06.23.07
Posted in Work at 2:10 am by Rob Schultz
In professional life, there’s only been one person who has ever called me lazy. (She was later caught sleeping on the job to the detriment of the production going on elsewhere in the building.) Nonetheless, I was sure feeling it this week.
Took days and days to slog through what should have been some much faster work. Then a very effective meeting with the director and we’re just about picture-locked. I have some animating and jazzing up of a couple scenes to do, and then we’re handing it over. The post-production audio will begin, as will the color-correction and VFX (re: painting out a couple more booms).
In order to do the CC I’m going to need a bit more hardware – I’m looking at a Dell 2407WFP and Matrox MXO combo. The trick will be finding the monitor in town, which will sure cost more, but save a week’s shipping. Whether or not that’s even important depends on other circumstances though…
I heard a term somewhere, sometime recent, that I thought was pretty good: “First-world Problem.” An example is “would I like to earn money at a decent job, or would I prefer to sit around lazily for a month, accepting that I won’t receive income because I have enough money to survive?” We should all be so lucky as to have such a problem, eh? The specifics of the rub are do I want to try and squeeze in a month-long gaffer job between this and the next editing gigs – and whether that will even be possible. It would mean doing the finishing on this film in one week, and just a couple days to prepare for the next one. Not doing it means having extra time to finish this if need be, possibly a chance to pick up a bit of an older project, and time for some writing projects that are brewing.
Turning down a show someone called me to do for the sake of laziness isn’t a real thing, but it soothes the conscience if I don’t take it because I can’t meet their schedule. It would probably be fun, so I’m still going to go hear the details on it this week.
Permalink
06.14.07
Posted in Life at 1:52 am by Rob Schultz
We started with some food, then off to the Palms (which was apparently hosting a festival called Cinevegas) for a screening of Spider-Man 3 in IMAX. I liked it rather more the second time around, I think. Still weak in a couple of places, and maybe one too many maudlin moments, but good. (It would be okay to have non-spidey scene that didn’t require all available actors’ eyes to be welling with tears.)
Apparently my uncle, his two sons, and another Great Lakes employee are also in town today, but for no particular reason we never ran into them. We went to the Mirage, played some games for a bit. I came out ahead and then we walked across the street to the Venetian for a second meal at the Italian place we ate at on day two. Got almost the same meal, and it was still very good.
From there, we walked on over to Treasure Island one last time. I started at a $5 table that quickly ate $40, then went to a $10 table that swallowed the other $60. Bought into a different table, dealt to by L-names, including lisa, linda, and lori. Linda is the only dealer I’ve met that admits to gambling on her off days. Whilst there, I played along with four others who had all been seated for a while and are probably still there as I write now. I think everybody was doing a fair amount of winning, and if not, the good cheer was more than making up for it. I was winning for the most part. The guy next to me, Bryce I think, was there with his dad as well, and he and I were dealt same hands many a time, including blackjacks. This was a six-deck table with a constant shuffling mechanism, to which I attribute the fact that I very rarely busted when hitting. It so happened that on at least five occasions that I pressed up my bet for no reason, I was also dealt 21. There was a lot of excitement whenever it was possible for someone to double or split, and I guess I never did get the chance to try a hand of tens split four times. I suspect I’m not communicating effectively what a good time this table was, but I assure the reader at home that if I didn’t need to be awake in a few hours to catch a flight back to LA I would be there right now, potentially increasing my winnings even further. As it is, I colored up after every one or two hundred and when I ran out of small chips and dad was done playing (as one hundred of my winnings got him rolling again at a three-card poker table), I called it quits, said my goodbyes and handshakes and whatnot and cashed out.
A short jaunt back to the Wynn and a few successful runs of slot machines later, and we’re up in the room, packing up and preparing to fly home tomorrow. The comp’d limo arrives at 8:30, my flight is at 10:30, and dad’s is at 11:30. A pretty good vacation and profitable too. We split the winnings and I’m going home with rather more than I had to start. Soon it’ll be back to Seducing Spirits. I may even do a bit of it to get a jump tomorrow evening, though laundry and other general-life events will also be necessary. And perhaps some banking.
Permalink
06.13.07
Posted in Life at 1:51 am by Rob Schultz
Last day of the conference. Still no e-mail this week, which is just as well, but unusual. Lunch with Jamie before his plane. Trip to the treacherous Venetian. Back to the Wynn and a cheap outdoor table. Slow bleed, of course.
