A New Life

I haven't updated my random life and times for a long time as so much has happened in my life. It was of course a little over a year ago that my illustrious career in the casino industry had possibly come to an end. While I definitely don't regret meeting so many wonder people through the years. It is hard to believe that it has now been 23 years (March 1989) that I first stepped into that casino at 2477 Heather Street.

I don't regret moving up through the ranks until I'd finally become floor manager. Of course I regret the way I left. Whatever people want to say they can. I know that I was at least able to put a smile on my employees almost every day I was there. A lot of people have said I was not the typical casino manager; whether that is good or bad is open to interpretation. I've always said you can be friends with me or you can be enemies with me, but just be honest with me.

A lot people are wondering why I never came back to visit, especially after my 6 months. Well, believe me, I wanted to visit. I miss almost everyone at work, whether it is the Wanker Pit or Pit 11 or of course the Party Pit. But I can't. I can make a big deal out of it but suffice to say I can't come in. Am I mad about it? Of course. I would think that in 22 years I had built up enough of a good character that one little mistake wouldn't change that, but some people are allowed to think what they want to think. My true friends know what kind of a guy I am. People who continually ask me how I'm doing, or even make fun of my beloved Habs, thank you for being there. Some of you are more or less not allowed to talk to me, and that's fine. I know and I understand.

I'm pretty sure I've closed the casino chapter of my life now. With all due respect, I don't think I could go back. Whichever company it is, I think it's more of the same. Perhaps it is unfortunate because I have so much to offer but fate has told me to start anew.

So now I am starting anew. I'd spent the last 7 months in sales, and realized it wasn't for me. So currently I am a concierge at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Private Residences. I'm starting as the graveyard concierge (2300-700 Wednesday to Sunday). I get to wear a black suit and make use of those fabulously colored shirts and ties that started fashion trends in the casino. Yes, I still look good in a pink tie. Perhaps the concierge or indirectly the hotel industry is my new muse, my new career. It remains to be seen.

Thanks again for all those that have said a kind word in the past. I remember you all.

RESP's

I just wanted everyone to know that I am now licensed to sell RESP (Registered Education Savings Plans) scholarship plans. I just got my license last week so if any of you have children, plan to have children, or know anybody who has children, please contact me. I have access to one of the best plans on the market. It's easy to contribute and you will also get free money from the government as a result! Facebook message or email me, or if you have my phone number, call me!

First Steps

Through networking, I have begun an internship as a writer for the Vancouver Observer, an online newspaper of sorts. As I write more and more hopefully this will lead to the future that I've dreamed about. My first articles were about something dear to my heart, the casino industry. I was also interviewed by one of the senior writers there. Enjoy. Many people have said I should write that book that I've wanted to do, and I know that I will start that soon. I do have the short term goals to meet first and then, get ready. The opportunities are there.

My Interview
One of My Memories from the olden days
Vegas
Gambling Addiction

Goodnight Liz

A handful of celebrities are known by one name (Madonna, Cher, etc.). But there was one celebrity who was simply known by her shortened three-letter name. Liz. In the acting world, there was and will only be one Liz. But Liz left us this morning, and Hollywood lost perhaps the last icon of the Golden era. The days of Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Vivian Leigh, Ingrid Bergman and others are now of the past.

Priorities

Even though right now I'm a difficult time, I guess it's part of my nature that I'm worried more about other people and events The devastation in Japan has almost made me forget that I have to look for a job in the short term. I guess that's the way I've been brought up, to think about others before thinking about yourself. Even closer to home I think I'm more worried about how the employees (OK, ex-employees) are rather than how I am. Shouldn't I be panicking now (is that how you spell panicking?). Stay calm I guess.

That being said, it's scary and sad watching the news regarding Japan. I know the country itself will eventually rebound but all these reports of tsunamis and nuclear explosions makes everybody nervous. And to think it happened so soon after the disaster in New Zealand. Who's next?

Don't Worry Be Happy

I don't want to hear about people crying and sad, because then I start feeling the same. I've been very blessed and fortunate to read such wonderful words in the matter of 24 hours. I'm man enough to say that there have been tears in my eyes. I'm sorry I did what I did but let's just remember the good, happy, and fun times.

Tell you what, I see these kind of posts before so if you want to play, post your favorite memory of me or something about me that made you happy. I hope it's more than just "I got EO a lot", although I know I may have been the King of Handing Out EO's (especially Pit 11). Gordon, you get to pick between "Delilah" and "FINGA". And even if you are one of my "non casino" friends, you can participate.

Goodbye (long version)

I won't go into detail, but suffice to say I am no longer working for River Rock or Great Canadian Casinos. It was sudden but it's happened. I'll leave it at that.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people I met and knew through the years. People such as Albert and Ron I knew before I even started in the casino industry in 1989. It's hard to imagine that was 22 years ago. I spent many years at the Holiday Inn on Broadway later known as Casino on Broadway. It's ironic that a few days ago I was reminiscing about the HIB and those memories still remain.

