Annual Work Reunion in Las Vegas

This is obviously my first annual reunion in my new position / at this company but it's their third. We opted for Las Vegas this year and an unconference in Caesar's Palace.

With Laura. We took a penny slot machine for all it was worth - a $5.55 profit.

I'm never going to forget this weekend. It was a non-stop mixture of inspiration and startups and I finally had the chance to meet a lot of the mentors and founders that make us great.

That said, the average person's absorption rate suffers from the stimuli overload in Sin City. Add the flashing lights, bare butts, and people watching of drunkards to three intense days of meetings, panels, and speakers, and you get tired. By the last day I felt like a hologram of myself (rainbow, shaky, ready to turn into static). 

Oh, and this:

Thanks, dep sleeprivation! I threw the socks away once security allowed me back into my room.

From the speakers:

"Coming from a dysfunctional family is an unfair advantage, because it gives an uncanny ability to bring order out of chaos." - Steve Blank

"Money is only useful if you are following your dreams." - Ben Huh, CEO of Cheezburger

"Success is a terrible teacher. It deludes you into thinking you cannot fail. We learn more from failure." - Don Dodge, Google developer advocate

--

During the early morning before our flight out of Vegas, Laura tiredly asked me, "How much have do we time?" and I said, "Me too."

This also happened in the caverns of the conference center, late at night, during the final evening and a game of Werewolf, and I still laugh every time I think about it:

They checked on him. He was just really, really drunk fine.

I love my job.