There is one aspect of Rexville that people have been asking me to cover for roughly the past six months, but I have so far resisted doing so. At least in-depth.

In addition to weekly motels, wedding chapels, drug sales, streetwalkers-r-us, tattoo parlors, strip clubs, and bail bonds places … [...]]]>

Pawn Shop near The Stratosphere

There is one aspect of Rexville that people have been asking me to cover for roughly the past six months, but I have so far resisted doing so. At least in-depth.

In addition to weekly motels, wedding chapels, drug sales, streetwalkers-r-us, tattoo parlors, strip clubs, and bail bonds places … the next most prominent business type in the neighborhood would probably be pawn shops. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a two-square-mile area in the world with more pawn shops than Rexville. Unfortunately, these are probably the businesses in which I am the least interested.

Something about pawn shops have always depressed me. They represent the aspect of capitalism that I am the least fond of. Basically, one man’s misfortune is another’s gain. I generally don’t think well of payday loan places, or realtors who take customers on tours of houses where the occupants have just been thrown on the street. I could never go to a foreclosure sale or an auction where people’s lives are sold off piece-by-piece. I would feel like a parasite.

The USA has gone from a nation of innovators to a nation of professional middle-men. We don’t really produce anything anymore. Instead, we just stick our finger in as many jars as we can find. We re-sell the same product or service as many times as possible so that multiple people can skim value off of something they had no hand in creating.

Why create something of value when you can buy, sell, or broker it?

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Pawn Shop Billboard near The Stratosphere

I took these two months ago and just found them.

Usually, I take skyline photos of the The Strip from the neighborhood, but rarely the reverse.

This is what Rexville looks like from tourist corridor.

I really wish the shyster hawking his wares to illegal aliens wasn’t in every photo, but props to the big-headed lawyer for at [...]]]>

I took these two months ago and just found them.

Usually, I take skyline photos of the The Strip from the neighborhood, but rarely the reverse.

This is what Rexville looks like from tourist corridor.

I really wish the shyster hawking his wares to illegal aliens wasn’t in every photo, but props to the big-headed lawyer for at least taking the time to learn the language of Las Vegas.

Seriously, I don’t get it.

Now, I’ve taken a lot of criticism for my “climate change” stance, but of all of the things I get criticized for, I consider these attacks to be the most unwarranted and unjustified.

In my mind, when people criticize me for making fun of global warming, it is akin [...]]]>

Downtown Las Vegas Newport Lofts and 18b

Now, I’ve taken a lot of criticism for my “climate change” stance, but of all of the things I get criticized for, I consider these attacks to be the most unwarranted and unjustified.

In my mind, when people criticize me for making fun of global warming, it is akin to meth addicts with DARE bumper-stickers chastising me for my caffeine intake. It’s irrational.

If one were to do a comprehensive audit of fully-functional 41 year old males in the USA (paraplegics probably use little gasoline), I would estimate that my personal lifetime carbon footprint would place me in the bottom ten percentile … if not the bottom five.

I’ve always made it priority #1 to live where things were actually located. I’ve never “driven to work” on a daily basis. I’ve walked, biked, roller bladed, and taken the bus/subway … but hour-long daily automobile commutes are a completely foreign concept to me. Driving in traffic feels like torture and I go to great lengths to avoid it.

Sure, I own a car now, but I’ve earned it. I paid my “carbon” dues in spades for damn near 35 years. I’m too banged up to self-propel myself quite as far as I used to. Especially in 110 degree temperatures. Still, personal drives of over 5 miles are uncommon, and I still overwhelmingly prefer the bus or the monorail. On a day-to-day basis, my “carbon footprint” is still probably 80% less than the average suburbanite’s.

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The Encore Beach Club is finally starting to look like something marginally useful.

The LVCVA reported average daily rates as $99.75 while a major hotel-booking site reported them to be $79.

For those of you keeping score at home, the LVCVA is being 26% more optimistic than the private company. The private company also says that rates dropped 18% in 6 months, and the [...]]]>

Las Vegas Strip Crowd

The LVCVA reported average daily rates as $99.75 while a major hotel-booking site reported them to be $79.

For those of you keeping score at home, the LVCVA is being 26% more optimistic than the private company. The private company also says that rates dropped 18% in 6 months, and the LVCVA says they only fell 4% in an entire year.

Who’s right? Who’s wrong?

Who knows?

The thing about stats is … they usually lie.

Numbers are easy to throw out, and since few people have the resources or initiative to double-check them, you can more or less make numbers up and still sound plausible. Even if you do know absolutes, there are a myriad of ways to manipulate them to show what you want to prove. For example, the Visitor’s Authority may have used a smaller starting number (104 vs. 109) to make the decrease look less dramatic.

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Wear one.

Please.

I got it from two different angles.

If you look closely, you can see a pane of glass stretched out to form a plank.

I think I just spotted what appears to be the jumping off point for the Strat’s new freefall “ride”.

I just got out of the hospital, and first let me say that I very much appreciate all of the well-wishes. I even appreciate some of the questionable-wishes, such as those opining that I had some venereal disease, and even the one person who took the time out of [...]]]>

A Photographer in the Luxor

I just got out of the hospital, and first let me say that I very much appreciate all of the well-wishes. I even appreciate some of the questionable-wishes, such as those opining that I had some venereal disease, and even the one person who took the time out of his day to email me a simple “I hope you die”.

I’m sure the latter was not a unique sentiment, so kudos for having the courage to say what many others were surely thinking. And by courage, I mean “sending an unsigned email from an anonymous email account”. It must have taken hours to work up the strength to do that.

Can you imagine Rosa Parks in 2010?

