Today was my last official day of work at the Center for Legal Aid Education (née Legal Aid University), where I’ve been employed since 2003 or so. (The exact start date is hazy because the organization started out as a project, incorporating independently in Jan 2006). While I officially left Mass Law Reform Institute last October to become a fellow at the Berkman Center, I hadn’t yet said goodbye because CLAE shares space with MLRI.

Working on the Website Project at MLRI was an astonishingly good opportunity for someone had just graduated law school in 2002 with a technological bent and an interest in the public good — even more so considering that the dot-com bust had wiped out so many other similar options. (Ironically, I found the job reading a paper copy of the Boston Globe’s help wanted section). Helping found LAU/CLAE — launched with a grant awarded only months after I started at MLRI — was an even sweeter serendipity. I had fallen in love with online instructional design in my last year of school while taking a course at Harvard’s Ed School, but chances of my ever using what I’d learned were slim until that Technology Initiative Grant arrived.

I’m excited to be moving on to the next phase of my career, but I’m also glad to be leaving at a moment when, I believe, CLAE is about to hit a major positive inflection point. Things are looking good for the Center for Legal Aid Education (news of a new Big Deal will be on the site soon), and I hope to remain involved with its future success.

So let’s say your “four-star” tourist-trap hotel decides to close its spa and gym… where to go on the Vegas Strip (the new one) when you don’t want to fork out $10 for the “discount rate” at the hotel’s “sister establishment”? You go out the door and into the desert air for a brisk run.

(The reviews of NYNY are correct, btw: they will try to bait-and-switch you on your room type).

There’s a few tricks to surviving the Strip:

1. Head out early. At 6am, it was a cool 75 degrees. I took off late (confident that there was a gym), so it was a good 90 degrees. Still, there were quite a few other gonzo runners — I passed maybe 10.
2. Take the east side — after an abortive attempt to cross Interstate 15 (what was I thinking?), I went from MGM to Wynn and back. The shade of these megaliths will keep you relatively cool. (The lack of humidity helps)
3. Fit in every nook and cranny you can. There are plenty of little plazas where you stick to the shade, and some of them offer fans and, of course, blasts of air conditioning. (What an environmental disaster this place is!)
4. Stay hydrated. I neglected to bring a water bottle, but the dry air will parch you quickly. Worst case scenario, though, ducking into a casino’s rest room would be a viable refresher.
5. Don’t come to Vegas to run!

My total mileage for today was ~5, in about 45 minutes. Not bad

Here I am in New York, New York… Vegas. I’m in town for the 2007 Conference for Law School Computing. I can’t say I’m a big fan of Vegas — the Fountains at Bellagio are truly sinful in the midst of a desert — but as I cyclist I do appreciate this piece of cycling advocacy. In fact, Greenwich St has a tiny, one-block bike lane, but the fact that a fantastical version of New York includes cyclists has to be a Good Thing.

Here’s a pic for my friend Toe, who enjoyed the Oxygen Bar back in ’99, when it was still a cart sitting outside one of the resort hotels.