Home Safe and Sound

We all did finally get home. The flight was pretty exciting. On either side of the jet, you could look out and see thunderstorms raging.

Before we boarded the plane in Dallas, the people at the counter told us that the weather was bad in Northwest Arkansas. If the plane could land, then it would if it couldn't, it would fly us back to Dallas and we would have to spend the night there. Needless to say, we were hoping for a hole in the weather.

Even though we flew around thunderstorms all the home, when we arrived it wasn't raining and the wind was calm. God was definitely looking out for us.

All the Pictures are Up

If you want to see all the pictures from the Las Vegas trip, you can check them out here. I uploaded them as small, thumbnail pictures. If you would like to see a bigger version of the picture, click it with your mouse.

Stuck in the Airport
Right now we are stuck in the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport. Our flight from Las Vegas was smooth and easy, and now we are stuck in Dallas waiting for a plane to get back from NWA were it is stuck in bad weather. Northwest Arkansas is experiencing some very severe storms and we can't leave.

I will let you know how it turns out. In the meantime, I guess we will be watching some playoff NBA on the TV.

At the Airport and Leaving


Well, this brings to an end my trip to Vegas. I am sitting in the airport terminal as I write this, and all the latest pictures I have taken are checked in my luggage. I am sure by the time you are reading this you will be able to see all the pictures but right now, I can't upload them.

It's Thursday, and we didn't go to NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Convention. We slept-in and got some much needed rest. I know you are saying, "There there you pooooor guy. I would hate to have to spend time in Las Vegas. I'm sorry your little feet hurt..." But so what. It was still nice to get a little sleep.

The real hero of this trip is my wife who is keeping the fires burning on the home front. She has been chasing our two kids as well as two other nephews all week without any help. I want to take a second and say that I am blown away at my wife's patience and making it possible for me to come to Vegas. (Believe it or not it was a work trip. We spent a lot of times walking around a convention. We didn't play all the time.

This morning after we got a little sleep we packed up all our bags and checked out. Apparently the Paris Hotel and Casino is giving away Internet because they didn't charge me for using it. That was nice.

After check-out, we jumped in our little white Dodge Neon rental car and headed up the strip to do some last-minute looking. There was an M&M store next to the MGM Grand Hotel that was pretty cool. I hate it that Mary Hadley couldn't have been there to see that. She would have loved it. She would have called it the "MM store. She leaves the "&" out.

The MM store had one of those penny crushing machines. You know, you put in two quarters and one penny and then you turn the crank and it mashes an imprint into the penny. I made two of those for the kiddos that say Las Vegas and M&Ms. One has a picture of the girl M&M (green), I figure I will give that one to Mary Hadley. The other one has a picture of the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. I don't know why I like those smashed pennies so much, but I think they are cool.

After the M&M store, we headed over to the big Coca-Cola store next door. I didn't do much shopping, we were just killing some time.

We left from the Coca-Cola store and got into Neo the Neon and drove to the Airport where I am sitting right now.

If I look up from my laptop, there is about 100 - 200 slot machines blinking and singing their song. I guess this is the last chance to "Hit it Big".

I didn't do much or really any gambling this week. It just doesn't seem like much fun. I would rather ride roller coasters and go and see cool shows. We saw Mystere (Cirque Du Soleil) and The Blue Man Group. I highly recommend both shows. They were really neat. Both shows did a great job of including the audience in the experience. Although, I was a little nervous at the Blue Man show. The Blue Men are cool to look at just as long as they stay a good distance away. They are kind of in the same category as Clowns... by that I mean, I am a little freaked out by people whose features are obscured by makeup or masks. There is something spooky about not know who someone is.

I'm glad there is no gambling in Northwest Arkansas... It is a little smarmy. Trashy. But still it is neat to experience what Las Vegas has to offer. This is truly another world.

Off To The Blue Man Group Show
We saw the Cirque show last night, and tonight we are going to see Blue Man Group. We have front row tickets. That is sick. We must be VIPs. I will fill you in.

