Went back to the travel agent. Got boat tickets to Santarini and Mykanos, and plane tickets from Mykanos to Rome. I'm very happy about the plane tickets, because a flight will eliminate two whole travel days.

I hand washed my clothes in the sink, dried them on the balcony and ate at the hotel restaurant before driving to Vai with Shannon's friend's wife. We read in the guide book that Vai was the best beach around, and they weren't kidding. The place was beautiful, but a bit crowded, despite being in the middle of nowhere. It looked like one of those desert islands that people in movies always wash up on.

Sula (Shannon's friend's wife) drove us through Pelecostro, a strange quaint little town of 1500 people in the exact center of nowhere. She said it gets a little boring living there. I would kill myself. She showed us the house where she was born. That's right, house not hospital. There is no hospital.

It turns out that every one of the 30 restaurants, along the beach of Sitia, has exactly the same menu. It's like they have one enormous kitchen which makes the food for all of them. At least the menu is big and we don't have to walk around searching for food like in Athens. Tonight Shannon ordered the rabbit. I wouldn't try it because rabbits are too cute (they remind me of Turtle). Emily and Shannon made fun of me.

Finding a hotel in Mykanos was a pain in the ass. It turns out that there is some big holiday on May 27th or 28th. All the rooms are booked. We eventually found a room, but we're paying much more than expected. Oh well. It's at a luxury resort.

The breakfasts everywhere in Greece are the same: bread, swiss cheese, coffee and a variety of strange sesame seed covered pastries. After breakfast we wandered into a few clothes stores and an internet cafe. Emily and I felt dizzy, so we decided to eat again before returning to the hotel.

Travel agents in Greece are driving us crazy! Each one tells us a different thing. One says, "There is no boat to Iraklion, only a bus." The next says, "There is no bus to Iraklion, only a boat."

We walked up the hill to an old Venetian fort. It was locked, so we could only see the outside. Thick stone with little holes to shoot from and a stair step roof, like an old castle. Back at the hotel, we watched BBC news for a bit (they wouldn't shut up about Sonja Ghandi) and played cards. I read my new Tom Robbins book on the balcony overlooking the water. Later: Ate cake from a local bakery. Stopped by the 'trendy' bar and played more cards. A wonderfully relaxing day.

We laughed for literally 20 minutes after seeing our sleeping compartment on the boat. Yeah, it was that small. Us and our suitcases barely fit. It is smaller than my parent's closet. Most of our time was spent in the lounge. Emily tried hard and won her battle against sea sickness. Dinner was horrific. We opted for the first class dinner instead of self serve. Big mistake. Emily and Shannon got Greek salad. I got spaghetti. We ate bread.

We got to Sitia around noon and spent most of the day wondering around this amazing little town. It is so beautiful. Just like a post card. Plus, there are about 30 restaurant in a row next to the beach. My kind of place!

Finding the hotel was quite an experience. We got a cab ride from a guy who spent 20 years in the US. He took us to the Krystal Hotel, owned by his friend. They gave us a great rate (30 euros a night) but we ended up staying at the Itanos Hotel, because it was much nicer and only a bit more expensive. After checking in, we walked around and stumbled across a funny little park with a crazy spinning ride. Shannon and I decided that the ride would cure our sea legs. Boy were we wrong. It ended up just making us more dizzy. So we tried spinning the other way, but that didn't work either.

We had a great lunch at the hotel's restaurant (on the beach). Walked around some more and played with the town's wild dogs. Like Athens, the dogs are everywhere! And they're all very friendly. This female yellow lab followed us around for a while. We tried to feed her strawberries, but she wasn't into it. Instead she clawed through a fishing net looking for food. I wanted to let her sleep in our hotel room, but I was out voted.