Back to the Venetian, small dinner, and then Blue Man Group. Almost in the center, fourth row poncho section. Loudmouth whiny folks behind us. I thought it might start with Above, then noticed patches that looked different on the screen…29 marshmallows, one dropped…tried saluting, and clapping off the light, and the fan woohoo on the start of Klein. Saw the full version of TV Heads, the new rods and cones and utne, got faked out into thinking we might still have white rabbit before chant jam. Really impressed with the staging in the Venetian, very cool. As we left, I had the following conversation with one of the handlers during the autographs:
-Hi, are you a venetian employee or a blue man employee?
-Blue Man.
-Hey, glad to meet you. I’m Arben on the Blue Man Message Board.
-So?
-So I was hoping you could tell me who our blue men were tonight.
-That information is confidential.
Something of a change from the very friendly and helpful girl I spoke with when I saw Russell and Isaac at the Luxor. So I took a few shots for later ID.
Cashed out of the Venetian and walked over to Harrah’s. Sat at a bad-odds table for a while, neither winning nor losing particularly. Won a deck of cards, enjoyed the dealers, and watched a gentleman burn through two grand playing a couple hands at once complete with sucker side bets.
Last day tomorrow – vacation’s nice, but I’m probably ready to take my leave of Las Vegas once again.
Permalink
06.12.07
Posted in Life at 1:49 am by Rob Schultz
Apparently it was creepy to have a bunch of business men wander out during their lunch break to leer at the topless sunbathers, so the doors from the pool to the convention area were all locked up. I learned the hard way and walked all over the place.
Lunch, then sending mail to kristy-girl. Then trying to get tickets to Penn & Teller. Apparently because the concierge doesn’t like the show very much (re: it’s not owned by the Wynn), he’d prefer not to sell me any tickets. Harrah’s does own the Rio where the show is, but it turns out P&T aren’t doing shows this week anyhow.
I went to the Imperial Palace. They have dealers that are lookalikes of Alice Cooper, Bette Midler, James Brown, and people I don’t recognize. Too creepy for words. Found a game alone – still don’t like that. Then with a nice crowd. I was in the process of making back some earlier losses and it was time to head back for dinner. I think I left there down a hundred bucks or so.
Dinner at the MGM, at Emeril’s. Not a bad dinner, but still the worst I’ve had so far in this trip. Runny lobster bisque and steak with a lot of fat served on a big woodchip. From there to a casino bar to watch the Cavaliers start to lose a basketball game and Jamie to lose a few bucks along with ‘em. I know my dad and I played tables there, but I barely remember them at this point. Presumably, that’s another hundred dollars gone.
We walked to the Paris casino, which I do like. Hours of cards passed by. I started at a table with a dealer much like the one I really enjoyed a couple days ago, but after every loss he’d apologize profusely and explain why we lost and why it would be okay in the long run and how he was sure to bust and maybe we’d like to sit out a couple hands in case the luck changed and on and on and on. At first I thought the Paris might have a policy of dealers that expressly root for you, but this guy did WAY too much talking and slowed the game down to the extreme by talking with passers-by to suck them into the game in the middle of a hand. I got away from him and found a silent table, where people were actually playing cards. Just what I needed. I screwed up a hand for the player next to me, east Indian I think, and the manner he shrugged it off did make me feel better. The quiet table got to talking just a bit, and money was being reclaimed. Some really loud drunken women came by, won and then lost, I ended up with a few hands played one-on-one…still a terrible idea with six-deck blackjack. The waitress did bring me a few iced coffees though, and those were pretty good. Took some leftover money there to a populated table where I was dealt good cards, but the dealer kept getting better cards. Increased it a bit with a single deck game, and cashed out. Found my dad, enjoying Caribbean Poker but not winning a whole lot. Doubled what he had left on a craps table and cashed him out too.
Way too late in the night, with too many free drinks and the last day of the conference racing closer, we walked back to the Wynn, without the nice young lady on the sidewalk who offered to come with us. I probably lost a bunch of money today, but I’m not sure quite how much, and I’m officially to the point where I’m sick of all the card games. Tomorrow, Blue Man Group and, in all likelihood, more of the same.
