Dear Lorene:

Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to S. 968, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property (PROTECT IP) Act.  Your opinion is very important to me, and I appreciate the opportunity to respond to you about this important issue.

The PROTECT IP Act would prohibit foreign websites, formerly operating outside the realm of U.S. law, from exploiting U.S. Internet service providers, payment processors, search engines, and ad placement services.  However, many have expressed concern that the legislation does not create an adequate procedure for review, and could lead to websites being shut down without sufficient evidence of illegal action by the host site itself.

As Internet technologies rapidly change society, we must work to ensure that our laws continue to reflect the values most important to us.  It is imperative that we continue to respect property rights, and protect copyrights and intellectual property.  Yet it is equally essential that we protect the fundamental right of freedom of speech, and do not permit baseless censorship of content.  Please be assured that I will work with my colleagues in the Senate to best address these issues, and continue my commitment both to protecting property rights and preserving freedom of expression in all public mediums.

 

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.  I encourage you to contact me if I can be of further assistance on this or any other concern.  I also invite you to visit my website (http://menendez.senate.gov) to learn more about how I am standing up for New Jersey families in the United States Senate.

Earlier today I heard from Fight the Future that Congress had shelved both PIPA and SOPA. Then a little while ago I got another email from Senator Menendez.

Source: http://frugaldad.com

JANUARY

2011 started off awesome as I was in Japan with Amanda and Lisa (and others!). We got to ride an epic pow day in Hakuba with over a meter of snow. We also made new friends, tried new foods, and went to our first onsen.

Amanda, Lisa, and I left Hakuba and headed up to Niseko to meet up with Team Australia. We pretty much rode fresh pow every day. It was amazing.

We also ate a lot of yummy food. I still miss the udon..and the heated toilet seats!

I got back the US and soon headed to Denver to meet up with Tali for the annual snowboard trade show.

We saw Diplo spin at a private Nike party. I wasn’t impressed.

FEBRUARY

My brother took the whole family to see a Nets game as a Christmas gift. Here is Sly dissin’ Vanessa.

We also celebrated Vanessa’s birthday.

APRIL

My sister Natalie had her big art show at Kean.

The whole family got together to celebrate Easter.

MAY

The New York Public Library kicked off the 100th anniversary of it’s main branch. As part of the celebration I was one of 500 people picked to spend the whole night in the library playing a game called Find the Future. We searched the building for clues that lead us to help write a book overnight.

JUNE

Natalie, my parents, and I headed up to New York for Bike NY’s Discover Hudson Valley Bike ride. Natalie and I did the 30 mile ride and my parents did 18.

JULY

We went camping at Lake Tobyhanna State Park in Pennsylvania to celebrate Independence Day.

AUGUST

My friend Sarah and I joined hundreds of other people dressed in white for a pop-up picnic in NYC’s financial district for the New York City’s first Diner en Blanc.

My friend Lucie from the UK was in Cape May vacationing for a couple of weeks. I had a lovely time visiting her while we went to the beach and biked around looking at the old Victorians.

At the end of August I was supposed to do my first triathlon with my sisters, but Hurricane Irene came and it was cancelled.

SEPTEMBER

My (not-so) little brother Jonathan turned 30!

I was very honored to be a reader at Greg & Claire’s lovely wedding in Milwaukee.

I went to Paris for a week with my mother and my Aunt Peggy.

We had a very special birthday lunch for my aunt at Le Jules Verne in the Eiffel Tower.

OCTOBER

Two of my closest college friends got married on October 1st. I only had the pleasure of witnessing Lincy and JB’s wedding in Montpellier, France. Christina was getting married some 3000 miles away in Baltimore.

After the wedding, Leslie and I traveled to Prague for lots of cool buildings, cheap beer, and good food.

Then we took an overnight train to Poland. We spent our first day at Auschwitz, one of the horrifying places that everyone needs to visit.

We settled into Krakow for couple of days for more good food and the coolest church I’ve ever seen.

We made a quick trip to see Warsaw. It was kinda Disney-like.

My sister Natalie got married during that crazy blizzard on October 29th. The power went out 10 minutes before the wedding began. I was the maid of honor so I have no ceremony photos, but I made the cupcakes.

NOVEMBER

I spent November recovering from the past 2 months.

DECEMBER

Natalie and I went the Devils game on December 16 to watch Scott Niedermayer’s Number retirement.

Christmas!

I can remember thinking about my day ahead as I walked down 23rd street this morning. I’d go the gym, and then get home in time for open mic night at Ristra. I walked into work at 8:45, the same as always, and sat at my desk to read email. A normal day. Around nine o’clock I heard someone on the phone say something about a plane hitting the world trade center. So I went to the MSNBC website, and looked at the headline. ‘What a crazy accident’ I thought.

Minutes later my cell phone rings, my sister Natalie calls to say what happened. She can see the smoke billowing from Jersey City. She’s on her way out. Seconds later my dad calls, he’s thinks I’m still working at 5 WTC. Six months ago I was. So we talk a bit, and he says something about a second plane hitting the towers. I’m a little skeptical, because my dad has a little language barrier problem.

I see Colleen on Instant Messenger; she works across the street from the WTC. She’s using her home account so I assume she hasn’t left yet. I make a comment about her being glad she hasn’t left yet. She says she’s watching the news, and another plane has hit the other tower. Dad was right. I’m thinking ‘shit.. this is no accident.’

