Review: Great Night at the Venetian Watching Blue Man Group in Las Vegas

A friend of mine snagged some fantastic tickets to watch Blue Man Group tonight in Las Vegas. These tickets were given to us by the folks putting on Pubcon, specifically Brett Tabke.

The Blue Man Group is by no means a new phenomenon; the original group formed in New York City in 1987. My girlfriend is quite familiar with the group through friends who have seen the group even though she has never seen them herself. To me, the group was new. I enjoyed them tremendously.

I don't live in Las Vegas, and this is the first time that I have ever been to the city. It is nice to know that there is good clean entertainment available in what is known as Sin City. This might be the best show in Las Vegas if you're looking to go to something that you know is "safe", fun, and thought-provoking.

The show is safe very little of it is spoken. There is no crude language and there are no sexual overtones. If you are an intuitive type of person you will be thrilled with the subtlety of communication. The humor ranges from extremely simple to more elaborate but there are no dirty jokes.

The show is fun because all the abstract elements that pulls on. It has the weirdness of blue humanoid creatures who are not quite human but have the sense of wonder that every human values at some level. The show is fun because of the audience involvement. I myself had a camera stuck in my mouth and zoomed down my throat. I brought it on myself when I returned the gaze of one of the blue men as they were running a camera through the front row. A sweet lady was picked out of the audience is taken up on stage to "dine" with the Blue Man Group, and another man was abducted out of the audience and put in a jumpsuit. Over the next few minutes, he was slathered in blue (is closer safe because of the jumpsuit) and launched into a canvas where he became an abstract artist.

The show is thought-provoking because of the nuance that it plays on as well as the outright parodies it does of modern rock 'n roll, advertising, and a few select romantic time. I will send more in this area because I might ruin the show for you.

I definitely enjoyed my night and left entertained. If you have a chance to see The Blue Man Group in Las Vegas or anywhere else, I highly recommend you do so.

Many thanks to the folks at Pubcon for a great night of entertainment.

Frustrating Day with Networking

Today I spent a long time struggling with what turned out to be very basic networking issue. I'm trying to move from Window's built-in VPN software to the mobile VPN software that watch guard puts out which in turn works with my XTM 505 Firebox. I'm still trying to make that move because I had to spend most of the day correcting issues with my air card which I will need next week as I travel.

For whatever reason, my laptop decided all of a sudden that it did not want to recognize the USB connector lightning AT&T provided me or the Dell wireless 5530 air card (C6807R). I tried several options to fix this issue all of which proved to be superfluous. My normal fix, simply uninstalling and reinstalling the device drivers, did not work.

What ended up working was going into the Device Manager -> Modems -> Right Click -> Properties -> Advanced Tab -> Advanced Port Settings and then looking at the very bottom of the window by the COM port number drop-down. I simply selected a different port dollars order using hit okay and like magic everything was fixed.

FYI I am using Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

Is Your Blue Tooth too Quiet? Mine Isn't!

I've been an avid user of bluetooths (and yes, that is the correct plural for bluetooth) for a number of years. The convenience in answering speed and the safety afforded in a number of scenarios make using a bluetooth logical.

However, many of the standard earpieces left bluetooth devices too quiet - I simply could not get them loud enough. Many standard earpieces were also uncomfortable for me. I ordered an Avery Sound custom earpiece for my bluetooth and it has been a lifesaver. It is comfortable, and increases the perceived volume of my calls.

The volume is so much greater that I had a problem - it was too loud! I easily remedied this by ripping some cotton from a cotton ball, and stuffing it in the earpiece.

Will My Dell 5530 Wireless Card withT-Mobile

I purchased a 5530 Wireless card for use in my Dell Precision M4400, hoping that it would work with T-Mobile. It does - great news, which I wanted to share, since I couldn't find any resources with this information available.

BCM 50 Date and Time

For the past few years, my BCM50 has required a constant reset of the time. It would always slowly lag behind my network, which is constantly checking with time servers to make sure it is sending the right time out.

I thought I was properly pinging NTP with the BCM50, and was frustrated. However, it was not - but I've fixed it.

What I did was simple:
In element manager under the configuration Tab, I went to System-Date and Time.

The first thing I needed to change ws the Date and Time Source. I had been using "Trunk." The confusing thing was that even when set to "trunk" you are allowed to configure an NTP server address. Even though you are allowed to set these options, it does not appear to use them unless you select "NTP" as the Date and Time Source.

So, select that first. Then, make sure you have pool.ntp.org as the server, tell it to synch however often you desire, and you should be set.