away

been on the farm. at the farm. in ohio. back now. pics will follow.

my new office

how?

how am i sposed to drive my lowrider 01 camry through all this?????

helen

helen is a neighbor of mine. there are two widows who live in my apt building and helen is one of them. she is pictured here with her boyfriend ernie. helen lost her husband quite some time ago and ernie lost his wife an equally long time ago. ernie lives about 30 minutes away from here and they only get to see each other about twice a week.

anyway, helen and i hung out on sunday. we had a blast. we went to the gym and she really liked it. then we went through the bk drive thru for frozen cokes. then we went up to the beach and drove around the dunes. helen has lived in the area almost her whole life. and has never been to the dunes. ever. i was SHOCKED. but she loved it. so it was good.

this is a picture of helen's surprise birthday party last year. her birthday is in july but my impact group went down and threw her a surprise party in october. boy was she surprised! ernie helped me pull it off.

wanna drive a dozer

and if i'm lucky i will. i'd LOVE to drive a bulldozer! how fun! and all i can picture is the little ant driving a bulldozer in richard scarry's children's books. anyone else remember that? that's a serious blast from the past.

anyway, i'm dealing with a low-rider toyota camry driving on a construction site daily. so far it's not unbearable but i think i'll bottom out soon if these piles of stuff keep appearing out of nowhere. i also went up on a sizzor lift with mark and shane. mark is the guy i'm working for. he's the one on the left. anyway, that was fun but i didn't like how that thing swayed. they hung light fixtures up in the rafters. and with the thing being so high and wiggly, it was weird. anyway, the front entrance has had progress (doors!) and there are now walls in the office area! oh, and you gotta watch out when certain people have the power sprayer.

courts website

there is info and more pics at the gym's website. the courts. (my new place of employment.) my pics are more recent but it's cool to see the progress. go to:

www.thecourtsofnwi.com

(the courts of northwest indiana)

an international big mac

The bank calculated the "weighted net hourly wage in 14 professions" and divided it into the local price of "a globally available product," for which it chose McDonald's flagship hamburger.

"On a global average, 35 minutes of work buys a Big Mac," it said. "But the disparities are huge: in Nairobi, 1.5 hours' work is needed to buy the burger with the net hourly wage there. In the U.S. cities of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami, a maximum of 13 minutes' labor is needed."

In Tokyo, it takes a mere 10 minutes. Bogota, Colombia, came in last among the 70 cities surveyed at 97 minutes.

mmmmmmm

here is a pic of my dinner last nite. it was WONDERFUL. i'll have to go back and get more. this is SO the funnest time of year--with all the fresh produce everywhere.

oh, and here's also a pic of the gym today. there's fresh concrete outside the main entrance. and something that is actually starting to look like a main entrance. mark asked me today what color it should be and i asked him what color the main part of the building would be. he said tan. "what color is that stripe gonna be?" i asked. (there's a stripe going all the way around the bulding nearish the top. see it???) he answered, "dark blue." so i told him the block marking the entrance should then be that same blue. he replied, "WHAT? WHEN THE ROOF IS GONNA BE BLUE TOO?" i was like, wow. hey dude! you asked! who knows. maybe it should be fuchsia. or chartreuse. or maybe just tangerine and peach paisley striped.

in loving memory

i won't be making it to cedar this summer :(

okay. so i have a new job. and i'm glad for that. seriously. but in order to get this gym up and in operation by the weekend that is advertised for the first tournament, free throw contests and 3-point stuff, i can't go anywhere, really. besides that i have to get another MRI on my right rotator cuff (and might have to squeeze in surgery) and i have to make a dvd for my church before next sunday. that said, i don't believe i'll make it to one of my favorite places this summer--cedar campus. i'll post a few pics from this awesome place. and pretend i'm there. you can do the same. (unless you ARE there and i'm insanely JEALOUS!) wink wink. but maybe i'll go this fall or something. for a long weekend maybe. ahh, who knows.

pictures of my new job

like it?

i have a job!

