Oh… you mean…. you didn’t notice that I’m not writing in a small while?  I do confess that blogging, working on projects, editing video, editing photos, driving from destination to destination, and more … takes a lot of time, so… blogging doesn’t always get the most of my time.  I’m sorry if you think that makes me lazy.  I promise you that my book willl have a lot of the juicy details.  For the record, I TWEET *really often* (remember, Twitter is a real-time, 140 characters at a time, form of communication, that I (or you) can update from their computer, cell phone, or by smoke signal (kidding about the smoke signal.. though, with 140 characters, you probably could pull it off). This makes it VERY easy to blast the web with what I’m doing, thinking, etc…).  The topic says I’m back in the USA… Where’d I go?  Keep reading… I’ll tell you.

My little bro graduated from University of Florida on May 2nd.  I flew down to Florida to  attend his graduation, and of course celebrate.  We celebrated by taking a cruise to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel Belize.  I ate ridiculous amounts of food, did some nice SCUBA diving in Belize, climbed up some waterfalls in Jamaica, and did I mention the insane amounts of food? I mean seriously… ask my family!  For dinner, I’d have about 4 appetizers, 4 entrees, 2 deserts,  And yes, I did work out very hard at the cruise’s gym.

The ship was the Carnival Triumph.  It’s ok.. I’m kind of jaded about Carnival’s ships. So… I’m not going to go into too much details (I was fairly tame on the cruise, as I have much more exciting travels in my CouchSurfing), but I did want to make observation… they had a giant LED-based outdoor theatre screen… so you can lay in a beach chair and watch the news (wtf?? I mean seriously.. what kind of sick a-hole plays the news on the giant screen, w/ massive speakers, so people in New York can hear…. while a few thousand people are on vacation?  Why ruin their vacation?  Forget the outside world, or watch it in your cabin), or a movie.  The movies were not posted well, I thought… so I only caught the tail end of Wall-E (a brilliant movie).  The Irony is that in Wall-E (if you haven’t seen it, skip to the next paragraph, as not to destroy this very clever movie) , all of humanity is living on a cruise ship, and is obese, unmotivated, and controlled by a PA system/tv.  On Carnival’s cruise, there was a smaller population, but a high percent seemed as obese as the ones in Wall-E… and they kept running to the buffets, and were controlled by the ship’s PA system.  Sad, or funny… I can’t decide.

We got back on Mother’s day- which was awesome, ’cause the entire family (Mom, Dad, Barak (Older bro), Itay (younger bro), Me (seriously… why even look in the ()’s… you know who I am!), and Massimo (Barak’s fiancee) was there to start Mother’s day with mom.  Then Barak and Massimo had to get on a flight, and go back to California.

I flew on Tuesday back to Oregon.  I was way more excited about returning to Coos Bay, Oregon, than I was about the entire cruise… as in Coos Bay I’ve got non-stop adventure (seriously.. just today (1st day after landing back), I got surfing lesons, and to go clamming (digging for clams), and got a surfing lesson… I’m camping out in a trailer next to the Dunes, and will be riding 4-wheelers tomorrow, deep sea fishing Friday, getting golf lessons by a pro, riding jet boats… and now the city of Bandon is trying to top Coos Bay by taking me Aerobatics flying, horseback riding, and maybe even riding ou with the coast guard…. will find out about that one soon.

On my 1st flight, I was seated, and this sweet frail old couple (88 & 89 years old – been married for 57 years, and even had a walking stick) asked if I’d mind getting up so they could get to their seats.  I oblidged, and noticed how frail they were, so offered them to lift their suitcases to the overhead bins for them.  They were so happy!  You’d think I was their long-lost son.  I felt pretty great about it, and we conversed  much of the flight.

On the next flight, I was reading, and keeping to myself.. but then, as soon as the plane started its descent… the girl across the aisle from me started drumming her hands nervously, and eyeballing the window, and looking very anxious.

“Do you dislike landings?”

She has not flown in 4 years, and landings definitely make her nervous!

“Excuse me… What do you call a line of bunnies jumping backwords? A receeding hareline!”  — she laughed… fingers stopped drumming..

“What do you call a cow with no legs?”  “Ground Beef” – success… she was totally distracted from the fact that the plane is descending in altitude, and technically, we could crash and die.  I kept going… joke after joke after joke, until we landed!  “See? That wasn’t so bad!  The worst thing about the landing was having to hear all my jokes!”  She was happy, calm, and I was happy as heck to have a practical use fo rmy massive arsenal of jokes.

