I'm in Florence!

Sorry I didn’t post sooner, but I’ve been extremely busy with orientations and check in, registration/immigration, and partying. On top of all that, I’m still recovering from the horrendous jet lag that’s starting to really catch up with me, after my adrenaline ran out yesterday. So here goes:

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By the time I post this I’ll be in Italy. So I made it safe. I’m writing this while I’m on the plane to London, and I thought I’d start writing now because I’d be too tired by the time I got to Italy. So here goes.

I arrived at Ontario airport this morning at around 6:30 am, and when I went to check in, of course, Murphy ruled and my flight to San Francisco was cancelled. Now, I checked to make sure that it wasn’t cancelled at around 10:00 pm the night before, and it wasn’t. So something happened during the night to cancel it. So the United ticket person said there was a flight to LAX from Ontario and that there was a flight to London from there that left at 1:15pm. (Which is about 30 minutes later than I would arrive had I stayed on my original course, so it’s a good thing I have a 3-hour layover to work with to clear customs and to allow for any other surprises along the way.) So I said sure, that sounds great, and she booked me on the flights. Well, then I was put on a puddle jumper (or a poor excuse for one) that was supposedly a United “express” flight, and that was an experience. It’s a two-propeller plane that had about 12 seats in it, total. But I thought it would be fine because it’s such a short flight from ONT to LAX. But, again Murphy did his thing and the flight, which only took 17 minutes, was delayed 30 minutes due to weather.

Well, I arrived at LAX in one piece, a little shaken because a flight on a two-prop plane is rickety to say the least, but otherwise fine. I got to the airport at around 7:55 am and my flight to London wasn’t until 1:15 pm, so I killed time by listening to my iPod. It came time to board, I got pat down by TSA, and to my delight the woman at the ticket counter had upgraded my London flight (the longest leg of the trip) to United’s Economy plus, which has a ton of leg room and more comfortable seats. So here I am, about 4,000 miles until I reach London, 2:53 into the flight, writing this because I’m sick of looking at the information map that gives you details about the trip so far.

My mom wrote me this really heartfelt letter to me and stuck it in my laptop for me to read when I got on the plane, and I had to stop reading it in order to stop from crying. I’ll defiantly miss them while I’m in Florence, as well as all of my friends, some of which took me out to dinner and the beach multiple times last week. The reality of all this hit me hard when I read the letter, yet at the same time all of this still doesn’t seem real. I guess once I step into my dorm and meet my roommates it will all sink in, permanently.

Well, once I wake up from my severe jet lag, I’ll be sure to write again and tell you how the rest of the trip went, and all about my new life in Italy. Farewell to my past, which I will always remember, and hello to the new horizon that has opened up to me.


Well, I tried sleeping, and I probably got the equivalent of about 20 minutes, and now I’ve completely given up. I’ll just have to deal with the repercussions later. I looked at the map/info display a little while ago, and it was a chilly -70 degrees Fahrenheit outside. We just passed over a place in Greenland called “Godthab” and we’ve had a steady tailwind of about 24 mph most of the way, so we should be getting into London a little earlier than planned. Then I just have to get my bags and clear customs, then I re-check them and I wait, and wait. That’s the part that’s going to kill me, because I can already feel how tired I am (having gotten up at 4:15am pacific time and, oh, it’s now 8:50pm pacific time). But oh well. The payoff in the end is well worth all of this.

I hope my roommates aren’t going to be too annoying, but I’ve already seen 62 out of the 100 classmates on Facebook, and giving the ratio of girls to guys at the NYC campus (4 girls : 1 guy) my options for roommates are limited.

I would love to talk about politics, but I honestly haven’t seen the news in a couple of days. It was so bad that I heard about the plane crash in Kentucky by word of mouth at the apple store. (Yeah, I know.) I tried getting online at LAX but you had to pay for the wi-fi. Hopefully at Heathrow they’ll have free wi-fi, but you never know. I don’t remember if they did or not the last time I was there, because we were so tired. Looks like I’m going to be living off of Starbucks in London, and then I’ll just have to find a local café in Milan to get me through to Florence. I’m really glad that lady put me in Economy Plus, because otherwise I’d be eating my knees.

