Two nights ago we attended a lecture about Darfur at the British Council. It was a thinly vialed plea for money from a local NGO. Very boring. We didn't stay long.

Woke up very late yesterday. We are both feeling the effects of the time change (it usually hits about a week into the trip). Many of the local SVP volunteers and some friends came over last night. The apartment was packed. We ended up getting a bowl of Ful, smoking the Sheesha (hookah), and going for milk. The milk is like melted ice cream. Packed with sugar, like everything here. It is served from a small, nondescript window which doesn't open until about 11:00 pm. Keep in mind that alcohol is illegal here, so people find other things to drink at night.

When people come over, they often end up staying the night, because the buses stop running before midnight. So the people who were here yesterday were also here today. Fridays are the religious day of rest in Sudan, so today was like the weekend. We hung out most of the day, then went to watch the Sufi dancing just before sunset. It is one of the main attractions in Khartoum, but it was quite boring. The Sufis mostly just played drums, chanted and stood around. When the drum beat got going very fast, a few of them danced. But it was lame.

We found out that we are being placed in Al Obied, the capital of the Kordofan state. It is located almost directly in the center of the country and it is a large city, like Khartoum, but not as big or crowded. We are very excited to head out there and start teaching. The city is an 8 hour bus ride from here; we are suppose to leave on Sunday (En Sharlot).

The party yesterday was fun. We met one of Johanna's crazy friends near Suuk Arabi and drove to the posh area of town (which I didn't even know existed, given we live in the slums). The guests consisted of many SVP volunteers, Westerners from other organizations and English speaking Sudanese. Everyone was asked to bring food, so Emily and I decided to get cookies. We stopped by a local bakery before the party and they asked us how many kilos we wanted. Well, Emily and I have no idea how many cookies are in a kilo, so we ordered three. It seemed like a good amount, until they actually started putting the cookies into the box. They just kept piling in more and more cookies! We were laughing hysterically, because there were just so many of them. Finally they put the large box on the scale. It wasn't enough. They added about a dozen more cookies before it was enough. We now have more cookies than we know what to do with!

We attended an English class with one of the other volunteers yesterday. The highlight of the class was when we were trying to describe the word "rude". Most people didn't understand, but one girl knew all too well. She said, "oh, you mean like a bitch?"

Last night we went to Mohamed's house. He is the main coordinator between the volunteers and SVP. Sudanese people are know for their generous hospitality and he was no exception. He served an enormous try of Ful with bread and vegetables.

Today we attended class with a woman named Raga. She teaches at a small elementary school two bus rides away from our house. They didn't give us any training or warning, they just split up Emily and I and gave each of us our own class to teach. I had a great time, because my students were a little more advanced. We went over the names of various animals and sang Old McDonald. Emily had a tougher time, because her students were still learning the alphabet.

After school we made it to the main market in Khartoum and took the bus home by ourselves (for the first time). This evening we are going to a party hosted by another volunteer. We have events planned every night this week. My social life is better here than in the US!

Woke up yesterday at 3:30 am, checked out of the hotel and caught a cab to London's Heathrow Airport. We arrived much earlier than expected, so we had to wait a while for the flight. The plane taxied out of the gate, then waited 45 minutes to take off. By the time we got to Frankfurt, our connecting flight to Khartoum had left. It took a couple hours in line to book another flight. This time, instead of flying directly to Khartoum, we had to go through Cairo. We arrived in Cairo at 6:30 pm. Our connecting flight didn't leave until 11:30 pm, so the Egyptian guards kept us in a small room at the bottom of the airport until just before our flight. There were other people down there with us, but we were kept longer, even when the other people's flights left later. Our flight left an hour late, so we got to Khartoum at 3:30 am. Momen, the SVP coordinator picked us up.

Just after we laid down in bed, we were awoken by the Muslim call to prayer. The many mosques in the area seemed to be competing to be the loudest. We finally got to sleep as the sun was coming up. A few hours later, we were awoken to loud music and activity. I looked out the window and got my first glimpse of the city. The streets are dusty and unpaved, with large trash filled ditches on the side. Small bridges cross the ditches. The buildings are made of brick, but the bricks seem to be made of mud from the street. Most are falling apart, few have real roofs. The people are surprisingly well dressed, wearing long with robes or western style collared shirts.

We borrowed 200 Dinar (about $1.00) from another volunteer and bought breakfast. I didn't know what to order, so I just gave the man our money. He brought two falafel sandwiches. Not bad!

After breakfast we met up with Johanna, the same woman who lent us the money, and her friend KuKu. The four of us took the bus into town. The main square was dirty, packed, and bustling with activity. It is the city's main market. Vendors sold all kinds of food, clothing and junk. We fought our way through the crowd to the SVP office. There we met some of the group's organizers and changed money.

We ate lunch at a small corner cafe. The food was Egyptian style rice with pasta and sauce. From there we walked to the British Council. This is where most Westerners meet and hang out. They have a nice library, computers and TV. Meetings and discussion groups are held a few times a week. At 4:00 pm we headed home and took a nap.

