Alive April Chase Alive April Chase is the first movie I ve ever shot on actual film The film is being shot for my RTF314 class on a Super 8 reel strong Script strong Open with computerized credits three o three productions presents hold and fade a film by Kevin Ludlow hold and fade Alive fade April fade Chase hold and fade SCENE 1 the printing press Opening shot takes place in the Daily Texan newspaper room A person is sitting at their desk hard a work on a sketch After a few seconds of shooting they get up and walk out of the room cut Begin in the hallway outside of the door and follow them from the front down the hallway with the paper in their hand cut As they walk into the pressroom we are behind them again following along to a table They reach their hand down to the table cut Do a close shot of their hand setting down the paper on the desk and zoom out as they walk off and someone else picks it up The person who picked it up walks it over to the press machine and appears to be laying it for the copying process cut We follow the press machine along and it should appear that we are following the paper that was just put in cut Do a close up of two of three of the machine processes Finally get a frontal shot of the paper coming out of the machine as it slides down the beltway cut Somebody walks in from the other angle and picks up the stack of papers and sets them down on a desk The person leaves the room and the camera walks over to the papers and up above them In this same shot the camera slowly gets closer and closer to the papers from the top until the shot is completely black and out of focus cut SCENE 2 April Chase We zoom out of the blackened paper and as we do it opens to the comic section We pan over on top of a comic strip titled April Chase The April Chase scene is animated in single frame 12fps mode There will be 360 frames shot or 30 seconds of 12fps animation When played back at 18fps this will appear to be a faster 20 second shot of April Chase moving about cut The paper quickly closes itself up and we see yet another person tying up the papers with rope or twine As they do this a light blinds the camera slowly pan a flashlight at the lens cut This shot is the hardest to film because it is so time consuming The camera sits atop the roof for one hour before sunset Every 20 seconds one frame should be shot After one hour of this 180 frames will have been shot or 10 seconds of a time lapsed sunset the flashlight in the previous shot is necessary to make a smooth cut from the dark shot to the sun shot SCENE 3 delivering We see the paper trucks driving out on their way delivering papers to the boxes cut There is a shot of the driver getting into his truck and backing out cut We are in the street as he pulls into the street as well cut We see him at a Daily Texan box dropping off a stack of papers cut and then at another one cut and then at one more scene fades to black to do this completely underexpose the frame one F Stop at a time SCENE 4 reading the comic scene 4 is subject to change We follow one more person as they make their way in the morning Shoot them walking down the street and picking up a Daily Texan from the stack cut As they open the box door of it the camera appears to be inside of the box but is really behind it We see them reach towards us to pick up the paper cut The camera moves out of the way as the person walks over to a bench and opens the paper The camera is steady in front of them as they chuckle just a bit They throw the newspaper down on the bench get up and leave The newspaper is sitting stuck to the side of the bench due to the wind use a fan and a piece of tape on the back of the newspaper for this shot We zoom into the newspaper once more and again see April Chase cut We go back to single frame animation but this seen will only appear to be 5 10 seconds long at 18fps April Chase turns and looks at the camera and shrugs her shoulders at us fade to black cut No Mas fades into the screen THE END

Logic Puzzle 12 Balls 3 Weighings photo 269658 740 0 right The traditional type of scale allowed for the weighings photo While living in Manhattan I met a wonderfully brilliant scientist named Colleen Noviello Besides being my own personal tour guide to the city and even up into New York she was always interested in challenging me with puzzles and games of strategy chess for example One afternoon she presented me with what she claimed to be one of the most difficult logic puzzles she had ever attempted Evidently her father had given her this at one point I honestly can t remember if she ever managed to solve it or not but I spent the next couple of days playing with it and much to my joy eventually solving it The puzzle and my solution are below strong Puzzle strong em There are 12 balls One of them is either heavier or lighter then the other 11 Assume that you have access to a traditional balance scale one side is weighed against the other Using only three weighing determine which ball is off weight AND if it is heavier or lighter than the rest of the balls em strong Solution for a 4x4x4 grouping strong Start by numbering the balls 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Because they can be re arranged in any order without losing our principle we can defer to the standard mathematical concept of WLOG without loss of generality strong Step One strong First Possibility 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 are greater or 5 6 7 8 are lighter 9 10 11 12 are equal