reasons to be cheerful

Back from Vegas. IBIE was plenty overwhelming. There's just so much stuff to see. And Vegas was a blast, as always. Let's do the numbers...
Blisters formed: 1
Random vendors who talked to me cos my badge said "Whole Foods Market": 4
Chocolate fountains: 5
Robotic arms: at least 7 but I lost count (could be as many as 10)
Bakers I'd previously seen on Food Network: 1
Software companies that seemed interested in what I was saying: 3.5
Vendors giving out free doughnuts: 3
Software companies that didn't seem to give a damn what I was saying: 1.5
Cop cars rolling up to Frontier: 2
Slot machines played: many
Table games played: none
Money lost: yes
Fun had: yes
Celebrities at LV airport: 2
(...and now let us all honor our inner fanboy) This afternoon while walking to my gate at McCarran I walked past someone who looked familiar and did a double-take. It must have been a really obvious double-take because another guy walking towards me said "yeah, he looks familiar." At which point it clicked and I realized that I'd just walked past Teller, which isn't all that surpising in the LV airport. I figured he'd just flown in from somewhere. Continued on to my gate. While I'm waiting at the end of the group C line, I see a tall guy with long hair, dressed all in black walk by and up to the gate a few over. It's Penn Jillette. Of course it is. He walks over and sits down and starts reading the paper. I'm trying not to lose my shit and figure out whether I should go over and say something to him. No one else around seems to know or care that they are in the presence of greatness. And around this point, Teller shows up with a Subway sandwich bag and sits down next to Penn. My flight is only in pre-boarding. There's only about 4 people behind me anyway so I don't have much place in line to lose anyway. So I walked over and just said thanks to them for all the great stuff they've done over the years. Pretty lame. (by the time I was on the plane I was wishing I'd asked Penn how airport security was -- go find their website and read his brilliant rant on same) But, if in my heart I'd like to be the guy that said something memorably witty and cool when he came up to interrupt their conversation, I'm at least glad that I'm not the guy who was an annoying jerk, stuck a digital camera in their faces, and/or gibbered and drooled. Better to be unmemorably generic than memorably stupid.