The highlight of any Las Vegas trip, the huge number of them makes it impossible to visit every single one of them on two nights. Or maybe it is possible if you stay up for 48 hours straight. There were so many beautiful ones out on the strip that we weren’t able to walk into, but the favorites of mine that we did have the chance to visit were Paris, the Luxor and the Bellagio (no surprise there). The stinker about casinos is that you can’t take any pictures on the playing room floor because they have such a beautiful setting, especially the Bellagio.

Luxor
It’s been around for quite a long time, and the last time I was there they had a little boat ride inside the hotel for people to ride. The tour boat ride is now gone, but that’s good though, you get to focus on the casino and the hotel itself, and the hotel is quite the setup.

Inside the pyramid you can see that all the doors to all the hotel rooms, which I can imagine is pretty sweet to have a view of the lobby floor and the casino as soon as you walk out of your room. The view from the outside is awesome with the pyramid and the ancient Egyptian statue.

Paris

Now i’ve never been to Paris, but from just how the casino tries to model the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, I think I may definitely want to take a trip and slam a few bottles of wine.

The Eiffel Tower has an elevator ride to get to the top, where you can take some great pictures of the Las Vegas skyline. I wish I had more time to check the view, because I can only imagine it being very beautiful.

The casino inside is pretty interesting as soon as you walk in. You see a part of the foundation of the Eiffel Tower come through the casino floor, where people have access to the elevators. As you walk through the casino floor, the ceilings sport clouds and a blue sky that brightens up the playing area, which is a welcome change from some of the dark and drab casino room floors at other hotels.

The hallway of shops and restaurants inside Paris I can only assume models some of the city streets you can find overseas. As you walk through it leads you to the casino room floor of Bally’s, which is right next door. Now right across from Paris is the Bellagio, and the awesome Bellagio Fountain.

The Bellagio

The cream of the crop is what I gotta say of the Bellagio. The fountain was the main draw to me, because once again playing and gambling isn’t my thing. But the hotel and casino is just gorgeous from inside out. Walking through to the casino floor I passed the shops inside, and with the shops they have you know only the people with good money stay here. The Bellagio was the main hotel target in the film Ocean’s 11, which made it just as cool walking through it. It’s kinda like walking through Chicago knowing that it was the site of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

Upon walking up to the registration desk, on the ceiling is a beautiful arrangement of artificial flowers. The colors are eye catching and vibrant, and a photo doesn’t do it justice.

Right across from the registration desk is the site of the Bellagio Conservatory, home of a crapload of fresh flowers and one cool light display that changes every so often, complimenting the flowers, ‘lawn decorations’ and water fountains that is inside the conservatory. Currently it’s in it’s Fall theme, with a very scarecrow greeting you as you walk in.

The lawn decorations I speak of are the things that stick out of my head when thinking about the conservatory. It’s not a bad term I’m giving it, it’s just pretty interesting to see a couple of talking trees inside. it’s something I haven’t experienced since watching The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

It was definitely a fun trip out there and to get away from Chicago for a few days. If you’ve been reading my last few entries, just remember that if you head out to the Vegas desert, check out these spots on top of the other places you see, and don’t take Spirit airlines!

Elevator – Lyngbyvej, Nørrebro

Stairs – Willemoesgade, Østerbro

Yard – Sortedam Dossering, Østerbro

Thanks to the unseasonably mild temperatures and sunny days, forming and pouring of the escalator and elevator pit walls moved forward this week without delay. Production was accelerated by the use of steel forming panels as opposed to conventional forming systems.

Progress was also made in forming and pouring of the Atrium stairwell stem-walls using the same procedure as above.

Additional erosion control activities took place at the current stockpile of soils that were generated from excavation of the foundation system for the parking deck. Temporary seeding utilizing hydroseeding methods is yet another effort to ensure the protection of the Levisa River. The grass that will grow on the soil will act as a binder to prevent excess material from spilling into the river system, thus protecting the beauty and quality of the waterway that meanders through the heart of Grundy.

