I have a feeling this post is going to have very little to do with it's title - I'm at work right now badly craving one of the tuna, tomatoes, relish and mayo sandwiches I can't seem to get enough of lately. I guess subway will have to do.


Moving on to an equally un-interesting topic: [note... it's been a few hours since I typed the above] after mentioning subway, a chicken parmesan sounded very appetizing to me. Where was I? I was probably getting to the part where I stated the obvious suckiness of this post.

I've been browsing through apple trailers for the last 15 minutes, this one gives me chills.

The list that was linked to the originally story had a handful of bad links - I went through and tried to clean it up.

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers (2).

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

11. Diebold is based in Ohio.

12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.

13. Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.

14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.

15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.

16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it!


17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.

18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.

19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.

20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation (1, 2, 3, 4)

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Ypsi, which is short for Ypsilanti, MI, is where Amanda and I lived before packing up and moving west - I always keep track of all the local happenings through Mark Maynard's site... coming up is the Shadow Art Fair - all you really need to know about it is "1 day. 20 artist. 9,000 gallons of beer."

If you're in the area - check it out.

Originally posted at Project Pedal:

I have three external hard drives: an old 20 GB that's full of my music, an 80 GB that has a bunch of different image & graphic files stored on it, and a 200 GB that's holding a good 160 GB of raw DV footage. Mostly from Amanda and I's bike trip along the Pacific last summer... but also video I took for & during the pilot.

Two days ago, I took the subway (because we were spending $600 to fix the brakes on the car) into Pasadena to meet with Matt, Tim (DP) and Aaron - we went over the footage from the June 5th - 9th shoot, and I brought home Tim's 300 GB drive to look, more closely, at the video. But I've been franticly shifting my 200 drive to DVD's to make room for the pilot clips. All this on-top of editing.


I need to just give in and buy myself a 300 GB external - I know even after I empty the 200 I already have, that by the time I dump the pilot footage on it and start cutting - the render files will eat every last bit of space in no time. Which is frustrating because Final Cut 5 has dynamic editing & playback - which means you don't have to render to work - unless you have a mac mini and are working with HD footage... then dynamic playback is just choppy-as-hell.

Which is half the reason I want a 300 so badly, I could fit everything on it, including the project files and just sneak it with me into iFilm when I'm working late, I'd be able to get my editing done about 15 times faster. But... we are $600 in the hole for the brakes, so I'll keep holding my breath.

I don't know how long this has been out publicly - but I just read that Bush said the following in defense of his 'Patriot Act' to a handful of Congressional leaders, "I don't give a goddamn, I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way!"

When they argued it ignored rights founded in the constitution, he shouted back, "Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"


Before some of you assume I read this off of the personal blog of some "lefty nutcase" - I read this article from the Conservative Voice... and no, they didn't try to refute that it happened, although they seemed more shocked that Bush would take the Lord's name in vain than the idea that he could give two shits about this countries' constitution.

so on wednesday, nearing the end of my babysitting shift, i decided to take nick to "my playroom" for an hour or two, so he could run around and burn up some energy before his mama was done with work. we got there around 10 to 4pm. i pulled up and parked on the street, in between a line of cars, out front, where i usually do. i put 2 hrs on the meter and then (having never been there in the afternoon before) double-checked the sign and saw that it said '2 hr parking from 9-4 except sundays' and then i thought to myself 'hmm... i guess i only needed to put in 10 min. worth... oh well'.

nick and i went in a played for about an hour and a half. we got ready to go about when nick's mom would be done with work. we walked outside and the street was empty... all the cars that had been there were gone, including mine. uggh...

i called nick's mom and she came to get us. about 2 hrs and $250 later, i had my car back. (apparently i'm truly a blonde and didn't realize the sign above that said 'tow-away no stopping or parking' and that it referred to all times other than 9-4.)

one of my most expensive mistakes.

the next day mike dropped me off at babysitting so he could take the car to the shop to have the brakes fixed. 8 hrs later, after inspections, adjustments, pads, calipers, rotors, a coupon, several phone calls and a payment of $650, he picked it up... and then me.

what an expensive 2 days. and we still don't have plane tickets. bummer.

so, it seems that mike and i, both have some time off coming up... 2 weeks to be exact. july 15th-the 29th. we were thinking that this would be a perfect time to head to michigan, for a much needed visit.

