Em and I spent most of the day scanning photos for our new ads, which are being created by Grandesign. At around 5pm we went to Home Depot and picked up some vegetable and herb plants - tomato, green pepper, broccoli, basil, sage, camomile, and some other stuff which I can't remember at the moment. We came home and planted it in a small plot in the back yard. Piggy ripped up and ate one of the broccoli plants right after we finished.

Emily, Turtle, Piggy and I spent the holidays in Dallas with Emily's dad, step mom and sisters. They are all very good cooks, so we sat around eating the entire time. Well almost the entire time. Between meals we managed to go ice skating, visit the Fossil office where Emily's sister works, check out Emily's dad's new boat and see The Aviator (which was excellent). Turtle and Piggy were annoying the crap out of us by chasing the cats around and getting into trouble.

I spent new years at Danny Berger's party and January first at De Leon Springs State park. We ate pancakes at the Sugar Mill and debated the existence of Woolly Mammoths in Florida (there weren't any, but there were giant sloths).

Yesterday I went to the British Pub on 436 with Abe and Jamie. We met up with all the people I use to hang out with in high school. It was really cool to see all of them. I hadn't seen most of them in years. Not too much has changed. Most of them are still in school, working, etc. Doing the same stuff as always. I was glad to see everyone and hear about what they've been up to...

Spent most of the day today putting up a fence in the backyard with Emily and John Sheridan. It was nice to do some manual labor and have something to show for our work. The fence cane out really well. Now the yard actually feels like our own. We have some privacy and a place for the dogs to play. It even feels bigger. And one of our neighbors gave us some patio furniture that she was going to throw out. No more sitting on the ground.

It's been a busy week. Lots of dubs, lots of scans and lots of calls to make. I played traveling salesman again today. Went to every office park and doctor's office I could find. Probably handed out 250 or 300 flyers. Now we're almost out of flyers. This morning we had a meeting with Grandesign to see our new business identity. It looked really good, definitely captured the essence of our business. Tonight we had our first meeting to try and sell a Lifetime Tribute Video to someone we didn't already know. It went OK, but it was a little awkward. Neither Emily or I are very good at small talk and we didn't know our product well enough to really sell it, so we stumbled through the sales pitch. Oh well, we'll get better with time.

It's my birthday again. It always seems to happen around this time every year. It didn't really feel like a birthday though. Usually I feel like it's a special day, but not this year. It was probably because I was so busy all day, which is good of course. Suddenly the business has really picked up. We made our weekly goal and more for the first time last week. Today we are already well on our way to another good week. Emily and I have been working all day, every day to get these orders done. It doesn't feel like work though. Working for myself doesn't really seem like working at all. It's great. I just feel very free.

I played traveling salesman today, getting dressed up in a shirt and tie, driving around to various doctor's offices and law offices to pass out flyers. I don't mind doing it. I even got some business out of the trip. Doing a pickup on Wednesday. Tomorrow I will be making phone calls all day. I have been excited about starting yoga classes. It is something I never thought I would do, but suddenly I am very interested. I really need to just get out of the house sometimes and exercise. Too much sitting in front of the computer lately.

We just finished moving into the new apartment. It is absolutely perfect. Not to small and not a piece of crap like our other apartments. We have all of the amenities we need without having to pay too much in rent ($739) and without living in someone's basement. What's even better is that we don't have anyone above or below us. It's not a typical apartment building. More like a duplex. We even have our own little back yard. I love it.

Spent all day yesterday traveling - Woke up at 7am, ate at the lodge, drove back to Las Vegas, ate at the Rio (the food was pretty bad), waited around at the airport, caught a flight to Dallas and finally back to Orlando sometime after midnight. On the plane, dad, Emily and I wrote an article about Big Picture DVD for the Heritage and for Lake Mary Life Magazine. Mom revised and rewrote the article. It came out pretty well. Today the woman who was suppose to interview us from Lake Mary Life magazine canceled again.

Emily and I picked up the dogs first thing in the morning and ran errands for the rest of the day. I got a haircut for the first time in months. I hate getting haircuts. Now we're packing and cleaning to prepare for tomorrow's move.

Slept like crap last night, because of the obvious. Got woken up by my parents banging pots and pans together. It put me in a bad mood for hours. At 9am Emily, Lindsey, Dad and I learned to ride ATVs. I never imagined that such a redneck sport could be so much fun. We went through back woods trails. Muddy and exciting. Then we rappelled off the top of the rec center building. Emily was terrified. Lindsey got her hair stuck in the belay device. After lunch we hiked around Zion National Park, took pictures and climbed the rocks. Then more ATV riding. This time on a more advanced trail. Dinner was the typical ranch food. I didn't like it very much, but everyone else did. When we got back to the cabin, the snow storm started and lightning knocked out the power. We fumbled around in the dark for a while, before the guy who runs the place brought us some lanterns

Checked out of the hotel around 10am. Ate breakfast at some random bagel place with really good food. After breakfast, we went to Bank of America and saw an unoccupied car rolling through the parking lot backwards. I ran out and stopped it. Someone went inside to find the owner. An old Asian woman came out, thanked me profusely and told me that her head was spinning because her daughter died yesterday.

