Another Turn on the Dial

Day 1

2010-03-01T23:07:00.001-08:00

Day 1 is upon us! So far there is nothing that exciting to report other than I have decided to go with the suggestion of Dustin Feldt and grow the "Pedostache." Uncle Justin will be well on his way to looking like that relative you see at family reunions but don't want to interact with. Its a slow but steady start this year, within the past 24 hours I have begun the onset of...
DIRT STACHE! The first sign of a stache is the disgusting appearance of what COULD be a bad lighting shadow. Hopefully by tomorrow it will be full blown middle school status. I will say that after all these years of beard growing it feels really weird to shave again. Tomorrow we will talk about the Great Mustache War of 88' also known as Fingers vs. Gibson.

Beardmas isn't back...its just Mustache March

2010-02-28T20:26:00.001-08:00

Let the madness begin. 31 days of pure stache. Time to find mustache greats...

This one is for Nikki...

2009-12-06T20:54:00.000-08:00

This is what my beard looks like after 66 days of Beardmas. Shazam!

-JC

Oh the times, they are a changin'...

2009-10-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

It's a trap!

Another One Bites the Dust

2009-02-20T17:34:00.000-08:00

So after the fall of Indie 103.1 last month, another major station in the Greater LA Area has fallen. Today at 5 o'clock 97.1 Free FM changed formats from being the only FM talk station in Los Angeles, to being one of a plethora of Top 40 stations within the 2nd largest radio market in the US. I had been encouraged to listen to it many times before but hadn't until today. It was a refreshing change from the talk radio I am used to in the AM spectrum. There were a couple different hints dropped today on air as to why things fell apart at KLSX, but I think it could be another victim of the new PPM's distributed by Aribitron. But who knows, with Neilsen talking about getting back into the radio ratings and restoring the old diary system, maybe the return of FM talk radio in the LA market won't be so far away after all. The real interesting part though was how all of the DJ's interacted. I listened roughly from 7AM to 5PM with a large break between 1 and 445. In that time I listened through Adam Corolla, Frosty Heidi and Frank, Danny Bonuduci and Tom Leykis. Adam was a good listen, having long time friend Jimmy Kimmel call in and thank Jimmy for getting him started in the business. Frosty and the gang all talked about how this is just a hiatus. Danny stated that he bought a house in Philly so he can broadcast from a new station. Tom thanked his crew for the great run they had and said that his name would be somewhere in the news in the future. Regardless of what they said it was incredibly refreshing compared to the diatrabe that was relayed to me by the my fellow students who were interns at the station. Their story was one of how evil CBS was and how it was ruining LA's talk radio etc. etc. I guess its what those students still have to learn, that no matter what reformatting, you continue forward with your passion for radio and continue to look for that new place to call your home. Its a never ending journey.

If you couldn't tune in this last week to Globetrotter, it was a pretty good time. I got a lot of good airchecks out of it and hopefully with the last few runs of Globetrotter in weeks past, I will be able to make a good audition tape in the near future. Here is the playlist for this last week.

Globetrotter (World) with DJ Ustin 02.19.2009 03:00PM to 04:00PM

03:07PM Azzido Da Bass Featuring Johnny Blake “Lonely By Your Side (Featuring Jonny Blake) [Radio Cut]” from Lonely By Your Side The Best Mixes (MP3, Single, Rock, 2006) on Luscious Sounds

03:10PM Thievery Corporation “El Pueblo Unido” from Radio Retaliation (CD, Album, World, 2008) on ESL Music Inc.

03:14PM Bajofondo “Pulmón” from Mar Dulce (CD, Album, World, 2008) on Surco Records J.V.

03:16PM The Reg Project “Chill'In Sunset” from The Desert Lounge Volume Two (2008) on EMI Music Arabia

03:23PM HaDag Nachash “HaPeh HaPatuach” from Chomer M'komi (CD, Album, Hip Hop, 2004) on Levantini

03:27PM Raashan Ahmad “Weight” from The Push (2008) on Om Records

03:32PM Edo Maajka “Prikaze” from Croatian Hip-Hop Vol. 1 (CD, Comp, Hip Hop, 2008) on Menart

03:38PM Polka Dot Dot Dot “Little Finger” from Love Letter to New Zealand (CD, Album, Indie, 2009) on Bicycle Records

03:42PM Margot & the Nuclear So and So's “Broadripple Is Burning” from The Daytrotter Sessions (CD, EP, Rock, 2008) on Sony BMG

03:47PM Shugo Tokumaru “Parachute” from Exit (CD, Album, Indie, 2008) on Blues Interactions

03:52PM Two Guns “Locomotives” from Two Guns (MP3, Album, Rock, 2009) on TWO GUNS

On the television side of things over at LBCC, I got a chance to work the video switcher as Tech Director Thursday night and then after that got to run the show as director. It felt pretty smooth and hopefully in the upcoming weeks I'll get some more shots at directing and working some more of the control room equiptment. As for now, I have to edit some things for KLBC. Make sure you stay tuned in to KLBC throughout the week, as one listener said, "I don't know who is responsible for the files on our automation, but it f***ing rocks! It's way cool! I love it. It's never sounded better." Until then.

- Justin

Day 55

2008-12-25T21:57:00.000-08:00

So here we are, at the final day of Beardmas. Its been a fun ride with all of you. I thank you, to all the readers out there, you're encouragement and input along the way helped this come about. It was enjoyable. I hope to make Beardmas a bigger deal next year and maybe we can all get something going. As for the future of this blog, it will probably go towards keeping you up to speed on what is going on at KLBC.org with Globetrotter and the DJ Ustin Power Hour. So keep coming back and taking looks, who knows something interesting could be up. I shaved the beard this morning as per my grandmothers Christmas wish. It's weird to feel the wind on my face again, but I know this will make a lot of the ladies in my life happy. So as I said before, thank you all and make sure you stay tuned, who knows I just might end up going 100 Dollars for 100 Days, and then we will have so much more beard to watch grow and learn about. Have a wonderful New Year, and as many wrote in my middle school yearbooks, "Have a bad azz summer, you're the bomb don't ever change K.I.T."

Immediately after shaving the beard. I look like a child.

A Bag of Beard, a lucky Christmas gift for one little child today.

Day 54

2008-12-24T15:43:00.000-08:00

So as we come together this December 24th we are reminded by all the hustle and bustle that Beardmas approaches tomorrow morning, where we celebrate the beloved beard and its place is global society. But I am sure you are all wondering how we got to this beloved world holiday. It took us a long time. It started off as Judeo Christian but soon similarities were seen throughout all world beliefs and it was clear that there had to be some bearded God up there looking down on us all and giving us the gift of Beard. Seeing as this is the day before the great shave of the 25th I have uploaded a few pictures of all angles of my beard and have brushed it out. I will take pictures like this again tomorrow morning before I set off to the razor. But for now, a history lesson.

As we go back through all the great religions and empires of the world we find beards throughout. Beards representing widsom, age, power and strength. In a sense it is out of the Judeo Christian history that we have Beardmas itself, the assurance of God to give the Israelites a bearded savior and we celebrate his birth today. But even before Old Testament there were stories of gods with beards who took care of their peoples, we will look at the east, the ancient and finally the western, in this 2nd to last post I will enlighten you with the story of Beardmas.

Long ago there was a god and it was the beginning, he was sitting around looking at himself in the mirror but realised that something was not good. He looked closer as he ran his hand across his smooth face and head and realised that he needed something more to do up his look. He put hair on his head and was very pleased, then he got the idea to adorn his whole body in hair, he gave himself even longer hair on the face and was very well pleased. Being so pleased he created a world where he would make four legged creatures covered in hair and seeing as it was not good enough to be his own it would be deemed fur. He reserved the fur for only the cutest of animals such as bunnys, bears, koalas and puppies. Yet he looked down at his creation and wasn't quite pleased he needed something more, something more in his image. He decided to create man. Now with man he gave the ability to grow all the hair that he had put on his own body, yet he made it so that he would only be matured and a man when all his hair had grown out. Man walked around hanging with the bears and bunnies and puppies but wanted more men, or more of something. God decided to create a woman and for the occasional woman he granted the ultimate beauty of being able to grow a beard herself. He said that they could have everything they wanted as so long as they didn't go near the tree of razors. He said that it would be foolish and that they would be punished severely. One day while walking through the garden picking various items from the tress of shampoo, moustache scissors, combs and conditioner, the woman passed the tree of razors. "Come closer!" a voice said from the tree. From the tree slithered out the snake Bic. When God created the garden he made this tree (The Tree of Razors) and made his most hated animal the snake, an animal that could never grow hair and rather was plagued by having smooth scales all over its body. It would never be able to grow the hair that was to represent, wisdom, age, beauty and strength. "What is that all over your legs and face?" The snake asked the woman. "It's hair, God has given it to me to keep my body warm and to show certain traits he has deemed desired" replied the woman. "Come touch my skin" said the snake. The woman went over and stroked the back of the snake, "It is so soft, so smooth to my touch." She smiled, she liked what she felt. "Did you know that you too can have this softness?" responded Bic the snake. "Simply pick a razor from the tree and drag it along your skin." The woman picked a Bic razor from the tree and drug it along her chin, legs and armpits. Afterword she asked, "Why does my sking slightly burn?" "It is razor burn" responded the snake. "It is a small side effect but it will go away soon, hurry take a razor to your Man friend, have him shave his face, it will be smooth to the touch, your lips will be able to feel his cheeks when you two kiss and you will be happy." She did as Bic told her and ran off.

The next day while strolling through this creation, God was on his way to the Man and Womans house to catch up and see how they had been. When he got close to the door though he noticed a sheep over in the corner of their lawn. It had been completely sheerd, void of all the hair and wool that covered its body. "WHAT HAVE THEY DONE WITH YOU!?" he cried. As he kicked in the door to their house he saw them there, the woman sitting with clean shaved legs, "WHERE IS HE!?" She timidly pointed to the bathroom. God kicked down that door as well inside the bathroom Man stood there with a shaved chest, face and was fast at work...well "Manscaping" as they call it. God was so furious with the people he destroyed all civilization that he had created and banished them from his beloved garden.

Years later...

