John’s Crawlspace

So last Saturday, I stopped by the beer store to pick up a case for the Phillies game (which wasn’t until later on that day). I don’t go to this distributor too often, but I was in the area, and they usually have a decent variety. There were two older ladies working there, and since they saw me looking around (as opposed to knowing what I wanted to buy as soon as I walked in) they started talking to me, and making all kinds of recommendations. It was immediately obvious to me that they didn’t really have the slightest idea what they were talking about, but I entertained the conversation anyway. One of the ladies was raving about the “new” Saranac Pomegranate Wheat, and before I knew it she had gone to the walk-in freezer and brought one out for me to try. I had this beer last year while I was in Vermont, but I wasn’t gonna turn down a free beer, so I acted like I had never heard of it before. The funny part about this was, she didn’t call it pomegranate - She stumbled over the word when she hit that third syllable, and she actually ended up saying pomeranian. Saranac Pomeranian Wheat - It’s delicious… You need to watch out for the hairs though. Anyway, I didn’t want to chug this beer, so I continued to talk to them while I drank it, and before I knew it, they were handing me another beer. I had already tried both of these beers before, but I’m not one to turn down free beer, even if it was 10:30 on a Saturday morning. Anyway, I ended up hanging out in the beer store for almost half an hour, talking to two ladies (both of whom were old enough to be my momz, yo) about beer, college, and sex. I made that last part up. Anyway, I ended up leaving with a case of Troegs Sunshine Pils (and a 30 of High Life for good measure). Definitely much better than the garbage I left with last time. That made my Saturday a little bit more interesting.

I wrote before about how I was having knee problems that were getting in the way of my running. I stopped running completely for a little bit, and I’ve gotta say, I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed running until I wasn’t able to do it. Anyway, I figured it probably had something to do with the fact that I was running in somewhat crappy shoes. They were Nikes that ran me about $50, but I bought them at Kohls or something. I decided to go to a real shoe store and talk to someone that might know what they were talking about. So I did that, and a dude at The Finish Line suggested the Asic GT 2130s. They felt comfy, so I bought them. About 2 miles into my first run, my feet started to hurt… In the same place on each foot. After 5 miles, I felt like my feet were cut open. So those shoes sucked. I returned them and got a pair of Nike Air Max Moto 5+ instead. These shoes are much better. I ran 3 days in a row this week with no problems whatsoever. I realize this probably isn’t very interesting to most of you, but I’m pretty damn happy to be running again.

These photos of Antelope Canyon in Arizona are absolutely amazing. I can’t imagine there are many other places in the US that can match the sheer beauty of that place… Although I’ve never seen it with my own two eyes. Then again, 11 people died there in 1997, so maybe it’s better that way?

I don’t know if any of you were fans of Kids in the Hall, but I loved that show. If you’re a fan, check out their new sketch, it’s pretty funny. This, on the other hand, isn’t so much funny as it is just downright disturbing. That’s definitely a dude.

The “metal mashups” on this site are pretty interesting, although they’re definitely hit or miss. “Whole Lotta Sabbath” was pretty damn cool. Metallica’s “Eye of the Beholder” mixed together with Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” was actually difficult to listen to, to the point where it was almost disorienting, if that makes any sense. I liked the Iron Maiden/Public Enemy mashup (”Hallowed Be Thy Enemy”), and hearing the Ghostbusters theme mixed together with AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” was pretty cool. Oddly enough, “Stayin Alive” vs “Another Brick in the Wall” also worked out very well. I would have never thought of combining The Bee Gees and Pink Floyd, but its actually a very logical pairing. The guy is no Girl Talk, but it’s worth checking out if you enjoy mashups.

I’m a national shark rodeo champion… Although I’m currently suspended due to my refusal to wear that cowardly chainmail suit. And this dude is a little bitch.

I don’t post music on here nearly as much as I’d like to. I’ll hear a new album and tell myself that I’m gonna post it on my site… But by the time I actually have some free time, the album has been out for a month already, and most people who would potentially be interested in hearing it probably already have a copy. I’m a big fan of MP3 blogs, and if I had more time I’d like to have one of my own. Unfortunately, I can tell you right now that will never happen. Hell, if I had more time, I’d probably start off by revamping the site, as half the stuff on here doesn’t even work, and the layout looks like crap. Anyway, getting back on topic here… Here’s a bunch of random MP3s for you that I had on my computer at work. I’m not gonna bother with descriptions or anything, check them out if you feel like it, maybe you’ll find something you like. Don’t get caught downloading them though, or the RIAA might take away your home.

I’m heading to another small festival this weekend (the last one was a blast), so naturally its pouring down rain, and there are flood warnings… In retrospect, I probably should have gone to visit some friends at Shippensburg or Penn State for graduation, since most of the people that I know who are still in college are graduating now. Oh well - Hopefully the weather will improve a little bit tomorrow. This guy’s got the right idea. Have a great weekend everyone!

From time to time I make mix CDs for my friends. More often than not, they like them - Not to “toot my own horn” here, but I think I’m pretty good at it, as far as determining songs/artists that a person might like based on what they currently listen to, and their personality in general. Pretty deep, I know - What can I say?

Anyway, I made a mix for a friend of mine that I see once every 2 months or so. It’s been in my car for a few weeks now, so whenever Howard Stern is on vacation (which seems like it’s more often than not) I’ve been listening to it, and I think it’s pretty decent. I’ve made tons of mix CDs in the past, but never thought to post them on here for other people to check out. Oh yeah, and if you’re expecting metal, you might want to steer clear of this one, although maybe you’ll find something new that you like. You can download the mix here.

I might have gone a little overboard with the electronic/dancy type stuff on here, but you can’t tell me that these songs aren’t catchy. Hopefully, the presence of Chromeo on this CD doesn’t put my sexuality at stake. And to compensate, I’m gonna go ahead and mention that the new Arsis CD, “We Are The Nightmare”, is pretty spectacular.

Getting back on track here, remember that song “Still Fly” by Big Tymers? Classic. Anyway, The Devil Wears Prada did a cover of it for the “Punk Goes Crunk” compilation, which, as a whole, is overwhelmingly lame. However, I like the cover that they did. It’s funny to hear this type of music done in “metalcore” (or whatever) style. I’ve actually seen these guys before (at Sounds of the Underground last year) and I’m not really into their music, although I do get a kick out of the fact that they have a song called “HTML Rulez d00d“. Anyway, if you like that Big Tymers song, check out their cover of it, it’s entertaining as a novelty if nothing else.

How badly do you want a customized mouse pad? Probably not all that much, really. It’s nothing to get excited over. But this site has them for $2.99 each (with discount code MSPD99). I dunno about you guys, but for $2.99, I think a lemonparty mouse pad is a great deal. Hurry up though, the offer only lasts until 12/31/2099. Shit, I’ll be 126 by then… I hope to have enough money saved up to retire by the time I hit 125.

I love Pantera (I doubt I’ll ever “outgrow” them), so naturally I thought that this video was pretty entertaining. I could have gone without the ‘manky nuts’ parts though.

