Carol Rutz’s Annexe

(Credit goes to Farker Jeblis for the ’shopped image.)

You do remember that scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones attempted to grab the golden idol? He would not be successful with the minibar at the Wynn, either. Ya move it, ya bought it.

Over at Fark, there is discussion about snacking and drinking on the cheap in Las Vegas. It reminded me of the times when Mr Theologian and I went to Vegas. The first time was at the Monte Carlo, where there was a CVS nearby. I would be the gopher and snake around the casino and into the CVS for eats and Diet Coke.

It was a bit tricky at the second trip as Hooters was a long walk from the Walgreens, but at least the Nugget was located near the ABC store.

Now…with the rise of the billion-dollar casino resort, luxury is what sells the sizzle. The minibar is the icon of convenience at the expense of your dollar. As an example, here is a pic of the Venetian’s minibar menu taken by Farker Safeinsane. And here is its $48 breakfast (room service?).

Various Farkers mentioned the college-level ways to avoid the mini bar:

Ghastly (Yes… that Hentai Canadian that brought the Internet “Tentacoo Wape” infamy, very NSFW) suggested filling up the bathroom sink with ice and cold water and placing the beverages in the sink.

Szech took a step further: he used a trash bag, lined a drawer with it, and fill up with ice and drinks.

And if you stay at the Wynn and wondered how you can pull these stunts, Gunter glieben glauchen globen posted a map for your information:

It would be much better than the 10-buck Tom Collins at Parasol Down.

From Something Awful, Ian “Salmon Season” Golding’s take on European travel. There are great points to his article– you are just another Ugly American, stick to one city/region when travelling, and embrace the culture shock.

You, and your group, look stupid “trying to hold the Leaning Tower of Pisa.” On top of that, there is no reason to visit Pisa other than seeing the leaning tower. Meaning you traveled on a bus for two hours just to get the most clichéd and obnoxious photograph ever imagined. Congratulations, jack ass.

The Prediger and I are planning to head out to Columbus at the end of this month for Ohio LinuxFest 2007. The deal maker was that Drew Curtis will be there. There’s no party like a Fark Party! I will have to bring an bottle of Heineken.

I’m looking forward to learning more about Ubuntu and getting a better feel of it. (Although I’m more comfortable with the MEPIS distro…which is good because Warren Woodford will speak at the LinuxFest as well!)

Also of interest: Rev Donald Parris is presenting on marketing FOSS. He has been pushing the use of Free and Open Source software in the Christian Church. This is a Good Thing ™. If the Synod and its congregations can adopt the use of FOSS, imagine the innovation, the savings, and the increased use of technology. Instead of paying Microsoft Office licensing fees, schools and churches can use OpenOffice.org for bulletins and office administration. One can develop software materials for catechesis and enlightenment. How about an alternative to censorware “web filtering” that allows individual families and schools to set up what they want according to their morality instead of others imposing their standards? FOSS offers that ability and much more.

I’m back home and the Prediger was happy to see me back from OSCON. I have learned so much and I’m looking forward to next year. In the meantime, I’m going to join the various Open Source communities online and keep in touch. My books are there and the Learning Perl book is ready to be used.

My Flickr album is available online, as well as others who went to OSCON. Preggie insisted on me making an actual scrapbook with the pics and show it off to our friends in Fort Wayne.

He will show the pics off to them in addition to the scadloads of pens and his XL shirts I’ve procured from the Expo. He is already wearing his Red Hat red cap. I got a small stuffed Novell Linux Tux doll for Professor Barry and mousepads for Professor Stroup. The shirts are neatly hung up in my closet, ready to wear. I’m planning to wear them when the Fall Semester starts at Ivy Tech.

It would be nice to have a computer students’ association and learn new things and attend events like OSCON. They would be very impressed and they are guaranteed to learn so much like I did. That’s why I’m already saving up money for next year. The airfare was quite high and I want to save up to cover that.

