Zoso Halloween Pumpkin One of the first fancy pumpkins that I ever created. As is probably the case with a lot of college apartments, ours was covered with posters of Led Zeppelin, and I thought it would be appropriate to transfer the 'Stairway to Heaven' poster onto the pumpkin. Here is the commentary from my original website: Introduction While living at the Duval Street apartment, my roommates and I had quite an elaborate display of crap in front of our apartment door. Most of this was designed / put in place by none other than me. We had a park bench, an assortment of fruits and vegetables, plants, a 400 pound wooden Shiner Beer bottle, and for Halloween of 1998, a cool pumpkin. Seeing on how our apartment was a common ground of music lovers and such (we had the full band setup in the apartment), I guess classic rock was always something that everyone could agree upon, regardless of their specific music tastes. And of course somewhere atop everyone's classic rock stack is a collection of Led Zeppelin. I wanted to make a cool looking pumpkin that everyone would find some interest in and so I looked to Led Zeppelin. Perhaps one of the most known symbols (at least to the LedHeads) is Jimmy Page's "Zoso".

Making the Pumpkin The process of making a "Zoso" pumpkin is actually pretty simple. 1. Go to your local pumpkin patch 2. Pick out a nice looking 8 pounder 3. Pull out all of those tasty pumpkin guts 4. Surf the web for a picture of the Zofo logo 5. Print the picture and tape it to the pumpkin 6. Use a tack to outline the picture 7. Remove the picture and cut away on the tack holes Thats about it. For anyone who is mildly curious as to what in the hell Zoso means, I couldn't tell you. I've read far too many accounts to really speculate where it came from but the simplest one is that Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were looking at calligraphy-like symbols. Jimmy Page found one that he liked and apparently the symbol 'sounded' like "Zoso" (apparently pronounced Zo-So). From that point on, it was sort of a trademark of his. For any of those now curious as to who the hell Jimmy Page is, he is/was the guitarist of Led Zeppelin and is credited with being one of the more (if not most) famous classic rock guitarists.

Sample Page This is an example page It s different from a blog post because it will stay in one place and will show up in your site navigation in most themes Most people start with an About page that introduces them to potential site visitors It might say something like this blockquote Hi there I m a bike messenger by day aspiring actor by night and this is my blog I live in Los Angeles have a great dog named Jack and I like pi 241 a coladas And gettin caught in the rain blockquote or something like this blockquote The XYZ Doohickey Company was founded in 1971 and has been providing quality doohickies to the public ever since Located in Gotham City XYZ employs over 2 000 people and does all kinds of awesome things for the Gotham community blockquote As a new WordPress user you should go to a href http 64 17 5 210 www kevinludlow com util Wordpress wp admin your dashboard a to delete this page and create new pages for your content Have fun

The Zoso Pumpkin While living at the Duval Street apartment my roommates and I had quite an elaborate display of crap in front of our apartment door Most of this was designed put in place by none other than me We had a park bench an assortment of fruits and vegetables plants a 400 pound wooden Shiner Beer bottle and for Halloween of 1998 a cool pumpkin Seeing on how our apartment was a common ground of music lovers and such we had the full band setup in the apartment I guess classic rock was always something that everyone could agree upon regardless of their specific music tastes And of course somewhere atop everyone s classic rock stack is a collection of Led Zeppelin I wanted to make a cool looking pumpkin that everyone would find some interest in and so I looked to Led Zeppelin Perhaps one of the most known symbols at least to the LedHeads is Jimmy Page s Zoso strong Making the Pumpkin strong The process of making a Zoso pumpkin is actually pretty simple 1 Go to your local pumpkin patch 2 Pick out a nice looking 8 pounder 3 Pull out all of those tasty pumpkin guts 4 Surf the web for a picture of the Zoso logo 5 Print the picture and tape it to the pumpkin 6 Use a tack to outline the picture 7 Remove the picture and cut away on the tack holes That s about it For anyone who is mildly curious as to what in the hell Zofo means I couldn t tell you I ve read far too many accounts to really speculate where it came from but the simplest one is that Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were looking at calligraphy like symbols Jimmy Page found one that he liked and apparently the symbol sounded like Zofo apparently pronounced Zo So From that point on it was sort of a trademark of his For any of those now curious as to who the hell Jimmy Page is he is was the guitarist of Led Zeppelin and is credited with being one of the more if not most famous classic rock guitarists photo 19568 502 520 left The pumpkin glowing on my front porch photo photo 19569 502 520 left Another picture of the same thing photo photo 19570 502 520 left A closeup of the Zoso logo photo

A page with two lines written on top of the page and rest portion of page kept blank.

