It’s Raining in Downtown Las Vegas
Posted: 29/03/2023 Filed under: Big Tech,, Las Vegas, Lifestyle | Tags: Blog, Blogging, Blogs, Downtown Las Vegas, It’s Raining in Downtown Las Vegas, There’s no grass in the Vegas Valley, Vegas Valley, Writer, Writers, Writing Leave a commentI like the rain. Not too much, though. Back home, in Upstate New York, in the Saratoga County area, I used to sit on my back porch with a beer and watch the grass grow.
There’s no grass in the Vegas Valley or very little of it. The not-so-wise powers that be are in the process of pulling out all the grass and anything that uses water. I’m going to see what I can do about stopping that since it creates extreme hazards, health hazards and environmental hazards.
We’ve had more rain this year than in some years past. We have gone nearly full years without rain. For more than a decade the Vegas Valley along with much of the west and southwest have been in a significant drought. Lake Mead and the Colorado River where we get our water from has been low for years.
Vegas originated as a dust bowl and will return to an unhealthy dust bowl if we don’t find some powers that be with something between their ears besides empty space. The Vegas Valley already has major health problems from the massive dust. Those powers that be I was mentioning don’t do anything about it and they always seem to be hiring construction companies constantly to tear up the valley and create more dust, year after year.
They’ll spend a billion dollars on a project and a year later come along and tear it up again. And then the next year the same thing.
One year it’s the water pipes. Then it’s the 100-year flood and there is nowhere for the water to go so they build washes. Then they take the washes out and dig up the whole system again, claiming the sewer system underneath is 100 years ago and needs replacement. Then it is to out in a new bus stops for this train-like bus. That idea only lasted a year and many of those new bus stops were abandoned or ripped out. Then it’s the water system again. Now they are doing the sewer system again and driving cockroaches and rats and all the other critters that live down in the underground underworld up into our environment. I could write a weekly column on that nonsense, but I have too many other subjects already on the table for my weekly columns and I don’t have enough weeks to launch them all.
Dark Skies and Cloudy Weather Don’t Always Bring Rain or Snow to the Vegas Valley, but the higher elevations like up in Mount Charleston, usually get some.

I have a trilogy of weekly columns in the work-in-progress stage concerning the Twitter disaster and the Musketeers. Now I have plenty of material for that kind of weekly column. I suppose I could for the dust monsters, too, but I’ll just write my criticism of those certain officials that have no idea pf the major health problems they cause or the environmental damage they cause by destroying the greenery in order to conserve water. No, they know. They just don’t care. Once they set their minds to the wrecking ball, things get wrecked and that’s just the way it is.
In Vegas, things are always destroyed and the new takes its place. That is the way is and has always been and probably always will be.
I have tons of videos that I can show you where here in the Downtown Las Vegas 89101 area, the Maverick has mega tons of water run offs daily from outdated and mismanaged sprinkler systems. That water is wasted and with the runoff washing the dangerous toxic chemicals and filthy debris from the ground surface into the drain system, they are carrying with it a chemical toxicity and debris pollution into our drinking water supply. Clogged up storm drains become a hazard when flooding occurs during the monsoon season. Nobody cares. Nobody does anything about it. There is no security on premise, even though management lies and claims there is, there is no one monitoring or detecting the water breach, except me, of course. Police, county workers, lots of people drawing official pay checks drive right past it, see it, and never report it to their comrades in their utopia. Nope, not the union worker’s job. So mega tons of water is wasted and it’s been that way here in Downtown Las Vegas 89101 at the Maverick for years and years. That’s just one single apartment building. All around the city are signs of major water waste coming from apartment complexes, auto repair stations, residential homes and just about anywhere one looks. The Utopians do nothing.
Complaints after complaints to the local and state officials have dropped on unconcerned, uncaring and nonperforming bureaucrats that are cluttering our government positions and that refuse to come out of their offices and investigate complaints. I will step up the heat and spark some flames under their lazy butts in the coming days and weeks, like a blow torch or maybe like one of Elon Musk’s Boring Company flamethrowers, so there then, I will have plenty to write about. Which means you will have plenty to read.
The federal government isn’t so concerned about the dust problems as it so broadcasts, so We the People need to protect ourselves.
