Being a battleground state isn't easy. Just ask the guy who was run off the road Wednesday on a highway near my house.

The man was forced off the pavement by a crazed Obama fan because he had a "Nobama" bumper sticker, according to a police report. It doesn't help that the alleged offender appeared to be Arab and was screaming and throwing unidentified objects from his window.

Add to the problem crazy stumping by every imaginable political talking head as they criss-cross the state. In my job as a newspaper reporter this election season, I've written lots of stories about "star" visits to my 800,000-population (158,000 registered voters) area. Ohio has 20 Electoral College votes and is polling three points in the blue.

Newt Gingrich told me Democrats are bad at economics.

Adrian Fenty, mayor of Washington, D.C., told me they can rescue the economy.

Caroline Kennedy compared Barack Obama to her father.

U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) and Academy Award-nominated actress Rosie Perez told me the large local Puerto Rican population could win Ohio for Obama.

Obama's chief medical issues advisor, Dora Hughes, advocated universal health care, while U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) told me John McCain's $5,000 tax credit will fix the health insurance crisis.

Hillary Clinton has spoken twice within eight miles of my humble abode. Obama has swung through once.

McCain and his lipstick-laden pit bull, Gov. Sarah Palin, town-halled it up this week just 10 miles southeast of me.

Gangs of roving voting registrars have been patrolling sidewalks every weekend for a month, trying to drive up participation on both sides of the fence. Obama's student-heavy grassroots push was balanced by GOP blue hairs knocking door-to-door to encourage absentee balloting. All that madness ended Monday as the voter registration deadline passed.

Now we've entered the most wonderful phase of any dirty election: Sign-stealing. Those suckers have already started mysteriously disappearing from yards overnight. It's been coupled in isolated cases (one of which I've seen documentation, the others rumored) with absentee voter card thefts from mailboxes.

Meanwhile, I've gotten a few nasty calls from old white people today who are angry that local college students from out of state have been lining up for early balloting here. One woman told me it's fraud for college students to vote, and they shouldn't have representation no matter what taxes they pay.

She told me -- in her most patriotic tone -- that it doesn't matter if the Supreme Court's ruled in favor of a student's right to vote in the state where he or she attends school. They're "dirty little hippies supporting that black Obama," and I'm biased to say otherwise, she told me.

Have you ever noticed that Republicans eagerly support wars to "defend our freedoms" but are equally eager to attempt to deny a woman's freedom to choose, a gay person's civil freedoms, a student's freedom to vote, an immigrant's freedom to come to America, a non-English-speaking person's freedom to abstain from English, and a black person's freedom to... um... be black?

That observation aside, I'm really starting to tire of all the "celebrity" political visits. Honestly, if you haven't by this time researched and decided which presidential candidate to support, you should have "idiot" tattooed on your forehead.

With roughly three weeks to go, if you're a so-called "undecided," then you are probably either mentally challenged, criminally ignorant, the product of rampant Deliverance-style incest, have an advanced case of Alzheimer's disease, or are suffering from cripplingly explosive amnesia.

If you are basing your presidential vote on television ad spots, what you heard from your brother-in-law, a gut feeling, the candidates' favorite colors, looks, skin color, Fox News reports, or who has boobies, then you should be slapped with the moron stick and forced to wear a T-shirt that reads, "I am bad and should feel bad."

PM Han Sung-soo made the remark Thursday while receiving Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan, who is visiting the RoK to strengthen cooperation in education, training, science, technology and human resource development.

The RoK government’s leader affirmed his country would do its utmost to transfer advanced technologies to Vietnam and support the country’s development process.

Deputy PM Nhan spoke highly of the RoK’s position in developing cooperative ties with Vietnam and said that cultural and historical similarities between the two nations had laid a firm foundation for closer cooperation in the future.

Nhan and his entourage, which includes 21 officials from the Government Office and the Ministry of Education and Training and the heads of universities from across the nation, also Thursday met with officials from the Korean Educational Development Institute and the Korea Research Institute for Education and Training.