Vanessa, my other sister, calls me. I forget what we talked about. Meanwhile people in the office are beginning to bustle off to various areas, watching web tv, televisions or listening to radios. They show the plane hitting the other tower. Looks of shock and disbelief mar the faces of everyone around me. We packed around a bunch of cubicles watching a television at strange angles. Realization strikes people. This is terrorism. We have an office in 5 WTC, as I previously mentioned. I worked there for a few months. We worry for our colleagues.

I return to my desk to find a bevy of instant messages. My friends wonder if I’m ok. I feel loved. We ponder who else we know who works downtown. Colleen has signed off. So several people are looking for her. I reassure them that she’s at home, and safe.

Michelene ims me. She was worried. She wants Joe and I to come to her place, if we get stuck. I ask, ‘Where is your place’. She replies, ’236th and Broadway’. That’s 213 blocks away and the subways are closed. All of NY is now shut down. All planes are told to land. We begin to hear that the plane that struck the tower was a passenger jet. Once again disbelief abounds.

Our phones are not working, and our cell phones won’t connect. My link to the world is AIM. I’m very glad I got it working a few weeks ago.

More people are IMing me. We happily find out that most of our friends are accounted for. CSFB announces that all of our staff in 5 WTC have been evacuated. My best friend Jen, who is in Arizona for a few months IMs me. She frantically worried about me, not being able to get through to me at work or on my cell. She too thinks I still work in the WTC. I reassure her that I am alive. She tells me that she was having a dream that she was showing someone the NYC skyline, and she points out the WTC. And she tells them they should go up to Castle Point because the view is better, and that I live there. Her father wakes her up at 7am with news of what has happened. I think this is majorly freaky.

We hear reports that one of the towers has collapsed. Incredulous, I hustle over to the TV. It’s an unbelievable site. If possible, the shock and horror of the watching crowd increases tenfold. I see a woman walk by crying. They say people saw a 3rd plane strike the tower. I can’t believe that one of the towers is gone. It’s hard to tell from the TV footage, most of the buildings are obscured by smoke.

It’s getting difficult to watch TV. I return to my desk and talk more to my friends about it.

We got an announcement saying that we could leave work, but our building was a safe as anywhere. I believed it. So I went back to watch more tv, and got back to see the 2nd tower fall. It looked like a movie implosion. At this point I really had to stop watching the TV. Everyone who I talked to was totally freaked out by then. I don’t even remember when the announcement about the Pentagon came.

I had to convince my friend that he shouldn’t walk to 236th Street. So we figured we’d try to take the ferry. But of course I couldn’t call. So I went to lunch. And everything in the cafeteria was free. That was nice. So I went back upstairs, and decided to try the ferry with Joe & co.

Walking through NYC was absolutely surreal. There were amazing numbers of people walking in the streets, and no cars. None. People walked around in a daze. I saw people with gas masks around their necks, crying on people’s shoulders. The shelves of stores were empty.

In tragedy there is some good. When we finally got down to 12th Avenue and 23rd Street, I was amazed. From 23rd street down to the Trade Center, there were ambulances lined up. They were from places all over the tri-state area. I saw some from around my hometown. We finally hiked down to the ferry, and the number of people were staggering. People were lined up in 4 snaking lines stretching 12 blocks. Somehow we got on the ferry in 40 minutes.

As soon as we pulled out of the dock and you could see where the World Trade Center stood, you could hear the gasp of the entire boat as they said ‘Oh my God’. It was just a giant black cloud. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t there. It seems like some David Copperfield magic trick.

Getting off the ferry into Hoboken was eerie, something like ET. As we walked off we saw people dressed in special suits with mask. They shuffled off anyone from the WTC into detox. In the bus station there were hundreds of EMTs where they setup a triage. I looked around for Christina, figuring as a Hoboken emt she’d be there but I couldn’t find her. At the entrance of the street, stood an army soldier.

But we had made it home. We stopped by Colleen’s to give her a hug. Home is good.

That night I read the following on some new site, and it really struck home since the Pearl Harbor memorial is one of the most moving things I’ve ever seen:
“It is the largest terrorist attack ever on the United States. And the casualty count will dwarf even that of Pearl Harbor.”

The day after 9/11 I brought my camera with me into work. I have no idea why I went to work that day. Anyway I took some photos in the city and Hoboken, and you can see both the mass of dust and smoke from where the towers stood as well as the shock and sadness on everyone’s faces. I uploaded those photos to my flickr account so you can see them if you like.

I really want to do one of those cool glitter ombre manis but I don’t have the right kind of glitter.

The one thing they don’t really show is masking your nails with tape. I used 3 pieces of scotch tape on each nail. One around the bottom of my nail. Then a piece than ran along the side of my nail, then over top of my fingertip. Then a third piece along the other side. You may still need to clean the polish off but this is way better than no masking at all.

l-r Essie 800 Blanc, Essie 584 Tart Deco, Essie 736 Beach Bum Blu, Nicole 234 You Can!, Nicole 047 Nic's Favorite

Anyway, first I painted my nails white then I used 4 colors of polish. It’s mainly the 2 lighter colors, with 2 drops of blue and one drop of the dark orange. The colors I used were Essie 800 Blanc for the base coat. Then I used Essie 584 Tart Deco, Essie 736 Beach Bum Blu, Nicole 234 You Can!, and Nicole 047 Nic’s Favorite to do the marbling.