Our story now takes a turn to Southern Asia or as it is now called India. Throughout India people were going about their buisness growing long beards and hair and all together loving life. Yet God had left Earth, he had become far too disappointed with what people had done with their body hair and decided that he would come back later on. With no direct contact with god, the people of Southern Asia relied on their religion of Hinduism to explain where their beards had come from and what they meant. Their beliefs centered around their trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Brahma of which they gave and epic beard, a beard so epic he had to have 4 heads, to house his beard on 4 different faces.

This is a car ornament with the image of Brahma on it, Brahma continues to inspire the world today, through the many Hindus that still practice and the millions of Brazillians that continue to get wasted at the beach drinking Brahma beer.

A favorite of Brazillians one and all.

Now one of the more famous stories from Hinduism is the Ramayana in which Rama travels afar to fight Ravana for his wife Sita. Rama heard one day of a challege that Sita was having that any man who could string Shiva's bow could take her hand in marriage. Rama decided to go out and try the challenge. Men from near and far came to try but no one could string the bow of Shiva. However when Rama came up he not only strung the bow but broke it in half while pulling it back to show how increidbly ripped his lats were. When Sita saw those lats she knew she had to have them. They were married, but upon Rama's arrival back home he was banished from his homeland by his evil step mother. While in exile Sita was stolen by Ravana. Now Ravana, not only is clearly evil from this action, but also had the evil moustache. One of our most despised enemies in the Holy Church of Beard. Not only did have have the satche though, somewhere along the way he picked up the 10x multiplier.

Thats right, this guy had 10 of those nasty staches, one each one of his 10 heads. So replused at the sight of so many staches, Rama immediately started firing off all kinds of arrows into the heads of Ravana, yet to his dispair everytime he shot a head off, another would grow back in its place. Getting the hint that there was TOO much evil in those staches and that they were so powerful that they could reproduce heads, he decided to go for the money shot. An arrow straight to the heart put him down and Sita was saved by her love Rama. (Years and years later Bon Jovi would resound with Ravana's final words in his address to Sita. It goes as follows: Shot to the heart, and your to blame, darling you give love a bad name.) Though Rama himself did not wear a beard, he had Brahma on his side. An assuring sign that Gods return could be imminent.

At the same time there were two peoples coming to their golden age. The Egyptians were hard at work, building the pyramids and enslaving the jews. The Jews on the other hand were hard at work building the pyramids and waiting for a sign, a sign that God would give them a bearded savior. Now the Egyptians were all about their bearded gods, but not only were they bearded they were half man half animal such as Osiris and The Sphinx.

So maybe Osiris isn't so much of a half man half animal, unless he is part ooze monster or something, look at that disgusting green skin.
Now the Sphinx is more like it, there is a half man half animal if I have ever seen it. Too bad some beard fearers at some point in time knocked the beard clean off this masterpiece.

Now as you see in the back ground, the pyramids, something the Jews were hard at work under some heavy slave drivers, the Egyptians. So the Egyptians are hanging back praising Rah and Osiris when all the sudden the Pharaoh gets the great idea to go ahead and kill all the baby Jews. Enter Moses, this little Admiral got himself a basket made of reeds and sails straight to the source itself, the princess. He is made some kind of kingdom official and goes about being pretty sweet, but one day he is out and about in the wilderness and the bush straight bursts into flames. Guess who's back, thats right its God and he wants Moses not only to grow a sweet beard but to get his people out of Egypt so that they can have the pleasure of wandering the desert for 40 years and being eaten by asps. This of course is only because they decide not to listen to anything Moses tells them to do. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Before all of the wandering God had a choice to make, he ordered Moses to grow a beard and then go talk to the pharaoh about letting his people go. Moses had no clue how he could grow a sweet beard in so little time but some how he came out like this.When God got around to looking for Moses again, he saw this beard and he was very well pleased, it reminded himself of him in his younger days, back when he made that garden for man and woman to grow their beards in. He then deemed the Jews the people of God, had their leader not been able to out grow the pharaoh, who knows what history would have looked like. To punish the Pharaoh for his wussy little gotee, God laid the smackdown, including turning all their water to blood, locusts, darkness and finally death to all firstborns of houses that didn't have beard hair glued above their doorways. The Egyptians didn't make it, before you knew it the Jews were out of there and in the desert. After Moses died there were many prophets, all of which had beards, people like Isaiah and Ezekiel...

Isaiah

His inverse Ezekiel.

Yet and by far the sweetest prophet of them all was Elijah. He was awesome for a couple of reasons, first off he was totally shaggy and just rugged, out in the desert surviving like Bear Grylls at a Boy Scout Camp, AKA easily. But when he grew his beard, it was so incredible and so in the image of God, God himself had to give Elijah a free pass, he dropped the giant golden staircase down and let him walk into heaven. Just like that.Clearly there is no question why. But Elijah told of a day, where the people would be redeemed for their razor using ways. There would be another, a savior of sorts, and he would make it so that all men could be seen as beard wearers in the eye of God.

Thats right guys, its Jesus, in the flesh himself, go ahead and see for yourself. Jesus born December 25th, was the one that Elijah had promised us all. He was born of the Bearded Virgin Mary in a little cave dwelling kind of thing because the local Econo Lodge, Super 8 AND KOA Campgrounds were all booked up with Christmas reservations. He was born with a full beard and was deemed the promised one by 3 kings with beards from the east, a whole flock of bearded shepheards with tons of sheeps covered in wool, some other furry creatures milling about and don't forget his bearded mamasan who just birthed that Holiest of Holys. He was the promised one, he got 12 disciples, all of whom decided to grow beards in honor of him. He went around Jerusalem doing miracles and healings, but this was the time of the Roman Empire and Romans didn't take well to someone out bearding the likes of Jupiter and Mars. So they held a trial in which he was sentenced to shave, he refused and was then sentenced to be crucified. After he was taken down from the cross the Romans shaved him and laid him in a tomb, but low and behold.
Much like before when God had booted down the Man's door in the garden, Jesus deliverd a massive roundhouse and in all his glory kicked out the door of his tomb and blasted the Roman guards on their asses. When he stepped out they were dumb founded not at the fact that he was dead in that tomb earlier in the weekend, but rather that he had his beard, and it was in full force, with such a glow that it blinded them. Jesus stuck around for a little while after that, doing a few miracles and making sure things were set up so that all would not be judged by what the grew on their face. Now this is the story of Beardmas, the promised Beard coming down and freeing those who cannot grow so that they don't get slammed down to an eternity of snake skin smooth cheeks. But after a while on Earth, Elijah wanted to have a sweet beard party up in the stratosphere so Jesus had to bounce, but he left us a good ole' friend to watch over us.

Santa

Now the more religious, such as Greek Orthodox Priests, Orothdox Jews, Muslims, and Sheikh's will tell you that Beardmas revolves around the creation of the beard yadda yadda Elijah....Savior saves bears blah blah. But lets be honest, the true story of Beardmas revolves around one thing, men like us Beardateers, getting old, putting on fat man suits, going out, breaking into houses and eating cookies. What more could a man want. Jesus left Santa as an example to all, as to what we should do with our retirement. Sure we could spend it at Pebble Beach playing golf, or flying helicopters, but who doesn't love an old man with a beard. Whether he is drinking a beer on his porch and bitching about the neighbor kids, hunting yetis in the Himalayas, enjoying the bearded benefits of pirating or being viking. A beard is a good look and what better look than being on a jolly fat old man. Let Santa be a inspiration to us all and let the spirit of Beardmas live in you this year. Grow a beard, eat some cookies and cruise in a sled. Ain't nothing better. Happy Beardmas to you one and all.

Day 53

2008-12-24T06:32:00.000-08:00

First let me apologize for this late entry, picture taken yesterday, but this illness has put me down like a pound puppy who has been in his cage too long. Luckily for me since I awoke this morning I have been feeling much better. But with this entry being for the 53 Day of Beardmas we need to talk about something very very important the phenomenon of the "Bearded Lady". Now we can't all grow beards, some of our aspiring beardateers throughout the course of this blog and have learned such. But sometimes, when children are born during a werewolf heavy full moon, a woman can come across with the curse. Bearded ladies have been around since the beginning of time, but more recently were discovered in the United States via "Freak Shows' in which often times the bearded ladies themselves would in fact be fake. But there are some true ladies of the beard,Such as bearded lady Madame Olga. Born Jane Barnell in North Carolina in 1871, she was born to probably some of the most ethnically hairy people. A Russian/Jewish father and an Irish/Indian mother. When she came out of the womb she already had a 5 o'clock shadow and by the age of two a full on beard. Now fearing that she would be too powerful to take care of because of her awesome length (she put the other little boys on the playground to shame with her epic chin curtain) her mother gave her away to a traveling freakshow at the age of 4. The circus took her back to Europe to travel but she became sick with Typhoid, expecting her to die the circus left her in the cold somewhere in Europe. Yet she curled up in her beard and kept warm, surviving and making it back to the good ole USA. She is probably best known for starring in the 1932 film Freaks. In her words though the film was, "an insult to all freaks everywhere." Over the times though there have not only been true blue bearded ladies but also men who have appeared as them and people who have gone through sex changed to get that coveted and in season bearded lady look.

Jennifer Miller (Real Bearded Lady) in a sparkly purple dress, a beautiful dress for all ladies of all facial hair lengths.

Delina Rossa (Real Bearded Lady), bearded lady from France. She's giving Lincoln a run for his money with this beard, she could keep it a less hobo shag though.

Madame Clofullia (Real Bearded Lady), looking like a sultan with that sweet sweet beard.

Which of course brings us to the fakes, I found a few pictures of fakes but this one takes the cake. Mr. T in the Freaks remake as the bearded lady. Usually I'm a fan of Mr. T but Mr. T in a goofy ass pink sweater like that is a no go. Simply put: Deal Breaker. That thing has to be like an XXL the man has biceps like tree trunks. He isn't even wearing his chains or his indian feather earrings. For Shame. Post for this Beardmas Eve, later today. Until then.

Day 52

2008-12-22T22:38:00.000-08:00

Beards are no remedy for the sick.

