WoVCon ]I[ Setting re-vote
Poll
 | 4 votes (26.66%) | ||
| | 8 votes (53.33%) | ||
| | 3 votes (20%) |
15 members have voted
Downtown will likely mean the Brew pub at MSS. Strip, well, I've no idea yet.
Vote early and often ;)
I haven't yet found a hotel that is offering me room rates I like. I have never stayed downtown, so I highly suspect I will either be at a Harrah's property on the strip or just off-strip at Rio or Palace Station, both of which I have stayed at in the past year. Doesn't really matter as far as my coming to the WoVCon events, since I will have a rental car and expect to be driving all around town while I am there.
I played poker at WovCon I, and I played craps at WoVCon ][. I really prefer craps, but I guess I can handle very-low-limit poker again, since I really consider this a social outing.
Quote: DocThere is not an option offered for "I don't really care" so I haven't voted. I plan to be there, but I can go either downtown or to the strip.
I haven't yet found a hotel that is offering me room rates I like. I have never stayed downtown, so I highly suspect I will either be at a Harrah's property on the strip or just off-strip at Rio or Palace Station, both of which I have stayed at in the past year. Doesn't really matter as far as my coming to the WoVCon events, since I will have a rental car and expect to be driving all around town while I am there.
I played poker at WovCon I, and I played craps at WoVCon ][. I really prefer craps, but I guess I can handle very-low-limit poker again, since I really consider this a social outing.
+1. Honestly, pretty much +1 on all counts. Replace Palace Station with Sunset Station and this is my exact situation.
edit: also, it's exciting to see 9 votes already. hopefully that means we'll have a good turnout:-)
Quote: DocThere is not an option offered for "I don't really care" so I haven't voted. I plan to be there, but I can go either downtown or to the strip.
Oh, just vote to destroy the Ravens :)
Odd Rome fact of the day:
The traditional founders of Rome are Romulus and Remus, with the former being the traditional First King of Rome. The last emperor of the Western Empire (though "last" is a matter of debate) was Romulus Augustulus.
That's that. the end fo the Western empire is soooo depressing. How depressing? By the first part of the Fifth Century AD, one begins to think of the awful 3rd Century Crisis as "the good old days."
I'm still bummed about the Fall fo the Western Empire, even though I've started voraciously consuming the podcasts of the History of Byzantium. Them Easter Romans ain't the same...
Of course a lot of people, many of them professional historians, try to come up with one simple explanation for the Fall. I take the view that there were multiple causes, stratching abck centuries. The Fall of the Republic is one, but what precipitated that fall? Then there's inlfation, taxation, religion, the composition of the Legions, religion, intolerance, religion, the adoption of Christianity, the growing religious intolerance, etc etc. The most proximate cause has to be the Huns. They didn't ever seriously damage Rome directly, but they pushed Vandals, Goths and other barbarian tribes out of their lands and into the Empire. When Rome (or Ravenna, or Constantinople) was unable to integrate them as per the old Roman formula, they proved a destabilizing element. Not by themselves entirely, aided as they were by prejudice.
But the bottom line is one cannot take something as complex and old as Rome and pinpoint one simple cause of death.
Oh, spekaing of Huns, here's one curious fact: Attila was born, and lived all his life, in Europe.
Quote: Fuengirola2I think we/you should hold the meeting in Finland. We could discuss the topics in a sauna.
I'm sure there are more saunas in Vegas than casinos in Finland.
But I wouldn't be averse to holding a WoVCon in Italy, Greece, France or Germany. I'm sure I could lern basic Italian in less than a year. Greek, French or German, well, not so much. But I can yell loudly in English ;)
Quote: NareedI'm sure there are more saunas in Vegas than casinos in Finland.
But I wouldn't be averse to holding a WoVCon in Italy, Greece, France or Germany. I'm sure I could lern basic Italian in less than a year. Greek, French or German, well, not so much. But I can yell loudly in English ;)
If you have any knowledge in Spanish whatsoever, you could pick up Italian quite easily. They are both Latin based languages and are quite similar, even sharing some common words. Reading it you will have to look for certain clues. Like "GN in Italian is like the n with the accent in spanish or io is pronounced like yo in Spanish. They conjugate verbs similarly as well.
Quote: NareedI'm sure there are more saunas in Vegas than casinos in Finland.
But I wouldn't be averse to holding a WoVCon in Italy, Greece, France or Germany. I'm sure I could lern basic Italian in less than a year. Greek, French or German, well, not so much. But I can yell loudly in English ;)
But I guess there are less than 3 million saunas in Vegas? I usually heat my own sauna to 200 Fahrenheits before I dare to go in and throw any water to the stove.
Quote: Fuengirola2But I guess there are less than 3 million saunas in Vegas?
And so?
Quote:I usually heat my own sauna to 200 Fahrenheits before I dare to go in and throw any water to the stove.
That sounds like setting yourself up to be cooked :P
Rome fact of the day: The Romans may not have invented inflation (who knows?), but they amde a good job of perfecting it. At the height of the 3rd Century Crisis, a "silver" coin (the denarius) contained only 1%-2% actual silver, the rest being base metals Diocletian had to grant legal recognitiona dn set up rules for payments in kind. Anyone with any basic knowledge in economics knows by that just how bad things were. It took until the 6th Century for money to recover as the principal means of exchange, under emperor Anastasius in Constantinople.