"Plan B" Abortion Pill

"Abortion opponents threatened political retribution, however, and were displeased when President Bush backed the agency’s decision. 'Let there be no mistake about it,” said the Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, an anti-abortion group based in Virginia. “Today’s decision lies at the feet of President Bush and has created a lasting rift with the Catholic faithful who comprise a large part of his support base.' " [Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/25/health/25fda.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin}

Just one more thing about Bush that irks me.

The pill just gives unresponsible people another means of avoidresponsibilitylity. I was and still remain completely opposed to the pill, and anything that deals with birth control or abortions in general. It all goes against my morals, religion, beliefs, thoughts, and respect for life. I firmly stand behind the hundreds of millions of couples that can actually be responsible for their actions, and don't need a pill to be a backup, "Plan B" alternative to responsibility. This is a disgrace to what this country is promoting, and is a horrific statement as to where we're going in the future. I think this will actually have an adverse affect on people and will lead to an increase in abortions. But we'll see.

Deciding to have a child is a choice, but the child itself is not, by any means, a choice.

7 Days...

I have one week left, and what did I find a couple of days ago that's eating up 90% of my time awake? Second Life, or as the "lingo" goes in the game, SL. I read an article in a magazine a while ago, and decided to check it out. I was expecting something fairly primitive looking, but I was amazed when I downloaded the client and logged on for the first time under "Christopher Longduk" (I purposely picked a similar name to my own so that people could find me easily, and "Longduk" was the closest of the choices to my real last name). People were flying around me, typing chat messages to each-other, and the amazing thing is that we all looked different because they have an amazing "avatar" editor in the game, where you're even able to edit the position of your cheekbones.

Last night I was getting the hang of things, and this guy who was supposedly a "Sith Leader" (a.k.a. his "second life" was a geek, if it wasn't his first already) and he taught me the basics of building, and how everything in the game was built by other people using very basic shapes that everyone can build. And there's no limit to what you can build; everything from an intricate piece of clothing to a roman coliseum (which I was amazed when I saw one the other day).

SL is free to download, but if you want to own land or buy things that other people have made in the game, you have to provide them with a credit card. Then you get Linden Dollars, or L$ for short. It acts as real currency, which has a daily exchange rate. L$1,000 is about $3.98 US. There's literally no limit to what you can do in SL; you can attend classes in a classroom that is identical to the one you normally have class in, or take a cooking class in SL and learn how to make the perfect veal.

Check it out and download the client from http://www.secondlife.com and look me up! (Christopher Longduk). Just be sure that your second life doesn't eat away at your first.

Bolsa Chica/Karaoke

Some of my friends and I went to Bolsa Chica yesterday and had a bonfire, lots of fun, and long, deep walks along the beach (yeah right). Well, we did walk along the beach, but I don't consider "The Baywatch Walk" to be a long, deep walk. We roasted some hot dogs and later had some smores, and then we left for Karaoke. After a little drama over who was forced to go in the car that was going home, and who was able to come in my car, we got it all figured out. Then we went to Elvis!? Karaoke until about 1 in the morning, and we got home at around 2 in the morning. Didn't wake up until 11 this morning. Good times.

Thanksgiving in August

We had the whole family over today to have thanksgiving dinner with me, because they obviously don't celebrate thanksgiving in Italy. But mostly it was just to say goodbye and to wish me luck until they will undoubtedly see me again in December. But the whole dinner was served, and now I have that over-stuffed feeling that everyone gets during Thanksgiving, and I've become extremely lazy. But today was one less day in the way between me and Firenze!

30% of Americans don't know when 9/11 was

Yeah, you read the title right.

"Some 30 percent of Americans cannot say in what year the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York's World Trade Center and the
Pentagon in Washington took place, according to a poll published in the Washington Post newspaper...of that group, six percent gave an earlier year, eight percent gave a later year, and 16 percent admitted they had no idea whatsoever." [Source: The Washington Post]

Since the poll is by the Washington Post, I have some severe doubts about the group of people they surveyed. Is there any data as to how many people were surveyed? Can this poll really be generalized? Were all of the poll takers readers of the Washington Post? Are they all lacking any traces of what might be a cerebrum, like the readers of the Washington Post?