Day 51

2008-12-21T20:18:00.000-08:00

So begins the final four days, its kind of sad, I'm going to be missing this beard, i've grown so accustomed to it. But this doesn't meant I can't start getting recruits for the next Beardmas, and I'm recruiting them young.This little guy is Charlie, he is an aspiring Beard-A-Teer. We decided to hit up the local In & Out to discuss the finer points of beard growing. Though he has a long time to go before he sprouts his first whiskers, he was very interested in the techniques I used to grow and document my own beard. Other big topics of conversation included the his food, the firetruck that drove by, what color my car is and a detailed break down on the song Wheels on the Bus. Clearly his favorite verse when the horn goes beep beep beep! Also he was very concerned about the pigeon walking around our table. But most of all he was incredibly concerened about when he can start growing his own beard.

Day 50

2008-12-20T23:01:00.000-08:00

Saw the final production of the Long Beach Shakespeare Company's Sir Gawain the Green Knight. It was most spectacular and very funny. One of the lines in the play dealt with calling the audience a bunch of beardless children to which one of the actors smirked when he saw that clearly I was not beardless, let alone a child. Sadly though I must say T-minus 5 days till shave.

Day 49

2008-12-20T00:18:00.000-08:00

Here is another beard in a suit pic, from another Christmas Party I had tonight. Worked an 11 hour day, I can't feel my arms.

Day 48

2008-12-18T20:31:00.000-08:00

No bearded ladies tonight, the wait continues...

Day 47

2008-12-17T21:31:00.001-08:00

So it was brought to my attention today, I have not covered bearded ladies in the time that I have been doing this blog. Expect many bearded ladies in the days to come.

Day 46

2008-12-16T20:40:00.001-08:00

Watching a very creepy documentary on Ted Bundy, my input: Don't watch it, dude was creepy.

Day 45

2008-12-15T20:22:00.000-08:00

Spending the night in tonight, its been a cold wet one today, so I'm sitting in watching the Kings in my old man sweater. Go Kings Go! 10 days of Beardmas to go.

Day 44

2008-12-14T17:15:00.000-08:00

Spent the day as crew chief helping my Dad strip his CBR600RR down to get it ready for race day in March. Last nights party was spectacular and I ran into these two beard blog readers.These are two beard blog readers, the one on the left is Roland and on the right, Nick. We all had a good time, a stately time indeed. Until tomorrow kids.

Day 43

2008-12-13T17:26:00.001-08:00

Expect suited beard pictures in the future.

Day 42

2008-12-12T16:59:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe it is already day 42, only 13 days left in Beardmas. Hopefully you have all been growing your Beardmas presents for your families.

Day 41

2008-12-12T06:20:00.000-08:00

In my haste of falling asleep last night I forgot to post this picture, I might as well show it now. Here is my beard picture from Day 41.

Day 40

2008-12-10T15:00:00.000-08:00

Two final exams down, one to go. I'm feeling pretty good about how I did with them. Today was also the last Globetrotter of 2008, it went very well, this show has really been a learning experience and I look forward to continuing into the next year. I will enjoy watching it grow. Here is the beard, we are coming into the home stretch of the 55 days of Beardmas, only 15 to go, its been a good run with this beard.

Day 39

2008-12-09T21:02:00.000-08:00

DJ Ustin Power Hour has been amazing tonight, an incredible sendoff for the year 2008. We will see you back at KLBC.org next February. Listeners take care of yourselves and have a wonderful winter holiday.

Day 38

2008-12-08T20:34:00.001-08:00

The Carolina Panthers are putting together one hell of a running game tonight. Finals start this week for me on Wednesday, time to start studying. My beard is looking QUITE red. I guess I can't hide either, I'm wearing the same shirt I did yesterday.

Day 37

2008-12-07T21:11:00.000-08:00

I was haunted last night by an awful dream that in my sleep I had shaved my beard. Luckily when I awoke my beard was still there. Slowly this Beardmas blog is driving me mad.

Day 36

2008-12-06T19:02:00.000-08:00

Rode the RV Challenger today and caught some pretty cool fish. California Halibut, Shovelnose Guitarfish and a Shiner Surf Perch, to name a few. Also saw more Western Grebe's that I would ever want and some baller Surf Scoters.

Day 35

2008-12-05T17:48:00.000-08:00

Be sure to check out KLBC.org, tonight from 9-10 PM (PST) for the DJ Ustin Power Hour, broadcasting live from the LA Convention Center at the Ski Dazzle Skiing and Snowboarding convention.

Day 34

2008-12-05T07:26:00.001-08:00

In the haste of my day yesterday, I took this picture but forgot to post it, I have info on Ski Dazzle today, which KLBC will be broadcasting from. More in a post a little later.

Day 33

2008-12-03T12:48:00.000-08:00

Today is a not only a sad day for beards, but at the same time, a very proud day for beards. Today President Elect Barack Obama came before the press in another conference to name New Mexico Governer Bill Richardson his selection for Secretary of Commerce, thankfully ending the mustaches reign on the Department of Commerce. However a beard will not be replacing it. Governer Richardson showed up to the press conference looking like this.

America looked on dissapointed as Governer Richardson showed up with a shave, it was so heart wrenching that even the press had to ask what had happened to Bill's glorious beard.

Clearly America has been shocked today, Bill had been going strong for 299 days before shaving, a modern day record for an American politician sporting a beard. To get a real gauge of how America reacted though, watch the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the lower right hand corner of the video. The minute the beard comes into play the DJI drops from 88 points up to 80 points up and until President Elect Obama expresses his and the American peoples disappointment, it doesn't recover even half of that drop. People have been asking what can we expect of an Obama presidency? I think it is clear, that we can expect much more beard support, and maybe if we are lucky God will bless America with another bearded president.

R.I.P Bills Beard

Day 32

2008-12-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

DJ Ustin Power Hour on KLBC.org. That is all.

Day 31

2008-12-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

To the one who created the chocolate advent calenders. You have made my December, just that much more delicious. We should have these every month.

Day 30

2008-11-30T23:16:00.001-08:00

I think I just drove home in the lowest visibility ever. Wonderful day and night today. Eat at the Potholder. Coming off my Observatory high I broke out the ole' reflecting telescope and scoped out the moon, Jupiter and Venus. It's an old telescope but I was able to catch a few glimpses of what I thought looked like one of Jupiters moon. Check out the southern sky tomorrow to get a good look, they are going to be lined up and not again like this until 2025. Until then.

- Justin

Day 29

2008-11-29T17:40:00.001-08:00

This is the face of a man who got to look at the Sun today through a telescope. Very exciting day, went up to Griffith Park and decided to check out the observatory. It re-opened since I had been there as a child, and it made me really want to go up there on nights and check out some planets. Its where I first saw Neptune and first saw Saturn. (Now my two favorite planets and Roman Gods). Speaking of Gods though, we of course drove up the 5 North from beautiful Long Beach, California through the Warehouse Wasteland of the City of Commerce. That's right, here in LA we love shopping SO incredibly much, we have a city entirely dedicated to it. The Secretary of Commerce would love it. On a side note here is a picture of the Secretary.

I need not say what I think of that lip monster. Here is the guy Obama is looking to appoint.

Though I do not consider a neck beard a "real" beard, I will give Bill Richardson a pardon for two reasons, 1. He is Bill Ricarson, 2. Epic Bowtie

But I digress, while driving through Commerce we passed by the outlets within Los Angeles or "The Citadel". This place is really cool, infact I just got a killer deal there the other week on some Levi's at the Levi's outlet. But when you drive by the whole thing is set up to look like an Assyrian temple and on the top of the giant LED signs they have some pretty massive Lamassu's.This is a picture of the real deal, but the recreations at the outlets look very similar. They are Man/Bulls and the longer their beards are the more powerful they are. However they are not as powerful as the Assyrian gods, those beards go all the way down to their belly buttons. There is your history lesson for today. Everyday I gain more power, who knows how powerful I will become by December 25.

- Justin

Day 28

2008-11-28T19:32:00.001-08:00

With my ridiculous hair I have opted for a silly face, do not worry I have not forgotten the story I have promised, today has just been busy. Watched The Fall though, it is a fantastic movie.

- Justin

Day 27

2008-11-27T23:28:00.001-08:00

Here is today's picture, tomorrow I will give you the story.

Day 26

2008-11-26T21:13:00.000-08:00

Eight hours of travel in a car makes for a very tired Justin. Will post more tomorrow, as well as the story of how beards shaped the first Thanksgiving.

Day 25

2008-11-25T19:43:00.000-08:00

Today was cool, we went to the Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve and climbed up the large sandstone "mountians" probably a few hundred feet high. The reserve caught on fire last year so a few of the pictures you can see the ash covering the ground and the trees growing back in the distance. It was awful windy up that high, the beard worked well, I decided to go with the Keffiyeh/Shemag for neck coverage. We got some sweet echos off the top of this place.
-Justin

Our picture to KLBC proving that we were in Santa Cruz, showing station pride.

Keeping my head warm while spying throughout the forest.

About to pee off a cliff.

Carving a beer stein.

Had we known the DJ Ustin Power Hour would've had this effect on nature, we would have stopped pumping out so much electrofunk sound long ago.

Climbing down.

More climbing.

Day 24

2008-11-24T21:53:00.000-08:00

After a decent day of driving, this update comes from dark and soon to be rainy Santa Cruz, California, thank you to Amber, for her hospitality and hosting us for the next two nights. It was a cool drive, Dustin and I have accomplished one of our life goals of using the bathroom in the town of Los Banos. Thank you also to the residents of *9* Paloma Way, Gilroy, CA, your unprotected internet, helped us find the directions we needed on Google Maps to finish the second leg of our journey, no thanks to the Starbucks or T-Mobile of Gilroy as your internet connections were all kinds of screwy. Here is today's beard picture, I apologize for the lack of light. The beard is all kinds of itchy, I'd say that I wish I could shave it but I would never wish such an awful thing upon myself. May the beard live on! 31 days go to.

