Back in Rochester!

Spent Friday and Saturday helping Connie (and myself) pack up. I got my first taste of driving in New York City when I picked up Connie's U-Haul truck. Turns out driving in the city wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but would prefer using the public transportation system over driving.

On Sunday morning we headed to Washington DC and got there around 13:30 to find out that the Apartment Management people were unprepared and by 16:00 they finally found Connie's storage room! Reineck came and helped us unpack the truck and Connie treated us to dinner for our help - ate at a nice Mexican place where they baked their own tortilla bread.

After figuring how to get back to Connie's place to get Reineck's car (we used the U-Haul to get to where we ate to drop it off, thinking we could figure how the bus system works), we dropped Connie off at the Metro station so she could meet up with her friends. After that Reineck took me over to his place for the night.

His home was nice - better looking than I thought it would be. Built no more than 5 years ago (to what I think) and has 3 1/2 washrooms! Very spacy home too! He's a lucky lad to have that castle in VA.

Anyways on Monday, after breakfast and chatting with the Reineck brothers, I got dropped off at the Union Station before rush hour so Reineck did not have to deal with that hassle. Relaxed at the Union Station, Connie stopped by for a quick late afternoon lunch with me. At 7, I boarded the bus enroute to NYC and got there early so had to kill 2.5 hours. At 1:00, I boarded the bus enroute to Rochester and used my laptop most of the time to work on my website designing so barely got any sleep.

FrecklesFly picked me up at 8:30 and we got settled in at her parents place before checking out an apartment that she saw on www.craigslist.org the apartment was very spacious and worth the monthly price so she took it.

We met up with Neable and Lore for lunch at Tandoor and caught up with each other. After that we went home and started to watch the Shaggy Dog movie and I zonked out within 15-25 minutes and slept until Wednesday morning.

Have to get adjusted to being further away from all the stores and relying on the automobile to get wherever we need to go.

Who shall pay?

Read this article at BBC and my first impression was Israel should be the one paying for the damage they inflicted on Lebanon! Now the international community is forking out donation money to rebuild infrastructures they already donated money to rebuild after the 1970 Middle-East war!

I sure hope the International Community does not donate too much money (which probably came from our taxes) and demands Israel take the majority of financial burden of rebuilding Lebanon after all Israel caused all the unnecessary destruction!

Service Centre Update:

Am truckin' USA towards Washington DC and stopped for gas in Delaware at a service centre.

And guess where it is located… in the median of the highway!

Anyways, back to driving towards Washington DC.

Last Day of Exploring New York City:

Lexington - random hallway

Connie's office entrance

Connie's Social Worker Desk

Unpacking
External view of Lexington
Another external view of Lexington

This tree looks like it is going to fall onto Lexington

The "entrance" view from the back of Bulova's Corporate Centre reminds me of Auschwitz

Possibly my last view of Times Square until next time I am in New York

Facts about the USS Intrepid

Eastward view on the deck of USS Intrepid

View of the Concorde

Starboard view 1 (photo sitch failed)

Starboard view 2 (photo sitch failed)

Starboard view 3 (photo sitch failed)
Starboard view 4 (photo sitch failed)

Port view 1 (photo sitch failed)

Port view 2 (photo sitch failed)



View of the deck from the commander deck

Inside the Concorde

Pliot space of the Concorde

Concorde close-up 1 (photo sitch failed)

Concorde close-up 1 (photo sitch failed)

Some trash from the destroyed World Trading Centre

View of downtown as gloomy clouds crept towards New York City

A day of Wandering...

Today I planned on going to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, but ended up deciding to go to the Bodies... The Exhibition instead. The exhibition was very interesting, a lot of visual details of dead people and their bodies. I think the most interesting thing I learned there was that bones are four times stronger than steel and if all the mineral was removed from the bone; you would be able to tie a knot with the bone. It took me approximately two hours to fully view the exhibition; I was a little disappointed because I was expecting more out of it since the fee was USD$24.50 (no discounts for Deaf people).

After the exhibition, I stopped by 111 Wall Street to have lunch with two former co-workers before heading to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Once I arrived, realized there was a long line-up and I wanted to get out of the museum by 16:30 so I felt it was not worth lining up to get in.
On the way home, I had the opportunity to witness a crime scene of New York City being investigated! I have no idea what happened there, but the dectives were taking notes around the scene, all I could see was this cart and nice looking car within the "crime scene" pertimeter.

Back home, I got ready to jog and jogged a good 3 or 3.5 miles before meeting up with Connie and Debra for our last dinner together. We went to Mama Mexico the food was very delicous, they made great homemade guacamole right at our table and the Cactus Pear margarita was perfect (for me, Debra and Connie's margarita orders got mixed up) too! After that went to one of Connie's friend's place for some ice cream.


Thanks to Connie for loaning her camera to me so I can do some last photo jouralism in New York City.

Cuba Information:

In my previous post there were some questions about Cuba that I did not have the answers.  Decided to gather information so the questions could be answered.

General facts on Cuba from BBC

Background on Cuba from CBC

Canada - Cuba Trade Relations from CBC

Possible Successors

Viva la Castro!

Clap if you Support Israel!

Clap if you support Israel's aggression against the third world people!

SUPPORT ISRAEL!

Do not forget who supplied these weapons too. ]:-)

Thank Goodness I did not go to the Clarke School for the Deaf!

Clip Made by Wayne Betts Jr.

Get Fit While Doing Laundry:

Days of McDonald Takeover?

The news of Raul Castro being handed the reins of Cuba has overcome the United States media today. Is the end of socialism in Cuba coming?

Raul Castro is known to be more laid back and capable to connect with the people than Fidel according to CNN. However when it comes to military control, he is a more hard liner than Fidel, the only con about Raul is that he is only five years younger than Fidel.

The Government of the United States probably has it eyes wide open, looking for an opportunity to instill turmoil in Cuba. Let's see how Raul Castro can withstand America's game plan.

I see several possible political strategies that Bush may consider.

Sceneario 1: Proceed with the "USD$80m Freedom Package", if his plan succeeds; I do not think democracy and capitalism will gain popularity immediately and those wealthy Cubans living in Florids may end up alienating the poor Cubans making them believe life was better under Castro. The problem would be that they would not really know how to fight against American Imperialism and eventually McDonald's would take control of Cuba.

Sceneario 2: Proceed with the "USD$80m Freedom Package" knowing it is already set for failure, only to make the Republic Party look like they were committed to freeing Cubans from socialism, but failed only to maintain an election advantage in Florida. This would ensure there is no takeover in Cuba by McDonald's.

With the future of Cuba uncertain, it is a good bet you should take the opportunity to visit Cuba as it is right now to enjoy a nice retreat before the first McDonalds begin popping up in Cuba.

Too many Americans have been brainwashed by the American Government and their wealthy Anti-Castro exiles living in Florida. They are just bitter with Castro because they lost their wealth when Castro did something to help the poor Cubans who suffered from the wealthy Americans and Cubans who exploited them.

Yoy may ask "Why do Cubans try to flee Cuba?". There are many reasons, but I think the main reason why they do this is because of America's embargo against Cuba - creating unnecessary economic hardship (it was designed to create an uprising against Castro, but backfired by encouraging Cubans to migrate to Florida).

FrecklesFly - if we do not have enough money to go to Madrid in 2oo7, let's go to Cuba instead (approx CAD$500 for 2 weeks, all inclusive during the summer). (: