Daily Report: Another Update

Yeah... sorry for waiting for more than a month for an update. Everything has been tossed up in the air and is spinning: a slow motion floating kaleidoscope of every detail of my life. All of us here are pretty certain that all of those things are going to land as a perfectly formed diamond-encrusted sculpture of joy and success, but watching and waiting for that to happen does not make it any easier.

Epril flew to Manila with her mother for a 3-day visit to get her health exam in the latter part of October. Then flew to Manila again with her mother for another 3-day visit for her embassy interview. That went great. She dropped off her passport on November 8th and was told that it would be shipped to her via a courier service. But that was almost 3 weeks ago, which seems like a long time to wait. I'm going to have to call the embassy in Manila tomorrow and see if I can find out what the problem is.

PeGreSol has been meeting with companies in Thailand and Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as talking with Ukraine, Uganda, a couple of middle eastern countries, one South American company, and one very large American oil company. Now, we are at the stage of shipping out samples of FloWell to various corporate laboratories so that they can test the product themselves to make sure that not only will it work as advertised, but won't damage any of their equipment in the process. In December and early January, we should start performing our first field tests for clients (which will result in PeGreSol's first small commissions). Then, once the wellhead tests are done, each client/country will hopefully be expanding the use of FloWell by a factor of a thousand(s) and taking monthly shipments of that vast amount. After that, sales should increase exponentially on pretty much a weekly basis as more and more oil companies become aware that FloWell is being adopted industry-wide and rush to jump on the bandwagon.

I just can't stomach the wait! The transcription job is all but finished, as the pay rate there was deeply slashed at the end of summer. A job that used to pay me $75,000 a year; now I couldn't survive on what I make if I worked 60 hours a week at it (which I can't — not allowed and not nearly enough mental/spiritual desire). I'm barely making minimum wage really, though that is more a function of just not giving a shit about a job that used to be so great rather than the shockingly low pay rate that I have to work with. But honestly: Who the hell could be serious about a job that pays only 30% of what it used to pay (and is only getting worse), while looking forward to what in a few months should be a weekly income that is equal to my current annual salary? It is literally the same as busting your ass at McDonald's while waiting for your lottery check to arrive. Well, I'm doing it.

Epril should be arriving in Tampa on December 13th. Then a week later we will be driving up the East Coast to my mother's house in New York for Christmas. After that, we hope to visit New York City and possibly Washington DC. After the New Year, hopefully the money will have finally arrived to fund a trip to Thailand (both business and pleasure). Then after that it will be back to Florida to work on setting up a place for Epril and I to live.

But, as I said: Every single detail of everything I have mentioned above is currently "up in the air"... and I haven't the foggiest idea when any of the details are going to finalize themselves. Quite literally, if you ask me where I'm going to be at any given point in the future, I could not make a single promise, assurance, or assertion based on the current circumstances of my life.

Alabama Immigration Law Applied To Wrong Alien

Apparently a police officer in Alabama didn't get the memo that the state's new immigration law is only to be applied to brown people with foreign accents: An executive of Mercedes Benz, visiting the local car factory his company operates there, was hauled off to jail after being unable to prove he was in the country legally at a roadside stop.

Obviously, the governor of Alabama was quite embarrassed and apologetic to the German auto company over the fact that the law actually was mistakenly applied to a respectable/white/desirable immigrant unable to immediately prove his legal status in Alabama on demand. (Fortunately, the Mercedes executive was released before the waterboarding was started, so no harm done.)

Happy Thanksgiving

William Shatner shows us why he has been, is, and will continue to be the coolest guy in Hollywood: Watch as he pours all his energy and creativity into a fun little PSA for State Farm Insurance warning about improper use of turkey fryers. Seriously: Can you imagine any other actor rising so high by stooping so low?



Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Don't set yourselves on fire.

Ghandi Knew All This

Throughout history, all around the world, if you ever needed to figure out which side of an issue the history books would eventually determine was the correct side of the issue to be on... it has always been on the side of the issue for which peacefully protesting, nonviolent people are pepper-sprayed, tasered, attack-dogged, fire-hosed, lynched, or murdered by law enforcement.

Seriously: Has there ever been a moment in modern history where state/official violence was unleased upon nonviolent protesters... and whatever it was that the protesters were protesting was eventually proven wrong? I can't think of any.

There should be a logical truism like Godwin's Law that states, "As soon as you can get the police to beat on you while you are engaging in nonviolent protest, you automatically win the protest."