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Business, Economics, and Taxes: Eat Cereal for Dinner

My wife and I were there for the hockey tournament in January 2020 when Cornell was playing. Friday to Sunday we did one of the MGM towers and it was a nice room, albeit no theme, just a nice room. Our flight out Sunday got cancelled (thanks Frontier!) so we had to scramble to find a hotel room Sunday night before flying out Monday morning and there was an Excalibur room for $25. Granted we just needed somewhere to sleep for 6 hours and then leave, but it was definitely a $25 room. But it's funny how places like Excalibur put literally all of their budget into the exterior and then the interior makes absolutely no attempt to continue the theme.
I stayed in one of the MGM Signature towers once, about 10 years ago. I liked having a balcony (they're exceedingly rare in LV for obvious reasons and usually come with a premium pricetag), but I would have appreciated it more if I had been there in August or September when it's still hot.

I met a pair of retired Canucks in the lobby bar, making their annual stop in Vegas on their way down to Mexico for the winter. We talked a lot about hockey, McJesus, and how much Gary Bettman sucks. :LOL:
 
You have that correct. Excalibur is not owned by MGM or Caesars though...one of the few left. That place is extra awful.

There was a convention at Harrahs this weekend...very weird crowd not the usual convention folks I see when I am there. I think that started tanking even before the election because Vegas was getting stupid with the pricing.
Oh, there are casinos I flat-out refuse to set foot in there (but you all could have guessed that). After one obligatory walk-through years ago, I now leave Excalibur, Circus Circus, and Harrah's to the Kentucky Kettles I meet standing in line at the dispensary. ;) I also don't go into Trump's overcompensating golden monolith for obvious reasons.

I was inside the former Tropicana exactly once about 20 years ago; that place was the last of truly gaudy, gross 70s Vegas on that end of the Strip. Not very many places left for a guy to live out his Fear & Loathing fantasy in situ.
 
My wife and I were there for the hockey tournament in January 2020 when Cornell was playing. Friday to Sunday we did one of the MGM towers and it was a nice room, albeit no theme, just a nice room. Our flight out Sunday got cancelled (thanks Frontier!) so we had to scramble to find a hotel room Sunday night before flying out Monday morning and there was an Excalibur room for $25. Granted we just needed somewhere to sleep for 6 hours and then leave, but it was definitely a $25 room. But it's funny how places like Excalibur put literally all of their budget into the exterior and then the interior makes absolutely no attempt to continue the theme.
Don’t forget Excalibur also had to pay carrot top, too.

Or was it thunder down under?
 
Vegas is great if you go for at most 2 days once every few years. Basically short and infrequent enough that you can turn off your brain and enjoy the flashiness and ignore how very very thin its veneer is. Any longer of a stay or more frequent trips and it becomes clear how trashy it is.
Bingo. Went in 2023 for my birthday and had an absolute blast. Would like to go next year but unless I get a promotion, Vegas Frozen Four is the first thing that's being sacrificed at the altar of daycare.
 
Oh, there are casinos I flat-out refuse to set foot in there (but you all could have guessed that). After one obligatory walk-through years ago, I now leave Excalibur, Circus Circus, and Harrah's to the Kentucky Kettles I meet standing in line at the dispensary. ;) I also don't go into Trump's overcompensating golden monolith for obvious reasons.

I was inside the former Tropicana exactly once about 20 years ago; that place was the last of truly gaudy, gross 70s Vegas on that end of the Strip. Not very many places left for a guy to live out his Fear & Loathing fantasy in situ.
The problem is that pretty much everything is slot machine hell now. I hate slots. I can't stand the thought of them. I do enjoy craps and blackjack, but the low cost tables (think $10) are full if the casino even has them and as mentioned earlier, are probably 6:5. Craps is a ton of fun though. Plus the odds are better than any other game at any casino save for maybe the super loose slots downtown. Which... eh.

Circa's sportsbook is amazing and i'd have spent a lot of time there if the cost to sit in the recliner wasn't stupid high.
 
The problem is that pretty much everything is slot machine hell now. I hate slots. I can't stand the thought of them. I do enjoy craps and blackjack, but the low cost tables (think $10) are full if the casino even has them and as mentioned earlier, are probably 6:5. Craps is a ton of fun though. Plus the odds are better than any other game at any casino save for maybe the super loose slots downtown. Which... eh.

Circa's sportsbook is amazing and i'd have spent a lot of time there if the cost to sit in the recliner wasn't stupid high.
I enjoy blackjack. It's the only thing I play. But, it's been so long, I played back when they still had dollar tables ... on the main strip.

My grandfather loved craps. He used to joke that he always made up for what my grandmother lost on the blackjack table.
 
The problem is that pretty much everything is slot machine hell now. I hate slots. I can't stand the thought of them. I do enjoy craps and blackjack, but the low cost tables (think $10) are full if the casino even has them and as mentioned earlier, are probably 6:5. Craps is a ton of fun though. Plus the odds are better than any other game at any casino save for maybe the super loose slots downtown. Which... eh.