Dust is a contributing factor to heart attacks. I have been hospitalized three times since November 2022 for heart failure and lung failure with the area dust in this apartment and this neighborhood for the past year, a major contributing factor, not to mention the busloads of chain smokers that congregate outside my windows. For years this apartment complex used landscapers that used giant leaf blowers to blow debris instead of rake, shovel and garbage cans. They blew huge dust clouds which contributed to major health problems. Air pollution is a significant cause of heart attacks and respiratory shut down. Not one politician or bureaucrat in Las Vegas, Clark County, even the entire state of Nevada did one things to stop this gigantic cause of health problems. But I did. I don’t know if I stopped it yet, but I slowed it down some. But I am not finished yet. I can only move so fast and do so much with my not-so-good health and trying medical conditions. I’ll get there, I promise you that.
All these government entities spend millions on advertising yakking about clean air, yet they are one of the contributing factors to the air pollution here in the Vegas Valley and have been for decades. The federal government is just as inept.
The fallacy of local, state and federal government and agencies thereof to be do any to protect and serve the people is disgusting. Unionized, over fed, under worked and lazy government bureaucrats clutter up our office buildings, provide themselves with perks and luxuries the private sector can only dream about, like four day work week, young-age retirement and every holiday off including stub-your-toe days. Yet we the people must complain again and again for them to move and get anything done. They are not proactive. They are frozen like figures in ice and need to chip away and find a spot to warm up the can with the heat creating flamethrower that melts that ice and frozen, non-performing state of uselessness.
I’ll be talking more about the water shortage. Let me correct that. I’ll talk more about the MAN-MADE water shortage soon. And man-made isn’t gender pronoun shameful, plenty of women cause the water waste and the shortage too.
As I move on to other subjects, just so you know, many people complain about the Bellagio Las Vegas, the hotel and casino operation wasting water during this decades long drought and water shortage, with their spectacular fountains and ponds, but the water Bellagio uses if from their own water source, not the public system.
A simple drive by of the Maverick Apartments and Hidden Village one can see the runoff evidence even when the water isn’t running off at the moment, but the washed away stones. How many millions of gallons are lost per year?
Who uses the most water in the Las Vegas Valley? Take a look for the surprising answers from two local news groups:
TOP 215 WATER USERS IN VEGAS VALLEY
8 News Now.com I-Team Investigates. Top Water Users in the Las Vegas Valley Revealed
TOP BUSINESSES, CASINOS, GOLF COURSE WATER USERS
Top Water Users in Las Vegas Metro Area Revealed
I spoke yesterday about Natalie’s and Edgar’s water. I forgot to say how much better their water tastes and what a difference between their water and the tap water, which has an awful taste, even after boiling. Natalie’s and Edgar’s water is much better than vending machine water, too, which is about the same taste as tap water. I’ll set up a quick review in the future and for you tourist I’ll give you directions so you can go off strip and have yourself some ice cream.
Lights flicking, so I kind of rushed this post between unreliable Cox Communication AKA Cox Cable and the shoddy grid here in the Vegas Valley afraid the internet will go down. We’re not much further again than third world’s countries when it comes to internet service. Hurrying to get this post finished and my breakfast done before the lights go out or cable goes down. Hurrying writing is not a good thing, I am going to work on getting posts pre-scheduled and done right. I need to work ahead of time with a couple days to rest the articles and edit them with a fresh mind before publishing them.
Today, if the Cox system doesn’t go down or the lights don’t go out, I will be trying to figure out how to follow my followers back and how to leave likes. I know Firefox has a bunch of popup blockers and when I shut them off I can like, but I can’t follow.
I’m too old to be energetic enough to startup a new tech company, and I lack the educational skill to put one together without a talented team needed to succeed.
It’s too late for me but the Consultant would tell you that you young whippersnappers could create user friendly blogging platforms and other Big Tech companies and compete with these tyrants. You don’t even need to compete with the tyrants, just cut yourself out a niche and a support following to fill it and make things user friendly, easy, clean, and non-oppressive.
Why hide so many key functions? Why bury the essential things we need to perform our tasks such as the logout button being at the bottom of the page or needing several clicks to get to it? Why take out an entire generation of users just to make yourself feel smart and so clever you infuriate the customers or clients that feed your face?
Your customers make your paycheck and if you don’t understand that basic business fact, you are in a whale of trouble. Make things easy for them, not complicated and you will increase your revenue several folds. Most people are NOT like me. They often will not complain or tell anyone of their frustrations and dissatisfaction, they will just leave and never look back.