The Deputy PM emphasized the role of information technology in education and training and described the RoK as Vietnam’s strategic partner in this area.

He expressed his wish that the RoK government would provide a greater number of postgraduate scholarships in science and technology for Vietnamese students.

Nhan is scheduled to meet with the RoK Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Education, Science and Technology today.

Source: VNA

What fountain? I was back in al-Matariyya this morning looking for the obelisk of Senusret1. The boys were invited to a swim birthday party at the Intercontinental Hotel that is part of the Citystars complex near Heliopolis. Shona agreed to take the boys with the added incentive of some time shopping alone and using the hotel's spa. A few hours on my own exploring Matariyya in the car was too good an opportunity to miss. Driving was tricky today, being a Friday, as many roads were closed for prayers. Worshippers literally lay their mats down on the road outside their mosques as the sermon is broadcast through loud-speakers from inside.

I found it. Another hour driving around, using my limited Arabic and going into Chemist shops knowing that I could find someone who could speak English. I also found the fountain, it is behind the railings in the picture above. Not in my top ten. It does not look as if it has ever gushed or even dribbled. Carrying on down the narrowing road I eventually caught sight of the obelisk behind a green coloured mosque. Not the grandest of settings for the last standing part of the Heliopolis cult temple of Re. What can I say? The obelisk, known locally as el-Misallah (I must have been saying it wrong), stands in a little garden in the middle of a large area of waste ground. Waste ground is an accurate description, as on three sides of the garden there is a sea of waste, with every colour of plastic bag imaginable. Scale wise, people resemble ants, crossing, foraging and collecting bits of rubbish. The odd donkey cart and flock of sheep come as no surprise. This is the centre of a city. This is when you realise Cairo has a problem cleaning up after itself. Indeed people in this area seem to use the tram lines as a place for getting rid of rubbish. The rubbish collectors can be seen walking the lines sifting through the bags and garbage. The obelisk is 22 meters high, weighs 120 tons and was carved from a block of pink Aswan granite. It was one of two. The other is missing, said the lady (antiquities inspector) at the booth. She also helped me with the Arabic for the Virgin's Tree.

Matariyya claims to have later acquaintance with the infant Jesus. I went looking for the Virgin's Tree. I got lost but ended up at the Church of the Holy Family. A very pleasant scout leader (who could speak Italian) got the key and led me inside the church. One of those magic moments when they switch on the lights just for you. Beautiful church but no sign of a tree.

Along the street, second on the left I found the Virgin's Tree. The story goes that while in Egypt the Holy Family hid from Herod's soldiers in the branches of a balsam tree. The balsam has died but was replaced with this sycamore fig estimated to be at least a hundred years old. The nearby well is said to have sprung up with Christ's touch when Mary needed water to wash clothes. The water is said to have healing properties. Early last century it was reputed that Christian souvenir hunting was so bad that the tree's owner tied a knife to the branches and put up a sign begging people not to hack at it any more with axes. I left empty handed.

Two brilliant places to visit but not the easiest to find. Thanks to Lesley Lababidi and The Rough Guide to Egypt for a lot of the information and stories attached to these places - but not for the directions and maps! A great few hours lost in the city.

A part from this, it's of some advantage if you don't mind stairs and a lot of walking up, down, down, up, etc. It's a rather sportive challenge visiting Toledo throughout in a day. But it's beautiful. The best part is actually just walking through the city and see all these nice little, twisted streets and amazing buildings which very often look like Art Nouveau though I'm not sure if this is not the Muslim influence.

Not that there is much of Muslim culture left. Actually, Toledo has the highest percentage of churches, convents or other religious buildings per square-meter, I've ever seen in life. In almost every corner of the street you run into a church. But from one of the churches (I just can't remember which one) you have undeniably a great view over the city.

In one word: fantástico!

Later on the second day, I was one of the panel members for the discussion on the topic of Science Education - A Challenge. This was held for the teachers. The other members of the panel were from IITD, NCL, BARC. The panel discussed on how the teachers can help the students to generate an interest towards science, about classroom learning, conceptual understanding, relating their learning with their daily experiences, etc.

