Government 2306 Critical Paper 2 Government 2306 Critical Paper 2 Committee Hearing in the House strong Committee Hearing in the House Energy Resources strong As I began listening to the discussions that were taking place in the Committee Hearing it occurred to me that these people are just that people They do not speak as poets or even articulate writers If we could call these men and women anything at all besides what they are it seems that we could call them non threatening lawyers These people are simply sitting around discussing current issues that are problems or at least potential problems in regards to Texas as a whole In this particular case the topic of interest is energy resources as that is the committee that I chose to listen to What I find so interesting about this committee meeting or I would assume any of them is the simple fact that these men and women are simply civilly discussing issues that affect my life in one way or another Perhaps not right now but at some point in the future any one of these issues could come into play for me The majority of this segment that I found most interesting was on the taxation or lack thereof of the dried up or forgotten oil wells in Texas I found this topic to be interesting in the meeting because I feel that its points were argued relatively well and my father is an oil broker thus giving me an interest in the taxable steps involved in his business It certainly would have helped to have known more about the bills that these men and women were discussing but on the flipside they argued their points well enough that the bills they spoke of were fairly simple to interpret One of the many topics discussed on the taxation of oil wells is due to oil entrepreneurs that create an oil well milk it until it is dry or until the oil is unobtainable if in fact there ever was oil to take from it and then move on If we look at this concept for what it is we must first look at what drilling for oil actually creates After speaking with Howard Ludlow my father on the matter I was able to get a layman version of what goes on The actual space that is necessary for drilling these days is no larger then a one hundred foot squared area An apparatus is setup to drill which nowadays can be nothing more then a mobile rig on a truck In older times humans would have to drill within 5 000 ft to obtain oil but as times have changed and we have taken more and more of our precious resource it has become necessary to drill deeper and deeper These days a hole of 10 000 ft or deeper is common As the hole is drilled about 4 6 in diameter the drill is threaded in such a way so that the ground waste that it extracts called the tailings are removed at the top of the well They are usually left in a pile nearby the drilling well Using a little math a 6 hole at 10 000 ft would create about 2000 cubic foot of waste that is simply thrown to the side Now back to the argument at hand Most all of the large drilling manufacturers at this point will drill until they can drill no longer Oil or not we will assume that the drilling process is over After they have completed their drilling they will fill in the hole with a special mixture and then cap it off The excess waste is plowed over and a small hill is all that is left in this area The problem is that smaller businesses will not always do this and the House has a large problem with this I suspect mainly for environmental reasons Once the well is no longer commercially viable to them they simply move on to another hole The House wants to create a tax that would be imposed on all oil companies which would then set aside a fund for plugging the dry oil wells up so that they do not pose a threat to the environment or to society for that matter This would not only impose a tax on the general public this would also impose a somewhat unnecessary tax to the oil companies that are already doing this Exxon for example As we hear from Ben Siebry a representative from the big oil businesses in Texas we are informed of this liability that these irresponsible oil drillers create The larger drilling companies have recently come together as of last summer to discuss the issue of dry wells being left as they were when the drilling was finished They have estimated that the amount of money that is necessary for this yearly operation is about 20 million In turn they have taken it upon themselves to raise the capital that is necessary but are fairly only able to allocate 12 million What they are now asking for is to be taxed the remaining 8 million that it will take to adequately clean and plug these drill holes for every drilling business in Texas I feel that this is the right thing to do and asking to be taxed to fix an environmental problem is a huge step for any big business to take The problem that they now face is that there has been another proposal for taxation which would allocate some 48 million towards this project They feel that this is completely unnecessary and that the extra 28 million will simply be wasted tax dollars that they as businesses will have to spend I fully agree with them being against this tax as they have taken it upon themselves to remedy the problem Obviously there are always hidden costs and such involved in the processes and it would be easy for them to simply argue that they have solved their own mess and have now created a solution because if it doesn t work as they planned they will still benefit and save over 40 million in tax dollars I also however feel that their tax proposal for 8 million should be taken seriously and that the ins and outs of it should be examined very closely by the House Perhaps in doing so a compromise can be made or their tax proposal could in fact be very sound in such a case it should be put into action

