Music & Dancing At The Moon

The city of Las Vegas is the entertainment capital of the world. It has everything from gambling to booze, from dining to sex, you name it and you'll find it in Vegas.

We call ourselves The Locals, people who consider this sin city our home. Although the tourists are mostly the ones you find inside bars and clubs as well as in the casino floor and of course restaurants, we locals are predominant figures during the weekends where most of us are off from work. Me and my friends are no excemption. Although we usually have our get-together parties in a friend's house on weekends, we also go out clubbing for a night of dancing and fun.

Last Sunday, me and my friends went all the way to the top of Palms Casino Resort to have a night of fun at Club Moon. Its an exclusive boutique nightclub, featuring spectacular views of the city and a celestial retractable roof. Appropriately named because when the roof is fully retracted, people are literally dancing the night away under the Las Vegas skies. Even if it was a Sunday evening, there were still a substantial crowd filling the whole venue. People are dancing to popular and some rare cuts of techno and house music featuring celebrity deejays at some nights. With the $20 entrance fee, you've got to enjoy everything the club could offer, from cocktail drinks to music as well as the beautiful crowd.

Kaba-Maasin Site Update

Its been 7 months now since I last updated the website that I made for the Maasinhons of Las Vegas. Visitors of that site were already wondering what had happened to the webmaster since the last update was still on September 2007. Many of these visitors may not know the underlying reasons why I stopped doing the updates. The last update I made was about the pictures that I posted online from the Maasin Fiesta celebrations held in August.

Right after our celebrations in August, something happened that disturbed me so much that I don't even know what information I would use to update the group's website. What happened was so upseting even the days following that event. More and more embarassing information came up out of that fateful incident. It really affected my faith with the group, if the group could rise above that embarassing incident. Its not proper for me to put in details what really happened but its suffice to say that it affected the group tremendously.

Deep in my heart, I really wanted to revive the groupd's website. I thought I owe it to the regular visitors who wanted to know what's going on with us here in Las Vegas. There are new developments that recently happened and I think its high time to update the website. Although the website is still accessible online, with no activities for the past 7 months, it seems in a standstill, frozen in a certain time and space.

Currently, I'm gathering new materials that I could use to revive the website. More pictures that needs to be taken, new articles and announcements to write. Maybe I could think of a new updated page design to announce to the world that Kaba-Maasin Las Vegas group is still alive and ready to face a new chapter of its existence.

'Twas A Smooth Workweek

Last week as quite okey for me. Even if I had worked an extra day to cover a coworker, I didnt mind because it was not really that busy in the pharmacy as I have described the previous week. There were no major issues that came out for the Robot machine (named ReX) so the cartfill process for the last 4 evenings were smooth sailing.

Tommorrow, a Monday, I'm planning to bring my car to a Toyota dealership for its 40,000-mile oil change and check-up. The indicator in the control panel has been blinking wildly as a reminder that its due for its regular maintenance. My car is a 2004 Toyota Hilander, actually a mid-size SUV. This is my first car so far that I bought for myself las November 2003. Although this was my second choice, the first was Nissan Murano, also a mid-sized SUV but at that time in 2003, it was the first time that the Murano was manufactured and released. There was no record yet or history of its quality and performance. So far "McLeod" (named after the main character in the Highlander TV series) has served me and my family well. Its gas usage is quite low as compared to a full size SUV or even truck models. I have driven McLeod to San Diego, about 5 to 6 hrs drive from Las Vegas, a couple of times. We arrived in Arizona's Grand Canyon South Rim safely because of McLeod. It was about 6 to 7 hr drive, the farthest so far. I loved this car as I dont have any complaints whatsoever in terms of its performace. As long as I keep it well maintained and do its regular check-ups, this should serve me and my family for a long time. As the common notion goes with all Asian built automobiles, "they run forever".

What A Busy Week

I know, I know....I'm not being true to my promise of updating my blog everyday. Its no longer fit of its title, The Daily Grind.

There are a lot of things going on. Although one may consider them as insignificant but its actually taking my time out from going online and do updates on my blog.

Anyway, last week was one of the many long weeks for me. Aside from the hospital pharmacy was so busy, my co-worker also requested a time off on a Sunday. Sunday is supposed to be the first of my 3-days off from work as I work 4 days a week at 10hrs per day. So last Sunday, I did reported for work. Again it was busy even if it was a weekend. How I wish it would be summer soon as this would indicate lesser patients, meaning we have more time to relax at work. People from the East Coast, specially senior citizens could not stand the bitter cold in that part of the United States. They tend to move here in the South West as the winter is not that cold and rarely snows down here. When summer comes in, these same people could not stand the triple digit heat temperatures that we usually experience so they again would move up to the East where summer heat is more tolerable.

With all these going on, I still managed to have some quality time with my good friend Willie. We shopped at Fry's Electronics for some PSP games for my nephew while I accompanied Willie to do his groceries. We also went out to dine at Roberto's Mexican Grill. What was funny about this was that Willie was actually not in favor of eating in this restuarant because as what he told me, it is not an authentic Mexican restaurant. I would probably agree as we've been in a more authentic Mexican restaurant before with some of Willi's Mexican friends. When we were ordering, we tried some of their menu which we found to be appealing after all. We tried the nachos con carne or with meat like beef or chicken. We also tried some sort of a sandwhich in which Willie decided that during our next visit, he would order that sandwhich because he liked it very much. We also tried their rice cinnamon juice drink and I actually liked it. Its hard to describe it here but you just have to try it to appreciate its unique flavor.