- Justin

Day 23

2008-11-23T22:40:00.000-08:00

I went to the Cat House on the Kings today. It was awesome. Fresno has proven to be fun. Beard is doing well, filling in quite nicely.
- Justin

Day 22

2008-11-22T17:59:00.000-08:00

Twas a long drive, but a drive well worth it. I am up in Fresno visiting one of my best friends with Dustin this week. Showing him that I am thankful for him, just before the good ole Thanksgiving. It was about a 5 hour drive with an hour and half of that sitting in Los Angeles traffic on the 110 North. Well worth it though, I'll be here for a few and then Dustin and I head off to Santa Cruz, hopefully we will go to the house of cats tomorrow and I will give you a sweet update.

- Justin

Day 21

2008-11-21T19:53:00.001-08:00

Got myself registered for next semester, I'm going to be busy. Tomorrow will be an update from the road some how, gotta find internet.
- Justin

Day 20

2008-11-20T18:21:00.000-08:00

Day 20's beard is looking pretty good, only a little over a month left to go. Hopefully my beard will be double strength by then. Busy day so far, gotta pack as we are taking Beardmas on the road for the next week or so to Fresno and Santa Cruz, California. Emailed Adam from Two Guns (www.myspace.com/twogunsmusic) yesterday (the drummer with the beard on the post yesterday) he said he has been growing his beard now for 3 years strong. Way to go! Until tomorrow.

- Justin

Day 19

2008-11-19T16:18:00.000-08:00

We have an update picture from inside the production studio just before heading in to Globetrotter. It was a good show today, covered the numbers in the NYSE, Somali pirates and the Senate race in Alaska. We also had good music from many artists the following of which don beards in their musical pursuits. Enjoy. Until Tomorrow. If you want the playlist for the show go to www.spinitron.com and go to member station KLBC 1610 AM.
- Justin

Karsh Kale

Thom Yorke of Radiohead

My Morning Jacket

Adam Ferry (Two Guns) formerly of Fielding

Day 18

2008-11-18T19:06:00.000-08:00

Day 18 has come and the only annoucement is that the DJ Ustin Power Hour is broadcasting from 8-930 on KLBC.org and KLBC1610 AM. I hope you all listen.

- Justin

Day 17

2008-11-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

Day 17's beard is slowly getting fuller, I think at this point if the sides don't start catching up i'll have something shaped more like the Stonewall Jackson or James A . Garfield (See Election day Post). I did a lot of work on Globetrotter this weekend so make sure you check it out Noon-1 on KLBC.org and KLBC 1610 AM, while your at it tune in tomorrow night as well for some underground electro with the DJ Ustin Power Hour. See you all tomorrow kids.
- Justin

Stonewall Jackson

Day 16

2008-11-16T18:23:00.000-08:00

Were I not writing a paper on Right Whales I would give much more of an update but for now here is my picture for the day. Also a picture of the smoke cloud in the sky and ash on the ground, California burns. See you all tomorrow.

- Justin

Day 15

2008-11-15T19:59:00.000-08:00

Today was well spent. I had to re-record my War of the Worlds performance which will soon be up for sale. You can check out www.lbshakespeare.org to get some details, or if you are in the Long Beach area, check out first Fridays in the Bixby Knolls area and hit up the Richard Goad Theatre, you can purchase them there. Aside from that, as you can see in the background, I am relaxing the night away with Dustin and Dan playing Call Of Duty. Update tomorrow. Until then, have a fantastic night and stay safe.

- Justin

Day 14

2008-11-14T17:01:00.000-08:00

Lazy days have defined Day 14 of the 55 Days of Beardmas. If you haven't looked already, check out yeserdays post to see some good pictures of men sporting the whiskers while dressed in their Sunday best. I might trim up around the neck again, if not tonight but tomorrow morning. I'm beginning to feel the itch again and if it progressed anything like it did last time, it will be a heartless killer come tomorrow morning. The nice thing is that it is beginning to LOOK more and more like fall around here. Which is good listening for artists such as Bob Dylan (todays playlist for the most part). However, for some god awful reason though it is 90 degrees out at day. I guess thats what happens when you live in a desert. Beard pictures down below from the wine and cheese party last night, I'll be accompanying that lady down there to dinner tonight as well (though she doesn't have a beard, she would be referred to as a Beaut by one from down under), so I must be off. Until tomorrow my friends, until tomorrow.

- Justin

One of the two cheeses I brought. Kiwi Cheddar and Beer Cheese (not pictured)

My best friend Dustin. He washes with Rogain Extra Strength, alas he is naturally hairless.

Very pretty (not bearded) lady.

Day 13

2008-11-13T18:21:00.000-08:00

On my way to a wine a cheese party, I have more pictures of men with beards in suits. I've been always told you ought to be clean shaved, but I think I pull it off quite nicely. I will upload those later tonight or tomorrow morning. For now you can have a picture of my John McCain impression when he is laughing while explaining something.

- Justin

Here are you pictures of men in suits with beards. Seeing as most of society frowns upon the beard, there are not many examples. Here are some of the finer specimens.

Former Vice President Albert Gore

Muppets creator Jim HensonIranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Luciano Pavarotti
Late night hosts Conan O'Brien and David Letterman

All of these men proving together a suit and a beard can be done.

Day 12

2008-11-12T08:57:00.001-08:00

Update from school. Fairly intense Marine Bio test on all type of Fish, Reptiles and Mammals. Part two comes up in 30 minutes. Beard looking decent today. Check out KLBC.org from Noon-1 today for my world radio show Globetrotter. We'll have a decent set of Mama Africa songs in tribute. See you all there, and see you tomorrow.

- Justin

Day 11

2008-11-11T17:40:00.000-08:00

Happy Armistice Day! For our American readers a Happy Veterans Day to you all. Today marks the 90th anniversary of the day that the armistice was signed between Germany and the Triple Entente on 11/11/1918 at 11:00 GMT and World War I was ended. Hopefully you all took a 2 minute silence at 11 GMT as is tradition around the world. There were many involved with beards in World War I, so I thought I would share them in a little 55 Days of Beardmas History Speical.

On the 28th of June 1914 this man (Gavrilo Princip) assaisnated this man...

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, clearly out of a jealous rage, brought on by the Archdukes far more superior mustache. Though little did anyone in Europe know, the mustache was pure evil. This attack on purely awesome facial hair began an all out war that spread all over Europe. Two sides were formed, the Triple Entente or French for "The Good Guys" and the Central Powers, dubbed the Central Powers, because they were all centered around the prospect of epic facial hair growth. Although they would soon find that their was a traitor in their group and that he would be their great downfall.

The Good Guys consisted of the clean shaven French and two ridiculously well bearded cousins.The first was King George V of England.
The second was his stunt double and look alike cousin Tsar Nicholas II. (It is neccessary to show Nicholas in a painting because in a photograph...)Unless a trained professional, it is nearly impossible to tell them apart. Look at those amazing beards!

But they couldn't go at it alone, they had to enlist the help of bearded Field Marshal Radomir Putnik to get the troops rallied behind their great fight against the evil power of the mustache.

Yet these two men and their bearded Field Marshal were up against a lot. With an unbearded ally, they couldn't let their Frenchies fall victim to the pencil stache, and while holding back their allies from such silly (traditionally French) facial hair, they also had to keep them motiviated against their enemies.

Presenting.....

The Central PowersEmperor of Austria-Hungary (Self Proclaimed King of Anschlauss)
Franz Josef I

Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire. King of the Turks.

And lastly, from the land bridge from Turkey to the rest of the Western world...
Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

Now when everything first exploded onto the world stage no one knew who to follow. All sides were bearded and the Central powers were very convincing. Emperor Franz Josef II had recently won the "Best Lemmy" award for Eastern Europe. Sultan Mehmed V had recently shocked the world by changing the name of Constantinople to Istanbul and Tsar Ferdinand was the black market king, making duty free cigarettes and liquor available to all of the Western Hemisphere. Yet there seemed to be a missing link to it all. It appeared that the "King of the Anschlauss" Emerpor Franz Josef was hiding something, someone, looking to unite the Aryan people. That someone was a little family secret that King George V and Tsar Nicholas II had been hiding and decided to expose to the world. Unfortunately Tsar Nicholas II never saw the day that they would expose their enemies. He was killed in the Russian Revolution by the moustached and goteed Bolshiviks led by their leader the evil Vladimir Lenin.
Surveilance Photo of Lenin (center) taken by one of King Georges V English spies after the execution of his cousin Tsar Nicholas II.

This propaganda was released on April 5, 1917. It was released by King George as to expose the missing link in the Central Powers. It was Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany distant cousin of King George. The one behind it all fueling World War I, it was clear to the world then that the Central Powers had to be stopped for they were led by a mustache. A mustache so evil it not only curled up, but outweighed all the good that the beards of the Central Powers could ever accomplish. The next day this Propaganda later dubbed "The Zimmerman Note" was seen in the United States, prompting the President Woodrow Wilson to side with George and the clean shaved Frenchies. He was the first President to start a trend, that because of the good/evil power of mustaches and beards none must be worn by the President of the United States. No President since has worn facial hair as to stay neutral on the stage of world politics. Within two years, with the help of nearly all the soldiers of the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Russia they were able to defeat the Central Powers and sign the armstice ceasing the war in Europe. Since there have been other wars, but only led by those looking to fight against the evil stache. WWII against Hitlers stache, The Cold War against Stalin's stache, Vietnam against Ho Chi Minh's stache and more recently Operation Iraqi Freedom against the menacing stache of Saddam Hussein. So let us remember today and always the suffering that those have faced, to rid the earth of the evil stache.

- Justin

Day 10

2008-11-10T18:12:00.000-08:00

With my beard growing longer and my neck covered by this sweater from the elements, I am to go out on a scooter ride this evening. Wish me luck in keeping my warmth. Tomorrow we will have a post about Armistice Day. Until then Happy Birthday to the United States Marine Corps and a good evening to you all.

