NYU Monologues 2 Will Smith has once again teamed up with director Barry Sonnenfeld to create a biographical movie of the world s greatest boxer Muhammad Ali Smith will be getting paid 20 million dollars making him the highest paid black actor of all time for a single movie And why shouldn t he be paid that much considering his good looks incredible taste in music and a 130 pound figure which certainly resembles that of a heavyweight boxer In a recent lawsuit the United States is suing The Toyota company for an amazing 58 5 billion dollars It seems that the United States no longer wants to be laughed at for producing poor quality products while a competitive country sweeps the market year after year And of course in good ole American fashion why work harder and try to beat your competitor when you can just sue their ass In a related story Russia is warning officials that the Space Station mir could crash into the Earth if repairs are not made on it soon Unfortunately the Russians have no one to sue because the space station was built from their own parts which coincidentally are amongst the worst parts in the world just behind those of Taiwan and China The United States plans to also sue Russia simply for their incompetence The tobacco industry is trying to get back at the anti smoking campaign which has setup hundreds of billboards around the U S urging kids not to smoke They will be putting up billboards that tell kids If you don t start smoking now you will be laughed at become extremely obese and certainly never become the popular young lad that you d like to be To waste more of out money the United States will also be suing the tobacco industry once again for their Negative but very truthful billboard signs And finally after six years of work an extremely rare plant named the corpse flower has recently bloomed at the University of Washington greenhouse It s scientific name Amorphophallus titanum which means huge shapeless penis has shocked the nation simply because it looks like a huge shapeless penis If all goes as planned the Chia Pet Company will be selling a new model with seedlings to the rare plant The Chia Company plans to market their new model to all women who s husbands can not afford Viagra or just have too small of a dick to please them

American Healthcare Part I Introduction As technology continues advancing medical sciences beyond the scope of our imagination humanity s ability to heal is constantly surpassing what science fiction makes us believe possible Despite these continued advances citizens of the United States have witnessed a continual depreciation in the most basic of healthcare services meanwhile watching the costs of those services continue to skyrocket From a political point of view neither side of the coin has showed any particular willingness to compromise nor has either side made any visible attempt to think beyond traditional partisan boxes On the one hand Democrats seem all too willing to empower both the government and multinational conglomerates with impractical and anti consumerist solutions While on the other hand Republicans do not even seem able or willing to acknowledge that the healthcare system is severely flawed If we indulge cynicism it does appear the one success both parties have had is finding yet another outlet in which to further polarize a steadily misinformed and politically divided nation With these divisions driving the country towards civil unrest one might wonder if it is even possible to steer the country back towards some type of realistic and agreeable middle ground That is to suggest is it possible for Americans to control their government the underlying basis of the entire American democracy while still ensuring that the medical needs of an ever growing population are properly met I believe the answer to this question is most definitely yes but not without a very legitimate voluntary and rationally based commitment from individuals of both sides Much like the topics that have already been addressed throughout this text people will need to understand that there is a balance point within the system that we must strive for as a collective society It is simply unrealistic to think that any country can provide the bleeding edge of technology to every person all of the time and without cost it is simply not economically possible But conversely it is nothing short of malignity to believe we cannot or should not implement practical solutions that ensure the basic health and well being of all Americans without creating financial hardships for anyone whether they are rich or poor Proverbial wisdom suggests that sometimes one must take a single step back in order to take two steps forward Given how far the country has moved in both directions away from center it stands to reason that we would need to take a very large step backwards in order to correct our problems But if both liberals and conservatives would be willing to embrace that parable and champion sensible legislative adjustments rather than merely dictating their own far leaning partisan ideologies I believe Americans could enjoy the most functional and efficient healthcare system in the world em continued in a href blog 2135 American_Healthcare__Part_II_The_Healthcare_Divide Part II The Healthcare Divide a em

Acoustic Beating Every once in awhile I like to toss something out there completely unrelated to my interest in pursuits of liberty I was messing around with my old 12 string in a Nashville DADGAD tuning and came up with this little percussive beat I wish the Apple built in mic had a little more range but it s good enough For anyone who doesn t know what a Nashville tuning is it s basically when you use the higher octave strings from a 12 string set in just a 6 string fashion In my case it s a bit altered even from that since I actually left the low G string in its typical 6 string configuration but otherwise the higher octaves were switched out The result is a really twangy sound in place of the usual base a base in place of the usual mids and extra reverberation on the typical highs And of course all of that in an open DADGAD tuning as well iframe width 520 height 390 src http www youtube com embed VnAOujnt89I frameborder 0 allowfullscreen iframe