I’ve been seeing a lot of live music lately, which is awesome. My brother’s band, Still Motion, played at the Trocadero on Wednesday night. I feel like they get better everytime I see them. Last weekend, I saw Umphrey’s McGee at Rams Head Live in Baltimore. They put on a great show. The last song that they played was a sort of “mashup” between “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails and “Come Together” by The Beatles. It was pretty interesting…

The next day, they played a free show at the Green Apple Music Festival in DC. It started to rain about halfway through their set, and it turned into torrential downpour. People came on stage to speak between each band’s set - Chevy Chase came out after Umphrey’s, but before he had a chance to say anything, a cop came on stage and grabbed the mic, and told everyone to seek shelter immediately due to electrical storms. A huge crowd of people all running in different directions in the pouring rain was pretty chaotic, but it was funny. I was completely soaked at that point and didn’t really care about the rain, so I was just running around screaming. We ended up going to the Air & Space Museum while we waited for the rain to stop… Which it never really did. Apparently Warren Haynes played for a little when the rain slowed down, but we didn’t catch that.

This weekend, I’m going to a small festival that’s about an hour from here. It’s called Some Kind Of Jam, and I’m only familiar with 2 of the bands that are gonna be there. It’s only $30 though - I’d spend more than that in one night in the city, and I probably wouldn’t have as much fun either. Believe it or not, I’m really not all that into most “jam bands”, but I love camping out and live music, and festivals are always a good time. I’ve never been to one this small, where I wasn’t familiar with the majority of the bands, so we’ll see how it goes, but I’m sure it will be fun. I can’t wait for my tent to flood when it rains… I actually just ordered a new one, but I’m sure I won’t have it until next week. Anyway, that’s all for now, have a great weekend.

I’d venture to say that I became aware of The Disco Biscuits probably 2-3 years ago, but they never really piqued my interest. I had some friends that liked them, but they just didn’t “do it” for me. Up until about a year ago, the fact that they are considered a “jam band” was enough in itself to keep me from really giving them a chance. I was more confused by them than anything else; I had a hard time understanding the appeal of their music.

I have checked out parts of their sets at a few festivals (most recently Langerado) but as I said before, I was never really able to get into the music. This band has a huge (dedicated) following, and I almost felt like I was being left out or something. I’m open to all kinds of music, so clearly I just didn’t “get it”.

Illicit Drugs:

At some point, it dawned on me that the reason that I wasn’t able to get into this band was because I’ve never taken ecstacy. At some point in high school, I saw how people acted when they took it, and I decided that, in direct conflict with my burning desire to put holes in my brain, I had no interest in ever trying it. It should have been obvious to me… The bands name is a direct reference to the drug, and “molly” is all over the place at their shows. Anyway, it became apparent to me that the majority (or at least a good amount) of the band’s fanbase were so into the music because they were rolling at the shows.

This may or may not be an unfair statement, I’m sure the band has fans that have never touched the stuff, but I formed my opinion. So essentially, if you disagree with me, you’re wrong.

Cardio:

I’ve been running on and off since my freshman year of high school. I was never even semi-serious about it until college, and even then my running was sporadic… I’d go 4 times in 1 week, then skip the entire next week, you get the picture. After I graduated, I realized that I needed to get rid of a mild beer belly that I had cultivated, so I started to get into a routine, and I realized that I actually enjoyed it. Since I graduated in December of 2006, I’ve been running pretty consistently, although some knee problems have forced me to cut it from 5-6 times a week to 3 times a week.

Anyway, I’m a huge music fan, and I waste a lot of time putting together playlists for my runs. Most people probably just put their iPods on shuffle and go. I, on the other hand, spend much more time than I probably should putting together these playlists. A few weeks ago, I came across the “Hippie Workout Mix”, which is comprised of selections of live Disco Biscuits performances (put together by Live Music Blog, which is a pretty cool site). I usually run to metal, but I thought I’d give it a try.

To my surprise, I really enjoyed running to this. It had a pretty consistent beat, and due to the nature of the music, I found myself spacing out a little bit, and therefore not concentrating on how long/far I had gone. My only complaint was that, at just under 33 minutes, it was too short. But I knew that the guy who put that podcast together was on to something, because it was great to run to.

Due to continuing knee problems (which really, really suck, and most likely mean I won’t be able to participate in this) I’ve been forced to find alternatives to running. So at the gym tonight, I decided to give the elliptical another shot. It doesn’t look much like that, but that chick using it is smokin’. I’ve used it before, but it was boring as hell. I don’t like running in place; I’d much rather be running outside, where there’s stuff to look at.

Anyway, I was putting some music on my iPod at work, and I thought I’d give this Disco Biscuits nonsense another shot. I found a song on the Live Music Archive that was about 36 minutes long, and put a few songs on the playlist before it so I’d have an hours worth of music.

I stand firm in my opinion that the elliptical sucks, and in my opinion is no replacement for a good old fashioned run, but that hour went by ridiculously fast. The improvisational techniques employed by the band (and their overall style) is perfect for running, in my opinion. After my workout flew by, I realized that the Disco Biscuits exist for a reason… They need to start playing in gyms. The only problem with that idea is that their fans would show up, and within minutes, people would be trying to plug molly and smoke DMT in the gym, and I don’t think that would fly. If you’ve been to music festivals before, maybe you just got a mental image of a bunch of drugged-out zombies “raging” in a gym. Maybe you laughed.

So what was the point of this post? I have no idea, really. Maybe I’m in the minority since I was able to “overcome the odds” and find a way to enjoy this band without the assistance of mind-altering drugs. I realize this is a weird post. I’m exhausted (as usual) which may have something to do with it, but I know I’ve been neglecting the site, so I told myself I’d sit down tonight and wouldn’t get up until I wrote something. So there you have it.

This actually kind of scares me, and I’m not sure why. Maybe because it reminds me of the mechanical hound in Fahrenheit 451? If one of those things was following you around, I bet you’d be pretty freaked out, so don’t call me a pussy for being scared of a robot.

My 500 GB external hard drive (this) is giving me “cyclical redundancy check” errors, and not allowing me to access any of the files on it. I’ve spent an insane amount of time gathering/organizing the music on here, so to say that this sucks would be a bit of an understatement. Anyway, I’m gonna see what I can do about that now, so wish me luck. Or don’t, it really doesn’t make much of a difference.

Charles Manson is making good use of his life sentence - He just released an album under Creative Commons. The 16-track album is titled “One Mind”, and you can download it here. I just downloaded it, and the quality leaves something to be desired… But then again, it was recorded in prison. Anyway, I’m intrigued. I might have to check out some more mentally ill musicians.

Watching stuff in slow motion is usually pretty awesome, and this is no exception. Wow.

Shorpy.com posts high-resolution historical photos. For some reason, I find most of the pictures to be pretty pretty fascinating. Definitely a good way to kill some time.

What The World Eats is pretty interesting - It shows pictures of families from different parts of the world with everything that they purchased at the grocery store (or wherever they get their food) for that week, along with what they spent on it, and what their favorite foods are. It turns out that the Aboubakar family from Chad is living large… Who would have thought?