For dinner we went to a nearby restaurant and were served a large bowl of Ful and strips of bread. No silverware. You must scoop up the Ful with your bread. After dinner we went to a small courtyard off the main street to smoke a hookah. A large group of men were gathered around a TV watching American Professional Wresting. Apparently people in Africa love it! Before going to bed, we gathered around on of the guy's laptops and watched the Matrix: Reloaded.

Our flight to London was on Thursday evening. The flight was uneventful, but getting through customs was a problem. The woman questioned us endlessly and we told her everything we knew, which wasn't much. We didn't have any of the contact numbers with us and knew very little about what we would be doing in London. She wasn't happy. Finally, after recording everything we told her and vowing that we would be hassled every time we entered London for the rest of our lives, she let us pass. The trip to our hotel involved a train ride, a taxi and much confusion. We had reservations at a hotel recommended by the organization. It looked bad on the internet, so I promised Emily that I would get us reservations elsewhere. Well, I didn't and the hotel ended up being worse than we expected. Emily was pissed. We met the guy who had organized our trip and got a ton of useful information. After meeting him, we went up to our room and it was terrible. We ended up hauling our heavy bags through the freezing rain to another hotel. This one was better, so we booked a room.

A couple hours later we were met by a former volunteer named Katy, who took us to the Sudanese Embassy. It was a nice long walk through a beautiful park, but we were immediately turned away. The woman told us to come back the next day between 3:00 and 3:45. We walked back to the hotel, ate at a nearby restaurant and struggled to stay awake until 8:30.

Thursday we walked down Oxford St. (a big shopping district) looking for sandels. Apparently they don't sell sandels in London in January. We made it back to the embassy at the appointed time, met Katy and were again turned away. This time they said that they must send the applications to Khartoum for approval, because we are American. Katy got on the phone with someone who knows someone who knows the Ambassador. He said that he would call someone else to meet us at the embassy the next day.

After a long, cold walk, we made it to the British Museum. There we saw ancient Egyptian mummies ad the Rosetta Stone (among other things). We met Katy, a Sudanese man, another former volunteer and someone who will be going to Sudan in a couple weeks for dinner. It took an hour on the subway to get there (it was located in the ghetto) and the food was definitely not worth the trek.

Today we were at the embassy again. Osama Salah met with the Ambassador on our behalf and we were assured that everything would go through. After many delays and a sprint to the bank for more money, we got the Visa approved. Tomorrow we are off to Sudan!

On Wednesday, after a long fight to get the U-haul trailer that we reserved, Emily and I packed up our apartment and started the journey North. We stopped at a hotel in Georgia and finished the trek on Thursday. Finally we are out of Florida! It's not that we didn't like living in Orlando... Well actually it is that.

We have spent the weekend organizing our stuff and shopping for some last minute clothes. Everything that we aren't bringing went into storage. Soon we will be on our way to Sudan! Hopefully I will be able to keep my blog updated while we're gone, but the Internet access will probably be spotty (at best).

Emily and I have only been married a month and we're already old farts; we hung out at home for new years. We had fun though.

At 3:00 we started making our famous meatballs, which simmer for 4 hours. After dinner we had a bonfire in the backyard and made smores. Then we hooked up the DVD player in the bedroom (the couch in the den is gone, so we can't watch TV there) and watched Jackass 2. The movie ended at 11:00, but we didn't get out of bed. I actually had to wake her up for new years.

So they killed Sadam...

What was the point really? I'm sure it made some people feel good. But did it solve anything? Of course not. I guess they just didn't know what else to do with him. Iraq is still much worse off than when he was in power. Maybe they should have let him solve this whole civil war problem. It sure would have been interesting to see what would have happened if he was put back in charge.

Today was my last day of work! It was pretty boring actually. There were some more packaging revisions to do, but not much else. Typical.

After work, I picked up Emily and went out for drinks with some of my ex-coworkers. We sat around for about an hour, then Emily dropped me off at home. We have only one car now (Emily sold her's back to Carmax). I don't understand how people can live without a car or even sharing a car! It makes everything so much more difficult. For example, tonight I wanted to go to the store. So I changed clothes, pulled my bike out of the backyard, hopped on, and went nowhere. The tires were almost flat. Everything has been taking much longer than it should this week. We have to coordinate our schedule a day in advance. I can't even imagine how we would get anything done if we didn't have at least one car.

Emily and I spent the holidays in Dallas with her family. It was great. I love Emily's family.

We got in on Sunday (the 24th). Sarah, Kat and Jenny were already there. Rebbecca and Todd came a short time later. Emily and I assembled lasagna, while everyone else set the table and made the rest of the meal. It turned out wonderfully, of course.