I spent a year at Fraser Downs and I met some great people as well. Some people came over with me when the COB closed down but I met others when I went to Cloverdale. And not just the tables department, but also the security, cage, and slot departments were very welcome (sorry Deryck, I guess we won't be doing cards anymore).

The River Rock was where my career ended. Sorry guys, I can't help you with EO's and cancelled shifts anymore. Enjoy the 10am shifts though. Les is still morning EO king and Fred can stay the 8pm king. And when Dancing Queen or Beat It plays on the stereo, do a little dance if no one is watching. Mamma, somebody else has to get coffee now. And for whoever does: Albert (1 and 1), Danny (1 cream), Oscar (hot chocolate), Chris (3 and 3), Ann (3 and 3), Dan (double double) and Wanda (double double). Sorry graveyard, never did buy coffee for you guys...

To Albert, Danny, Oscar, Chris, Ann, Sina, Dan (I'm putting you in the midshift section), Howard, Sylvia, Lenny, Wanda, Bo and Eva, you are one fine team and it was my pleasure to work with you. To Rick, Deborah, Daniel, Jim and Ray, I'm sorry for what happened but keep up the fine work you do. Take care everyone.

That being said, OTHER than the casino industry, Facebook me (is that a verb now?) if there are any job opportunities that a Michael Jackson dancing tall Chinese guy may be qualified for....

Oscar Predictions

Well the Oscars are coming up. I realized that I haven't seen any of the movies in the major categories so it's hard to properly predict. But based on the Golden Globes and SAG Awards, here are my guesses for the major categories:

Best Picture: The Social Network won the Golden Globes but I suspect it will be a good night for The King's Speech so I will vote for them

Best Actor: Colin Firth, too easy

Best Actress: Natalie Portman, too easy. Seems like only yesterday she was in The Professional with Jean Reno. That was an awesome movie

Best Director: It's between David Fincher for The Social Network and Tom Hooper for The King's Speech. Let's go with Facebook guy

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale in a lock

Best Supporting Actress: I have no idea. There are two actresses nominated for The Fighter and Helena Bonham Carter for The King's Speech. I'll go with Melissa Leo for The Fighter

That's all for now.

Signs You've Been a Floor Manager for Too Long

Sorry I haven't posted in so long, but since people have been asking what's happened to my blog, here is a bit of humor only because #1 happened to me yesterday. These are signs that you've been in the casino industry for too long.

#1 You sign a personal cheque at home with your signature.... and GPEB number
#2 You "wash your hands" before you wipe your face or touch your hair.... at home
#3 You're at Safeway and when the cashier gives you your change you wait for him or her to put it on the counter because you can't take money from her hand
#4 You answer your cell phone "River Rock Casino"
#5 You drop something at home and yell "Pit".

The Secret

Wow, I can't believe it's been 2 months since I wrote on this blog. But it looks like the big secret is out so in case you still don't know, I am now engaged. I proposed on the radio sort of. If you want to hear, tune in to 103.5 QMFM from 8am-8:30am tomorrow (well, today, FRIDAY) morning. I think I sound really monotone on radio but it was taped really early in the morning. But it all went well because she did say yes.

Thank you to Brad, Mike and Tara from QMFM for setting it up, and to my friend Maureen for knowing Brad.

Memories of An Old Friend

Daryl Lee was one of the nicest people I knew. He always had a smile on his face and never let the pressures of work get to him. When I first became a floor manager in 2005, he taught me a lot about how to do my job and I owe a lot to him. One of my favorite memories was when Tommy, Sony, him and I went to see the Russell Peters show for Tommy's birthday. We got front row seats and Peters even made jokes about Daryl (part of Peters' schtick). We had such a good time. There were so many good times. And even though I hadn't heard or seen much of him since the COB closed, I never forgot the good times. Thanks, buddy. Rest in peace.

Manny

It's amazing to see how an entire country can put their support behind one person. I am of course talking about the Philippines and a certain athlete named Manny Pacquiao. Perhaps to the "outside" world he is just a boxer, but to his homeland he is a hero, a legend. He grew up from humble beginnings to become an almost religious figure. The fight is only an hour or so away, and it's pretty obvious he has the support of an entire nation (and even other countries) behind him. I can almost envision everybody in the Philippines watching Pay-Per-View right about now. I honestly don't think we have such heroes in North America (Britney Spears and Paris Hilton??). That's a shame.

Stress at Work

November has been a very stressful month at work. There's not much I can say about it other than the fact that a lot of things happened. A lot of things have been happening that one may not agree with, but I guess that's the way things are. As much as I could say that things could be different, and most definitely a lot better, it is not my decision. I can only suggest and hope that perhaps somebody listens and takes things to heart. I can try to keep that smile at work and try to put a smile on the faces of my coworkers but it's getting harder to do that.

The truly unfortunate thing is that the stress has affected my work at Mahalo as of late. I'm writing less and less and even the articles or tidbits I write have been of a lower quality than I am used to. There have been a number of projects at Mahalo that I wished I could have been a part of. I really wish I could spend more time there but I also need a lot of winding down time after work. The swing shifts also do not help as in the past while I've been unable to sleep well. Maybe it's just a sign I'm getting old.