You’ve gotta be pretty confident in your artistic abilities to start drawing on a Lamborghini in sharpie marker. Check out the end result though, it looks pretty badass. By the way, the link for the word ‘looks’ in that last sentence is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.

Remember the Westboro Baptist Church (the “God Hates Fags” people)? They got Rick Rolled. I laughed.

Some dude attached high-def cameras to elephants. The resulting pictures came out pretty well… Interesting stuff.

Correct me if I’m wrong… But I’m pretty sure that the music video for “Unleash Carnage” by Himsa just made tennis a little bit more badass.

Charlton Heston is dead, and I’m going to bed. That sentence rhyming was not an attempt at humor.

At the end of my last Ghana post, Cortney and I had just arrived in Togo. I had a feeling that the place we’d be staying would be nice. It pretty much had to be nicer than what we had grown accustomed to over two odd weeks. But I wasn’t expecting it to be a mansion… We basically had our own suite in the house, with air conditioning and everything. “Spoiled” would be an understatement, we were in heaven. You can check out a “walkthrough” type video that I took here.

When we first arrived, we sat down and talked to the family for a bit. It was a mother and father, and their teenage son, Léo. They called their other son, Kelly, who is in the US, and we passed around the cell phone and all talked to him. Kelly is the one who told us to come stay with his parents for a bit while we were in Ghana - I know I explained that before, but don’t expect anyone to remember. They told us they’d be serving dinner around 8:30, and I think it was around 4 or so, so we went and took showers and just relaxed in the AC for a while. Dinner was great - The first “round” of food was a huge salad. I filled up on that, not knowing there was more food coming. After that they brought out loafs of bread, eggroll-type things, rice, meat, and fish. I was stuffed. And then they brought out a cake, with golden spoons to eat it with.

After dinner, Léo asked us if we were tired, or if we wanted to go out with him. I was painfully full from dinner (it was by far the most I’d eaten since arriving in Africa) but we decided to go out anyway. He drove us around for a bit and showed us some of the places that he likes to hang out at. Then he told us we were going to “the discotheque”, and took us to this ridiculous club, called “Club Privée”. He flashed some card at the door and we went into a VIP room with loud music playing. There were only about 10 people in that room, and most of them looked like they were in their 30s or older (and at least half of them were white, if I remember correctly). We sat in there for a little bit, but it was kind of awkward, so we made our way into the main club area. Now I’m not that type of person that frequents clubs, so I haven’t been to many. That being said, this was the nicest club I’ve ever been in, by far. Keep in mind that this is in a third world country. Léo pointed some guy out to us, and told us that it was the president of Togo’s son. Walking around in Togo, I was hard pressed to find girls that I was even remotely attracted to, but almost every girl in this place was ridiculously hot. I guess Léo doesn’t drink, but he asked us if we wanted anything, so we did some tequila shots, which he paid for. We hung out for a little while longer and then decided to leave since it was getting later.

On the way back to his house, two police (he called them “soldiers”) flagged him down with their flashlights. He pulled over next to them (they were on foot) and got out of the car. He talked to them for a minute or two, handed them some money, and then we were on our way. When he explained to us what happened, he made it sound like it was completely normal. Basically, “if they pull you over, you give them money, and then you are free to go”. He explained that if you are wealthy enough to afford a car, that you will always be pulled over by the police, and you have no choice but to bribe them, or else they won’t let you go. That blows my mind, and I kept asking him about it, but he was so used to it that I guess it’s just accepted as a part of everyday life there. This happened two separate times that night. I was nodding off in the car since it was probably around 1:00 am or so, and I was used to being in bed by 9:00 pm at the orphanage.

The next morning we had a great breakfast - Coffee, bread (with brie cheese) and croissants. After breakfast, some guy that works for the family drove Cortney and I, along with Léo and his friend Willy (really), to “the market”. On the way, we stopped so we could convert our Ghanaian currency to Togolese currency (CFA Francs). 50 Ghanaian cedi got me 21 Francs. So it turns out that the Ghana cedi isn’t worth too much. And not only that, but stuff in Togo was much more expensive.

We walked around for awhile and checked out some of the stuff people were selling. Lots of cool art, masks and things of that nature. And parrots too, apparently. I saw a lot of stuff that I liked - But since I don’t speak French, bartering was out of the question, and since I’m white, the prices that they gave me right off the bat were just obnoxious. So they’d tell me a price, and I’d start to walk away, and they’d follow me, asking why I was walking away and ignoring them. This actually got kind of ugly a few times. I almost bought something, and then Léo told me it was a horrible deal, and that I shouldn’t buy it. The vendor saw Léo telling me not to buy it, so he came out and started following us, screaming at Léo in French. He followed us around for about 10 minutes and then finally stopped, but he kept reappearing and trying to sell the thing to me (I don’t even remember exactly what it was to be honest). It was ridiculous, and we ended up leaving the market because of stuff like this that kept happening.

We went to some other market that was indoors. This place was huge, and you had to pay to get in. We spent 2 hours or so there, and it was cool at first, but a lot of the vendors sell the exact same stuff, and it gets old after awhile. We headed back to the house for lunch, and then packed our stuff for Aného. Aného is right on the coast, and the family had a house there as well. We ate lunch and then headed out.

On the way to Aného, Léo rear-ended someone. He got out and talked to them to sort things out. There wasn’t too much damage to either car, but it was a strange situation to be in while in another country. It took about half an hour to sort that out. When we started moving again, Cortney started to feel sick. She said she felt nauseous, and then she opened the car door and started throwing up. This was really scary, because as she had her head out the door, oncoming traffic was ridiculously close to the car, and if a car would have even bumped into the open door, it would have slammed her head. I was trying to tell her this and have her switch seats with me, but she was pretty sick and didn’t seem too concerned. She also said she was pretty sure she was vomiting blood, which was kind of scary. We pulled over several different times for her to throw up as well. It ended up taking about 3 hours for us to get from Lomé to Aného.

When we finally arrived, Cortney went to lay down. Léo had brought his laptop with him, and he put on the only English movie he had (all of the rest were in French) which was The Marine. It was kind of lame, but it helped pass time and gave us something to do. The house was super nice by the way. There was a guest house next to it, and they had a family that lived there just to take care of the main house and the garden. So that gives you an idea of the kind of money that this family has.

Togo has “scheduled blackouts”, similar to Ghana’s blackouts. So pretty much right after we arrived, the power went out, and Léo told me it wouldn’t be back on until midnight. It was ridiculously hot in the house, so we hung out outside for awhile and just talked. He was asking me about rappers, and which ones I liked. He told me that he likes 2Pac and Big Pun, but Ja Rule is lame. It’s funny to hear about which rappers are known over there and which ones aren’t. I started to get really tired so I went inside to try and sleep, but it was literally too hot to sleep. I’d doze off and then wake up covered in sweat. So I actually went back outside and stayed awake until the power came back on, at which point I was able to turn a fan on. Just one example of the many things that I realized we really take for granted.