On Christmas day, we went to Church. Afterward, Emily's dad asked the priest to bless our upcoming trip to Sudan. He said that he wouldn't bless me because I'm a "dirty Jew". Well, he left out the "dirty" part, but it was still rude. The rest of the day was spent playing 80's Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble. Dinner was Wally's traditional Roast Beast. Again everyone helped cook and the food was great!

Tuesday I went to the mall with Sara and Emily. As you can imagine, it was packed. The crowd annoyed the crap out of me (going to the mall is bad enough without all of the people). We spent a few hours there before watching the movie "The Good Shepherd". I couldn't stay awake for the first 45 minutes (because I was tired, not because it was bad), but I was interested once I woke up.

Almost everyone had already gone home, but we had dinner with Wally, Kathy, Sara, and Rob. Wednesday morning we flew home.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

-EE Cummings

Thanks Reuters.

Let's do it!
http://libertyamendment.org/

Grant should be happy about this... And so should the rest of you, for that matter.

I can't decide which one I like better. What do you think?

What is it with Renaissance Fairs where everyone with a huge ass thinks they’re royalty?

From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.
— Sir Winston Churchill

We're married!!! Here's the story of the past week:

Emily and I flew up to DC on Tuesday. Got in, hung out with the family members who were there, and waited for others. Wednesday we started to prepare for the wedding. We couldn't move the furniture yet, because there were still more people coming and we had to leave most of it for Thanksgiving dinner, so we went shopping for decorations and set up the two stereo systems. By Thursday things had really begun to pick up. Most of the day was spent with the family and preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. Emily and I ate at her mom's house, then drove to Baltimore to see my family. In Baltimore, someone stumbled across a couple drawers of photos that no one had seen in a while. We had fun looking at the old pictures and laughing at my dad's poor report cards.

Friday was spent moving furniture into the garage, decorating and doing lots of preparations for the big event. Emily had a "girls only" party, while the parents and the guys went out for dinner. I spent the night at Lindsey's house, so I wouldn't see Emily on the day of our wedding.

Saturday I woke up late, went out to breakfast with Lindsey and spent some time at the National Archives looking at the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Very interesting!

Lindsey and I arrived back at Emily's mom's house around 4:00. We did some last minute preparation, and the photographer arrived early. He took candid shots of Emily's sisters and I, before the guests started to arrive. By 6:30, the caterers had set up, the string quartet began playing and the house started to fill up.

The actual ceremony started a little after 7:00. Everyone made room for the procession through Emily's living room. I escorted my grandmothers and my mother. When everyone was in place, the quartet began to play the song to which Emily had chosen to walk down the isle. When I heard the song was the first time I became nervous. Emily came down the stairs and was escorted to the front by her Dad and Step-Dad.

The ceremony itself went well. Lindsey was standing right where I was looking and she spent the entire time giggling and making faces. Emily and I glanced at each other throughout the ceremony and tried not to crack up. It was over before we knew it.

The party went well. Everyone seemed to get along, enjoy the food and have a good time.

Thank you Rebecca for planning a fabulous event. We couldn't have done it without you! Thank you Eileen and Tom for hosting the event and helping us pay for it. Thank you Wally and Cathy for supporting us, and helping to pay for it. Thank you Jen, Sara, Kat, John, Todd, and Rob for giving your time, support and energy to helping make the wedding great! I can't say enough about all of the love and support I have received from Emily's family. You have made me feel very welcomed and I appreciate everything you have done for us.

My company sent me to Kansas City this weekend to attend the USACi world finals. It's basically the world's loudest car stereo contest. I met up with a couple of Jensen salesmen, one from New Jersey, one from Ohio.

Friday was the show setup. We headed over to the convention center and found the show car and a stack of 2005 literature. Obviously that wasn't going to work, but we did eventually secure some up to date brochures from someone who was coming in later that night.

We spent two hours walking around downtown and The Village looking for bars and restaurants, before finally settling on a place which had both. The food wasn't that good, but I don't think my coworkers had any idea; they each downed about a dozen drinks before and during dinner. The restaurant had a club downstairs, so after eating we checked it out. Again, not very good, so we spent the rest of the evening at the place next door.

Saturday was the start of the show. The convention center was filled with show cars owned by manufacturers (like us), retail stores, instillation companies, and car enthusiasts. Some of the cars were very well styled and meticulously built, others were just boxes of speakers on wheels (with the entire interior stripped out). The top competitors had to push their cars into the judging area, because they was nowhere to sit inside the "vehicle". The funny part about the judging was that the top cars were often the quietest. They were sealed up so well that the owners had to screw the doors shut with a pneumatic drill. A large truck sponsored by Pioneer broke the world record, but from the outside it sounded like a cellphone vibrating on the table (only a bit louder).

Besides the stereo competition, there were some horrible bands playing, UFC style fights, ugly girls in bikinis.

Today I got woken up early by one of the salesmen from my company. He was still dressed in the clothes he was wearing yesterday and he reeked of booze. He gave me the passes to get into the show and said that he and everyone else were catching early flights home. I ended up having to sit at the booth all day by myself.

