Many of the volunteers who went are doctors and nurses who took a week off of work to go to Mexico and work even harder then they would back home in the US. I was there to take pictures and shoot video in order to produce marketing materials for the organization.

In only three days, over 6 hours of video was shot and more then 650 pictures were taken. In that time I interviewed six parents and met dozens of children. I was allowed to be in the operating room and Dr. Stieg, the plastic surgeon who performed the lip and pallet repairs, even allowed me to scrub in and assist him during one of the procedure. If that wasn’t enough, we were even provided with a local guide who took me around the city of Oaxaca and into the mountains to visit a pre-Columbian Zapotec ruin called Monte Albán.

While visiting the market at the center of the city, I tried a popular local dish called ‘chapulines.’ If you’re not familiar with it, it’s made of grasshoppers, the whole body intact including the legs and doused in spices. It’s delicious with guacamole!

I can only hope that my contribution will help get the word out about this amazing organization and bring more attention to cleft lips and pallets.

Here is the video that was produced after condensing 6 hours of video down to three and a half minutes of video. Please feel free to cry a little, no one will judge you harshly.

From the SHARES website: “SHARES International is an organization that forges alliances to heal children and bring hope to families with special medical needs. Our mission teams target patients and partners in Latin America and the Caribbean. SHARES International’s medical teams partners with local civic leaders, hospitals and government leaders to perform cleft lip and palate operations for needy families, free of charge.”

This is a puzzle game with a simple and intuitive interface but with truly unique characteristics. Check it out, it’s rather impressive and the music is beautiful.

I’m also trying to practice various hypermiling techniques I’ve been reading about on the web. I’m not going to go crazy hardcore trying to increase my fuel efficiency this way, but a few changes in my driving behavior have also helped me get the most miles out of my car. One thing I realized is that I’m terrible at maintaining a constant speed, so I’ve started using my cruise control more. I’m also trying to speed up slower after breaking even though I’d rather stay away from other drivers as much as possible, and the easiest way to do that is to get to the speed limit before they do.

Gabriel started shooting the documentary right before our rank promotion test in February of 2008. Testing took place at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Imagine the reaction you get after handing someone a nice scotch with a pair of ice bullets in it. Honestly, I hate watering down my scotch, but I think the single malt would forgive me in this case.

I’d like to see how these would look with a dark liquid frozen into them so that it looks like a real bullet might be in the drink. I may have to put some tests together and post pictures at some point in the future.

There is still a lot of coding to do, a bunch of stuff isn’t floating correctly like the nav at the top and a bunch of pages like the about me, gallery and contact page and even the 404 error page also looks funky.

All that will be done in time, but for now I rejoice.

“My Creative Director is an Ass”

On the first page, at the very bottom of the list, they found this site and clicked the link to visit.

I just wanted to thank that person for their patronage, and say that I’m sorry your Creative Director is an Ass. To that person I suggest trying to confront your Creative Director about your unhappy working relationship rather then doing pathetic passive-aggressive searches on Google to make yourself feel better.

In an effort to avoid being in a situation like that, I’ve designed these cards which I’ll get printed at a later date.

I really love what a  well designed business card can do for someone. A good card is like a good logo; it’s like creating a brand for yourself to become more memorable. There are a ton of amazing business cards out there, but one of the best I’ve ever seen was made for world famous computer hacker, Kevin Mitnick. If you’d like a copy of his business card, you’ll either have to meet the man in person or go to his company’s site where you can find instructions on how to purchase a business card for $5. The best part is that I bet people are paying that $5. I think I’ll wait till I meet Mr. Mitnick however.

Flickr has a phtostream dedicated to beautifully designed business cards. Do check it out if you need any layout inspiration.

Some might consider what we saw on the screen a miracle. On my screen was the image of Jesus Christ himself, bending over a little to reach out and give his blessing. Others might scoff at this so-called miracle and say that what we saw was nothing but a lucky coincidence of lighting and placement of a spray bottle I use to discipline my cat when she climbs on counters or starts trying to eat my bills before I get a chance to pay them. I consider myself to be of the latter group.

Of course, if there were going to happen, why not in Florida which is home to some rather famous religious iconography that appears on different consumers good. There has been the “Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sandwich,” the “Jesus Christ Potato Chip” and now this! Maybe the Golden Palace online casino will buy my lamp and spray bottle for $28,000 like they did with the grilled cheese. That would truly be a blessing.