The Shooting of George Bush Senior
Thursday evening marks the visit of George Bush Senior to Butler - the actual time he will make his 40 minute speech is unknown. They will be closing off the area out the front of my house from tomorrow. I have been tentatively placed on the production crew to shoot the event but the head guy said there is no garuntees until Secret Service give permission me to take part. He has sent my information to them and I guess they're checking things out. If they phone you, just tell them I'm a good guy!
In March, I will be hosting an evening entitled, "Aussie Night....Mate!". It will consist of a 20 presentation followed by tasting of Vegemite and hopefully a handball competition and will conclude with the screening of an Aussie film (which was my original reason for having the evening). The movie I will be showing is 'Chopper'. The event will be taped so I'll put it up on the web so you can learn more about Australia, or more likely, pick at all the false impressions and statistics I present.
We're very excited - it's going to be 18C tomorrow (65F)!
Only in America
I went out for dinner tonight at AppleBee's. It's your typical American Grill & Bar. It was 6pm, quite busy. I see there's this African-American family at the table beside us. Nice looking folk; Mum, Dad, Junior. I guess he was around 18 years old, nicely dressed. But as I'm watching him get out of his chair I notice he's sporting a handgun which was sitting in its holster attached to his denim jeans. What?!? I ask my American friends. I'm told that it's legal. They thought that maybe the law called for them to be concealed but then decided you can probably have it sitting in a holster. Its weird, he wasn't a farmer, he wasn't a gang member, but he did like to pack heat. I felt under-dressed for the rest of the evening.
More Stuff
It appears 'Smoov Goes to College' has begun to act as a forum for environmental discussion and the traversties of certain Fortune 500 companies (see 'comments' attached to post entitled 'Going Green'). It started when I suggested that Ford were making progress with energy conservation. I guess these concerned posters have a point. I totally agree. I was just trying to be a little positive. But yeah, they're right, the planets getting flushed down the loo.
While I'm on such subject matter I hear that a population milestone was set today at 7:16 pm (Indy time). The population here on earth hit 6.5 billion people.
While I am on such subject matter (actually, I think I'm off the subject now). I saw Saturn the other night. Through a telescope at the observatory. Saw its rings and all. Nice looking. Pretty.
I also saw 4 states in a one week period: Indy, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan. They all kinda look the same. In two weeks I will see another three.
Chicago Video
The URL address
http://savefile.com/files/8967851 is where my video of Chicago is. It is reasonably large (close to 28MB - too big to send through email). The link goes to a page where you will see 'Chicago' which you can download by clicking on the orange 'DOWNLOAD' tab.
Going Green
The story of Henry Ford, 'the father of the industrial age' is quite an amazing story. It is also pleasing to see that Ford are going green with porous paving that filters water through retention beds to help manage storm water runoff. As well, the company was in the Guiness Book of Records for the largest ecologically inspired living roof - 10 ares of sedum grows on the factory roof which also helps to prevent storm water runoff, while improving air quality and insulating the building. Other technology includes paint fumes to power fuel cells which produces electricity. For a dirty industry they are making some advances.
Where the weak and killed and eaten!
What else would one expect from Detroit? This photo was taken at the Ford assembly plant. It included a tour of the assembly floor where we saw F150s being built. Well actually, it was Saturday and production had stopped. It was amazing seeing all the pick-ups sitting on conveyor belts waiting to continue rolling down the production line when workers resume. This assembly station spits out close to 1000 trucks over 2 x 8 hour shifts.
On Ice...
To celebrate the Winter Ganes, we went skating Sunday and I was proud of "my skills". Only fell once and showed the German how it's done!
The Magnificent Mile
After dinner, and before returning to the south of Chicago on the train, we walked along Michigan Avenue, 'The Magnificent Mile', which had an amazing Apple Store. Above we are messing with one of the displays.
Michigan Avenue
A great looking place with plenty of goings-ons...
Sears Tower
Visability on the 103rd story ranged between 0 and about half a mile. Ah, it's Goooood!
Downtown!
Chicago is a beautiful city and was fun wandering around on Saturday in sub-zero temperatures. We had lunch at a famous Chicago eatery that is closing in two weeks after 80 odd years of service. The line to get in went around the block.
Chicago
A good friend of the international students, John, took some of us to go see his hometown. When we arrived Friday night we visited John's uncle Konnie who showed us his private museum of cars. The car above is one of only 6 ever made, but only 1 of about 30 in the shed. If you were wondering, he runs a funeral home!
Hairies!
Michel and I went to his hairdressing salon tonight. Michel had his haircut by someone who speaks english well. My hairdresser has just arrived in America from Mexico. Thus, I was unable to communicate with her. But here we are back at the house with our Mexican Dark Ales
For the Boys!
American car companies are returning to producing the muscle cars of the the 60s and 70s. Wow! I think I'm in love. Above are the Dodge Challenger, Chevy Comaro and Ford Mustang. I knew there was a reason why I have started taking a fancy for Camaros recently.
That's what you want...
Just my latest update that I guess you will be expecting.
Correction
It has been brought to my attention (by several of you) that the other night I was actually talking to Jared, not Darren. While I didn't mean to make the error, it created more 'comments' than I what I had received for the rest of my blog. Oh, how quick people are to correct! Interestingly enough, the post that has brought in the second most comments is the one picturing my sister. So basically you are more interested in fat people and fat faces that what I'm up too - I'll keep it in mind!