For those of you calling for a return to the Gold Standard, and/or minting money in gold and silver, you're not wrong. But you're not making the complete argument. There also needs to be a solid, armored wall of separation between money and state. Precious metal currency can be devalued just like fiat money, albeit with somewhat more difficulty.
BTW, I'm about 97% sure of where the WoVCon lunch will be. Gambling afterwards is still an open question between craps and poker. I'm leaning towards craps.
I'm 98% sure of where the WoVCon lunch will be. But there remains a question: how do you feel about long, long, long, and I mean, long walks among crowds?
Anyway, with the Western Roman Empire's fall, I'm now delving into the hisotry of the Eastern Roman Empire, or the Byzantine Empire as it's also known. Religion plays an even bigger role in this era, by which I mean Christianity plays an even bigger role. I've been elarning a great deal of early Christian history along the way. And let me tell you something, the Yiddish term "goyische kopf" seems a lot more appropriate now to me (no smiley). I mean, these people unleash prosecutions, violence, riots and worse because of tiny differences in how they choose to interpret a freaking legend.
I bet Constantine didn't have that in mind when he converted. Constantine the Great indeed.
Quote: NareedBump time.
I'm 98% sure of where the WoVCon lunch will be. But there remains a question: how do you feel about long, long, long, and I mean, long walks among crowds?
Well, long is subjective. On a standard Vegas trip I will walk from Luxor to the Venetian in one day without blinking, but that's stopping along the way at various casinos. With a medium/large group, walking from lunch to gambling, that would be difficult.
Now if "long, long, long" means from the main Strip to Downtown, no thanks :)
Quote: AcesAndEightsWell, long is subjective. On a standard Vegas trip I will walk from Luxor to the Venetian in one day without blinking, but that's stopping along the way at various casinos. With a medium/large group, walking from lunch to gambling, that would be difficult.
Much of the walk is in air-conditioned comfort, with plenty of places to stop along the way if you feel like it.
Quote:Now if "long, long, long" means from the main Strip to Downtown, no thanks :)
Nothing as dramatic as that.
The idea is to have lunch at a restaurant inside the Forum Shops at Caesars, then perhaps walk across the street to Casino Royale for craps. Plan B is poker at Caesars.
Quote: NareedMuch of the walk is in air-conditioned comfort, with plenty of places to stop along the way if you feel like it.
Nothing as dramatic as that.
The idea is to have lunch at a restaurant inside the Forum Shops at Caesars, then perhaps walk across the street to Casino Royale for craps. Plan B is poker at Caesars.
That sounds fine to me. Anyone have info on room offers at Casino Royale? I've only played craps there once, and didn't generate any mailers with green chip action (pass + 2ish comes) for maybe 45 minutes...would like the possibility of earning a future stay there if we gamble much.
Quote: AcesAndEightsThat sounds fine to me.
good.
I hasten to add I did not pick Caesars because it's full of faux "Roman" architecture and replica sculptures.
Quote:Anyone have info on room offers at Casino Royale? I've only played craps there once, and didn't generate any mailers with green chip action (pass + 2ish comes) for maybe 45 minutes...would like the possibility of earning a future stay there if we gamble much.
Sorry, none. You may want to look up the Wizard's review on this site, but that one's rather old (one fo the first, if memory serves). me, though, I plan to play my regular low-roller buy-in of $100-$150 and bet $3 on the pass (or don't pass) and dare to make a full 20X odds bet, perhaps.
Why? Because it has a varied menu, including desserts, at reasonable prices for the portion size, and the website says they can handle large parties. Plus it's an easy place to get to, with parking nearby.
The downside is that the restaurant is pretty much at the back of the Forum Shops, so going "right across the street" to CR would take some walking. But most of it is in an air-conditioned mall.
All this is if we can gather a large party. So far my count is 4 attending, plus three maybes
Quote: mipletSadly, I wont be able to make it this year unless I happen to get a new job by then. And I'm not looking so the odds of that aren't great unless I get fired. Now, the odds of me getting fired: Higher than I want them to be. (Was going to go into detail, but decided not to.)
I'm really sorry to hear that. I hope things will improve for you.
While there's a popular image of the Roman Empire conquering all that stood before it, as a matter of fact the vast majority of the lands under Rome's, and then Byzantium's, control, were conquered by the Roman Republic. Through the whole Imperial period, two lasting conquests were made: Britania by Claudius and Dacia by Trajan.
The Emperor Trajan actually conquered Mesopotamia as far as the Persian Gulf. But these lands could not possibly be held, and even trying to defend them would have been very costly. Therefore Trajan's successor, Hadrian, gave them up. He held on to Dacia only because it had rich gold mines.
http://www.aux.tv/2012/06/dave-grohl-has-one-drink-tips-1000-goes-back-the-next-night-and-does-it-again/
I want to cover Claudius, the Accidental Emperor, in some mroe detail. But that will have to wait for the weekend. I'll ahve mroe time thena nd I will have read a bit up on him. It is months since I listened to the episode entitled "What, me Claudius?" in the History fo Rome podcasts...
So for a fast tidbit today:
Every Roman city worthy of the name had three public structures: a stadium for games, a forum for shopping and socializing, and an amphitheater for plays. The presence or lack of any of these determines how a city was viewed in ancient times. Rome didn't have one of each of these, but several. The Colosseum is the best known stadium, but there were others.
The other big public Roman institution were the baths. But these existed also in private hands, mostly in the estates and villas of the affluent, and both in public and private form even in every vilalge. Bathing was a Roman obsession. It may also be one of the things that afforded the inhabitants of the Empire with a relatively high level of health for the era.