And WE are suppose to be the ones spreading peace and democracy? Maybe we're not exactly cut out for the role...

Best food ever created? Kat, you gotta bring me a slice when you come to the wedding...

So the Democrats have won it all... I'm happy about it, not because I like the Democrats, but because the Republicans are bent on driving this country into the ground with their over-spending, war-craving, fascist-loving ways. Also, a gridlock in government generally means that they won't get anything done (good for us and good for the economy). And I'm sooooo glad that Rumsfeld is gone.

Not to boast, but I told you so! How could the rest of the country not have seen that this war was a bad idea from the beginning? I was in DC protesting the war before it even started.

When are we going to learn to mind our own business? We need to bring our military home and keep them here. How can they protect Americans if they aren't even here?

While doing my research for tomorrow's election, (who are my choices, what do they stand for, etc) I noticed something very peculiar. Ever since Bush took office, the Republicans and the Democrats seem to have switched on some very important issues. Specifically,the Democrats seem to have taken over as the more fiscally responsible party! I'm sure it's just in reaction to Bush's reckless disregard for our national budget, but it's good to see that the Democrats have picked up where the Republicans left off.

Another interesting observation I have made about the party platforms is that the Republicans have taken over as the "look to government to solve all of your problems" party. Just listen to their rhetoric about terrorism, illegal immigrants, family values, natural disasters, emergency preparedness, weapons of mass destruction, homosexuals, disease pandemics, etc, etc. No wonder anxiety and depression have become national epidemics!

That being said, I plan to vote Democrat for House and Senate seats tomorrow and a mixture of Republican, Democrat and Libertarian (where my heart truly lies) for the other positions. He seems like a bit of a nut job and might be a serial killer, but my favorite candidate is John Wayne Smith.

This is the first week of my new job. For those of you who don't know, I accepted a job with Audiovox. I left because the salary was about $20k more, not because it seemed better than teaching at Full Sail. Come to think of it, there isn't much that is better than teaching at Full Sail. I had class 3 days a week, every other month. Sure there was random other stuff to do throughout the time off, but it certainly wasn't like a regular 9-5 job. On top of the nice hours, I had access to every type of film gear you could imagine. For example, I was in charge of a $300,000+ package of HD cameras (the Sony Cinealta F-900, if you must know).

At Audiovox I will be part of the team that designs and makes the car audio gear, including the new multimedia head units (motorized touch screen video displays, etc).

In other news, the wedding plans seem to be coming together nicely thanks to Emily's sister Rebecca. Seriously, without her we probably wouldn't have a wedding at all. Her and Emily have been planning the whole thing and it seems to be coming together nicely. I can't wait!

John Quincy ADAMS on U.S. foreign policy:

"[America] goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom."

-- John Quincy Adams, Speech before the House of Representatives, July 4, 1821; quoted in William Bonner and Pierre Lemieux (Editors), The Idea of America (Les Belles Lettres, 2003), p. 237.

I had a bad car day yesterday. First, when I was driving to work, I stopped to get gas. After pumping my gas, the car wouldn't start. The battery terminal looked terribly corroded, so I poured Coke on it. No help. Someone at the gas station had to give me a jump start. When I got the car going, I noticed that the a/c no longer got cold. Of course the heat still worked, but that doesn't help in Florida.

Last night I went to the bar with Grant. We went to Steak n' Shake afterward, and when we were leaving he asked me what happened to my rear bumper. Sure enough, the corner of my bumper was dented in. No note, of course.

Emily and I have some exciting news! We are going to get married on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The ceremony and party will take place at the Doshier Gardens in Virginia. Rebbecca, Emily's sister, is planning the wedding. Hope to see all of you there...

I'm glad to see that USAA has good account security. Today I tried to log-on to Emily's USAA account to check her statement balance (I pay all of our bills using online billpay). For some reason her account was locked. So, I called them and spoke in a butch dyke voice, pretending to be her. The guy was skeptical; he kept putting me on hold, then coming back and asking security questions (may of which I either didn't know or got wrong). Then he called me "Sir" by accident and again questioned my identity when I didn't correct him. I assured him that I was in fact Emily. He ended up helping me log onto her account and calling me "Mam" for the rest of the conversation.

Here are some photos I took this morning at the Softball Complex next to my house. They are for use as examples in my class...

You know what I need? A unique and iconic hair (head or facial) style. Think about it. I will name some famous/infamous men. I want you to picture them and note the first physical trait you think of...

Hitler

Einstein

Lenin

Nitzche

Washington

Click on comments to see my answers, add your own, or make suggestions for my new style.

According to statistics on the number of deaths from terrorism vs. the number of deaths from law enforcement, you are much more likely to be killed by the police than by a terrorist. Yet we are spending billions of dollars fight the "war on terror" and nothing on the "war on government".

In other news, Emily and I have been working on getting our College Park house refinanced. We will either rent it out or be living in it by next month. Nothing exciting is going on, so I'll write more when I have something to say.