I want to say in general: thank you. Thank you for making my first time at OSCON memorable. Thank you for giving this n00b advice and opportunities to learn more. I hope to see you guys next year and by the time I’m done, I will be more in tune with the coding. See you online and see ya next year!

Note that I will post up the prior day’s events, at the end of the day. Will have to rest up for tomorrow’s OSCAMP session.

Tuesday was more tutorials, and I took in some shopping and looking around Downtown Portland. I truly recommend the light rail system, especially at Fareless Square. After that, I was ready to head to the Center for lunch when Zak from Mozilla greeted me. He and his buds went for lunch at Huber’s, Portland’s oldest restaurant. Once seated, I realized that this was not some ordinary lunch. For instance, across from me was Jeff Waugh, sans headphones. Also in the group was Aaron Leventhal, who won an Open Source Award. I ended up having lunch with the FLOSS blokes who oversee various Open Source foundations and groups. “Zak!” I exclaimed. “Are you sure you want me to stick with you guys?” He replied it was no problem, and we have a great time. I had a great open face turkey sammich with sage dressing and cranberry sauce. The turkey was roasted and from the bird itself, not pressed and processed. It was like Thanksgiving in July. The guys at my section and I exchanged tips on making flatbreads (dosa, naan) and talked about the kitchen knives we owned. I will have to invest in a Kevlar woven glove for my mandoline. Zak: thanks for making me feel welcome in the Open Source community.

The afternoon tutorial was on being how to be a better programmer. This means being clear on communication, clear in one’s coding, and carry an elegant style in the code. No 3rd or 4th level nesting…just direct to a separate function.

The Meet n Geek was nice, and it was there when I learned that the guy who made the Perl code was there. Larry Wall and his family are nice, down-to-earth guys. He signed my Learning Perl book, with a nifty camel stamp effect. Hugs and greets were exchanged and I got *one* advice: Have Fun. (I asked for only one most important tip.) It was an honor to meet you, and to the kids: Good luck in your endeavors.

After that, I went to the Holocene nearby for the Ruby presentation and pizza. It was a mellow scene, with some tin-foil hat silliness. HotLips Pizza has great pies and it was a shame that the Prediger and our dog was not with me to enjoy that.

BTW, I’ve opened up a Flickr account, with pics added regularly. Stay tuned.

Currently right now, I’m in Portland at OSCON. So far, it’s a blast! Took in a Ruby tutorial as well as a tutorial on Scaling Internet Architectures. Ruby seems more easy on my eyes and brain than the Visual Basic stuff I learned last year. Good thing that I’ve purchased the Ruby on Rails for Dummies book. And the second tutorial will do so much good for my final capstone class at Ivy Tech.

Yesterday, I’ve met some spiffy people, and I ended up chatting up with one of the Mozilla guys regarding the Protestant Reformation. He is giving a presentation about parallels between the Internet age and the Reformation. We chatted about theology, especially our personal influences. Agnostic with Buddhist thought. One thing that stuck with me was that he said that although he questions the divine presence, he believes that one must do good regardless. We both agree that we’ve seen in our lives too many unethical people…and that eventually, they will have to answer for themselves. Nice, civil chap.

I’ll be writing more stuff later on, and will publish piccies of OSCON and a special section on one Guinness World Record broken at Pioneer Square.

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Regarding the in-flight movie The Last Mimzy: It is a “Peice of Crap”. (The misspelling is intentional– the movie’s so crummy it does not deserve correct spelling.) You take two kids, Yuppie parents, throw in New Age silliness, and Homeland Security hysteria…and puke it out. The result is The Last Mimzy.

A movie so cheesy deserves the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment. It took all my strength to resist snarking out loud.