The next morning, we headed to the beach after breakfast. Léo had mentioned earlier that the tide was very strong, but I didn’t really think much of it. Turns out he was right - The strength of the tide was pretty ridiculous. I know how to swim, and I didn’t dare walk more than a few steps out into the ocean. So I just relaxed on the beach for a while until I started to burn, and then we headed back to the house. We left Aného at probably around 2 pm, and it only took us an hour or so to get back to Lomé.

When we got back to the house in Lomé, there were a ton of people there. They were having some sort of get-together, and people seemed to be a bit drunk already and having a good time. Léo’s father told us to come in and join them. So we sat down and ended up having a ton of different kinds of food. Every 20 minutes or so, their were 3 or 4 new dishes being put out. And every time I finished my wine, someone refilled my glass. I didn’t really know what was going on since most of what they were saying/”cheers”-ing to was in French, but it was entertaining nonetheless. We went back to “our room” to relax for awhile, and then Léo came and asked us if we wanted to watch a movie. So we ended up watching The Marine again. Sweet. We had dinner a few hours later, and then called it a night.

Woke up early the next morning to shower and get my stuff together. We had one last good breakfast before leaving. We needed to get new Ghana visas, since our original Ghana visas were single entry, and therefore expired as soon as we left Ghana to enter Togo. So we took some pictures with the family, and said our goodbyes.

Léo (and some driver that works for the family) drove us to the Ghana Embassy building. My first impression was that the people were not very friendly. Anyway, after waiting for over an hour, some lady handed us visa forms to fill out. At this point we realized we needed passport photos, so we left and found a place that was setup to print them. We got back about 45 minutes later and started all over again. We were then told that it took 3 days to process the visa. So basically we’d be stuck in Togo for another 3 days. When we went back out to the car to tell Léo this, he called his dad. His dad made some phone calls, and then told us to go back in and ask to speak with the ambassador. So I went in and asked, and the lady at the desk basically acted like I had no business talking to this ambassador, and told me to sit down. We waited another hour or so and finally we were able to get our stuff sorted out, but they made it pretty difficult. There is more to it, but I won’t bore you with the details.

Also, while we were in the waiting room, some lady that looked like Whoopi Goldberg asked if she could borrow my pen. I was using it at the time, and it wasn’t like she just needed it for a second (she had an entire visa application to fill out) but I just handed it to her without really thinking. It was a pretty nice Staedtler ink pen which I brought with intentions of maybe doing some sketches. Anyway, she obviously pushed the pen way too hard into the paper, and smashed the tip right in. She walked back over to me, handed me the pen, and said “this doesn’t even work, buy a new pen.” That made me pretty mad.

Léo and his driver took us to the Togo-Ghana border at Aflao, and we crossed over into Ghana. As soon as we arrived, we were swarmed by beggars, taxi drivers, currency converters, etc. We had no trouble finding a tro-tro to Ho, and from there we found another tro-tro to Hohoe. The tro-tro broke down though, and we sat on the side of the road in the dark for about an hour until they fixed it. I learned that stuff like that is just inevitable there - you can never expect to arrive somewhere at a specific time, you have to allow room for “error”.

When we got back to the orphanage, we had some dinner (fish and rice). After dinner, Cortney and I finished off a bottle of brandy in my room. Cortney headed back to her room to get to bed, and I accidentally knocked over the empty brandy bottle, so I spent the next 20 minutes drunkenly trying to clean up all the shards on the floor of my room in dim lighting.

The next morning (December 4th, my birthday) when I stepped outside to brush my teeth, Simon (one of the boys I got to know the best) asked me for a ‘plaster’, and wanted to know if he ‘could clean my dresses’. So I gave him a band aid, and brought out my dirty clothes. I always felt bad having other people wash my clothes, so I helped, but he was much better at it than I was. Obviously they have their own way of doing things there… But having stayed in Ghana for a month, I now know that I’ll take a machine wash over hand-scrubbed clothing any day.

For whatever reason, I sat in on Cortney’s English class that day. I sat in the back of the classroom and tried to be low key, but the kids were definitely distracted the whole time, they kept turning around and staring at me. I was done with my classes for the day, but Cortney had another one that ended at 2:30. We had plans to meet up with some people in Hohoe to get some drinks for my birthday, so I figured I’d wait for her to finish teaching so we could head out together. While she was teaching, I went for a long walk. This was actually one of my favorite things to do while at the orphanage, just going out and exploring by myself, walking along paths in the ‘bush’ and through neighboring villages. When I got back, Cortney told me that she had been throwing up again. I didn’t feel like heading into town by myself, so I decided to wait around for awhile to see if she’d feel any better. I hung out in the commons area for a bit and did some reading. While I was in there, Isaac came in and showed me a bottle of what was apparently some type of traditional herbal blend used to fight malaria. He informed me that it’s taste was “more bitter than the urine of satan” (his exact words). He then asked me to type some exams on the typewriter for him. He dictated the tests to me to speed things up a bit. I was typing one of the religion exams, and some of the questions on it were pretty ridiculous, I wish I would have written them down. Every time I used the typewriter, they had it setup under the same tree, and this tree was full of ants that liked to drop down onto unsuspecting people and bite the hell out of them. Somehow I managed to forget about that every single time until I was getting bit. So that was pretty sweet. Oh yeah, and about using a typewriter… You get so used to typing on a computer (and being able to backspace) that it’s hard to not make mistakes. This gets really annoying when you’re halfway down a page and you have to start over.

Anyway, I typed for awhile and then went to check on Cortney around 4:00. She said she still didn’t feel good at all, so I decided to go without her. The tro-tro took much longer than usual to get there, and it started pouring on the way. It was shaping up to be a pretty sweet birthday. I headed to the internet cafe to check my email, but all the power went out. So I walked over to Sunny’s place, and she called Jerusha (as well as some German girls we had met) and told them we were gonna head to the Grand Hotel for drinks. The place doesn’t look too nice, I know. I never actually stayed the night there, but they had a nice sitting area/bar out back that we hung out at and got dinner several different times.

We got dinner and hung out for awhile. Sunny had some of the “local snuff” (aka “brown cocaine”) which intrigued me, especially since it was completely legal. I had seen people snorting it in public before and not even trying to be shady about it. So in my slightly drunken state I tried it, and it was pretty stupid, it might as well have been cinnamon. I should add that this was more than likely a dumb decision on my part, and in no way does it reflect my behavior back home in the US - I don’t put stuff up my nose, but at the time I was thinking “when in Rome” and just went with it. The German girls left, but we stuck around and continued to drink for awhile until it started to get late. I then realized that I had a box of sangria in my bookbag, so we went back to Sunny’s place and finished that off. If I remember correctly, those boxes of sangria were around $1 each, which is pretty awesome.

I was going to take a taxi back to the orphanage, but it would have been pretty expensive, since it was quite a hike. Jerusha told me that it would probably be alright if I stayed at the house where she was currently staying (which was in town) so I just ended up doing that. The house was a little over half a mile from the Grand Hotel, and she didn’t want to walk back in the dark alone anyway, so I guess it worked out in both of our favor. The bed that I stayed in was actually pretty comfortable (especially compared to the one that I had grown accustomed to at the orphanage) and the room had a fan as well, so I was in heaven. All in all, I’d say it was a pretty decent birthday, especially when you take into consideration the fact that I spent it in a third world country.

