I watched last night's Colbert Report as he made jokes about www.conservapedia.com and the Conservapedia bible translation project. Visiting the site to add my own conservative re-translation of the Bible, I found it blocked from accepting new contributors. Who knows if this is related to Colbert's challenge to viewers to "write me into the Bible", or if it's just regular policy at this heavily-administrated, heavily bureaucratic corner of the web. I couldn't add my Bible translation there, but I could try to learn where these guys are coming from. I agree with the Conservapedia folk [View Full Entry]

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Whoa. Here I am in August 2009 and the last 3 years have burned up like a flame. I... ...left for my Southeast Asia trip around this time in 2006. ...saw a whole other world and became a whole other person. ...ended up in India with Chelly by January of 2007. ...took her home to Kenya. ...was completely renewed and remade by my experiences in East Africa. ...asked her Father if I could ask her to marry me. ...asked her to marry me. ...invited my parents over for the engagement party. ...went on a trip through Greece with Mom and Dad. [View Full Entry]

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Moses Lake WA to Seattle Final day of traveling was only half day! We visited Blue Heron Park in Moses Lake with the hounds. The landscape is desert-like, but on a nice man-made lake. I was surprised that eastern Washington state is so dry! We drove through mid-Washington, crossed the Columbia River, stopped for pics of the view, and then drove past many farms and field of hay, onions, wheat, potato, and alfalfa. We took the Snoqualmie Pass, and the landscape changed to tall, tall pine trees. Then we started to see the signs for Seattle (nickname "Emerald City") and we [View Full Entry]

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I feel compelled to send this blog entry again after having recently watched an excellent, yet disturbing, Bill Moyers program connecting the dots between Wall Street and the for profit health insurance industry. I implore you to watch this 1 hour video which will, without a doubt, convince you that the blood sucking leeches of private health insurance need to be excised from health care delivery in favor of a single payer national health insurance plan. The insurance and pharmaceutical companies' well financed propaga [View Full Entry]

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Well, one important thing to realize when we go to China- some of our usual websites (YouTube!) will be blocked and inaccessible...hence the move from Wordpress to Travelblog- a participant currently in the program let us know it's been blocked for awhile there. Hotmail apparently has problems also, so if you email me, please do so at stacinoelle@gmail.com. Martin's email is phearmart@gmail.com. This weekend we'll be spending moving some more of our junk and celebrating my friend Jen's 23rd birthday! I've been fortunate enough to be friends with Jen since we were in the 6th grade, and am s [View Full Entry]

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today i woke up, got some coffee then dropped off my bike at the shop next door, i rode a little too hard the day before and broke a spoke in my bike, boo. around noon i had to go and pick up my mom from the sea-tac airport and then we headed into the city. my mom really wanted to see beefy men throwing big fish around and i wanted to see some local music, so we headed to pikes place. we enjoyed some yummy and fresh fish and chips at the market, then shopped a little. the market is [View Full Entry]

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i left the aussies last night and drove to seattle to meet up with bridget for her birthday. we met up at a seedy bar called redwood in capitol hill, i felt right at home. this morning bridgey and i went on a bike ride to get coffee and breakfast. then ryan met up, we made some cookies and went on a ride around seattle. before we made it to golden gardens beach, bridge got a flat, luckily one of her friends rode by and patched her flat. we took some pictures and hung out on the beach for an hour [View Full Entry]

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And so begins my travel blog. I haven't left yet, but tonight, after Bumbershoot, is when I have to finally, completely begin to pack everything up and prepare to leave. I need you so much closer So come on, come on Death Cab was, as always, beautiful at Bumbershoot. Also lonely. Once again no one to make out with, eh? No one really at all this time after Nico had to go handle some drama. I feel like I need someone so much closer. Though I'm not sure who that should be at this point. What a silly--or, perhaps, perfect?--time to [View Full Entry]

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And the medal winners are: GOLD - Sony VAIO VGN-TZ340 (rosé) My best-ever impulse purchase, for an accidental reason. I had no idea how helpful the built-in webcam would be, but free ooVoo video calls home were a lifeline for LG and her parents and thereby also for me. Plus, the every-other-day video calls provided a neat justification for me to have the laptop and WLAN (wireless internet) in the first place. "This? Oh, this is for LG and her parents, you know. Me? Maybe just a little Facebook/Travelblog/Flickr/CNN between calls...." The built-in SD slot mad [View Full Entry]

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The Nintendo DS Lite appears to be the only one of my many rechargeable gadgets whose charger is NOT dual-voltage. This means a simple plug adapter won't cut it... a step-down transformer is necessary to prevent DS fryage. Step-down transformers are almost literally bricks to carry around. They suck. And for one appliance? Some posters in online fora say that buying the European adapter from Nintendo works absolutely fine for charging a US DS Lite, but Nintendo's support website actually says you'd be better off buying a whole 'nother DS Lite game console in Europe. I can [View Full Entry]

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