Sin City

As my Constant Readers know, I’ve been to a few different places over the years. Europe, North Africa, The Middle East, Central Asia, South East Asia, Patagonia, etc. But I’ve only been to a couple of places in the USA – San Francisco a couple of times, and New York once.

Today I get to visit another part of the USA, and not just any part, but a whole destination in itself – Las Vegas. The HP Discover conference is taking place at the Venetian in Las Vegas next week, and for some reason they gave me free tickets! Possibly they’re trying to make sure that I write nice things about them in my next post on Packet Pushers. I shall have to be sure to write full disclosures in future. They have not explicitly asked me to speak highly of them, but I’m sure they’re hoping to impress me with their upcoming products.

My company is paying for flights + accommodation. Not cheap flying from Auckland to Las Vegas, but since we’re not paying for the conference itself, it works out to be a similar cost to going to a training course in New Zealand.

The timings work out pretty well, since it’s Queen’s Birthday holiday in New Zealand, meaning the boss only misses out on charging me out for four days, not five. Plus, with the way the timezone shifts work, I get to spend a day in Las Vegas either side of the conference. I’m not a gambling man (I’m not a risk taker), but there’s going to be plenty to see and do while I am there. The only problem is that I can’t take Anna, since she’s just about to get into exams. Everyone tells me that I should buy her presents to make up for it, but she says I don’t need to, it’s not at all necessary. Is it all a feint, and I should buy presents? No, she’s pretty upfront about these sorts of matters. If she tried being subtle when she wanted something, I’d always miss it, and she’d never get what she wanted!

I’ll try and get a couple of blog posts up while I’m there. I’ll also have to try and write some technical blog posts, but I shall spare Northlandboy readers from that. Those will go to Packet Pushers, or maybe my company’s site, depending upon what I decide is worth writing about.