November 1, 2005 Archives

Helaine and I are home. Wisely, Helaine recommended I take an extra day off before returning to work, which is why I'm currently on the sofa in pajamas.

I feel like I've been dragged by my feet, tongue down, through the streets of some third world capitol. My body aches. My eyes are sore. I'm not sure if I'm currently capable of adding a column of numbers.

Vacation was once supposed to be soothing and relaxing. Now, or at least this time, vacation was for doing stuff. We did lots of stuff... lots.

Here's my plan. I'm not going to go back and write all the entries I couldn't post because of my Internet troubles in Las Vegas¹. I think spontaneity would be missing and I'm not sure if I could remember everything that happened. After all, what happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas (does that include calories?).

Instead, I plan on taking some of the more than 2 gigabytes of photos I took and making them into a narrated slide show. I've been thinking about how to do this and have some thoughts about interesting effects with Flash.

Right now tying shoelaces is beyond me.

There is one thing I will post from the vacation and it deserves a story. My father's 80th birthday was Saturday, October 29. To celebrate, my sister and I (along with our spouses and cousins Melissa and Michael) took my folks to the MGM Grand for a spectacular dinner at Pearl and Cirque du Soleil KÁ.

As we walked across the valet parking area we came upon four Vegas showgirls, waiting for a vehicle to pick them up. Each was well over six feet tall and weighed around 12 pounds.

I walked over to them and explained it was dad's 80th... could I take a photo of him with them.

It is a keepsake photograph and beautifully sums up the celebration that surrounded my dad's birthday!

¹ - While in Las Vegas I could only stay connected to the Internet for 20-30 seconds at a time using my wireless modem. I suspect the problem is mine, not the provider's. My guess is it has to do with the four access points that were available to me. Why this is a problem is anyone's guess. But, here I am typing this and connected to my home's AP with no problem.

This is embarrassing. A few weeks ago I told my friend Paul Bass I'd make mention of his new news site, The New Haven Independent.

Though the site is a "dot org" it also answers to "dot com" and I suppose this is part of Paul's liberal slant... maybe going "dot com" makes it look too much like a business? It's OK Paul. No one expects you to conjure up food to feed your family.

Paul is a brilliant writer and reporter. More than that, he digs. He knows where the bodies are buried or at least where to find someone who knows where the bodies are buried.

On more than a few cases I have suggested to more than a few bosses that we hire Paul. I suspect he is looked upon as a lightning rod and that tends to make people want to keep their distance.

Paul's website is very New Haven-centric, and that's why I don't feel it's a conflict to make mention of it. There is virtually no coverage outside the city itself. My television station is a statewide voice.

I have no idea how Paul will turn this into a commercial venture. It's gotta be tough getting eyeballs. He certainly won't make it if he gets a geofffox.com sized audience.

Still, many of the stories are gritty and interesting. I hope he does well. More voices are always a good thing.

Blogger's Note - I had forgotten to write about Paul until I got my daily email from the Poynter Institute:

I've taken a few of the 600+ photos I shot in Las Vegas and posted them in my photo gallery.