Second Possibility 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 are lighter or 5 6 7 8 are heavier 9 10 11 12 are equal Third Possibility 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 are either heavier or lighter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 are equal strong Step Two of First Possibility strong First Possibility 1 2 5 11 3 4 6 12 1 2 are heavier or 6 is lighter Second Possibility 1 2 5 11 3 4 6 12 5 is lighter or 3 4 are greater Third Possibility 1 2 5 11 3 4 6 12 7 8 are lighter strong Step Two of Second Possibility strong First Possibility 5 6 1 11 7 8 2 12 5 6 are greater or 2 is lighter Second Possibility 5 6 1 11 7 8 2 12 1 is lighter or 7 8 are greater Third Possibility 5 6 1 11 7 8 2 12 3 4 are lighter strong Step Two of Third Possibility strong First Possibility 9 10 1 11 2 3 9 10 are greater or 11 is lighter Second Possibility 9 10 1 11 2 3 9 10 are lighter or 11 is greater Third Possibility 9 10 1 11 2 3 12 is either lighter or heavier strong Step Three of First Possibility of First Possibility strong First Possibility 1 6 11 12 1 is the heavier ball Second Possibility 1 6 11 12 6 is the lighter ball Third Possibility 1 6 11 12 2 is the heavier ball strong Step Three of Second Possibility of First Possibility strong First Possibility 3 5 11 12 3 is the heavier ball Second Possibility 3 5 11 12 5 is the lighter ball Third Possibility 3 5 11 12 4 is the heavier ball strong Step Three of Third Possibility of First Possibility strong First Possibility 7 12 7 is the lighter ball Second Possibility 7 12 8 is the lighter ball strong Step Three of First Possibility of Second Possibility strong First Possibility 5 2 11 12 5 is the heavier ball Second Possibility 5 2 11 12 2 is the lighter ball Third Possibility 5 2 11 12 6 is the heavier ball strong Step Three of Second Possibility of Second Possibility strong First Possibility 1 7 11 12 7 is the heavier ball Second Possibility 1 7 11 12 1 is the lighter ball Third Possibility 1 7 11 12 8 is the heavier ball strong Step Three of Third Possibility of Second Possibility strong First Possibility 3 12 3 is the lighter ball Second Possibility 3 12 4 is the lighter ball strong Step Three of First Possibility of Third Possibility strong First Possibility 9 11 1 2 9 is the heavier ball Second Possibility 9 11 1 2 11 is the lighter ball Third Possibility 9 11 1 2 10 is the heavier ball strong Step Three of Second Possibility of Third Possibility strong First Possibility 9 11 1 2 11 is the heavier ball Second Possibility 9 11 1 2 9 is the lighter ball Third Possibility 9 11 1 2 10 is the lighter ball strong Step Three of Third Possibility of Third Possibility strong First Possibility 12 1 12 is the heavier ball Second Possibility 12 1 12 is the lighter ball Solution started on Thursday July 22 1999 approximately 12 00 AM EST Solution completed on Sunday July 25 1999 7 44PM EST Time of solution was approximately 3 days 19 hours and 44 minutes

Allan Dick Response Here is the letter that I sent Mr Allan Dick regarding the portions of the article that were omitted from the published magazine article strong Email Response Below strong Dear Mr Dick I was pleasantly surprised to open a copy of New Zealand Today in a local bookstore this afternoon to find bits of my response published On a similar note however I was not so pleasantly surprised to find how you had treated the article As one who enjoys throwing my comments to the mercy of such writers as yourself I was not at all surprised to see many points cut out However I would like to use this letter to question both the integrity of your journalism and your moral obligations as an editor I acknowledge the following two things some digressions need to be cut in order to fit the given text space and cutting the entire passage regarding the Kennedy assassination is completely acceptable as it leaves no room for misquoting With that I will say nothing more of cuts where only additional insight was given and I will say nothing more of the Kennedy section or lack there of it What I would like to note however is that you cut a variety of significant passages in the middle of my text that would have given highly credible support to my overall argument The first such edit appears on page 10 of the magazine at the end of the second to last paragraph My final statement Not only that but specifically if people want to fix the aforementioned problems they will need to expect an increase in petrol tax was cut This line states that I am NOT advocating what I had just written but rather was used to imply an obvious fundamental flaw within your original article Again raising petrol prices hurts the less fortunate that is a fact Driving smaller cars and ultimately consuming less petrol hurts the government s profits that is a fact The next cut specifically leads me to question your journalistic integrity From the original text I sent you you cut the next three paragraphs that would have followed the above sentence To be honest the third such paragraph is merely my opinion to you on politicians and thus I understand its lack of necessity The first two however are necessary to the argument at hand Quite clearly what you wrote in the original text with respect to this section is entirely wrong I believe I need not point that out to you but I find it strikingly unfair that a journalist with any degree of integrity could find it fit to omit such a retort Whether or not you like how capitalism works is irrelevant to