Las Vegas (part 4): Been a while

I initially started this with the intention of writing every week.  The sad part is, most of what I wrote part 1-3 happened all in one night.  Part 4 was supposed to be the second week, but by the time I got done with part 3 the second week was already over.  My issues with writing persist, but I have been wasting most of my time writing in yahoo! comments.  Which is a much worse idea than blogging and there are more than just this one idiot there.

I had pictures to post, but they are all on facebook; go look there to see them.  As I sit here wondering what to write that will not just be one tangent after the next and at the same time take me nearly 4 hours to write (it's already 11:30 PST), I cannot help but feel like it is hopeless.  There is so much to write and yet nothing that I really want to write about.  This is only compounded by the knowledge that hardly any one will read it.

So, my day went as follows:  I awoke at 7:17 am not sure why so early.  I have not used an alarm clock since I came to Vegas.  Mostly because I do not want it going off while I sleep through it, or maybe that is just my excuse to sleep in until 9 am.  I grabbed a bowl of Trix cereal and hopped on the internet.  I did a search for something like "beginner's guide to dj equipment."  For an hour and fifteen minutes I read about effects.  However, I would have to read it again to even repeat back what I read.

At 8:30 my brother says we need to be leaving for the Nevada Get Your Business Online seminar.  Yeah it started at 9:00 am, we would ultimately arrive a few minutes late.  I did not even realize we had to be there so early until he said something, I just happened to be up.  Two and a half hours hearing about search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and building websites with sitebuilder all dumbed down for people that had to be walked through signing up for a g-mail account.  I thought it was a big waste of time, but my brother made a good point.  We did learn a few points and we did not pay for the bill, but somebody did.

It rained all day.  It was raining when I got up, it had been raining during the night.  My brother was delighted he said he loved days like these.  After the seminar we stood under the awning of the convention center for a while.  It did not really protect from the rain.  We drove to the World Famous Pawn Shop, that place is packed with tourists.  I spent almost the whole time we were there on the phone.

I called my Dad.  He loves karaoke and somewhere along the way he got the idea to be a karaoke dj and he has acquired some equipment.  However, he needs an amplifier (minimum specs of 450W x 2 @ 8 ohms).  The problem is that it costs a lot of money, especially the one he wants.  Nevertheless, my brother and I have been searching for amps, despite not having a lot of understanding.  My family is not big on talking, but today I talked to my Dad and Brother a lot.  Not that I liked it at the time, I am one of them too (it's true, we are not big on talking).  Yet in retrospect it was nice.

So by 12:30 we arrive at my brother's house and I am starving.  I am not quite sure what the plan was, but my brother already talked about getting something to eat.  Seems like I spent an hour or two, just being hungry and wondering what we were going to do.  Finally, I went to the refrigerator and got out last nights beans, rice, and a couple tortilla flours.  With my stomach finally quieting down, it was time to do something productive.

I hooked an amplifier, speakers, and CD player up that my brother has been keeping in storage.  He wants to start renting it out with his business, providing a DJ for musical entertainment.  Which is why I have been talking to my Dad and reading up on the internet all day.  My brother does not really have a full DJ kit though.  He does not even have a big playlist of songs.  The more I read, the more I am thinking there is more to this than just popping songs into a playlist.

I spent some time hooking a laptop up to the equipment and then we had a mobile dj come over and talk to us.  Unfortunately, he speaks English as a second language, my brother's wife was interpreting for the most part.  I wish I spoke Spanish, hell I wish I learned French (if I just tried a little harder, maybe I would have).  I have not looked at any French for about 3 months now, probably lost it all again.  We did learn some things, like where exactly the RCA jacks plug into the amplifier from the laptop.  I was told the wrong place initially.  Also apparently the speakers we have are good for indoor, but outdoor parties would need better speakers 700W.

Other than that, I spent more time studying beginner dj guides.  After which I wasted some time on youtube.  I just finished applying for a couple jobs; probably should do many more tomorrow. That is pretty much it for the day, got plenty done, but not sure anything was accomplished.  I have plenty more to talk about, but my patience with writing/typing it all is beginning to wane.  Perhaps I should get some sleep.