The page you requested was not found You may have clicked an expired link or mistyped the web address some URLs are case sensitive It is also possible that the page you have requested is still under development Return home Contact the Administrator Go back to the previous page

Website Needing Repair I have heard from a few people that the main page is beginning to get a little slow especially for those sad enough to still be using a dialup connection While it will still be a week or two off I am planning a few changes for the website I will most likely be turning off the block messaging system as it is rarely used and a pain to keep up with I will instead just be using this style that you see in front of you I will also be placing the camper van experience on a seperate page and hopefully be adding maps to show our journey pending me getting graph x programs In the more distant future I am planning on designing a custom theme for austinsmoke com It will most likely have a greenish style to it but that is still a ways off Sorry to anyone having to wait awhile for this main page to load up Hopefully the problem will be corrected very shortly Photo Gallery Updates Please note that the pictures from Queenstown should be available tomorrow a href http www austinsmoke com modules php set_albumName album02 amp op modload amp name gallery amp file index amp include view_album php Camper Van a a href http www austinsmoke com modules php set_albumName album09 amp op modload amp name gallery amp file index amp include view_album php Animal Encounters a a href http www austinsmoke com modules php set_albumName album33 amp op modload amp name gallery amp file index amp include view_album php Larnach Castle a a href http www austinsmoke com modules php set_albumName album34 amp op modload amp name gallery amp file index amp include view_album php Bluff a a href http www austinsmoke com modules php set_albumName album35 amp op modload amp name gallery amp file index amp include view_album php Southern Scenic Route a