Here we are in the middle of tropical storm Ernesto. I experienced 75 mph winds about 10 minutes ago... after opening my car window on the highway. Actually it's been pretty nice weather today. It's cloudy with mild tempertures, no rain and no wind. Full Sail was closed, not that I have a class in session anyway. Just a nice excuse for a day off.

The civilian death toll in Iraq for the month of July is above 3,400 people. Let's put that into perspective. 2,819 people were killed on September 11th. 37 people were killed in the bombing of the London Underground.

So far the Iraqi war has caused over 40,000 civilian deaths. How many of those people would still be alive, if it weren't for this pointless war?

Given the US military can not be blamed for all of the deaths, but it is our tax money that is funding this enormous mistake. When you go to the polls, think about where your tax money will be spent. Normally I would say to vote for whichever candidate will take the least of your money or the least of your freedom, but it is obvious that neither party values fiscal responsibility or freedom. Therefore, assume both parties will steal and waste your money equally and vote with your conscious not your wallet.

If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier -- so long as I'm the dictator.
-George W. Bush, Dec. 19, 2000

I believe that people would be alive today if there were a death penalty.
- Nancy Reagan

My class is back in session. As many of you already know, the class runs for one month, every other month. We have a much smaller class than last time, 32 instead of 58. This makes the entire job of organizing and filming the projects much more manageable. Also, we have chosen to break the class into 4 groups, with each instructor in charge of a single group. Therefore, each group gets more direction, supervision and attention from the instructors. They seem like a good group of students. This month should be fun!

Me:
What you said about nuking all of those cities has been bothering me. What justification would you have of killing millions of innocent people? Given their governments may be corrupt, but isn't ours also corrupt? Should we be nuked because of it?

Regardless of whether or not they support their governments (probably some do and some don't), they still have the right to live and believe whatever they want to believe. It seems like you want to kill them just because they disagree with you.

Grant:
Yes, I do want to kill them because they disagree with me. The fact is that by disagreeing with me much more is happening than my feelings being hurt. Many of them directly support and participate in activities that promote their beliefs - beliefs which call for the destruction of those who don't believe. Still many, many more indirectly support these activities in a number of seemingly innocent ways. By supplying corrupt regimes with taxes, or by submitting to their military draft, or by passively allowing dangerous ideas to be paraded in public, you are strengthening a nation and a culture that, in order to prolong it's backwards way of life, must prey upon the cultures and nations of others - as if the taxes, the draft, and the propaganda aren't ways of preying themselves.

Now, of course, there are many who either oppose or have failed to create a cogent opinion about what their governments are doing or what their culture stands for. While I do not hold any of these people personally responsible for what their governments do, I do not believe that a morally superior culture - not necessarily a morally flawless - should intentionally expose itself to more danger for their sake. I hold the governments that they have failed to alter or flee responsible for their deaths, regardless of which side does the particular killing. When a free country is forced to decide between the deaths of it's own innocent civilians or the deaths of a small portion of the population in a totalitarian country who are innocent, it would be wrong to choose the former. Just like it's immoral to knowingly choose a lesser value over a greater value, so is knowingly sacrificing a greater value for the sake of a lesser value.

The people of America do much more to preserve their liberty as individuals than any people anywhere else. You're right we aren't doing enough and our government is increasingly getting out of control, but it is still morally superior (a greater value) than any other government on the planet (lesser values). Thus, the only people who would have a legitimate right to alter the the US Government would be the people that created it and maintain it - and ONLY for the purpose of returning it to a size where individual liberty is maximized.

Me:
Iran and many of the countries in the Middle East are run by unelected dictators who rule by the force of their will and the laws of religious doctrines. George Bush lost the popular vote when he first came to office, he has circumvented the Constitution, the Senate, the Congress and the Judiciary, he believes that his power comes from a divine will, and his goal is to impose his values on the world. Before the start of the war in Iraq, he disregarded the intelligence gathered by the CIA, the NSA and the UN. His "gut feeling" was that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and stated "God told me to go to war". How is this assertion any different than the statements of Holy War made by the "Terrorists"? Military power does not destroy ideology. No amount of bombs will ever protect us from the threat of terrorism.

Our country was founded on the principle of individual freedom. The men who wrote the Constitution and declared our independence from England created one of greatest societies this world has ever seen. Unfortunately we have been spiraling downward ever since. We have come to value security over freedom and lost the values which drew so many hard working and creative people to the United States. This shift in values has created a culture which no longer values life itself. Consequently, the murder rate has become one of the highest of any industrialized country and the economy has become dependent on almost perpetual war (sound familiar Mr. Orwell?). A society with correctly aligned values would certainly embrace security, however, that value would be eclipsed by freedom and a healthy respect for the life of the individual. Therefore, we should work to defend our country (from within our borders) and respect the lives of individuals throughout the world, regardless of their beliefs.