We drove 4 hours to Zion Ponderosa, a ranch style resort. We're staying in a cozy cabin overlooking the mountains. Emily and I are sleeping on the floor.

Slept well for the first time in months. Ate breakfast at the Paris Hotel. I had vanilla bean french toast, which was good. After breakfast we walked around the Venetian Hotel, looked at the shops and rode the gondolas. The hotel would be like the real Venice, if the city was owned by Disney. We walked to the New York Hotel, rode the roller coaster and ate at one of the delis at the hotel. Now we're back at the room relaxing before Thanksgiving dinner.

Later- We wanted to go to the Paris Hotel's buffet, but it was full when we got there. Ended up eating at some random hotel restaurant. I hate holidays. They're a pointless excuse to over indulge and buy pointless crap. Went to the Cirque du Soleil show called "O". It was fantastic. Gymnastics, water, music, crazy costumes and near death experiences. Lindsey, Emily and I went to the Broadway casino after the show. We played slots and Blackjack. Amazingly Lindsey won $20, Emily won $10 and I broke even.

Woke up at 7am. Took the dogs to the vet for boarding, it was very sad. I hate having to leave my dogs there. Hope they'll be ok. Ate donuts and coffee for breakfast. Met my parents at home drove to the airport. Breakfast made me sick, so I had to run to the bathroom when we got there. The was long and uneventful. They showed the Stepford Wives, which was surprisingly good, but I would like to see the original. Got into Las Vegas and found out that Lindsey had missed her flight. She took a second flight to Dallas and should be here around 7pm. We're staying at the Bellagio. It is freaking ridiculous. I have never seen such a large and extravagant hotel. As we drove into Vegas, I marveled at the plastic glamour of the city. It's like an alternative reality. Like being in a movie. Emily got me tickets to George Carlin for my birthday. I can't wait. He's my favorite comedian.

Later- We ate dinner at the Bellagio's buffet. I have never seen so much food in one place. Except maybe at the supermarket. And I don't think I've ever eaten as much in one sitting. It didn't seen like that much though, because we spaced out the courses. Everything was good. We met up with Lindsey at the MGM Grand, just before George Carlin took the stage. He was amazing. Most of the routine centered on his idea for a suicide TV channel. Hilarious. After the show, we walked down the strip and marveled at the campy, consumerist trash that is the strip. I was amazed and horrified. I can see how this place can get real old real fast, but for some reason I never want to leave. Everyone tries to look and act like they have money. But the casinos are the only ones who really do.

I have moved ten times in the last five years. I'm sick of it. Hopefully I will stay in the new apartment for a while. Em and I have started packing re-packing our stuff to prepare for the move. We brought everything except our clothes and business stuff downstairs and started taping up the boxes. Luckily most of our stuff is still in boxes, so we won't have too much to pack.

Oh, and we got Franklin Covey planners. Holy crap! I am addicted. I don't know how I survived without it. My hands were covered with notes, my pockets were full of little scraps of paper and I forgot every appointment I ever made. Now I have a nice little book that tells me everything I need to know and gives me plenty of room to write any notes. Never again will I have to rely on my defective memory. I have purchased three other planners in the last five years, but I never used them. Or I used it for a few weeks then stopped. This one is an hundred times better than any of the others because it actually give me room to write. It has a page a day, complete with room for a to-do list, appointment schedule and a whole page of notes.

I spent most of the day buying stuff for the new apartment. Em and I got a new mattress. A good one this time. Our last one was a piece of crap foam mattress that we got at Ikea. It gave us permanent back problems. We went to Appliance Direct for a washer/dryer. It was exciting because we have never bought appliances before. We ended up getting some high quality brand name units with slight dents, for a very good price. I just hope they work.

In the early evening, we went to the Salvation Army to help my dad with his new photography project. He will be visiting the Salvation Army every couple weeks for the next few months, taking pictures of the people who come to the soup kitchen and eventually holding a gallery show to raise money for the organization. Today was the first day. The people were pretty skeptical; they thought we were from America's Most Wanted or something. We were able to convince five people to sit for pictures. Hopefully we will build trust over time.

Em and I stopped by the printer this morning, before going to Orlando. They were suppose to have our business cards and order forms done last Friday, but they still weren't done. We are suppose to bring our Heritage insert to their office on Wednesday morning. The printer promised us that they could have it done and they better do it on time. We did a pickup in Casselberry before heading over to our new apartment to drop off our deposit. The people in the office at the new apartment were disorganized. They couldn't find our file, so it ended up taking much longer than it should. All I wanted to do was give them money! We were a little late meeting my grandma at my parents' house. We were there to reshoot the Lifetime Tribute Video demo (the original was poorly lit). It took us a while to set up the lights correctly, and it still didn't look as good as we wanted them to. We just have to buy better lights. By the time everything was set up and Grandma started talking, I had to go drop off the Photo Slide-Show that we had been working on. When I got home, the interview was over. I made chicken for dinner tonight. It didn't come out that well because it was kosher chicken and I didn't have enough coals for the grill (so it was crappy tasting and undercooked).

