Thursday, January 31, 2008

I want to be apart of it...Newark, Newark

I spent the past 4 days in NJ for training w/ 2 guys on my project.
Here are some key learnings:

1. I really underestimated the size of the Newark airport.
2. I am glad I did not go to Rutgers (the town was dead).
3. There are too may toll roads in NJ.
4. A GPS was a great idea but falls apart when there is construction.
5. The turnpike smells, sometimes it is swamp and sometimes it is trash.

The training course was given by 2 professors who have been giving this training for 30 years (Purdue and Michigan). It was one of the best training courses I have attended. The format made the days go by quickly. Each professor talked for about 90 min on a subject then they switched so it really broke up the day and the material.

The first night we decided to hit up Atlantic City.


Atlantic City was 2 hours away but when will I ever be in the area again?
We chose the Borgata, because my friend Ken said it was the closest to a Vegas style casino. It was really nice:



They were filming a World Poker Tour Tourney but we didn't see anyone famous. I also had my first Fatburger which was OK but not great. Overall Atlantic City was bigger than I thought, but nowhere near on par with Vegas. It has the beach, but it seemed like you had to drive more to get to each casino.

The second night we decided to hit up a NJ Nets game as they played Dale's Bucks.



It became an exciting game at the end but overall each team did play well. It was like watching street ball. I had to text Dale to find out how bad the shooting percentages were. I was very close on my guess of low 30's. The stadium held 17,000 and I see why it is used a lot for the NCAA games. It was easy to get in and out and there wasn't a bad seat. This picture was taken from the 2nd to last row on the side.

Now I am glad to be home. I haven't had a full week at work yet, too much travel and training (Toronto, local training, NJ, and Toronto next week).