What a week! The excitement in the air was elevating. But I don’t need to remind you that last week, Nov 8th -14th, was National Elevator Escalator Safety Awarenesses Week! Who could forget? It’s always the second full week of November!

This is a promotion of public safety awareness for the industry’s equipment. Everyone is invited to make this special week a huge success in cities throughout the U.S. and Canada. Safety Week provides a focal point for the industry, on a local and national level, to join together as individuals, companies and organizations and spread the word about public safety in the elevator industry. At the same time, Safety Week is an opportunity to celebrate the contributions made by the industry to the quality of life. Volunteers reach millions of riders with important safety messages in many locations during this celebration. - Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation (founded 1991)

Personally, I made this year’s Nat Double-E Safetay Week (as we say in certain circles) a huge success, by volunteering at my local subway station, with the aid -of course- of my $350 Safety Week Kit (What a steal! These are still available!). I set up camp at the bottom of the escalator, and spread the good word to my fellow Boston T Riders! It felt great to reach out to my community, knowing I was joining together with individuals everywhere, doing our part to spread escalator and elevator safety across this great nation, and parts of Canada.

$350 Safety Week Kit: Planning Guide, a table cloth customized with the EESF Safety Week logo, an EESF display banner, 2 Safe-T Rider DVDs, 5 Safe-T Rider posters, 500 Safe-T Rider Activity Books and 500 Safe-T Rider stickers. (EESF.org)

However, Kinko’s refused to sponsor the cause, charging me in full for my custom ‘Safe-T ‘ emergency flow charts (still available). Some people just can’t get into the true spirit of Escalator & Elevator Safety. And that troubles me on a deep patriotic level.

If it were up to me, every week would be National Elevator Escalator Safety Awareness Week. Instead, the national calendar focuses on trivial pursuits. African American’s get the whole month of February, for history! And Flag Day?! That’s an inanimate object! I think, as a nation, we need to step back and re-prioritize our national days of respect. Maybe even do some calendar re-arrangements.

The nation’s safety is at stake, and the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation has to share its single week with Veteran’s day! They already have monuments! I think I speak for the entire EESF when I say, get your own day, Veterans! It’s just one stupid day. I’m sure you can squeeze it in somewhere else. In the meantime, the EESF is trying to make the nation safer. Maybe you should stop shining your purple hearts, and help!

I’m proposing year-round Elevator Escalator Safety Awareness. “According to industry experts, elevators and escalators are the safest form of transportation in the world,” reports Ashley H. Rains, EESF Public Relations director, in her 5 page article, Riding Elevators and Escalators Safely. Yet injuries still occur! People simply are not aware of the danger. Just yesterday, my right shoe lace came lose on an escalator and crept uncomfortably close to the end of the stairwell. Fortunately, I had the quick wit to slip my foot out before the event-horizon, and I abandoned the shoe altogether.

That is the readiness the American public needs to adopt. Why? Let me drop some data on you:

• Fact: Dozens of Americans deal with elevator/escalator related injuries or sickness on a monthly basis.
• Fact: In case of fire, use stairs.
• Fact: Elevators and Escalators are on the rise.

The threat is real. The solution is simple. Write to your local congressmen, make them aware of this important issue’s prominence, and ask them to promote year round safety awareness initiatives.

Ride safely.

And remember: when approaching a closing elevator door, leave it alone. Wait for the next one. If you’re on an elevator with violators of this rule, calmly step off, and report them to the EESF.

I’m not talking the level of “the U.S. government faked the moon landing” and “the CIA killed JFK”…I’m talking about the every day little tricks that we, the masses, face and dismiss as “part of life” while the perpetrators of said tricks laugh at our puppet/cattle-esque stupidity. To wit…

The “door close” button in elevators.