Grant:
This is exactly the point I have been trying to make. She did a much beter job than I.

http://forum.objectivismonline.net/index.php?showtopic=7295

Me:
Ok, I read the post. What she is saying is that if a government
initiates force against another nation, that nation has the right and
the responsibility to attack both the aggressing government and its
people, because the people support (or at least don't fight) the
tyranny of their government.

If that were true, we should both be held accountable for the actions
of George Bush and consequently we should both be killed. I don't
know about you, but I voted against Bush and I have been doing
everything I can to speak out against his actions (including
attending protests and writing on my blog).

If you feel like you should be held accountable for his actions, why
not just help the process along and kill yourself?

P.S. That's just a joke. Don't actually kill yourself.

Grant:
Yes, we should be held accountable for the actions of Bush - since like it or not he is our elected leader. I know you have an issue with how he won the election, but the bottom line is that he's in charge now, and if we don't like it, we should change it; and by saying that, I'm not ruling out using violence to do so.

Also, 9/11 is exactly that - being held accountable for the actions of our government. Actions that it shouldn't have taken - not because it is immoral for a free country to interfere with the business of an unfree country for it's own protection, but - because it can be objectively shown that the interference resulted in the exact opposite of it's intention: the protection of individual American's rights/lives from foreign aggression. Like I've said, that's why I'm not all bent out of shape about 9/11 - I understand the underlying reasons for it and realize that America is partially - for lack of a better word - responsible. Not responsible in the sense that the terrorists had no choice but to attack us, but because we failed to realize that by making the flow of oil a governmental issue rather than a private business matter (ie: betraying the private property rights of individual Americans), it indirectly enabled and motivated angry muslims to attack us. Yes, they certainly may have felt like they had no choice but to attack us, but the facts say otherwise. It's not completely false that our involvement in the Middle East is for the sake of preventing the growth of a powerful Islamic, imperialistic, terrorist-harboring state. They should have thought about this instead of just acting on their feelings and realized that if they wanted the Americans out - not to mention a civilized level of existence - they should be fighting for individual liberty rather than the glory of Allah.

Since we both should be held personally accountable for the actions of our government - elected or not, we should change it in whatever way we can. I don't know about you, but the reason I want to change the US Government back into a constitutional republic is for my own sake and if that in turn makes the rest of the world safer from American aggreesion, freer from American example, and richer from American capitalism, great.

The last and most crucial point that I want to make is that there are distinct differences between the aims of, say, Iran or North Korea, and the aims of The United States. Even if the US's aims aren't totally pure, they are certainly more conducive - or at least less dangerous to - individual liberty than any other country's agenda. To equate N. Korea or Iran with the US simply because they're all sovereign nations and to denounce any agreesion by any on of them against another ignores those differences. If you're in favor of the forcible preemption of pollution because of the threat it poses to your property, I certainly don't see why you're opposed to preempting well-armed fanaticism.

So, like I was saying at Old Germany Pub, I don't support what our current military plan is not because it's wrong to mess with other nations, but because it's wrong to mess with other nations when you don't need to. It's a waste of public money and thus a violation of individual property rights. With that said, you can't erase the past. We have messed with and traded with other bad nations for a long time. Hence they have become more powerful and influential and angry with us than they otherwise would have been. That is why I support doing the most decisive and least expensive thing possible to extricate ourselves from their business, and simultaneously scare them enough to give us time to regroup into the stronger, freer nation we once were.

Me:
I agree with much of what you said. However, the fact remains that the use of preemptive force MAKES US THE TERRORISTS! The only difference is that instead of attacking with 19 people and a well thought out plan, we attack with thousands of people, billions of tax dollars and no plan at all.

You can't equate a preemptive strike against pollution to a preemptive strike against another nation. Here's why:
1. Pollution is caused by us. The United States (and specifically our government) is the largest polluter on Earth.
2. Pollution has "stuck first". We wouldn't need to fight pollution if it had not already happened.
3. Pollution doesn't get angry and nuke us when we fight it.
4. Iran (and its allies) have the capacity to instantly cripple our entire society by stopping the flow of oil. Until we are free of our dependence on foreign oil, we should try to make nice.

I'm glad that you do not support the war, but I do question your judgement when it comes to the proper use of violence. And finally, what do you mean by "scare them enough to give us time to regroup"?

Watch this:
http://www.brasscheck.com/videos/iraq/iraqwar5.html

Today was Emily's birthday... We went to the beach last night. Spent a few hours today sitting on the beach, but it's getting too hot to sit there all day. Had dinner at a place recommended by Lindsey. Got a brie and fruit plate as an appetizer and it was amazing! I've never had such a perfect and delicious plate of fruit. The restaurant was huge, stylish, and completely out of place in Redneckville (aka Daytona). The plan was to stay all weekend, but we ended up coming back tonight and seeing Clerks 2. If you like bad language and dirty jokes, you'll love this movie. Needless to say Emily and I almost wet ourselves.