So, This is the third day in athens. The city is beautiful, but a bit dirty. We have seen all the sights worth seeing and spent most of our time hunting for food. The people here seem to only eat these things that look like bagels, but with much larger holes and no toppings. Finding coffee on the other hand is no problem. There is about as many cafes here as there are fast food restaurants in America. I got no problem with it. The coffee is great. Actuall come to think of it, they don't really serve coffee. Just Frapes (or however the hell you spell it), which are Nescafe, sugar, water, and milk. Very tasty. Today we leave for Crete. We are taking a 13 hour boat ride there. Luckly we have a sleeping compartment. We booked a luxurious hotel in Setia (or however you spell it) for only 63 euros a night ($90 or so).

I finally graduated from college. Of course, I have been done with my classes since December, but since there is no December commencement, I had to wait until yesterday. The graduation itself was boring as crap. I fell asleep. Woke up just before they called my name and staggered across the stage. Oh, and I graduated with honors. That's right, honors. I didn't even know it until I went to pick up my regalia and my name was on the list for the funny gold thing honors students wear. It was a welcomed surprise.

I made reservations for my whole family to eat lunch after the ceremony at this place called Thyme Square Cafe. My mom drove past it a day earlier and demanded that I change the reservations because the place looked "dumpy". Needless to say, getting a reservation for 15 people on Mother's Day in Washington DC is impossible. I stuck by my choice and the place ended up being perfect. It was moderately priced, yet upscale and it had enough food for all the picky kosher and atkins people in my family.

Today I went shopping with my mom, sister and girlfriend. I hate shopping. They spent the whole day insisting that I needed to buy more stuff. I have plenty of clothes. I have never had to walk around naked. After much instance I ended up getting one shirt, one jacket and one messenger type bag.

This afternoon, Emily and I spent a couple hours calling moving companies. What a freaking hassle. They all seem like they are out to overcharge us and steal all of our crap. Around 5:00 my mom came over and told us that her friend's brother owns or works for a moving company. Problem solved. They are going to come over later this week and give us an estimate (hopefully).

We went out to dinner at Mie N' Yu. It was wonderful, as always. That place has got to be the best restaurant in DC. For dessert I had "coffee and donuts", which was ladyfingers drenched in Kahlua and covered with a chocolate mousse type stuff. I ate so much that it gave me a huge sugar rush.

After that Emily and I went to CVS. I bought some Kodak Max film, but had to return it after my dad said it was crappy. Now all I want to do is sit around playing 007. I'm too fat to do anything else.

Emily and I live in a very ritzy neighborhood. Oil Barons, Diplomats, and Embassies line our block. We rent from the grand-daughter of the Reynolds Tobacco fortune. Criminals usually avoid our neighborhood, because of the abundance of personal security guards, but not tonight.

I was taking Turtle for a walk around midnight. Emily needed some money to buy more tickets to graduation, so I agreed to walk to her ATM (about 1/2 mile) and get it. On the way back, I saw a large pickup truck parked in front of a fire hydrant. The hydrant was gushing water into the street. Two men stood staring at the fountain. Turtle was afraid of the noise, so I walked to the other side of the street. The men spotted me and crossed the street. I sped up. They sped up. I took a left down the nearest alley and started running. They followed. Turtle could barely keep up (his legs are very small you know), so I picked him up by the leash and ran. The men kept coming. I took a left into someone's driveway and hid behind a trash can. They ran past. Turtle almost barked, but I covered his mouth. I silently ran out of the driveway and further down the street. Thankfully, I made it home without seeing them again.

It was so weird. That kind of stuff usually doesn't happen in this area. Oh well. I guess that's life in DC.

Yesterday I went into work all pissed off, because Friday I had rushed through all the jobs, so we wouldn't have anything to do Saturday and I wouldn't have to come in. But my boss said I had to come in anyway. It was lame. We just sat around watching stupid movies from the DC indy film fest.

After work I went to the screening for the film I've been working on with Emily and Mac. Ours was definitely one of the best. After the screening Emily and I took a nap and were woken up by Dave around 6:30. The three of us went to this great restaurant called Listrani's. They just made fun of my "boring" blog the whole time and said that I should just write about my day and stuff like that. Well screw them. I don't want to write about that stuff. I mean, who cares about my day.