- Justin

Day 9

2008-11-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

It is a chilled, breezy day today in Southern California, and it makes me proud that I am doing this 55 Days of Beardmas blog. Hopefully this weather is the first sign of fall/winter in this area and it makes me thankful that I am growing a beard to keep my face warm. However, today we see the first perimeter shave. The neck was getting pretty itchy. Only two days ago, itch factor was rated at a 3.5/10 within two days it had accelerated at extreme pace to reach an 8/10 itch factor. This extreme itchiness could only be one sign, the natural time to create the perimeter for in which unlimited beard growth is to occur.As you can see it is a pretty even shave and wears snugly around upper neck/lower jaw. It also, when viewed head on, frames the wearers head. Unfortunately though, my neck is now exposed, and were the onslaught of winter to hit Southern California full force the elements could do damage, such as making it cold. Luckily, I have searched through my closet to find some clothing that may help other "Brothers of Beardmas" in their pursuit not only to grow and epic beard, but to keep their necks toasty warm.

Why not go the way of the Vikings. One way to keep your neck nice and toasty warm would be to don one of these comfortable wool scarves from Scandanavian countries such as Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.

If you don't find that comfortable, or want something you could even wrap around your entire head. Choose a fashionable and comfy Keffiyeh or Shemag. This particular one is from Palestine, but they can be found all across the Middle East.

Last but not least, if you just don't "look good" sporting some kind of warming neckware, you can always go for the good ole turtle neck, just make sure to fold it down as to not hide that spectacular lumberjack special that you are in the process of growing. Until next time.

- Justin

Day 8

2008-11-09T01:15:00.000-08:00

We have a mobile update tonight. Though the post time is on Day 9, the pictures were taken on Day 8 only 3-4 hours before. Busy day today, did some tailgating and watched UCLA get dominated by OSU. However aside from the slight sunburn I received today, there are two very exciting pieces of news. First is that I got the beard onto Fox Sports Net today, while yelling my brains out at the UCLA football game. Now the beard has been shown to the world, not only by the internet but also by cable sports. The 2nd piece of news is that I have pictures of a fellow beardsmith. Russell, as shown below, by chance happened to not have shaved on or since November 1st, and is now a "Brother of Beardmas". We shot the pictures tonight by phone, Russell made sure to caputre my chin line in my picture and make a fantastic face in his. Until later today.

- Justin

Day 7

2008-11-07T16:02:00.000-08:00

Another day, another picture. More hair in this one, I don't know what happened last night but I grew a lot of beard overnight. A new part of the challenge is kicking in, the dreaded itch fatctor. Right now (based on previous beard growing experience) I would put my itch factor at a 3.5 out of 10. The worst comes in like a week from what I remember. I should have more pictures up of others growing beards later in the week. For now, have a fabulous Friday night.

- Justin

Day 6

2008-11-06T19:53:00.000-08:00

So I have been hearing word that my blog is picking up more steam and the there are even people who since discovering it have committed to some version of Beardmas. As encouragement to those aspiring to have beards, I have decided to share some of the people that I know with beards. This is my buddy Kurt, he is a Professor at Biola University and has been growing his beard since mid May, pretty good stuff while keeping it trimmed. As for my beard progress, it can be defined as slow but steady, tomorrow marks the 7th Day and first week. I have also been offered a challenge by a Beardmas reader to do 100 Days for 100 Dollars. If I accept the challenge I will start on Jan 1st. Plenty of time for me to decide. Tomorrow I should have pictures up of a buddy who coincidentally hasn't shaved since the 1st of November as well, sounds like a key candidate for the 55 days of Beardmas. Until tomorrow.

- Justin

Day 5

2008-11-05T15:49:00.000-08:00

Hello again my beloved beard followers, as I'm sure you have heard, here in the good ole' USA Barack Obama has been elected as the 44th President of the United States. I think it's really cool that I got to vote in such a historic election. Day five is looking good, I have a lot more color in the the beard but then again it could be the warm color in the picture. Until tomorrow. 1/11th of the way to the finish! (In the background you see Dustin, he too has been lacking in the shave department and is growing a magnificent gotee.)

- Justin

Day 4

2008-11-04T11:05:00.000-08:00

And so starts Day Four. As evidenced by the sticker on my polo shirt I exercised my right to vote by casting my ballot for ___________. But as I promised here are the beards that have helped shape America. Only 5 Presidents have worn the beard on their face in our history so I have made catagories, Best Long Beard, Best Short Beard and Best Chinstrap. Here are our finalists and winners.

The one the only Rutherford B. Hayes, coming in First Place with Best Long Beard. Look at that lip cover! It's too much for one man to handle!

Second Place going to President James A. Garfield, a stately beard indeed.

First Place for Best Short Beard goes to fomer Union General and President Ulysses S. Grant, keeping one of the finest trims in Presidential history.

Benjamin Harrison was our last President to sport a beard and comes in Second on the Beardmas blog in the catagory of Best Short Beard.

Last but definitely not least is the man who is argued to be the greatest President in United States history. The only thing that put his amazing presidency over the top, was his amazing Chinstrap. That is why the award for best Chinstrap goes to Abraham Lincoln.

Thats it this time for great beards in history, as for me, I'll see you all Day 5 as we continue the 55 Days of Beardmas. Be sure to vote today and check out the DJ Ustin Power Hour 8-930 on KLBC 1610 AM if you are in the Long Beach, CA area, if not check us out on KLBC.org.

- Justin

Day 3

2008-11-03T07:08:00.000-08:00

On the 3rd day of Bearmas my true love gave to me, just a little more length. So starts Day 3 of the 55 days of Beardmas, the feel of an election is in the air. I will make sure to post some fantastic pictures of our presidents with great beards tomorrow as well as an update on the status of my beard. These first few days are going to be slow ones, but once it gets growing, the beard shall hang from my face in all of its majesty...I hope. Until tomorrow, I will read up on California propositions. See you all tomorrow.

- Justin

Day 2

2008-11-02T09:54:00.000-08:00

After a long day of work moving my father into his new house, it appears that my facial hair has grown slightly. Since its initial shave on Halloween it seems that I will be bearded within the upcoming weeks. Not much going on in news with me today. It is raining here which is always a nice, refreshing change from the glaring sun of Southern California. Until tomorrow, in the words of Jerry Springer "take care of yourselves and each other."

Day 1

2008-11-01T02:01:00.000-07:00

So this is the first day of the 55 days of Beardmas, for those of you who don't know, the purpose of this blog until Christmas, is to chronicle the growth of hair on my face, day by day. The only rules allowed for this challenge, is that I can shave my neck and trim the hair that grows from the mole on my upper lip, as to keep a clean perimeter. Otherwise it is no holds bard. Day 1 starts now. Let the journey begin.

- Justin

Singapore again...

2008-06-19T22:36:00.000-07:00

In Singapore right now waiting out a layover. Will be home soon. Tapei. Los Angeles.

- Justin

Phnom Penh

2008-06-17T05:23:00.000-07:00

Last night after writing we walked back to the bus at the wat where the rest of the group had been meditating. They hadn't finished so Nikki, Jessica and I decided to walk back across Battambang. It was an interesting walk, we saw a lot of government trucks full of guys in red scarves driving by, and even ran into on walking the street next to us with an M60 slung over his shoulders, his head wrapped in Khmer Rouge scarfs. It is apparent that election season is coming. Nikki and Jessica went out and smoked on the balcony of the hotel, they said they saw the trucks going into town full of people and coming back out empty, it was a weird feeling and the first time I have felt unsafe on this trip. Our drive to Phnom Penh was pleasant but long, we stopped at a "haunted" abandoned house on the way and our monk told us the story of how it had come to be that way. Interesting how "hauntings"here aren't based out of fear but out of the sole involvement of ghosts, in this case a peaceful one.

Phnom Penh is a very pleasant change from the past few days, though we saw much CPP propaganda on the way in, it has died out since we have gotten to the city, what is insane to imagine is that this place was CLEARED out only 40 years ago, people forced from their homes and walked to Battambang and Pursat. I think I'll enjoy it here, I like that I can walk the streets at night again with my friends and feel comfortable/secure. The abundance of tuk tuk's also helps. We have a lot to see here in the next few days, I'm excited I'm coming home soon, but I'm also excited that I have seen and learned so much while being here. I wonder how different it will be next time I return. Until tomorrow.

- Justin

Orphans and Killing Caves

2008-06-16T05:47:00.000-07:00

We met up again with Sam our instructors Monk/Godson this morning and first thing went out to the city to buy bread and school instruments for the orphans at the orphanage we were going to. Sam was very keen on us obtaining the items and making sure that we had lots to give. When we arrived we were met by Cambodian Network Television and their news crew. It was a small 2 man gig but it was interesting for me to see how they work in Broadcast Journalism out there. What irked me about it though is that we really didn't do anything. It was just a huge photo op. After the last week here, I have really seen the difference between Cambodian and Thai people. Thai people love to smile, its probably where they got the nickname, "Land of a thousand smiles."Cambodians or Khmer people on the other hand want to get to know you, they want to find out where your from and who you are. It just felt today that after a week of getting to know people, making conversation and such, it felt cheap to just hand over some food and school stuff in front of some TV cameras and in a sense rush out to go eat lunch. It was such a shift from yesterday where we were encouraged to get to know people. Today it was more an empty symbol and it really rubbed me the wrong way.

There was some upside, after we all had lunch together we went to Sam's wat(temple) and got to sit in on his English class that he teaches. We got to ask the students all about themselves, their dreams and aspirations and they asked us ALL about America, what made it different and how Cambodia could come to be like America at some point. I felt like a lot of us didn't know what to say and in return replied with things like, "In America we have traffic signals." and other things like that. We sat in with the kids for about an hour or so and then made our long bumpy bus ride to the killing caves, I'd assume roughly 30 km out of town.

Everytime we got out into the countryside I see people in Khmer Rouge scarfs. Its kind of just a way of life I'm starting to assume, but at the same time, I really don't want to believe that. I've seen so many out here that I just think, "Those can't be the ones I"m thinking of" but sure enough nearly 10 feet down the road, there is the big sign for the meeting house of the Cambodian Peoples Party. It gets frustrating to see. A few days back on our drive to Battambang we stopped in some TINY town to stop and stretch our legs and get a quick bite to eat. At the bottom of the stairs to our bus there was a Khmer Rouge scarf on the ground, but it had been walked on so much it was trampled in dirt, crusty, old and ugly. I walked off the bus and stood around for a bit stretching my legs, I went back into the bus and grabbed my camera to take a picture of it on the ground. When I came back out with the camera I was met by a cart vendor and soon after a man with a scarf around his neck pointing at my camera and motioning for the cart owner to leave the bus alone. When I looked at where he had come from, I saw 7 or so men sitting out tucking away their scarfs or leaving the scene immediately, hopping on their motorbikes or retiring inside. Today was somewhat of a similar story.