I got an interesting call on the DVD business line. The guy sounded very gruff, loud and almost like he was speaking with a mask over his face. The conversation went like this:

"Big Picture DVD, can I help you?"
"Can you put 240 minutes of video on one disc?"
"Yes, but the quality goes down if you have more than 120 minutes."
"It's on a memory card."
"Hmmm, in that case the quality might not be good to begin with, you might want to put it on two discs."
"I need hundreds of copies. One disc is fine."
"OK"
"Do you watch the videos when you copy them?"
"Yes, not the whole thing, but I check it to make sure it copied correctly."
"Well you can't watch this one. You might see something you don't want to see."
"I don't know if I'll be able to help you with this. What is the video of?"
"It's from a security camera. One of those tiny ones you hide in the ceiling."
"For security at your house?"
"No, at a friend's house. I mean, for my own security."
"Um, you might want to find another company to help you."
"Just do it without watching."
"No thanks, bye."

I got a job working at the Pepsi 400 Nascar race. The company called and offered $750 to work at the race for 1 day. Sure! I was a little skeptical though, so I called back later that day to confirm the date and the pay rate. $750. Good. A few days later I was scheduled to go to a meeting at the track to find out exactly what I would be doing at the race. I was still skeptical so I called again. $750 for one day working at a Nascar race? Yes. That's $750 not $7.50 per hour right? Oh, wait. It IS $7.50 per hour. That's what I was afraid of. Never mind.

Instead of working at the race, Emily and I spent the 4th of July weekend at the beach. It was great. Lounging around and reading "How to Win Friends and Influence People". However, over the course of reading the book, I found out that everything I thought I was doing right, I was actually doing wrong. It has really changed my outlook on how to speak to and deal with other people.

In other news, Emily has been enjoying her job. Although she is nervous about the end of training and having to do the job on her own. My class is over though, so I have had more time to work on DVD projects and the like.

I have been keeping up with my jogging schedule. As I wrote about before, my usual habit is to go jogging once every 6 months or so, and tell myself that I will do it regularly from now on. This time I have actually followed through on my promise!

Here are some photos from the Sunrise / Sunset shoot on Friday. It was a long day - 4 am to 10 pm, with a short break in the middle. Luckily this class seems to be interested in what we are doing and willing to participate.

The sunrise shoot was a little more difficult, because half the class stayed up all night drinking. During the HD shoot, the director was drinking a Slurpee and he stunk of alcohol, so I asked him if there was vodka in his drink. He said, "I wish. I've been up all night drinking and it's probably coming out my pores."

I've been watching the World Cup incessantly. The first game I watched was probably the first televised sports game I have ever watched all the way through (except maybe the Super Bowl). I don't know what it is, but it's actually fun to watch these games. I guess there is a reason why Soccer is the most popular sport in the world.

Yesterday after the lecture I was quite worried about this new group of students. Many of them slept through the lecture and even more just got up and left for extended smoke breaks. They seemed to have no interest in cinematography (which is what I teach, for those of you who do not know) or film making in general.

Today was the first lab. We split the group into four groups, with two of the groups going to learn about the HD cameras and the other two learning about the film cameras. I, of course, taught the HD group and saw a very different side of them. They were very interested in my lecture, asked good questions and were excited to get their hands on the gear. Maybe this month won't be so bad after all.

Check out Emily's new car! It's a 2004 Honda Accord that she loves very much. She keeps asking me things like, "don't you think my car is nice? It's nicer than yours isn't it? Don't you think I should start parking under the covered spot, now that I have the nicer car?"

In other news, Emily's job has been going well for her. At first she was scared and undecided about it. Every 20 minutes she would change her mind about wether or not she would stay. Now it has begun to grow on her and she actually enjoys it on occasion. But she won't know for sure until she is done with the 3 month long training.

I got a new group of students today. It is our largest class yet with 53 (or thereabout) students. We must keep the same number of groups for the projects, so the groups will be huge. During the shoots there will be even more people standing around doing nothing than usual.

Last weekend Emily and I went to Washington DC for my sister's graduation. We few in on Saturday afternoon. Ate with Emily's mom and Tom at one of her favorite restaurants, the Carlisle Grand. After lunch, Emily and I drove into DC and took a walk down the trail at our old dog park. It was great, the weather was perfect and we had fun remembering the time we spent there when Turtle was a baby.

We walked around Friendship Heights for an hour, then met up with my sister, Grandma Lil, mom and dad at an Asian restaurant in Chinatown. The restaurant was located one block from the MCI center (now called the Verizon center?). The traffic was gridlocked and we had to drive around the block three times before we could even make it to the valet stand. When we got inside, Grandma could not read the menu, because she "can't read Spanish" (we were at an Asian restaurant with an english menu). We tried to help her order, but she couldn't figure out that the vegetable fried rice was not a salad. When she finally figured it out, she asked the waiter to put some vegetables in it! Emily and I hung out with Diane in the evening and tried (unsuccessfully) to go to sleep early.

