Stephen Mizell

It's been some time since I've touched this website, so I thought I better blow the dust off the thing and see if she still works. The reason it's been quiet is because I'm working on a new backend and frontend for this baby. I'm pretty sure I'll be adding a nice MIDI song for background music to calm down future guests.

Randmon facts coming at ya.

• I'm turning 23 next Monday. I wear an XL in shirts and like the color blue if you want to give me gifts.
• I'm going to Las Vegas next week. I lost $1.25 last time I went and don't plan on losing any more this time.
• I am now a Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST). I had to take two Microsoft tests to get it. To keep the tradition alive, my roommate and I didn't study until the day of the tests (I skimmed the book for a bit the night before, but he didn't study).
• A friend from work is filming me hitting eggs with a golf club tomorrow. I'll add a link here if it's good.
• I thought this post on hacking Windows Pinball was awesome. I have a Mac though.

I've uploaded my pictures from Las Vegas to Flickr, so those are free for the taking. I am aware that I am not good with photography and that about 25% of my pictures turned out blurry, so you don't have to inform me of that. I did the best I could, and that's all that is important. Vegas is a pretty interesting place with some interesting sites to see. After about two days of staring at all of the bright lights and fancy shows, things began to get less and less impressive.

I was in the process of setting up Gallery2 for my photos, but decided to keep using Flickr for the time being. Gallery2 is a pretty sweet system using some php, but I found myself missing the Flickr interface. I can resize and upload pictures straight from iPhoto to Flickr with just a couple clicks (and it uses Flickr's bandwidth/storage, not mine), so it was hard to leave what I was used to. I'll move on one day when my free account with Flickr doesn't work for me anymore.

Here's a quick peek at one of my pictures I've taken while I've been in Las Vegas. This is a pic of the fire/volcano show at the Mirage Resort. It was cool... I guess. Nothing too special.

So I'm here hanging out in a Wi-Fi hotspot at a Telecom Conference in Las Vegas, bumming some free internet which would cost me $9.95 in our room. I've been able sit in on some of the sessions here at the conference and listen to some impressive speakers. I've enjoyed the sessions with Itera the most so far, mainly the one with a man by the name of Bob Schroeder from Qwest. He talked about where the telecom industry is going and how we're getting there. He knew his stuff, that's for sure.

Las Vegas as a whole is pretty crazy. Lights, casinos, shows, fancy cars... they're all over the place. Even McDonald's is in bright lights. With the good, though, also comes the bad. Smoking is always allowed, no matter where you go or what you are doing (even in elevators). Also, it seems as though I missed the memo that wearing no undershirt and not buttoning the top five buttons of your shirt is cool. Strange people roam these streets, and if they're half as strange as they look, we're in for quite a week.

PS - I just got an invite from Wordpress.com. I might check it out, I might not, but if anyone wants it, let me know.