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It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt

I hope that no one will claim to know the final answers; no good comes from prophets. But even when acknowledging our falibility, we must nevertheless continue to think about these matters and give the advice to others that intellect and conscience dictate. And let God be our judge, as our grandparents used to say. - Sakharov

Baka ni tsukeru kusuriwa nai (There's no medicine to cure stupidity) - an old Japanese Proverb

Home arrow Blog Archive arrow True Stories arrow Vegas, NSXPO 2005, Arizona Real Estate
Vegas, NSXPO 2005, Arizona Real Estate
Tuesday, 11 October 2005
What a tiring and fun five days... I left San Jose at 10AM on friday morning to Las Vegas en-route to Arizona for instructing the driving school at Firebird Raceway for the 2005 NSXPO.  I decided not to do the NSXPO weekend event as I'm not really in the age range of most of the other NSXPO participants.  It sounded like a lot of fun, but I was itching to go to Vegas anyways. I never been to Vegas alone, so I figured it might be interesting. 

I got into Vegas at 7PM, I would have made it in 8 hours if it weren't the crap bumper to bumper parking lot traffic on I15 about 2 hours south of Vegas.  I checked into the cheapo hotel Circus Circus (never again) and took a rest because my eyeballs were killing me from the long drive, but I was determined to go have some fun.  I went to NYNY irish pub and met two hapa sisters and went dancing at Studio 54... I thought I'd get action from either one, but I got obliterated and started dancing with some another girl by the bar and lost track of the hapas when I went to look for them at 3AM, they must have got irritated and gone home. Oh well, I was way too exhausted and retarded anyways.

Got up at noon the next day and just took it easy, played some video games, watched a movie then did the drinking thing again on saturday night. I met a some girls from the bay area at the Venetian V-bar and got their digits and then later checked out the Ra in Luxor and a new after hours place called Seven which was totally dead. 

On sunday, I left Vegas around 1PM and stopped at the Hoover Dam and rested a bit before getting into Buckeye Arizona where my sister's new home was built by 9PM.  I get to bed around midnight and get up at 6AM again monday morning to make it in time for the 8AM instructors meeting at the NSXPO driving school

Things go smoothly all day with the student instruction, both students listen to me well and the day goes without any incidents. During the instructor/advanced run sessions, I'm pretty much spanking everyone in my run group on my shitty street tires.  Too bad there weren't more fun cars to play with... but after about 5 laps my tires get super slippery so I put on a good show for the specators as I go sideways through pretty much all turns.

I got up at 8AM again this morning to do it all over, but fortunately I was able to scheduled my new home's interior options planning appointment so that I can take care of it while I'm down there.  I leave the track by 1PM after running 2 more "drifting" sessions and rush over to make my appointment at the design center.  I choose fancy cabinets, granite top counters, 20" tile floors, and nice carpets... the lady says it will be good for the home's resale value... I better hope so... $19K!!! But I keep telling myself its an investment and the house is 3350 sq/ft, so it better look nice... The analogy the lady made was having the basic cheapo interior is the same as having a luxury car with crappy rims. I hope I didn't get hustled too badly. 

Anyway, tommorrow gotta finalize some more paperwork for the sale of my scottsdale house and make LOOONG trek back to the Bay Area... its gonna suck.

Speaking of getting hustled... I was invited to join the NSXPO gang for a group sushi dinner, so I went to the mall to wash up and buy a clean t-shirt so I wouldn't stink up all the sushi.  A hot Israeli girl working the kiosk walked up to me and started rubbing nice smelling oil on  my hand and arms... I was mesmerized by her accent and her kindness and bought a whole bunch of girly aromatherapy and health spa shit from her.  I was totally suckered and got hustled probably, she gave me her card with her # on it... but I couldn't tell if she wanted me to buy more stuff from her later or what... she's only been in the country for 2 months... but damn, she was so cute.  I should have suggested she move to SF with me... I never been suckered like that in the mall before, but I have to give her credit that she was either brilliantly sneaky or she really was cool... afterall she gave me a bunch of extra stuff and put oil all over me. I guess in consolation for me, I got the stinky problem solved.

additional commentary:
If I had not have borrowed Ken's GPS system, I would have been screwed. It was a lifesaver in Arizona as I tried to find the racetrack and my design center appointments. I was a lifesaver while I was in Boston last week too.  I need to look into getting one of my own soon.  It really is awesome wants you get used to using it.
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