We arrived at the Killing Caves and were greeted by the Tourist Police, and odd group to run into, one that after Woods talk to us in Siem Riep had me wondering motives. We hiked up into the mountians and the entire way I had young girl following me, probably no more than 7 years old. She was walking along side me fanning me as we walked up hill. I tried to make it a little more fun, I would race her up some steps from time to time but she didn't seem to understand how to play. It made me really sad, we got to a sort of base camp type place and I had Ace ask her in Khmer her name. It was Jen Na. It made me like her a million times more and she went from being some little girl who gets pushed out to fan tourists to my sister (Janna). I gave her a piece of candy and she accepted but you could still tell she didn't know how to feel about it. I then pulled out my fan from my back pack and began to fan her back. She accepted for a while until she got an odd look from her brother and asked that I stop, which I respectfully did. I took a picture of her and we kept hiking, I was told I was supposed to pay her off at the base camp place, so I reached in my pocket and gave her a dollar. Her eyes lit up and she ran over to her brother flaunting that she had earned a whole dollar (I was told later by Sam that they are usually paid 500 riel to do so, the equivilent of around 12.5 cents).

I didn't and still kind of don't know how to respond to the killing caves. They are these big caverns at the top of a mountian. The Khmer Rouge used to take their prisoners up there to the top of the mountian. At the top there is a hole in the ground and it drops down about 65 feet into a cave, which is open faced on the side of the mountian. Apparently what would happen is that prisoners would be taken up in the night and struck on the back of the neck/head with a hammer/machete and would be struck into the hole, dropping them to their death. Next to the primary cave there is a smaller cave that leads down like a hole into the depths of the mountian and apparently this is where children were taken to be killed by the Khmer Rouge. Eerily enough there was a rock formation on the wall of the childrens cave that looked like a fetus.

I don't know how to feel because this entire time I've really been in a journalists mindset. I go into the situation knowing that there is death all around, I walked into the cave where 40 years ago, bodies piled high. I looked at their bones through a steel mesh cage. Yet when I walked away I felt the numbness that I have been taught I need to have to succeed in the pursuit of a journalistic career. I guess where I feel odd is in watching how others reacted. My buddy Ace on the other hand was in tears when we walked away. I held him in my arms and all he could say to me was, "Someone in that cave died so that my father could live", maybe I think of myself as feeling cold or too numb as to not know how to interact with others, no matter the case I some what realised that some things don't always change.

We walked down the backside of the mountian to behold another beautiful view of the Cambodian countryside. We saw old abandoned huts in some rice fields, as cows and water buffalo wandered around, grunting and eating whatever they could find. I couldn't help but think that, that was probably where people worked before they were led up here to die. I got a little seperated from the group as I took pictures that stretched as far as the eye could see. Jessica waited up for me so I didn't lose track of the trail and we headed to the bottom. When I got to the bottom of the mountian I saw a man setting a fire on the rocks and a checkered scarf around his waste. Nikki was waiting for me with a Cambodian police officer. Apparently she said, he didn't want us to stray behind from the group and to be up there alone, he waited until he got us to the main road and then set off, everywhere around me were CPP emblems and people in checkered scarfs. Suddenly no Khmer people wanted to know about me, they didn't even want to smile. The only friendly faces were the naked little kids running around shouting hello at us while hanging on to a barbed wire fence that they had been playing on. I don't know why the police officer waited up for me, but when I saw all the looks that people were giving us all, I figured the worst.

I think back to the democracy forum yesterday and my talk with Lucky, how he is caught in a never ending cycle of government corruption and empty promise politics, about Wood and what he had to say on the bus as we road through the countryside and showed us the poverty people live in due to corruption, and the monks, who showed us the voting policies of how these people get into their posts. I pray that their is a more beautiful future for Cambodia, I see people here with the heart and the potential, but not the means.

We leave for Phnom Penh tomorrow, for the Tuol Sleng, and the Killing Fields. We leave for the capital city. We're all leaving Battambang a lot different than how we arrived. Until then.

- Justin

Battambang

2008-06-15T06:30:00.000-07:00

We arrived here in a Dramamine haze yesterday, I didn't go out and ended up sleeping for 14 hours in didn't feel good at all, I have body aches all over from walking around temples day in and day out. Luckily today was somewhat of a different deal than the past few.

We woke up today to go speak at the democracy forum. It kind of hit me how real the situation is here. It was really weird when someone in the crowd behind us asked how they can attain freedom of speech, and all I could think of was throw all their tea in the harbor. It was interesting but weird. Apparently the way the system works is that people are given a list of who they are to vote for when they can vote. If that person doesn't vote for the "right"candidate the ballots are all checked. The candidates can see who "did their duty"and if one doesn't as one of the monks on the forum stated, then the murders begin. I've never realised how much I take for granted here and how much I value the life I live.

We had lunch after the forum with this guy named Lucky. He was telling us how he had just finished high school, I guess everyone finishes around 21 and was preparing to go to university in Phnom Penh. Apparently he didn't have enough money to enroll (300 USD) but at the same time couldn't get a job. I could see the heart in him, that he really wanted to work hard to get out of his rut, but you could see how tired he was. He wanted a break, we all talked about it afterwords and didn't know whether he was expecting money or now at the end of our lunch conversation, before he went back to the conference. There was so much pity in his voice that I wanted to just up and give him one of the 100's in my back pack but at the same time remembered how he had said that even if he became rich like those in government, he would never forget how poor he started and would always remember that when spending his money. We all ended up not giving him money, we saw other ways that he could get it here, we told him that when we all come back to Battambang that he better be our guide (he wanted to go to university for tourism) and after we said that to him, he asked for our emails that we might be in contact for when he would be our guide. Woods words have been ringing in my ears all day, "This is the reality of Cambodia."

The second half of our day we visited two temples, the first was like the others, tour the complex, sit before the buddha, watch some meditation go home. The second we walked in on an english class and sat with everyone and practised their English with them. It was a very enjoyable time, the girl I got was named Qui Leung, or something like that, she had been studying English for 3 years and had progressed a lot. She was very good at speaking. We talked a lot about back home, family and what not, we talked a lot about Janice, she was really concerned for what her and I had parted paths and gave me a long talk about how I needed to talk to her. She told me how she felt bad because she had a boyfriend but hadn't told her mom. If I've realised anything my entire stay its that deep down, people are the same wherever you go. I've been thinking a lot about everything I've seen today and am going to go home and think it all over. 4 days left and then I'm back home, I think my favorite thing here is to talk to the people, the Thais were good at smiling, the Khmer are good at talking and wanting to know all about you. Until next time.

- Justin

A floating basketball court

2008-06-13T01:48:00.000-07:00

So I think I forgot to mention, I rode an elephant a couple days ago, I think like 5 days ago, it was fun but I thought we were going to step on all the tuk tuks and motorcyles.

Now back to the present. Forgot to mention that I went to the tree temple yesterday, I guess I was a little to burned out to talk about it. Apparently all the temples used to look like those but they cut away all the trees and as a result a lot of the temples are very unstable. The temples yesterday were in some pretty dense jungle and we all kept looking at each other and humming the Indiana Jones theme. As for dinner I ended up taking a nap from 5-10pm. When I got back home from blogging yesterday it began to pour rain. I decided that it was soothing and fell asleep only to awake to all my friends, half of the drunk from clubbing all soaked because the streets were flooded.

Today Wood took us out to the Tonle Sap, the biggest lake in SE Asia. It is 180km long and 90km wide. Most of the houses that we have seen next to water have all been on stilts, but today we got to see what they called a floating city. It was one of the coolest sights I have ever seen, it was a city of Tom Sawyer rafts that in the rainy season float up stream about 5 km and anchor onto a nearby mountian and in the dry season go down to the shore of the Tonle Sap. There were floating schools, hospitals, churchs, police stations, even a floating recess yard and basketball court donated by the South Koreans to one of the schools. Most of the schools were donated by one country or another and the river was even split up into little communities. Our boathand (who was very infatuated with Jessica) was MORE than willing to fill us in that we were in a Vietnamese or Korean "neighborhood".

On the way in there were a lot more of the Cambodian Peoples Party meeting houses and we even saw some people still wearing Khmer Rouge scarfs around their necks and waists. It was really interesting, you go in there thinking that the Khmer Rouge is a thing of the past but it really isn't, the guide talked a lot more about the corruption in government today and about the conflicts between what is left of the Khmer Rouge and the other citizens along the Thai/Cambodian border to the west.

When we got back into town we checked out a workshop that teaches poor rural Cambodian kids how to do carpentry, stonework, metalwork and silk painting. It was really cool seeing them all work to make these elaborate stone pieces and copper leafed wooden Buddhas. I purchased some chopsticks, spoons and a bronze wallet/cigarette holder type of thing. I also bought some cinnamon rice brandy. Delicious and warm.

We head out for Battambang tomorrow and if the rain keeps up, I'm sure we'll get a once in a lifetime chance to push a bus out of mud. The road out to the Tonle Sap was horrible today, I thought the bus driver was flipping swtiches half the ride. There is also NOTHING for the first 60 miles of tomorrows ride. No people, no towns no nothing. Worst of all no WC, which means hopefully no one will drop a turd on a landmine on the side of the road. Thats a mess my little roll of Charmin can't clean up.

In sadder news, my knock off RayBan sunglasses or RayBons as we had so lovingly dubbed them have broken. I must go now to find more. Jessica is still sick and insists on coughing through the night. If any of you have any frontier medicine to offer up leave it in the comments, we tried the icy hot on the feet thing and on the chest. It just made her smell. If any of you have any ideas, I would greatly appriciate them, I would get more sleep. I don't know if there is much internet in Battambang, so far we have been told about the one stop sign in town and the one restaurant in town named, "Smoking Pot". If I can't write to you all then, you will hear of our teachings to the monks when we get to Phnom Penh. Until then.