I often get accused of complaining too much. I don’t. I complain with a reason and a will to see a problem solved. I either offer solutions for fixing the problems I complain about or I communicate my disappointment with the people who can fix the problem.
Don’t show me how to use the complicated way to do a simple task, like to follow back the people that follow me and like the people who blogs I visit and read and want to contribute to their community. Instead, explain to me why you destroyed the once so simple system to begin with? Why did you install the hide-and-go-seek system that insults me?
Sure, I can figure it out if I take all day. You don’t have the right to hold me hostage, Big Tech, and take all of my time up. Following indicators should be right next to the bloggers name, indicating if they are following you and there should be a follow button right next to that so you can follow back, instantly. Period.
To like someone’s post ought to be simple, a one time click and done. Systems should be compatible with each other, if they are not there ought to be a gigantic poster saying something like FIREFOX IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH WORDPRESS. USE A DIFFERENT BROWSER.
Maybe Firefox has out lived its usefulness and needs to die off. I tend to believe Firefox is more to blame on the like button issue than WordPress, but I can’t make likes on any of my browsers. Again, unless it is the virus app, either way, their is communication problems between apps and systems that must be used together and that are incompatible with each other. It takes too long to figure out which company is guilty. That is not the way for Big Tech to treat their customers. They need to get together and learn the problems of their systems and platforms and fix them.
The problem with many Big Tech companies is that once they achieve ultimate performance the engineers and designers have nothing to do so they tinker with things, changing things and thus ruin the masterpiece they originally developed.
Open source or not, there comes a time when someone in top command must say, okay, this is it. We achieved state of the arts masterpiece don’t touch a thing. And be serious about it.
You youngins roll your sleeve up and go make the world a better place to live one step at a time. Just do it! Be a doer. Make things easy for people and not complicated and I promise you they will come running to you. Don’t copy others. That’s where misguided engineers fail. Instead of using their own innovations they copy others and usually they are copying bad systems. Be a leader. Be unique. I promise you, go back to basic and you will sleep better at night.
Because I am not a quitter and I go by the motto, never quit, I won’t quit. I will learn how to fix this substandard system of WordPress following and liking, be the blame with me, WordPress, Firefox, Chrome, Bing, Cox, Microsoft, my virus program and PC body guard, or some trolling gremlin. I will find the way. But even if I do, every word I said above still holds like concrete.
All you that follows me, liked my posts, I want you to know I appreciate it, I appreciate you and I am working on getting rid of whatever gremlin is interfering with our communication system.
Until then, stay dry. We need rain in the Vegas Valley and a lot of it. Not all at once. Just a nice slow drizzle for about 40 days and 40 nights. And people that are wasting water, STOP THAT!
Gordon Lightfoot, Rainy Day People with Lyrics
Tony Hsieh 1973-2020
Posted: 30/11/2020 Filed under: Las Vegas, News | Tags: Blogs, Downtown Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Tony Hsieh, Vegas Valley, Writer, Writing, Zappos Leave a comment12 December 1973 – 27 November 2020
Tony Hsieh, Las Vegas Super-Businessman, Dies at Age 46

(LAS VEGAS, NEVADA)—Las Vegas lost yet another brilliant-minded developer. A man with a vision that changed the local scene in Downtown, Las Vegas.
Born in Urbana, Illinois on 12 December 1973, Tony Hsieh died on 27 November 2020 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Just two weeks and one day from his 47th birthday.
The Las Vegas legendary super-businessman is said to have lost his life from complications of injuries sustained in a Connecticut housefire on 18 November 2020.
Like many sudden deaths of people dying before their time there has been a rush of speculation, sketchy and inaccurate reporting with changes occurring frequently.
We need to wait awhile and allow the family time for healing and privacy. It may be sometime before we have the full, accurate detail of what really happened to Tony Hsieh to take him at such a young age.
Then we will learn the full story.
There are many news reports of the tragedy one can find by simple searches.
There is a lot to learn about Hsieh’s life. Just when he was retiring from Zappos, a company he was CEO at for 21 years, his life was cut short.
Zappos online shoe and clothing company, based in Las Vegas, Nevada, was sold to Amazon in 2009 for over one-billion dollars.
Hsieh stayed on as CEO until on 24 August 2020 when he abruptly retired.