My Brewster Logo photo 27146 612 200 right The original photo On our way back from Orlando I was showing Caroline some tricks for getting a little better at Photoshop Unfortunately whenever I try to show anyone how to use Photoshop particularly if I have my own computer with me it just makes me want to play with it as well Anyway we started playing with a picture we had recently taken on our a href photos Trip_to_Garner 612 trip to Garner State Park a of Brewster her dog standing on the hood of my car After about an hour of trimming layering and really not having any idea of what I wanted to do I came up with an idea to create a simple two tone picture out of the original The image below is what resulted photo 35942 740 520 left Brewster 1 Caroline s Dog 2 A former Austin city council member photo

Why Do I Archive photo 34384 712 0 right The back of my childhood house in Manalapan NJ August of 1981 that s me standing next to it photo photo 8905 234 0 right The back of my childhood house in Manalapan NJ June of 2006 notice the addition over the back room my dad built photo I ve had a number of people ask me over the years why I am so interested in collecting and cataloging my life And second to that is why I am so interested in making it all public The best I can offer these people is that it brings me great pleasure to see how things change over time and I am not in any way ashamed or embarrassed to share my life with anyone who is interested to learn about it Having spent many years now working in data collection data aggregation and various social medias is that most people really seem to enjoy looking back into their past In fact the entirety of the new Facebook model Timeline is based on this idea Obviously there are unbelievable financial incentives for getting people to post an entire history of themselves to Facebook but that s never really been my goal with this sort of thing The reality of the situation for those of us born prior to the late 90s is that there is simply no good way to view our family photos given that nothing was digitized I ve noticed over the years how photo albums are getting corrupted pictures are fading and a myriad of other chemical processes are eating away at the photos that I do have That idea alone has provided me with a significant incentive to have my entire print collection scanned and cataloged on my site as I d hate to not be able to share that data with future generations

A Letter to my Republican Friends To my friends who intend to support the Republican party with Romney at the helm I feel bad for you truly I do You have to know by now that if Governor Romney wins the nomination which appears likely President Obama is going to sweep the 2012 election Don t get me wrong I loathe President Obama as much as I loathed President Bush I just wish I could understand why those of you who vote party line are so blind to this reality It s a simple two fold problem Firstly the Republican party obviously has no clear favorite This is probably because the three media favored candidates are hardly distinguishable from the Democrats when it comes to most issues Or on occasion are so openly vile and off topic that even many conservatives are dismissing their rhetoric And secondly the party has to contend with the reality that Ron Paul has an army of well organized supporters The latter of those is what I would like to address There s one thing that you need to know about the current primary process and this is really important the overwhelming majority of those voting for Ron Paul have NO INTEREST in supporting the Republican party outside of his nomination I am certainly included in that subgroup In fact varying statistical analyses put the number around 1 in 4 right now In other words if it s Romney vs Obama in November then about 75 of those votes currently coming from Ron Paul Republicans will result in write ins independent 3rd party votes or abstentions They will NOT go to Romney This is a huge problem for you Not even the media knows quite how to spin it Let s be clear about this Most Ron Paul supporters aren t so stubborn that they would never vote for another candidate Rather they re just not going to vote for a candidate who intends to wander down the same path of destructive policies that we ve seen for almost 15 years Unfortunately most of you seem to be completely ignoring these much needed policy changes Here s three off the top of my head ol li The majority of us couldn t care less about homosexuality and the myriad of subtopics you ve created around it The whole idea of small government is that the government doesn t get to run people s lives We take this credo very seriously whereas you only purport to take it seriously If your personal beliefs encourage you to act in a selfish and bigoted manner that s perfectly acceptable But at least be objective enough to support legislation that embodies the diversity of our country not the homogeneity of your personal faith br br li li None of the other candidates have shown ANY interest whatsoever in addressing the severe financial mess this country is in Occasionally one will offer some insignificant cut to a future budget proposal This is meaningless to our current problems Since some of you evidently don t fully grasp this concept it means that if a department was intending to expand by say 100 billion in 2013 your candidate might be willing to cut that expansion down to 90 billion Of course this completely ignores the fact that many departments need not exist in the first place and merely reducing their expansion does nothing to reverse our current level of debt It s like going shopping because you received a coupon in the mail You re still spending money you didn t need to spend in the first place We re interested in someone who wants to legitimately cut spending who wants to substantially reform the tax system and who doesn t support playing favorites with American corporations And as a parallel to that just because you don t like the Occupy Wall Street people doesn t make them wrong Stop acting like corporate lobbyists and financial bailouts are somehow to your benefit they clearly are not br br li li Stop trying to take over the world It shouldn t be done and more importantly it can t be done Nobody on our side of the table is suggesting war isn t sometimes necessary However the entire Muslim world is NOT your enemy and certainly not our enemy Even if they were there are over 1 5 billion of them The attack on Osama Bin Laden s compound