Chapters

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Just four months into the making of this film, the funding for our first year of research and photography ran out. Part of that was my fault. I had been a bit too optimistic about how far we could stretch each Euro because I wanted so badly to get this project off the ground. The rest of the extraneous spending came from unexpected costs. Pricey hotel rooms, exorbitant taxi cab fares, unmarked tolls, bribes, taxes, equipment registration. Key lime pie. Even with my tiny crew the idea of taking on the entire former United States in one go seems, well, naive. Reluctantly, we packed up all the footage and equipment we hadn't already mailed back to England and boarded a plane for home.

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Recently, I had to make a very important purchase - a new dining set for my small, urban, one bedroom apartment. There was a lot of thought to go into it but price was (as it always is) one of the biggest factors I had to consider. I wanted to stay as close as possible to $100 for the purchase of a sturdy table and four chairs - while at the same time also getting what I purchased delivered directly to my apartment. Impossible you say? Not so when you have Walmart.com on your side (for better or worse). I found exactly what I needed - a table and four chairs - delivered free to my apartment for $129.00 (plus tax).

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Recently, Sarah Palin used her common tactic of simple metaphors mixed with animals and third grade vocabulary words to highlight her presence and that of her soccer mom followers, whom she now refers to as “mama grizzlies.” She says that when their cubs are threatened, mama grizzlies attack—which, I think, is a valid point. Unlike many of the other strange things she’s tried to claim as fact, this is true; if you mess with the cub, you mess with the mama.

However, if translating said metaphor toward a more developed species—in this case, humans—it doesn’t work the same way. If a mama bear’s cubs become human boys and girls, bringing out the claws and teeth get trickier.

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Apparently when I recently decried Sarah Palin's use of the word "feminist," I gave some people the mistaken impression that I kill and eat babies for dinner, from the remote sleek black confines of my underground lair where I use men as coffee tables and laugh maniacally - HA! HA! HA! - while shaking a bottle of barbecue sauce over said babies.

Honestly, people.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I love babies!  They go great with fries!  OH CRAP OKAY YOU GOT ME.  


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Once in awhile I like to imagine what my life would be like without my "smartphone" and because of the creepy crawly feeling I get I hold my phone close and hope that it never goes away. It has become an extension of my hand - not so much my face anymore because I rarely "talk" on it. My phone has really become more a part of me than... well actual parts of me. If I need some quick inspiration I open the 3G browser and surf to my hearts content, I can carry on multiple text and instant message conversations, and if I get that terrible "I forgot to pay a bill" feeling I can check all of my accounts with the touch of the screen.

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The band, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, is a "Christian" punk/rock band that has been stirring up some inadvertent controversy recently for its stance on Gay and Lesbian people and issues. This controversy has been brought on by the large political donation Target Corp made to Tom Emmer a Republican candidate for Governor of Minnesota. Tom Emmer has a relationship with the band and the allegations of the band asking for the death of Gay and Lesbian people has been splashed across the internet and mainstream headlines. In more favorable publications the "call to death" has been replaced with "strongly oppose", but the message of hate the band spreads is the same regardless of how it is phrased.

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That sinking feeling comes again... "I am in over my head with credit card debt"... and you feel like there is no way to get out of this deep hole. Maybe it keeps you up at night and occupies your mind for hours during the day. What can you do to get rid of this feeling? Well, the first thing you need to do is get rid of the cause - the debt.

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Fall is here and so is the Fall Festival that River Heights Elementary puts on to raise money. Every kid in town has been working hard to earn money to buy themselves tickets for games, rides and goodies to eat. In Nancy Drew and The Clue Crew’s Ticket Trouble by Carolyn Keene the girls find themselves on the job again. Nancy and her friends have worked just as hard to earn their tickets as everyone else so when their friend Ned finds that his tickets have gone missing they just can’t turn down the case. They promise Ned that they will find his tickets before the end of the day, when the fair closes until next year.

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After Kirstin and Rachel help Emily the Emerald Fairy, they are off on their next adventure. In book number four of The Jewel Fairies by Daisy Meadows, the two girls head out to go shopping in a costume store to find the perfect Halloween costume for an upcoming party. The store has everything you could imagine to dress up as. As always, the girls are keeping their eyes out for anything that could mean that they are on the hunt for another missing jewel. It doesn’t take long before they realize just how close they are to Chloe the Topaz Fairy and her missing jewel.

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In a shocking move that will shock and surprise everyone (are you shocked yet?) the Coca-Cola company has publicly admitted that their Vitaminwater product is not very healthy. 

In fact, a nonprofit company sued Coca-Cola for making false health claims, and Coke retaliated by basically saying that only an idiot would think their Vitaminwater beverage had vitamins in it.

You know, I'm starting to realize that no one really pays attention to the truth.   Why bother trying to explain things?  Just say what you want that thing to be - regardless of how preposterous you sound - and people will buy it.


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