My parents had a brunch for some of the top photographers in the state (Greg and Lesa Daniel, Tim Kelly, and Peter Burg). Em and I went to play Cash Flow, but we never ended up playing. Instead we got some really good advice from the photographers; they target the same people we do and they've been doing it for much longer than we have. Basically they said that we should make our product really high class and up the price. Sounds good to me. Now we have to look into designers to help with our image.

I am obsessed with news. Most days I will spend up to three hours reading online news stories. I read major newspapers, TV news web sites, foreign news (including Algazeera and BBC), independent news, blogs and weird news sites. It is really a problem. I waste way too much time reading that crap. So, I have made a decision. I will only read one news source, the New York Times. By limiting myself to one source, hopefully, I will limit the amount of time I spend reading this crap.

Our 1/4 page ads finally came out in the big glossy magazines. Already we have gotten more calls from them, then from all of the smaller ads combined. Either our small ads were too small to read or the nice magazines are better at attracting serious customers.

A couple days ago, Em and I conducted a video interview of Grandma Lil. She gave a nice interview, full of interesting stories. Yesterday we spent the entire day editing a rough cut. It looks very good and my parents were impressed. My sister was in for the weekend. She slept over here last night, but got in too late to hang out.

Today, Em and I conducted another video interview for Marc Schwartz's grandmother. This interview was much more difficult; her family members were seated far apart while asking the questions. It was almost impossible to mic them all at once. The grandmother couldn't remember much about her history (she is 98 years old), but she was in good spirits, so it didn't really matter. Editing will be a bitch. I have no idea how we will cut together a coherent video. We'll just have to do our best...

I finished writing the short story I was working on (it wasn't suppose to be a short story, but it just turned out that way). I have been working on typing it into my word processor, but progress has been slow. Copying and editing the text just doesn't hold my interest. Next time I will just type the damn thing to begin with. It is 30 pages hand written. So far, I have typed maybe 15. Hopefully it will be done soon and maybe I will post it. But don't hold your breath

Congratulations to George Bush for winning the election (he even got the popular vote this time, way to go buddy!). The real loser this time is not John Kerry, it is the American people. My prediction is that the deficit will grow larger, more Americans will die overseas, and we will soon be barred from leaving the country because no one will want the dirty infidels stepping on their holy soil. I digress, we are suppose to respect the democratic process and put our full support behind the President (even if he was elected by a bunch of war loving rednecks, who voted for him based on biblical morality and the guise of patriotism). Sorry, I got off topic again. Maybe I should stop writing about politics for a little while.

Emily and I have been busy redesigning our business card sized ads. We realized that the text was too small, so we had to change the layout (I should say, SHE had to change the layout around - I don't deal with design issues). Our quarter page ads finally came out in the nice glossy magazines. They look really good and will hopefully attract some new customers. Yesterday, we shot a Lifetime Tribute Video of my grandma to use as a demo. The interview came out very well. Now we're working on editing it.

Lindsey is coming down this weekend. She'll probably come to the beach this weekend. Should be lots of fun! Oh, and yesterday Emily and I signed a lease on our new apartment! We have been looking for months, and finally found the right one. It is a villa style apartment (like a one story town house), no neighbors above or below us, a nice little fenced in back yard, a very large bedroom and a perfect space for our business. Plus, the rent is cheap and it has everything we were looking for. I can't wait to move in!

Whoever wins the election, I hope we don't have four more years of lies, deceit, unjustified wars, corruption, expanding government and inflated budget deficit.

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.

Presidential debates start tomorrow. But can they really call it a debate? With all the preparations and rules, it's really more like alternating speeches. A real debate would 1. Include all the candidates (including 3rd parties) 2. Allow the candidates to address eachother 3. Eliminate all of the rules 4. Put the candidates on the spot.

I don't even want to watch this mockery of democracy. Here's what will happen: John Kerry will try to cement his "new" positions (you have probably all noticed how he has tried to differentiate himself in the last few weeks). George Bush will attempt to string together coherent sentences, but fail miserably. I already know who I'm voting for (Kerry - I'm just voting for him because I really don't want Bush to serve a second term).

Grrr. You know what's kind of annoying? Having no cable and no internet. You know what's really annoying? Having cable and internet, and getting snatched away, forcing you to stay on hold with the stupid company for hours. And the company, which we will call "Brighthome Networks", taunts you with the audio from the TV news while you are on hold. Then you're stuck sitting in front of the computer, because that's where the phone is, with nothing to do except write in your stupid blog. Then it gets worse; the "Brighthome Networks" representative tells you that there is no outage. It could just be a glitch in the system, so they can't help.