Zappos moved from nearby Henderson, Nevada to Downtown Las Vegas moving into the former Las Vegas City Hall when city officials vacated it after building the new City Hall at 495 South Main Street, Las Vegas.
Smoke inhalation and complications from injuries from the housefire on 18 November 2020 is said to have taken his life. It is said he died peacefully, with his family at his side.
It is always tragic when family loses a loved one, especially during the Christmas season.
I lost nearly my entire family during the Christmas season or near then, and no matter how much time passes there is always memories and moments of missing all those who have since gone.
We pray for Tony Hsieh and his family.
Take a few moments and search the history of this young man who began brilliant financial and business moves from a young age and follow his life to the end.
He was founder and developer of the Downtown Project, a Las Vegas redevelopment and startup company.
Tony Hsieh had just moved to Park City, Utah before the tragedy occurred. He traveled with his brother to Connecticut to visit.
Downtown Las Vegas and the Vegas Valley will mourn and remember Tony Hsieh for a long time to come.

News & Research Links About the Life & Death of Tony Hsieh
Patch (New London, Connecticut, online Newspaper) House Fire Story
13 KTNV Las Vegas: Cause of Death, Scanner, and Fremont Street Experience Honoring Tony Hsieh
13 KTNV Las Vegas News of Tony Hsieh’s Death
13 KTNV Las Vegas Nevada Leaders on Tony Hsieh’s Death
Zappos’ Building, the Former Las Vegas City Hall
Nick Swinmurn, Co-Founder of Zappos
Las Vegas Club Closed At Midnight
Posted: 19/08/2015 Filed under: Blog | Tags: Buskers, Casinos, Cliff Harrison, Downtown Las Vegas, Entertainers, Gaming, Las Vegas, Photography, The Las Vegas Club, Writer, Writing Leave a comment Las Vegas Club closed a few hours ago. After 86 years in Downtown Las Vegas she joins the other great Vegas casinos whose legacies come to an end. The 400-unit hotel of the Las Vegas Club has been closed for years. The table games closed over the weekend and slots stopped making noise shortly before midnight when everyone had to be out the door.The age-old hotel and casino was recently purchased by the owners of the D, the former Fitzgerald. Several commenters on the Las Vegas Review Journal thread mentioned they’d like to see the name “Las Vegas Club” stay, but that won’t happen. Derek and Greg Stevens owners of the D Las Vegas said they only purchased the real-estate and structure, not the business, the name or the player database. So that means the Las Vegas Club will open somewhere else and some other name will be attached to the new business when upgrades are completed.
The Stevens brothers also own 60% of the Golden Gate which is across the street, one of the original, if not the original casino in Downtown Vegas. The Stevens Brothers have renovated a few properties downtown and intend to continuing like transaction in the Fremont Street Experience area which has just had new rules put in place for the over abundance of street buckers that the City and casinos have been trying to run off for years.
Numerous complaints come in about the buskers, although for many we find them to be pleasant attractions. The city has been unable to drive the street entertainers out completely because the ACLU protects them for free speech. The Fremont Street Experience is private and public which makes it a complicated situation. But rumors have it that they will again attempt to drive off the buskers by creating expensive permits. When selfishness and greed dominates there’s little room for the little guy to survive. In the 86 years the Las Vegas Club has been running countless street performers made a living along its shadows. It wouldn’t hurt to just make some practical rules everybody can live with and then just get along. There is enough cash flow coming into town everybody can win. And the street buskers are like everybody and everything else, some people love them and some people hate them.
Complaint Letter
http://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/letters/letters-fremont-street-bad-experience
The Plaza at Fremont Street Experience
Posted: 29/05/2014 Filed under: Photography | Tags: Blogs, Casinos, Cliff Harrison, Cliff Harrison Photography, Downtown Las Vegas, Fremont Street Experience, Fun, Gallery, The Plaza, The Plaza at Fremont Street Experience, Travel, Vacation, Writing Leave a comment
The Plaza Hotel & Casino as seen from the Fremont Street Experience in Downtown, Las Vegas. This image was taken in 2010 just before the closing for renovations. The Plaza has since reopened.