how you should choose to include facts With regards to the Challenge vs BP you could not have given a better example than you did to depict how capitalism is was intended to work for everyone not just the rich and certainly not just Americans Why then would you omit these passages It also clearly shows that the writer in this case me is not an uneducated ignorant and greed driven American but rather one who is economically aware of the reality in which we live and would like to see EVERYONE better themselves not just the already wealthy Again I take no personal grief in seeing my passages omitted but I feel you have done your readers a grave injustice There are people in your country and mine alike who are unaware of how the simplicities of a competitive market can benefit them Still such benefits are not without a cost People need to be aware that if they are to inherit such benefits they must do their part to make things happen The example of people switching petrol brands to save mere cents is a cost people must choose to pay a very small cost at that Now you may immediately want to respond to the above claiming there was a lack of space To save you the time I do not believe so The response printed after mine Taranaki Land Confiscations is two and a quarter columns long My comments including the paragraph you responded with are still only one and one half columns long This would normally bring us to the obvious notion that you felt more text from the latter response was important but again I beg to differ It logically seems to me given that I won the contest for submitting the best piece that the best piece would have priority over the others Perhaps I am confusing my logic with another god given rights of Americans to always be heard Clearly sir you did not like having obvious facts and figures pointed out to you Seeing as how you are the editor fair enough but again I am not so much complaining as merely pointing out the lack of honesty and integrity you have distilled upon your readers I noticed you cut a single word out three when I made reference to your cars Three being how many you own Good move as it no doubt takes away from your ability to connect with the more common New Zealander trying to afford just one Your agendas are hidden about as well as a giraffe in downtown Japan I hope you take no insult to that but rather realize that if I can figure it out who else might The irony of the situation is that while you made postscript comments antagonizing Americans you yourself are guilty of two things people around the world despise about America myself included The first is the lack of honesty and integrity coming from our media on a daily basis No doubt this happens but is it your goal to fight fire with fire especially when at least one American has written you a very factual and non biased rebuttal The second is always feeling homage should be paid to the corporation In this case you have even dishonestly represented me in paying such homage The opening line of my text While taking a rather enjoyable and short Origin Pacific flight from Christchurch to Dunedin As you know I did NOT make any note of Origin Pacific in my letter to you Given that you did not inquire towards my travel arrangements had it occurred to you that charter flights between Christchurch and Dunedin also exist In many cases they are even at a less expensive rate Had it occurred to you that as an educated traveler I might have looked into such arrangements Perhaps it did and perhaps it did not the simple fact remains that you plugged a giant corporation in an editorial of all places and for what reason Finally as I said I would like to question your moral obligations as an editor I see two flaws The first is again in regards to your postscript comments If your intention was to bring your own agenda into spectrum I suppose there is not much I can do from my laptop to stop that All the same if you are going to criticize my words in print at least have the courage to include what I actually said Do not omit the facts surrounding the included paragraphs and then choose to represent yourself The second is with regards to my contact information being published It is true that I included such information to you but intended for YOU to contact me I have to question your intentions upon including it at the end of the editorial Published is a full name address city state zip code and email address As an EDITOR of a popular magazine you know fully well that publishing ones personal contact information is a breech of confidentiality I did not ask to remain anonymous but misrepresenting my words and then allowing readers to personally attack those words is highly immoral and I will quickly be looking into the legalities of it as well I hope that in the future you will take better note of many of the issues I have just written to you On a more personal note America has its problems but so does New Zealand or any other country around the world Your false editing while I cannot prove it seems to be nothing more than an attack against Americans in general This is more apparent given your postscript comments Perhaps if you and other like you would stop merely hearing what many of our countrymen and women actually represent and rather start listening you might find you are pleasantly surprised Thank you very much for your time and good luck with your future editorials I have sent a copy of this letter to each person in your department specifically to remind them that personal contact information is NOT to be printed within a national magazine editorial Kevin Ludlow