was a small covert and successful mission That single mission was more useful than years of occupation We have ruined literally decades of progress and permanently scarred our nation s reputation all on the quest to protect American corporate interests Ron Paul Republicans will not tolerate much less support a candidate interested in waging these kinds of open militaristic conquests around the world We have a Congress to make declarations of war so that the people can control the war The President of the United States is not a military dictator contrary to what President Bush and President Obama may have led you to believe li ol The recent Romney victory in Washington State pretty much showcased the general mentality of the party Romney was hated by the Washington Caucus in 2008 placing last in almost every county Now four years later he is miraculously the top pick by a substantial margin It s pretty obvious that the majority of you are only interested in voting for the predicted nominee rather than who you believe is a good candidate That s a pretty sad state for a democracy especially considering it s only the primary process So having written all of that and knowing how much I d love to see a change in D C next year I truly wish you d wake up to the reality of this election If you forcibly continue to exclude and ignore these people and ideas you cannot win this election period Every one of the so called swing states is going to be gift wrapped and handed to the Democrats If your only goal this November is to unseat Barack Obama then it would seem that ignoring this population does your cause a grand disservice Please feel free to a href contact email me anytime with your questions on the topic a I d be more than happy to respond In the meantime keep looking for that birth certificate because that s sure to fix our problems

Wall Street vs Hollywood photo 258001 740 0 right photo A few weeks ago my father and I were discussing the influence that American corporations have on politics It s a pretty important topic these days given the rather bleak state of the economy and the seemingly endless corruption being uncovered Between the Tea Party the Occupy Movement and everyone in between nobody really seems happy with the way the government is conducting its business And in my opinion rightfully so But as we continued chatting we discussed the fact that for whatever reason voters instinctively tie Wall Street CEOs to the Republican Party and Hollywood celebrities to the Democratic Party It s one of those things that most of the voting populous just seems to accept Obviously there are notable exceptions to this rule but I think most people would assume that if you work on Wall Street you re voting Republican and if you work in Hollywood for a Democrat While there are undoubtedly some social issues that could be addressed the biggest problem in 2012 is hands down the economy Liberal friends of mine often bring up the huge disparity of wealth that exists within Wall Street corporations how that gap is widening and how it is being used to control Washington The data seems to corroborate this and I definitely believe it s a problem we should be intelligently discussing as a nation But my father was quick to add to our discussion that this same disproportion of wealth is rampant throughout Hollywood as well The difference is that nobody really seems to notice much less care Curiously we even go so far as to celebrate this disparity with the affectionate term celebrity This raises a pretty interesting philosophical question If two groups are ultimately responsible for the same fiscal gluttony why is one celebrated and the other castigated Since the crux of our discussion was riding on the back of conjectures and assumptions I thought it would be interesting to actually do some research on the matter That is how do the top dogs of Wall Street and Hollywood actually stack up against one another Is there a difference between them and if so what is that difference After a bit of online research I constructed this table of the top twenty Wall Street and Hollywood salaries of 2010 it was difficult to find consistent data for 2011 The results are pretty interesting table class BLOGData tr th colspan 4 class top middle Wall Street th th colspan 3 class top Hollywood th tr tr th CEO th th Company th th class right Employees th th class middle right Millions th th Celebrity th th Title th th class right Millions th tr tr td Philippe P Dauman td td Viacom td td class right 10 900 td td class middle right 84 5 td td James Cameron td td Writer Director Producer td td class right 257 0 td tr tr td Ray R Irani td td Occidental Petroleum td td class right 11 000 td td class middle right 76 1 td td Johnny Depp td td Actor td td class right 100 0 td tr tr td Lawrence J Ellison td td Oracle td td class right 111 297 td td class middle right 70 1 td td Steven Spielberg td td Director Producer td td class right 80 0 td tr tr td Michael D White td td DirecTV td td class right 25 700 td td class middle right 32 9 td td Christopher Nolan td td Writer Director Producer td td class right 71 5 td tr tr td John F Lundgren td td Stanley Black amp Decker td td class right 36 700 td td class middle right 32 6 td td Leonardo DiCaprio td td Actor td td class right 62 0 td tr tr td Brian L Roberts td td Comcast td td class right 126 000 td td class middle right 28 2 td td Tim Burton td td Director td td class right 53 0 td tr tr td Robert A Iger td td Walt Disney td td class right 156 000 td td class middle right 28 0 td td Adam Sandler td td Actor Producer Writer td td class right 50 0 td tr tr td Alan Mulally td td Ford Motor Co td td class right 164 000 td td class middle right 26 5 td td Todd Phillips td td Writer Director Producer td td class right 34 0 td tr tr td Samuel J Palmisano td td IBM td td class right 426 751 td td class middle right 25 2 td td Taylor Lautner td td Actor td td class right 33 5 td tr tr td David N Farr td td Emerson Electric td td class right 133 200 td td class middle right 22 9 td td Robert Downey Jr td td Actor td td class right 31 5 td tr tr td Howard Schultz td td