I am afraid that being on the front row will cause us to be "in" the show. I don't really have any desire to be called up on the stage to "participate". I may have just jinxed myself. I will get back to you soon and let you know how it went.

By the way, NAB is still very cool. We sat through a couple of Macromedia Flash Video sessions to learn more about how to include video on websites. Very Helpful.

MurDog OUT

Cirque Du Soleil
Holy Cow, that was awesome. I have seen Cirque on tv and thought to myself "that looks pretty weird, I don't know if I would like that." But, it was really cool. The performers did some really amazing things.

Cirque does a great job of keeping things moving and having multiple things happening at once. There is always something to look at.

My favorite part was a very interesting and fresh take on a trapeze act. High above the stage there were six performers who all had their own trapeze. They were arranged in a circle which means as you looked up there was a performer swinging at the 11:00 position and 1:00...3:00...5:00...7:00... and 9:00 all swinging at the same time. 3:00 and 9:00 were men and the rest were ladies. What made the performance interesting was that each of the performers had bungee cords attached to either side of bodies at the hips. The performers would swing for a while and then fly off the trapeze and bounce on the bungee cords in unison. It looked really neat.

Debbie's Experiences
Debbie Osborn and Josh Graber are with me on this trip. I work with them at Fellowship. We all do media stuff for the church. We are all here to see all the latest and greatest technology so that we can be current and know what the church needs to stay current.

But enough with that. It seems like any trip you take, one person has all the interesting experiences. You know, strange people talk to them, or there are weird things that happen, and it normally isn't one thing, the strangeness usually comes in waves. On this trip, Debbie is that person.

The first night we were here, as Debbie was heading towards one of the public restrooms in Caesar's Palace she ran into a man who must have just eaten a big meal. He was walking toward Debbie looking toward the ground with his shirt pulled half-way up his fat belly and he was rubbing his belly with both hands while groaning quietly. Before Debbie and Mr. Groaner knew it they were face to face. The man looked up and realized that he was doing this in public, and more importantly right in front of Debbie and said, "oh... sorry". Groaner through his head back down and sheepishly and quickly walked down the hall.

It takes a special man to reveal his fat belly while rubbing it and groaning in a place as full of people as a Casino in Las Vegas.

No Pics for Monday
I did take a couple of pictures yesterday, but not nearly as many as the first night we were here. I will post them later. Along with some explanations of some cool products I saw yesterday. I will undoubtedly think they are cooler than you will but.... that is ok.

MurDog OUT

Heading Out to a Show
I don't have a lot of time because we are heading to the Cirque du Soleil show but the first day of the NAB show was really cool. I have never been to a place with more technology in one place. The doors opened at 9:00 AM. It was a geek wonderland. Amazing.

I was able to put my hands on a number of things that I have only been able to read about in magazines. There were broadcast (high dollar) HDTV Cameras, high end editting software, and myriad other things that I don't have time at the moment to talk about. It was cool!

Well, off to Cirque.

It is a tough life

MurDog OUT

Las Vegas, We Are There
Check it out, I am in Las Vegas. This is the farthest west I have ever been. I have never had to set my watch to Pacific time until now. I am at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Convention to look at technology tools for my job. But, while I am here I am going to hopefully keep you up to date with all the things that I see.

I hope to write articles about products that are cool and tell you about all the neat things I see, but I don't promise to do any of that. It all depends on how much energy I have. I may wear myself out just walking around the place.

Walking on the Strip
I took a bunch of cool pictures while we were walking around yesterday, and just like the desire I have to blog about what I see I also want to post the pictures from my trip so that you can see them too. And just like the articles, I reserve the right to be too lazy and not do that either, but since it is near the beginning of this trip, hope runs high.

What I Am Doing Here
I spend a lot of time building websites and editing video for my job. I use Microsoft Frontpage, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Flash for web editing. I use Sony's (Formerly Sonic Foundery) Vegas to edit video. (You can read about Vegas from an article I wrote a while back. I love it!)

There are some other tools that I am interested in seeing and I am sure there are a ton of things out there that I know nothing about that will be cool to see. I will let you know what I find.

DOG out