Erin Hughes.com

Ok So I found this guy on Boing Boing when was suppossed to be working. It brought to light 2 very disturbing things about the world today. The internet is very real. People think what they say and do in the internet has no cosequences in the rest of the world. Guess what? It does. I was interested when I found out the police were harrassing this guy cause he wrote that he strangled a homeles guy and did some other fictional bullshit. I read and read..... but then I followed this link Exibit A1 Which led me to Exibit A2 this link and it lead me to a whole list of people who dont like him and think he is a jerk......here is one forum he started just about himself . Maybe a ego maina problem, possibly? I have a highschool education and I am not the most popular guy you ever met but from where I stand it looks like this IMHO. 1 person calls you a jerk no biggie. 2 people call you a jerk ... take a moment to reflect. 3 people call you a jerk ...... think about what is going on. 4 or more people call you a jerk .... start taking there comments seriously do some introspection and try to fix the problem. If for no other reason than making your own life a little easier or having a friend. Finally if more than half the people in your peer group think your a jerk switch carrers or seek proffesional help. This guy skipped past 1 - 4 and has a overwelming disaproval rating of most of the people on the Winkipidia and his truth campainge. I dont mean to say that everytime there is a problem in your life just follow the crowd... but think for your self and your sanity what might be best in this situation A) stick to your guns B) listen to reason from a friend or relative. Finally now the internets fantasy playland is touching reality like WoW virtual items being sold on eBay (never personally seen this) and cops knocking at your door cause you posted a scary story, or video taped your last mailbox baseball adventure and put it on MySpace. Think! This is no longer the play place of geeks with pocket protectors, my mom uses the internet, my Grandfathers girlfriend uses it, and cops can use it too. Oh ya and the people you mock or desparage in your forums and abuse your power on.... they use it too.

This is a comment to my my brothers very well thought out plan for imigration in America. The full text can be seen at phughes.us Ya man you couldn't have said it better I think you have covered all the bases. One thing I know from experience was you will never ever stop the people trying to get in. A often over looked fact is the people who want bigger fences and more guards, live on the border and 999 times out of 1000 the people who cause the problems are not the immigrants coming through it is the people bringing in drugs by the Kilo. When a immigrant is caught coming over the border they go to a holding area and are processed (finger printed and photoed), sometimes they are showered and most times they get some food. When you catch them they don't run they don't fight, they get processed and get back on a bus to the nearest border crossing and get dropped off to try again. When you catch a guy carrying a pack filled with 80 lbs of weed.... he is in deep shit... he lost his load # 1 sin that will at the very least catch him a inch of his life ass whoopin... plus 5-10 in the nearest incarceration palace of his nightmares. He has every single motivator in the world to use every thing at his disposal not to get caught including VIOLENCE. I am still not ready to jump on the legalize it band wagon....but damm I think it would alleviate some real problems especially in the border area. Plus what be the big deal for every gangster rapper to move a Kilo then .... you could just go to the local 7-11 and get some... 2 birds one stone... LOL Let them in give them jobs get better service and enjoy.... maybe not that simple but it could be.... less laws more common sense. About Me I was a Marine from 1991-1997 during a 2