Circa's sportsbook is amazing and i'd have spent a lot of time there if the cost to sit in the recliner wasn't stupid high.
Did you watch the masterpiece that is twin peaks the return? When I think of slots, all I can picture is Kyle maclachlan wandering around casino muttering jackpot
 
The problem is that pretty much everything is slot machine hell now. I hate slots. I can't stand the thought of them. I do enjoy craps and blackjack, but the low cost tables (think $10) are full if the casino even has them and as mentioned earlier, are probably 6:5. Craps is a ton of fun though. Plus the odds are better than any other game at any casino save for maybe the super loose slots downtown. Which... eh.

Circa's sportsbook is amazing and i'd have spent a lot of time there if the cost to sit in the recliner wasn't stupid high.
Circa is awesome, but very out of place downtown. The original plan was to make more places like that DT but they would have to tear down places like the California to do it and the cost isn't worth it these days. Best supper club in Vegas though is at The Plaza...Oscars. It is named after (and created by) the old mob attorney who was Mayor of Vegas. (whose wife was mayor after him and went batchit crazy during COVID)

I enjoy slots...but only as video game entertainment. The tables at most places are either filled with pricks who have zero idea what they are doing and acting obnoxious or are so overpriced it isnt any fun when you are low rent like me. even Downtown where you used to be able to find like $5 craps (and drink a bottle of booze whilst doing it) it is hard to deal with now. Slots at least entertain me and I lose no real money.
 
Oh, there are casinos I flat-out refuse to set foot in there (but you all could have guessed that). After one obligatory walk-through years ago, I now leave Excalibur, Circus Circus, and Harrah's to the Kentucky Kettles I meet standing in line at the dispensary. ;) I also don't go into Trump's overcompensating golden monolith for obvious reasons.

I was inside the former Tropicana exactly once about 20 years ago; that place was the last of truly gaudy, gross 70s Vegas on that end of the Strip. Not very many places left for a guy to live out his Fear & Loathing fantasy in situ.
They redid Tropicana, but I think it is going away because of the baseball stadium. I am not a huge fan of Harrahs but it is a cheap place to stay mid strip so it is easy to get around. I prefer The Horseshoe (the old Ballys) or Paris or Planet Hollywood (I only stay at Caesars because MGM treated me like arse) but they are getting too pricey even during the week when I go.
 
Stolen from reddit:

A guide to eating the rich​

1. Get private. Your data is revenue and intelligence.​

  • Use a privacy focused browser. No chrome/edge
  • Delete accounts you no longer use
  • Crank up your privacy settings on the accounts you do want to keep
  • Use a VPN
  • End-to-end encrypted messaging (Signal)
  • No more Google or Microsoft. Alternatives: Proton, LibreOffice.
  • Crank up privacy settings on your phone and delete your phone's advertising ID
  • Explore the Fediverse for decentralized alternatives to social media. (Peertube, Lemmy, Mastedon, etc)

2. Boycott. Stop giving corporations your money.​

  • Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
    • Learn to mend what you already have
  • Shop local
    • Credit Unions
    • Farmers markets
  • Shop ethical companies
    • Fair labor practices
    • Union support
    • Ethically sourced material
  • Support EU and Canadian based companies
    • Aldi/Lidl
    • Ikea
  • Cancel Streaming services
    • Local libraries
    • Pirating
"...but American jobs....." I get it and that's why I support buying local whenever possible, but there are still Americans working at these stores that are EU owned.

3. Get loud and be active.​

  • Protest
  • Call your reps and keep calling even if they're R
  • Contact corporations and tell them why you're boycotting
  • Vote!
  • Volunteer
  • Get people in your circles involved
Shareholder capitalism is not working. We need to move toward stakeholder capitalism and that's not going to happen until we hit them where it hurts, their wallets.

This guide isn't about being perfect, after all I am posting on Reddit, it's about doing better than you were and you can continue to build on that over time.

Resources:​

  1. https://www.privacyguides.org/en/
  2. https://www.techlore.tech/spa
  3. https://www.punchinguppress.com/
 
The important thing to remember (as referenced in there) is that its not about being pure. Do it piece by piece. Take a few things and work on them to the best of your ability. Every little thing counts.
In terms of money, I have no money.

But in 2024, I made a commitment to "buy new" as little as possible. SHEIN orders have been eliminated. I seldom buy from Amazon.

Instead, I've been buying from thrift stores and used book and record stores.
 

Tesla sales plummet in Europe despite EV growth​


icegif-429.gif
 
Hey did you guys notice the markets were down again...would you like a partial reason why?


Stock prices for GM dropped 3%. Stellantis dropped 3.6%. Ford was up slightly but that won't last.

Its really annoying that the AP printed the lie about "raising $100 Billion" as if it was just a normal thing and not a made up number and full on economic lie.
 
In a sure sign of economic downturn the number of flights at my work has dropped dramatically the last week or two. We’re half of what we were getting before the inauguration.
 
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