The REAL Josh Anderson

This week, I am in Las Vegas for DevConnections 2007. Throughout the years, movies have shaped my "vision" of what Las Vegas would be like. Oddly enough, it is quite different than what I expected, in a good way. Here are a few of my observations from the last couple of days...

• This is the land of bad hair, unproportionally large breasts,
  and extremely uncomfortable-looking heels
• My personal favorite bad hair was a parted comb-over. It took me a while to figure out what exactly was going on up there, but I decided that it was really a comb-together from each side of the classic horseshoe that is subsequently parted right down the middle. Quite odd.
• As for the other categories, I will leave my favorites off this website.
  
• Developers will shamelessly wear swag, no matter how bad it fits.
• I witnessed some very ugly hats handed out by vendors just plopped on top of a classic long-haired developer rat's nest.
• Throw in some XL shirts handed out by vendors worn by fellows needing at least XXL. And no, I was not one of them. I know better.
• Gathering autographs from "high-ranking" Microsoft employees is a very weird behavior to me. I guess it just proves that fan boys exist everywhere.
  
• Older casinos smell bad, kind of like nicotine-smoked death
• The older the casino, the older the waitresses
• The city is much cleaner than I imagined, and prostitution seems to be much more
  "behind the scenes" than movies portray.
  
• Favorite hotel/casinos so far (in no particular order)
  
• New York, New York
  
• Mandalay Bay
• Planet Hollywood
• This is the first developer conference I have been to with booth babes. I am not complaining, but it was odd to see.
  
• I don't think English is the primary language in this city
• Coffee must be the new crack
• Developers lined up 20/30 deep for free coffee
• Maybe it is the booth babes LiveOffice must have paid thousands for to pass out the coffee, but the lines were crazy.
  
• All establishments do an amazing job of making sure you have no real clue what time it is, and not just in the casinos. Even the shopping areas adjacent to the casinos are poorly lit. Overall, it is too dark and gloomy for me. I know I like to work with the lights off, but I don’t like to shop with no real light. Bellagio seemed to be the only one who used skylights to light the pathways between areas. Too bad it is outlandishly expensive.
• Where do all of these people get all of their money? It's just crazy the kind of cash some people throw around. I understand, and buy into, the "you can't win big, if you don't bet big", but it seems out of control here. I guess that is why the casinos are so big…
• The Latin Grammys are here at the Mandalay Bay on Thursday night. Sadly, my wife informed me that JLo is pregnant so her dress will be of the "flowing" type and not her normal style. Just my luck. At least there is Shakira...
  
• I love OneNote. No more scribbling on a notepad just to wonder what I meant to write a few weeks later. And it's searchable too.
• Sunday afternoons in a big sports book are quite enjoyable. Tons of big screens and lots of people cheering any big play in any game. Proposition bets will do that to you. Poor Dad lost two of them on the Monday night game.

From Enquirer.com: "We came here for selfish reasons," Kelly said, "and that is for my family. My wife, my family, we really love this area. It's not about jobs anymore. If you asked me at Central Michigan, yeah, I would tell you that we were looking for another opportunity there. I'm not of that same mind-set here."

Let's hope that my biggest fear about Coach Kelly's hiring doesn't ring true. After all, for decades UC served as a stepping stone job for dozens of big time coaches. I know of at least a dozen coaches that were at UC during my 5 years who are now head coaches or coordinators are "major" college programs or in the pros. Why won't Brian Kelly join them?

The only long-term hire that, I believe, would stay is a UC alum. Someone who TRULY loves UC. Hopefully Coach Kelly means what he says, but many have made that same statement. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

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It's amazing what a few wins strung together will do for a program. Apparently, Demetrius Jones, yeah the guy who started Notre Dame's season opener, is seriously considering a transfer to UC. Let's hope this one actually pans out, unlike Zach Frazer.

Apparently, the major hang-up is the lack of an open scholarship. Sure, that seems like a problem, but I am sure the smart people in UC's athletic department can figure something out. They better!!!

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During my years at UC, we had a couple of sell-outs, but mainly due to the big-time teams/players on the other side of the field (Tim Couch and Kentucky, Edge and Miami (FL), Ron Dayne and Wisconsin), . The one exception to that rule was a UC/Miami-Bastard-Redskin/Redhawk triple-OT classic (the greatest game I ever played in). Our teams sent many players into the NFL, set a few school/conference records, and even led the nation in a few statistical categories. But we couldn't sell-out on our own, no matter who in the top 25 we beat.

Don't get me wrong. As I said yesterday, you would be hard-pressed to see someone more excited about UC's new-found popularity than me and my family. We, especially me, are extremely loyal to our alma mater and their sports teams. However, the local Cincinnati fans are a bit more fickle. All of a sudden, Bearcat football is the hot ticket in town. Let's hope Coach Kelly keeps this thing rolling in a positive direction and sell-outs can become the norm. After all, it is only 35,000...

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I can't even begin to tell you how excited we are in the Anderson household that our Bearcats cracked the AP Top 25.

The big test will be in a couple of weeks when Big East play begins. Good luck fellas! We will be watching...

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