Structural Diagrams of Inverted Truss Design Although still very technical as opposed to aesthetic in nature I was pretty excited to receive these structural truss CAD images from our structural engineer Tsen Structural The top left picture below shows the actual truss positions as they will sit over the foundation footprint In all there will be nine 9 38 long inverted trusses to support the entire roof system Between each of the trusses will be a system of steel cable wire purlins The four corners of the building will also have cross bracing purlins photo 311735 311912 0 center The 9 trusses over the footprint photo photo 311703 311912 0 center A double inverted truss with tension rods photo photo 311709 311912 0 center A single inverted truss with tension rods photo photo 311716 311912 0 center Cross braces found in the building corners photo

Civil Engineering Firm Selected As of today we have selected Nobel Surveying and Engineering Works LLC to be our civil engineer for the Axel project This firm came highly recommended to Preston Graham my general contractor and president of Fig Co Builders We had a few different meetings with the founder of Nobel and had his firm run a few different site plan ideas for us really just to get an idea what we re looking at To those not familiar with this process the civil engineering firm is required by the City of Austin for commercial development projects They will design and oversee dozens of city required outlets such as water hookups parking lots erosion control landscaping requirements impervious cover laws and on and on The civil engineering part of commercial development in Austin can unfortunately be a very expensive piece of the puzzle The sad part as a resident of Austin and small business owner is that the civil engineering cost structure of a million dollar building is roughly the same as a small facility like ours Nevertheless it is a required component if we re going to move forward We are hoping that they will be able to design our property in such a way that the City of Austin will not require us to have water retention ponds but that remains to be seen The three images above show three different concepts for how a simple warehouse could be constructed on the land In particular they consider the amount and type of impervious cover that would be needed given parking requirements sidewalk requirements and etc and figure how large the retention ponds theoretically would be The plan will now be to alter the building in such a way so that we can avoid those requirements

Geotechnical Engineer Reports Great News photo 311708 311912 0 right photo photo 311725 311912 0 right photo The Geotechnical Report was one of the reports that I was very nervous about We hired Holt Engineering to carry out the work and they definitely provided us with a quick turn around Basically what these guys do are setup a giant pile driver in select locations on the subject tract namely where the building will be and bore into the ground Depending on what they find they ll go anywhere from 10 30 feet down It might not sound like a big deal but they collect this tube of soil its length is equal to the depth they bore and then they analyze it in a lab Basically they re looking to see what kind of material the ground is comprised of Because this property is situated in east Austin there was a fear that it might be softer clay instead of solid bedrock Thankfully that was not at all the case and as it turns out Axel has a very solid and shallow bedrock formation below it This is FANTASTIC news because the ground composition could significantly impact the cost of the foundation The softer the ground is the more money that has to be invested into the foundation to keep it from shifting Not only that but because the warehouse will have the weight spread out with steel beams a softer ground would mean that deep pilings could be necessary at all major load points These two factors alone could change the foundation costs from say 4 00 sq ft to 10 00 sq ft That s a pretty significant price difference when you re talking about having a foundation of 5 000 sq ft Included below are the soil reports we were provided

The James Turrell Skyspace Today I had the pleasure of being invited to one of the most amazing visual art installments I have ever seen anywhere in the world The piece was created by a href http jamesturrell com James Turrell a and sits atop the Student Activity Center on the University of Texas at Austin campus I most certainly cannot do the piece justice in words but I will try to describe it objectively Atop the student building is an oval shaped concrete dome There is a single entrance on the east side Inside are polished concrete seats wrapping the edges save for the entrance The seats are angled so that the viewer can more comfortably gaze up at the ceiling All of the walls and ceiling are painted white the seats are a darker gray In the middle of the white ceiling is an oval shaped hole The viewer sits on the seat and stares into the sky through this hole of course only able to see a small bit of the sky at any given time Less than an hour from sundown and sunrise the light show begins As the lights very slowly rotate through a series of vivid colors the viewer gets entirely lost in the color shifting effects in the sky As the surrounding light changes it contrasts the sky so vividly that the juxtaposed images appear to shift the color of the sky Of course that is not actually the case at all and instead our eyes simply perceive this to be happening The color differential also creates an illusion that the opening in the ceiling is a floating egg or similar physical entity It s incredibly surreal peaceful and amazing photo 315866 315900 0 center A view of the dusky sky surrounded by yellow lighting This was my favorite color sequence When I would let the scene take over my eyes I thought the scene looked like a giant sunflower photo photo 315867 315900 0 center Another photo just to show how significant the color difference makes to the sky photo br style clear both Although I wasn t previously familiar with Turrell by name I actually had the pleasure of seeing one of his private light installments on a daily basis for over a year I worked as a contractor for Dimensional Fund Advisors in their Austin office near Bee Caves If you re not familiar with them DFA is an incredibly successful mutual fund company that was started by David Booth in Santa Monica California They moved their headquarters to Austin about five years ago and built one of the most amazing buildings I have ever seen As it happens David s wife Suzanna Booth is a huge proponent of the arts The entire building is essentially a private art museum and the Turrell piece is just one of many amazing elements within it So although I already really enjoyed the artist this was the first time I had the pleasure of actually learning about him I would highly recommend it to anyone especially those interested in the visual arts

