I'm getting real bad about blogging consistently. Really more out of lack of dedication than for lack of having much to say. Working life, man... you just kinda settle into this rut, and exciting/noteworthy stuff just seems to happen a lot less frequently. But still, LAZINESS more than anything else.

But yea, the roughest part of being here so far is just the not knowing ppl. I definitely miss having ppl to hang out and do stuff with, cuz in all honesty, there are a lot of activities that kinda just lose something (or seem a lot more pathetic) when you do them alone. Like I went to Madame Tussaud's at the Venetian, and yea it was kinda cool, but it woulda been a lot more fun with friends taking pictures and whatnot. I dunno, I've always been an introvert, not really good around new ppl. So it's extraordinarily difficult for me to make new friends without like a couple friends to start it off (so I can meet their friends and so on).

So let's see what else has been new... I went and saw the Robert Mapplethorpe photography exhibit at the Guggenheim Hermitage in the Venetian- I completely failed to see the brilliance of the work. Like, I mean, I'm no real connoisseur of photography or anything, but I think just cuz you take a picture of a nude muscular person doesn't mean you're alluding to classical Greek forms. But critics and scholars insist the references are there; we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. Also detracting from my overall reaction to the exhibit were the fact there were sales galleries in the Grand Canal Shoppes of the Venetian that I was much more impressed with (and that I didn't have to pay for): the Peter Lik (absolutely amazing nature photos) and Entertainment Galleries (kinda media-influenced pop art-ish paintings).

My parents drove my car out to Vegas for me on the weekend of the 27th. (I had been driving a rental up till then.) I took 'em around and showed 'em where I work and all, and we gambled a bit. The buffets were definitely the highlight of their visit though. My family's always been keen on buffets, so we had dinner at the Wynn buffet and the Rio seafood buffet. Both were very good. The Wynn was good cuz they had Alaskan crab legs that come pre-halved for you, so you don't really have to get your hands dirty; and overall buffet quality was pretty good. The Rio seafood buffet was kind of a one-trick horse, but if you like seafood, they do know what they're doing.

My parents also brought up the new phone I got when we renewed our plan with T-Mobile. It was the Samsung Trace (T519). It's a non-flip phone that's uber thin. It feels really good in the pocket, but that's about the only thing that's good about it. (Well, and the 1.3 megapixel camera too, I guess.) But man, the OS and features of the phone are just so absolutely stupid I get so pissed off sometimes. I've had 2 Samsung phones now, and both have shocked and amazed me with their poor software design. Lack of customization options, having to press a zillion keys to do anything, etc. Oh yea, and when it's low on battery, it'll vibrate and light up like every 5 minutes, telling you it's low, burning up what little electricity is left. So basically, if you get below like 25% battery, it's as good as dead. And the battery meter only has 3 divisions: full, 2/3, 1/3. Reeeeaaaal helpful; hell, I could guess +/- 33% withOUT the meter. Ugghhh, I could go on and on about how dumb this phone is, but at the end of the day, its small form factor buys it a lot of forgiveness in my book I guess. *le sigh* =/

So I joined up with a muay thai (kickboxing) school and 24 hour fitness. Not much to say about the 24 hour fitness; it's pretty much the same as any other legit fitness club. There's one right down the street from my office that's an "Agassi Supersport," so it's got tennis decor all over the inside. The muay thai school is over closer by the Strip. It's Master Toddy's, and the classes are taught by these 3 former Thai champions. It's been real different from the muay thai I did in Austin; like they drill on different stuff and have like a different approach to doing things, despite the fact that at the core, it's all the same skills. But yea, there's pluses and minuses to learning it the traditional Thai way I guess. For one, I can't understand half the stuff one of instructors says cuz his English is so accented, hahaha. And I think they're very my-way-or-the-highway with their technique, like not taking into account individual variation/interpretation. And they blast this music during the whole class that I swear is like straight out of the Sagat level of Street Fighter 2, hahaha. But yea, I guess there's something to be said about "authenticity" and all, hah.

But yea, I'm trying to get some exercise most days of the week after work. I find that I actually have more energy in the evenings if I get a little bit of physical activity in. Must be all that endorphins stuff that I never gave much credence. But seriously, whatever it takes so that my brain doesn't shut off when I plop in front of the tv after work. We'll see how long I can stick with it.

Update. Living in Las Vegas has been... surprisingly [normal]. I’m currently staying in a corporate apartment about 8 miles west of the Strip (the street where all the big famous casinos are), so it’s kind of away from all the hustle & bustle. You get maybe 1 or 2 miles from the Strip, and it goes from being the flashy gaudy city of lights to just regular ol’ suburbia. My office is about another 7 miles northwest of my apartment, up in the rich neighborhood (Summerlin). I went apartment hunting a little, but I still haven’t really narrowed down much where I wanna stay. Before I came here, I had been thinking of buying a property, but then I read/heard that analysts predict property value in Las Vegas to fall through 2007. So my current plan now is to rent for maybe a year before I go buying anything- I figure it’ll give me a chance to learn the town more and make sure I’m stable in my job first.

