My cell phone-laptop connection is working!!! It had been broken for more than a year, but it seems to have magically fixed itself, so, voila, I can blog from the road using the laptop!

We’re making great time so far. We left USC at 8:15 AM; at 9:40, we were in Barstow; and at around 11:10, we crossed into Primm, Nevada. That’s less than three hours from L.A. to the California-Nevada border! We are now rapidly approaching Las Vegas, which we should reach before noon. (I will probably take over driving in Vegas, so expect a break in blogging at that point.)

This cell phone-laptop connection also won’t do me much good after today, since my cellular minutes during the week are limited, and the connection speed is too slow to do much blogging without using up all my minutes. But, I will try to keep y’all informed with at least occasional updates, via a combination of audio-blog posts, laptop posts, and cell-phone text posts..

audblog audio post

audblog audio post

Becky and I are set to begin our fourth cross-country road trip later this morning. Blogging will probably be light, but I plan to post occasional audio-blog updates, as well as text posts if warranted, and hopefully I will be able to post each day’s pictures at the end of the day from the motel. I can’t make any guarantees, but I’ll try my best.

As for our route: We will be driving up through Las Vegas to Salt Lake City, then turning east through southern Wyoming, crossing Nebraska and Iowa, and finally cruising through the Chicago area (stopping at Notre Dame, in South Bend, Indiana, to tour the law school) and returning to Becky’s home in Amherst, New York (near Buffalo). After that, we may drive to Connecticut, possibly in time for next weekend’s college graduations, but that remains to be seen.

Adios, Los Angeles!

I’m a college graduate!!!

I’ve got a lot more photos of Becky and me in our graduation regalia, as well as some pics of other friends of mine. Then there are my pictures of the main commencement ceremony and the journalism satellite ceremony.

Be sure to check out all the galleries, but here are a few selected photos of interest:

audblog audio post

All lined up; procession to begin shortly. Audio blog post later.

Commencement starts in less than three hours! Click here for USC’s live webcast! (And check out all the chairs on TommyCam!

The graduation-eve eclipse was so cool!

2-second exposure, with flash (9:24 PM)

My parents and I got a great view of the lunar eclipse this evening from the Los Angeles Zoo parking lot, and I took some fantastic photos with my Canon PowerShot A60. The camera really impressed me tonight with its long exposure capabilities!


8-second exposure (8:41 PM)

4-second exposure, with flash (9:19 PM)

My parents and I drove in a separate car from Becky and her parents, and when we arrived at the zoo parking lot, we thought we had missed them somehow. As it turns out, they were in the next parking lot over, at a cool eclipse party. Becky even got interviewed for ABC 7 news!

Oh, well. I still got cool pictures, dammit. :)

Watching lunar eclipse with parents at Griffith Park. Very cool. Totality due to end in 5 or 10 min.

I don’t have the time or energy to write any analysis of yesterday’s remarkable New York Times staff meeting, but here are some excerpts from articles about it.

From the Times itself:

“I’m here to listen to your anger, wherever it’s directed,” Mr. Raines said at the outset of the closed meeting, according to a recording made by someone in the audience, “to tell you that I know that our institution has been damaged, that I accept my responsibility for that and I intend to fix it.”

“Fear,” he added, “is a problem to such extent, I was told, that editors are scared to bring me bad news.” …

(more…)

Sorry for the blog silence; I was busy packing. But, my parents arrived safely and are in L.A. now.

Western apologists who blame America for everything while routinely ignoring the sick cultural fixation on death and destruction among extremist elements of the Islamic world really need to check out this editorial from the Arab News:

The environment that produced such terrorism has to change. The suicide bombers have been encouraged by the venom of anti-Westernism that has seeped through the Middle East’s veins. … Those who gloat over Sept. 11, those who happily support suicide bombings in Israel and Russia, those who consider non-Muslims less human than Muslims and therefore somehow disposable, all bear part of the responsibility for the Riyadh bombs.

There is much in US policy to condemn; there are many aspects of Western society that offend — and where necessary, Arab governments condemn. But anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism for their own sake are crude, ignorant and destructive. They create hate. They must end. Otherwise there will be more barbarities.

Thanks for Andrew Sullivan for the link. Thanks to the Arab News for speaking the truth about this.

Toby had quite a day yesterday, and she’s telling the whole world about it.

She also remains confused about what she calls the “self-destruction” of the apartment. Little does she know, Becky and I are packing to leave Los Angeles forever! But, Toby will have a great time this summer in Buffalo. :)

Becky hasn’t been blogging as much as Toby, but she has weighed in on the New York Times scandal.

My parents’ plane seems to be making a beeline for the Four Corners. But, will they be able to see the big, intersecting black lines? :)