unfortunately, i can't seem to find any reasonable airfare. i've looked everyday, for about the last week, and the cheapest i've found is about $375 each. which is about $100 each more than we can afford or were hoping/expecting to pay. so in all honesty, this is a really sad and pathetic, blatantly obvious, request to anyone out in michigan, who would like to see us this summer, PLEASE SEND MONEY! :)

we've even made it really convenient for you. just to the right of this post, in the sidebar, is a line that reads "sure, we take paypal.." it is a link, if you click on it, it will take you directly to a page where you can make a donation into my bank account right from your own bank account or credit card. see, it's that easy. of course that's not to say that if you send something through the traditional snail mail that we wouldn't love to have it and really appreciate it by putting it to good use. all money is good money to us.

ok, that's enough. take care everyone, hope to see you soon :)

This morning, while walking back home after dropping the car off to have it's brake's fixed, I heard an interesting quip from Sam Seder of the Majority Report, while discussing the debate on the floor that happened several days ago, he off hand-idly said, and I'm paraphrasing, that "staying the course" was simply passing the buck.

I had never really thought of it in that sense before, not that I had ever bought into the sound-byte rationalization of "staying the course", I thought it was an empty solution for a false argument. A knee-jerk catch-phrase that on the surface sounded strong and steady, but really was just simple and stubborn. I say "false argument" because it's the plan for winning the war on terror, but Iraq is not a war on terror - it's not even a war, it's simply an occupation - a very illegal and unsuccessful one at that.

The war, as by definition, was over when our fearless leader, sporting an accentuating crotch-piece, announced that major combat operations were over - we stopped bombing their facilities, we had overthrown their government and seized it's leaders, we gained control of their land. That's the end of a war - what you do after is an occupation. Why is the debate being framed around the "war" in Iraq? Because no one likes to loose a war - no one - but people understand that an occupation, eventually, has to end, it's only natural and only right.

But I'm getting sidetracked - the point I wanted to make is that "staying the corse", which has been our militaries' curse and our government's fail-safe plan since day one, is - in reality - 'passing the buck' or dodging responsibility and letting that responsibility fall on the shoulders of others.

"Staying the course" means continuing to under-equip our soldiers and, by default, putting the soldier's family in charge of buying proper protection and fed-ex'ing it to Iraq... hoping it gets there before their son or daughter is killed by a basic road-side explosive.

"Staying the corse" means an unsteady decline in power for the Iraqi people - as of recently, they are with one hour with electricity for every six without. Much worse than only months before.

"Staying the corse" means a continued stop on all reconstruction funds for what we destroyed in a televised 'shock & awe' event.

"Staying the corse" means lower oil production levels, which raise demand and cost, which is quite the opposite from what we were promised going in.

"Staying the corse" means thousands more of our soldiers will die guarding trucks for Halliburton down the same dangerous roads day in and day out.

"Staying the corse" means more signing statements by Bush that legally allow our government and military to not follow human rights laws - giving the world a red flag that the US can and has been: beating, punching with fist, slamming against walls, use of tranchants, kicking, stretching of torn ligaments and muscles to cause affixation, external electric shocks, forcing prisoners to urinate on themselves, forced renunciation of religion, false confessions or accusations, applying urine and feces to prisoners, making verbal threats to the prisoner and their family, denigration of a prisoner's religion, forced feeding, induced hypothermia and exposure to extreme heat, dietary manipulation, use of sedatives, extreme sleep deprivation, mock executions, water emerging, water boarding, obstruction of the prisoner's airway, chest compression, thermal burning, rape, dog bites, sexual abuse, forcing a prisoner to watch the torture of a loved one... (Note: No, I did not just pull those forms of torture out of thin air, keep an eye out for a book by Steven Miles, titled 'Oath Betrayed' - filled with over 35,000 documents, obtained through a freedom of information provision, that outline all the cases where these forms of interrogation have been used by our country).


I could on all day.

But "Staying the corse", perhaps worst of all, means the continued chipping away at our rights and privacy under the context of an endless and PR-based war on terror - and "justified" by a worsening occupation in Iraq.

Originally posted at Mockworthy by Jeans Pants...

Get your fix: Justin, Mike, Amanda and Angela do their best to sit through 'Justin to Kelly'. [24.1 MBs, 01:24'23, mp3 format] or play in iTunes.

After thoughts: ...I'm happy we had 2 guest commentators. If it wasn't for them this could have been bad. A terrible movie but lots of laughs were had by all. I would still rather have sex with a couch than ever see this movie again.

