In Business Las Vegas reports in this week’s edition that Clark County’s population “dropped during the past year after decades as one of America’s fastest growing counties”.

So much for our tagline.

In the last year, the county lost about 10,000 people.  Most folks believe this is the first drop in population in nearly 40 years.

Here’s the data (according to the Clark County Comprehensive Planning Department):

 

. . .and was surprised by what we saw.  Stay tuned. . .we’re planning to record the podcast reviewing the Aliante Station Casino grand opening tomorrow night.

There has been a nice buzz around these parts about tonight’s Aliante Station Casino opening.  We’ve seen a handful of news channel features about the new property over the last month or so along with several articles in the local newspapers.  I’ve always been VERY impressed with much of what Station Casinos does so I was surprised when I heard on Channel 3’s 11PM news that for the third quarter of 2008 (which ends on September 30) the company lost $23 million.  To compare, for Q3 2007, the company made $3.7 million. 

In the words of Keanu Reeves — “Whooaah”.

Both Melissa and I were surprise by that.  I always had the impression that all ten Station Casinos properties were doing very well.  Every time we visited Red Rock or Santa Fe, they looked pretty busy. 

Here’s hoping their eleventh casino at Aliante will be the beginning of a big turn around.  The company is obviously spending a lot of money on getting the word out. . .billboards, TV commercials, newspaper ads.  Just yesterday, they paid for the insertion of a 16 page “Promotional Feature” section in the Review-Journal.  That had to be expensive!

We will be checking the place out at their 11/11/08 at 11:11PM opening and putting out a new LiLV Podcast episode soon thereafter. 

Our fingers are crossed!!

Melissa and I woke up this morning ready to participate in the 2008 Presidential Election!  With reports of 2-3 hour lines, we were ready for a long wait.  Over the past couple of days, we’ve seen long lines for early voters and expected the same.

Luckily, that wasn’t the case.

We arrived at about 6:50AM.  At 7:00AM they started letting folks in.  And by 7:25AM, we each had our “I VOTED” stickers.

The whole process was well organized.  First, we got into one of several lines, depending on our voting precinct.  We signed in and received a paper receipt/tracking card that we then presented to a gal (at the end of another line) who scanned it to program a magnetic card (like a credit card or a hotel room card key).  Then, we waited a few minutes to get to one of the 20 or so voting machines that were all lined up single file at the back of the room.  There was a couple helper-bees floating around the voting machines providing instructions and answering questions.  The machine worked well–simply insert the magnetic card and use the touch screen-based machine, using your fingers.   Our ballot had about 20 screens worth of votes.  The whole process, start to finish, was 35 minutes.

1. During the weekend, Melissa, Neil, Sarah and I checked out a some model homes in several neighborhoods throughout the Las Vegas Valley.  In two neighborhoods, they indicated that they were almost sold out. . .only six or so homes left.  Good news, right?

   Well, not exactly.

   After asking a bit more, the builder simply decided to stop building (for now).  Depending on the neighborhood, there were 20-40 empty lots that were going to stay empty until the economy recovers.  I would guess those folks living in those neighborhoods aren’t terribly happy.

2. Saw online a house in our area that was being foreclosed.  The price was AMAZING.  In reviewing the photos of the interior of the house, I saw that all the cabinetry in the kitchen were missing.  I emailed the Realtor:
   
   ME: What happened to all the kitchen cabinets in this house?
   
   REALTOR: The kitchen cabinets were all missing when we first gained access to the property upon our assignment from the bank.  So as far as we know they were stolen previous to that.  We don’t know by who.
   

Huh?!?  Who steals the cabinets out of a house?!?  For the love of god, if you can’t afford the house, you don’t get to keep the cabinets as a parting gift.

For all the ghouls and goblins planning to join us for the October Listener Meetup, which will include a trip to The Asylum haunted house, we will be meeting at 6:30PM at Gordon Biersch in Summerlin.  The plan is to have a couple drinks then head on over for the spooky part of the evening.  After we all collectively listen to Melissa scream bloody murder for 15-20 minutes, we’ll decide upon a place to continue the evening’s festivities.

Meeting Location: Gordon Biersch (750 S. Rampart Blvd, 702.487.6463)
Date: Saturday, October 11, 2008
Time: 6:30PM for drinks
Attire: Depends (that is, if you have a weak bladder)

As always, Melissa and I are looking forward to another great time with our listeners!

See you on Saturday!

Not only is the Canadian dollar growing stronger by the week, but the Friends of the LiLV Podcast page has grown by 3.57% with the addition of fellow podcasters Tim and Nanette.  Welcome to the page, eh?

(I wonder if they’ll be joining us for our Halloween MeetUp?)

Okay okay. . .good thing you don’t have to be smart to run your own business.  The photo said Canada which threw me. . .truth is, Tim and Nanette are from Atlanta, GA. 

That uses up yesterday’s mistake quota.  Now, on to today!!!

By popular demand, we’ve decided to organize our second LiLV Listener Meetup for Saturday, October 11, 2008.  Now this isn’t going to be just some simple, sit-around-and-drink meetup. . .no, no, no. . .we’ve already rode that pony.  Instead, it’s going to be three-Three-THREE things in one:

1. Sit around and drink (a bit, okay okay, why ruin a good thing)

2. Visit “The Asylum”, reportedly a VERY scary haunted house in Summerlin

3. Eat, Drink and be Scary Merry at a dining/drinking establishment to be named later

If you’re wondering about item #2, here’s the scoop:  one of our listener’s favorite episodes continues to be the Hotel Fear show, which primarily features Melissa screaming like a banshee for 20+ minutes.  (The woman has pipes.)  A week or so ago, I received an email, which lead to a phone call with the folks who run Hotel Fear and The Asylum. 

Of course, I expected they wanted to hire Melissa as a professional screamer. 

But no, that wasn’t it.  Instead, to my surprise, they told me that they loved the show so much that they wanted to offer us 10 tickets to experience The Asylum, at no charge. 

Free stuff?  I love free stuff.  And so understandably, I accepted their offer.

As I type this, four of those tickets are already spoken for.  If you’d like to be one of the other six victims to join us as we go Screaming Through Summerlin, and you know your calendar is open for such fun, be one of the first six people to email me at lilvscreamer@livinginlv.com and I’ll put you on the free-ticket list.  (Others are welcomed to join us of course, but I can only comped the first six folks.)

Remember, you want to make sure you’re available on OCTOBER 11, 2008 before requesting the free ticket. 

We’ll finalize the time in another post but I’m guessing we’ll first meet around 6PM(ish) for drinks and enter The Asylum at 7:30PM(ish).

One final thing–we will be recording our experience for a LiLV podcast so if you don’t want your friends to know you’re a screamer (Mark G?), you may not want to get tickets. . .but we’d love to have you join us for drinks and dinner!

I’ve had some LiLV listeners ask me about my session at the 2008 New Media Expo, which took place a couple weeks ago.  It went very well–received a lot of nice comments after the session and came home to a large number of email “thanks” as well.  I thought I’d share a bit of a video that was taken during the session with those LiLV listeners who are into such things (and are reading this on our website).  Below is a video clip of the first few minutes of the session. . .(do you guys recognize that music in the beginning?)

I think it’s safe to say that the LiLV Podcast appeals to a wide range of people–demographically, geographically, and now, chronologically.  Our latest “Friend” of the LiLV Podcast looks pretty young. . .but Anne from Utah tells us that this photo is not quite as recent as the others on the page.  Regardless, welcome aboard Anne (who has been a long-time listener)!

Next Page »