Starbucks td td class right 149 000 td td class middle right 21 7 td td Will Smith td td Actor Producer td td class right 29 0 td tr tr td William C Weldon td td Johnson and Johnson td td class right 114 000 td td class middle right 21 6 td td Joe Roth td td Producer td td class right 28 5 td tr tr td Louis C Camilleri td td Phillip Morris International td td class right 78 300 td td class middle right 20 6 td td Kristen Stewart td td Actress td td class right 28 5 td tr tr td Randall L Stephenson td td AT amp T td td class right 256 420 td td class middle right 20 2 td td Jerry Bruckheimer td td Producer td td class right 27 5 td tr tr td Miles D White td td Abbot Laboratories td td class right 90 000 td td class middle right 20 0 td td Robert Pattinson td td Actor td td class right 27 5 td tr tr td George W Buckley td td 3M td td class right 80 000 td td class middle right 19 7 td td Jason Blum td td Producer Writer Director Producer td td class right 26 5 td tr tr td Louis Chenevert td td United Technologies td td class right 199 900 td td class middle right 19 5 td td Tyler Perry td td Writer Director Producer td td class right 25 0 td tr tr td Robert P Kelly td td Bank of New York Mellon td td class right 48 700 td td class middle right 19 4 td td Jennifer Aniston td td Actress td td class right 24 5 td tr tr td Muhtar Kent td td Coca Cola td td class right 139 600 td td class middle right 19 2 td td Jon Favreau td td Director Producer td td class right 24 0 td tr tr td Robert J Stevens td td Lockheed Martin td td class right 126 000 td td class middle right 19 1 td td Nicolas Cage td td Actor td td class right 23 5 td tr tr td td td td td td td class middle nbsp td td td td td td td tr tr td td td class total strong Total strong td td class right strong 2 483 468 strong td td class middle right strong 628 0 strong td td td td class total strong Total strong td td class right strong 1 037 0 strong td tr tr td td td class total strong Average strong td td class right strong 124 173 strong td td class middle right strong 31 4 strong td td td td class total strong Average strong td td class right strong 51 9 strong td tr tr td td td class total strong Source strong td td colspan 2 class middle right span class source a href http money cnn com galleries 2011 news 1104 gallery top_ceo_pay index html money cnn com a span td td td td class total strong Source strong td td class right span class source a href http www therichest org entertainment vanityfairtop 40 highest paid stars in hollywood therichest org a span td tr table I was actually pretty shocked by the side by side comparison Certainly we re all aware of the amount of money that celebrities make but I was a little surprised to discover that the Hollywood list was significantly better than the Wall Street list Even more surprising is that the Wall Street figures include base salaries bonuses yearly stock grants and options and even estimated company perks The Hollywood figures only include estimated earnings from movies and specifically exclude special appearances television works and perks photo 258006 740 0 center A side by side graph of the top 20 Hollywood vs Wall Street salaries in 2010 br ordered from highest salary to lowest br a href http www kevinludlow com photos download 2658eb28c55fcebd5baf5baf7ac1a199 Download High Res a photo br style clear both Of course there are plenty of other factors that can be considered too For example Wall Street corporations are frequently condemned for allowing huge disparities of wealth between their employees In other words while the CEO might be making tens of millions of dollars annually those working just as hard at the bottom may be struggling just to feed their families I would not disagree that this is a major concern of our long term economy However having been an extra on a movie set before I know for a fact that I was only paid minimum wage for my work and suspect this is pretty consistent across the board Moreover and having lived in Hollywood I m positive that your average actor is flat broke Therefore it would seem to suggest that the same income gaps probably exist in Hollywood as they do on Wall Street So why is one fundamentally better than the other Another common point of critique is that corporate leaders are consistently sending American jobs overseas This is definitely a political point of contention and another serious issue we should be trying to intelligently address But again I m not so sure Hollywood operates on a much different principle Many of the 2010 and 2011 blockbusters I researched were filmed in exotic overseas locations In those particular cases the national and local economies of foreign nations were the beneficiaries not the United States I would also suspect that foreign film crews are predominantly used in overseas shoots as well albeit have no specific evidence to support this claim But again couldn t Hollywood just fly entire film crews and cast members even the extras abroad Naturally the answer is yes but much like Wall Street s argument their margins would significantly suffer But why is this an acceptable practice in one realm and not the other We might also consider the topic of actual employment numbers em included in the table for reference em While I unfortunately was unable to locate data on specific movies various online searches suggested a modern summer blockbuster might require between a few hundred and a few thousand cast and crew members But for sake of argument let s assume a big Hollywood blockbuster is going to require 10 000 people and that the top billed actor is willing to settle for just 20 million these figures should be greatly skewed in favor of Hollywood Sam Palmisano the CEO of IBM gets paid 25 2 million annually a tremendous sum of money no doubt But we might also consider that he essentially presides over more than 426 000 employees not to mention shareholders The per employee financial difference here is so great that it can actually be measured in orders of magnitude and that s making very generous assumptions in the case of Hollywood So again I am in no way attempting to justify Wall Street but