nuff about the war. i have a new job! i'm going to be working for my friend who is building a gym. not really a "gym" but courts. 4 basketball and 3 tennis courts. actually, the place is called "the courts." i'm currently working on getting the concessions together, (we'll be using U.S. foodservice), figuring out what all we need like menu signs, general signs, trash cans, entry mats to wipe your feet on, arcade games, etc. the gym is supposed to open for valpo's big "popcorn festival" weekend. hope we make it!

before i start working full-time, (i'm just keeping track of my time here at home since there's no office for me to work in yet...) i'd like to go to the U.P. of michigan first. so after that, if i end up going, i'll be all about the courts. i'd like to get to ohio to visit my family there too. we'll see.

how can they be anything but?

i guess hezbollah (meaning "party of allah") is really evil after all. i had been trying to decide what i thought about them because they do provide good support to their people, like hamas. from what i gather hezbollah is not yet a political party-but they are trying-and hamas is. both organizations provide for their people better than the U.S. does for our people. they provide the necessities including health insurance and everyday-important stuff. their "welfare" system seems to work far better than ours. however, they cower behind their people and use them as shields. if we were a part of their organization, they might use our houses/backyards to set off katyushas from. and consequently, we might get bombed because of them. i mean, look at their flag. is there really anything good about an ak-47 above the earth? what the heck is that? man, i wish i could get a "PRESS" flack jacket, a white suv and get over there....

raul for president? new dictator in cuba?

is raul castro now in charge of cuba permanently? i mean, fidel is 80 and he just handed down power to his little brother raul who is 75. what next? neither one of these guys are gonna last that much longer, are they? are there any other little castro brothers? cousins? second cousins? twice-removed?

and don't even get me started about the middle east. why did the palestinians have to go and kidnap those israeli soldiers back in july? man, they opened up a can of worms. and while israel is defending itself to some degree, too many folks from lebanon are going into syria and iran and getting those folks all riled up. the arabs hate us already--for many reasons that i don't even blame them. i understand israel's point but you can't go and bomb the crap out of lebanon and kill all these civilians and children. and what about qana? can they prove that hezbollah or hamas were there amidst the innocent? the u.s. has got to stop "overnighting" weapons to israel. everyone hates us already. soon it's gonna be the world against america and israel. and i must say, israel is in a worse geographic position to handle such hatred. at least the americans can sit across the ocean and be all self-absorbed as usual. i wonder how many u.s. citizens actually know that syria is getting their military ready. and unfortunately, there are plenty of americans who have no idea there is even a conflict in the middle east. actually, probably don't even know where the middle east is. what's it gonna take to get a nation with half-way intelligent or informed citizens?

being in china was cool for yet another reason: i got to see three different viewpoints on the war. i watched CNN of course, (my least favorite), the BBC, and the chinese news channel in english. the more viewpoints, the better. it's easier to make a determination of what's really going on. but i feel like i still haven't a clue. but i do have a picture in my mind of mt. megiddo--in israel from my 1997 visit. i wonder where all my pictures are from my middle-east trip....

i did honestly enjoy our little side trip to the golan heights winery. i hope that little institution gets to stay. it was cute.

it's HOT

yeah, it's hot here. it's 78 degrees since the storms rolled thru and the dew point is about 70. (the heat index is at 81 degrees.) humidity is about 80% and it seems hot. but i've gotta tell you that in china, SOUTHERN china, even around midnight, the actual temp would be 96 degrees with a heat index of 104. the dew point would be 82 easily and the humidity in the 90's. the heat over there was so OPPRESSIVE that i would go to the hotel pool in guangzhou to try to cool off and the pool water was the same temp as the air! so then i'd just go back up to my room and lay on the bed with the a/c cranked. i would tell myself i'd go shopping later for souvenirs and stuff--like after dark--but it was just as bad after dark. the smog and haze would trap the sun's energy/heat so even in the dead of night you couldn't escape it. i won't even go into detail about the heat during the DAY.

our hotel was on an island (shamian island) which was on the pearl river. at night the city of guangzhou went wild with neon lights. kinda different. even our hotel was outlined in green at night. the two pools were amidst many pieces of foliage. mostly trees of some kind--lots of palm trees too.

