Friday, January 30, 2009

A Twestivus For The Rest Of Us

Man, if I only had a dollar for every time somebody asked me if I were on Twitter, I'd be able to afford a round of martinis at the Wynn.

No, I am *not* on Twitter. Yet. But remember--I'm the guy who's always on the trailing edge of technology. I was running Windows Millennium until March of 2007. Hell, I didn't even own a camera phone until last summer. So no, I'm not one of the cool kids who 'tweets' all day.

However...

I *do* have a kick-ass blog with traffic numbers that are the envy of my fellow Vegas bloggers, so I must be doing something right!

Anyhow, last night, I hooked up with one of my favorite ladies, Linda Lou, and we went to the Freakin Frog for Beer & Bloggers night to drink network with a bunch of other local Vegas bloggers. I didn't have any idea what to expect, but damn--I had a great time. Basically the whole joint was taken over by our group, and I was quite surprised at how many complete strangers came up to me and said "Hey, you must be Hurricane Mikey!". Of course, I was wearing a convention-style nametag, so either I've got lots of local readers, or they all have mad skillz at scanning a nametag in a split second...

Anyhow, I got there just a few minutes before Linda, but we ended up standing in the beer line together and meeting some folks. And if you've never been to the Freakin Frog, the beer selection can be quite daunting. They have over a hundred beers available at all times, and they constantly change. But Linda got a chocolate stout, and I, since I was running on absolutely no sleep, had an Espresso Lager. (Holy shit was it good!).

We found our way to the end of a long Last Supper-style table and joined the crowd. We introduced ourselves to our neighbors and settled in. It seemed we were the only ones in attendance not sporting a laptop or a Crackberry, but at least I brought my digital camera. Behold:

Linda Lou gives me a big cheesy grin. Of course, that empty glass in front of her had *nothing* to do with it...


This is my new buddy Sarah, aka '408Down'. She is a complete goofball, and her, Linda, and I laughed our asses off for an hour straight. Girl can drink, so we're makin' plans...


This is not my computer, but it does serve as proof that other folks read my stuff. There's nothing quite like introducing yourself to a room full of complete strangers while they all log onto your site at once to see if you're up to snuff. No pressure. No pressure at all.


I don't know what it was, but the atmosphere was conducive to complete silliness. Linda and I were both pretty tired, and we have the same sense of humor, so once we got a few drinks in us, it was ON! I swear, my cheeks were hurting from laughing. And Sarah was part of the circus, too, so between the three of us, we made the most of the evening. About an hour into it, my gal Carmen SinCity showed up...


She's another one of my local blogging buddies, and we've been emailing back and forth for about a month or so, but we'd never met in person until last night. She'd been talking about her sweet tooth, and her latest obsession with sour balls, so I brought her a big bag of them. As soon as I gave them to her, I was immediately in her good graces!

So even though we were 'networking' with other people, the four of us kinda hung out there at our end of the table, telling stories, making plans, and generally just having a good time. Oh yeah, and a few drinks might've been consumed, also. And we took time out for one more picture:

Me and my ladies, otherwise known as the Las Vegas Royal Family of Blogging Greatness -- Carmen SinCity, Hurricane Mikey, Vegas LindaLou, and Sarah 408Down.

As much goofing off as we did, I actually learned a few things here and there. I'm thinking of totally revamping this site, and I got a lot of good info and some hands-on lessons with a couple of WordPress pros. And I also got the hard-sell on why I should be 'on' Twitter. Everyone else seems to be, but my biggest gripe is that I waste enough time as it is every day--if I were connected to Twitter all the damn time, I'd never get anything done. It may help some other folks be productive, but not me. I've got enough time wasters in my life. Also, I'm not down with the cultish aspect of it. The hard-core Kool-Aid drinkers put the letters 'Tw' at the beginning of all commonly used words in their universe, and I'm not quite ready to attend 'twestivals' or call myself a 'tweet' just yet.

This Beer & Blogging gathering seems to be a weekly event, and as fun as it was, the four of us agreed that every week may be too much of a good thing. Once a month is more our speed. I guess if I ever sign up for Twitter, I'll be able to coordinate our monthly appearance. Until then, it's old-fashioned email and cell-phone calls. Excuse me while I locate my buggy-whip...

But besides gathering with the other bloggers, we made some plans of our own. Linda and I are gonna hit Grimaldi's for dinner next week and finally talk about writing and such. I'm really looking forward to that, because not only is Linda a certified nut, she's pretty smart and I value her opinions. And Carmen and I are gonna go play in a poker tournament together next weekend and cut it up like Worm and Mike McD hitting the 10-20 at the Chesterfield or the Hi-Low at that goulash joint over on 79th. Should be a good time.

Anyhow--it was kind of an early evening for me. Linda had been entertaining company all week and was the first to drop out. I was a few minutes behind her, as I'd only had about 3 hours of sleep in the previous 36. Everyone else stayed behind and made a night of it. On my way out, I noticed that God had put an In & Out Burger across the street, so I thanked Him like I was Kurt Warner at the end of a 300-yard game, and made my way over.

I had a Double-Double Animal Style for dinner, and it was damn good. It reaffirmed my belief that In & Out makes a far superior burger than Fatburger does. I even ordered my fries well-done, but that didn't help. Their fries still suck. Nobody is gonna convince me otherwise.

Once I finished off my burger, I made it home, and called the poker room to see how busy it was. Luckily, it was fairly slow--they were down to just two games, so I wouldn't need to go in early. I got a quick cat-nap, woke up at 12:15, and headed in.

I worked until 5:30 this morning, made a little bit of scratch, and then went out for breakfast with a couple of buddies from the casino. Well, it wasn't exactly breakfast, per se--I had coconut shrimp and an Asian chicken salad. But I could hardly hold my eyes open, so I was the first one to bail, leaving them behind to drink beer and play video poker without me.

Now, I'm home for a couple of hours, but then I'm meeting Drew and his wife for lunch at Grimaldi's. I'm *supposed* to be off work tonight, and I'm hoping I don't get called in, because as soon as I get home from lunch, I'm gonna go to bed and sleep for about ten hours straight!

Mikey

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