Details on 'said' film: Tagline: A tale of two American Idols Directed by: Robert Iscove Writing credits: Kim Fuller Genre: Shitty Plot summary: Country Bar Singer Kelly and her two friends go on spring break and meet Justin and his two friends. Justin and Kelly fall in love at first sight. Things are going good until one of Kelly's friends tries to sabotage the relationship so she can have Justin all to herself. That BITCH!!! Cast overview: Kelly Clarkson, Justin Guarini, Katherine Bailess, Anika Noni Rose, Greg Siff Awards: Won the Razzie for worst musical of our first 25 years, and it Tavis Payne won the Governors award for "distinguished underachievment in choreography".

Our Odeo Channel (odeo/099636751170c93c)

While we were shooting the Pedal pilot, Amanda and I went to the Panda Express, in Davis, with Aaron, the on-sight producer, the three of us were standing in line when Aaron started to say something along the lines of not liking the word "organic".

At first I had to hold back - but while he went on, I started to see his point. His argument wasn't that he preferred non-organic food over organic, it was that there should be a better word used to label the differences. I think he's onto something...

The word 'Organic' requires too much explaining - the reasons it is unique aren't punch-you-in-the-face obvious.

I propose we specify with each different food, for example: instead of organic-beef, we just put a bit label on it that reads "Shit Free Beef". You could have all kinds of labels for cows and dairy, why is it so taboo to mention the FDA approved levels of blood & puss in milk? Put a big label on the milk jug that reads "No Blood & Puss".


Some things aren't as easy to label - there really isn't a short quip about the genetically modified seeds and foods that are apparently, according to the food corporations, too unique to go un-patented, but normal enough to not be tested or looked at by the FDA. That might not seem very scary at first glance, but when you start learning that the genes altered in foods, like tomatoes, are done so via viruses... then you start loosing your appetite.


From my perspective, if someone is standing in the freezer section of the grocery story, and they two different meats in-front of them, one that reads: "Shit Free" and another that avoids the topic... which do you think they'll reach for?


Anyone else have any other suggestions for specific food labels?

An interactive map of alternative energy around the world, by Popular Science, of various alternative energies and how they are utilized around the world. Notice that most are in Europe.

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This story in the Detroit News caught my eye - being from that area, prior to my move to Los Angeles, I try to keep on an eye on what's happening there, especially since most of my family still live in Michigan. Even more important to me, my Dad works for the company mentioned below.

The article talks about Ford's plan, dubbed, "the way forward", which includes the shutting down of 30-some US plants, an estimated 30,000 jobs... I'm guessing the real number, in the end, will be much higher, it always is - but that's the part of the plan they wanted public, this is the other shoe they were waiting to drop:

A justifiably disgruntled employee, after the UAW convention in Vegas, leaked info' on a 9.2 billion dollar plan to build factories and an estimated 150,000 new jobs... not in the US, but in Mexico.


On the surface of this, it's easy to direct anger towards Ford, dig a little deeper into the problem and you might spread that anger over the huge number of corporations closing their doors in the US and setting-up shop outside the country. Deeper still, and you might point a finger at the current administration's jaw-dropping tax incentives to do business elsewhere, but eventually, at the core of this story is: tariffs.

Or the lack there of in this country... thanks to Reagan & Bush's insane trade policies, that Clinton, giving credit where it's due, really took to extreme measures. Their claim was free trade would lower prices for American consumers - but, not surprisingly, that's not what happened. Instead this turned out to be a war on the middle class.


Ford would have no incentive to move into Mexico if tariffs were still part of the process. If, for example, the same car cost $10 to make in the US, and $4 to make in Mexico, who ever brought the car into the US, from Mexico, would simply have to pay a $6 tariff to even things out. That not being the case anymore, Ford can now produce a car for much less, pay it's work force much less, benefit from a tax incentive from Bush, and not have to worry about paying a tariff when it turns around and sells its product back to the people it left behind.


On a related note, according to the Office of Labor for Michigan, the unemployment rate is, as of last May, 6% statewide, and it's on a steady rise. Compare that to a nation average of 4.7% for March of this year. Things aren't looking good in automotive capital of the country.


It's important we express a public desire for tariffs and a responsible trade policy to our representatives - both contribute, greatly, to our economy; they stabilize and push forward (the real "forward", not Ford's idea of it) our countries' work force and our living wages.

Do something! Visit Save the Internet to learn more and how you can have an effect.