It’s 4:!5am.  I have a few radio shows, a cold (thanks flying on a plane!  Is it Swine Flu?  Should I commit suicide now?), 4-wheeling, eating fresh-crab (the seafood here in Coos Bay is so fresh and amazing (hooray Coastal cities), so… I must climb to the top bunk now, and sleep!

So, I’m an award winning photographer, but I get bored with repetition… so, I no longer offer Photography full time. Only when I’m interested, for exotic events, if it helps someone a lot, if I feel like it, or the pay’s good. Being on the road is a great way to stay motivated with the camera, as everything’s always changing- the people, the weather, the terrain, the wildlife, and more… so, when I stayed with Dave Gonzalez in Austin, I realized it was Valentine’s day. I had been photographing his family for the 2 days prior… so… I asked him about his & his wife’s song… and put it all to music… Enjoy! p.s. my favorite are the family portraits with the sledge hammer & butcher knife Read the rest of this entry »

1,200 miles… a dog… high-def video…  a knitting kit.. and one last surprise…  what else could a mother ask for?

I gotta admit… I was slightly motivated by an ex of mine inviting me for one last romp (as I’m taking off on a long friggin trip tomorrow…. more details on that excursion in a future post) if I come see her… but that wasn’t my only motivator to come down for the weekend… It was Mom’s birthday (I’d tell you her age, but I hear that’s rude).  I invited my little brother to join in on the surprise visit, but he couldn’t make it… so.. the plan was Read the rest of this entry »

I helped save Sam The Poodle’s life earlier in the year… now I’m being asked if I can save a human life… “It’s only $2,000,000.00″. My trip is departing in late January, and I’m in the middle of hectic non-stop getting ready. I barely have time to handle my own projects when I get this text: Read the rest of this entry »

Wow! It’s almost 2009. We’ve come so far! We’ve invented the wheel, harnessed fire, created language, learned to spread information (1st tablets, then papyrus, then the printing press, then telegraph, then radio, then tv, then internet), invented the car, and various flying machines… and with this progression, we were basically able to do anything. It wasn’t only technology and medicine that progressed with the spread of information, it was also human and civil rights.

So, here we are… living in a day and age where women can join the army, or have corporate jobs. A day and age where the black man is free to own his own land… oh yeah, we’re a little past that, now he can run for president! So… if everyone has all these rights, and we live in the land of opportunity, why can gay people not get married? Face it folk, the gays aren’t going away! Read the rest of this entry »

Isn’t he cute? I haven’t done video editing in a while. This was worth losing sleep over. We’re almost at half way– it looks like Sam’s going to get his surgery!

My new friend Kristin just found out 1 week ago that her very best friend in the world, Sam The Poodle, has a medical condition, that if untreated will kill him. Sam is one year old, and her very best friend in the world!

PLEASE, go to his new site and make a donation. Every penny helps!
www.SavingSamThePoodle.com
I donated my resources to make a website to try and save his life. The procedure has to be done within the next two weeks, or Sam will start having seizures, and then die. It’s a special procedure that has to be done at the University, and it costs $2,500. People have already begun to donate, and every cent helps!

PLEASE, go to his new site and make a donation. Every penny helps!
www.SavingSamThePoodle.com

Some sick people out there say “Why bother? Why not just put him to sleep, and get a new dog?” These individuals would probably not donate a kidney to save their child’s life. Some people think a dog is just a dog. Some people are not dog people. Even if you’re one of these people , you can still help! After donating a photo shoot for the cause, I made some coffee mugs, a mouse pad, and a beer stein that are all cute and amusing. You can buy those, and that will send a few dollars towards the cause.

PLEASE, go to his new site and make a donation. Every penny helps!
www.SavingSamThePoodle.com

Kristin is so heart broken, and I don’t think she could stand losing this sweet soul that won’t go to sleep unless he’s on her pillow with his legs up in the air.
As a special bonus, anyone who donates over $10 will receive a Sam The Poodle screen saver that’s not available for sale anywhere! A $40 value! You’ll have many incredible photos to cheer you up and make you and your friends say “awwwwwwwwww!”

A second bonus, anyone who donates more than a dollar can know that they helped save a life! You can know that you’ve actually done something incredibly important!
FREE GOOD KARMA WITH EVERY DONATION!

Please please please! I beg of you, repost this, or e-mail it to everyone you know! This is extremely time-sensitive

Summary: Ori & Angela wake up at the glamorous Allegro hotel in Chicago, see the craziest things from the front lines, and show you many photos of this unique event.
Read the rest of this entry »