this same Hollywood disparity is phenomenal especially if we consider a per employment sort of scenario We could even delve into the topic of corporate subsidies if we wanted to but once more Hollywood gets tremendous incentives and tax breaks to do what they do Not only that but they have the convenience of regulating their own industry whereas Wall Street at least has to contend with the SEC and a few other governmental bodies The bottom line is that I love Leonardo DiCaprio as much as the next guy but I sincerely doubt he is going to give up the earnings of his next 50 million movie deal so that his set gaffers can get paid better No more than the average CEO is going to give up his 50 million dollar salary so that the company electricians can get paid better The fact is that both Wall Street and Hollywood have a lengthy list of economic pros and cons In some cases those pros and cons overlap and in other cases they re unique to the industry The point is that neither is better than the other when it comes to addressing the dramatic income gaps that appear to be widening in the United States And yet for some reason it seems that the country remains deeply divided on which side is good and which side is bad which side is celebrated and which side is condemned As with most of my writings my point here is not to make a case in favor of one side or the other Rather my contention is simply that as a nation we are so incredibly susceptible to marketing and hyperbole driven agendas that we ve become deaf and blind to the realities of our own frustrations We completely ignore the fact that both sides are willing participants of nearly identical agendas I believe our greatest societal flaw is that we try to rationalize why one side is somehow better than the other one completely ignoring the possibility that perhaps there are some pretty singular agendas floating between the two of them Personally I commend anybody who is able to play the system for what it is and come out millions of dollars ahead of everyone else I only wish I were clever enough to do the same But having succumbed to a life far from that reality I just wish my fellow countrymen and women would consider the fact even if for just a moment that perhaps their political team of choice isn t really all they ve convinced themselves it is I think that would truly be worth something we could all benefit from

Hardwood Floors Installed So continuing on with the wonderful bus conversion we finally have hardwood floors installed It wasn t quite as trivial as I thought it would be even having installed a few floors before The problems mostly arose from the slight curvature of the 3 4 plywood surface the occasional screw or bolt that had not been fully countersunk and the glue I ve learned my lesson I will NEVER glue a floor surface on ever again The epoxy is not what I thought is incredibly difficult to work with and it gets everywhere including the skin But fear not because wood glue is one of the easiest glues to remove from one s skin and this is wood glue no I read the safety sheet AFTER the installation and discovered one is not supposed to work with NA 8500 adhesive without proper gloves I actually went so far as to call poison control late last night just to ask if there was anything I could do to get the glue off of us Unfortunately wait it out was the official answer soap detergent vegetable oil mineral oil and gasoline did not work So here I sit actually looking a bit like a leper as I type this my hands burned and peeling from this ber adhesive glue Be forewarned should you decide to wood glue your hardwood installation On the upside it s probably pretty damn effective Here are a few pics photo 258243 258221 0 center Caroline spreading some of the glue with our 1 4 x 1 4 glue trowel MUCH harder than it looks For reference always apply the glue orthogonal to the direction of the wood grain photo photo 258264 258221 0 center Mike Crockett was helping us to install the floors and took care of all of my wiring issues as well There were cheap reading lights all over that I had removed and capped the wires are good so may as well keep them handy and accessible photo photo 258265 258221 0 center Almost there photo photo 258256 258221 0 center I finished the front half of the bus myself this afternoon Relaxing after a lot of back breaking work The gluing really takes it out of you photo photo 258249 258221 0 center The final wood surface Unfortunately it got late by the time I finished so I couldn t grab one in the day light photo br style clear both

Removing the A C Compressor This was no easy feat The units were underneath the bus bolted to a frame that was welded to the chassis The frame was pretty rusted and the entire unit was terribly heavy It s not the sort of thing you want to be under when it falls My dad gave me the idea just to use a reciprocating saw with steel cutting blades to cut the frame out namely since the bolts were rusted tight and then to use a stand to catch the unit when it fell photo 258535 258221 0 center The platform I built to catch the unit once it s cut photo photo 258536 258221 0 center Two of the steel bars cut all the way through with the help of a reciprocating saw photo br style clear both Once I had cut through all four of the bolts the unit somehow managed to stay hovering in the air One of the steel beams had caught over the muffler pipe and one of the old freon hoses had caught over the axle I was very surprised that the two were able to suspend it in place given the weight but it seemed okay I used a hammer to slowly rock the unit until it fell on the board I had set down for it photo 258534 258221 0 center The unit dangling by a few threads photo photo 258542 258221 0 center Finally with the A C completely out and ready for Craigslist FREE Stuff photo photo 258538 258221 0 center With the unit out I could finally disconnect all of the hoses and drag them out the front of the engine compartment They ll be removed next photo

