Wishing You the Best, @VegasGeek!

I met John Hawkins 4 years ago when I arrived at his office for a job interview. At the time, he was the Director ofTechnical Services for a small startup I was pursuing a management position for. You know how most management level folks dress up to conduct interviews? Not John. From what I recall, he was wearing a polo like he often wears,jeans, and some casual footwear. Oh, and I definitely did not miss seeing the big, multi-colored "GEEK" tattoo on his arm that stretches from wrist to elbow, and the peculiar tattoos on his knuckles (I learned in time that they symbolized one of his favorite hobbies). Talk about first impressions! His appearance scared me a bit - he looked like a cross between a gangster straight outta prison and a super-nerd.

Fortunately, I landed the job, and ended up working with John for a couple of years. Lo and behold, he turned out to be a really cool guy. From a business perspective, I learned a lot from him about web development and technology. I have many fond memories of the meetings John held in his office that frequently led into different conversations that had us laughing our behinds off - sometimes nearly "piddling" in our pants.

It was a sad day when John accepted a position to oversee a different division of the company, and he moved to another building. But like with many other folks in the office, John and I built a friendship that we continue to maintain outside of work. He and his wife Chris are like family to me, and I'm glad that we get to see eachother often.

For those of you who already know him, John is an incredibly bright, talented individual, so it was no surprise that he's finally branching off to do his own work. I thought it would be fun to write a brief tribute to John, in honor of today being his last day at a conventional job. I decided instead to share one of my favorite memories of him that I captured on my blog a little over a year ago. It describes one of the many funny moments that John and I still laugh about to this day! The video, by the way, is quite entertaining, too. Enjoy!

Originally posted December 30, 2008. To check out the video John had produced as a result of this prank, click on this link.
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Today was a victory for John "Vegasgeek" Hawkins.

Upon my return from Mexico in late November, I got wind of the fact that Rick Astley himself had Rickrolled the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and I felt motivated to continue promoting the cause. I randomly Rickrolled a few people in the past month for the sheer joy of doing so. John was the one person who fell victim to my Rickrolling schemes more than once. It was only natural that he seek revenge.

This morning I receive this IM from John:

9:04 AM John Hawkins: Hey, so, I get home last night and I'm totally stuck on the bacon website... I spent about an hour looking for themes for it. Haven't found one just yet. But, I was talking to Jason and told him about the Patron Saint of Bacon and he laughed and then showed me another bacon link... So, I had to post about them both. Go check out http://baconfan.com/ - too F'n funny!

Amused by the fact that John was so entertained by my finding the Patron Saint of Bacon, I obliged by visiting his bacon blog site. At first glance, there he was: Saint Anthony, Patron Saint of Bacon in all his pork glory. The post starts with praise for friends sending him bacon-related products, then describes my find and that of fellow blogger and friend, Jason. Jason's product was unsuspectingly presented as a link, preceded by "I tried 3 times to explain it, but this guy described it better than I ever could." John heralded it as "the weirdest bacon product EVER," so how could I not have clicked on the link?

Well, I clicked. My browser shrank into a smaller version of itself, and danced around on my desktop. When I attempted to use Task Manager to close Firefox, a pop-up appeared announcing that the fun wasn't over. Try to close the pop-up, and it encouraged me to sing along, displaying the beloved lyrics to "Never Gonna Give You Up." That's right...I got RickRolled.

John showed up in my office minutes later with a smile of satisfaction on his face. He turned to my colleague's desk, reached down to pull up a gadget, pointed it at me, and said "You just got RickRolled." We laughed.

It gets funnier.

His accomplice (another employee who had to stand in for my colleague who was his original partner-in-crime) planted the hidden video camera on my colleague's desk without actually pointing the camera in my direction. Instead of capturing my reaction to getting RickRolled, the video camera recorded about 30 minutes of wall. There was audio, however, and it did manage to capture over 4 minutes of my laughter and frantic clicking of the mouse while the RickRoll music played in the background.

Kudos to John for setting up this elaborate prank. You may have won this battle, my friend - but I'm still winning the war.

It Was a Good, Productive Thursday

After work Thursday I had about 2 hours to kill before hitting Beer & Blog at the Frog (hey, that rhymes!), so I decided to forgo the gym and stop by the Fashion Show Mall for a quick shopping trip. For those of you who don't yet know, I am a self-proclaimed shop-a-holic, and so the idea of a "quick shopping trip" being about an hour gave me some (false) sense of control. On a sidenote, I have easily spent hundreds of dollars in 30 minutes at this mall of malls in the past. Not surprisingly, this trip was no exception. I entered with an explicit list of things to buy, none of which I exited with. Instead, I bought more new clothes - a new dressy top and a sexy, little pencil skirt, to be exact. To my credit, I would have tried on/bought more had it not been for the time constraint. Time simply flies when you're in a dressing room with a dozen or so outfits.

Anyway, on to Beer & Blog: Thursday was another fun-filled night at the Freakin' Frog. I've taken a liking to Warsteiner Premium Oktoberfest, a seasonal brew, despite the fact that Shiner Bock has been on tap for the past few weeks. I figured that I might as well drink up on the Warsteiner while its around. With my pint in hand, I made the customary rounds to chat it up (and take photos) with some of the other attendees.