Stream the Dawgs!
Well it seems I may be good luck for Butler Men's basketball as they haven't lost a game since I've been here and are now on their greatest winning steak since the lead up to the Sweet 16 two years ago . I wanted to give you the link,
http://allaccess.cstv.com/media/school_epg.jsp?sid=350&ts=0&ngSportId=all&ngDates=all&gState=1&gDates
=all&gSportId=all&gMediaType=all where you can stream the most recent game. It certainly wont capture great interest, mainly due to the fact that it will probably keep 'buffering' unless you have a fast connection. But if you do decide to take a quick look, towards the top of the list you will see the 02/08/2006 Men's Basketball vs. Cleveland State game. Beside this game, you will see the Media Links where you can click on 'BUT' beside the video icon. This will open up a new window for streaming. My camera (and myself) are to the the left of screen at the base line. Sometimes you can see me standing there when they go to camera 2 which is the wide shot of the game. To identify my camera work, it will be when the white shirts (Butler) sub off, the Butler huddle at time-outs, Butler possessions (in the second half) and bits here and there. As I would guess, those who do care to stream the game will only spend a few minutes doing so, so I suggest you might look for me from camera 2's view when Butler's players are being called out by the announcer before the start of the game. And perhaps take a look at my last shot, which is the final shot of the broadcast (that way it is easy to find).
Cheers!
Finally
After efforts to capture our clan, including Vladamir from the Ukraine and Eduardo from Peru, we came across a lovely African-American girl who was walking away from her boyfriend sitting in his Hummer with his clan of friends. We rendered her services and got our shot. Unfortunately, when we got back to the car we realised that we had lost our pizza girls in the excitement of Darren!
Out on the Street
The guys and I considered how cool it would have been to go to Subway with Darren. As we were discussing this in the snow, we all of a sudden came upon a Subway. Disorderly, we tried to get a photo of us infront of the Subway. By this time I had informed Amaury about Darren and the Subway affiliation, and he shared in my delight! The photos did not come out well.
Amaury Takes Centre Stage!
Amaury has now taken prime position. Still unaware of what's going on but in for the ride anyway! (Notice how Darren is confiding in me about his weight loss. I told him I fully understand!) I was just trying to get some of them vouchers for me free 6 incher!
Amaury Works the Ranks
Amaury is now in and we're one happy bunch! You can see that Darren and I have really got something going now. I didn't realise till later that Amaury still didn't know who we were dealing with!
Amaury's In!
Quickly Amaury realises there's some action. Of course, Frenchy doesn't realise who I'm dealing with but he's in for a good time anyway...
Strikking a Chord...
Yes, Darren and I were really able to relate to one another...
Workin' It
But eventually I was able ot have some words to Darren. I think he understood the stories I shared with him about my own weight battles
The Dance Floor
So Amaury and I were on the dance floor and getting our last kicks before 3 o'clock closing time. We met two lovely girls and were invited along to some pizza eating at a place just off the Ripple. On the way out of the club, one of the girls asked me if I had noticed Darren from Subway tonight. Instantly, I knew! This was the guy who said hello to me at the bar. So I raced for Darren. Initially he was hard to get a hold of.
An Unlikely Encounter
I went out to Broad Ripple tonight. I was ordering my last drink and a guy at the bar said 'hello' to me just as I was receiving my drinks. I politley said 'hello' but didn't take much notice. However, he did seem familiar. So I got my Buds and took them back to Amaury. Here is a picture of us above.
Flemma
The worst thing about being O.S. is that you miss your family, like my sister. She is very special!
No Title
In the media depatment's broadcast truck. After the game tonight, they put up a big screen on the court to show the new ESPN doco about Hinkle Fieldhouse. It was nice to watch it in the place it was shot. Built in the middle of corn paddocks in 1927, it was once the second largest stadium in the world (after Madison Square Garden). Today it is heritage listed and considered the catherdral of Indiana basketball. Sunday's game will be a throwback to the old days with teams wearing retro uniforms.
Ruff!
Butler mascot, Blue. A piece of muscle diguising itself as a dog. Here we are after the Bulldog's over-time win.
The Over-sized Rodent
Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow at Groundhog Day this morning, which means we have six more weeks of winter. Go Phil!
But it's a 'mild' winter. January this year was the warmest since the state began keeping records 111 years ago.
Choo-Choo
About to go to the post office in Michel's Choo-Choo Custom... or as I like to call it, the Cosby Wagon!
Kareem
Here's a couple of guys from my basketball team: Sami and JaJa, and the big guy on the right , Robby, plays defence for the school's gridiron team. We're ready to go into the arena and turn our $10 seats into 'Corporate Gold'.
That Laker team is not the same team it was 2 years ago and Kobe had an off night. But I was reminded of the Lakers of old when I spotted Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the bench. Below is an example of how crap my camera is with an attempt to snap him as he walked by. The other is an example of a 3x zoom. Not good for sports, but you get the drift.
Thursday evening marks the visit of George Bush Senior to Butler - the actual time he will make his 40 minute speech is unknown. They will be closing off the area out the front of my house from tomorrow. I have been tentatively placed on the production crew to shoot the event but the head guy said there is no garuntees until Secret Service give permission me to take part. He has sent my information to them and I guess they're checking things out. If they phone you, just tell them I'm a good guy! 