(I think it works out that I’ve now got my whole original cache of cash, no winnings to speak of, and I’ve lost most of my daily allotment of gamble-dollars my dad brought along. Technically, that’s breaking even, yeah?)
Permalink
06.11.07
Posted in Life at 1:43 am by Rob Schultz
Fancy bath facilites they’ve got here. Eventually made my way down to the conference for some lunch, then set off on a quest: It seems, however incorrectly, that when you play at a casino you gain a little and then lose it all. So…what if you gain a little and then book it on down to the next one and repeat? Can you stay ahead?
I already had a few black chips for the Wynn, so I sat down to some blackjack – pretty good dealer (Jennifer), but once 300 or so began dropping and hit 200, I took double my money and cashed out.
Took a walk on down the strip – I was at the Venetian last night and may be again on Wednesday, so I skipped over to Harrah’s, where high school acquaintance Jamie Newberry may still be an employee. Wandered a bit and then got a blackjack game with auto-shuffler (Side note: your Vegas blackjack seems to come in a couple of flavors – single deck blackjack, where awareness of what cards have been played is more valuable, and the blackjacks pay 6:5 instead of 3:2 (not good); auto-shuffle, where every few hands the cards from eight decks are fed back into the machine which may or may not split them up effectively; and six-deck shoe, which is shuffled by the dealer right in front of you once 80% or so of the total cards have been played. The last is my favorite.) Rey started me off and then Billy took over. Billy’s a loudmouth. Loves to sing and shout and yell and make the best of what can probably be a lousy job. I much prefer a dealer like Billy to the dealers who stare at you and never utter a word. I got up to around $150, down to $25, bounced around for a while and stopped at even money. I also got two pairs of dice, because I didn’t want beads and you get one or the other when you get a suited blackjack. I then placed a couple of craps bets, and after a bit of bouncing around there, left $3 ahead.
Further travel up the strip, dropped in on the Casino Royale, which had been recommended by someone at the convention as a location for cheap craps. Wandered around, looked for a slot game I might like…everything inside was way too depressing, and the table games I liked were packed to bursting because they were so cheap. Left without making a single wager.
Next stop, since I accidentally walked past the Bally’s entrance, the Paris. I wanted to visit here for ‘old times’ sake,’ since this was where Sony put me up in ‘05. Hopped on a craps table, and bled away most of a hundred bucks. I even quit in the middle of shooting since I cost myself too much money. I’ve seen people rake in fortunes on this game, and I get the basics of it, read the odds, etc…just haven’t the luck – can’t win anything. So I found myself another blackjack game (6-deck manual shoe), had a seat just before a reshuffle. Myrna was my dealer. She was really good – talkative / teasing the players, dealing double down cards face down, offering tips, and making a point to be really rooting for the players. I got into a system of betting one extra dollar on each bet, and if it paid off, that dollar would become a bet for the dealer and the payout dollar was put on my next bet. As long as I was on a streak, I was tipping a buck a hand. Sometimes even when I was losing, because Myrna was pretty good. Jessica replaced her and was not at all as excellent, but I stuck around and eked out some winnings until Myrna came back. At one point I did have to throw down some more cash in order to cover a double down bet. When $700 dropped down to $600, I called it quits there.
Now it was late enough that I started working my way back to home base to meet up for dinner. For me there’s a dual feeling of wanting to win some more and not wanting to give up what I’ve landed. I’m probably approaching the spot I got after two days or so last time, where I’m getting tired of the gambling. Nonetheless, I ducked into Caesar’s Palace for a bit, being on the other side of the street as I was. I fed a 20 to a slot machine, uselessly. I pulled out another $40 and tried some craps. Not a very lively table. A fella named Marvin arrived on the scene with some serious cash. He was throwing $5k bundles of cash onto the table and making enormous bets – pretty much wagering on every bet on the table. Amazing that he was still losing. I think he lost the first of two bundles that I personally saw hit the table before I was done with my first $20. I walked away with $18 of the $40. The blackjack tables were 25-dollar minimums. So: over to a (different) craps table, place a bet seconds before the dice fly, it wins and pays out $32, I have $50 and hit the blackjack table. Another decent dealer, Suzie, who I was warned played strong game, but wasn’t as memorable as the players. One was on about how glad he was that me and the other fella knew how to play, because it really messes up the game when someone doesn’t know how to play their hand, splits 10s, etc. Again, running my side-bet system for the dealer. Dropped another $40 on the table to cover a double down bet. (total buy-in: $100) But our dealer switched out and took the good cards with him. four hands in a row Johnny gave me 12 and then a 10, and each time I still would have lost if I hadn’t hit. Having again doubled my money, I cashed out. As I was leaving, Marvin was still losing hand over fist.