New Zealand Today Response photo 264397 740 300 right The cover of the magazine photo While taking a rather enjoyable and short flight from Christchurch to Dunedin I came across a seven page article in an NZ Today magazine written by editor Allan Dick With a bolded introduction proposing my thoughts in return for 100 and a supply of tea I could not refuse the offer I love tea My background in brief I am an American citizen twenty five years of age and have been traveling this fine country for the past seven months I hold an honors degree in Mathematics and have resided in the state of Texas most of my life I am generally employed as a computer programmer or web developer but I love to write especially when there is some degree of philosophy involved I am of the age where I still believe I can help the world and my future ambitions include working with NASA and even running for president of the United States Dear Mr Dick I found your views of the world fairly entertaining and certainly captivating enough for a travel through the sky There are a few things I disagree with and I would like to use this time to share them with you Firstly I would like to comment on your thoughts regarding toll roads and tax increases on petrol Allow me to note early on that I am much more in favor of toll roads over petrol taxing The reason is fairly simple toll roads ultimately create a simpler albeit more expensive passage from points a to b I doubt very sincerely that a toll road that whisks drivers to an uncharted area will be built or that an existing road will be tolled without the existence of alternate perhaps somewhat longer routes Because of this I see a toll road as a luxury a luxury affordable to those who are willing to pay its toll Petrol tax is amongst other things a highly regressive tax You can assume that as I have found my way to New Zealand such a tax increase would not ruin me and I will assume that since you are a published editor that it would not ruin you either but it seems somewhat unfair to simply include you and I in this mix The people that it hurts are those near the poverty line They pay the same 5 cent per liter increase as an example that you or I would only it is significantly more of their income with each liter pumped I have been asking myself why you make petrol cost comparisons to the UK Europe and Japan but fail to include the United States Not surprisingly these comparisons follow the same introduction that claims Petrol in this country is too cheap Petrol in New Zealand by any American standard is incredibly expensive Even with gas prices currently high in Texas I would expect to pay no more than 1 30 US gallon 0 51 NZ liter A Californian who would probably pay the most within the US might shell out around 2 40 US gallon 0 94 NZ liter Within that range prices can vary significantly around the United States but any way you dice it it is still considerably less expensive than anywhere in New Zealand That brings me to your claim that if petrol was not so inexpensive that New Zealanders would all be driving smaller cars Again using my homeland as an example the SUV Explorers Land Runners etc has been on the rise for years now Americans want their cars larger and the car companies will stop at nothing short of being able to transport your entire estate in the backseat I realize that this is the same idea that you describe occurring in New Zealand but what s wrong with it Your claims are not geared at being more efficient nor reducing gasses in the atmosphere but rather your argument is with respect to transport and traffic problems Not only that but specifically if people want to fix the aforementioned problems they will need to expect an increase in petrol tax I did not say I have a PhD in mathematics but lets see if I can get the algebra right If I drove a truck that only got 14 miles gallon and tax on gas is roughly 40 cents per gallon then I am giving the government roughly 2 8 cents per mile of travel On the other hand if I drove a mini that got 40 miles gallon with the same tax rate then I am paying the government only 1 cent per mile traveled The distance is the same but I am ultimately paying a higher tax rate to drive that gas guzzling vehicle Also as the truck s four wheels do not harm the roads any more than the mini s four wheels the road maintenance cost is the same for both Don t get me wrong I am not advocating further pollution of the Earth but you neglect to discuss green politics and thus I am simply arguing that driving smaller cars hurts the government s revenue rather than helps it This is especially true when we throw diesel into the equation Another point I would like to make is regarding your visit to a Challenge petrol station Perhaps you are much wealthier than I but the ability to save money is just that Your blurb about a man thinking he would save 20 on petrol at a Challenge station over a BP station is humorous but its connotation is also somewhat arrogant Years ago I would ask my mother why she spent the time to cut out market coupons in the Sunday paper even though I knew we could afford our groceries without them Her response was always you don t become wealthy by wasting your money It seemed silly to me when I was ten but it is perfectly logical now Consistently saving 2 cents per liter of gas adds up quite quickly and claiming the savings are not worth your thought is capitalistically incorrect It is incredible what amount of money a shrewd shopper is able to save in a year saving on petrol is just one of those savings Furthermore scoffing at the consumer for his or her desire to save a few pennies undermines the goal and ability of a free and competitive market to work for the consumer You point out in the same passage how even though only a few pennies could be saved via Challenge the BP station was still empty It is by that