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Monday, November 29, 2004
Monday, November 22, 2004
almost got snowed in at Vegas!
we woke up sunday, and noticed it was raining, in Las Vegas. it was a fair and normal amount of drizzle. but still odd that we were in the middle of a desert and it was raining. we ate at the treasure island buffet for brunch, and got onto the freeway exactly around 1pm. immediately entering the freeway, we noticed heavy congestion. it was puzzling because why would the freeway be crowded when there is absolutely nothing ahead for the next 50 miles at the very least. so i guessed it must be a bad car wreck up ahead. So about an hour into the drive, the drive goes from being bad, to impossible. we are just inching forward, so I call my friends in the other car who got about a good 15 minute head start and see how they are doing. they said we should be start moving in about 15 minutes. there was nothing to explain the traffic, other than a car on the shoulder on jacks. so 15 minute later, we started moving. then 2 minutes after that the traffic slowed down again. we're continuing to inch forward in the rain, and andrew points out all the snow around us. I look forward into the mountains, and I'm like, yep, that's snow alright......and then it starts snowing (well ice slush coming down like snow). and then I look on the side of the road and see the whole side of the road and beyond covered in snow. that's what andrew was originally pointing out. so it started making some sense. maybe some people who have never driven on snow before are slowing down because they have never driven under these conditions. I certainly never have. a few miles down, i see that people without much traction are starting to spin their wheels a lot and are barely moving forward (if they are moving forward at all). and soon it starts happening to me. so now its crystal clear why we aren't moving forward. people are pretty much stuck going uphill on ice. so it keeps on getting progressively worse, and realize we are spinning our tires more and more, and even have problems catching even a hint of acceleration trying to go down hill. looking around, its not just a little bit of snow, it's a lot of snow. a good 4+ inches on the side of the road and the desert. after we made it to the apex of the hill (about 2 hours of just spinning our wheels on ice), we made it through the worst of it, and even though everyone is traveling about 30 mph, we couldn't be more happy to be moving. we thought about heading back to vegas for a while, but luckily there were no exits, until we got through the worst of it. it snowed and rained for the remainder of our drive up until LA. Luckily, even with heavy snow, the road wasn't icy for the remainder of the drive, and we made it to Ontario Mills mall in just about 7 hours. Probably spent the first 4 hours moving through the first 60 miles. I made a quick stop Nguyen's house to check out his new dog (boston terrior). and made it home exactly 10:30. we asked the gas station lady at barstow and she said it only snows every 10 to 20 years. so we were the lucky (or the unlucky) ones.
pics can be found here (Vegas 2004):
http://mikehome.ad.ucsd.edu/album/
As always, Vegas was a lot of fun. I didn't have a lick of urge to gamble other than join in on the fun. So I played some slots here and there when I had a few minutes to spare. I was also too tired or didn't have much time to gamble, so it wasn't a bad thing. We checked out the Star Trek experience at our hotel (Hilton). We ate at the Bellagio Buffet (they have tuna and salmon nigiri and poke now!) for dinner on Saturday. Then checked out Studio 54. We all had 2 drinks each, and it was a little bit too much for at least 5 of 6 of us. Yes, we are all lightweights.
Next time when its raining in Vegas on a cold weekend, I sure am gonna check the weather reports before I start driving.
we woke up sunday, and noticed it was raining, in Las Vegas. it was a fair and normal amount of drizzle. but still odd that we were in the middle of a desert and it was raining. we ate at the treasure island buffet for brunch, and got onto the freeway exactly around 1pm. immediately entering the freeway, we noticed heavy congestion. it was puzzling because why would the freeway be crowded when there is absolutely nothing ahead for the next 50 miles at the very least. so i guessed it must be a bad car wreck up ahead. So about an hour into the drive, the drive goes from being bad, to impossible. we are just inching forward, so I call my friends in the other car who got about a good 15 minute head start and see how they are doing. they said we should be start moving in about 15 minutes. there was nothing to explain the traffic, other than a car on the shoulder on jacks. so 15 minute later, we started moving. then 2 minutes after that the traffic slowed down again. we're continuing to inch forward in the rain, and andrew points out all the snow around us. I look forward into the mountains, and I'm like, yep, that's snow alright......and then it starts snowing (well ice slush coming down like snow). and then I look on the side of the road and see the whole side of the road and beyond covered in snow. that's what andrew was originally pointing out. so it started making some sense. maybe some people who have never driven on snow before are slowing down because they have never driven under these conditions. I certainly never have. a few miles down, i see that people without much traction are starting to spin their wheels a lot and are barely moving forward (if they are moving forward at all). and soon it starts happening to me. so now its crystal clear why we aren't moving forward. people are pretty much stuck going uphill on ice. so it keeps on getting progressively worse, and realize we are spinning our tires more and more, and even have problems catching even a hint of acceleration trying to go down hill. looking around, its not just a little bit of snow, it's a lot of snow. a good 4+ inches on the side of the road and the desert. after we made it to the apex of the hill (about 2 hours of just spinning our wheels on ice), we made it through the worst of it, and even though everyone is traveling about 30 mph, we couldn't be more happy to be moving. we thought about heading back to vegas for a while, but luckily there were no exits, until we got through the worst of it. it snowed and rained for the remainder of our drive up until LA. Luckily, even with heavy snow, the road wasn't icy for the remainder of the drive, and we made it to Ontario Mills mall in just about 7 hours. Probably spent the first 4 hours moving through the first 60 miles. I made a quick stop Nguyen's house to check out his new dog (boston terrior). and made it home exactly 10:30. we asked the gas station lady at barstow and she said it only snows every 10 to 20 years. so we were the lucky (or the unlucky) ones.
pics can be found here (Vegas 2004):
http://mikehome.ad.ucsd.edu/album/
As always, Vegas was a lot of fun. I didn't have a lick of urge to gamble other than join in on the fun. So I played some slots here and there when I had a few minutes to spare. I was also too tired or didn't have much time to gamble, so it wasn't a bad thing. We checked out the Star Trek experience at our hotel (Hilton). We ate at the Bellagio Buffet (they have tuna and salmon nigiri and poke now!) for dinner on Saturday. Then checked out Studio 54. We all had 2 drinks each, and it was a little bit too much for at least 5 of 6 of us. Yes, we are all lightweights.
Next time when its raining in Vegas on a cold weekend, I sure am gonna check the weather reports before I start driving.
Monday, November 15, 2004
Completely and totally disappointed
Just learned this morning that Gran Turismo 4 won't offer online play. They pulled it so they can offer it with GT5 that will be available with PS3. That is total bullshit. The only reason I got my network adapter, and the only purpose of my network adapter was going to be to play Gran Turismo 4 online. I never got into online Socom (or socom at all for that matter), and the online play in midnight club II was total shit. I heard that online play on Burnout 3 was really good, but Burnout 3 isn't Gran Turismo. Man, this blows. I've been waiting to play online Gran Turismo ever since Gran Turismo 3.
Just learned this morning that Gran Turismo 4 won't offer online play. They pulled it so they can offer it with GT5 that will be available with PS3. That is total bullshit. The only reason I got my network adapter, and the only purpose of my network adapter was going to be to play Gran Turismo 4 online. I never got into online Socom (or socom at all for that matter), and the online play in midnight club II was total shit. I heard that online play on Burnout 3 was really good, but Burnout 3 isn't Gran Turismo. Man, this blows. I've been waiting to play online Gran Turismo ever since Gran Turismo 3.
Monday, November 8, 2004
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