Most lifts are now equipped with video cameras, feeding snippets of people’s vertical travels to some room, some where, filled with some random, faceless voyeur. And have you noticed that despite the presence of the “door close” button, whenever you actually push it, the mechanism that is meant to shut the metal doors sooner than would normally occur if you were to let the elevator be its little self, doesn’t work?  In fact, I’m convinced that pushing the “door close” button actually delays the response sought by mashing on that infuriating plastic circle.  It mocks us with its glow.  And what would be the point of a “door close” button that doesn’t close doors?  So that the random, faceless voyeur locked up in some room, some where can get a sickly pleasure out of seeing our frantic pushing of the “door close” button, vainly hoping to prevent the stampeding high-heeled and briefcased hoards from cramming into the tiny space with us. So that these evil elevator-feed watchers can see the frustration on our face when the doors don’t close… that they stay wide open for what seems like a century while the smelly dude with a loud voice and penchant for oversharing rushes in, saying he made it and offering thanks to you for pushing the “door open” button.  DAMMIT! Otis and Staley have sick, sick, sick senses of humor. 

The GPS-State Government-Oil Company theory

For many years, I happily sat in the front seat of our family’s car with various state maps in my lap.  Studying the lines, mile markers and symbols, I was the navigator.  There was something so satisfying about understanding map language and finding the best routes to our destination.  It was an achievement. It was brain exercise. It meant I got to sit in the front seat!  

Alas.  The enemy of human productivity arrived.  GPS. At last!  Technology from the ether could tell us in a passive aggressive voice to “make a U turn if possible” repeated to the point where even normal human beings panic and make very illegal road maneuvers just to get the bitch to shut up. I often chastise technology as making most of us incapable of even simple problem solving (how much do you panic when you lose your cell phone and can’t remember a single number to call for help? or miss appointments because you no longer keep those memories in your brain in favor of your Blackberry?).  But my beef with GPS goes beyond the fact that it dumbs us down.  My problem with GPS is that every time you use it, the mysterious lady in the sky tends to direct you to routes that oddly have many expensive tolls. She also seems to point you down roads that aren’t necessarily the fastest and most efficient to travel, extending your time in the car and burning more fuel than would have been needed had you decided to follow street signs and use paper maps. Put all these together and you find…GPS is in cahoots with individual States to increase their take at toll booths and with the oil companies and gas stations to rake in even more dough on the tanks of lost drivers!  I knew that GPS lady was evil…

NOTE: The above was written with sarcasm (if you couldn’t actually tell, I wanted to get that out of the way first).  I still think both are true… just not to the point where I’m going to start putting out newsletters asking people to boycott elevators and talk back to their GPS lady.  Well maybe I want people to talk back to the GPS bitch.  If only because I think arguing with a ghost voice is funny.

© 2009 by jeroen peters

Du har 90 sekunder til at sælge en idé! Hvad gør du? Du bruger denne model: Hey, You, See, So

“Hey!” er din indledninge. Det der gør DU fanger opmærksomheden hos din kunde.

“You!” er dit twist. Her perspektiverer du over i hvorfor netop DIN kunde skal lytte efter nu, hvad de kan bruge det til!

“See!” er forklaringen. Laver koblingen mellem din idé og hvad der allerede eksisterer

“So!” er konklusionen. Afslut stærkt! Derfor skal kunden købe netop DIN idé!

1. FASE – HEY!
KIG HER!!! Du starter med at skabe opmærksomhed omkrig det produkt, du gerne vil have, at dine modtagere skal købe eller det budskab, de skal høre. Der skal være et eller andet i din reklame, der gør, at dine modtagere ikke kan undgå at lægge mærke til reklamen. Det er grunden til, at der i mange reklamer f.eks. optræder let påklædte damer! Det er jo sjældent, de har noget som helst med produktet at gøre!

2. FASE – YOU!
DET ER DIG DET HANDLER OM! Når opmærksomheden er fanget, skal modtagerne helst opdage, at reklamen eller annoncen er henvendt til dem. Der skal altså være noget, som holder din modtager fanget, inden opmærksomheden har fundet noget andet at koncentrere sig om.

3. FASE – SEE!
HER ER FORDELENE FOR DIG! Når du har fanget dine modtageres opmærksomhed (HEY) og gjort dem interesserede (YOU), skal du fortælle eller vise, hvilke fordele modtagerne får ved at købe produktet (SEE).