Anyway, after that, Dave and I played the Laura Croft PS2 game for a while. That game is maddening. All you do is try to figure out how to get out of whatever room you are in at the time.

Dave left around 3:30 and I spent the rest of the night playing with this music program called Live. I figure out some really cool stuff you could do with it, like sequence audio loops in the timeline.

This morgining I got to sleep in for the first time in what seems like months. It was great. Then Emily and I spent hours on campus playing with DVD Studio Pro 2. I had to poop real bad, but the bathroom smelled so bad that I couldn't even breath. So, I had to yell at Emily to hurry up and go home.

Emily, Mac, Shannon and I spent all weekend working on the film. We were in the editing room until 4am on Friday night; Saturday from 11am till 5pm; and most of the day Sunday. After editing on Saturday we took some hilarious pictures for the film. You can check them out in the photo section.

I gave my 2 weeks notice for work. It was amazing. The LA move seems much more concrete. I can't wait. DC is boring and it has crappy weather.

Dear people who think my blog is boring,

You're stupid. If it's so boring, why do you read it? Ha! I got you there. Maybe if you had a blog of your own and it wasn't boring, I would listen to you. Until then shut up.

Being done with school is wonderful. Emily has been very stressed out about all the work she has to do before the end of the semester. Just hearing about everything she has to do reminds me of everything I no longer have to worry about. Tests. Homework. Due dates. Studying. Showing up to class with clothes on.

It has finally warmed up in DC. Today I actually sweated for the first time in about 6 months. Emily and I brought Turtle to the dog park yesterday and today. We walked through the river, played fetch, ran around and had a great time. Now Turtle is worn out. Sleeping on my lap.

Time for some more quotes from our illustrious president:

"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one  word is 'to be prepared'."

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."

"The future will be better tomorrow."

"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."

"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."

"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."

"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."

"For NASA, space is still a high priority."

"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children."

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."
- George W. Bush

I have come to the conclusion that the subservient chicken website is fake. First of all, he can't possibly be there 24 hours a day. Second of all, his position on camera seems to jump slightly just before he does anything. Now that that's settled we can all stop feeling bad about leaving him with nothing to do.

The weather around here has been terrible the last few days. Turtle gets really depressed because he can't go out and play. When I think about it, that might not be such a bad thing. He seems to instinctively know when it's a nice day out and he will whine by the door until you let him out. I need to move somewhere with really great weather. Maybe LA.

Hello all. Let me tell you about the ridiculous events of last weekend:

Emily and Mac had a film project to shoot. They had been planking for weeks and around this time last week everything seemed under control. Then things started to happen. First the actors that were suppose to play the guy and girl dropped out. Emily got her best friend Shannon to play the girl and Shannon's boyfriend to play the guy. Mid week Emily got a call saying that the camera she had reserved was broken. Luckily, since she had requested it so far in advance, the professor let her use his super 16mm camera (much nicer than the original camera).

Then came the shoot. I took off work early to help out, arriving at Mac's apartment around 6:30. We waited a couple hours for the male lead to show up. Every time we called he was "on his way". Eventually we just decided to cast Christian, one of the crew members. The Friday night shoot went well. As did the Saturday shoot.

Saturday night as Christian was leaving, Emily told him not to ride his motorcycle. Of course he rode it anyway and got into an accident (which wasn't his fault). He went to the hospital and there was no way he was going to finish the shoot. Saturday night we stayed up most of the night re-writing the script. We decided to do a mock investigative report, using the footage from Friday and Saturday as reenactments. Overall I think the project will turn out very well. Maybe even better than it would have without the problems.

Is this blog boring? My girlfriend and my sister seem to think so. Well who cares what they think. I'll write about whatever I want and you can't stop me. Just because I write about some stupid bastard who was thrust into the role of president more than I write about myself does not mean that my blog is any less valid.

Let's talk about religious holidays for a minute. Celebrating the important events of my ancestors has never made any sense to me. Why take time out of my busy schedule to carry on some ridiculous traditions? Why waste my life remembering the events of someone else's?

You know what I like? Puppies. Cause they are cute.

