Halloween! 2011

It's a little weird here in Des Moines, no one seem to celebrate Halloween on actual Halloween day. All the trick or treaters go out the night before and we call it "Beggar's night." Anyway I I was Steve Jobs this Halloween, I don't think I did a great job all I had was the black mock turtleneck and a pair of glasses that I was not able to see anything from a distance with. It was a fun Saturday night though, went to house party and pretty much drank a lot. Good times with the homies!

Rest in Peace Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs died a couple days ago and as most of the tech world knew was such an amazing man. He was the co-founder of Apple and long time CEO for the company as well. I'm not going to give a history of his career at all as you can easily google that information or read up on his wikipedia page.

It is really sad for me I have to say because I really do enjoy Apple products, you can say that I'm a 'fanboy' I'm okay with that. I just really like what they offer and the ease of use of their products and also how great their customer service is. Whenever I had an issue with my Apple stuff I would take it to the Apple store and either they would fix it or replace if needed simple as that. I didn't have to go through such a long process for it either. The best experience I had is when I had an issue with my Macbook Pro and it would not power on, took it to a "genius" where they explained to me they would have to take it in to do further troubleshooting. They estimated the cost of being around $200 since I had an older model (not the unibody) and did not purchase an extended Applecare for it. I really needed my computer so I had no choice but to agree and they took it in for me. Probably less than week later they called saying it's fixed and all is in working order. I was excited that they fixed it so quickly and while on the phone I just wanted to confirm with the lady how much it would cost. I heard her flip through few papers and she said to me, "Well, Merry Christmas to you because it's free. No charge!" I was ecstatic I thought I would have to drop 200 bucks on a repair but not even they decided they were going to do for me free. They replaced a few things inside my computer and I would not have to pay a dime for their work. This is why they're ahead of the game when it comes to customer satisfaction, because this is what they do. They seem to actually care.

Since my very first iPod I bought that was 20gigs and a black and white screen, I've been following all of the new gadgets they put out and when I was finally old enough to get a job and buy my own things I picked up other iPods, iPhones, Macbook Pro, and my latest the iPad which I later sold my 1st gen to the iPad 2.

I want to thank you Steve for everything you've done. Rest in Peace.

Vegas Day Three (Los Angeles)

Day started waking up early around 7 or 8 in the morning. We're heading to the city of Angels for the day and I just thought this would be a great opportunity to see my sister up there since I've never actually seen where she lived and got much LA time that I wanted last time I was here. My uncle is a hard person to persuade at times and it seems like he didn't even want to go to Los Angeles at all he just went so he can show the grandmas around the west coast a little while. I had to pretty much beg of him for him to drop me off at my sister's house for a couple hours and that would be all I need. I don't see my sister very often so for him to not allow me be able to see her when I'm this close would be such an asshole move so he gave in and dropped me off at my sister's house in West Hollywood area.

This is probably another highlight of my trip, to be able to just hang out a little with my sister and her dog, Teddy. My sister has been complaining about her boyfriend's computer how it hasn't worked because of some spyware installed and would ask for help constantly over the phone. Without me actually without the computer with me, it was pretty difficult to troubleshoot. So right as I got there she had me take a look at it and I think to this day it's in working order now. Pretty good I say for being a Mac user for a few years now. While fixing the computer we drank a beer, watched some daytime TV and played with Teddy. Her place is actually really cute. It's a tiny a place with big windows, and with the LA weather it seems perfect as you're not too hot or too cold.


After hanging out at the house for a little we had lunch at In-N-Out Burger. We don't have one here in Des Moines, IA so she thought it would be a cool thing since so many people talk about it. I think I got a double (animal style, whatever that means...) I actually enjoyed it, I know it's suppose to be all fresh and the beef isn't frozen or whatever so that's always a good thing, the fries were just okay. After lunch we drove around for a while, driving up "The Hills" and Beverly Hills. We were trying to get near the ocean but we didn't make it as my uncle called me up saying that they're ready to get back to Vegas. It was a nice 3 hours with my sister that day and I really wish I could have spent more time there but unfortunately it wasn't my choice and have to be on uncle's stupid schedule. For some reason my uncle thought 5pm would be the best time to try to leave LA. We were stuck in traffic for hours and I think it was around 7 where we finally left Los Angeles. It was completely stupid I could have spent more time with my sister there but my uncle only cares about himself and needs to see himself to a Pai Gao table as fast as he can.




Going back to Vegas we were in old Vegas area around the Fremont Street. This side of Vegas was not glamourous as what we have been seeing and by this time I rather just be at the hotel where I can chill and upload pictures on Facebook. Soon as we got there we ate at this nasty ass cafeteria type of food serving some nasty Chinese food that's worse than Panda Express. Of course because of another horrible food place and after losing a couple bucks already at blackjack I was done gambling for the night. I ended up later walking up and down Fremont Street by myself and got one of those alcoholic drinks that comes in one of those big cups that looks like bong. I was okay with that part, walking around aimlessly a little tipsy by myself watching some of the free entertainment out there and crazy people just wanting some attentions. Just thought for myself that I'll just hang out for a while my uncle and the grandmas gambled a little more. Later with all of my tweeting my phone was dead and I couldn't be without a phone at a city I'm unfamiliar with.

Luckily I did make sure to have my chargers in my pocket so I had to find an outlet somewhere... I was walking all around Golden Nugget trying to find a slot machine with an outlet close to it so I can just play a little and wait for my phone to charge but that didn't happen. I found an outlet later probably right in the middle of the hotel and sat on the ground for while to get to at least 20%... Oh I got a call a couple minutes later from my uncle, but it wasn't that they were leaving it was because he ran out of money and asked if he can borrow some. This is exactly what happened the last time I went with him and I thought he changed a little from that but of course once you're an addict... I regretfully gave him $100 since that's all I really had without being completely wiped out. I got another drink and then after losing my money we drove back to our hotel.