...the other half lives. / technical notes #11

well, i have been in vegas for a few days now. it is pretty boring, i am not willing to waste away in the casinos and i was having trouble convincing my cousin to be my friend. after hanging out with some folks a couple of nights ago i really havent been around anyone. except for all the people that exist in las vegas, but not people i know.

two days ago i was all ready to go visit the pinball hall of fame and see a movie at the tropicana cinema - the dollar theater. i thought these places were right next to each other, thats what my information told me, so i went to the theater and was planning to play some pinball for an hour and then sidle effortlessly into the theater and watch a show. however the streets here are hard to

some pinball games i beat

navigate. you cannot take very many left turns and i got a bit lost and then confused on how to actually get into this plaza where my desire existed.

eventually i made it into this parking lot and got out ready to go, i only had forty minutes to play pinball now so i was ready. but! the pinball hall of fame had moved from near the cinema to a number of blocks down the street, about the same place where i had just come from. i was mad about this, but got back in the truck and navigated to the poorly announced building that was now the pinball hall of fame.

i was expecting a little bit more than what i got, but it was still a good experience. i expected more of a museum than just a pinball warehouse. it was very dark and there were just four rows or so of pinball and other machines back to back. many of them were old and they were all mostly working, i got a couple dollars change and had fun for while. i played well past the allotted time and subsequently missed the show i wanted to catch.

it was fun there but ground kontrol in portland is way better. not as wide a selection, but they have metal night and sell beer. also, it is brighter and more welcoming. i miss that place. and, as my sad account will show, that is all i think i accomplished on this day.

yesterday, after being bored and not really having any reason to waste away on the internet any longer, i decided to drive further north on the las vegas strip, get to the downtown area, and just see more than the few big hotel/casinos that i had on my first foray into sin. driving on i saw a casino that advertised $3 blackjack and i thought that was a good deal. playing slot machines gets boring quick and it is something i could do in portland. i have never played a table game and always wanted to.

i was scared to interact with a dealer and really show my ineptitude for gambling, but i was determined to have this experience. while i was looking for a place to park i saw another casino that boasted $1 blackjack. this was for me. it couldnt get any cheaper than that, so i parked at the sahara and walked on in. i walked around the tables looking for the blackjack, but i didnt find it. eventually i asked one of the scary guys in suits and they pointed me to a machine. a blackjack machine.

it was set up like a table and you can bet $1 to $100 on your round, i slipped in a $20 and got to playing. shortly i was up $10 and thought that this was very easy. the machine kept telling me to join the players club to earn rewards and since i was doing good, i thought that i might as well. so i cashed out and went to join the players club. they gave me $10 in free play and a free drink. sweet. i went back to my blackjack game and proceeded to dwindle my $20 (i was back to even) down to 90 cents - not enough to play anymore. so i cashed out and went just next to the machine, to a wheel of fortune slot machine.

i put in my players card and used my $10 of free game play (i wasnt allowed to use it on the blackjack machine). i quickly burned through this, but i had won about $5 on this free game play. so i cashed out and went right back to the blackjack game. i did better this time. i was slowly betting more money and soon found myself at $60. i attempted to convince myself to cash out then and call it a day. but i didnt really have anywhere else to go or anything else to do. so i made a commitment to myself to cash out at $100 or at $30.

guess which came first, $30! and then i kept playing because i wanted to get myself back up, it seemed so easy. but then i was back down to $20 and luckily i convinced myself to split out of there at even. i acquiesced to my demands. i had two dollar bills in my pocket and decided to keep them safe in a slot machine, and attempt to get a few more dollars to play more blackjack. but these dollars quickly vanished. and i was back out on the street. i had been in there for almost four hours. i texted my cousin and demanded that she see me tonight, because i had to get out of las vegas. today was the day whether or not she wanted to hang out last night.

and she replied saying okay. she gave me her address and said she would be home around 6:pm, that was still a few hours away so i wasted away a bit more on the computer. and then it was dark and i was driving back up the strip to north las vegas, where nicole lives. interestingly, this was the first time i had been on the strip while it was dark out...and i almost had a seizure from all of the lights flashing around me, the multitudes of people and just the hustle of it all.

i drove and drove. eventually i got to where she lived. her neighborhood wasnt very fancy, but a little bit fancy. there wasnt a car in the driveway but a light was on, i didnt know if she lived by herself or if she would be alone, maybe she invited some of her other family members that i am related to. i started to freak out a little bit. i hadnt showered for a number of days and, hey, i get self conscious. so, parked just outside of her house, i did some last minute grooming and tried to calm my nerves...and then i knocked on the door.