Some notable stuff:

-Science teacher wearing Pink Floyd shirt, complaining about how we are ZOMG SKREWING UP TEH ENVIRONMENTS and our DNA. Complain to China and its poor record of keeping the Kyoto Protocol, although you smug blankety blanks are just as bad with your mind pollution. That movie has created huge quantities of Hollywood smug.
-The obvious New Age/Buddhism-lite principles. Listen buddy, a trip to Nepal an enlightened creature does not make. You dreamt of lottery numbers, fool.
-The science teacher’s live-in fiancee, granola as all git out. And palmistry as Science? Ooooh, you guys are subverting the old archaic ways, but we have no medal for you to offer. What chances does that hippie couple have in regards to their bond? Just as small as an actual kid hitting a 300 foot putt on the first try.
-How the frell did the Homeland Security blokes have the technology to track down the power outage?! They still have not find Bin Laden! And the dramatic arrest? Excuse me, Elian Gonzalez is in Miami, not in Seattle…
-And speaking of Seattle: “Seattle Elementary School”? “Seattle Laundry Service”? “Seattle Research Center”? If only you guys can spend less time with teh pot you can think of something more creative besides the ooooh special effects.
-When the mother threw out Mimzy. I was utterly disappointed that the kid did not pull any Carrie White stunts in retaliation.

Was busy with my final project for my online classes, and I’m tying everything together so the Prediger won’t be confused when he operates the ice tea maker or the universal remote. (Ah, an occupational hazard of an Age-Gap Marriage: the Younger Half has to teach the Older Half how to operate the newfangled gadgets.)

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Since the Vegas trip, I packed the clothing and effects and sent it to the hotel and ship a bigger box back from the locale. (I did sent stuff back from the Scottsdale trip, but it was only recently when I sent my stuff to and from the vacation spot.) I like that arrangement for several reasons:

1) I do not have to spend time waiting for the TSA guys to check everything. One year, we got “SSSS” on our tickets. Lengthy, lengthy process.

2) Taking a carry-on through Concourses A to Whatever is one thing. Taking other stuff, plus having to negotiate what limited space one has above one’s seat is another.

3) I can ship my full-size toiletries without the hassle of the Guys requesting to leave it behind, or worrying if my dinky size bottle would hold enough stuff for the week. In the Prediger’s case, he was miffed that he had to surrender his lighter. (Smokers: when you arrive, you can ask a TSA guy if he has a lighter to use. Chances are, he’ll say yes and give you one from the stash. Does not hurt to ask.

4) UPS can insure your packaged stuff and you have the peace of mind knowing that you have a better chance of having all your things together and intact than if you would at the hands of the airport. I still remember the Christmas Glitch of 2004. It was a Good Thing that I tied a purple bow on our luggage and carry the original flight numbers of an earlier flight; otherwise, it would be lost in LAX. Shipping reduces that drama.

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At the CAT41 lists, a delegate to the Synodical Convention asked about decent places to eat in Houston. I suggested buying a cert at Restaurant.com and try a new eatery. So far, I ate well and saved money. Better than forking over too much at the hotel. I’ll have to check out the Portland sites.

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Speaking of the Synod: Kieschnick got re-elected, and got word that Paul Meier is now 2nd VP. Upon hearing that, I thought: “Hey…I ate lunch with him in Fort Wayne.” To the newly elected: You win a noogie. Redeem your prize in Fort Wayne.

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I figure I should kick off my own countdown to OSCON with another: Europe’s The Final Countdown.

Yes, two weeks from now, I’ll head out to Portland and and learn more about the Open Source movement. I got my Ruby on Rails For Dummies book on hand, as I will be taking a tutorial on Ruby. I might as well get a head start. Also, I’m planning to take in sessions centering on web applications and head out to OSCamp.

Day 4: We left Hooters Casino and Hotel and headed out to Downtown Las Vegas, home of the Fremont Street Experience, and locale of the Golden Nugget. I checked in and attempted to do the “20-buck trick”…that’s when you ask for a complimentary upgrade and slip the person 20 bux between and betwixt the credit card and driver’s license after the response. Got word that the Nugget was booked solid due to Mariners fans and a upcoming gathering for a MLM program.

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