Or did the Washington Post just make up this number, like data they have produced in the past has been? Need proof? Read Godless, by Ann Coulter. Trust me, you'll never want to read another word from a liberal news source, once you see how common it is for them to skew or even make up information to help them accomplish their sick political agendas. I wouldn't be a bit suprised if they just decided to make this number up, or if they only interviewed crazy, mentally challenged individuals that couldn't tell you what month of the year it was if their life depended on it. Maybe it's their way of showing you how (supposedly) 30% of America doesn't remember the motives behind the war, and using that as backup for them of why we shouldn't have fought it in the first place. They're probably trying to combat what the World Trade Center movie has reminded us, that what we're fighting for in Iraq really does matter.

Increased Security makes my life more complicated

Unless you've been sleeping or living in a hole somewhere, you know all about the whole security threat today in london. Now, London isn't allowing any flights into or out of the airport that have ANY carry on baggage with them, including Laptops, cell phones, iPods, and any other electronic devices that could potentially set off a bomb. This is supposedly because the 20-25 terrorists planned to blow up all 10 planes using a liquid explosive inside a gatorade bottle, and set off the bomb with a disposable camera's flash bulb. In the US, we're still at least allowed the same carry on bags, and we can still carry on electronics, but absolutely no liquids/gels. So no toothpaste, hair gel, hand sanitizer, bottles of water, contact solution, mayonase on sandwitches your mom made....nothing. But, since I'm flying through London Heathrow to get to Florence, I don't even get to carry on anything! Oh, and not that this really matters to me, but for other people's information, you now MUST take off your shoes going through security at the airport; it's no longer optional. And that's just as of 6:00 tonight; earlier in the day, you were still allowed to have a carry on going through london, but now even that's changed. No exceptions. So who knows if they'll allow you to check the two carry on items that you used to be able to take, or if you'll be limited to two bags.

If that happens, I'll be shipping a crap load of stuff to my dorm. Just some additional charges to add to the nice fat bill from NYU.

Electric Car goes 0-60 in 4 seconds

In my infinite boredom yesterday, I stumbled upon this car company based in San Carlos, CA (not too far from where I used to live) called Tesla Motors. So far, they have a roadster in the works that is 100% electric, has a range of 250 miles on a single charge, and goes 0-60 in 4 seconds. [Source: Tesla Motors] But that's exactly what you would expect, being a sister company of Lotus. With amazing design that subtly reminds you of the Lotus Elise, and screams sports car, you would have no clue that it was electric until you started it up. It has a top speed of about 130 mph, and when it's going fast it sounds like a jet engine. It has 240 hp, and only costs a penny per mile to drive. It only has two gears; first gear goes up to about 65 miles per hour, and second takes over from there. There is no reverse gear, instead the motor just spins backward. So, theoretically, you could go 130 mph in reverse. And, if you have the charger installed in your garage, the car is fully charged in about three hours. [Source: CNET Slideshow: Tesla Roadster]

Impressive, huh? The only downside is that it's not cheap; with extreme technological advances in lithium-ion batteries that the company had to develop, as well as the performance parts, it is targeted to cost about $89,000 for the first model, but the company hopes to make enough profits from those sales that it can invest in a cheaper, more family-friendly model that would cost about half that price. [Source: Tesla Motors blog]

Definitely a company to keep your eye on, both for new cars to be released and for investment purposes.

Alliance for Marriage Petition

In response to yesterday's post, if you agree with me and want to protect the definition of marriage from the small minority of radical activists in Washington, D.C. who are trying to change the definition of marriage as the union between a man and a woman, please sign the petition below! They are also trying to change how children are taught in both public and private schools, to include making references to marriage as being between "men and women" illegal.

"As in Canada, the consequences of radical activists redefining marriage will have devastating effects on American society and our children. One of these will be mandatory "same-sex" school curricula teaching children that their parents are "bigots" for believing that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. I truly wish I were being alarmist, but I'm not - if marriage is redefined, this is exactly what the law will mandate." [Source: Allianceformarrage.org]

So please, if you agree with me in supporting Allianceformarriage, sign the petition here:

http://www.allianceformarriage.org/site/PageServer?pagename=petition_r100

Thank You!

Apple's new direction, NY turning Conservative?