There’s only 7 days worth of Ghana stuff left for me to write about, but a good amount of stuff happened in that time period… Hopefully I’ll be able to cover it all in my next post.

So I got back from Langerado (a music festival in Florida) on Monday night around 9 pm. I had a pretty awesome time there. The festival started on Thursday (March 6th) at 6pm, so I figured that a flight scheduled to arrive at 2pm in Fort Lauderdale (an hour from the festival grounds) would give us plenty of time to get there and set up our campsite. Unfortunately, there were electrical storms in the Fort Lauderdale area, so our flight was forced to land in Orlando. We sat there for awhile and refueled, and by the time we got to Fort Lauderdale, it was about 5:00 pm.

It took us a bit to get our rental car situation figured out, and then we headed to Big Cypress Indian Reservation, where the festival was taking place. There was a huge line of cars outside of the festival (this has come to be expected, however) and it was pretty frustrating to be sitting in the car, knowing that bands you really wanted to see (like Les Claypool) were playing a mile or two away. But we tried to make the best of a bad situation. So we started drinking, and this of course leads to peeing on the side of the road. It was dark out at this point, so this wasn’t really a problem. I got out of the car and walked away from the car, down a little hill on the side of the road about 50 yards. It was marshy on either side of the road, and people were jokingly (or so I thought) yelling stuff like “watch out for alligators!” I laughed, and started to do my thing, when I heard some crazy noises followed by movement about 5 feet away from me. I immediately zipped up and ran back to the car like a little bitch. Sure enough, about a mile down the road, there was a sign posted saying “caution: crocodiles” or something along those lines.

When we finally got into the festival it was between 12:30 and 1. We rolled right through security, they didn’t even ask if we had anything illegal in the car… Which we didn’t, but I know sometimes those searches can take a long time. We parked and setup our campsite in the dark. It was a raining a little bit, but nothing ridiculous. We managed to catch the end of Perpetual Groove, and then if I remember correctly we walked around for a while exploring the campgrounds. I got bit by a few fire ants and we probably called it a night around 3 am.

The next day we got up around 9 or so. We hung out for a bit and drank, and enjoyed our canopy tent (which wouldn’t be around for much longer). We headed into the main festival area around 12:30 to see The Dynamites. They were cool to watch for a little bit, but matt pond PA started at 1:30, so I left the show early to check them out, and I’m glad I did. They put on a really good show, although I don’t know if I would have enjoyed them as much had I not known some of the songs.

After matt pond PA, we went back to the campsite to drink a little, and then headed back to the festival area in time to catch The Wailers. They were pretty cool, I’m not crazy about reggae, but if I’m gonna listen to some, it obviously doesn’t get much better than the music of Bob Marley. So that was kinda cool, but I got distracted after an hour or so of it. We checked out a little bit of G Love’s set, but I’m not too crazy about them.

311 put on a pretty good show. I don’t listen to them that often anymore, but they were my first “favorite band”, I remember listening to them non stop starting in like 6th grade, so it was cool to finally see them. It sucked that I missed !!! (who I also heard put on a good show), but I am definitely glad that I saw 311.

After 311, we checked out a little bit of The Roots (which were okay, but I’m not crazy about them) until The Beastie Boys played. I really enjoyed the Beastie Boys set. I knew that they had some instrumental stuff (their new album, The Mix Up, is all instrumental) but I didn’t expect them to play a lot of it. The set turned out to be about 50/50 and I was impressed by how good they were at playing their respective instruments. Their set was a lot of fun.

After that was Umphrey’s McGee. I was pretty excited to see them, and they played an awesome set, it was definitely in my top 5 for the weekend. After Umphreys we headed over to catch the end of Sound Tribe Sector 9’s set. I like these guys as well, but I couldn’t really get into them that night for whatever reason. So many people were out of their minds at that point, there were people in “zombie mode” all over the place. It got really windy and cold, so as soon as Sound Tribe stopped playing we headed back to the campsite. On our way back, it started to rain really hard. I have had this same tent leak before during rain, so I moved what I could of my stuff into the car. At that point the rain was coming down so hard, it was just ridiculous. So the four of us were just sitting in the car while the torrential downpour continued outside. We had a few beers, and I ended up sleeping in the car that night. My tent did flood, but I’m glad I moved my stuff so none of my clothes got soaked.

The next day, the first band we checked out was The Bad Plus. I was excited to see them (they do some awesome covers) but I wasn’t really able to get into their music that day. We walked around for awhile, checked out some of State Radio’s set, and then headed to the stage where The Avett Brothers were supposed to play. They didn’t end up showing up though, which was kinda lame.

We went back to the campsite to drink for a while, and then came back for some of Thievery Corporation’s set, which was pretty cool. We watched a little bit of Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood’s set, but made sure we left in time to get to the stage where Ghostland Observatory would be playing. The frontman (?) is so ridiculously strange, and the light show was just awesome.
They put on one of the best shows of the weekend, in my opinion.

After Ghostland played, R.E.M. came on the main stage. I stayed for maybe 2 songs, and then 2 of us headed back to the campsite to drink some more. We came back in time to catch the last 3-4 songs that R.E.M. played, and it was definitely cool to see them, but I’d be lying if I said I really cared about them. I wanted to hear them play “Man on the Moon”, and they did, so that was cool.

Pelican was up next. I like these guys a lot, and they definitely didn’t disappoint. Before the show, some cute little hippie girl (covered in glitter and wearing fairy wings) was talking to me. She asked me “what kind of music do these guys play?” They’re definitely not a “jam band” by any means, and I think they’d tend to appeal to metalheads more than anyone else. I told her they were a rock band, which I realize is a ridiculously vague description. She said “oh, like REM?” I told her yeah, and then made my way up to the front of the stage. I doubt that chick stayed around for more than 30 seconds of Pelican’s set. Regardless though, it was awesome. After Pelican played, I didn’t really care where we ended up. The Disco Biscuits were playing, but I’m not too crazy about them, so we just wandered around for awhile. There was so much to see there, and I’m sure I still didn’t see 25% of it.

We ended up checking out the Yard Dogs Road Show before we went back to our campsite for the night, and I’m glad we did. They are a traveling cabaret act with sword swallowers and stuff. I didn’t think I’d like them but it was actually very entertaining; I was surprised. Definitely check these guys out if you ever have a chance, I feel like they do a good variety of different things, so there’s something for everyone… And their music is good, too.

Sunday (the last day of the festival) was a lot of fun. I was pretty burnt by this point (the sun was brutal during the day there) and I decided Sunday would be my booze day. That’s not to say that we weren’t drinking the entire festival, but I decided to just concentrate on drinking. We headed into the main festival area at around 2:30 to see The Funky Meters, then checked out a bit of Keller Williams and Grace Potter. I wasn’t excited to see Grace Potter, but I was pleasantly surprised, she can really, uh… Rock? I don’t know what else to say.