Som regel er det bedst at holde sig til en eller to fordele – også selvom produktet har mange flere.

4. FASE – SO!
SÅDAN SKAL DU GØRE! Hvis de første tre faser er vellykkede, mangler din modtager nu kun en enkelt oplysning:

· Hvis det er noget der er til salg: I hvilke butikker kan jeg købe produktet?

· Eller hvis det er en indsamling til en god sag: Hvordan kan jeg give et bidrag?

· Eller hvis det er en sundhedskampagne: Hvor kan jeg få mere at vide?

Elevator Panel (321/365 11-17-09)

Originally uploaded by CarusoPhoto

Another day, another elevator…but more importantly, another photograph.

Guy in hoodie to two guys carrying 24 pack of beer (after entering elevator with friends): You guys just curling up together with a movie tonight and drinking some beers?

Guy #1 carrying beer: No….

Guy in hoodie: Horton Hears a Who maybe?

Guy #2 carrying beer: No… (elevator stops and they get off)

Guy in hoodie (to friends): It’s always good to be polite to people with booze.

Lucky elevator

Overheard by horton

It seems, that elevators are even more interesting as I thought…

Yesterday I met a friend who was totally stressed out as in her building, where she is living on the 15th floor, the elevator didn’t work. It seems that this happens frequently. Despite having to walk the stairs all the way up and down, she was still one of the lucky tenants. One of her neighbours got stuck in the elevator and needed to be rescued by firefighters!

Now this throws a totally new light on New Yors fire brigade. I have always been wondering about the sirens that scream annoyingly 24/7 in this city. Judging by the sound of those sirene you are forced to think that the whole island of Manhattan should long have been burnt down entirely. But there’s still so many buildings standing. So the fire fighters must do a pretty good job. Or else…?

Another thing to wonder about is the amount of fire trucks standing at the curbs. I developped the theory, that in a city, where space is expensive as nowhere else, the city’s administration came up with the clever plan to just not build a huge garage for all the firetrucks but instead pays attention that there are enought trucks on the road all the time.

Now what does this have to do with elevators? Here you go: What if all those sirens are not about fire incidents at all? What if they are about poor people that have to be rescued from elevators? And what, if the fire department has some contract with the elevator firm…?

Might explain a lot

Anyway: I am glad to live on the 7th floor only.

13th November Police on Thursday arrested a 19-year-old man for allegedly raping a high school student after first threatening her with a cell phone message. According to police, the suspect, who cannot be named because he is a minor, sent the girl a text message that said: “If you don’t want to die, do what I say.”

Police said the incident occurred on Oct 26. The accused reportedly stood behind the girl in an elevator in a Katsushika Ward apartment building and showed her the screen of his mobile phone displaying the threatening message. He then ordered her to his apartment where he allegedly raped her. There were other residents in the elevator and corridor at the time, but no one did anything because the girl was too frightened to call for help, police quoted her as saying.

The suspect has admitted to the charge. Police believe he may have assaulted other girls based on several reports of similar incidents in the area in October and November.

Banda canadense de indie rock, download nela.

Faixas do álbum:

1. Running Out of Time

2. Goodnight Goodnight

3. Ladies and Gentlemen

4. You Owe Me an IOU

5. No Jokes – Fact

6. Jingle Jangle

7. Pickin’ It Up

8. Island of the Honest Man

9. Middle of Nowhere

10. Dirty Mouth

11. Soldier in a Box

12. Four Seconds Of Noise

13. Shame on You

14. Elevator

LINK – Elevator

Parece com? Ok Go, We Are Scientists.

Clipe da música Middle of Nowhere.

Enjoy o/

Work has moved forward with the pour of the elevator and escalator foundation pits. Forming of the walls for these pits will be performed later this week, followed with the concrete walls pours next week.  All Atrium and stairwell foundation pours are now complete.