Billings Oklahoma Tornado Enforcement Over the past few days I have been helping my good friend Dave G move his life from Houston to Kansas City After loading his rental truck in Houston we took I 45 north to Dallas and jumped onto I 35 for the remainder of the trip It s not the fastest route but we figured it would be easier to stay on the interstates with a U haul technically a Penske photo 261237 740 0 right An image of the massive cell that developed in about 2 hours time The blue line on the right of the cell is I 35 We were in the immediate path of this system photo We stopped in Norman Oklahoma around 7pm to grab some dinner and started noticing a rather large cell forming towards Wichita KS We figured it would pass before we got that far north Continuing north on I 35 we started noticing a storm forming in the distance computer radar confirmed the storm was rapidly expanding to the south After we saw an actual StormChaser vehicle fly past us we figured there was a pretty legitimate system up ahead We would later be proven very correct As it turns out an enormous system formed about an hour west of I 35 just south of the Oklahoma and Kansas border The lightning started getting to the point where there were no breaks in it and the wind was picking up We turned on a local weather station and evidently EF 2 tornadoes were touching down 20 30 miles northwest of us in the town of Medford It seemed like a prudent time to pull over We stopped at a Conoco Station on the SE corner of I 35 and Acre Road mostly thinking the storm would move due east Unfortunately the storms soon turned and started heading directly for us We fueled up and left the truck at the pump to wait out the storm Dave even adjusted the vehicle so that it was more likely to take the wind head on photo 261238 740 0 right A view from the back of the storm shelter where about 30 of us were packed into a small hallway photo About 30 minutes into this the place had really started to fill up with people seeking shelter When the storms finally landed the attendants started frantically yelling for everyone to get inside and to the storm shelter really just bathrooms showers and storage space Eventually the first wave of weather ripped over us and produced some of the strongest rain and winds I ve ever seen It was at this point that a Billings police officer walked into the store The officer was an older gentleman probably in his early 60s and a little heavy Although the rain was coming in sideways and there were reports of tornadoes all around us he did not seem particularly concerned with anyone s safety In fact he started telling everyone in the store that this was a private business and that cars could not be left at the pumps He said he had no way to gas up his cruiser despite the outer pumps being vacant He even went so far as to tell the crowd that if the cars weren t moved he was going to start calling in license plates I think most of the people in the store at this point were just dumbfounded Best we could tell nobody from the store had made this request the gas station attendants had been trying to corral people into safety I turned to Dave and jokingly said Dave I d love to say something to this guy I d love to put my hand on his shoulder look him right in the eyes smile at him and ask Hey you know how people sometimes think cops are dickheads Well this is why And then just walk away When the cop finally went outside we assumed he was taking off But in reality he started slowly driving across the parking lot stopping in front of parked vehicles I assume he was actually taking down plate numbers but I have no idea what he could have possibly been doing with them Dave was concerned about the truck and decided to move it We spent the remainder of the storm sitting in a giant moving vehicle in front of the store Fortunately no tornadoes came our way Special thanks to the officer in Billings Oklahoma for reinforcing why I should not trust law enforcement even in the most disastrous of conditions

The Treehouse Monticello photo 35015 698 0 right Blake Ledet and David Spencer standing in front of Monticello photo Perhaps one of the most interesting adventures I have ever been apart of was constructing a four story tree house on the bayou banks of Ft Bend County Texas The tree house stood 55 feet from top to bottom We began construction of the tree house which was later named Monticello in January of 1997 It sat about one half mile to the north of Beck Middle School Estimating about 4 to 5 hours of work per day 7 days a week it only took a few weeks until Monticello had multiple rooms was entirely framed in had sleeping quarters a shingled roof was water tight and walls full of pornography Shortly after it became a regular spot for dozens of our close friends to throw parties at In high school that was quite a luxury strong Constructing Monticello Phase I strong The construction of Monticello began in early January of 1997 The spot had originally been discovered by a friend of mine Aaron Duke and the original construction crew consisted of Aaron Duke Daniel Putt and myself It wasn t long before I decided this was a great project and was going to require a great deal of time on our parts Aaron was knee deep in high school and Putt was in the middle basketball season both were inhibited from dedicating the necessary time to the project Since I was a senior and football season was already over I was really just counting down the months until graduation One afternoon I took two of my other good friends Blake Ledet and David Spencer to see the site The size of the tree definitely impressed them Since they were both heavily into construction projects it wasn t hard to get them on board photo 35163 698 0 center From left to right me Blake and David posing from the top of the tree house photo br style clear both In the first few days we simply created a platform on the tree just as you would expect from any tree house I don t think there was ever really a grand plan but it was so much fun working out in the woods that we decided to go all out In the next few days we each took on our own separate tree house projects The general idea was for each of us to construct a room more or less thus growing the tree house very quickly One of us built a balcony another of