The third storm is over. We are hurricane veterans now. This one actually wasn't that bad. Again we were evacuated and went to my parent's house. Friday night Em and I joined my parents at temple, which was just as boring as ever. We sat around all day yesterday and came back to the beach tonight. The power stayed on at both houses and we only lost cable and phone for about 24 hours.

My Holga came! I've been having lots of fun shooting random stuff. I was hoping to take some pictures of the destruction, but there wasn't much where we live.

We took our boards off the windows right after Hurricane Francis, but left them on the balcony until two days ago. Big mistake. Two days ago, Hurricane Jeanne was predicted to go to the Carolinas. Suddenly the track changed, so we spent most of the day today getting sand bags and dragging the boards out of the garage and up the stairs.

I'm sick of hurricanes. I really am. They just need to stop. On top of everything, Em and I just spent over $200 re-stocking our fridge. We are going to take all the food and video equipment to my parents house to "hunker down". That's another thing. Those stupid news people and city leaders are always telling everyone to "hunker down" because the storm is "bearing down" on us. Is hunker even a word? What the hell does it mean? It sounds like the position you get in to take a dump.

Emily and I ordered two Panasonic DVD recorders from Jr.com for our business. One with a built in VHS deck, for small orders and one with a hard drive for large orders. The latter was suppose to be here two days ago. It wasn't. So I called the company and it turns out that the unit was discontinued three days ago. I think that if I hadn't called, I would have been waiting for it forever. We had to cancel the original order and purchase the newer version, which won't come until next week.

Yay! More hurricanes! The National Hurricane Center is saying that Hurricane Jeanne is coming. It already killed almost 2000 people in Haiti. I can't wait for it to come here!

Sprint must be the worst phone company ever. They are completely incompetent. A family of monkeys would do a better job. I have spent the last couple days trying to get a business phone line. Yes, days. It would have been easy if any other phone company provided service in the Longwood area. But unfortunately Sprint is the only company we could use. They won by default. Sprint was the first company I called, because my parents use them and the lines are already set up. I spent 3 hours being transferred from one person to the next. It was like a human game of "Hot Potato". I was given at least 5 different numbers to call and transferred to no less than 10 different people. No one could answer my questions or transfer me to someone who could. All I needed to do was set up the stupid business line! Eventually I spoke to a manager and thought I had it all figured out.

What I really wanted was a forwarding line, a phone line without a physical location, which forwards all the calls to a secondary number (my cell phone). This would allow us to keep the phone number consistent when we move. They said that Sprint does not offer this service. Today I called back to make sure everything was set up correctly. It wasn't. They gave me a residential line! I canceled the order and hung up. Surely SOME other company will provide business phone lines in the area. So, I did an internet search and called every small, no name company I found. No luck.

Emily suggested we sign up for a 1-800 number instead. She called MCI and got the info. Before making a decision, I called Sprint Yellow Pages to make sure we could get a free basic listing with a 1-800 number (all business lines get a free listing). After being transferred another 50 times and calling 5 more phone numbers, I found out that it was going to cost $25 a month for a basic listing, $40 for a bold listing and $200+ for a business card sized ad. Those charges, plus the 11 cent per call charge for the 1-800 number put us over budget. Sprint was our only hope. So, I called back and braced myself for the onslaught of new phone numbers and transfers. This time I got lucky. I reached Andy at the Central Florida Sprint location and got exactly what I wanted. He set me up with a forwarding line (Sprint actually does offer the service), an easy to remember number (407-681-4DVD), and got me into the Yellow Pages.

Saturday I went to Dexter's in Winter Park with my family to see Marc Schwartz's band play and to drop off some tapes to Jill. They were playing mostly cover songs of classic rock, and my grandmother loved it. She was up front next to the band singing and dancing, having a great time. It was hilarious! She came back to the table singing "I love rock and roll".

I went to the Surf Show with my mom and Emily yesterday. It was at the new convention center, which was absolutely enormous. The show kind of sucked this year; there were less vendors and a lot less buyers. My cousin Arthur, who owns a jewelry booth, said he would be lucky if he broke even. Even the skateboarding sucked. Usually they set up a half-pipe and bring in some of the top pro skaters; this year I was excited because they had both a half-pipe and a street course. I watched the street demo and the skaters were no better than you would see at the local park.

After the show we drove around Maitland, Altamonte and Longwood looking for apartments. The one in Sable Point is still at the top of our list. Can you beat 1000 sq ft for $690? We tried three different restaurants before finally finding one that was open. Why is everything closed on Sunday night? Whatever, we ate at Bonefish grill and it was pretty good.

We are in business! Our equipment arrived, we set it up, and started work on our first conversions. It is very exciting. Friends and relatives have given us some good feedback and ideas about the direction of the company. Videotaping the life stories of the elderly and creating DVDs for their families, was one of the best we've heard (thanks Jill).

