probably try to hit up the rio again for the seafood buffet.

Here’s some info on the pics, from top to bottom:

-ABC store at the Forum Shops.  Why someone would travel to vegas to get hawaiian gifts is beyond me.  But at least they had deodorant.

-The Palm’s casino

-The peking duck at the World buffet

-One of the ‘asian’ sections at the world buffet.  The mongolian BBQ guy is in the back if you look closely.

-A bowling alley at the Rio.  It actually looked pretty cool, they had a full bar, huge TV screens, very high tech and ritzy.

10:26am  Well, not technically - last nite officially ended four and a half hours ago when I passed out on my stiff, itchy bed at the Imperial Palace.  With a chance to regroup this morning, I find that I am down somewhere over a grand, depending on how many drunken trips I made to the ATM last night.  I see a bunch of crumpled up receipts on the table in front of me, so maybe some accounting is in order.  My wallet holds only $81 - dangerously low considering I am pretty sure I maxed out my withdrawals for today late last night.  I need a bank.

And some coffee.  My head is a bit sore, but surprisingly I feel overall pretty good.  But I need water - is Vegas tap water OK to drink?  And deodorant - the one toiletry I forgot to bring.

Last night was straight blackjack.  And i sucked.  i was down from the start, and I disappointingly left most of my money at the Cal of all places.  My MO for blackjack is conservative play, while sipping coronas.  Then at some point in the night I make the shift to a mixed drink, in the case of last night, the vodka tonic.

And from that point on my night is doomed.  I go from being the quiet asian at the end of the table to the obnoxious but jovial loud mouth cursing the dealer, the cards, the casino, the tonics.

Last night was no exception.  I love to split 10s against a 5 or 6, and people at the table often get mad at that.  I think they are wrong, but last nite I continued that play - even doubling down on  a blackjack and winning - turning down the 3 to 2 odds for a 2 to 1 payout.  I would commend myself for good play, except I am down a ridiculous amount of money at this point.

The pictures are, from top to bottom - vegas from the plane, two pictures from my hotel room balcony showing the forum shops in one, and Caesars/Bellagio in the other.  The last one is, of course, oxtail soup.

Ok, I’m off now - I think I’m going to do a bit of shopping today, maybe catch the bellagio buffet - one of Vegas’ best in my opinion.  Updates to come.

10:15pm So, I got a new job, and today was my last day at the old one. With two weeks of vacation, I’m off to Vegas. I booked the flight yesterday, and now I’m off.

One thing about california is you’re only an hour away from so much stuff. You can just hop on a plane on a whim, while in Hawaii it’s a big ordeal.

I love vegas. I love everything about it, from the enormous buffets, free drinks and of course, blackjack. I love how you can smoke everywhere, i love how there is no concept of time either night or day, and I love crawling to my room, passing out at 6am, and doing my best to quell my vomitting at noon with copious amounts of coffee.

I’m on the Southwest flight now, probably about 45 minutes away. I’ll keep you updated.

11:25 In my luxurious room at the Imperial Palace. Say what you want about the IP, but where else in Vegas can you be across the street from the Forum shops and Caesars for $50 a nite? One thing though, since my room overlooks the strip, I can hear some pretty loud music coming from the bar near Harrahs. Plus, my balcony door doesn’t close completely, so this music is pretty loud.

Anyway, off to the Cal for some oxtail soup!

3:02 This is how the Cal killed me. I went to get a simple oxtail soup, but the line was long. I’m talking 3 times winding back and forth long. So what is a japa to do? Play blackjack of course. $800 and 10 coronas later, I am broke, and finally partaking in the most expensive Oxtail Hawaii has ever seen. It’s a racket over here. I’m playing coronas - it’s that simple. splitting face cards - I even doubled down on a black jack and won. but at the end of the day, the Cal got the best of me. I’m taking a break, finally getting some protein in me.

3:10 ahh, the oxtail came quick. obviously sitting in a pot waiting for the HI imports to order up. But I’m not satisfied. The Cal took too much of my money. In the past, the Cal was a sure $400 at least. Tonite, the dealers were feeling sorry for me. I’m going to finish my dinner…finally, then re-up and take these guys to school.

At this point, I should really be most concerned about avoiding the mokes around me from taking my laptop to the nearest pawn shop. No matter, we have lots of ground to make up.

6am Finally back in my room. Thoroughly beaten by every dealer I’ve faced, it’s time for some sleep. The sun is out, and for the first time i’ve seen the strip quiet. It’s been a long nite. Coronas have turned into vodka tonics. But in any case, it’s too early…er…to late for any more drinks. Did i mention I love vegas? She takes my money, but like a battered woman I keep coming back. Japadamus out.

USA Today ran an interview with Steve Ballmer the CEO of Microsoft.  Some interesting tidbits from the interview:

• There will be no Zune phone

Q: People get passionate when Apple comes out with something new — the iPhone; of course, the iPod. Is that something that you’d want them to feel about Microsoft?

A: It’s sort of a funny question. Would I trade 96% of the market for 4% of the market? (Laughter.) I want to have products that appeal to everybody.

Now we’ll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players. There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.

In the case of music, Apple got out early. They were the first to really recognize that you couldn’t just think about the device and all the pieces separately. Bravo. Credit that to Steve (Jobs) and Apple. They did a nice job.

But it’s not like we’re at the end of the line of innovation that’s going to come in the way people listen to music, watch videos, etc. I’ll bet our ads will be less edgy. But my 85-year-old uncle probably will never own an iPod, and I hope we’ll get him to own a Zune.

Q: When is your next operating system coming out?

A: That I won’t share with you. Not because we’re not hard at work on that; I want to let the team do their job, figure out what the release looks like. I guarantee you it won’t be four or five years.

Q: You mean sooner?

A: Yes, absolutely.