us built a sitting deck and one of us built sleeping quarters Once we had each completed these individual tasks we began focusing on the sleeping quarters an expansion of the original platform that had been created We decided that the only proper way to make the treehouse water tight would be to frame it a la traditional framing standards We laid down the lateral 2x4s on the platform and erected a series of 2x4s about 16 inches apart each properly fastened to the baseboard Plywood was harder for us to cut at the treehouse so most of the measurements were taken and the ply was cut back at our houses Once we had it ready to go we would bring it out there and attach it to the framed sleeping quarters The back wall consisted of some plywood some industrial plastic crates and a giant road sign that read Prison Area Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers another interesting story With the sleeping quarters completely encompassed by walls and the additional deck and balcony attached Monticello was beginning to take shape strong Gathering Supplies strong Many people have asked over the years where did the supplies for Monticello come from Naturally most people think we stole the wood but that s actually not true at all Since we lived in a rather suburban area there were constantly new subdivisions being constructed The houses always had enormous piles of scrap wood sitting around Rather than stealing good wood we would instead ask the foreman of the house if we could take from the scrap piles We were always granted permission and it made for an excellent CYA should someone ever question what we were doing By exclusively combing scrap piles we were able to get plywood drywall 2x4s large wooden beams even shingles and occasionally nails The only thing we paid for out of pocket were some additional boxes of nails And of course we all had our own hammer strong Constructing Monticello Phase II strong photo 35128 698 0 right Blake taking a break in the sleeping quarters It comfortably slept three people photo It didn t take us long to complete the initial design of Monticello The only problem was that we were still having such a good time with it that we didn t want to quit One afternoon while going through some scrap piles we came across the cut out of a staircase that had not been used Most likely it was designed for the construction crew to get around more easily We took the staircase cutout and immediately built it into the treehouse This opened the design scheme up to a 2nd 3rd and eventually even a 4th floor though only the 2nd floor was actually accessible via traditional stairs The staircase was lined with 2x6s that we had found and cut to fit The steps led to a small platform that allowed the person to climb their way to the 2nd floor A few months earlier the local movie theater was getting rid of their promotional The Hunchback of Notre Dame cutouts I had taken them and had them on my bedroom ceiling before an opportunity to use them for a greater cause presented itself We stapled them to the wall next to the staircase Once the 2nd floor had been nailed down a 3rd floor was built above it It did not have nearly the structural integrity as the 1st and 2nd floors did but it was still well supported The 3rd floor had a heavy roof laid upon it with 2x6s It wasn t watertight as the single pieces of wood had small gaps between them but it provided shade from the sun The roof was strong enough to support people and thus effectively led to the 4th floor though the 4th floor was nothing but a platform strong Final Additions strong Once everything was more or less constructed on the tree house we began creating a camping ground for people to sit around eat cook and drink Naturally this required a nice campfire pit Since the tree house was constructed along a local bayou there were plenty of giant concrete rocks around that we could transport for the fire pit We dug a hole about 8 feet in diameter and a few feet deep Giant bayou rocks were laid around the fire It was a daunting task to pickup the rocks from the bayou walk them up the slope and then another 100 or so meters to the actual camping ground And to make matters worse since the campfire was so large the project required quite a few of these rocks I distinctly remember the process taking the three of us many many hours In addition to the campfire we built benches tables and just about anything else that we could think of for people to sit around on We even went so far as to bring a chainsaw out there one afternoon and cut down more than enough trees to keep us warm in the cold Texas nights of January and February We brought lawnmowers and weed eaters to designate pathways and otherwise created one hell of a venue for our friends to party at photo 35102 698 0 center One of our parties out at the tree house on February 22 1997 photo

RTF 317 Postmodernism KEVIN LUDLOW RTF 317 RESPONSE PAPER POSTMODERNISM A STRANGE BREW OF REALITY FRAN GUILFOYLE MAY 7 1999 As we have gotten closer and closer to the twenty first century the lifestyles of Americans and other cultures for that matter have changed drastically Television has changed drastically as well It has changed to not only fit the times but also to make fun of them Lifestyles that we see in average American households are displayed in realistic but sometimes over exaggerated senses This is especially evident in Pee Wee s Playhouse and the ever so popular primetime show The Simpsons In 1986 Paul Reubens was transformed from being a relatively smalltime actor into a character that children would learn to love Pee Wee Although this was not the first time that Pee Wee was around it was the first time he appeared on network television Pee Wee s Big Adventure had been produced and released the previous year but now a show was in the Saturday morning lineup Each week millions of kids would sit in front of the screen laughing at his goofy suit magical bike and infamous word of the day But there was certainly more to the show then comedy Pee Wee s show was made up of radical sets make believe worlds talking animals even talking furniture It was categorically described