We tried to get to the DICE Awards show on time. Really, we did. But Ryan and I fell in step with Frank Cifaldi from Gamasutra on our way out of David Jaffe's talk. Well, first I had to do my write-ups. Then I started chatting with the fellow sitting next to me, who was Frank, and who happened to be a Las Vegas native.

After I sent in my write-ups and ran around a bit looking for people to talk to, we saw Frank again. "Want to get out of here?" he asked us. He said he was going to a real bar, off the strip.

I've been off the strip a few times. My band played here...twice, I think?? I can't remember. Anyway, we played in a couple of shitty hole-in-the-wall bars. Also, I've stayed with two people who both lived off the strip, one guy who was attending UNLV at the time, and another guy who was a professional...player, I guess. You couldn't call him a gambler, he'd say he doesn't gamble; he plays the odds. In fact he offered me a job being his partner. I have not yet taken him up on it.

In any case, Frank took me and Ryan to a bar that was near UNLV, but not exactly a college bar since another, cheesier bar closer to the university filtered out a lot of the students.

The bar was a dive, of course, which was perfect; and, according to Frank, it was the only bar in Las Vegas that didn't have a slot machine. And it didn't. It all felt very...real.

Frank seemed to know everyone at the bar. We walked in, we got beers on his tab (they boasted a library of 550 different beers) and sat down with Frank's childhood friend, Billy. Ryan and I happily tagged along for the ride down nostalgia lane as Frank and Billy caught up, spinning tales of what it was like to come of age in one of the stragest cities in the United States.

The strange thing is, I don't really like Las Vegas, really, but I have to say it's an exciting and fascinating place. There's a buzz of something in the air (money being lost?) but it's not just money, it's this odd sense of limitlessness, that anything is possible in this strange town.

Billy and Frank talked about the psychic waitress, the old friend from high school who swore he'd be president of the United States someday, and the doll's house (long story, ask Frank if you really want to know - don't think I could do it justice.) We sat and talked about growing up, Las Vegas, creative projects we wanted to pursue, and videogames.

Then it was time to go to the awards. We got lost on the way a little bit, but, pleasantly buzzed in the back seat watching all the neon lights go by, I really didn't mind.