Back to the Wynn, changed clothes and taxied to Mandalay Bay for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Not like you might think of a Chinese restaurant though. Dishes were more exotic and served ‘family style.’ Shrimp cakes, beef dumplings, shortrib meat, lobster mashed potatoes, duck fried rice, drunken chicken, szechwan beef with crispy potato shreds, butterfish, and a mix of dessert items. Each person gets just a bit of everything. Three for three now on delicious and really expensive meals.
Our party split up after dinner. IT guys and our guest from EFI went back to the Wynn, perhaps to bed or to drinks or to something. My dad and I to Treasure Island. He played three-card poker and then later some blackjack, came out one or two hundred dollars up. I started with some craps, again just lose lose losin’. Then found myself a manual shuffle game of blackjack – Pam from Alabama dealt to me and several gents who didn’t speak english – when she swapped out with a tight-lipped grinder of a dealer, I left the table. I like a good chatty game. Got in on a $5/hand game with an autoshuffler and a couple of drunks. Had fun egging the drunken accountants on, as they warned me about how bad the two dealers working our table were – Adam from Korea and Ray from Vegas. Both the quiet sort, and Adam seemed irritated whenever I got my tipping game working because it meant he had to say thanks every time he won the $2. Dealers like that are a real drag, but our table had a lot of camaraderie going, which makes for the best games. The happy drunks eventually became quiet drunks and left. Again I dropped more money on the table to cover a double down bet. The Norwegian almost lost and then got way ahead, back and forth. He and I seemed to really prosper when the table had fewer players. Other players came and left. Some girl that I actually rooted against, maybe because she was throwing off our good rhythm or because she didn’t know how to play, another foreigner who hit and stayed at odd whims, an older couple and a younger couple, a couple more drunks…one of these stormed off because ‘he can’t play when his friends sit next to him,’ one of whom got a pair of 8s. He was ready to stay and we convinced him to split. 8 and 3, doubled to 18, and another pair of 8s, split again he got 18 and another pair of 8s, split again to make two more 18s. He got paid on all four hands and was camping pretty happily. For the first time, perhaps because he was drunk, someone took my kidding-on-the-square advice and did tip the other players for convincing him to make all the money. The Norwegian and I pooled our tips to play another position in one hand, and lost it, but we thought that would be fun, and I didn’t really want to tip these somewhat lousy dealers $5 in one hand. Another dude and his girl showed up and I was really cleaning up while they played. The Norwegian finally bowed out. When the couple left, I tried to play multiple hands in order to keep the flow going, but I was by myself and Adam really got into grinder mode. It’s odd how attitude can seem like it’s affecting the game. He got a string of blackjacks and quickly separated me from almost a hundred bucks. I split with $400 and went back to the Wynn.
Looked around for games under $100/hand to keep the night going, but to no avail. Tried two slot machines that paid off on previous days, which might be an inherently bad idea, since neither produced enough for me to start on one of those table games from a $20.
It really pays (so to speak) to learn the rules of what to do in Blackjack. A lot of people I played with today commented on how I was doing when really the best thing to do is to take emotion and bogus “feelings” out of it and break the game down into a set of rules. I don’t think I realised how many folks wear themselves out on senseless judgement calls.
So that’s Wynn +100, Harrah’s +3., Paris +400, Caesar’s +100, TI +200, Wynn -40 Daily total +763 Week total:+283
(came back to my room and fell asleep writing this, and now it’s dawn in our big picture window)
Permalink
06.10.07
Posted in Life at 1:40 am by Rob Schultz
Fancy shower facilities here. Took $400 downstairs and fed it to the craps table. Went upstairs, played computer blackjack and saw how blackjack should turn out, not like the table from last night, and took some more money back downstairs to work on retrieving the losses of the morning. Did fair service in that direction. Came upstairs to meet my dad, the winner of the convention golf tournament (and winner of various side bets and contests) – he gave me his prize, a short sleeved jacket with the efi logo on it. We went to the casino and tried the poker game that did him so well last night, but like everything in this place, it’s too expensive. (Sat at one table in the morning and watched a fella lose 27 straight hands, burning up $3k in less than 20 minutes.)