A Case for the 10th photo 255665 740 200 right The 10th Amendment br The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited to it by the states are reserved to the states respectfully or to the people photo The other day I came across an online rant ripping on presidential hopeful Ron Paul for his support of the 10th amendment The post was essentially emphasizing that if we actually followed the 10th amendment of the Constitution the country would be riddled with bigotry It went on to discuss how a number of states have anti homosexual laws anti sodomy laws anti civil rights laws and other seemingly archaic and anti intellectual concepts many of which have been invalidated by federal laws I come across these sorts of posts from time to time and am always disappointed at the short sightedness of the analysis provided I m not sure if people are unable to wrap their heads around the scope of the 10th amendment or are just unwilling to but there are huge upsides embedded in our Constitutional fabric Firstly let me concede that there would no doubt exist various social and fiscal injustices across the country if the federal government stopped usurping states rights But in the absence of this over 300 million people are essentially forced to accept homogenized points of view of whatever party happens to have congressional and executive control That was certainly not the vision of the United States Even more unfortunate is that in the long run it essentially guarantees all walks of the political spectrum will endure measures they do not agree with and may never agree with One of the reasons for this is that ignoring the 10th amendment generally requires that force be used in order to get most agendas passed Keep in mind that the use of force is not limited to guns and bombs A combination of divisive politics fear tactics and far leaning partisan mandates tend to be the weapon of choice for American politicians It s pretty easy to stir up fear in a country as large as the United States especially in a time when politicians are no longer held to media scrutiny Circumventing our most fundamental rule of law with lavish empty promises of political solutions offers nothing but a dangerous and highly volatile band aid to a potentially very serious issue The drive of a progressive intellectual and advancing society should be to win the hearts and minds of people through diplomacy and discussion not through scare tactics and force Since it is the alleged plight of liberals progressives sensible conservatives and libertarians to specifically em not em engage in forceful tactics in order to promote an agenda opposing the 10th amendment seems to be counterproductive to ones own core belief system provided one falls into that category The 10th amendment provides the United States with an excellent method for developing and exploring varying ideologies without needing to forcibly impose those values on the entire country If you ve ever entertained the idea of leaving the United States because you disagree with so many modern policies perhaps global imperialism you ve no doubt pondered how difficult this would be to see through The idea of permanently moving your entire life to a different culture with a different government with a different monetary system where you would have to completely re assimilate yourself seems overwhelming and should incidentally give you some pause over what immigrants in our own country might endure But this is one of the many reasons that the United States was designed with such an interesting and ingenious framework It is well within most people s practical means to relocate to another city or state for any number of reasons differences of political ideology certainly being one reason This is what the model for a small government has to offer many vastly differing opinions respected and housed within a national framework I know for a fact that I have no desire to become a resident of a state that collects a state income tax I m not opposed to taxation as a practical means I just believe it s better to tax people on consumption not on their output The State of Texas provides me with a way to accomplish this by not taxing my income and rather by taxing my property If I live in a mansion I will pay the state through the county dearly for it if I live in a humble home I will save It s far from perfect but this seems like a more reasonable approach to me However my personal preference is far from the point The important distinction is that I am able to make a choice about this philosophical ideal and live my life accordingly If the State of Texas were to impose a state income tax I would naturally weigh my options but would very likely a href http en wikipedia org wiki State_income_tax States_without_an_individual_income_tax move out of the state a If we accepted that the Federal Government did em not em have the authority to control state actions outside of the limited scope of the Constitution and actually protected this liberty it would be perfectly acceptable for a state to legalize marijuana to openly develop stem cell technologies and to provide state healthcare benefits to all residents even homosexual couples This is a good thing And if it turned out that same state required a 40 state income tax to meet those goals I would probably still avoid that state despite supporting the many progressive