I know, I just got a new mac, so I may be a little biased. But what Mac in unveiling this year at WWDC should spark some interest in those who have brushed Apple aside in the past, as well as lodge fear into the minds of those who work at Microsoft and leading computer manufacturers such as Dell and HP. Apple has made a tremendous profit from the switch from PowerPC based computers to the new Intel based Macbooks. So much so that they've decided to make the full switch over to the new chips--including their professional series of computers such as the G5. You will be able to get a ridiculously fast G5 for roughly $1,000 less than what a comparable system from Dell would cost you. [ Source: Computerworld: WWDC: Jobs touts next Mac OS, unveils new pro machines, Xserve]

I read this other article today, and almost fell out of my chair when I read this really good news coming from the New York Times, which has traditionally been associated with the extreme liberal newspapers of the country, if not the most liberal of them all. Some of the excerpts that I enjoyed the most from the article were:

"John H. Mollenkopf, director of the Center for Urban Research at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, recalled that New York's proportion of Catholics was among the highest of any state's, and that many still tended to be more conservative than the general population."

"There's no question that the people of the city and state of New York are middle class in their thoughts, in their traditions, to a far greater degree than people give them credit for," Mr. Koch said in a weekend interview."

"When the presidential election results are parsed, New York, like much of the nation, is more a purple state than a bright red or blue one."

"Perhaps most telling of all, the state's highest court ruled last week that gay couples cannot legally marry, and explained its decision by suggesting that heterosexual parents might be better suited to child rearing."

After reading that sentence, my jaw dropped to the floor. Since I was in Vegas last week with a sketchy at best internet connection, I didn't exactly have a chance to keep up with the news. Thus, I had no clue that NY had accomplished this feat in their court system. I couldn't believe that the country's biggest city had broken the "norm" of politics when it comes to big cities in the country and decided to take a conservative stance on something.

Although I have nothing against gays, speaking from the perspective of a nephew that had a gay uncle die from AIDS ten years ago, I believe that gays should be able to live together and live normal lives, but I do not believe that they should be allowed to take part in the traditional, spiritual, and, most fundamentally, religious ceremony of marriage. I would prefer them to enter into a legally binding arrangement, such as a civil union, where they can enjoy the same rights and privileges of married couples. But to allow two individuals of the same sex to "marry," in my opinion as a member of the Catholic church, would be a huge disgrace to the core meaning of the ceremony and to the church.

In case you hadn't had enough

Just in case you hadn't had enough, Mel Gibson was bashed again in this video parody of signs. When will these people ever stop? Don't they have lives? It must have taken them hours upon hours to make that short film, and what did they accomplish in the end? Absolutely nothing.

http://www.bestweekever.tv/2006/08/07/icymi-mel-gets-mashed-again/

NYU c/o 2010 Sendoff in LA

After church today I went straight to LA for a welcome party hosted by two NYU alumni who have a son that is currently a sophomore at NYU. It was a lot of fun, and I got to meet a lot of NYU students that live in southern california. I ran into a fellow GSP student that lived in Florence for six months last year, and she was extremely helpful with tips and info about Italy and living over there as an American student. People I had friended on Facebook were there, so that was cool actually meeting them in person before I have to part and head off for Italy. (As if that's an unfortunate thing.) All in all, it lasted about two hours, then I went back home. A productive day, if I do say so myself. But it was a huge reminder of how little time I have left here in So cal. I'm going to miss all of you guys down here!

Got my laptop

I got my laptop today and I haven't been able to get off of it since. My new iPod is certainly getting used as well ;-) Other than that, I haven't been doing much. I haven't seen the news in days, and have been consistently getting 4 hours of sleep for about the past week or so. The days until I leave are getting limited, and it's becoming more and more evident with every hour that passes. I have to take my friend Joseph back to the airport tomorrow, then I should be blogging more consistently.

By the way, I saw Superman Returns yesterday, and I don't know why people thought it was a bad movie. Sure, it's not the greatest movie of the year, but it wasn't THAT bad.

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Thanks to ieeye for pointing out the iPod typo....I don't know what I was thinking. I've typed iLife, iMac, iWork...everything like that with no problems before.

Same boring news

We were all sitting around the hotel room watching the news today and kept seeing the same two stories: Mel Gibson, and the conflict in the middle east. I can't believe the yellow journalism that is going on, even at some of the news stations that are less prone to it.