I ordered a Holga camera. I stumbled across some online galleries of photos from the camera and I was amazed. Of course, you could get much better images from an expensive medium format camera, but I love the moody/dramatic shots that are possible with the Holga.

Our equipment is suppose to arrive at my parent's house today. Exciting! Hopefully it doesn't get stolen off the porch. Em and I are going to get our occupational license in a little while. I hate this endless string of paperwork. They certainly don't make it easy for you.

We opened our bank account last week, but we can't use it until we get the license. And we can't get the license any time soon; they are running late because of the storms. Not much else is really going on. I'll write more when there is...

I finally returned to the beach after a week long evacuation. The house is in good shape, except for a couple missing tiles under the roof. The rest of this area didn't fare so well. There are roofs missing, walls destroyed, power lines everywhere and signs smashed into buildings. Emily and I wanted to leave the boards up until after Hurricane Ivan, but the first night here we slept until noon, because the room was so dark. Yesterday we took off the boards.

We bought all the equipment for our new DVD business and set up the bank account! It ended up being less than $2000 for everything. We should be able to pay off Emily's loan without a problem. The apartment hunting has been going slowly. We went back to the Echelon apartments downtown and saw some places in College Park. The only requirement is that it's not a small crapper, like in DC.

I have spent the last few days at my parents house waiting out the storm. And it's been a long wait. Emily and I got here on Thursday. A mandatory evacuation was set for Friday in our area, but we had already spent most of the day preparing the house, so we decided to beat the traffic. The storm was scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Because it had slowed to a crawl, it didn't come until early Sunday morning. We spent most of the time playing cards, eating and being bored off our asses. The storm didn't seem that bad. It came in waves, with a band hitting every couple hours. It caused a lot of damage because it was over the state for so long. It stormed all day Sunday and half the day today. I have been trying to call the information lines in Volusia county for hours. Finally I got word from one of our neighbors that our building looks OK.

My grandmother has been stubborn about the whole thing. She didn't want to come over during the hurricane. Between bands yesterday, Emily and I went over there to check on her. She didn't have power or phone lines, and she still refused to come over. Finally we convinced her to go out to eat with us tonight. We had the now routine after hurricane meal at Too Jays, before Emily and I went to a movie. We saw "Paparazzi", which was just as stupid as it was entertaining. As we pulled into my parent's driveway, a huge black bear spotted the car and walked around the side of the house. Needless to say, Emily and I were terrified. I put on the brights and pulled up to the front of the driveway, to see if he was gone. He wasn't; he just stood on the side of the house licking his lips. I honked until my parents opened the garage and we both ran in

Yea! More hurricanes! I just love hurricanes. All the panic, worry and endlessly changing predictions. Yesterday, Emily and I spent four hours at my favorite place in the world, Home Depot! It was great, just sitting there waiting and waiting. I can't think of anything I would rather be doing. We were waiting for shipments of plywood to come in, so we can board up the windows. I wish we could have waited longer. A couple guys, who obviously don't know the meaning of fun, tried to cut in line three and a half hours after we got there. The people in line behind us informed Home Depot about the party poopers and, after a few tense moments, they were sent to the back of the line. I was jealous. Why couldn't they send me to the back? We purchased 5 boards, pulled our car around and waited while the guys loaded it on our car. An old man pulled up next to me and stopped directly on the foot of one of the guys. He stayed there for almost 30 seconds, while everyone yelled at him to reverse. Finally he did, and the guy limped off. Hope he's ok. Today, we are going to prepared the house and head back to Orlando. I can't wait for the storm to come knock out power, so we can live like cavemen. It's going to be great

I have spent the last couple days at local supermarkets trying to get people to answer my little survey questions. Danielle, our marketing consultant, said that we should make up a survey to see if our business is viable. So far, I've gotten a very positive response from the potential customers, but not from the supermarkets. Yesterday I was asking the store managers before giving the survey. Four out of five places said that I couldn't. Today I just stood in the parking lot until I got kicked out. Danielle said that at least 20% of the potential customers should say that the business is viable. After two days of surveying, about 90% have given a positive response. Good sign.

The other day I was driving down I4, headed for the Flea Market, because Lindsey wanted to do one last redneck thing before heading back to DC. We got off at the Lake Mary exit and I watched in horror as a white Lexus skidded off the road and flipped down the hill, before stopping in a ditch. Other cars seemed to ignore the accident. Maybe they didn't see it, or didn't believe what they were seeing. But, I speed over to the edge of the ditch, threw my phone to Emily to call 911 and ran over to the wrecked car. The passenger window was laying on the ground next to the car. I poked my head through the broken window, not knowing what to expect. There was a girl no older than 20 looking terribly afraid, but uninjured. She was shaking badly and looking disoriented. I asked her if she could move all of her limbs. She could. She tried to open the driver's side door and I tried the passenger door. Both were stuck. Lindsey approached the car and we both helped her out through the passenger window. She checked out the car and said, "my parents are going to kill me." We assured her that the car would be the least of their concerns.

