As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, this week is the Photoshop World convention in Las Vegas and I’m here for a week of fun and learning! But after only a few hours in town, I’ve already got a whopper of a story to tell! Screw the whole “what happens in Vegas…” crap.

So Photoshop World is at the Mandalay Bay and thousands of photographers will be converging there from all over the world. In fact they’re sold out. So I had to stay next door at Luxor.

Well, I checked in and dropped off my stuff in my room, then grabbed my camera to go walk and take some photos on the strip. Of course, the Excalibur is the first hotel on the way down the strip, and I’ve taken photos of it literally every time I’ve been in Las Vegas. But this time I took some photos OUTSIDE the hotel, and as I was going to walk through the hotel to get something to eat, a security guard stopped me before I could enter.

He wanted to know my name, where I was staying, and my room number! He told me it was because I was taking photos of the outside of the building! And claimed it was for “homeland security”.
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	BranEverseeking where not to stay in Vagas http://onemansblog.com/excalibur do please retweet/post or there will be no freedoms #fb
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	psimac It's ridiculous that @johnpoz got banned from Excalibur Vegas for taking a couple photos http://onemansblog.com/excalibur (via @CaliLewis)
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	martindesforges It's ridiculous that @johnpoz got banned from the Excalibur in Vegas for taking a couple photos http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	thewuf OMG! RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'! http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	mwpeterson As if I needed another reason NOT to stay at Excalibur: http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	StilesPDX RT @CaliLewis: It's ridiculous that @johnpoz got banned from the Excalibur in Vegas 4 tkng a couple photos http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	PhotoWalkPro RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'!) #PSW - http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	texasamy RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'!) #PSW - http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	SherylLoch RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'! http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	gergorian RT @johnpoz The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur-Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'!) #PSW - http://onemansblog.com/excalibur #fb
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	Tizzy_VA3TNG RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'! http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	JG_Photography RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'! http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	paulcarmichael RT @CaliLewis: It's ridiculous @johnpoz got banned from the Excalibur in Vegas for taking a couple photos http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	timeflight RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas http://onemansblog.com/excalibur Crazy (via @victorcajiao)
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	georgestarcher RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'!) #PSW - http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	sroeben RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Vegas http://onemansblog.com/excalibur This is awful/scary, esp. for photogs.
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	ericmohlman It's ridiculous @johnpoz got banned from the Excalibur in Vegas for taking a couple photos http://onemansblog.com/excalibur (via @CaliLewis)
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	chrisinman RT @johnpoz:The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'!) - http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	Vendingmatic RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'! http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	j_graber RT It's ridiculous that @johnpoz got banned from the Excalibur in Vegas for taking photos http://onemansblog.com/excalibur (via @CaliLewis)
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	scaryspyder It's ridiculous that @johnpoz got banned from the Excalibur in Vegas for taking a couple photos http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	cleberm RT @CaliLewis: It's ridiculous @johnpoz got banned from the Excalibur in Vegas for taking a couple photos http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	ericaburnett It's ridiculous that @johnpoz got banned from the Excalibur in Vegas for taking photos. http://onemansblog.com/excalibur (via @CaliLewis)
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	joped RT @CaliLewis It's ridiculous that @johnpoz got banned from the Excalibur in Vegas for taking a photos http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	rtrueman It's ridiculous that @johnpoz got banned from the Excalibur in Vegas for taking a couple photos http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	kentonsmith RT @CaliLewis It's ridiculous that @johnpoz got banned from Excalibur in Vegas for taking a couple photos http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	chrisbpower RT @CaliLewis: It's ridiculous that @johnpoz got banned from the Excalibur in Vegas for taking a photo http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	CoPilotUK It's ridiculous @johnpoz got banned from Excalibur in Vegas for taking a couple photos http://onemansblog.com/excalibur (via @CaliLewis)
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	CaliLewis It's ridiculous that @johnpoz got banned from the Excalibur in Vegas for taking a couple photos http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	jimconnerphoto RT @johnpoz @aj_wood Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'! http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	chavis_t RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'! http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	tigerbright RT @johnpoz The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'!) #PSW - http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	harmonymatters RT @analyticspros: How ridiculous is our world getting? http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	CarrieLeighC RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'! http://onemansblog.com/excalibur [Wow!]
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	DaleChumbley RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'! http://onemansblog.com/excalibur [Wow!]
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	aj_wood RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'! http://onemansblog.com/excalibur #PSW
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	lorelleonwp RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'!) #PSW http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	analyticspros How ridiculous is our world getting? http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	ilsaingrid Wow. RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'! http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	TysonHphoto RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'!) http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	cjweb RT @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'! http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	terehoff Ну очень интересные фотки от Джонни RT: @johnpoz: The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	johnpoz The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'!) #PSW - http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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	johnpoz The Photos That Got Me Banned From Excalibur Las Vegas (You Know, 'Homeland Security'!) - http://onemansblog.com/excalibur
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Unbelievable as it may seem, the Luxor in Las Vegas offers high-speed internet access – but there’s a catch! In order to get it, you need to stretch a wire all the way across the room, and it won’t even reach the desk for you to actually work at it.