Promise

I've made a promise to continue create more pages and do more work on Mahalo, even if it involves waking up early or staying up late. If I'm getting paid to write a page, then why shouldn't I be doing more? Even with my confusing schedule at the casino I should be able to devote a bit of time each day to write or update a page, or complete any assignments given to me. It would also give me time to properly write a page, as with my rushed schedule the quality of my work has dropped a bit as of late.

Besides, I will be going on holiday end of November for two weeks, so I should probably get as much done as possible before my trip. I don't want to lose my creativity, and hopefully when I get back I'll be able to devote as much, or even more, time as before. It is such a rewarding and relaxing job for me, and who knows, maybe I might end up more and more involved with Mahalo. It would take a lot to get me away from the casino industry (despite the stress and pressures) but for a long time, when people ask me if I had a choice what would I do: my answer is simply to write.

Sports on Mahalo

Earlier this year Mahalo had a different system where writers would create their own pages and then be responsible for updating them as facts or news changed. This was perfect for me as I was able to create a lot of hockey-related pages from scratch. Because the company is based in California, hockey is not as well known to them as other sports. As a bonus, I did a few pages on the Dallas Cowboys as well. The very first page I did was on the Dallas Cowboy jersey. With the help of my mentor Jeff Hoard (who luckily was Canadian and believe it or not a big Montreal Canadiens fan) we got most of the Habs pages going. I wrote pages on most of the Habs roster and updated the playoff page during the amazing run. It was with sadness that I had to update the part where they lost that last game to the Philadelphia Flyers. Maybe next year.

The system is a bit different now, we are no longer in charge of updating our own pages. Nobody really "owns" the pages anymore, they are just updated by whoever is available. I will explain this shortly.

Mahalo Pages

This week there are a number of categories of pages on Mahalo that have been assigned: actors, Black Friday sales, Thanksgiving, and coupons. Most of the actor pages are for TV actors who don't have a page on Mahalo. So far I've done pages on Paul Guilfoyle (Jim Brass on CSI), Bonnie Bedelia, and Brian Benben. Benben was on an HBO series Dream On that I enjoyed in the 1990s. There are a lot of actors left to do.

You can perhaps begin to see the enormity of this whole "project" of starting a search engine by scratch. Mahalo has been around a while but there are so many pages in so many categories. The old system (which was discontinued this past June) had the writers doing pages in their "preferred" categories but that has changed for the time being. I would love to continue writing pages about the Habs and anything to do with Las Vegas and gambling, but for now I have to do what is assigned. We do have the option of suggesting new pages to do, but we also have to do what is assigned.

Goals at Mahalo

Eventually I would like to be a part of the Quality Control Team at Mahalo. Currently there are three people who are working way too hard but doing a fine job of critiquing new pages and updated pages. It's been hard for me sometimes to put together a good page. I usually like to spend a lot of time proofreading my own work, and sometimes if I'm updating a page, I have to proofread somebody else's work. Updating pages takes about an hour a page. This involves checking for grammar, adding news if necessary, and making sure all the facts are still true. We frown on words like "current" or "today" as these tend to date the page. Pages have to be free from bias, so things like "Montreal Canadiens rule" unfortunately don't work (even if it is the truth).

It's too bad I can't spend more time with my writing, but hopefully with a more balanced schedule at the casino I may be able to.

Romer's Burger Bar

I'd forgotten to mention that last night Amy and I went to the grand opening of Romer's Burger Bar down in Kits (it is where Pinky's used to be). The grand opening was also a fundraiser for Pinups for Pink. We didn't win the 50/50 draw but we got a nice surprise when the owner, Jim Romer, treated everybody to a free meal (less alcohol), what a nice gesture.

As for the food, it was delicious. We both had.... burgers of course. Amy had the Maple Bacon Burger and I opted for the delectable Ultimate Kobe Classic. It was a $20 burger (no sides!) but it was delicious. We also ordered two types of fries on the side, the garlic fries and the truffle oil fries. Yum yum. And if that wasn't enough, we ended with what was called Drunken Doughnuts, 10 of them drenched with powdered sugar and then served with three sauces: Lemonchillo, Nutella, and Maple Whisky. I can't wait to go again!

Red

I forgot to mention that on the weekend we went to see the new movie starring Bruce Willis and a bunch of big-name stars. We hadn't seen a movie in a while and it was a good choice. Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren were also in it, as well as Mary-Louise Parker. Maybe it was just your usual spy movie but I had a good time. Helen Mirren played her role very well, and reminds me a lot about Meryl Streep who also can star in just about any movie.

Acme Cafe

Amy had heard about this nice little cafe near Gastown and we saw a writeup of it in the latest Food & Restaurant Guide so our Sunday brunch adventures resumed after a short absence. She had an Americano and turkey sandwich while I opted for a very delicious Chicken Pot Pie and something called an Affagato, which is two shots of espresso with ice cream. Mmmmm. I must say the chicken pot pie was one of the best I've had in a long time.

Then the server tempted me with something called the Double Rainbow pie. Nice.