ideals the state had to offer This is the trivial ideal of letting localities determine their own fates so that citizens aka the people can decide what works and what does not On the rare occasion that a philosophical shift occurs in the country and presents an issue requiring national attention the Constitution was designed with a clear amendment process This process has been used many times in the past to address wide sweeping changes to the federal government It should not be casually ignored simply because the modern generation is too impatient and intolerant of one another to seek compromise Yes the process takes longer But when fellow states adopt the ideals of one another as a result of this methodology it is because they genuinely support whatever measure they re adopting not because they re being forced to do so by a federal executive order This is a hugely positive concept for creating a progressive society because it em promotes em change instead of dictating it Unfortunately it is a sad state of affairs when self proclaimed progressives are able to justify their use of force in the same way neo conservatives have done for over a decade As a country I strongly believe we should strive to be more tolerant and accepting of our fellow citizens fears bigotries and levels of ignorance not force them to see our own ways even if history does prove those ways right This notion was well understood 236 years ago and is specifically why the 10th amendment was written I hope we are someday able to remember that

The St Louis Treehouse This is by far my most favorite construction project I ve ever worked on It wasn t especially difficult nor did it take a lot of time But the joy that came from this project is memorable to me iframe width 521 height 391 src https www youtube com embed w 8kZOVVx2k frameborder 0 allowfullscreen iframe Our room in the Iowa house was built with a loft in it The room wasn t especially suited for a loft but the owner of the house decided to build one in each room nevertheless It did create more space and fit the overall quirkiness of the house It was built by hand mostly using 2x4s and some pine planks There was a wooden ladder that we had to climb to get in and out of the bed It was also fashioned out of 2x4s and literally just balanced against the opening in the loft bottom photo 1168026 1199840 0 right The page of plans I drew up before heading off to gather building materials photo The room had two giant windows in it and given Jordan s nightshift schedule it was extremely difficult for her to get any good sleep in there during the day I drew up some plans one evening purchased everything I needed at The Home Depot and got to work on a solution I had already ordered some blackout curtains and so I framed out the top of the loft in the same fashion one would frame out a wall I didn t want to anchor the studs into the wall to ensure I didn t destroy the plaster and so instead fashioned a base plate from a 2x4 and then ran my vertical support columns off of that While it had limited anchor points it seemed to be sound Normally I d run a column every 16 inches per modern building specs but since it wasn t specifically intended to be structural and to save on a little wood I ran the columns every 20 inches instead Once the new wall was framed out I cut up the blackout curtains and stretched them over the 2x4 studs like a canvas The canvas was attached to the 2x4 frame using staples I specifically wanted to ensure that it was easy to break through in the event that we ever needed to escape the room quickly Regardless the result was immediately noticeable The room was entirely dark I ran the wiring into the bed area as necessary setup various lights and topped everything off with remote controlled switches The entire area was sealed in with the blackout curtains I wrapped them around the top portion of the window that also bled into the sleeping area I purchased a standard VESA mount at the store and mounted our TV inside of the loft off of one of the vertical 2x4 columns Of course we had a small bag of remote controls on our bedside photo 1171375 1199840 0 center A photo taken from halfway up the ladder where you can see the upstairs and downstairs photo Finally there was a hole where the ladder was designed to allow us to climb up into the loft This let a good deal of light through and so it needed to be fixed I fashioned up a small hatch door attached it to a counter weighted pulley system and voila our treehouse was born It provided the dark quarters Jordan needed for sleeping and was probably about the most enjoyable little escape you could find in a home To make it feel a little bit larger I purchased a bunch of rectangular mirrors from Lowe s and had them fastened to the walls within the treehouse This gave the illusion that the treehouse went on for infinity and beyond and made all of the colored lights look especially cool Jordan had also purchased me a few different lights one for Christmas and one just because I fashioned these into the area and the illusion was complete We had tons of fun up there for the few months it existed As the lease was coming up the treehouse needed to be taken down I didn t help with this process and instead Jordan took it apart by herself photo 1171406 1199840 0 center Purchasing the mirrors we needed for the treehouse walls photo photo 1165681 1209246 0 center Jordan and I in the finished treehouse photo

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.