The way they had the main festival area setup, you had to pass through security in order to get to the area where the stages were. Security wasn’t letting people bring in anything other than one sealed water bottle, and they were patting people down, so bringing anything other than a flask was pretty tough. There was a “taxi” service (people driving golf carts around) and we learned that when you took a taxi into the festival area, you didn’t have to pass through security. So we started bringing in bookbags full of beer this way, which was pretty awesome, especially since beers were like $6 each inside the festival.

Minus the Bear started at 5:30, and we took a “taxi” - I asked the driver to take us right to that stage, since we were cutting it pretty close. She took us down some access road and dropped us off behind the stage, an area that we otherwise wouldn’t have had access to. So we walked out from behind the stage and entered into the media section, where all the photographers and people with press passes watch the shows. We watched most of Minus the Bear’s set from there, which was pretty awesome. I got some half decent (or at least close up) pictures too, though I was a little drunk at this point. Minus the Bear played an awesome set, and I really enjoyed being super close to the stage.

After that, we saw Blind Melon, who put on a ridiculously good show. Shannon Hoon, the original frontman, died in 1995 from a cocaine overdose, and I wasn’t sure how much I’d like the band with the new lead singer. I gotta give him credit though, he did a great job, and really did an amazing job with the old songs.

After Blind Melon, we apparently saw of Montreal, but I don’t really remember that. I do know that we were at the very front for Phil Lesh & Friends, though. I’d be lying if I said I was a huge fan of The Grateful Dead, but I really enjoyed watching these guys play, it was a great way to end the weekend. After Phil Lesh, Nick and I walked around for awhile and drank, and probably ended up getting to bed around 2 am or so. We weren’t in a huge hurry to leave the next day since our flight wasn’t until 5 or so. It was nice to be able to take our time while taking the tents down and packing up the car. I apologize if my recap of the festival wasn’t overly cohesive, but I’m pretty exhausted right now. You can check out the majority of the pictures I took at Langerado here. I took a lot of video as well, so maybe some day it will end up on YouTube? Probably not.

I started a new job (doing SEO) this past Wednesday. I mentioned before that I got pretty burnt while in Florida. By Wednesday, my entire face (and neck, and back) was peeling. I’ve never had it happen that badly before. I’m pretty sure everyone at my new job thinks I was in a chemical fire. It’s Sunday night right now and I’m still peeling, though it isn’t nearly as bad as it was before. Anyway, this recent lack of posts has been brought to you by corporate America. I don’t get out of work until 6:15, and I get home around 7 or so. After sitting at a computer the whole day, the last thing I find myself wanting to do is get back on the computer when I get home. But hopefully I will get used to this new routine soon enough, and I’ll be able to find more time for the site again.

I can’t believe that the world’s first MP3 player was released ten years ago. I only say that because I owned the world’s second MP3 player, the Rio PMP300. I thought it was the first until I read this article. It definitely doesn’t seem like ten years ago when I was walking to school in the morning, listening to the 5 Limp Bizkit mp3s that would fit on its whopping 32 MB of memory. I guess that really was ten years ago… Shit, I’m getting old.

So someone came out with a website that, in my opinion, is way overdue. It’s called RateMyCop.com, and I guess it’s pretty self-explanatory. For those of you that are complete idiots, it is basically an online police officer database where users can rate cops on things like authority, fairness, and satisfaction. Of course a bunch of cops have their panties in a bundle about this, and the domains registrar (GoDaddy) actually had the nerve to pull the plug on the site (article here). It’s back up on a different host, and you can check it out here.

This past weekend was pretty exhausting… We did the Erin Express thing again this year, and then saw Grimace Federation at the TLA. I also hit a girl with a french fry, and she told me that her boyfriend is in the mob, and that he’s going to kill me. So I have that going for me. Anyway, I’m gonna watch Breaking Bad and try and get some sleep, hope you all had a nice weekend.

Some of you may already be aware of this, but Trent Reznor has released a new Nine Inch Nails album titled “Ghosts”, and he’s using the internet to distribute it. This is still a relatively new way of releasing music, and bands like Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead are at the forefront of the movement. On the official website, you can get the first volume of “Ghosts” for free. There are four volumes, and several ‘plans’ to choose from in order to obtain the other three: “$5 gets you a download of all four volumes/36 tracks, $10 gets you the download + the collection on two CDs, $75 comes with a fabric slipcase and a data DVD and other crazyness, and for $300 he’ll sign stuff and give you the collection on vinyl and probably cook you dinner if you ask nicely.” (via Stereogum) Since the NIN.com servers are apparently pretty overloaded right now, I threw the album on megaupload (here) for your convenience. I have seen the first volume of the album on a few different torrent sites (such as The Pirate Bay) and it’s pretty obvious that Trent (or someone that works for him) uploaded it, so that’s pretty cool. I listened to Vol 1-4, and it sounds pretty decent - FYI, it’s all instrumental. That’s all for now.

I am such a baby when it comes to eyes - When I see people touching their eyes, it grosses me out a lot. That being said, the world’s first eyeball tattoo is quite possible the most horrifying thing I’ve ever seen… Ever. This, on the other hand, is just confusing.

Think your life sucks? Try living with Aquagenic Urticaria, a rare skin condition which is more or less a water allergy. For this girl, that means no swimming, no showers - you’re even allergic to sweat. This is a very rare condition (fewer than 30 cases are known worldwide). Any contact with water results in a painful, itchy rash, and the girl claims that there have been “many occasions where I’ve been so itchy, I’ve made myself bleed from scratching.” So god hooked her up pretty good. I remember meeting a kid in college who had some sort of sunlight allergy, and I thought that was a shitty deal, but now I’m actually not sure which one would be worse. Either way, it’s stuff like this that helps me realize that things could always be a whole lot worse.

The Ku Klux Klan has endorsed Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States of America. Speaking from his Kentucky office in Dawson Springs, the Imperial Wizard exclaimed that anything or anyone is better than having that “crazy ass bitch” (Hillary) as President. Didn’t see that one coming.

Some people would argue that Christian Bale saved the Batman movies when he starred in Batman Begins. Can he do the same thing for the Terminator movies? Bale will be playing John Connor in Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, which is set for release in May of 2009. So that should be interesting.

If Comcast is your ISP and you use torrents, you’re probably pretty fed up at this point. They have been throttling traffic for a while now, making it next to impossible for some people to use BitTorrent… And ’seeding’ is a nightmare. This shouldn’t come as news to a lot of you, but I know it made me feel a little better when I read that there is now a class action lawsuit against the bastards.