Next, we will proceed with the foundation for the shopping cart elevator system in conjunction with the elevator/escalator wall pours that are taking place in the next several days. On-site this week, the developer for the Grundy Town Center , Tim Scoggin of Commonwealth Grundy Partnership LP, as well as City officials.

Many Philadelphians were dismayed as they awoke to find subway entrances gated and bus stops vacant on Tuesday, November 3.

All SEPTA transportation modes, with the exception of the regional rail lines and busses served by the Frontier District, were shut down completely at 3 a.m. 

The transportation halt, brought about by the Transportation Workers Union Local 234 strike, inconvenienced thousands of SEPTA riders that day and the five days following.

As a result, many of those riders were late to work, classes, doctor appointments and jury duty. Some were completely unable to make it to work while others missed their scheduled appointments and college classes.

TWU Local 234 and SEPTA finally came to an agreement to end the strike on November 9, after six days of negotiations. But the announcement of the strike’s end did not come before a couple of SEPTA chiefs got a small taste of their own medicine.

Just before 11 p.m. on November 9, SEPTA GM Joe Casey and TWU Local 234 President Willie Brown along with Mayor Michael Nutter, Gov. Ed Rendell and Rep. Bob Brady appeared at the Bellevue Hotel on South Broad Street for a press conference to announce the end of the six day strike.

But the press conference did not begin precisely at 11 p.m. As the men traveled to the hotel lobby for the conference, they were delayed by one of the hotel’s elevators, which malfunctioned.

The elevator doors would not open, and the men were stuck inside until maintenance personnel responded to the situation and pried the doors open with a crowbar.

Apparently, the Bellevue elevators decided to strike against SEPTA, too.

To read more about this account and see pictures of the conference, visit Albert Yee’s original post at SEPTAfail.com.

I’m still getting to know Chauncey.  We’ve only been walking for about a week, and I thought he was pretty simple:  Bark, bark.  Wait for leash.  Go outside.  Be old.

He’s friendly, but he’s not in your face about it, which is nice.  I’m discovering quickly that he’s got this curiosity about him that’s probably going to cost him his life.

Every time we’re in the elevator in his building, he stands there normally until the very second the doors are about to close.  Then, he becomes extremely intrigued at what’s going on in the doorway.  I’ve stood there and watched in disbelief as several times in a row he’s halted the progress of the elevator by sticking his face in it.

I don’t know if he thinks it’s funny, or interesting (or none of that; I mean, he is a dog), or what, but when those doors are about to slide shut he gets this insatiable curiosity about where they come from.

Anything can be a death trap if you stick your neck in it, Chauncey.

Can’t wait to explain this one to the owners on dog walker stationary.

Hey!

So, you’re probably wondering why Chauncey’s leash is stuck in the elevator doors, and also why the elevator is out of order.  The answer is that I have no idea!  I showed up to walk Chauncey today, and the doorman told me I was no longer welcome in the building There was a fire in only your apartment Your dog tried to swallow the elevator to have a nice day!

Anyways, I’ll need that check by Friday!  Thanks.

Your Dog Walker,

Justin

By Rob Packer

When you’re slightly late for work, running out of your apartment, then the lift doors open and there’s nothing but a lift-shaped black box, what do you do? Do you get in or do you sprint down the nine flights of stairs?

Welcome to Bishkek, or “welcome to the army”, as someone at work said today. My call was to get in, press 1 and take out my phone to give me some sort of light. On the way back I got in again, but minus phone light. Since I’ve moved to Bishkek, I’ve had to learn to live without things that I used to take for granted, and I don’t mean my iPod, my laptop or the internet. Those all work perfectly, although there’ll be more on the internet another time. I mean gas, water (cold and hot), electricity and heating. As I’m writing this, all of these work, although the hot water is the wrong colour. By Sod’s law, one of these will not work tomorrow.

Lights out! Part one of my journey to work.