From: sweet_mama_chocolate87156@yahoo.com
To: The Montgomery Transit Authority

I’m sick and tired of your discriminatory policies, and I’m not going to take it anymore. If you don’t let black folks sit at the front of the bus, I’m gonna post all of your email addresses on alt.sex.bestiality and post pictures of your racist drivers on 4chan!”

The Black Panthers would probably coordinate wholly via Twitter, where uprisings would be routinely thwarted by “service unavailable” and “check out our latest deals!” messages. The 140 character limit would probably also lead to some confusion.

“We are sick and tired of the white devil keeping us down. If you are with us, fight the power and rally at the intersection of 181st Street and M…”

“Sorry, that last message was too long. We will be rallying at 181st Street and Market Avenue. We are mad as hell and will not take it anymore. Make sure you are there promptly at N…”

It’s a good thing the civil rights movement happened 50 years ago.

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Red Rock Casino – Tall Building at Right-Center

I am in the hospital.

I hope to be released sometime this week.

This is exactly why I don’t read fiction.

The truth is so much more bizarre.

On Thursday, President O’Drama signed the “Travel Promotion Act” into law.

This particular act is designed to convince people from other countries to vacation in the Unites Sates. The act will be funded by a [...]]]>

Welcome to Fabulous United States of America

This is exactly why I don’t read fiction.

The truth is so much more bizarre.

On Thursday, President O’Drama signed the “Travel Promotion Act” into law.

This particular act is designed to convince people from other countries to vacation in the Unites Sates. The act will be funded by a $10 fee on all tourists to the U.S.

That’s right, we will begin luring people to our great nation by charging them more money before they even set foot on our soil.

So far, so bad.

That’s nowhere near the worst part, however.

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Earlier tonight, I engaged in a bit of ghetto gambling.

This was not the “play at the Western” version of ghetto gambling, instead, it was the cheap person version. Ghetto gambling is gaming that has all the fun of gambling, without any of the risk or reward. My [...]]]>

Sahara Casino – Hybrid Ticket Redemption/ATM

Earlier tonight, I engaged in a bit of ghetto gambling.

This was not the “play at the Western” version of ghetto gambling, instead, it was the cheap person version. Ghetto gambling is gaming that has all the fun of gambling, without any of the risk or reward. My own personal rendition of ghetto gambling involves taking only $20 to a local casino (usually the Sahara or Stratosphere) without an ATM card or even a wallet.

Then, I play along these lines:

I start out with $20, and I begin playing at a $3 or $5 table. I play a few hands until I double up or lose 50%. Unfortunately, I do not tip during these minor sessions unless I go on a big streak, and even then it’s no more than a couple of bucks.

If I double up, I pocket $20, and then proceed to play with “free” money at whatever low-limit game I feel like playing. The worst I can do is break-even on the session.

If I get dinged for 50% early, I go to the $1 BJ tables or nickel Video Poker machines. If I manage to double up at these tables or machines, I go back to a “higher” limit ($3-$5) BJ table and repeat the process. If I lose it all … I stop playing.

At times, I have been able to make a single $20 bill last two hours while ghetto gambling, while getting the occasional free drink in the process.

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Too bad the new ACE Express will travel on these very same roads.

Cutbucks at the local mall have resulted in a decidedly “Do-It-Yourself” attitude towards security, although they forgot to add the obligatory “shit your pants at the site of a Middle Easterner” directive.

I even had a super-stylish copyright back then.

Like puberty, everyone goes through an awkward online phase.

Fancy copyrights are the Internet equivalent of a bad haircut and an upturned shirt collar … which by the way … I still see from time to time around town.

I never really understood the purpose of sticking [...]]]>

Stardust in 2005

I even had a super-stylish copyright back then.

Like puberty, everyone goes through an awkward online phase.

Fancy copyrights are the Internet equivalent of a bad haircut and an upturned shirt collar … which by the way … I still see from time to time around town.

I never really understood the purpose of sticking one’s shirt collar straight up, but I’m not exactly a slave to fashion.

“NASCAR Weekend” just wrapped up in Las Vegas, and following a new personal tradition, I spent a good part of the weekend at the Sahara.

Frankly, I’ve always found the Sahara’s NASCAR theme to be somewhat unusual. It just doesn’t seem to “fit” for some reason.

The Sahara is a desert-themed hotel [...]]]>

Wackjack in Las Vegas

“NASCAR Weekend” just wrapped up in Las Vegas, and following a new personal tradition, I spent a good part of the weekend at the Sahara.

Frankly, I’ve always found the Sahara’s NASCAR theme to be somewhat unusual. It just doesn’t seem to “fit” for some reason.

The Sahara is a desert-themed hotel with a rich and storied history (the Beatles stayed here during their first visit to Vegas), and I never really figured out how stock cars found their way into this paradigm. On any given day, you can stand outside and watch a race car roller coaster loop past the iconic neon camels. It’s a very odd paring. Kind of like putting a gigantic poster of two Mormons facing the sinful Vegas Strip. As if that could happen.

Anyway, since the Sahara is ground zero for racing fans in Vegas, this is obviously one of the best places in town to spend a racing weekend … second only to the track itself.

After walking to the casino and scoping out a prime Blackjack table on Saturday, I became slightly disillusioned with how the Sahara was conducting itself. While both $3 and $5 “real” Blackjack tables are standard offerings at the casino (which is part of why the property is endearing for me), the Sahara had converted at least half of their five dollar games to 6:5.

Given the loyal crowds, this seemed very opportunistic.

Look, I understand the laws of supply and demand, and I understand what most people consider to be “good business decisions”. Americans think “capitalism” is synonymous with “greed”, and they think that good capitalists need to “capitalize” on every customer.

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