Campaign Issues Gun Rights strong Ludlow supports the 2nd amendment and does not favor legislation that restricts limits or bans the sale or purchase of firearms strong While Ludlow ultimately believes that firearm possession is rooted in preventing tyranny this philosophical position has been so widely misconstrued in the past decade that attempting to discuss it seems almost entirely fruitless Instead Ludlow is more interested in examining the causes and effects of gun violence in the United States and working to address those issues Stated plainly Ludlow recognizes that gun violence em is em an enormous issue facing the United States However there is simply no evidence to support the idea that banning firearms within smaller governmental bodies eg states counties cities has any effect on curbing this violence One commonly cited illustration of this data is that of Chicago whereby handguns have been banned since 1982 without any particular success in curbing violence Instead the issues needing to be addressed have very little to do with guns and very much to do with a lack of education massive disparities in wealth societal upbringing broken family structures and numerous other forms of desperation primarily stemming from a desolate population In the same way that the United States has done nothing to curb drug usage by vilifying drugs ironically increasing gun violence in the process no less we should certainly not expect to see gun violence reduced simply because a legislative body invents a frivolous punitive measure for their possession This effort does however prey upon the emotions of many Americans while conveniently allowing politicians to ignore the numerous poverty based issues that are turning people towards violence in the first place

Chasing After a Hit and Run Suspect What an exciting Monday morning I had 12 12 2016 A U Haul right in front of me on I 35 smashed into some cars and fled the scene I called 911 and immediately began chasing the U Haul photo 597552 740 0 center top left The U Haul just after the crash top right police on the scene bottom left police arresting the suspects bottom right selfie with the arresting officer photo br style clear both After weaving in and out of traffic he exited MLK and headed eastbound He began running red lights excessively speeding and clearly trying to get away Fortunately I know Austin pretty well I followed him south on Chestnut east on 12th northeast on Webberville south on Tannehill and finally west on Jackie Robinson Having destroyed his side mirror in the crash I purposefully kept my truck to his left so he couldn t see me hard to see in a U Haul anyways By coincidence he and his passenger pulled over on Jackie Robinson just west of Axel Lane half a block from property I own They ditched the U Haul I kept a distance of about 100 yards not knowing what they might do They got out of the car and started approaching me I started to reverse my vehicle all the while reporting the status to dispatch I finally told the police to approach southbound on Tannehill so they would intercept them on Jackie Robinson They did Police showed up guns drawn The pair seemingly a couple were arrested on the spot I provided a positive identification of the driver and gave a statement of the entire pursuit photo 597652 740 0 center A map detailing the route of the pursuit photo br style clear both When it was all over the arresting officer said he knew me from when I ran for office in 2014 Kevin Ludlow for TX House 46 I asked how It turns out he was the officer who had broken into my house in 2014 and tried to arrest me citing the smell of marijuana I couldn t believe it and just laughed We shook hands and took a selfie It was nice to make peace with him He appreciated what I had done and said they almost never catch hit and runs Everyone in the accident was okay strong In the News strong KXAN put together a story about what happened I thought it was a pretty fun interview The direct link to their story can be found here a href http kxan com 2016 12 12 u haul driver arrested for alleged hit and run on i 35 http kxan com 2016 12 12 u haul driver arrested for alleged hit and run on i 35 a iframe width 521 height 391 src https www youtube com embed qLBta2KOyC8 frameborder 0 allowfullscreen iframe strong The Follow up strong So this is Prashant the guy whose car was smashed Monday morning He found me on Facebook and invited me out to lunch Turns out he s a software developer too and works right near me He invited me to join him and his wife for an authentic home cooked Indian meal sometime at his house and that he would invite me to Holi in a few months Such a positive feeling being able to help someone I feel great that he s so happy about it all photo 597553 740 0 center About the best ending we could hope for after meeting Prashant the victim in the hit and run crash photo br style clear both

Equipment Layout So given the distance that I ll be covering on this trip and the minimalist style that I am trying to keep with it this is essentially all of the equipment that I ll be bringing with me Bearing in mind this does not include the clothes that I will bring but even those will be very limited just 2 shirts a few pairs of underwear and a few pairs of socks photo 625226 740 0 center The most minimal equipment package I could assemble photo br style clear both This first pass at a packing supply list includes the following Deodorant Toothpaste Mouthwash Universal power converter Mosquito repellent GoPro Canon DSLR Underwater phone bag My trusted Lonely Planet Asia guide Aside from perhaps a small flashlight and a quick dry towel that should really be all that I ll need besides my clothing toothbrush and of course my laptop I m intending to get a new Osprey backpack for all of my gear instead of trying to bring any kind of suitcase This is mostly due to the nomadic backpacker style I ll be attempting but also due to the fact that I just don t need that much luggage space