Daylight Savings Time Begins Today
Posted: 09/03/2014 Filed under: Las Vegas | Tags: Blogs, Daylight Savings Time, Downtown Las Vegas, Fabulous Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NEWS, Vegas Valley Leave a commentLAS VEGAS (Vegas Valley.wordpress.com)–Day Light Savings Time begins today. Did you remember to set your clocks ahead? For some of us we don’t have to, the electronics does it for us, such as the clocks in our cell phones. Put we are still surrounded with old-school technology which takes effort to “spring ahead” those clocks and get us ready for more SUNSHINE!
It was fun watching the computer clock move from 1:59AM to 3:00AM in less than a keystroke. WARP Speed ahead.
As a reminder, it’s always a great idea to change those smoke detector batteries too, while resetting your clocks. Twice a year we do this during “spring ahead” and “fall back” time changes.
From Downtown Las Vegas, the world’s most creative & innovated news media center; giving birth to a world of fabulous ideas from the most fabulous city on the planet… no, in the universe.
Thank you for all the recent follows from supportive Vegas Valley Patriots & Campfire Community followers. We welcome you aboard and invite you to be fully involved with your voice in Vegas’ newest media endeavor. You are among the pioneers that will go down in history in the Halls of Journalism as the first members of the Vegas Valley Patriots & Campfire Community and the most faithful Vegas Valley media recipients.
SUNDAY, EARLY MORNING EDITION, 09 March 2014 (3:03AM PST)
Editing still in progress… Hey, it’s early, it’s alive, it’s super modern reality!
Eye-Opening Morning Headlines
Air force chief: Malaysia jet may have turned back KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) Mar. 9, 2014 4:54 AM ET
Our heart & prayers goes out to the families and loved ones of all 239 people aboard Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER flight MH370. It is tragic when any airliner is lost. It is even more tragic when an airliner vanishes without a trace leaving behind no factual explanation for its loss. We reserve conscious respect without speculation as we await actual discovery of evidence into the lost flight that went off the radar screen without warning. The mystery surrounding the fate of the passengers aboard flight MH370 is disturbing. Before commenting further, we will hold our thoughts, other than to say we are deeply sorrowed for the ones who lost someone on that flight bound for some unknown and unplanned destiny.
Why Malaysia Airlines jet might have disappeared Mar. 8, 2014 8:07 PM ET NEW YORK (AP)– The most dangerous parts of a flight are takeoff and landing. Rarely do incidents happen when a plane is cruising seven miles above the earth.
So the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines jet well into its flight Saturday morning over the South China Sea has led aviation experts to assume that whatever happened was quick and left the pilots no time to place a distress call.
It could take investigators months, if not years, to determine what happened to the Boeing 777 flying from Malaysia’s largest city of Kuala Lumpur to Beijing….
Related Resources & Information
Flightstats.com
Malaysia Airlines Plane, Flight MH370, Goes Missing (The World Post)
The Miracle of Flight 571 from JX Writings WordPress Blog
Duck Duck Go SEARCH: Malaysia Airlines MH370
Flight Radar 24 .com
Vegas Valley
On 1 June 1962, The Everly Brothers, under the Warner Brother’s label, released their song, Ebony Eyes. It was a story sang about an ebony-eyed love one lost in the dark skies during a tragic flight into an unknown destiny. Heartfelt, this song must reflect some idea of the chills that run through the human body when such fate is announced to the loved one waiting for their arrival. We pray, that somehow under the Heavens, these souls can find comfort and solitude for the agony they now endure while they and the world waits for the news of what happened to flight MH370.
Other News from Around the World, Around the Clock
How the War on Drugs Hurts Mexican Women (The World Post)
Skydiving Accident Near Fatal When 87-year-old Pilot’s Plane Becomes Entangled in Skydiver’s Parachute, Both Escape Serious Injuries or Death (Associate Press Photos with Spectacular Images Included.)
Pilot Killed in Fallon, Nevada Fighter-Jet Crash Is Identified (AP)
32-year-old pilot, Marine Captain, Reid Nannen, was flying out of Fallon, Nevada in a U.S. Marine F/A-18C fighter jet on loan to the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, according to the Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, when it crashed a week ago, Saturday, 01 March 2014. Nannen was on a training exercise in the western Nevada region when the jet fighter went down. Weather and location delayed search & rescue operations for the downed fighter and its pilot. Rescue workers encountered a snow storm in remote, mountainous terrain before reaching the crash site where Nannen perished. The Navy range training complex where Nannen’s fighter jet went down is east of the Fallon Naval Air Station. Fallon is located in Western Nevada.
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