Month: July 2012

I read this audiobook written by Thomas Sowell and narrated by Tom Weiner from Audible.

"Economics is the study of the use of scarce resources which have alternative uses."

Read that sentence above a couple of times, it took me awhile to realize just how true and important it is. I learned from this book that government interference in a free and open market is the source of most of the world’s economic pain. I believe the world would be a much better place if everyone understood the lessons contained in this book.

Do yourself a favor, find this book and read the summary that is the last chapter of the book. You owe it to yourself and the community you live in.

From the publisher:

The fourth edition of Basic Economics is both expanded and updated. A new chapter on the history of economics itself has been added, and the implications of that history examined. A new section on the special role of corporations in the economy has been added to the chapter on government and big business, among other additions throughout the book.Basic Economics, which has now been translated into six languages, has grown so much that a large amount of material in the back of the book in previous editions has now been put online instead, so the book itself and its price will not have to expand. The central idea of Basic Economics, however, remains the same: that the fundamental facts and principles of economics do not require jargon, graphs, or equations, and can be learned in a relaxed and even enjoyable way.

I rate this book a 10 out of 10 and a must read for anyone.

Bobbie and I traveled to Las Vegas in June and had a great time. Part of the trip was the Usability Professional’s Association conference, which was really cool, and the other part was pure vacation.

We spent 4 days at the M Resort well South of the strip. The M is an interesting casino; they focus on the locals while catering to conferences. We ate at Anthony’s where we had an amazing steak and at Anthony’s Burgers and Brews, which was just ok. Their buffet is award winning and a couple of locals highly recommended it to us, but we did not eat there.

Our room was very nice with a King sized bed and a large soaking tub, but the view was not very appealing.

While I was at the conference, Bobbie took advantage of the beautiful swimming pool and spa. She came back each day raving about how wonderful the spa was with people waiting on her hand and foot. One day she had her hands “done” and the next her feet. I think she really enjoyed herself.

For the weekend we moved downtown to the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street. I chose this hotel because of their amazing swimming pool and their wide array of poker tournaments.

We spent a lot of time at the pool and I must have gone down the slide 20 times or more. In the middle of the pool is an aquarium full of fish and a handful of sharks, and if that is not cool enough, there is a water slide that twists its way down through the middle of it. A few times I was able to slow myself down and actually see the sharks swimming around me on my way down. It was a lot of fun.

On Saturday morning I played in a sit-and-go poker tournament with 10 players, I placed 5th, which was ok as it was my first time playing poker with strangers. Sadly I did not get a chance to play any other poker.

In between we visited the strip and spent time at New York New York, where I played some blackjack; the MGM, which is undergoing remodeling and is a total mess; Caesar’s, where we watched the animatronic show; the Bellagio, where we watched the fountain, ate at the buffet, and had some desert. Bobbie also visited the Coca-Cola store and the M&M museum.

We also visited the Pinball Museum where I got to play Xenon, my favorite game from middle school, and Getaway, a game that I played for many hours while in boot camp. Bobbie found a Doctor Who pinball machine that was a lot of fun.

Saturday night we got to see the Penn & Teller show at the Rio, it was an amazing show and we had a great time. We even got our program signed and pictures taken after the show.
And, we also stumbled onto the World Series of Poker at the Rio. We watched some game play from afar, took some pictures of the final table, and bought some souvenirs. Didn’t see anyone I recognized, but I didn’t look very hard.

The Smoking!

The only really negative thing about our trip was the amount of cigarette smoke. Everywhere we went we were assaulted by the overpowering stench of cigarette smoke. I laughed pretty hard when I saw the non-smoking section in the M Resort casino, in total it was 9 slot machines placed between a wall and bar area that allowed smoking.

The only non-smoking places we found all week were our hotel rooms and the room at the Golden Nugget where they held the tournament.

The smoke was so bad that I would think real hard about returning to Las Vegas for a vacation.