So I’m having a bit of a dilemna here. I started a graphic design job last Monday (the 18th). I like it there so far, and I feel that if I continue to work there, I’ll develop a body of work that’ll look good in my portfolio (it’s kind of hurting right now) and I’ll gain some valuable experience. The job environment is pretty casual too, I feel like I could roll in half an hour late and it wouldn’t be a big deal. And there are always tons of different clients in and out of there, so there are great networking possibilities. The crappy part about this job is that I work as an independent contractor, so I don’t get benefits (no insurance or 401k). Also, since I’m paid as an independent contractor, they cut me a check every week and then at the end of the year I have to file my own taxes, which I know absolutely nothing about. About a week after I started at this job, I was contacted by another company that I had interviewed with. This was regarding an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) position. I have experience in both fields, but I think I’d enjoy doing graphic design more than SEO… But this SEO position is offering me more money, as well as benefits. So over the course of the past few days I’ve changed my mind about 600 times, and I’m losing sleep over it. I know it’s not the end of the world, but I’m having a really hard time deciding. I even went so far as to write down all the pros and cons, but it didn’t help. I almost wish someone would just make the decision for me, because I’m really not leaning one way or the other. Anyway, on that note, I’m gonna try and get to sleep… I’m pretty beat, and I bet it shows in the wording of this post. I will do my best to get another Ghana post up within the next couple days.

Any of you who would potentially be interested in going to Bonnaroo have probably already seen this year’s lineup, since it was released on February 6th. I’m not particularly crazy about the headliners, and I don’t think Metallica is a good fit for the festival at all. I can’t say for sure, but as of now, I doubt I’ll be making it this year. I already have my tickets for Langerado and Camp Bisco though, and I’m really looking forward to both of those. I keep finding out about new festivals, and I’m tempted to try and go to all of them, but it just isn’t practical. Popped! and All Points West are both so close to me that I feel like I’d be an idiot for not going, and I just heard about Rothbury Festival which has an amazing lineup. And there are so many more, too. I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, so I think I’ll move along.

I’ve never been a big fan of police. That being said, it’s refreshing when you catch wind of a cop that is going out of his/her way to help people and do the right thing. Thank god there are still some good cops out there, like this one. Oh, wait a second…

I honestly don’t think I’ve ever actually solved a Rubik’s Cube. Don’t see this as a reflection of my intelligence or anything like that, I’ve just never taken the time to play with one for more than a minute or so. This guide will show you how to solve a Rubik’s Cube, and how to do some other “cool” stuff with it too. It’s already gotten me laid four times, and I haven’t even read it yet.

Did you know that Texas is the only state in the country where peyote is sold legally? I sorta figured it was illegal to sell it anywhere in the US. This article is about the peyoteros, and the growth and sale of peyote, and it’s actually pretty interesting.

Seriously, screw this game. I want to punch whoever made it.

I saw this a few weeks ago, but forgot to post it. It deserves its own paragraph, because it’s probably the best video of all time.

I can’t imagine ever being this good with Photoshop. Some of those are just downright awesome.

What is Longplayer? It’s a 1000 year long piece of music which started to play on the 1st January 2000 and will continue to play, without repetition, until the 31st December 2999, when it will come back to the point at which it began - and begin again. Get your lemon party started!

Valentine’s Day is “a day invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap“. To be honest, though, Valentines Day doesn’t actually bother me all that much - If you’re in a relationship/romantically involved with someone, no big deal, buy them some stuff and take them out to dinner, it’s a chance to spend some special time together… Wow, that sounded lame. And if you’re single, just get blackout drunk. It’s really that simple. Speaking of blackout drunk, the new Blue Moon ‘Rising Moon Spring Ale’ is pretty awesome. Err, anyway, I’ll be spending my February 14th hiking through the woods with a friend of mine. We made these plans before we even realized that they would be falling on Valentine’s Day, but I’m glad I’ll be occupied (and far from civilization?), and won’t have too much time on my hands. Anyway, if you’re single this V-Day, maybe this will make you feel better: 14 Horrible Moments in Valentine’s Day History. And regardless of your plans, I hope you all have a nice (sustainable?) February 14th.

When we last left our possibly malaria-ridden hero, he was in Ghana, in a hospital, of all places. As I mentioned in the last post, I really hate needles, and even in the US, I’m a total baby about getting shots and stuff. Anyway, they called me into “the lab”, and the guy busted out a huge needle. If I said it was the biggest needle I’ve ever seen, I’d be lying, but it was certainly the biggest needle I’d ever seen that was destined for my body. On the other hand, it was wrapped in what looked like a plastic seal, so that was a bit of a relief. The guy didn’t really explain much at all, I just turned my head and felt him jam that mammoth thing into my arm (right at my elbow, but obviously on the inner part of my arm, can’t think of what that part is called offhand), and about 10 seconds later he pulled it out, and put a cotton ball in it’s place. He kept the blood, threw the needle in a trash can, and told me I owed him 45,000 cedi ($4.50). Yep, right to business. I didn’t get a band-aid or anything (not that I really needed one), just a cotton ball, so I kept my arm bent to hold it in place. I asked him what he was testing me for, and he told me “malaria, typhoid, and hemoglobin” - By hemoglobin, I guess he meant he was testing the levels.

I went back outside and sat down in the waiting area for another 45 minutes or so. More and more people came and sat down on the bench I was on until it was uncomfortably packed. I wouldn’t say this unless it were true, there wasn’t even an inch of free space on that bench, I was kind of surprised by how people were willing to cram up next to one another just for a seat. Like I said before, it was pretty much all really old people, dressed in their colorful dresses and drape thingies. Sitting in such close proximity for so long, I noticed some pretty gross stuff, like how gross some people’s feet were, even weird little things like how much smaller/larger some people’s toes were then mine.

Anyway, they finally called me in to speak with the doctor. He had me sit down, and then told me that I tested negative for malaria and typhoid, and that everything looked fine. So hey, that’s good news, right? I was relieved at first, and I went on my way. But then I realized that I still felt awful, and had no idea why. I also realized that the malaria/typhoid test only took them an hour at most… In the US, they have to send your blood sample to the CDC, and I’m pretty sure it takes at least a week to get your results back. Not to jump to conclusions here (well, I am) but I highly doubt that Ghana is more advanced in the medical field than the US… So how exactly does that work? Who knows…

Since Isaac had left me at the hospital, it was up to me to find my way back. I didn’t think it would be too difficult, but naturally, I was wrong. I spent almost 2 hours of searching for a tro-tro that was heading back to Golokwati. In the meantime, I got lost in an enormous, bustling marketplace (it was “market day” in Kpando), and some kid was following me around, asking me if I had a twin, which I thought was a pretty odd question to ask a random person. I also saw a girl wearing an Unearth shirt, and that was humorous to me because, once again, I am almost 100% sure that the shirt was given to her or donated somehow, and she had absolutely no idea who Unearth was, or that it was even a band and not just some clothing company. Anyway, I was finally instructed to get a “dropping taxi”. This is a taxi that picks up several passengers, and is constantly picking people up and dropping other people off, as I suppose the name would imply. The two ladies in the back seat would not stop bitching about the price. At one point, the driver pulled over and told them to get out of the taxi… That shut them up.

When the taxi got me back to Golokwati, I didn’t feel like paying for another taxi to get back to Ve Deme, so I started to walk. It was ridiculously hot out though, and it was a much farther walk than I thought it’d be. After about 15 minutes in the ruthless sun, a tro-tro pulled up alongside me and slowed down. I asked “how much”, and they told me 2,000 cedi. In my sick/overheated state I was thinking he meant $2, but really that was only equal to about 20 cents. I said “no way”, but the guy told me to get in anyway. When it dawned on me that he only wanted 20 cents for the ride, I paid him.