First and foremost, Mel Gibson apologized, end of story. If he hadn't come out with the Passion movie that has seemed to create such a ruckus, none of this Anti-semitism reporting would have come out in the first place. But because he's a celebrity, and because he decided to make a movie that is extremely accurate to the gospels of the bible, the media has to attack him for what he said while he was (now legally) drunk. Yes, he should have been pulled over, and he shouldn't have been driving under the influence, but he was so drunk that he couldn't exactly control what he was saying at the time. Have you tried to control what you were saying while you're drunk? Now, I'm not anti-Semitic, nor do I believe that people have the right to single people out for what they believe in. That said, I'm moving on to my next qualm with the side of the media I saw expressed today. Or should I say, the only side of the media that was being expressed.

I'm sick and tired of turning on the news and hearing how the poor, little, helpless, and innocent country of Israel is being attacked by the brutish, thoughtless, animalistic, and terrorist-harboring Lebanese. Two Israeli soldiers are captured by Hezbollah militants and all hell breaks loose. Instead of trying to go get the soldiers back in a raid or other less damaging and problematic way, such as we would do and have done when journalists and soldiers have been captured by terrorists in Iraq, Israel instead decides to bomb them back with an over-the-top amount of force and without warning or a grace period. Then, Hezbollah, out of common sense, decides to fight back to defend itself. But no, they're not allowed to do that, they're supposed to just lay there in their lawn chairs and take massive hits and bombings (which, by the way, are WAY under-reported and downplayed) as if they could care less.

Most recently in the news, one of two Hezbollah rockets that were fired at Israel today, dating back to WWII, being highly unreliable and unpredictable, actually struck where it was supposed to, killing an unknown number of soldiers at a military outpost. Well, the extremely biased (even though they keep claiming that they're not) US media jumped all over the opportunity to show how Hezbollah is killing "numerous" "innocent Israelis" with their, what is conveniently being labeled as, "Weapons of mass destruction." Then Israel retaliates by bombing what has now totaled to be over 40 percent of Lebanon. [Source: Fox News Channel, 8/3/06] But that's okay, because the crazy terrorists of Hezbollah have attacked Israel numerous times, and they're not allowed to defend themselves. So they bomb them to death.

Now, I do realize that Hezbollah has gone to some extremes of using humans as shields, but I believe that this is just a way for them to get attention to the growing problem of Israel. Over the years, we as a nation have favored Israel in wars and have aided them numerous times. We have also let them get away with things that should not be spoken of, and we're paying for that now. Israel now thinks that they can get away with killing hundreds, if not thousands of Lebanese civilians and militant members. And the media is going along with the traditional "Israel can do no wrong" method of dealing with what has become a major problematic nation in the middle east. There's now even a commercial airing about Israel, and how we as a nation should "stand with Israel" and continue supporting their actions during this time of crisis in the middle east. The commercial is from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and it states: "Israel is under attack, the civilians living under bomb shelters...I want to add my name to the list of those who will stand by Israel in these trying times...this is your time to stand with Israel in their time of need...I pray that God will speak to your heart, especially at this time, and that you will bless the people of Israel, when they need your blessing and your solidarity more than ever." [Source: http://www.wbur.org/news/2006/59592_20060721.asp] You're asked to donate to the "Emergency Israel Fund" both on their website (http://www.ifcj.org) and on their commercial. You should watch the commercial for yourself, if you haven't already seen it, then come up with your own opinions.

"She says it's so hard, it's so hard.....you're not alone, you're not alone."

I've been busy in Vegas

I've been busy in Vegas, but we're leaving mid-day tomorrow. I'm sorry I broke my promise of posting at least once every day, but I came to Vegas to have fun and party, not to worry about blogging. And the internet has either been too slow or too temperamental at the hotel (major server issues in LV) to bother posting (so I think you'll all forgive me for letting a couple of days slip there).

Yesterday, I rode the NY, NY roller coaster 7 times in a row, and by the end of the day I hurt so much that sitting in the hotel's whirlpool and our room's jacuzzi weren't enough to ease the pain. That is the most rough roller coaster I've ever been on--but at least it was fun. I've been mostly touring the new casinos since the last time I've been here, and I went to a few clubs, but other than that nothing TOO exciting. I've walked more in the past week than I've ever walked before in all of my Disneyland visits, and I know that for a fact as I'm sitting here with my feet up, relaxing. But overall, I've had a lot of fun and have taken a lot of pictures that I'll post on facebook later this week.

Just need to look at some more news articles about the middle east conflict, then I'll definitely post about that in the coming days, because I have some qualms with the media right now. But I'll save that for a future post.