- Justin

June 12

2008-06-12T03:29:00.000-07:00

So another day here in Siem Riep, I'm kind of getting burned out on temple ruins but I'm getting by. I don't think I would have ever said that. We have a lot of free time in Siem Riep the next few days and then its off to Battambang, its a big mining town. Landmines that is. We are supposedly going up the river tomorrow to a floating market so that will be cool, our guide is getting us a lot of deals, there is so much bargaining out here. I now I'll be trying to haggle down prices when I get back to the US, but it won't really fly...Not much to say today, the rain has been picking up since we got here and its been coming down pretty hard everyday 2-3 times a day, a big difference from Bangkok. I'm feeling a lot better and getting around the jungle a lot quicker than the past few days. Highlight of my day we licking some kind of malaria curing plant. It was very bitter and made everyone else dance around with a gross taste in their mouth. Well I'm off to watch more kickboxing on TV and find dinner for the night. Until tomorrow.

- Justin

"This is the reality of Cambodia" Part 2

2008-06-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

So today we started our day by going to a local monastery just on the other side of Siem Riep. It was to be our guides way to initiate us into the Buddhist Khmer culture. We showed up and went inside, and after the bowing formalities, sat through 15 minutes of chanting. It was actually very interesting to watch. It also caught me by suprise when the blessed water was flung from a rolled up banana leaf over all our heads. After about 10 more minutes of chanting and lotus flower/water flinging, we were thanked by all the monks there. Apparently they had had many tourists come and visit their monastery before but they had never blessed a group before. I was quite flattered and it made the whole experience a little less uncomfortable, seeing as it was both our first time.

We all donated to the reconstruction of their stuppa outside the back of the monastery and the got to see what Cambodian classrooms look like. There were children the plenty many if not all posing for a picture and making fun of how we talk. I think kids are deep down the same everywhere, there was also one boy who when I peeked my head in the room reminded me that, "USA...is A-OK!"

After that we packed onto the bus and sat through a long ride back through the Angkor gates and about 40 km out past Angkor into rural Cambodia. Our guide gave us a residents view of government in Cambodia. As we got further and further out we saw more and more meeting houses for the Communist Party of Cambodia and more signs adverstising their wear abouts. He let us know about things like the GDP (380 US Dollars a year). He wanted us to see the documented poverty in Cambodia and we did. When we got to the end of our hour long busride we got out and ate lunch. I bargained a 19 dollar shirt down to 9 dollars (very proud), it took a lot of walking away to get the "special just for you price" but it was well worth it.

When we got into the temple, which essentially was solely ruin doorways and a few indoor towers, I was startled by a little Cambodian boy. He smiled for a portrait and that was the end of it...or so I thought. Later while walking with Jessica he popped out again with his little sister and they posed for a few more pictues. I showed them the images and they looked a little confused, I don't know if they had ever seen a picture of themselves. At that point Jessica began fanning them with her fan and suddenly we had a game. They would pop behind the doorway and she would pop the fan in, fanning their faces almost like hide and go seek. The game really took way when they peeked their head out of the doorway and was met by my face with a confused look. They looked at me and then at each other and back at me wondering where their new friend had gone when she jumped up behind them fanning them and startling them half to death. The kids proceeded to chase her around and run past me slapping my legs and sticking their tongues out at me while she chased them fanning them. When we finally all got tired, (and i had to change my camera battery) the little girl came up to me and just kind of stood their and stared at me. We exchanged smiles back and forth and I again asked if I could take her picture and showed it to her. She then ran off behind one of the temple walls and came back giving me two pictures she had drawn in a composition book. I didn't know how to ask her to sign her name, so I had her take a picture with her artpiece. Its amazing how much a smile and a few hand gestures can replace spoken language. We continued to run about them temple taking pictures and fanning one another. It must be really cool to have an ancient temples as your playground. I know personally the best I got was a stagecoach shaped like a pumpkin.

We returned to Siem Riep and had the rest of the day to ourselves, I went out to lunch with Ken and we talked a lot about his Buddhist faith and my Christian faith. It was a really good time and I really learned a lot about how he percieved what we learned when it came to Thai Buddhist cultural practices, as opposed to his Khmer practices. The heat out here in intense, I have finally bought new shirts to wear for the remainder of the trip. This choice to purchase a new wardrobe was brought to my attention when I realised I had a giant backpack shaped salt stain around the back of my shirt, straps included on the front. I am also slowly leaving my mark around this city by beating minesweeper in all the internet cafes and signing my name Justin (USA), I won't be beat. I'm feeling a lot better today, I woke up and could breath through my nose and wasn't coughing, I can't ask for anything more. Stevie is doing good since she started taking her Thai meds and Jessica is still sick with her sultry man voice and a obnoxious cough that wakes me up all throughout the night. I think we have two more days in this city before we move on, if the dirt roads have been any precursor, the road to Battambang will be one bouncy ride. I saw a gecko eat a bug while writing this. They are all about the walls and ceilings. There is also a toad hopping across the floor.

- Justin

"This is the reality of Cambodia" Part 1

2008-06-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon and evening I came to an amazing conclusion while at Angkor Thom. I had earlier applied this technique with Tuk Tuk drivers in downtown Siem Riep. Be funny. Often I have been replying to Tuk Tuk drivers asking to take me around with Later! They laugh knowing that I am walking to the other side of the city and will not be returning at anytime for a tuk tuk ride. We were ending our evening last night by climbing up a mountain to watch the sunset over the Tonle Sap. You could see all the way to the Thai and Hmong borders to the north, it was absolutely amazing. However on the way up we were stopped by many a young vendor girl asking us to purchase their wares. I will give you just a few of my dialogs.

Sir Sir! You buy keychain Angkor Wat, only 1 for 1 dollar!
Oh I'm sorry, you see I don't have any keys.

This tactic seemed to work for me, the girl giggled at my response and left me alone, so I decided to kick it up a notch.

Sir Sir! You buy magnet Ankor Wat for your fridge or wall?
Oh I'm sorry, I don't have a fridge.
Oh it ok! You can put up on you wall.
But all my walls are made of wood.
Well then you can put lamp! (In a cocky little comeback)
I will remember you when you come back down mountain sir.

At this point we walked up the mountain, through the jungle and at the top was another tall temple. We had the option to ride an elephant up but we decided to all take it on foot. From atop the temple you could see everything down on the Angkor Wat complex and all of Cambodia, it was absolutely gorgeous. I refrained from taking too many pictures because they really didn't do it much justice, instead I put away my camera for once and sat with Jessica, Sudeepa, Nikki, Teddy and watched the sunset.

Our walk back down was really cool, at night through the jungle with cicadas howling the entire walk back. At first it had that stereotypical jungle hum that you would hear on planet earth, but once the bigger cicadas got going, it sounded like an air raid siren going off all around us all the way down. It made me feel for all the Vietnam vets I've talked to, I cant imagine walking down into that bush, digging a foxhole and just hanging out for the night. When we got to the bottom sure enough there she was...although without her magnets, she had now turned to the bottle opening keychains.

Sir Sir! You want to buy keychain? Just 1 for 1 dollar or 6 for 5!
(This went on for a while back and forth with no thank yous)

(A few minutes later as were walking back to the bus.)
Sir you can open your Angkor beer with this keychain!
But I don't drink Angkor beer, I drink Chang.
Well you can open Chang too! You buy for your girlfriend!
I don't have a girlfriend, look at this face I'm ugly!
Well you get girlfriend if you buy this!
I'm not looking for a girlfriend in Cambodia though.
If you buy I'll be your girlfriend for free!!!
At this point I walked away, there was no comment that could stop my laughing.

Siem Riep: Not as sleazy as Ayutthaya

2008-06-10T00:03:00.000-07:00

Choomreapso!

So I guess I didn't touch on it much in any of the last posts. Ayutthaya for being the second capital city was one of the if not the sleaziest town I have ever been in. It wasn't the dirt roads, cold food sold by street vendors or stray dogs wandering aimlessly amongst the smelly durian. Oh no! It was the abundance and by abundance I am talking of a Thanksgiving cornucopia of hookers. Granted we were situated by the red light district (across the street) .

Its nice to be here for a change. This is the first place I really felt like I was in Asia. It feels like the opening Vietnam scene in Full Metal Jacket. Not to mention that it is ungodly hot. I didn't get a good look at the city last night when we finally landed. I was too drugged on Dramamine and some kind of Thai antihistamine that Angela gave Jessica and I before we left. When we woke this morning we opened our windows to dirt roads with no traffic or street lights, someone doing their laundry under a hang off of a tin roof and pouring tropical rain. It was a gorgeous and everything I REALLY expected Asia to be.

We went to Angkor Wat this morning. It was absolutely amazing. I feel like it got talked up too much before we came, (we have a lot of Cambodians on the trip). Our guide is cool and he showed us around but the dialouge he gave on the inscriptions on the walls was very slanted. Its difficult because Angela was slanted as well but it was like a historian slant (much badmouthing of the Burmese), our new guide Wood is more of a resident, so he has a much more personal slant in his talk. We leave for Angkor Tom in about 45 minutes, which I believe is the picture on the top of this blog. Oh yeah, there was a monkey in the temple today. It almost ate Lupe.

If there is anything to pray for, it continues to be travel. The roads are bumpy here and I cannot wait to see how many people get sick on the bus ride from here to Battambang. Also pray for our health, a few of us Jessica and I included have been getting sick. Jessica keeps joking that we have the bird flu and will bring back the epidemic that will begin population control. I doubt it, she's no doctor.

Aside from all of that we are very well, I'll write more when I can.

- Justin

Rainy days Thai delays...

2008-06-09T04:04:00.000-07:00

Were stuck here for a bit at the airport in Thailand, our flight has been pushed back 2 hours and we leave in one so it should be fun. Our plane is the ATR 72, a little twin prop, it should make for good pictures and sick travelers. I'm all hopped up on my motion sickness drugs. Off to security. I'll write when I'm at Siem Riep, time to walk across the tarmac!

- Justin

Thailand

2008-06-08T03:21:00.000-07:00

Sawadeekhap!