Lindsey has been here for the last couple days. We have had fun, going to the beach and playing games, but Emily has been sick. She feels tired and achy all the time. I am trying to get her to go to the doctor, but she has too little energy to even find a doctor and she won't let me call. We started working on some more Excel spreadsheets, which mostly involve adding and predicting costs and profits. It's been hard, though, because we generally have no idea how much we will be spending. The biggest problem is figuring out how much to budget for advertising. Luckily we have a meeting with an advertising executive from SCORE on Thursday. That should help clear up much of the confusion.

Like my new menu? Flash is a pain in the ass. I spent hours trying to figure out how to change the links and get the buttons to work. Finally, when I got it all figured out, I had to change everything around so the movement would look right. And I had to remake all the buttons, so they would be consistent. I guess that's the price you pay for internet stardom. Last night my sister spent the night over here. She got in around 5 am and Turtle wouldn't stop whining. I let him go see her when she got here, but that wasn't enough. He just stood by the door scratching and crying. I had to take him downstairs because he was keeping us up.

Today Em and I went to my parent's house around 4. We wanted to stop at the Flea Market on the way, because she had never been to one, but it was raining and the traffic was so bad that we didn't have time. Emily and Lindsey went to Calmar before dinner (another place Em has never been). They were only suppose to be going there for a few things, but when they got there, Lindsey pulled out a huge list and went to town. Emily got annoyed because she was running around looking at shotguns and stuff instead of getting the things on the list.

We went to Seasons 52 for dinner. On the way there, mom was neurotically reading magazines. She recommends the magazines for my dad's waiting room at his office; when he brings them home, she feels compelled to read all of them. Apparently she has been falling behind on her reading, so now she is stressed out trying to catch up.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is... I received a call from a company called Elite Marketing (or something like that). It started out with a recorded message, saying that I had been chosen to receive a free computer, digital camera, and cell phone. All I had to do to claim my prize was press one. Being the extreme skeptic that I am, I pressed one. A couple seconds later, the phone was answered by a man claiming to be a company representative. He told me that the only thing I needed to do to claim my prize was give him my bank account information, so he could charge me for tax and shipping. I asked him how the company could stay in business just giving away free products. What's the catch (besides having to give my bank account information)? He informed me that there really was no catch and said that the company was simply trying to give me free merchandise with nothing more to buy. At that point, my BS detector really went off. I told him that he was full of shit and hung up. He called back a few minutes later and cussed me out. I told him to get a real job; scamming people for a living is illegal and I feel sorry for both him and the people he was scamming. After a few more minutes of cussing, he hung up. I tried calling the police and the phone company where his line was registered (I looked it up online), but no one seemed to care. Oh well, I hope he gets caught soon.

Yesterday, Emily and I met with our Business consultant, Skip, from SCORE. He basically told us about everything our business plan lacks: a marketing plan, a carefully thought out break even point and various other business things we hadn't even considered. Our next meeting was with our accountant, Steve Cohn. He helped us immensely with basic accounting, business structure, licensing and tax issues. We flipped a coin to see who would be President and who would be Vice President / Treasurer. Emily won. And we thought of a name: Big Picture DVDs, Inc. Last night we played poker with my parents, sister, grandmother and Abe. I won.

Abe and my dad gave us a ton of suggestions and ideas. We should set our prices a bit high, maybe $25 per tape (instead of $25 per DVD, with as many tapes as would fit). A mall kiosk would be a good way to have a physical presence and attract customers, as well as reducing our marketing costs. The pick up / delivery idea would not work well, because we would spend most of our time on the road and ruin our cars. Finally, they gave me a long lecture on why I need a haircut. I should look more professional. People would not trust their tapes with a shaggy looking fool like me.

Today I had another meeting with the consultant, talking about more wacky business terms and local demographics. He arranged for us to meet with a marketing expert next Thursday. That should be very helpful. Em and I know the least about marketing, and according to Skip, we have a marketing driven business. The marketing person also teaches a class, and will sometimes use actual businesses for her class projects. Maybe she could use us!

Who wants to hear about the hurricane? Well I'm going to tell you anyway. After much debate, Emily and I stayed here (at the beach) during the storm. We had originally planned to go to my parent's house for dinner, but I decided that it would be better to stay (the storm was suppose to be worse in Orlando).

I tied a rope around the furniture on the balcony, to prepare for the storm. When the first band hit, the sky went black and the wind violently shook the house. Emily and I grabbed the dogs and ran downstairs. We came back up after about 15 minutes and watched the news as the storm came closer and closer. The cable went out about 30 minutes before the eye was suppose to hit. We relied on my dad for weather updates. When the eye wall hit, we huddled in the bathroom reading the marketing book. The sliding glass door in the bedroom buckled violently and felt like it was about to break. The screen door ripped off and wedged itself against the balcony. We had to open the sliding door and grab the screen door, to prevent it from breaking the window. The storm passed shortly after. The next day, we drove around the city and marveled at the destruction. Luckily the only thing we lost was cable TV.

