I want to talk about the new Bin Laden video. It was really surprising to hear him speaking directly to the American people without simply making vague threats. It turns out that his values are very similar to ours! He wants security and freedom. His message was basically, "we will leave you alone if you leave us alone". Airing the tape days before the election was a huge blow to president Bush. It tells the American people that after 3 years of searching, we still can't find him. Maybe if we hadn't diverted so many troops to Iraq, he would have been caught.

Tonight Emily and I saw the movie Saw. There is no good way to say that. Maybe I should say that we watched the movie Saw. Anyway, the acting sucked but the plot was amazing. Definitely worth seeing for a good scare.

Is everyone ready for the election scandal of 2004? I sure am. I can't wait for the ballots to disappear, the polling places to move, the allegations of voter fraud, and the recounts. Our country is already seen as a bunch of incompetent trigger happy buffoons. The upcoming election is only going to make it worse. If we can't hold fair elections in this county, how can we ever hope to impose a stable democracy on other countries. How can our democracy ever be considered legitimate, when the person who wins the popular vote doesn't win the election? When some voters count more than others (for example, in Wyoming they have about 70,000 people to each electoral college vote, while California has over 200,000 people for each electoral college vote)? When candidates will only campaign in swing states, because they are the only states that matter? We must update our democracy for the 21st century. The electoral college was setup in a time when people were too ill informed to make their own choices. Are we still ill informed? Maybe we are. Television commercials are the basis of our political decisions and the debates are little more than alternating speeches. The candidates must pander to the corporations that donate the most money and refuse to take a stance on issues that might disenfranchise voters in their key constituencies. Political parties limit the issues to simple black and white sound bites. Candidates are pigeonholed into the ideals of the party. The country is more polarized than ever. Forced to chose between the extremes. Making choices based on what candidates say rather than what they do.

I would support Bush on economic issues, if I made a decision solely based on what he says. I agree with his policy of lowering taxes to help small businesses create jobs and grow the economy. However, I will never support Bush, because he does not do what he says. He has given enormous tax breaks, corporate welfare and no bid contracts to the largest companies in the country. This works against small businesses and the average citizen, because it stifles the economy and rewards large companies for shipping jobs overseas. The result is the largest deficit in history. I will be paying off his mistakes for the rest of my life.

Emily and I have begun seriously working on the "Oral History Video" idea for our company. We made a long list of questions and are working on the advertising materials.

We had my parents over this weekend for Biketoberfest. It was the typical mix of alcohol, exhaust, confederate flags and cheap leather. I saw many more Japanese bikes than I have in the past. A sign of growing tolerance? Who knows. We didn't stay very long though. The bikes were largely unimpressive and the crowd was obnoxious. For the real bike week, we are going to invite Emily's parents to come stay with us and neglect to tell them about the bike rally just to freak them out.

Emily and I went to a Real Estate meeting with my mom last night. It was very interesting - the members come from all different backgrounds and facets of the business. We didn't stay very long, but we were there long enough to meet some of the major people and hear the best deals of the month. When we get our DVD business up and running, we are going to invest in a house, fix it up and resell it. The business seems exciting.

We are starting to get calls from our magazine ads. I wasn't expecting to get anything until our big glossy ads came out, so it's good to know that the smaller ads are working. The guy who is setting up our merchant account (so we can accept credit cards) came out for a meeting on Wednesday. Noting important, just some paperwork. We should have our credit card machine up and running some time next week.

I have been writing a story. It was originally going to be a novel, but I finished the story arc in only 30 pages, so maybe I'll use it as the treatment for a script. I don't know if I'm capable of writing a full novel yet. My last script was the longest thing I have ever written (126 pages), so maybe after writing a few more, I will be ready for something longer.

I have a nail in my tire. Stupid roofing work. I went to Tire Kingdom to get it fixed, but they said that I needed to replace the tire because the nail is in the side. I was afraid of that. Abe said he might be able to get me a deal. I will just have to drive to Orlando with the nail sticking out, and hope for the best.

Biketoberfest is this weekend. The city is already full of bikers. They roar up and down our street all night. I probably won't get a good night sleep until next week. This weekend my parents are going to come to the beach. We'll probably go watch the festivities near main street. Should be fun. I haven't seen a big bike rally in a few years.

I bought a new camera for $3 from a garage sale. It is an old Kodak folding camera from the 1920s. Shoots 120 film in the 6x9 aspect ratio. I have already shot a test roll and the pictures came out nice. I took some pictures at the beach last night (time exposures) and today. Trying to get some sweeping panoramas. They should come out well with such big negatives. I haven't even been shooting 35mm anymore. Can't stand the tiny size of the exposures. Although, it is annoying to scan the medium format film with Emily's scanner, because it is a flatbed and it always cuts off the edges of the film.

I'm thinking of changing the layout of my site again. I want to scale it down to just the blog, with the photos inserted below my text. That way it will be like a photo diary, with the photos in chronological order. What do you think?

Have you gone outside lately? I should revise that question... Have you gone outside lately in Florida? It is amazing. Just a few days ago it was hot and muggy. Suddenly it is cool and breezy. Just beautiful. I was actually shivering last night. And for the first time since I moved back down here, I had to break out the long slave shirts.