So what is there to say about this country? I don't know, I have been at a loss for words most of the time that I have been here. Bangkok was amazing. It is by far the dirtiest, busiest and most polluted city I have ever been to in my life, and I have loved every minute of it.

Our first day after 24 hours of a travel day we went and saw, Wat Pho, The Royal Palace and the Emerald Buddha, The Marble Temple and the Golden Buddha. The first stop was the Golden Buddha which was located in the Chinatown area of Bangkok. Looks like everywhere there is a Chinatown. The Buddha was maybe 3 meters tall and 2 meters wide. In all the temples we have to take our shoes off and make sure we step over the thresholds. Apparently (and especially in temples) it is bad luck to step on the thresholds, sometimes I think I'm on a Navy ship walking through bulkheads. At the Royal Palace we got to see all the old palaces of the different kings, I think Rama 1-Rama 6? Something like that. Rama is king in Thai. The stuppas (towers) of the temples are huge and the one in the center of the Royal Palace is made of 100% pure gold. We also saw the Emerald Buddha, which is the most treasured buddha in Thailand. The coolest thing there was this painted mural that was gold leafed that told the entire history of Thailand. We picked up thai food from a hole in the wall place. I've eaten rice at every meal since I've been here and surprisingly enough I'm not sick of it yet. We went to Wat Pho which is like the premier place to study massage in Thailand, if you have money and want to learn Thai massage it is the place to go. It has the reclining buddha, around 30 meters long and 15 meters high. It also has 99 stuppas with the ashes of different people who have been buried there, very cool. The final place we went was the marble temple that housed all these different buddha images from around the world. Jessica, Nikki and I hit up the night market and that was a night.

Our next day we went outside of Bangkok to go to the floating market. I know where Disney got all their ideas for the jungle cruise but their boats don't go nearly fast enough. We were greeted with straws in coconuts and had fresh coconut milk by the river before we jumped in our speed boats and went for a ride through some villages to the market. The bus we took there drove 10 miles or so up the road to meet up at the end of our boat ride. We on the other hand took our speed boats through some villages and eventually ended up at the big floating market. We drove through coconut and banana plantations and our boatmasters stopped at peoples houses along the way who wanted to sell us trinkets, clothes or fruit. When we got to the market we were stacked 6 boats wide on a river that was only wide enough for 4. There were people floating by selling everything from fruit to beer to taking your pictures with boa constrictors. Needless to say our boat turned from floating market to booze cruise in a matter of minutes. Ok, so that is an exaggeration we all had a round on the boat, don't worry grandma thought it was only 10 in the morning, only one beer. After that we had a long ride up into the jungle and took a train from about 20 miles out of Burma (Myanmar) to the Bridge over the River Kwai. Yes THAT Bridge over the River Kwai. The 130hr ride through the jungle and countryside though was amazing. We got to see a side of Thailand I hadn't thought existed. We saw people who had lived on the outskirts all their lives. People working in rice fields. Honestly it felt like The Darjeeling Limited. Our guide Anglea (Who is a darling sweetheart, she has taken to me quite fondly and treats me exclusivly as though I we're one of her own family. She feels like my Thai grandma) arranged for us to have 3rd class tickets on the train, which means wooden bench seats and open air compartments, sitting with people for whom it is all they can afford. After the bridge we took the long ride back home to Bangkok for a night of wandering the city and getting our first ride in a Tuk Tuk. The drivers run all over the street and even on the wrong side weaving in and out of every car. If I was ever to move here, there is no way I would ever want to learn to drive here. I'm suprised there aren't more accidents. Our next day was our free day.

I went out with Jessica, Nikki, Teddy and Vanessa to Siam Square to look for a new memory card for Nikki. (She is heading off to Europe at the end of our trip for 2 more months and didn't have enough room for pictures). We took the Skytrain across town to Siam Square walked a few blocks to Central Market and got Nikki the wrong card which the returned the other day for two smaller ones. When we got down stairs we tried to hail a taxi to take us to Cabbages and Condoms, a restaurant founded by the man who invented the condom. All of the proceeds there go to working with areas of rural Thailand that are affected by AIDS/HIV, there was also a free clinic for people to get tested at and free internet! Which was a definite plus for us travelers. Unfortunately my Gmail and Blog didn't work there. :( But none of the taxi's knew where it was, everyone wanted and address and all we had was a name, so Teddy got the bright idea to go upstairs to the book store and copy the address out of a Lonelyplanet book. Which we promptly did and before we knew it we were on our way in a REAL taxi, as opposed to a Tuk Tuk. When we got there we ate and afterwards rushed back to the hotel via skytrain to make sure we had enough time for our night event...

THAI KICKBOXING MATCH!

Angela scored us some tickets for 2000 baht (roughly 64 dollars) they were on the floor and really close to the ring, GREAT for taking pictures. I can't begin to describe the fight. We walked up to the boxing stadium and looked for our guy who was going to get us in. We could hear people cheering in yelling from inside. They walked us down a concrete corridor, the roof was made of corrugated steel, with ceiling fans about every ten feet apart. There were three different tiers, the furthest or "cheap seats" were Thai men all standing around behind a caged off area, one half yelling for every strike upon the blue fighter and the other half for every strike on the red. The second tier was all old thai men, shaking baht and betting on the fight itself. The bottom tier was us, the only people with seats watching next to the ring. In each corner the families of the fighters were there from grandmothers watching their grandchildren to younger brothers Jeremy's age watching fighters my age. I hope the pictures I bring back do it justice because right now I can't even begin to describe it. It was everything that a fighting ring from a movie would be it was just...wow.

The last two days consisted of the Weekend Market on the far side of Bangkok where I bought some souvenirs for some people and bought a shirt for myself that all the thai people out here wear. Its yellow and has the royal icon on it, they wear it on Mondays because that is the day of the birth of the king. Since we have been in Ayutthaya it has been a lot of walking through ruins. We're actually going to leave in 15 minutes to go see the ruins at night, where the illuminate everything, very good for pictuers.

I have been taking roughly 200-300 pictures a day so there will be plenty for all of you to look through and hear about when I get back. I miss you all terribly. I think the coolest thing about this country is the people. They are all very friendly. I have been greeted with a smile at every turn. My favorite moment so far with the people was today when these two girls came up and practiced their English on me. I guess they have the students go out into the area and practice their English on American tourists and then take a picture with them to turn into their teacher to show that they met someone and had the conversation, there were kids to adults walking around and conversing with our group. They also as if they can have your email as to write you and practice conversation skills, so soon enough I'll be getting emails from the new Thai friends. I don't know what else to put, we leave for Cambodia tomorrow and will land there tomorrow night. I'm sad to see this country go but it has left quite the impression on me and I WILL return. Im saddest to leave Angela, she has been an amazing guide, so full of knowledge and very friendly, putting up with me butchering her language while trying to talk to her. She is a real sweetheart. Pray for safe travel and the health of us all, I will write when I find internet in Cambodia, which I hear can be pretty hard from time to time.

- Justin

Playing catch up...

2008-06-07T17:46:00.000-07:00

Sawadeekahp!

I am in Ayutthya just about 40 miles from Bangkok. Last night was the first night I've had with more than 4 hours of sleep on this trip. We have been so busy. I will write tonight to update everyone on what is going and how Bangkok was. I'll actually have time now that we are in some what of a sleepy town. For now, off to a day at the old palace. I'll write soon.

Justin

Landed, one more flight to go

2008-06-02T20:57:00.000-07:00

Just landed in Singapore. Writing from and free internet kiosk. I have one more flight to catch at 1315 Singapore time and then we are in Thailand. Until then.
Justin

2008-06-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

I think the realization that I am leaving is coming home to roost. For the first time today I've felt some kind of anxiety about my departure.

I spent the day yesterday with Janice, Kurt, Dustin and my family. Kurt and I had breakfast down at park pantry. Janice and I spent the day distracting ourselves with the puppy store at the mall, which was choc full of pugs, of course making me VERY happy. When we got back to my place my family came over and we all had dinner together and Dustin came along too. It was really a fun time to be surrounded by them and hear how excited they are about me going. Dustin and I then checked out our favorite late night hang out at a new location Famima.

Today I spent the morning with my dad and at church. My pops is really excited for what I'm going to see out there, I remember how he was when he got back from the Czech Republic and he wants to see how going to these places will effect my perspective on life. After we had a wonderful breakfast, I went over to Grace and ran into a lot of the friends I hadn't seen in a while. I had lunch with Kurt, Jon and Jason and headed back home. Now I'm here laying out everything to pack. Jeremy and I are going to pack and then I'm off to the airport.

If there is anything you can be praying about or following over there its the political situation. There could very well be a coup on the day I arrive or very soon after. So if you would keep my safety in your prayers. As much as I would love to be a part of history snapping pictures of tanks in the city, Id much rather be safe and viewing the Royal Palace. For now though, I must take off. I look forward to seeing you all again when I am back home and safe.

Until Bangkok.

Peace be with you all,

Justin

May 28, 2008 T-3 days and counting

2008-05-28T21:51:00.001-07:00

So as of tomorrow the countdown is at 3 days. I spent the first half of my day trying to find a Hepatitis A vaccine, which ended with Dustin driving me out to PV to get it at some clinic for 165 dollars. I figure the health is worth the price. I spent the end of today with my 2nd family The Feldts, and I think I've never seen John so happy at the prospect of three weeks to enjoy peace and quiet without the Power Hour. Shock you like an electric eel!

Did some last minute shopping tonight for toiletries and such tonight. I'm very excited but nervous at the same time, seeing as I know not what to expect while over there. Every trip I've taken for this amount of time has been within the states, and has had the ability of being home within a few days if something was wrong. This is the first time I get to rely on another countries government and of course...the airline companies.

If anyone, my little brother seems to be the one taking this the hardest. He is having a difficult time with divorced family situation as is but is terribly worried that I will come back from Thailand with a wife and move away with her. Where he got this notion I'm not sure, but I think he uses it as a cover up to just say he will miss me. Keep him in your prayers as time goes on, he has been hounding me to start writing on this so I "don't forget to tell him how things are going."

I'll make sure to write before I leave but as for now, more packing, more purchases of last minute things I've forgotten and watching the clock tick down.

Peace be with you all,

- Justin