As I mentioned in a previous entry every year the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) holds a conference for skeptics and critical thinkers called The Amaz!ng Meeting (TAM). This year it was at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, which was a great reason to go to Las Vegas after seeing the family in Calgary.
Now, I love Vegas. I think I’ve been there five or six times now and haven’t become bored with it. I realize that it is not for everybody, for many people it is just too crowded and over-the-top, but I think everyone should see the place at least once in their life. You just wouldn’t believe it until you see it and wandering around the hotels on the Strip just can’t be described. It also helps that I have no problem with gambling or drinking – having enough money to see a show or two also helps. You don’t have to gamble as there is plenty to do just wandering around, and if you’re crafty you can do it on a budget, but it’s better with a bit of bucks to carry you through.
That said I don’t think I could live there. Better that it just be a once-a-year fantasy getaway.
Going down for a convention makes it even better because you get to meet other people and do interesting things that you wouldn’t have even thought of on your own. I occasionally post on the JREF forum through that and got to know people who post there so we use TAM as an opportunity to meet face-to-face, or organize events ahead of time. This is my third TAM in Vegas and thanks to the forum folks there were tons of things that I saw/did that I didn’t even know about on my previous trips. Things like that are what make vacations a whole lot better.
For example someone in the JREF forum noticed that I was going to be in Calgary so invited me to a meet-up of JREF people that was taking place in Calgary right before TAM. So a couple of days before one of them picked me up where we had dinner and drinks at a house downtown (for privacy’s sake I won’t give anyone’s names but if you’re reading this I had a great time – thanks for organizing it!) Until that evening I had only met one of the people there before in person yet we had a great time chatting and so forth. Just like that I went from knowing only my family in Calgary to knowing a bunch of people there.
So I fly down to Vegas and check in to the Riviera two days before TAM so that I can get a bit of gambling and sightseeing in before the conference starts. I’m all for saving a bit of money on hotel rooms so I shared the room with another JREF forumite who arrived that night as well (he lives in southwest China, and I thought coming in from Qatar was exotic enough). He hadn’t been to Vegas before so we spent the next day wandering the Strip and seeing the sights before heading back to the Riviera to meet up with other conference attendees who would have arrived by now. I decided to hit the tables and won a bit of money – whoohoo!
Yeah, yeah, why would a critical thinker gamble when you know that the odds are in the House’s favour - I hear that often. It’s just entertainment people, I play $10 a hand, have fun, chat with people at the table, and get free drinks. It’s fun, I like doing it. (As an aside I don’t gamble online since that takes the meet-and-greet element out of it, it’s not as fun as being in a Vegas casino).
Man, I haven’t even discussed the actual convention yet! More to come later . . .
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