very example that the BP station would ultimately have been forced to lower its petrol prices by 2 cents in order to resume business If Challenge then wished to drop another cent or two it could do so thus regaining control of the local market and BP would have to match it and so on and so forth Eventually both stations would assume a financial level where they could no longer afford to drop their prices and the competitive market has been a success the consumer is now paying the most nominal price for his or her petrol In regards to your overall argument this does not adversely affect what the government collects as the tax rate on petrol remains constant If anything the government is able to collect slightly more from this local market as people may be more inclined to consume higher quantities of petrol finally available at a cheaper rate As for your concluding paragraphs in this section I tend to agree We could probably solve a lot of problems in the world if real solutions were provided and the powers that be ie politicians stuck to those solutions instead of finding ways to mend them for personal financial gain Since however we do not live in such an idealistic world we need to work with what we have Flat taxes can be great in certain areas specifically when some of the proceeds will help those that the tax hurts most Increasing petrol tax does not do this There is zero return a poor person will expect to gain over a wealthy person with reduced traffic or better roads Choosing between your two options the toll road only financially hurts those who choose to drive it You could argue that it s the same thing where higher petrol taxes only affect those who choose to purchase petrol Unfortunately for many that is similar to arguing that increasing food prices only affects those who eat definitely a true statement but immensely unfair given the necessity If you d like to use my math from above to help your government increase revenue get rid of those small engine anti gas gobbling three cars you have Instead buy a car that gets 1 kilometer to the liter You ll be paying the government the full tax rate for each kilometer traveled The ozone hole over Alexander may slightly increase but you ll get to work faster thanks to reduced traffic from increased government profits Another section of your article that I would like to comment on is regarding the assassination of John F Kennedy I certainly am not picking on you in this matter as there are literally millions of people that have written about the conspiracies that may or may not have existed The point that I would like to bring across especially when depicting American history in a New Zealand magazine is that Kennedy contrary to popular belief is not that unique Ask any American which presidents have been assassinated and you ll most definitely hear Kennedy A generous proportion will also tell you Lincoln I doubt very sincerely however that you will hear the likes of James Garfield or William McKinley both assassinated The fact is that 4 of 43 presidents have in fact been killed just over 9 of our complete presidential history Moreover 4 additional presidents have suffered assassination attempts the most famous probably being Ronald Regan yielding roughly an 18 chance that someone may try to kill you while president of the US Why then is Mr Kennedy so famously credited with being assassinated I have no idea whether or not there was a conspiracy to kill JFK but what I do know is that is that we as humans tend to make up better stories about the more popular or controversial figures There is nothing terribly surprising about that logic but it does put a nasty thorn in the side of conspiracy theorists because scientifically speaking the control group less popular figures has suffered just as many occurrences So what was the great conspiracy to kill McKinley or Jackson or even Truman Gerald Rudolph Ford had assassins after him twice why didn t Oliver Stone make a movie titled GRF The reason is simply that there just is not enough controversy and mystery to dig up Truman approved the incineration of tens of thousands of people in minutes you would think we could find good reason to discuss gunner Oscar Collazo at the same level as Oswald but the time was different WWII did not have the same controversy as the Vietnam war The media format of the time was different and there was not a tremendously sized hippie movement in the 40 s as there was in the 60 s Best of all Collazo was not Japanese and the assassination attempt had nothing to do with the atomic bombs at all but rather issues regarding Puerto Rico The elements just happen to line up for JFK That does not take away from the notion that there could have been a conspiracy but rather that it s easier for us to believe there must have been one instead of considering that perhaps we are over examining one moment in time It does seem that Oswald could not have acted alone but why is it so impossible to accept that perhaps his partner s in crime got lucky and ultimately got away Plain and simple Will we ever know Most likely we will not But quoting you in public life perception is often more important than reality I could not agree more with that statement and would like to use it for my own benefit We will always be more infatuated with the perception that the government set all of pieces moving rather than the possibility that one or two radicals didn t like Kennedy Either way given he was just one of eight presidents targeted for removal in American history his assassination is not quite as unique as we have made it out to be for 40 years I hope you will find my comments insightful and fully worth a supply of tea photo 264396 740 520 left My response in print Page 1 photo photo 264399 740 520 left My response in print Page 2 including Mr Dick s own commentary on the paper photo

