Q: Why are you overseas?
A: To protect the lives of our soldiers who are defending our lives, the lives of those oppressed, the liberties our forefathers fought so hard to keep, therefore allowing us to pursue the things that bring happiness into our lives.
Over the years I’ve come to realize that I’m a very firm believer in the Declaration of Independence. I could not be more proud of the United States and to be an American.
So I’m currently in an entirely different part of the world. Helping doing something that I really believe in. I’m nearby people who do great things for those around them. People who give their time and sometimes there lives to something much greater than themselves. Seeing what I’m seeing first hand. Really changes one’s perspective of what it really going on. The sad truth is the way the media currently works. No one really has a clue. The only way to really understand it is to honestly see if for yourself. Amazing simply amazing.
My three year old just said: “Mommy get your phone. I want to txt some people.”
I was looking at the latest news about what is going on and was reading about Nada. I happened to glance and read something about maskups. It was related to this picture on Wired about artist called Girl Talk. While looking for the music on YouTube I kept getting the standard maintenance message. This lead me to twitter to see if there was any ‘buzz’ about it being down. I glanced and the friend feed and since I’ve met and I used to read Robert Scoble who now works at Rackspace where I used to work. This lead me to Traveling Geeks. Followed by not recognizing the geek behind Pop17. Finally leads me to these great photos by Dina Goldstein called Fallen Princesses. I find the last image with Jasmine really striking considering what is currently going on. It’s interesting the mashups and cross linking can lead us to in this tangled thing we called the world wide web.
So this morning I wake at about 5:30 AM to the rain outside. In the back of my mind I’m thinking I’ll sleep in and wait for the accidents to die down. Around 8 AM my wife walks in and suggests I wait to go into work there are accidents up and down I35. Around 9 AM I start to head into work I’m not but 3 minutes into my drive to work when I run across a truck that is backwards facing traffic with no one there to assist. As I drive by I notice the guy seems a little dazed. So I park my car far enough away and begin walking to his car. Being pretty careful as the other drivers just fly past. I ask the guy if he’s OK and if he needs assistance. He says he’s OK but still seems a little shaken. He gets out of his car and almost gets hit. I suggest he get back into his car and I’ll call for help. [Diagram: Car Accident Before] I call the Universal City police department directly (it’s on my speed dial). They say it’s out of their area. I am then forwarded to what I’m told is ‘911 dispatch’ who says it’s out of their area and that I have to call Live Oak. (FYI for someone here in San Antonio in charge of the police departments this has got to stop this is the third time I’ve been told it’s “out of our area” and the situation goes from bad to worse.) She proceeds to give me a number instead of forwarding me. I start dialing the number, walking back to my car, as I watch another accident unfold on the access road to I35 below. It’s then that I hang up and start dialing 911. It’s right at that time that a small car (blue in the pictures) coming from 1604 hits the front of the truck (red in the pictures). I remember the truck in the right hand lane didn’t yield (green in the pictures). [Car Accident During] The truck starts moving back towards me. Then another car runs into her from behind and causes the truck to hit me. At that same time the other car (the one that hit the truck first) is smashed and pushed into the other lane in front of the truck (green) that didn’t yield. So when it was all said and done. I ended up hanging off the back of the truck. With my right side aching and my knee banged up pretty bad. I hopped back to my car just in case another car came and realized my cell phone was missing. At this point everyone was out of their cars asking if everyone was OK. Traffic had stopped. I proceeded to look for my cell phone to call 911. I found it in the back of the truck (red). I headed to the girl in the first car who is now adjacent to where I was standing. She was banged up pretty bad. [Car Accident After] Before I could dial 911 a cop showed up. EMS showed up a few minutes after. I made some phone calls. After getting my information and getting the OK from the EMS on scene I drove myself to the hospital. After a few X-rays and some CAT scans nothing is broken. So all in all the lesson learned is “No good deed goes unpunished”. 