The main purpose of this holiday was to relax so there was quite some sleeping involved or sitting on a bench in the sunshine and reading, but I wouldn't be my parents' daughter if there were not a decent amount of sightseeing and cultura. Some things I did:

• Two guided tours in English organised by the tourist office: The old Madrid and Parks and Gardens by bike. Both are definitely worth it as they make it possible to discover parts of the city it would take a long time finding by yourself. And, it allows you to meet other people.
• Spending several hours in El Retiro - a wonderful, huge park in the city center. Kind of the Tiergarten of Madrid just like the Park del campo de moro, or so, close to the Royal Palace. Very nice as well.
• Visiting the botanic garden - very beautiful and a nice way to spend time, especially if you have almost two hours to wait for the train but that's another story.
• Visiting the Prado Museum - 3 hours, good audio guide; and Muséo Reina Sofia - 3 and a half hours, excellent audio guide. Both are great, "old" and modern art - completing each other. Next time, I'll do the Thyssen museum.
• Going over the plaza del Oriente, plaza Mayor, plaza de sol, plaza de Madrid, plaza d'España, plaza, plaza, plaza...
• Admiring the two big fountains of which I just can't recall the names. One is the one where Real Madrid celebrates when they win something important and the other is where Atletico Madrid celebrates when they win something important.
• Going to see the change of the guard in front of the Royal Palace - every first Wednesday of the month involving 400 something men and women and 100 something horses. It was obviously cheer luck that I found this out on time and could make it. Interesting but not compulsory.

Things I discovered:

• The oldest building in Madrid is an Egyptian temple.
• Madrid is cheap. At least cheaper than Brussels. Or, if you want to say it differently: You get a lot of value for your money: A 10 metro tickets cost 7 euros; ham sandwich plus coke plus apple, 2 euro, Porras con chocolate for 3, the museums are 6, etc.
• Madrid is actually not a very old city or capital. Most of its "old buildings" are from the 17th, 18th and 19th century and there is hardly anything older.
• Madrid is a very green city with lots of parks and plenty of trees everywhere.
• In some restaurants, you pay a different price at the bar, inside and for the terrace. Or, as the nice Canadian I met put it: You're paying for the sun.
• It can be quite cold in Madrid and I don't mean the last picture. At least if you just got used to 25° and sunshine, 17° and a chilly wind are rather cold.

Things I loved:

• Tapas!
• The people - welcoming, chatty, interested, open and generally willing to repeat an answer three times when I struggled to understand even the very basic concepts.
• Sunshine

The only thing I did not like was the Gran Via - the shopping mile which is boring vain commercial as shopping miles are in any other city. If it weren't for the sunshine, it could as well be Rue Neuve in BXL. But yeah...

Volveré en España, es seguro.

The third day of our Eid holiday and the boys and I headed out early to explore Heliopolis with few expectations. Being a holiday many places of interest might have been closed but the weather has certainly become cooler allowing us to travel more comfortably. As it turned out our collection of deceptively useless maps and guidebook directions made me sweat enough. I wanted to find the Obelisk of Senusret 1. 

I encouraged the boys to come on this trip with the prospect of visiting (being October) the October War Panorama. We drove around Al-Matariya district but just couldn't find the Obelisk. Heliopolis is a great area with some magnificent architecture. The founder of the new city of Heliopolis (not the one from 4000 years ago - the obelisk being the only remaining trace of the city Plato once visited) Baron Empain, commissioned French architect Alexandre Marcel to build him a palace. The resulting exotic, Hindu-style building built in 1906 is still one of my favourite landmarks in the city. Driving through the area this morning we saw a lot of old cars seemingly abandoned by long-deceased owners. This Mercury automobile (1950s?) still has class, in typical decaying suburban surroundings. Henry Ford designed the cars for/as, entry-level-luxury. A good phrase to describe Heliopolis last century.