my cousin nicole is 26 years old. i dont think i have seen her since she was 14 - barely even a real person. coming into this i had no idea what to expect. she has gone through college, gotten married and subsequently divorced, moved to las vegas, engaged in

in her defense, she is making the sad face

a "career", and owns a house. so i had to fast forward from barely being a real person to her being a bona fide adult. i dont even consider myself an adult yet, i am scared to think of what i will look like as an adult. she invited me in and gave me an awkward half hug and then we milled about for a few moments not really knowing where to go from here.

her house was pristine, you know, like a museum. everything was spotless and she was in the process of cleaning everything that was already very clean. these are things that i do not understand. we sat around and talked for awhile, catching up, and then she offered to make me dinner. how absolutely strange, this is not my ideal setting. alone with someone who might as well be a stranger, a dirty kid in a clean adult world, and now dinner? i am not one to shy away from new and odd experiences so i said yes and she started making some things. then we went into the garage to smoke some cigarettes. conversation was flowing a bit smoother now, i was regaining some of my edge - the nervousness was melting away.

and i was just thinking of all the strange situations i was put myself in on this trip. going to brand new places and interacting with people that i have no idea about, as a kid this was the thing that i dreamed of. and i did okay. we ate dinner at a two person table on bar stools. and this was how she lived, by herself in a nice place, working and then making dinner and cleaning. this is what a number of people consider life to be. i have a hard time picturing myself in such a situation but i am sure one day i will grow up.

then she started talking about history. this was what i wanted, she talked about the family and the estrangement that she and her immediate family has from the rest of the extended family - my immediate family included. since i hadnt really been present in the life of the family for the last ten years or so much of this stuff was new to me. i sat listening at full attention. she told me about the things she remembered of us being kids around one another. she was 14 and i was 17. so there werent very many situations, but i will try to paint a picture.

i grew up in cedar lake, indiana - until about 14 when my dad moved me and my siblings to griffith, indiana to live with his new wife, my stepmom, bobbie. this was when my real life started and generally when i talk about my "childhood" i am talking from this point on. i lived in the upstairs of this house, in the largest room and was given free reign. eventually i made friends and entertained them with a bevy of drugs and alcohol in my room. nicole recounted being around for some of these drug induced days of entertainment that i offered.

clearly, she was too young to be hanging around with my people. but my friend steve had a younger brother who was also around sometimes and i learned last night that nicole and chris had some romance in the cubby holes of my party room. which is hilarious. i wish i had pictures or just some better words to describe this room and situation. it was pretty much ideal. i have good parents. so, i liked hearing her talk about these things. after all, this was the main reason for me to interact with her - to know more about myself. the "myself" that other people see, the reflection that i leave in the eyes of other people.

and this was about the end of it. it was just after 9:pm and, well, i wasnt exactly tired, but it was getting more awkward and i got set to leave. leaving was easy and strange, just like i am a passing whisper. another weak half hug and i was out the door. i sat in my truck for a few minutes, processing the strangeness of it all. ah, this life, you strange beast!

i drove back towards where i had been staying, and i was tired now, but since i had decided to leave las vegas today i thought that i should see some things in this city at night. on my way back was "the fremont street experience" and i stopped to...experience it i guess. as soon as i drove by it i knew that i had been here before. it was when i was 19 in las vegas, this was near the bus station and what i thought las vegas was for much of my life. now i know different.

after being there for a little bit i drove all the way back down the strip and there was much more action. and the street was like a parking lot. i did get to see the bellaggio fountains go off and some other things that happen at night and entice people to this city. i did not get to see the volcano go off, but i did drive by it. i saw the treasure island pirate battle and some other things. it took me over an hour to drive down the strip, that is a long time. i was fully ready to sleep away the night and once i found my spot i called it a night.

	current cycle	total trip
miles	1629	18481
gallons	77.6	799.1
dollars	205.2	2071.4
mpg avg	21	23.1
costpg avg	2.64	2.59
days	14	259

well, now it is time to offer up some technical notes from this trip, the eleventh edition! since i had my starter replaced in dallas my truck has been running better. i am not sure why this should be so, i thought the starter was just, you know, for starting the truck. but i have been able to drive at faster speeds with less vibrations. my top speed has gone from 75mph to 80mph, but mostly i still drive at 75mph.

this cycle started in greenville, tx on january 15th, and ended yesterday, january 28th, in las vegas, nevada. a whole 14 days! going through the mountains i was getting really poor gas mileage and i thought it was all the climbing and the altitude, but i turned out to be very wrong. my truck leaks oil, not much, but when it gets low the "check oil" light will come on. well, it didnt this time and my oil well was mostly dry. i am not sure why this would amount to super poor gas mileage, but once i filled the reservoir the gas mileage came back to normal - even above average. not like it is going to make a difference for this cycle, it will still look pretty shitty.

and, the sad news, my passenger side headlight has burnt out. we will all mourn the loss and hopefully not get pulled over for this offense.