A pale yellow wall with two empty closets--one narrow one with shelves and a hanging rod, and one wide one without anything. this is a empty room with a closet open and shelves looks like a bowl on one shelf the room is yellow and white

The Death of Sparkle Motion photo 2369 213 300 right Sparkle Motion after I painted the flag of New Zealand on her photo If you are not already familiar Sparkle Motion is the name given to our mighty Kiwi flag bearing Subaru Rather than bore you with details we will get right down to her last voyage strong From Dunedin to Queenstown strong a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a a href tags Tisa Peterson Tisa a and myself left Dunedin on Wednesday afternoon amazingly enough right on schedule of 3 00pm Before taking to the road we aired up the tires tyres in N Z properly and filled the pipes with oil to ensure a safe trip to Queenstown about 4 hours to the southwest of Dunedin Within about 20 minutes of passing Mosgiel just outside of Dunedin the car started smoking from the right part of the hood We continued on for a short while longer with small bursts of white smoke every so often until eventually pulling over to find out that the radiator had sprung a leak and was steaming hot smoke onto the battery We were not concerned with the battery but knew without a proper cooling system the car would overheat After trying to go a few more kilometers the temperature began rising and we were forced to turn back with the intent of heading back to Dunedin About 10km back towards Dunedin we stopped in at a B P and had a look Not only was the radiator pressure not holding but there was no coolant left in it Worse off is that they seem not to use anti freeze in this country and so the radiator has small rust deposits here and there from water erosion Much to our surprise we were able to pick up a small bottle of radiator solder We added this magic potion into the radiator pipe as instructed by the package and the serviceman and within minutes the hole had disappeared and the radiator was fixed or at least holding for the time being We drove to Queenstown monitoring the area and car temperature all the way without any problems Upon our two days in Queenstown and Wanaka much hilarity and shenanigans ensued but thats a different story strong From Lake Wanaka to Ranfurly strong After an afternoon of fishing in Lake Wanaka we reeled in 1 salmon and 1 trout we began heading back for Dunedin at about 5 00pm Sparkle Motion was running quite well as we passed through Cromwell Upon getting to Alexandra we decided that we would take the scenic route between there and Dunedin so we could see more of the country This took us down Route 85 Upon traveling down Route 85 for an hour or so we noticed that the car had begun smoking again The problem was the radiator leaking once more and so steam was shooting out from the right side of the car the drivers side in NZ We continued driving but kept a close eye on the temperature We finally came upon a town called Ranfurly which is about 130km from Dunedin We stopped in Ranfurly to check the radiator but also noticed a worse smell As it had happened some oil had begun dripping onto the engine and was being burned off This of course created even more smoke and smelled terribly After checking the oil level and thinking that everything was A OK we took back to Route 85 After about 10km of driving we were noticing heaps of white smoke shooting out the rear exhaust and then a bit more coming out of the front We deduced that we had put in too much oil and it was overspilling and furthermore burning We continued on but with extreme caution but at about 7 00pm and still 110km from Dunedin the car began handling poorly as we had just turned off of Route 85 and onto Route 87 which is the even more scenic route into Dunedin a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a and I got out of the car to investigate the matter but could see nothing more than a small cloud of white smoke coming from the engine block There was white smoke coming from the engine hot steam spraying from the radiator and a small oil leak on the concrete below We decided to start the car with the hood up to get a better idea and as I turned the key a bucket of oil fell onto the concrete below We had located the problem the Exxon Valdez was nothing compared to our car Assuming that the oil would hold we decided to head back to Ranfurly as we obviously needed repairs About halfway there the car became entirely inoperable as clouds of white smoke covered the air and we left a trail of oil behind us We pulled over at the entrance to a farm and began looking to fix the car We realized fairly quickly that the pressure sensor connected into the oil well that reads the oil pressure had blown apart and thus created a large hole for oil to drain Of course as we drove the oil would get pushed by the wind and hit the hot engine block causing it to burn and produce copious amounts of white smoke Add that to the already existing radiator steaming a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a and I tried to fix the car for about 2 hours with my Leatherman but we just could not wedge anything in there with enough force to combat the 60psi of pressure that the well was yielding About 8 cars had asked us if we needed assistance by now and with an huge windstorm coming in and nightfall upon us we had the 9th car take us back to Ranfurly To make this long part of the story short we found a mechanic still available but after several attempts at fixing the car it needed to be towed back to Ranfurly We gave the hotel manager the fish that we had caught and he put the three of us in a room without charge When we got up the next morning the car had already been fixed and went on our way Minus 150 00 kiwi dollars strong Driving From Ranfurly to Dunedin strong If this were an epic drama this is the part where it would all come together at once We made it back to Route 87 and casually drove along for about 20 minutes or so until slowing