As I said, I only got 2 days off this week and as of this writting, its already Wednesday and I'll be working again for the next 4 days.

A Nice Gift

According to the dictionary, Poetry means the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts. Poetry is everywhere around us, in music, in visual arts, in nature. Birds in flight is a good example of poetry in motion just like what you see in any dance performance. Poetry is in everything and in everyone of us. The difference though is that not everyone of us can express oneself and ones thoughts in poetry. It takes a lot of hardwork and practice to write and recite poetry.

A friend of mine actually has the knack of expressing his inner feelings through his poems and at this early, I already consider him as a budding poet. He once promised me to write something for me and he came up with this composition. Its beautiful in its rawness and frankness and I'm very flattered that he made this for me. I'm very proud to share this with all the readers of this blog.

When I was sitting,
and carefully thinking,
of a gift to a friend
that will last 'til the end.

I look at the night sky,
and wish on a star,
help me find a way,
to be with you though you're far

You're one of a kind
that I've found in this world,
I never thought we'll be
forever friends is what I see

Someone who's there always,
ready to help in many ways,
even in times of happiness and sorrow,
He's ready to face tomorrow.

A gift for a special friend,
that I was thinking when I was sitting,
is being delivered,
by this poem I believe....

The Poet, the Artist and the Porn Star

Just like everybody else I've tried using my computer to communicate with friends and relatives as well as meet new friends. The most common method I used is the Yahoo Messenger although I have used Skype which works just like YM. I'm more into YM because all of my friends and contacts are using this. I have also became a member of a social netwrok called Friendster.com and although there are also other social network that are similar with the one that I used, I have kept my extensive profile in Friendster.

I have met many kinds of people online using these method and I would highlight some that I befriended the most. First and foremost I have met my best friend and buddy here in Las Vegas. We've been friends for quite sometime now. The next one, I have met a guy from Manila which I mentioned in my previous blog. Our contact faded as quickly as it started because he just doesnt want to chat with me anymore. Maybe he found somebody else more appealing for him. Nevertheless, I wished him the best since he's still an acquaintance. I also met another guy online which I also briefly mentioned in my previous postings. We became very good friends over the net and regularly chat on YM. We discussed any topic and the longer we chatted we seemd to know each other for a long time. We both opened up each of our life stories. Unfortunately our communication just stopped. I dont know what happened although from our last chat, he had something to tell me which he wasnt comfortable enough talking online. I did not forced the issue and that was I think my regrets. Up to this time I was still hoping to get in touch with him. I dont want to end our friendship at all.

Out of the blue, I befriended a mechanical engineering student. A very kind and witty kid, mature enough for his age. We became close to the extent that he started opening his life to me. He considered me as his older brother and in return I treated him as what he expected to be treated by big brother. I've been reading his blogs because I can see a budding poet in the making. He usually post poems in his blogs, poems that probably came upon his mind given the right mood. During my brithday last February, he shared with me a poem that he composed for himself for his own birthday. I have posted this poem in this blog.

I think I was blessed enough to meet another kind and understanding person. This time, he is a singer-composer and a song writer. During our first chat, we kind of open up ourselves and seems that we already have known each other forever. He's one of the most caring and thoughtful person I've ever met or known over the internet. I hope to meet him in person. This one, I'm praying that we will be friends forever.

I did meet some weird people, too. These kinds of people also abound online and if you're not careful enough, you will get to meet them in one way or another. I met someone who was kind and sweet at first but became something else on the course of our chatting. He started flirting to me and even stripped off his clothes in front of the camera as we were using the video chat feature. He was like a porn star stripping naked while seducing me. Fortunately, it was not my cup of tea so I stopped chatting with him right there and then.

In real life, you still meet all kinds of people but meeting them online is more prominent. One has the tendency to over act from what they really are. Maybe because of the fact that you were not meeting the other person physically so you feel safe in presenting yourself to others more than what you really are.

At Work With The Robot Named ReX

My workweek came and gone with no problems at all. The whole four days or I should say nights, were smooth as silk. I work for McKesson Automation which provides automated solutions for health care. One major product that we provide is the Robot-Rx, an automated storage and dispensing system for unit dose medications in the form of pills, capsules, unit dose cups and syringes. We need to repackage these medications individually so that it could fit into the rods inside the Robot for storing. When orders were generated by doctors and transmitted to the pharmacists which in turn would convert them into doses, our McKesson system controlling the Robot would identify the drugs and the number of doses so that the Robot can dispense these drugs to individual patients. The whole process seems simple but there are a lot going on behind the scene than meets a visitor's eyes. A lot of work is done in repackaging the medications from the actual ordering of medicines, the actual repackaging and restocking the Robot. This would also entail a close monitoring of inventory for both Offline (outside the Robot) and Online (inside the Robot)inventory locations. Without proper or correct inventory levels on these locations could cause shortage of drugs or medications essential in saving patients lives. I am not allowed to talk more in detail about my company and the Robot itself but its suffice to say that me and my co-workers became closer to the Robot machine that we usually refer it as a person. I appropriately named him ReX from his official name Robot-Rx.
Attached is a short video showing ReX at work. ReX is doing restocking of IV vials repackaged in individual small plastic bags.