Going round the table at lunch, I started to realise how lucky I am, when I heard the number of people saying that on Monday night they had no water, or no gas, or no electricity at home. Getting home to find something not working is a fact of life in Kyrgyzstan and a fact of daily life everywhere outside of Bishkek where austerity measures mean that electricity stops at midnight. Once you know this, going to work in a blacked out lift is really nothing, and it reminds me that today’s another lucky day. I know that one day I’ll get home and find there’s no electricity; I’ll take out my phone and will be guy climbing those nine stories who I heard huffing and puffing through two walls a few weeks ago. There’s a what-if scenario here that I’m choosing not to think about.

The other joy of the lift that takes a bit of getting used to is that the lift is built to a design that must’ve once existed in the West, but has now been outmoded. This lift has the memory of a goldfish. Once you press that button, that’s where the lift’s going; and if you’re going to the fourth floor and some foreigner presses 8 first, then you’re going a long way in the wrong direction. The only way to stop and go back is to press another disabled lift function. Yes, the stop button, a neat trick I’d only ever seen in films until now.

And once I’d realised all of this, it was child’s play that the lift only goes to the eighth floor and I have to walk the last flight of stairs to the floor with my apartment and the lift pulleys.

The lift panel. The red button means Stop, and the button for 9 is a red herring. I don't know why there's a cigarette burn where 5 should be

The Kid next door was waiting for the elevator. I asked him where is he going. he says, ‘mera 7th floor friend’. I say, “terrace pe jayega na khelne ke liye” . he looked at me like i was an idiot and claims, “terrace uske bhi upar hain (7th floor). Itna bhi nahi malum tujhe? Aur terrace pe jaane ka button nahi hain lift main. Only 7 tak hain” (Don’t you know that the terrace is ABOVE the 7th floor. And besides, there is no button in the elevator for the terrace. Only till 7)

Image taken from – http://www.funzug.com/index.php/babies/choooo-chweeeeeet-kids-with-cute-emotions.html

Stop cutting me off.  Stop trying to walk away.  Stop acting like you have been standing here for 2 hours when it’s actually been a whopping 30 seconds.  I am trying to tell you all of the information you need to know about the hotel so fucking sit here and listen to it. Most importantly, don’t act like you already know everything because you will be the same fucking person calling me in 45 minutes.  Where is breakfast?  Where is the work-out room?  Is there a bar in the hotel?  The elevator is broken.  No, homie, the elevator isn’t broken.  It wouldn’t fucking take you anywhere because you didn’t know you had to use your keys for it because you ran away from me like you were prairie dogging when I was in the middle of trying to tell you that!

On another note…for those of you who ask too many damn questions…SHUTTHEFUCKUP!!!  If you let me finish, I’m pretty sure I will save you the breathe and spare you a few words from your daily word quota.  I was just about to tell you where the fitness center is, where breakfast is, and at what time breakfast is.  But!  You are so god damn concerned with not-shutting-the-fuck-up that you are fucking up my flow.  Oh…and we don’t serve eggs.

Please stop scarfing cookies down your throat and leaving crumbs all over the counter, fuck nut.

I like stairs. I often walk the 16 flights of stairs at school instead of taking the elevator which takes too long. I can get up to the top faster than the lift can chug up each floor. Same goes for escalators.

Americans are lazy. It should be a fact. They head from their cars, and move to an escalator/elevator and hardly move much more. Obviously this is an over exaggeration, but what if we could promote taking the stairs as something that is fun? Something that we naturally should be doing anyway because as moving people, we could all use a little exercise without having to hit the treadmills at the gym.

This initiative by Volkswagen made me smile this morning. This installation adds piano keys that make musical notes when each step is stepped on. Making some tunes when skipping up and down the stairs turns heads for sure, and makes you rethink the genius of stairs.

Have a great morning everyone. Try the stairs today.

This video is connected to some of the topics we need to talk about in “tutoría”. I do not know whether tomorrow we’ll have  to cancel the outing due to bad weather but,  in case we cannot have “tutoria”, I want you to watch this video and think about it.

What is the message of the video?

What are the people in the elevator thinking?

Can you think of any speech bubbles for the people in the lift?

Think of a title?

Did you like it?

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