This is a short poem made up entirely of actual quotations from George W. Bush. They have been arranged, only for aesthetic purposes, by Washington Post writer, Richard Thompson.

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER
I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
And potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet
Become more few?

How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.

I know that the human being
And the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope,
Where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
Make the pie higher!

(Pass this on. Help cure mad Cowboy disease in the next election.)

Working a normal job sucks. I've only been out of college and working full time for a few months, but let me tell you, it's no good. The monotonous routine. The lack of free time. Small paychecks. Unrewarding wasted hours spent doing the same boring crap. No good. I need a way out. A change of pace. A new beginning.

I've always felt like I was not meant to work a typical job. Now I know for sure.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind = brilliant, brilliant, and more brilliant.

Emily got us the American Idol PS2 game. I'll have to admit, it's very addictive.

Ever wonder how much the war in Iraq actually cost?

Lets talk about this whole hunt for Ben Laden thing. First of all, Al Queda is not this carefully structured and unquestioningly led group of people with flawless communication, like the media/government wants us to think. It is a bunch of sandy bastards with a common hatred for western culture. Capturing the so called "leader" will not stop the ideology or the attacks. The only thing that will stop the attacks is to find out what they are upset about (western imperialism?) and come to an understanding.

The capture of Ben Laden is more about politics than a genuine interest in what's best for the American people. The war in Iraq has done nothing but waste billions of dollars, alienate our allies, and kill a bunch of people.

On an unrelated note... I saw The Passion of Christ last night and it was pretty good; but I felt like Mel Gibson was telling a story to a group of people who had heard it a thousand times before, and I walked into the room halfway through without ever hearing the story. Maybe I would have liked it better if I had read the new testament more closely.

And it was not anti-semitic.

I know I have been writing about Bush a lot lately. I don't want to turn this blog into a political forum, so here's a link.

Lately I have been rewriting my feature length script called Suggestibility. The first time I wrote it, I had a lot of trouble and the story ended up being only 83 pages long (which is short for a feature length script). This time, instead of trying to write on the computer, I have been using a spiral notebook and it is coming along very nicely. I have already written 50 pages. It will probably end up being around 110 pages and the story will be more cohesive.

In a final note: War = Terrorism
That leads me to my next concern. Why does the government think that guns and bombs are going to solve our problem with terrorists? Ideology and personal beliefs drive people to commit these acts. Last time I checked, you can't destroy an ideology with force. If we really want to solve this issue, we must discover the root of the problem (American Imperialism perhaps?).

Today at work we were dubbing the latest Bush for president ads. One was the typical "George Bush is a strong leader" and the other was an attack ad against Kerry. Just before we started the dubs, we got a call from the campaign headquarters saying that the first ad must be changed. The problem was that it showed an Army tank. The person calling said that she would be fired if the tank was not removed. I didn't understand why it was such a big deal; the ad also showed fighter jets and soldiers. Oh well. We got rid of the stupid tank.

By the way... people at the Bush headquarters are insane, and not just because of who they are working for. They are constantly calling and freaking out about something. Whether it be the content of the commercials they sent us, or the fact that their tapes say urine under the label (I'll tell that story another time).

Speaking of George Bush... Lets talk about this big controversy about him using 9-11 imagery in his ads. I think it's disrespectful, despite the fact that he has based his entire presidency on this one event. Sure, 9-11 was an important day in our history, but come on, get over it already.

It strange how no one mentions the fact that the majority of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, but we decided to attack Iraq. Why not Saudi Arabia? Oh yeah, because Bush is friends with the Saudis and we get most of our oil from them. Sure, Saddam Hussein was bad, and maybe he was financing terrorists, but I bet the terrorist got the majority of their money elsewhere.

That leads me to my next concern. Why does the government think that guns and bombs are going to solve our problem with terrorists? Ideology and personal beliefs drive people to commit these acts. Last time I checked, you can't destroy an ideology with force. If we really want to solve this issue, we must discover the root of the problem (American Imperialism perhaps?).