so i should post something.

the hotel opened thursday. er well…i think its more like the expanded gaming floor of the hotel is open, i don’t think they’re giving people rooms yet. one of the 4 new eateries is open, as well as another retail store. and the nightclub. but yeah…new gaming floor. so hideous. i am so disappointed. other people are like oh its so beautiful blahblahblah. and i realize that i have a different idea of what is beautiful than most people, but really. it’s so…not elegant and high class. it totally does not match the main gaming floor AT all. part has a mirrored ceiling which reminded me of the god awful casino that adr2 and i went into in reno the one day. the other part doesn’t have a ceiling at all, it’s just exposed ducts etc, and it looks like a warehouse. given where this section is, right above the 2 new table game pits, i don’t think it’s just “not done”…i think that’s how it’s supposed to be. then it has the awning things over the tables like the main casino, and Paris in las vegas….but they’re all decorative, and i think they’re supposed to be stylized feathers – we’re in an indian casino afterall – but to me it looks like a skeleton…like a bunch of ribs of a great big skeleton. i understand the desire to have an indian type decor, but it could have been done sooo much better. it all just looks mismatched and cheesey. the new high limit pit, my new home, is so plain, and brown, and i think awful. it’s not classy or elegant in the slightest bit. it’s WAY more functional than the old room, and much bigger so i like that, but decor-wise i don’t like it. they also added a high limit lounge with a bar and food, and it is seriously the most plain thing ever. i just expected so so much more. they’re giving employee tours of the entire complex next week but you have to come on your day off and i’m not sure i want to do that.

while on my trip to cali i began, and finished, the book City of Light which takes place in Buffalo during the PanAmerican Exposition. it’s historical fiction, integrating fictional characters with real life old Buffalo citizens, Grover Cleveland (who was mayor of Buffalo before he was president), McKinley etc…I liked it. It was a bit predictable in parts, but then at the same time something else would take you by surprise. And it really makes you proud of Buffalo. I think everyone who lives here should be forced to read it. It gives you a nice warm feeling that we really were the center of the country at the time, a booming city, with huge industry moving in, and so much hope and high expectations. But at the same time it is sort of depressing to think of what we were, and what we let ourselves become…

which leads me to the latest preservationist debate in the city. My employers purchased the HO Oats grain elevator behind HSBC arena down town, and are going to tear it down for their Buffalo Creek casino. So preservationists like my good buddies are fighting the demolition because it’s a historic building and all that. Ok guys, there are about 10 other historic grain elevators in Buffalo, just sitting there like HO Oats, collecting grafitti, what’s it going to matter if we lose this one. And there comes a point where you have to sacrifice something old to usher in a new era. These elevators, as much as I love them, are never ever going to be used again. In my opinion, the city is better off demolishing them and freeing up all this water front, and Buffalo river front space, to actually DO something with, and make Buffalo a jewel of the Great Lakes again. Years and years people keep talking about waterfront development, and nothing ever happens. So let the Seneca’s come in, demolish some old grain elevators, building their casino, and GET people and other businesses down town. It’s really time to move forward here. Somethings are worth preserving, some aren’t. You have to pick and choose your battles, and I don’t think this is a good one. Great Northern, yes, HO oats, no. We have to build and grow and MOVE ON.

ok with that little rant done…i went on to read Ayn Rand’s “Anthem” a novella she wrote before Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. It was very 1984/Harrison Bergeron like…took place in the future when everyone was made equal, and worked for the “brotherhood” except for the main character who breaks out of it and runs away into the Uncharted Forest. It was ok. Sort of a starter into Ayn Rand philosophy, and not as brutal and boring at times as Atlas Shrugged gets. Not bad. 104 pages or something, easy read.

and then i ran out of books. so i am trying to read Fellowship of the Ring. I started it about 10 years ago and got to page 22 of the prologue. I’m not doing much better now. I find it very difficult to read, it seems like the verb tense is off at times, and it’s just very hard. And I’m not stupid. It’s also boring. The review of Hobbit history and all that. And it seems to be very inconsistent, because one page says the Hobbits aren’t into their past and geneology, but then 10 pages later talk about the huge family trees with innumberable branches on them that the Hobbits make up…so which is it, they’re into geneology or they’re not?? Just hard to get interested in it and want to read more. But it was the same thing with the Hobbit and i ended up getting totally into it and really enjoying it. so we’ll see. i’m expecting santa to bring me a bunch of books if anyone like my parents got the hint that i don’t want more clothes that i’m not gonna wear, and knicknacks i have no place for etc. my amazon wish list is full of books this time around.