Sunday morning I woke up at 9:00 and kept quiet until 11:00, when Emily woke up. We met my entire family (from both sides) at Chef Geoff's, one of our favorite DC restaurants. The place was packed. They tried to seat us outside, but it didn't take long for my mother and grandmother to complain about the freezing rain. We moved inside and eventually got served. The food, of course, was worth the wait. Next stop was Wagshal's Deli. It would have been a shame to go to DC and not pick up a sandwich from there.

Lindsey's graduation was at 4:30. Typical graduation ceremony - lots of waiting and a few seconds of excitement. But she did it! I was so proud of her. Now she just has to find a job before getting kicked out on the street.

Photos from Miami Shoot:





Got a late start today, because Matos was scheduled to be interviewed this morning rather than last night. Met everyone downstairs at noon. Transferred the grip gear to the truck and the camera gear to the van (basically we just took everything out of both trucks and switched it to the opposite truck). Spent some time setting up an in-camera look for the exterior shoots. Drove around South Beach filming B-roll. Picked up a snack at Starbucks (after passing hundreds of local cafes, grrrr).

Shot another interview with a man who had been jailed for 20 years because of his part in the Cuban Revolution. Packed up and went back to Versailles, the famous restaurant where we shot last night. This time it was to eat! It was packed, just like yesterday, and now I know why... The food was excellent and just unpretentious enough to be cheap. I had chicken in garlic sauce with rice and fried plantains. Shared some flan for dessert (which may have been the best flan I've ever had). Finished it off with a couple Cuban coffees. After dinner no one was in the mood to shoot again, but our interview subject had already arrived at the restaurant. So we packed in all of the gear and got started. It went smoothly and we finished around 1:45 am.

Photos from Miami Shoot:










Met Bob and Maya at Full Sail to prep the gear. We spent a few hours opening all of the cases and going over the camera equipment. Bob picked up a van. Maya and I waited hours for him to return. When he finally came back, he picked me up and drove me to the truck rental place. I drove back the box truck and we all loaded the HD gear.

Bob and I got a quick bite to eat at Crispers before hitting the road. I drove the box truck to Miami, while he drove the van. It drove surprisingly well, although it was incredibly loud inside the cab (I later found out that neither door was closed all the way). Consequently, I could not listen to the radio or talk on the phone, because I could not hear either one.

We hit a few patches of traffic on the way down, but got in with just enough time to eat at Pollo Tropical before heading to the first shoot. There were authentic Cuban restaurants all around and our first shoot was INSIDE one such establishment, but the producer decided to feed us fast food instead.

The restaurant where we were shooting was one of the most famous Cuban restaurants in Miami. We interviewed Huber Matos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huber_Matos), one of Castro's right hand men and a general in his army during the Cuban Revolution. He didn't speak very much english and conducted the entire interview in Spanish. I couldn't understand much of what he was saying, but it was easy to feel the intensity of his words.

Speaking of the language barrier... We were shooting in "Little Havana", which might as well have been part of Cuba. No one spoke english. If we didn't have the film's producer with us, we would not have been able to get around. Next time I'll bring a guide book.

Afterward, a few of us (the rest of the crew had arrived in time for the shoot) went to a little bakery/cafe for some Cuban pastries and coffee. Fantastic! The coffee was like a small shot of espresso with a bit of foamed milk and a lot of sugar.

Got back from Kung Fu a little while ago. They worked the hell out of me today. Harder than usual. But I love it. I was sweating so bad that my glasses wouldn't stay on my face. During the application part of the lesson I was working with my friend (and Rick's sort of girlfriend) Toni. We were working on the double shoulder grab and defense technique, but she laughed hysterically every time we tried it.

School is back in session, so I'm busy. Thirty five new students. I'm so bad with names, I hardly know what to call any of them. They seem more creative, or at least more prepared than the last class. During the sunset shoot, the HD group set up an elaborate scene involving an organ, saxophone, guitar, TV, fake tree, umbrella, candlestick and various other props. They started with a close shot of an actress sitting on the TV, then pulled out to show all of the other props. Finally, when they pulled all the way out, they revealed a wall with a frame. The frame was cut out so that the entire scene shown like a painting on the wall. Keep in mind that they had to haul all of the props and the fake wall out to Lake Underhill for the shoot.

Not too much is going on besides my class. I have been working on some new videos for Big Picture DVD and trying to keep Emily entertained. She has been bored as hell. Trying to get a job to keep herself occupied, but has very little to do in the interim. She has, however, been working diligently on her arts and crafts projects. She has a few new paintings finished and is working on crocheting a skull and crossbones sweater for me.

Lindsey came into town yesterday. She always comes to town with an incredibly ambitious schedule of what to do every minute of her trip. Last time she was here most of her activities involved Emily; by the time she left, Emily needed to sleep for 24 hours straight. Luckily she has a friend coming later this week, so Em should be off the hook.