Other vloggers who are talking about this: Four Eyed Monsters, Ask a Ninja...

Update: I realize that the audio is only playing through the right channel - I'm at work right now and I'll have to fix that later.

Originally posted at Project Pedal

As I mentioned in my last post - I've been transfering the footage from our 2005 bike trip off my 200 GB-drive to DVDs. I'm only half way done (and starting to think that I should have just gone out and bought a new external...), but I've been skimming over the clips and picking out random stuff to post, here's a small handful. Enjoy.

This clip doesn't do the wind full justice here - I remember turning around, with our backs to the wind, and, literally, without pedaling - we were coasting at 20 miles an hour. That was a rough day.

This was behind a hotel in Cambria, California - I think if we could have figured out a safe way to take one of these kittens with us on our bikes, we surely would have...

Nick and I hiked to the top of a hill to investigate an old water-well at the top, unfortunately, it was sealed off with rocks. But pay close attention to the guy who looses his ladder on Hwy 1. Somehow, Amanda claims she didn't notice.

At this point, our train was already hours & hours behind schedule for Seattle. Amanda and I stepped outside to stretch our legs and get some fresh air while Amtrak fixed a bad engine at Union Station, Portland, Oregon.

This morning Amanda woke up to find a slimy surprise inches from her face...

I'm not sure why these rocks were piled up this way - but it was an interesting place to stop and rest during a long day of biking.

Amanda and I spent over a half an hour at this look-out point, waiting to see more than just a cloud of mist from the whales gathering around the small boat... it never happened.

This is a long, and sometimes bumpy, shot taken along Hwy 1 in Oregon - I know it's rough and windy at first, but everything calms down once we start heading back away from the ocean, you can even hear the birds as we bike past.


That's all for now - be sure to check in on the "05 trip" channel for more clips. I actually haven't even uploaded these yet, but I have much more on the way soon.

I've had AdSense on this site for a while now - and it's not getting us anywhere. our grand total of earnings is three dollars & eighty-eight cents.

So, I've been looking into BlogAds, but the problem is it's on an invite only set-up. Which means we're looking for someone who already has BlogAds on their site, who is willing to sponsor our site. Any takers?

Justin & I just recorded a new commentary for 'Jason takes Manhantan' - click here to check it out.

That's suppose to be my evil-up-to-no-good laugh, I'm not sure how it comes across in type.

Amanda and I just got back from the movies with Eric - we took our free-movie AMC passes (that we got, last week, after City Walk sent us to the wrong theatre for that shit-fest, The Omen) and went to see X3, which was okay, then we snuck into a 10:30 for Cars... which was not so okay.

I love Pixar - I loved Toy Story... 1 & 2, I loved Monsters Inc', I loved Finding Nemo, but Cars... all three of us were ready to walk out half way through. And not because it was that bad, but it was just... not keeping anyone's attention. I guess you can't win them all... or something cliche' similar to that.

It's late - goodnight.

I've written about a Faulty Chromosome before on this site - just before Tim & Nick flew into town, we went to go see another concert at the Knitting Factory downtown. It was their best show yet - and I'm pissed because they don't allow camcorders in the building... unless you're willing to fork over $50.

But I did use Amanda's digital camera to record two songs - it's not the best quality, but it was better than nothing. The first video is 'Anomies of the Enemy' and the second video is 'Short Distance Walkers'. Enjoy.

I was going to do a video post to catch up on the last week that we've been gone - but at the moment, I'm importing footage I took during the pilot. And since that would take another two hours to finish... I didn't want to keep people waiting.


When we got home around 2 in the morning on the 10th, I was feeling fairly good about the footage we got and the story that unfolded while out on the road. The crew seemed pretty happy also - but I was unsure if that was them being polite or genuinely happy with the shoot.

It wasn't until around 11 o'clock on the 10th, after a few hours of sleep, while I was at LAX, Matt, the producer, left a voicemail saying that he had talked to the guys and they were very happy with the footage. They were positive there was a "solid pilot". Matt seemed more excited than I would have ever guessed he might be, so that was a relief - this being the first project with money and a producer involved... it just takes any experience you might have had in the past and leaves you feeling unsure of what you're doing. But... it appears that I didn't fumble the project too badly.



There is more that I wanted to get into - but I think I'll just wait and do a video post after getting some breakfast and letting this pilot-footage finish importing. If you want to read more on what happened - go to Project Pedal and read the post from June 5th to the 9th.

I'll tell you all about it later tonight...