We met up with Jamie, then Robert, then sat around a bit. And then…the utterly underwhelming opening presentation of the conference – they start with a video set to baba o’riley and using stolen clips from dozens of popular commercials…just a woman smiling from an AT&T ad, for instance, lots of that. Then the viewscreens accidentally displayed the notes of the speaker, who would go on to show totally fictitious charts, weak analogies, and plugs for products, plugs for companies that were attending, and plugs for the casino. The speech ended and fed into the reception where we were treated to such delicacies as ‘ham slice wrapped around a bread stick,’ a bunch of desserts, and a rousing game of ’spot the crab man!’ I’ve gotten no e-mail in the past couple days, and by 7pm pacific, the sopranos was up for download, though we haven’t got HBO in the rooms to watch for ourselves.
We walked to the Venetian, home of an excellent italian restaurant. Even when I misspoke and botched my order, they took care of me and brought us all fantastic meals. I suspect there are a lot of opportunities for great food in a small area out here. This hotel features the fake daylight, ceiling-painted-with-clouds gimmick I recall from the Paris, oxygen bars, and Blue Man Group. We bought some expensive but I would wager very worthwhile tickets for Wednesday night. Would that Kristy could be here to enjoy them with us on her birthday.
We looked about the expensive nighttime gambling, then returned to the Wynn, where we threw some cash at the slot machines. On my second machine, I actually did quite well, and racked up $140. We put the 40 into another pair of machines, and I’ll lose the 100 tomorrow.
Dad’s probably still ahead overall. Today was -300 for me. Net for the trip: negative $480.
Permalink
06.09.07
Posted in Life at 1:35 am by Rob Schultz
I’m going to stray a little bit further into pure drivel blogginess for a few posts, just on about my vacation. Whatever. It’s my website, I’ll do what I want.
Up and at them! Flew in from the Bob Hope Airport, rode in the provided limo to the hotel. Should have swiped all the bottled water from the limo. We’re in a suite at the Wynn, which is nice enough, but it’s kind of a shame because this hotel is meant for a subset of humans that doesn’t really include me. There’s a blackjack table here with minimums roughly equal to my savings. It’s not even in the high rollers’ lounge. I also don’t see the appeal of the reserved tables. You’re going to lay down five figure bets on a craps table in order to play alone?
Anyhow, I found my dad and we checked out the ever expensive hotel and casino. He racked up $90 in a few minutes on slot machines. I got a twenty he gave me up to twenty-six, and then fed it to the one-armed idol. We went to a meeting relating to the official reason we’re here (a conference regarding technology used in my family’s printing business), where I was surprised at how interested I was until serious ineptitude reared its head. I also drew some of their board members, not to mention people at the airport in the morning. Haven’t spent enough time drawing lately.
An IT guy joined our party at the meeting, and we again walked about the casino a bit, then left for friendlier waters. We got an excellent steak dinner and then made a visit to Treasure Island for some more gambling. We three sat down to a game of $5 blackjack that proved amazingly formidable. Never saw that dealer bust. Six people at the table just lose lose losin’. This is where we began to split up – dad to more slots, and eventually some kind of poker; Jamie of IT to…the sake bar; and I spent most of my time at a craps game before a last shred of single-deck blackjack.
At the craps table I dropped $20 and made back everything lost earlier in the day, and then bled it all back into their coffers, watching a couple of folks around me make thousands before continuing on their way. Met a fella while I was doing it that probably told me enough to track him down on the internets – aspiring filmmaker. I haven’t really got anything to offer someone on their path to making short films for internet festivals, but I always want to. At the last blackjack table I saw a guy trying to lose in order to go do something else, and pulling it out at the last second for a win that kept him around a few hands more each time. He found a situation where he was ‘all in’ and wanted to double up, so he broke out an extra few hundred bucks, doubled, and won it all. He’s probably still there.
So, day one….including money given to me for gambling, I lost $180. Dad seems to have won at least $540, though his net is surely less than that. And even though I live in the dreadful los angeles air, my eyeballs aren’t at all used to so much secondhand smoke.
Permalink