Emily's new treadmill was delivered around 1 today. It's got lots of cool stuff like a fan, a CD player, an automatic ass kicker (to help keep you motivated). We haven't used it yet, but I bet we'll be running marathons before you know it. After that we went to an art supply store and bought a bunch of painting supplies. It was pretty expensive, but we got the last laugh. They sold us canvases for about $20 each, but after we're through with them, they'll be worth millions.

This afternoon, we read our marketing book for a while and took a quick nap (which was not the result of reading the book). I tried to get ah old of Skip to reschedule the meeting, because I don't want to wait another two weeks, but I had to leave a message. I hate leaving messages. I never know what to say. The machine beeps and that's it. No time to think or anything. You're on the spot and you have to say something without sounding stupid. I probably failed miserably.

Yesterday Emily and I flew my kite on the beach (after breaking up our fixed and variable costs, of course). We had to wait around all day because it started raining just as we were about to go out. Finally the rain stopped and it was great, but not windy enough, so the kite kept crashing. We had fun anyway. And we went in the water too, but Em got scared because little fish kept brushing by her feet.

Today I made an appointment with Skip at SCORE to go over the business plan. We couldn't get an appointment until August 26th, so I'm going to try to meet with him outside of the organization. We spent most of the day at the beach with the puppies reading the Guerilla Marketing book. Very informative and lots of fun!

Our little business plan is rolling right along. We went to my parent's house last night and found out about 50 million little business things we hadn't though of, like insurance and what type of corporation we want to have. My parents gave us a bunch of names and phone numbers to call and find out more info about the various little business quarks. At least now we have things to do next week: lots more research. Today we are going to the Mall at Millenia so Emily can buy some "big girl clothes", stuff she can wear to business meetings and the like.

Emily and I have decided that getting jobs is for Clides. Plus we can't seem to find any. So we are starting a DVD creation business. Millions of people have old home videos lying around that they haven't watched in years because they don't use their VHS decks anymore. If we had a service that made it easy for them to transfer their tapes to DVD, we could make a fortune. I'm not going to give away the details, but the plan is solid and we are deep in the research phase.

In other news, Abe came over last night and we all stayed up till 2:15 to watch the space launch. It was great, I listened to the live NASA radio transmissions leading up to the launch, then we all went out to the beach and saw the rocket liftoff. I haven't seen a live launch in years. Very exciting. But I still don't understand the point of all this space research. What have we gained from it: Velcro, Tempurpedic beds and Freeze Dried Ice Cream? Please e-mail me if you know some real benefits of space exploration.

Emily and I got a new puppy! Her name is Piggy and she is a Chihuahua-Shitzu mix (or so says the pet store). Check out the cute pictures.

I've been pretty relaxed for the last couple days. Not stressing out so bad about getting a job. Emily and I faxed out some resumes and sent some hard copies. If we can't find something soon, we're going to start doing what we really want to do: making an independent film. I have been working on a new script. I can't give away too much of the story; I'll just say that it's about a very late bloomer. We have been slowly piecing together the outline.

I've also been working on a way to play my music live without just hitting play on the sequencer. I chopped my best beats, leads, basses, etc, into loops and put them all in Ableton Live. That program rocks. Maybe I'll start playing some live shows.

I've finally finished my cover letters and resume. Emily started calling some production companies and the ones she spoke to want freelancers rather than full time employees. We have been so incredibly bored sitting around house. It's been so hard to just relax and do nothing. It's almost more stressful without responsibilities. We look for any excuse to get out.

At least I'm able to sleep again.

I thought that relaxing at the beach for a while would help calm all the stress of the last month, but it really hasn't. I've been here for almost a week and a half and I still do not feel calm. There is still so much to do! I've been working tirelessly on my resume and getting together information on local production companies. And it probably doesn't help that I have not been able to sleep. Even after I get a job, I'll have to find an apartment and move again. It's just one thing after another. When will it end?

Today we took it easy because it was Emily's birthday. We woke up late and took Turtle to get his nails clipped. They brought him back to us wearing a camouflage bandana and smelling like musk. The girl said that a guy this small needs all the help he could get. Much of the rest of the day was spent at pet stores and the local humane society, because Emily wants a dog for her birthday.

On the job front, we have compiled a 22 page list of local production companies, complete with contact info and company info. Some of them look crappy, others look good. We're going to start sending out resumes early next week. My parents have been hounding me to call this guy who is building a new production studio just south of Orlando. I finally called him today and found out that he won't be done with the construction for a few months. It sounds like a cool project though. Maybe we could work there when he's done.