When I got back to the orphanage, Father was excited to see me, and asked me what the results of the test were. When I told him I tested negative for malaria, he exclaimed loudly “my son is not sick!” I thought that was pretty funny. For whatever reason, my class that day was canceled. So I ate lunch - plantain chips, which were basically like thick potato chips, and pineapple slices, which were absolutely amazing. I know I mentioned that the fruit over there was a lot better than the fruit here in the US, but the pineapple was the best by far… With bananas at a close second.

Anyway, Cortney and I decided to go to Hohoe for the afternoon. We went to the internet cafe, and I had an email from Kelly, explaining that I hadn’t understood his parents on the phone, and that they definitely wanted us to come visit them in Togo. This was good news for us, as we had gotten our hopes up earlier about traveling to Togo, and were pretty disappointed after that first set of frustrating phone calls. So we left the cafe and crossed the street to the phone booths. I didn’t want to deal with the whole phone situation again, since it was pretty frustrating last time, so Cortney agreed to call this time. She called and talked to Kelly’s mother, and apparently she didn’t have any problems hearing her whatsoever. She told us that we should come to the Aflao border (where Ghana and Togo meet) the next day (Friday) and that someone would be waiting for us there. So that was a nice surprise, since up until that point we were under the impression that we wouldn’t be visiting Togo after all.

Later that night, we met up with some people for dinner. This guy Nicholas lived in Hohoe, and helped at one of the orphanages in town. He was telling us about some places in Ghana that we needed to check out before we left. One of them that sounded very interesting to me was some area on a mountain that had lots of caves. I don’t remember much about it now, but he told me that the area’s police station was located inside of a cave. Not that I’m a fan of police in general, and I definitely had no desire to spend any time with any Ghanaian police, but that’s still pretty cool if you ask me. We stayed out drinking too late that night, and once again there were no tro-tros running when we wanted to head back to Ve Deme. We were trying to get a cab, but since we were white (well, except for Margie, but she clearly was not from Ghana) they were trying to charge us absolutely ridiculous prices. We were able to get a hold of Nicholas, and he came and negotiated with some guys, and got us a cab for 80,000 cedi ($8), which definitely wasn’t bad. This was the worst cab I had been in yet. The entire dashboard was missing, and I’m pretty sure you could see the engine from the inside of the car. There were springs and wires sticking out everywhere, and no rear view mirrors or anything. The dude drove like a madman, and you could barely see out of the windshield. The stars were brilliant that night, so I tried to put it out of my mind that at any second we could get into a terrible accident, and just stared out the window at the sky until we got back to the orphanage.

I woke up around 4 the next morning with some serious doo-doo issues. I used the toilet (yes, that is a picture of the toilet at the orphanage) 4 times before 7 am. So needless to say, I wasn’t feeling very well… In fact, I felt downright awful. But I wasn’t gonna let that stop me from traveling to another country. I took a shower and packed my stuff for Togo. We thought we would have to travel all the way to Accra, and then leave from there to get to Aflao. It turns out that wasn’t the case, and that we could save some time by traveling to Ho (a much shorter trip than going the whole way to Accra) and catching a tro-tro from there to Aflao.

We left Ve Deme at about 9:00 am, and arrived at Ho around 10:20. On the way there, the tro-tro slowed down, as there were a bunch of people in the road ahead of us. As we approached them, the tro-tro came to a complete stop, and the people surrounded it. They were smacking on the windows and yelling stuff, and wouldn’t let us pass, it was pretty scary, almost like a mini riot. I then realized that there was a chain-like strip of spikes thing spread across the road. The driver yelled something to one of the people outside, and they eventually moved it and let us through. I gotta admit though, that scared the crap out of me.

When we got to Ho, we ate a quick lunch, and I tried my luck at using my card at Barclay’s, which is one of the biggest banks in Ghana. Naturally, no luck. When we got to the tro-tro station, it literally took us about 30 seconds to find a tro-tro to Aflao. The trip to Aflao took us about 2 hours. When the tro-tro finally came to a stop, I told the driver that we wanted to go to the border, so he just gave us a free ride there, even though it was only 2 or 3 minutes away. People there are nice like that.

At the border, we learned (and I had sort of been dreading this in the back of my mind) that we had single-entry visas. This means that once you leave the country, your visa is expired, and you have to pay whatever it costs to apply for a new one. We called Kelly’s mother on the phone, and asked her how much this would cost us. She told us it’d be $20 for a new Ghana visa, and $30 for the visa to get into Togo. She also told us the name of the guy who we needed to find at the border, and she said “this man works for you now”. I liked the sound of that. Unfortunately, locating this guy would prove to be a difficult task.

So we filled out our Ghana departure forms, and they stamped our visas. We thought the stamps were our visas. When we crossed over into Togo, a guy in army fatigues hissed at us (thats how they get your attention) and asked if we had visas. Apparently, those stamps weren’t our visas. He demanded $40 from us for visas. It was definitely shady, and I was hesitant at first. I asked the guy a lot of questions, but he pretty much just pretended not to understand what I was saying. I told him that we were told that it’d cost $30 to get a Togolese visa, and that we got this information from Customs Agents (thats what Kelly’s parents were). He just acted like he didn’t know what we were talking about, He took over half an hour just to stamp our passports, the entire process was very unorganized, and just unprofessional in general. I’m pretty sure he just pocketed the money, too. We kept telling him that we were expected there, and that we were to meet with the 2 CBs (Chef Brigade and Chef Bureau), but he just blew us off. I’m pretty sure he just pocketed the money, too. Anyway, we crossed over into Togo (I got yelled at for taking that picture), and we were completely overwhelmed by people trying to sell us stuff, drive us places, convert our money, etc. It’s nice to have people offer you things, but these people are incredibly aggressive, to the point where it’s overwhelming. Remember Colossus’s special move from the X-Men arcade game? I found myself wishing I could do that whenever I was surrounded by people. If you don’t remember that game, forget it. Anyway, after pretty much swimming through a sea of people, we made out way back to the border (now on the Togolese side, obviously) and started asking to see the CB. Finally someone recognized us (as in recognized two out of place white people) and led us to see the man who was expecting us. We went into the guy’s office, and it was pretty nice. The plaque on his desk said he was “inspecteur des douanes”, which I guess just means “French Customs”. We were only in his office for about 20 minutes (he had stuff he needed to finish up before we left) but based on the amount of people in and out of the office in that short period of time, it seemed to me that he held a pretty important position. We then followed him out to his car, and he drove us to the Dadzies (where we would be staying). You can check out a video of part of the ride through Togo here. Everything looked pretty similar to Ghana in my opinion, with the exception being that all of the billboards were in French. Oh yeah, and we were right by the coast, so there were palm trees everywhere.

I’m gonna wrap this up now, but I will do my best to get the next installation up within a few days. A “normal” update will shortly follow.