back from china....

many apologies about having my blog blocked from good ol' china. all blogs are blocked as well as a few other things. ah well, democracy isn't all bad i guess.

i came back from china with some crazy chinese germs that cause my throat to hurt unimaginably and i'm quite certain i have an ear infection. the fever comes and goes but right now it is gone. (asian bird flu?) just kidding. but who knows. anyway, i have a doc. appt for monday to maybe get some antibiotics but until then, my mom took pity on me and although i have my own vicodin from my rotator cuff injury last fall, she gave me her tylenol 3 from a recent colon surgery she had. woohoo!

the baby my friend adopted is the cutest thing ever. even if she DID share her germs with me. actually, all the babies from the orphanage were sick so i could have gotten whatever i've got from any of them. sigh. but it was worth it. we saw the great wall, the forbidden city, summer palace, and all the other cool stuff. beijing is WAY under construction. they have to hurry to get stuff done by 2008 for the olympics there!

brynn (formerly liu qian guo) loves to play. she is a happy baby who only cries when she's hungry or tired. she's adjusting well to her new environment and new mommy. she's not a drama queen (like some of the other high maintenance little girlies over there....) brynn is very active and has to check out EVERYTHING. she smiles a lot and loves to chew on plastic water bottles.

now that i've posted a few pics, i've got to get back to making this dvd.

leaving tomorrow....

well, i must pack a lot of stuff into a little space. not good for me. with my bag's weight and the baby's stuff, i have only SIX pounds for my own stuff. hmph. i'll make it work. wow. but it's tuff.

i hope i have access to my email in china...i've heard they often block stuff so even on my own computer i may not be able to access stuff like this blog, for instance. ah well, i'll hope for the best. the guy in this picture...the tall one with his arms crossed...that's dave. he's been to china before--a few years ago. hopefully he's given me enuf good advice to help me thru. otherwise, i'll email him and give him a hard time. that i will.

for anyone who wants to download skype, it's free. just go to www.skype.com and there it is. the time zone in china is 13 hours ahead of valpo time. wow. (it's free internet calling.) i'll be up late, most likely. so on most of your lunch hours, (if you're one of my dear american friends reading this) you can reach me. if you're a friend from elsewhere, just look online for china's current time and figure it out. and yes, it's one ginormous country but with ONE time zone. kinda handy, i guess. maybe not. i dunno.

o yeah, my skype name is "bekihull." see ya in august!

DUH!

o yeah. and here's what shane looks like. last time i hung out with him (9 years ago @ eastern) he was a lot like screech from "saved by the bell." he's so much cooler now. totally full of wisdom and love. he's the man.

nationals @ purdue

it's over! we got back today from purdue and i leave for china on tuesday. nationals was a really great time this year and with speakers like francis chan, mark cahill, ryan dobson, and SHANE CLAIBORNE, how can you go wrong? (man, it was good to see shane after 9 years!) he's got a new book out called "the irresistable revolution." i highly recommend it. i haven't finished it yet but i'm loving what i've read thus far. you can get it at barnes n noble. prolly borders too.

anyway, i'm not ready to leave yet. honestly, i haven't unpacked the car yet! i had to go to northwestern to get my second round of hepatitis a & b shots. owch. so while i was downtown, we went to the taste. (taste of chicago.) it was actually my first time! i'm not usually around this time of summer to do such things! i ran into kelly (friend from church) at the taste with one of her friends too!

so here are two pics: me and mike kane at one of the rallies at purdue and one of a sign from the taste. hopefully my little blog here won't be blocked while i'm in china cuz stuff is censored/restricted and i may not have access to it. i'll figure something out and email everyone. otay? i'll have fun pics daily and everything. if anyone wants to talk to me while i'm in china, download skype. it's free. late!

my classic car

okay, well it's a 2001 (toyota camry) but to some people, that's a classic. anyway, i had to run into church for a few minutes last night during what was apparently a car show in the parking lot. so you KNOW i had to back up my car and pop the hood too. when i came back out about ten minutes later, there were FOUR people standing around my car! yeah, my car thinks it's pretty cool now. getting all that attention.