So work is... well, work. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but you do what you gotta do to pay the bills, right? Anyways, we’re on a 9/80 schedule, so we work 9 hours a day (except Friday), and then we have every other Friday off. It’s kind of a tradeoff, cuz I gueeeess the 3-day weekend is kinda nice, but it just makes the work day seem so freaking LONG. Toss in a 1-hour lunch break, and I have a 7am-5pm workday- it’s rough. The waking up early thing is probably the hardest part.

I moved out to Vegas on January 4th started work on the 8th. The first week was SOOOOO boring. I didn’t have a computer, so they just had me reading technical documents to get up to speed. Seriously, 9 straight hours every day of reading these papers- I haven’t “studied” that diligently since... probably EVER, hah! I finally got my comp that first Friday. (Oh yea, it snowed that day too! Well, kinda... the kind that melts when it hits the ground. Anyways, from what I hear, that’s only like a once a year kind of occurrence around here.) But yea, so my company’s real strict about our internet usage, so I can’t IM from work. =( They’re even strict about surfing the net on company time... sucks. (Not even supposed to check our personal email or use a stock ticker except on lunch break and before/after work.) The 2nd week was a bit better. They had me training on ANSYS, one of the software programs we use, so it felt a bit more real. Oh yea, and there was this computer-based harassment training that we had to take... it was pretty hilarious. "I should've known I couldn't trust a MEXICAN!" AHAHAHA!

My typical daily routine is to wake up around 6, eat breakfast, get to work around 7, have an hour lunch around noon, then clock out around 5, come home, eat dinner, watch a little tv, then head to bed, and repeat. But yea, after a day’s work, I just feel so tired that I don’t wanna do ANYthing. So that’s why I haven’t been getting online as much recently. (This woulda been completely unheard of for the old me, who was an absolute AIM addict.) Hopefully I’ll get used to this work thing, and not being so exhausted all the time. I guess I really ought to sleep earlier (I usually sleep at midnight or 1), but I just hate giving up that last vestige of my youth- I've always been nocturnal by nature.

Oh yea, and on my 2nd day of work, I had set a kettle of water to boil on the stove before work. But then I left without turning the stove off. I didn’t remember till like 3pm or so, and then I couldn’t focus on work the rest of the day cuz I was so afraid that I’d come home and find my apartment burned down, hahaha. But yea, I figured it wasn’t worth leaving work early to turn the stove off, cuz if the whole place hadn’t burned down by then, another hour or two wouldn’t hurt. When I got home, I was quite relieved to find the apartment still standing, heh. Good thing I used low heat. *whew*

Anyways, so my coworkers have been pretty nice. We have lunch together like every day; we usually go out and buy takeout then bring it back to the office and eat in a conference room. But yea, the ppl in my department are all considerably older than me, like all 35+ or so. Sometimes we run out of things to talk about, and then the conversation usually turns to football, cuz I guess that’s the typical American guy thing to talk about that transcends generations, hah. (There’s only 1 woman in my workgroup, which I’m guessing is pretty standard in engineering companies.) Seriously though, the topic of football has come up like literally every other day. But yea, the company also has this group called NextGen, which is basically a social group for all the newer college hires across the company. Me and some of the ppl from NextGen went drinking & clubbing this weekend (Wine Cellar in the Rio and Pure in Caesar's). It was a lot of fun, but OMG it was so freaking expensive. I added it up, and I spent nearly $200 in one night, blehhhh. Oh well, I guess it’s worth it if I think of it as an investment towards making new friends and developing something of a social life here in a new town.

I’m thinking about joining a kickboxing school here, and a regular gym too. I figure I need some activities on my schedule to force me to get out of the house. (And plus, I need the exercise- I’m starting to get chubby again from inactivity, hah.) I actually haven’t gambled at all since I got here. I dunno if should be proud of myself or what. I mean, gambling’s cool when I’m with friends and all, but I don’t think I’d be the type to just go gambling by myself- that’s probably the sign of an addict, hah! Yea, on my trip here for the interview, I talked with a local, and they were like “Yea, the whole gambling thing’s real cool for like a month or so once you move here. And if you’re not over it by then, you’re gonna have some problems.” But seriously, you're just surrounded by it here; there're slot machines like everywhere, like in grocery stores and gas stations and everything. I dunno, I gotta find some other stuff to do in this city, man.