So Golden Week in Japan is well golden. No really here you get a week or so off for Golden Week so Eric, my friend Brent and his son Ryoma went camping in Shimoda out on the Izu peninsula Shimoda is nice Sandy beaches and blue ocean. It is also a good place to go surfing. I hoped to get some surfing in even though I didn't bring a board or wet suit. We left Numazu around 930 am and arrived after a fairly uneventful trip. We found some people we new from Numazu and decided to pitch our tents next to theirs It was a good choice at first Billy and the others were more than helpful watching Eric and Ryoma while Brent and I set up the tents and schlepped the gear back and forth from the car. The rest of the day we drank some beer and Eric went in the water and which was freezing. I took him to the shower to warm him up at the cost of 300 yen (about $2.50) for 3 minutes and after the first 3 minutes he was just starting to get warm so we went for it again. We cooked some steaks and sausages and shared with the people around us as night time came. It was really cold that night so I put sweat shirt on Eric and I and we sat around the fire and talked to different people. Eric made himself busy with gathering firewood and picking up girls. I asked him a couple of times to get me a beer out of the cooler and because he got to use the flash light he was more than happy to comply. As the night went on a couple other people some English blokes got keen to Eric's ability to retrieving beer quickly and had him get them some too.... from our cooler. I let it slide for the most part it's a party right? Even if beer is 45 dollars a case! I informed them that Eric was giving them our beer and they were SHOCKED!! Please how low are you when you will scam a 4 year old for free beer. It was getting late so I tried to put Eric in bed but he was ready to go home?!?! only home was 2 plus hours away and I had been drinking.... He cried and called his mom and then finally after a while fell asleep. Our location protected us from the wind and rising tide but not the all night partier we had ungraciously envied to camp near us. At 7 AM the music finally stopped and about 5 minutes later Eric woke up! Errrrr We had some breakfast and played by the beach I tried to get Eric to fly the kite but he wasn't really interested in it. Sometime around noon Taro, Mari, Joe and Cholo showed up. I love Mari she is such a great help with Eric and she really likes to take care of him. Eric went into the water a bunch of times and she changed him each time and made sure he was warm. I was there to yell at him or chase him as he ran into or out of the water! He managed to soak all 3 changes of clothes in 2 hours. I was a little pissed but his clothes dried pretty quick in the warm sun. Eric played with the other kids on the beach and had fun with Ryoma and another girl who was camping near by. Later in the day I took him to hunt for crabs. I hate those kind of things so I used my knife and a bucket to catch it. As soon as it was in the bucket Eric and Ryoma were picking it up with their hands Ewww. I made them let the crab go. That was quite a ordeal but I got the crab home safely. That night we went to a cool onsen under a water fall. It was a bit cool and a long walk down to the onsen but well worth it cause there was a big water fall in the back round really cool place to just chill out. We went back and had some dinner and by the time that was all over it was time for Eric and I to hit the rack to the sounds of techno blaring out of one little boom box. At about 5 am I had enough and woke up with the mind to kill some one ...... but instead politely asked if it could be turned down and it was..... for a while. The last day Eric and Ryoma played in the water for a while in a stream near by. I had watched the 2 of them the previous day for a while so Brent watched them while I grabbed Taros wet suit and a spare board of Collins and got some surfing in. I was lucky that I got to go in for about 1 hour and had a pretty good go of it. I finished up cleaned off and got dressed and Brent and I packed our stuff. Eric started being a bit bratty cause he didn't want to leave but I had had enough and wanted to get going. We packed the car and headed out. We decide to take 414 instead of taking 135. What a mistake. Half way up the twisty turny sometimes one lane road a old man in his brand new mini-van rounded a corner in front of me and then came to a dead stop. Ya I saw him but just in time and barely bumped his van. Still there was a scratch an a little ding on his car my car had nothing wrong. Brent and I got out and Brent negotiated a sweet deal for me 25000 Yen ($ 210 +-). I can speak enough Japanese to get by but those are the kinda times when you don't want to be testing out your skill. I as soon as it was all said and done I got us out of there and home as quickly and safely as possible. I dropped Brent off at his in-laws house and Eric I headed back to Gotemba. 5 or 10 minutes from the house Eric took off his seat belt and curled up in his seat and went to sleep and stayed asleep till the next morning. When we got home I had a shower some food a beer and by 8 or so I was crashed out in bed. The next day was pretty uneventful with just a trip to the pool. Sunday we went to have lunch at Brent's house and exchange stuff that got mixed up while camping mainly kids clothes. When we were coming back from the bar to pick up my cooler I turned wrong way down a one way street. Of course there was a cop right there and of course what followed was a 7000 yen ($62.00 +-) ticket. Man I suck. Brent begged and begged for them to let me off... I was in no mood to beg. Our kids were in the car and Ryoma commented to his Dad "WOW Eric's dad is cool he gets to sit in the back of the police car!" When I heard that it made me laugh... WTF it is only a ticket. It could have been worse I am a gaijin they could have just beat me down in the street, well there was only 2 of them so they could have tried. LOL Any ways it was fun... I laughed I cried I paid and paid some more..... Shogani (it cant be helped) thats life in Japan. E./ Pictures tomorrow

So a Big shout out and congratulations to my man Jeff and his girl Nicole. Jeff IMed me about 2 weeks ago and ..... and right away I could tell something was up. He told me he asked Nicole to marry him and she said yes! Good for you two!! Anyways here is a picture of the happy couple. Looking.... happy!!