Hotel Rwanda

Posted on June 22, 2005 6:57 AM

Last night Angela and I watched the movie Hotel Rwanda, about the genocide that happened in Rwanda in 1994. Like any movie of its kind, it is of course very sad. Several hundred thousand people died during the civil war in Rwanda, most of them Tutsis or moderate Hutus.

At one point during the movie, a journalist played by Joaquin Phoenix, tells Paul Rusesabagina, played by an excellent Don Cheadle, "I think if people see this footage, they'll say Oh, my God, that's horrible. And then they'll go on eating their dinners." I, like most Americans, watched that and said to myself, "Yeah, that's true." Then I realize, I was probably one of those people. I am somewhat shamed by this.

On September 11th, 2001 and the days afterward, I was shocked at the loss of life perpetrated by a group of men whose main motivation for their acts was hatred. After visiting New York City this weekend and seeing the place where the towers used to be, I was reminded of the numbers of people who were killed and who lost friends and family that day. Thinking about that, I cannot fathom the horror of more than half a million people being slaughtered in the name of a hatred that I cannot even understand.

When I watch movies and documentaries about the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis in World War II, I usually think, "Those bastards. We can't let something like that happen again." But we did, we let it happen again. Shame on us.

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Rwanda Information Exchange
Hotel Rwanda Movie Website

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NYC: What a trip!

Posted on June 21, 2005 4:23 PM

We went on a bus trip to New York City this weekend. We got on the bus at about 7am and arrived in NYC at around 9:30am. We spent all day walking around. We went up to the NBC area and walked around the Rockefeller Center. We walked down to the NYC Public Library and walked around in there. After that, we made our way down to the Empire State Building where we had some beers and nachos in the restaurant on the 1st floor.

After our refreshments, we found our way to the subway, where we managed to buy tickets despite the vending machines not working very well. One wouldn't take cash and the other wouldn't take anything. We ended up buying 6 subway tickets one at a time with our credit cards. Nothing like pulling out your wallet and credit cards in a throng of people in the subway to make you feel good.

We took the subway down to what I think was Chinatown. There was a lot of people on the street, selling stuff. I imagine you could find just about anything you wanted there. There were a lot of people with plastic garbage bags full of who knows what. Some of them had little color booklets with pictures of watches and other items. It seems like if you want to sell stuff illegally you have to make at least a small effort not to be conspicuous and you're okay.

At one point we were walking along and a little Chinese woman told us to come to her shop for some special deals on stuff. When we got to the store, a guy at the back opened a little tiny door into a hidden back room. There were probably about 15 people, mostly women that piled into this little room. They had all kinds of purses, wallets, and bags with designer names on them. We didn't get any but the prices were pretty good. :)

Later on, we made our way to Little Italy where we stopped and had lunch at a restaurant with tables on the sidewalk, where we could watch hundreds of people walking by. The food wasn't too bad, and not terribly expensive, I guess, at least by NYC standards. Who knows? It was my first time to NYC so I have nothing to base it on. I did appreciate how they automatically added a 20% gratuity to the bill. Thanks a lot!

After lunch/dinner, we did some more shopping. We stopped at a store called J+R Computer Store where I expected to find all kinds of great deals. Well, I didn't see anything that knocked my socks off so I didn't get anything there. Gene got himself a laptop backpack case, so that he can carry his 50 pounds of paperwork with comfort. :)

After checking out a couple more stores, we headed back to the subway for the ride back up to Times Square where most of the group chowed down on slices of NYC Pizza. Angela, Blake, and I went into the Hard Rock Cafe Store to buy some obligatory HRC stuff. Angela and I both bought shirts. We're quite the tourists.

Time was getting short, so we hurried quickly back to the bus pickup spot, stopping on the way to get some good old NYC McDonalds food. Mmmmmmm. Yummy. The bus showed up right on time and we all piled on. Everyone was pretty exhausted from all the running around, and most of us slept a lot of the ride back. Not me, I couldn't sleep so I went through people's stuff. :)

Although it seems like we mostly just walked around, I had a lot of fun on the trip, and I'm looking forward to going up again. I'm thinking it would be cool to go up for a weekend and stay at a hotel.

The pictures are here.

Keyword: nyc

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Prom Party!

Posted on June 5, 2005 10:51 AM

Last night we went to an Eighties Prom Party to celebrate the birthday of Lesley D. A lot of people dressed for the occasion. I took about 200 pictures and you can see them here.

We started at Jason and Sinda’s house. Everybody got ready there and we took some pictures outside before we left.



The prom was held at the Newport American Legion Post. It was a pretty cool place. The drinks were cheap! Lesley had a photographer come to take pictures. I had a lot of fun, and I danced all night. My feet were actually sore by the end of the night. There were a couple times in the evening that I had to step outside with a couple napkins to wipe the sweat off my face because I was drenched. The suit I was wearing looked really cool, but it was also very hot.

That’s about it for now. I wanted to put something up quick to get the pictures out on the site, so check them out.

Eighties Prom Party Pictures

Walmart Picture Set #1

Walmart Picture Set #2

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Welcome to South Beach... Again.

Posted on June 2, 2005 4:39 PM

Yes, you guessed it. We're back on the South Beach Diet!

Since the summer is almost upon us and we're not feeling like we're ready for our bikini's just yet, we decided to go on the South Beach Diet again. It worked pretty well last time and I don't remember it being too painful once you get past the first week or so. We started on Monday, so it's been a whole 4 days so far. The first couple days at work I was having a problem with my brain going into neutral in the late afternoon, but I'm starting to get used to it again.

Last time we did this we did real well, but we lost it when we went on our honeymoon cruise. There's no way you can stick to a diet on a cruise. That would be torture. I ate like a pig, and I'd do it again. This time, there's no cruise lined up just the usual summer get-togethers and such. That will make it hard to be good all the time, but I guess the point is to do the best we can without making ourselves and each other miserable.

This weekend we're going to an 80's Prom Birthday Party. That will be a good time. I'll just have to plan to have fun, and maybe the next day I'll go on a long bike ride or something to burn off the carbs. (If I'm not too hung over.)

Stay tuned for more South Beach stories and stuff here, if I don't chew my fingers off waiting for my next cup of sugar-free jello.

Cheers.

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