for a one lane bridge To those not familiar with one lane bridges a common New Zealand site they are simply one lane bridges where one side yields right of way to the other If the bridge is long enough it will typically have midpoint nooks for cars to wait in while another goes by As I slowed for the bridge I proceeded to down shift in the usual fashion The bridge appeared clear and so I began to accelerate and enter it I accelerated past my next gear speed and as I stepped on the clutch to up shift both a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a and I heard a loud pop So now here we were driving down a one lane bridge in the south of New Zealand with a flag bearing twenty year old Subaru which now had no clutch and consequently no way for me to control the car s speed Again we tried to fix the problem but could barely tell what it was All of the springs seemed to be in tact We finally decided to put the car into first gear start it up while pressing the gas and power shift it into the other gears In case you are not familiar with power shifting it is shifting gears without the use of the clutch This worked But I could neither down shift nor start from a stopping position which posed some problems driving through a mountain range We made it back to Mosgiel about 20 minutes south of Dunedin and when we got to the first traffic light I turned off the car put it in first waited for the green and started it up once again Everything was going fine until we got into Dunedin where there is a giant mountain the highway goes up About 5 6 of the way to the top the car would go no more as smoke began pouring out every which way A passerby had a tow rope and pulled us to the top of the mountain through the speeding traffic The problem was now that we could no longer start the car in gear as something had gone wrong in the gearbox apparently photo 4225 385 300 right Sparkle Motion getting towed away photo So for the next two hours a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a and I worked as a diligent and slightly frightened team to get the car back to my house The procedure worked by having me put the car into first gear and turn the key while a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a pushed This would generate enough spark to get the car going but a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a would have to run along and manage to jump into the moving car as there was no way for me to stop Up and down hills and mountains through yield signs technically Give Way signs in New Zealand traffic and stoplights we eventually got the car back to my house where it stunk of a burning transmission The car let off a light smoke for several hours afterwards from the oil we had burned and there was even a small puddle from all of the radiator fluid a k a water that had leaked out of the rusting apparatus Suffice to say this would be the last time Sparkle Motion was ever started

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

The Fifth Ward Sign photo 258011 740 0 right A map of the area detailing the various streets involved in this excursion photo When I was in high school one of the more interesting and regular gifts that I would get for people were street signs bearing their name It s not a practice that I encourage but it had its time in my youth Over the summer of 1998 I had started dating Sarah Wagner and wanted to get her one of these signs as well Since this was still really before the time of internet mapping I took to my local Target and looked up Sarah s name in one of the key map books When I ve told this story in the past occasionally someone is not familiar with a key map So just in case a key map is a bound book that has a map of every single street within a certain area usually a city A key map for the city of Houston probably has about three hundred pages to it The map showed that there was a tiny road called Sarah Street in northern central Houston smack dad in the center of the Fifth Ward It was late at night probably after 1am and I called up my dear friend Victor and asked him if he d join me He agreed and even drove We headed out into Houston from Katy turned up on 59 and drove into the Fifth Ward The scenery immediately changed Even though it was probably near 2am at this point there were people walking around everywhere Cars were parked three and four deep onto lawns at almost every home and there was definitely a sense of discomfort about the whole thing Victor and I couldn t find the street immediately and had different ideas on how to resolve this I thought we should just continue driving around looking for it but being one to trust anyone and everyone Victor decided that we would ask for directions Incidentally Victor is now a real life ordained Catholic priest He pulled up next to some guy standing in the middle of the road and asked him if he knew where Sarah Street was The guy said he would tell us for a dollar Victor paid him and he proceeded to give us directions He told us to go up the block turn left on Collingsworth and then turn left again at Carr Street That would take us where we wanted to go I did not have a very good feeling about this but we gave it a go Victor followed the guy s instructions We drove to the end of the street when two things occurred to me Number one was that we had just crossed into a train yard Number two was that the road we were on dead ended at said train yard I have no idea if the guy was sending us to get robbed or perhaps there was a drug house over there he assumed we were trying to buy from or if he was just sending us away But I do know that two white kids in a shiny Ford Ranger do NOT want to be at the dead end of a train yard in the Fifth Ward of Houston at 2am on bad information That is almost as bad as the string of prepositional phrases needed to describe the aforementioned problem I didn t really think much beyond that point other than to tell Victor to put it in reverse and to back out quickly He did It was the only sign I never successfully got