Why Facebook Blows This was on my account today regarding the Kujda Banana Skier Video I posted em Hello We have removed your video entitled Jolly Jason Kujda Skiing uploaded at 3 13pm February 24th 2009 We did this because we learned that your video might include copyrighted material owned by a third party such as a video clip or background audio If you are the copyright owner or have permission from the rights holder to upload and distribute this material on Facebook you may file a counter notice of alleged infringement by following the link below Please note that if you re upload this video without filing a counter notice or if you upload another video that infringes on the rights of a third party our system will again remove the content This could cause your access to the Facebook Video application to be disabled or your Facebook account to be disabled em Here is the offending video iframe width 420 height 315 src http www youtube com embed DG9ZsJJ_Bcg frameborder 0 allowfullscreen iframe

The Subway Worker photo 10945 188 0 right A yellow New York Transit work train photo When I was visiting Eric and Amy in New York City as I tended to do each summer I often spend some time filming subways I don t know what my fascination is with subways but I find them very enjoyable to photograph and film On this one very late Wednesday night technically Thursday morning I was waiting at the 42nd street subway station to catch the uptown A train On the tracks behind me was one of the work trains Having never seen one of these before I snapped a few photos of it After getting a few pictures of it I started shooting some film of it as well I wasn t even looking into the screen to see what I was filming at the time and so had no idea what I had accidentally picked up Laying down in the driver s seat of the train was a transit worker When another worker walked past him on the outer part of the train he glanced back to see who had walked by and evidently caught a glimpse of my camera What happened next was frustrating He walked off of the train and approached me with quite the mouth on him He was yelling at me how it was illegal to film subways that I was going to go to jail and that I needed to give him my camera I told him this was not true and I would not give him my camera The truth of the matter was that I didn t know if New York had passed some insane measure barring trains from being filmed and so after about 30 seconds of arguing I showed him one of the pictures in the camera and told him that was all I had He seemed to be okay with this and walked away all the while reminding me not to take more photos It wasn t until I walked away and actually looked at the film that I had any idea what he was concerned about As it turns out he had been sleeping on the job When he caught the glimpse of my camera he assumed that I had been filming him asleep on the job jumped to feet and then proceeded towards me albeit he never left the edge of the train Here is the actual film iframe width 420 height 315 src http www youtube com embed KlpUqODQT6Q frameborder 0 allowfullscreen iframe I filed a report with the New York Transit Authority as soon as I got back to Eric and Amy s apartment Here was my email to them i Customer Kevin Ludlow 07 06 2006 02 17 AM To whom it may concern My name is Kevin Ludlow and I am currently on vacation visiting some local residents and otherwise enjoying this lovely city At about 12 40am on July 6th just about 1 5 hours ago a yellow work train engine 67 pulled up into the 42nd Street Port Authority stop on the Uptown A track As I had not seen one of these large yellow work trains I took a picture of it with my camera and actually wound up filming a bit Though I had not thought of it the working MTA passenger in the train was asleep his feet up upon the window The conductor exited the train walking right past me as I continued to film The MTA passenger eventually woke up looked towards me did a double take and finally jumped up from his lying down position apparently startled by me Normally I would not mention such a thing but what happened next appalled me He signaled for me to come near him and asked me what I was taking a picture of I explained the train He said rather unpleasantly that it was illegal to take pictures and that he needed to see what I had taken a picture of I told him I did not know that and that I would not show him my camera and then proceeded to ask a person next to me if this was true that I couldn t take pictures The nearby person didn t know and the MTA worker proceeded to tell me he would go and get the police and let them deal with me Not wanting to cause a scene I showed him a picture of train naturally not the video of him asleep which I am almost certain is why he was so angry with me Truth be told I actually thought he was going to exit the train and attempt to stop me Is this a common thing a city tourist should expect from the MTA staff and if so why I have provided the video I described above for you in both AVI and MOV formats Please feel free to view them from my website for reference to my story Thank you very much Kevin Ludlow i The next after noon I received the following email from the New York Transit Authority people i Response Melissa Glasgow 07 06 2006 01 49 PM This is in response to your recent e mail to MTA New York City Transit reporting an employee at the 42nd Street Port Authority station We sincerely regret the incident you describe as having occurred at the 42nd Street Port Authority station Please be assured that the type of behavior you described is not indicative of the high standards of professionalism set forth in our guidelines In response to your complaint we have referred your e mail to supervision in the appropriate operating department for review and investigation Based on the information you provided we hope to identify the employee you encountered for questioning and appropriate further action Supervision will also closely monitor our employees at this location and take the appropriate measures to prevent any recurrence of this incident If you have any further transit related questions concerns or problems please contact Customer Services at 718 330 3322 Monday through Friday from 9 00 a m to 5 00 p m or write to Customer Services at 2 Broadway Room A11 146 New York NY 10004 In order to investigate the situation properly and take the appropriate further action we may need to contact you by phone or mail Please provide your phone number and address to us for forwarding to the Department of Subways i

Talking to People About Ron Paul I ve become a tremendous fan of Ron Paul over the past year I wanted to put together a short speech explaining to people my thoughts on what is likely needed in order for him to make any progress in the 2008 election The topic is a little dry but I think brings up some good points iframe width 420 height 315 src http www youtube com embed OtS7xpssB5E frameborder 0 allowfullscreen iframe