I heard that Bush was holding a rally in Daytona today. I wanted to go, just to see why anyone would even consider voting for him (maybe he has some kind of magical aura when your are in his presence, or something). But it turns out that you must declare your allegiance to lord Bush before receiving a ticket. As a registered independent, I would probably not be admitted. It seems strange though. Why even hold rallies? He is just traveling the country preaching to the quire. Wouldn't his time be better spent doing presidential things? Oh wait. We wouldn't want him doing that; he might screw things up even worse.

I have been reading Iraqi blogs for the last couple hours. Blogs from both sides, soldiers and citizens. Hearing what they have to say about daily life and the decisions of our government. Their lives are basically shit. Both sides having to deal with the brutal deaths of their friends and family members. Both sides constantly living in uncertainty. Constantly having to worry about their own safety. Knowing that their lives could end at any second. No warning. Only hope and faith sustains them. It is amazing how similar the two sides are.

Who is to blame for this inhuman situation? George Bush is the easy choice, but it is much more complicated than that. Going to war with the "terrorists" in Afghanistan was the logical reaction to 9-11. If we find the people who attacked our country, we might avert more attacks. Iraq, however, was a completely different situation. Bush turned his attention to Iraq before he was finished in Afghanistan. The mission was never accomplished! He tried to find Bin Laden and failed. Then he stopped trying. Iraq was a diversion.

He went into Iraq expecting to find WMD. Expecting to "liberate" the people and create a model democracy. Expecting the Iraqis to receive him with open arms. It's never that easy. Saddam Hussein was a terrible dictator, but storming in with a huge army and taking over the county by force is the wrong way to win over the people. Hans Blix and the UN weapons inspectors did not find any weapons. Iraq was not an imminent threat. There was no reason to attack! The whole situation could have been averted if Bush had not given up the search for Bin Laden. In my lifetime, I have not seen a worse failure.

The Iraqis' first glimpse of democracy was guns, tanks, bombs and blood. How do you expect them to embrace democracy when this is their first impression? It was no different than what they saw under Sad am. Americans continue to be shot, bombed and beheaded because we are seen as invaders waging war on their religion and their lifestyle. Americans will never be safe in the Middle East until long after we have withdrawn our army. We are not fighting terrorists, we are creating them. Ideology can not be fought with an army, but that is exactly what we are trying to do. America spends more on our military than the next six countries combine. Yet we could not stop 9-11.

Our military is stretched thin, but the budget keeps expanding. It sickens me to think that a bullet purchased with my tax money is now embedded in some Iraqi's head. Innocent people are dying every day and our tax money is fueling it. How much longer is it going to last? Bush has no exit plan! We have no plan to withdraw our troops, even after the Iraqi elections.

We must fix the problems in our own country before taking on the role of world savior. Our schools are under funded, cancer, heart disease, and AIDS kill more people than terrorists ever could, our democracy is a sham (what happened to one man, one vote?), we are facing a huge energy crisis, the environment is falling apart, and we are severely neglecting our own borders. We must get out of Iraq and address our own problems.

Our first ad came out! It's very exciting, but we need to make some changes. The type in the body of the ad is a bit too small. Not too small for normal people; too small for old people. I never thought it would be such a pain to get all the ads in the papers. Each one wants a slightly different size or file format. Then, when you think everything is right, then send it back and say "we can't open the file" or "your ad is off by 1/8th of an inch." Very frustrating.

We haven't received any calls about the ad yet, but we're still hopeful considering it just came out a couple days ago. Plus, all of the marketing books say that people need to see the ad 3 times before responding.

We finally got our a/c fixed. Oh my god! It was terrible. Like sitting in an oven for four days. I didn't eat or sleep the entire time. Just sat around being miserable. It was actually cooler outside (85 degrees) than it was inside and opening windows didn't help. How can those people in Afghanistan and Africa and wherever else they don't have a/c stand it? I would just kill myself. I've never taken as many showers than I have this last week. You know it's bad when you can put an ice pack directly on your skin and still not be cool. I'm sure it sounds like I'm a whiny bastard. But you weren't here. You don't know how bad it was.

Happy Birthday Lindsey!

I have shot two rolls of film with my new Holga. Yesterday, I dropped them off in the drop box of a local photo lab. Today, I got a call from the lab. They said that the developing machine was broken, so I need to pick up my film. Instead of taking the rolls to a different lab, I bought some chemicals and developed them myself (something I haven't done in a while). It was fun! And the pictures came out nicely. Check them out here.

It is hot as hell in this house. Emily and I have been having air conditioning problems ever since we got back from evacuation. A repair man came out on Wednesday and tried to fix it. On Thursday it was obvious that it wasn't fixed. Another guy came out yesterday and found a freon leak. He couldn't pinpoint the leak, so a third guy had to come today. This guy found the leak, but it was in the coil. No easy fix. Our choices are to repair the coil ($700-$800) or replace the entire outside unit. That's probably what we are going to do, because it is terribly corroded and will need to be replaced soon anyway. It totally sucks. We haven't slept in days and we stick to everything we touch.

I honestly think Kerry won the debate. And not just because he can speak clearly and in complete sentences. George Bush has not come up with any new ideas since 9/11. He has been saying the same crap and making the same mistakes ever since! Can he really serve for 4 more years on the same platform? His administration has already done enough damage to the economy and our relationship with the rest of the world. I don't want to see how bad it could get.

In other news, Emily and I have finished placing ads in all of the local papers. They will begin arriving at people's homes in about a week, but we probably won't start seeing business from them for a few weeks. I've read that people must see our ad at least three times before they act.