as an educational children s comedy Less the comedy I suppose one could almost compare it to Mr Roger s Neighborhood All of the elements were the same Of course anyone s who has ever watched both of those shows would say quite the opposite Characteristically Pee Wee reflected the life of the eighties teenager and young adult Hairstyles were very eccentric and strangely colored a modern house look was always in effect as mentioned previously and women were not shown to be housewives but rather important figures in the world Although all of these things may seem like nothing they were quite a change for the time Single hosted shows before this time were nothing like that of Pee Wee s Playhouse Many times the host would be and older man talking calmly and enunciating his words simply trying to get a message across If the host wanted a guest on his show it would be another person similar to the host explaining their message in the same sense I resort back to Mr Roger Children were often taken on trips to the post office or the bank They would see a postal employee named Mr Smith or a bank clerk named Mrs Morris doing their job and learn what they did The farthest stretch that the show had was Never Never Land which was made up of humans and talking puppets Paul Reuben was far from anything like this His Never Never Land was the entire show The set was not made up of nice furniture and fishbowls but rather of magic windows and furniture that talked to the audience Even the character names were made up There was Conky Knucklehead Captain Carl and of course Pee Wee The entire show was a display of the post modernism cinema and television style that had emerged People of the era were tired of being normal and individualism was a key Children teens and even young adults wanted to be different then the regular guy This could be seen through the way that people dressed and did their hair to the way that they built their homes No more slacks and tucked in collared shirts People wanted to dress in ripped jeans and wear Jean jackets covered in patches They did not want their hair to be blonde or brown with the standard cut but rather for it to be purple or pink with spikes or even a Mohawk Pee Wee s Playhouse catered to this style of life and it certainly became popular because of it As the eighties ended and the nineties began lifestyles began changing yet again and a new display of postmodernism shows would begin Within that realm of shows would emerge one of the most popular animated series of all times The Simpsons The Simpsons did not necessarily look at individuals differently but rather at the family To understand how this works we must look at each family member separately We begin with the children As we have seen in shows in the past children were generally well behaved polite and listened to their parents Take for example Leave it to Beaver Wally and the Beaver were always civil to one another they were courteous to their parents and when they wronged their parents the apologized and learned how not to make the same mistake again The Simpsons is much different from this model Bart Simpson is the epitome of the nineties child He is misbehaved crude to others disrespectful to authority and makes the same mistakes over and over again Lisa Simpson is not quite like Bart but her ideas are very eccentric as well Although she is supposed to be extremely educated she often causes problems for others by means of protest even against her parent s wishes She is simply another reflection of the nineties child Children nowadays tend to form their own radical opinions about matters and do not usually take into consideration what their parents feel about it The legalization of drugs and especially marijuana can is a perfect example of this Parents realize the dangers of drugs but children believe them to be perfectly safe or are ignorant to their dangers Because of this we have the rebel child that goes out and does exactly what his or her parents would not approve of in this case doing drugs As we look at the mother of the family Marge we can see yet another perfect reflection of today s mom Marge is depicted in a number of episodes as the working mom She has held down jobs such as a teacher a policewoman and even a spokesperson for the community She is often afraid of where her path may take her but is not afraid to try Quite opposite of what we would expect from Mrs Cleaver who could be seen cooking and cleaning the house at all times On the flip side however this is the way that it was back in the fifties and sixties That was what moms did It only makes sense that we would see it would be on television like that Finally as we look at the father of the family the infamous Homer Simpson we can only laugh As in other postmodernism shows Homer is known as the buffoonish father Recalling on the Cleaver family we would expect nothing more from Mr Cleaver then for him to come home from a hard days work pay the bills tell his children goodnight put himself to bed and do it all over again Homer is a little different In his average thirty minutes we see Homer skip work drink himself into a stupor watch hours of television and ignore most of the bad things that his children do not to mention ignoring his wife This is obviously a harsh way to look at the nineties father but there is some truth to it The father of today does not always run the show and is not always the one on top in the family In the past the father held the family together but nowadays we see different and random bonds form between family members We do not see fathers throwing a ball around with their son as much anymore Not to mention slacking off from hard work is more evident now then in the past So as we have gotten closer and closer to the twenty first century we can see that the postmodernism television shows are changing to fit the lifestyles of Americans As we have scene in Pee Wee s Playhouse and The Simpsons television follows the time but it reflects it in some ways and mocks it in others I can not wait to see how television reflects the twenty first century and I especially can not wait to see how it mocks it