Em and I spent all day working on our resumes. I didn't change mine that much, but somehow the Illustrator file got messed up, so Emily had to fix the design. Check it out in the "resume" section and tell me what you think. We were suppose to go into Orlando to look at a pug puppy, but by the time we were done with the resume stuff, the store was closed. Emily had a ton of problems with her design. She has a coffee stain on the resume to give it some flair, but it kept printing out green. It looks like a green tea stain instead of coffee. Oh well, it'll look good if she applies to any health conscious employers.

Abe said that he wants to start a rap group, so I made the music for a rap song. At least I think that it's a rap song. My last attempt turned out kind of crazy.

I have been very busy lately. The move went relatively smoothly. Surprisingly enough all of my stuff and all of Emily's stuff fit into an 8'x6' U-Haul. It was strange driving around pulling everything we own. Especially since there was so little of it. We spent the night just south of Savannah and completed the drive the next day.

Emily and I spent a day driving around downtown looking for apartments. We found a few that we liked. The Echilon at Uptown was the best. Then my dad convinced us that we should look for jobs before signing a lease. So, I spent a few hours looking up local production companies. Now I have 15 pages of listings and contact info. Hopefully we will not have trouble finding jobs.

The whole car issue has been resolved. Two months ago my parents bought another Toyota Camary (same year and model as mine) from my aunt and uncle. They bought the new Toyota hybrid and are still waiting for the shipment (the waiting list is 6 months long). I switched cars with my uncle, so that he would not be stuck without a car and so that I would not have to take the car my sister wrecked. The problem was that I already had the hitch installed on my old Camary. So, yesterday Emily and I went to the U-Haul store and waited 3 hours while they took the hitch off one car and installed it on the other. While we were there I spoke to the general manager about what type of trailer to take. Originally, I called U-Haul, described my car, and asked what was the largest trailer I could pull. They said the 8'x10'. When I went into the store to have the hitch installed, they said that I could take the 12'x6' (which is actually a much larger trailer). The general manager cleared things up. He said that I could pull the 12'x6', as long as it was empty. Emily immediately called to change our reservation.

We have spent the last few days packing. There are 13 full boxes in the basement, but our apartment looks the same as before we started packing. We are throwing out most of the remaining stuff.

Before leaving for Memphis, Emily asked if we could take my car. I had this strange feeling and said, "I don't want to take my car, because I think something will happen to it." So we drove to and from Memphis in her car without a problem (but we later found out that one of her tires was missing 2 of the 4 lug nuts). Yesterday I went out to my car and noticed that the back drivers side panel (behind the back wheel) was dented and scratched. I thought that someone must have hit my car and drove off. Upon closer inspection I noticed that the scratches were poorly painted over with a color that didn't match. It seems strange that someone would hit my car, then stop to paint it. I asked Lindsey if she knew anything about the dents and scratches, but she quickly said that she didn't. Her answer seemed a bit strange, so Emily called and asked her again. Lindsey continued to deny it, and continued to act strange.

Later, I picked her up so that she could borrow my car. Before I let her in, I had her walk around the side of the car and look at the damage. Again I asked her and again she denied it. Finally I said, "I'm not going to be mad, I just want the truth. "Fine," she said begrudgingly, "I'm sorry." (It was more of a "I'm sorry that I got caught") I told her that I was not upset about the car, but I was upset about her lying straight to my face.

The problem is still not resolved. She still claims to own half of my car, and still claims the right to use it whenever she wants. I have always been weary about lending it to her because she consistently brings it back late and filthy. "I MENT to clean it," she says, "I just had to go buy some medicine." It doesn't take 4 hours to buy medicine. And of course there is a big difference between MEAN and DO.

I've been in Memphis for the last couple days. Well actually I've been driving for the last couple days with a brief stop in Memphis. Emily, Kat and I left Friday night and returned Sunday night. It was 14 hours each way, so we were really only in Memphis for about 20 hours. We went for their dad's retirement / birthday party, which was held at their step-aunt's house. The party was very nice: live band, pool, good weather and catering from the best BBQ restaurant in the city. The drive was pretty uneventful, but very pretty. I expected to see much more rednecks and honky white trash stuff.

Cell phones are stupid. Well not really. They're stupid when they don't work and mine seem to never work. I had been having lots of problems with my Cingular phone. My reception sucked. I couldn't hear anyone and they couldn't hear me. The logical thing to do was to get a new phone. I have always heard that Verizon had the best service, my mom and sister were using them, so I switched. I have had the phone for 4 days now. It is a little better than the Cingular phone: everyone can hear me fine. The problem is that I can't hear them. Everyone sounds choppy and distorted. Plus the phonebook feature is retarded. When I try to find someone's name, I put in the first letter of their name, and it brings up everyone with that letter IN their name. For example, if I type in "E" for Emily, I get: Aaron Berger, Abe, Adam Langenbaum, Amanda Read, Beach, Beth, Bennison, Brett, Dave, Diane, Emily, Eric, Francesca, Home, Jamie... Because they all have the letter "E" in their name. Whoever invented this phone (Audiovox) should be shot. Luckily I have 15 days to exchange it.