About a month ago at BnB, I had met Hurricane Mikey, and he instantly became one of my favorite people. Mikey made an appearance at this week's social, too, so I made sure that I had some sit-down time with him since I don't see him often. Being the talented blogger he is, Mikey has taught me a bit from his own experiences. When we first met, he shared how he started blogging on a forum where people wrote about their Vegas travels. He lived in Arizona at the time, and took frequent trips to Las Vegas, and subsequently posted detailed entries about his adventures here. When he decided to branch out to his own blog, readers of that forum followed him to his site, and he ultimately built a loyal readership over a period of years. If you've read Hurricane Mikey's blog, you'll agree that he's witty and highly entertaining. He's pretty hip, too, if you ask me - and just as fun in person.

By my third pint, I was finally ready to sit, and Mikey was ready to have a talk with me, blogger to blogger. He prefaced the conversation by saying he had some constructive criticism to offer. Linda Lou, who was at the table with us, groaned a bit and gestured nervously at the introduction of this "constructive criticism." I laughed at Linda's reaction, primarily because I found it ironic that an accomplished writer such as herself would appear to have anxiety about criticism, and I was completely naive about what could potentially be said about my work. Nevertheless, I welcomed whatever input Mikey had to offer and braced myself for some serious examination. Besides, we were at Beer & Blog, and it was only appropriate that we discuss our blogs. Furthermore, I wanted to hear what someone else had to say about my work, a relative stranger, someone who didn't know much about me except through this channel of communication and a couple of in-person interactions.

As it turns out, Mikey enjoys my blog, but got the distinct feeling that I tend to hold back. He pointed out that I typically have a strong, engaging start, but often finish abruptly, and my posts are all just about the same length. I openly admitted that I am a wordy person, I love to write and especially be descriptive, but also feel it is important to be concise. Mikey encouraged me to just let go, and embrace my wordiness. It was then he dubbed me "Adjective Girl, a superhero with a gravity problem!" Hey, it was funny and completely suitable for the moment - how could I not take on such a title?!

So I took Mikey's advice, and went back to some of my previous posts to assess whether or not I could have developed my tales a little more. For the most part, each post was an abridged version of what I could have potentially wrote, had I not felt pressed for time or been just plain lazy. After some thought, what I ultimately concluded is that there are also some things that I prefer not to write, particularly if they reveal my innermost feelings or are details that seem insignificant in my mind, which seems like acceptable compromise for a blog. As a result, however, I'm feeling somewhat challenged, and of course that means I am totally game for giving the wordier me a try. This may just be opening up a whole new can of worms...

My First Time at LVBnB

Last night was my first trip to Las Vegas Beer & Blog at the illustrious Freakin' Frog. Since I consider myself somewhat of a newcomer to the social media community, I felt like a high school freshman hanging out among the cool senior crew. Not only were we all bloggers, but many of us were already connected in one way or another, whether it was through Twitter or by association with another attendee. It turned out to be an overall fun networking event with a great crowd at a fairly good venue. The purpose of LVBnB is simple: local bloggers help eachother with their blogs with the added benefit of consuming brewskies in the process. There are several other chapters of BnB around the country, all who meet weekly with the same mission.

Attendance to Las Vegas BnB has grown every week since the chapter's initial meeting on January 15th. Ultimately, LVBnB aims to have guest speakers come in when possible to share their blogging wisdom with the group. I can only imagine that attendance may grow significantly as word of the BnB spreads, and also as prolific figures show up as guest speakers.

Here are some key points from my first BnB experience:

• I had never been to the Freakin Frog prior to last night. It's a cute little bar, but its ability to satisfy my beer thirst was a little iffy at the beginning. It touts hundreds of beers, but rotates the taps so I had to opt for what was available. They didn't have my favorite brews on tap, so I had to settle for Stella. I just needed to get halfway through that first pint in order for me to get over what I was drinking and finally embrace the simple fact that I was sipping on beer. Beer=satisfaction.

• Las Vegas Twestival will take place on February 12 at The Beatles Revolution Lounge at the Mirage. Tickets are now on sale, and all proceeds go to charity:water.

• JustJulie shared her Xshot Pro, which we took some awesome pics with. I've hinted to my pals there that I want one for my birthday. John even said that he immediately thought of me when he saw the Xshot for the first time. That's because aside from himself, I'm the biggest ham he knows.

• I missed seeing BnB Creepy Guy while I was there. Fortunately, the videos captured by Rally666, the Twitter play-by-plays, and photos on Flickr all made me glad that I didn't have a moment with Creepy Guy.

• Hurricane Mikey is an entertaining blogger, and is even more of a crack-up in person. He impressed me with his willingness to share his experience entering the blogworld about 6 years ago and how he has successfully built a broad readership in that time. Meeting him and listening to his stories, you get a sense of why people follow him. I didn't have much to offer him in exchange for his humor and wisdom, but I think I may have impressed him with my chugging skills.

I am looking forward to another Beer & Blog! I would encourage local bloggers, visiting bloggers, aspiring bloggers, and even non-bloggers simply interested in social media to check it out sometime. Don't forget, there's also beer to look forward to.