The cost for this little act of fire-hazard creation? $15 per day. FML.

Twitter Comments

	johnpoz The Luxor's "High Speed Internet" JOKE! Seriously, you aren't going to believe this. [VIDEO] http://onemansblog.com/luxor
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Waikoloa Village is basically a subdivision on the Big Island of Hawaii that has a wide variety of housing units ranging from single family homes, to condos, to high end hotels. Among the hotels is the Hilton Waikoloa Village, and this is where I spent the week on my recent trip to the Big Island of Hawaii. (View in Google Earth. What is Google Earth?)

The hotel is ideally located for branching out to explore all the various parts of the island, and the facilities are enormous. 64 acres of highly manicured grounds complete with a private bay, swimming pools, and even a dolphin habitat. With over 1,200 rooms, this is a large hotel by any measure. A local man told me that the property was originally developed by a Japanese company for $360 Million, but later sold at a huge loss for $90 Million to Hilton.

Although the hotel is basically a Disneyland for adults, there are some critical flaws which greatly detract from it as a serious vacation destination. At the same time, there is some great stuff to see and do… like swim with the dolphins!
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The following hidden camera investigation demonstrates how room service actually cleans your room’s drinking glasses. Er, I should say doesn’t clean your room’s drinking glasses!

This is one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen when it comes to hotel cleanliness, especially because I always use the glasses in my room. Correction, I used to use the in room glasses, but I never will again.
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I quite enjoyed the stay at the Marriott Residence Inn in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia on May 14, 2007 even though I was only there for one night, mainly because it was very much like having a home away from home.

This hotel is actually more of an apartment. In fact, if they ever wanted to they could shut it down and sell the property as condos. My room was essentially a one bedroom loft apartment with the bed upstairs and a bonus hide-away bed downstairs.
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I only have one thing to say about Laurel Maryland’s hotel situation. You don’t want to stay here if you have any other options. Go up the road to Columbia or over towards Baltimore, but avoid Laurel.

Why is that? Because the Days Inn & Suites is among the “nicest” places to stay in this little town, and frankly it ain’t that great.
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This is the first in a series of several Washington D.C. area hotel reviews. I’m doing a few weeks worth of consulting in the area at the request of a friend, and finding a place to stay has been a challenge, so I’ve had to stay at a different hotel almost every night so far. The good news is that I’ll be able to give lots of feedback on a wide variety of hotels. So, here we go…

I stayed at the Marriott TownPlace Suites in Springfield, Virginia on May 9, 2007. The experience was fine, and I will stay here again, but there is no way this is a 4.5 star rating hotel as TripAdvisor reports. Sure, it’s cheap, and its OK, but it’s just a solid 3 – perhaps 3.5 in the hotel universe.

Unfortunately my photos make it look nicer than it actually seemed when I was in the room. When I was there the furnishings seemed like Wal-Mart quality and this does not translate well in the photos. There were also a number of other little annoyances.
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There seems to be so much confusion out there with regards to the common ritual of tipping that I decided to take the initiative and help clarify the rules when it comes to this long standing practice.

But unlike some other tipping guides I’m not just going to tell you how much to tip, instead we’re going to focus on why people earn the tips you give them, and therefore gain a better understanding as to how much to give.
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This post is a short part 2 of my Weekend in Denver, albeit a bit late…

A few things visitors should know about visiting Denver:

• Due to the high altitude (the city is located a mile above sea level) there is 25% less protection from the sun’s rays so make sure and use plenty of sunscreen. I got burned twice as fast as usual.
• Also, since your heart works a little faster at high altitude, and the air is both thinner and dryer, it’s important to drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. This took me a bit of getting used to. Just drink about 50% more than normal and you’ll be great.
• Alcohol is also going to have a greater affect at this altitude because it enters the bloodstream quicker. So take it easy on the beer factory tours. Sorry, but I didn’t drink enough to report on how well this actually works…

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Today turned out to be double the journey I had originally planned as I ended up cramming two day’s worth of driving into one. This will have the effect of shortening the overall trip home by one day, but also make for two very long hard back to back days.

But I’m not complaining! I’m driving an NSX across the country and seeing totally cool stuff!
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Today began the second leg of my journey from San Francisco back to Dallas. I started in Bakersfield, CA with a destination of Las Vegas. The trip was roughly a five hour journey, not including stops. Incidentally, I’m averaging 24.5 MPG with cruise control mainly set around 77-80 MPH. Not bad for a 170 mile-per-hour supercar.
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Today was a long day, but well worth it. I flew from Big “D” to San Francisco to meet the newest member of the family for the first time, my new NSX. Brandee was kind enough to actually pick me up at the San Jose airport and we had a nice ride back to San Francisco together.

After taking care of business, Brandee said her farewells to her baby, and I took possession. Today was the first time I had ever sat, ridden in, or driven an NSX, so read on for my first impressions…
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