this weekend was pretty tame. i came home and watched Lakers play the Rockets. Then went to dinner with Ray, and 4 of his friends.....the names i do remember....is matt and steve.....we went to shanghi city. was pretty fun even though we didn't really do much other than eat for about an hour or so. saturday, i installed visual studio 6 that i downloaded from a friend and set out to make a win32 hello world app. the thing is, there was a wizard that made a hello world application for you, it ended up only taking a few minutes. looking at all the things that go into a win32 application was a little overwhelming. its gonna be a slow start cause i'm trying to learn from more of a top down approach. maybe i should take a class. i also brought home a perl book. i wanted to do some stuff with that but i need an account at one of the servers that i have no control over so that's been put on the back burner.



after that, i went to costco, and bought my health food. and then i thought since it was the weekend, i'd buy something ready to eat. so i bought a rotisserie chicken. i ate half of it and passed out. then i got a call from nguyen, and we went to barona with chris and his gf Sang. when we got there, it was quite a shocker. if you haven't been to barona in the last month or so, they have totally built a new casino and hotel. their dome like structure they were using (even though they put walls around it) were closed off. they totally abandoned that old dome, and it is obvious why they went with this new structure. you go into the garage, and take the elevator, and the elevator doors open from the other side, and they reveal the long 50-75 yard colorful carpet you are used to walking through when you go to vegas. on the side, there are moving sidewalks going in different connections. if you thought viejas was best in indian gaming, barona took it to a whole other level. it is worth a trip there to just check out what they have done even though you have no interest in gaming.



chris and sang went to go play blackjack. nguyen and i checked out the buffet. the price was $17, and you get what you pay for. it's not a fantastic deal, but the quality of the food was slightly better than most buffets i have been to. i don't know what nguyen was complaining about but the quality was definitely better than cafeteria food. if you want cafeteria quality food, go to the Rio buffet. everything is bland there even though they have a big selection of food. this buffet is still no comparison to the bellagio buffet. in my mind, still the only place you can get gourmet style food in buffet style servings. like i always do, i try to get more than my money's worth at the buffets. i think i cleaned up a whole 3 plates worth of food. mostly meat and vegetables.



after the buffet, chris and sang were out of money, so we decided to head back. on the way out, they met a friend that was driving home. and since they had not seen eachother in like 5 years. it turns out this guy is a pretty serious gambler. just tonight, he dropped $2400 on what was going to be his last hand in blackjack. so we went to the ATM, pulled $100, and made $2000 and decided to call it a night. but that's nothing. it turns out that just a few months ago, he lost somewhere around $12K to $18K one night and he haden't been back for a while until last night. and at his best night a few years ago, he had walked away with $28K, and bought a Civic Si cash. it's a whole different world with these guys.



sunday, i went to church in the morning. came home, ate the other half of the chicken, and passed out. i think it's gonna be the last time i eat that much chicken....i woke up to watch the raiders and the other team play. then met up wendy at the gym at 8pm.



tomorrow is a holiday for me. i don't have any plans and i don't think i'll be doing anything productive. at most, run a few errands. still, i should try to make the most out of it. i have no clue on how i'm gonna do that. the holidays are a double edged sword. you get that whole day off. and you also get a shorter week day. it is a pity that most people do work on this day. i mean c'mon. martin luthor king jr. he was the man with the dream. to accomplish goals is one thing. to set out and accomplish a dream is in a whole different class of achievement. and the fact that it was a dream for the better life of everyone in the US, we need to give this guy a national holiday and let everyone pay their respects. of course, staying home and throwing BBQ isn't the way either. but you sure can't do whatever you can do to pay respects stuck at work.