I was all set to visit the October War Panorama with a mixture of cynicism and admiration for a country that can celebrate a victory without historical evidence to back them up. A major bridge in the city bears the name, 6th October Bridge. However, I have always been a bit confused about Egypt's involvement in the Six Day War (1957) with Israel and the offensive (again, against Israel) launched by Egypt and Syria (I think Jordan as well) on the 6th of October 1973, when they crossed into the Sinai and the Golan Heights. I think they claim to have been successful in both encounters. I think they were convincingly mauled in 1957 but having read about the consequences of the offensive in 1973, Sadat might just have deserved his Nobel Peace Prize after all. Within a few weeks Egypt had lost more ground than it had taken but now had the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. over a barrel - literally, as OPEC deployed the 'oil weapon' boycotting countries who supported Israel. Was that the Winter of Discontent?

On entering the complex we were ushered into a cinema-style hall that was already full of Egyptians with children, many wielding imitation guns. We were the only non-Egyptians there. A small screen was ready to show us a film but what intrigued us most was the reconstruction of the Suez Canal (real water) and the model houses, tanks and figures along the banks laid out below it. I couldn't help but imagine Michael Bentine walking in and giving us a commentary on the conflict with puffs of dust spewing from the buildings and splashes from the choppy water. Click on this link if you know what I mean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rpwyww3Umw The commentary was in Arabic and even Cairo noticed a lot of the footage was repeated on the film. At the end many of the audience gestured to the Canal and asked when the show would start. The projectionists stuck their heads out the gap and said the show was over. This was a huge disappointment to us. Perhaps the people who could bring the scene to life were on holiday.

We were then led upstairs, up a very slippery staircase to the panorama which consisted of a revolving set of seats going round a painted mural with objects from the conflict in the foreground. It was big enough to house tanks, jeeps etc. Very patriotic and some clapping and weeping grannies at the end. Finished by having a climb over the tanks and guns outside. The Panorama was a gift, money was donated by the Domocratic People's Republic of Korea in 1983. Not somewhere I would take visitors to unless they asked. It is free entry this Monday!

We will return to find the Obelisk. We will not be defeated.

The funeral was a catholic mass in a nearby church.  I hadn't realised how devoutly catholic the couple had been.  I find masses for weddings and funerals quite impersonal.  It's basically just a church service and the actual ceremony is merely coincidental.  There is very little personal touch to it.  It could be anybody getting married or having died.  It was therefore relatively easy to stem the flow of tears.  (This was in stark contrast to another funeral I'd been to in June.  I hadn't personally known the person who died but the funeral was so simple yet so moving and personal that I needed rather a lot of tissues.)  At the crematorium the priest read from a book and even referred to the deceased as "her" instead of "him".  It made it seem so impersonal as to be rather pointless.

The wake was an opportunity to catch up with people I hadn't seen for some time.  It's unfortunate that it has to be a sad occasion to bring people together.  The rest of the time we're too caught up in our own lives to make time for others.

I had mixed feelings in any case.  I still remembered rather bitterly that this couple had not come to my father's funeral even though they were in town when he died and on the day beforehand.  They made excuses and didn't even come to give their respects to my brother and I.  It hurt and it tainted my feelings for the couple for some years (even though I liked the husband for his wonderful sense of humour and contagious laugh).  It was for his sake that I went to his funeral.

Don't wait until my body has been torched and put into a container the size of that lil' trash can!  Sometimes it's too late.  Sometimes it's in Missouri, which is where it will have to be.

Particularbaptist.com has been that name since July 2006, when I switched the site to a new hosting company and adopted the before mentioned domain name. The Aussie Outpost ‘brand (so to speak)’ had been established for some time and so the move to a new URL, name and domain would take some getting used to and the early stats showed this to be the case.

In July 2006 there were 333 hits on the site, with a total of 13 visits and 108 pages viewed. By the end of the year there had been 8 960 hits on the site, with a total of 643 visits and 3208 pages viewed. This was about what I would have expected given the changes and the effort involved in becoming re-established as particularbaptist.com.

Having looked at the statistics for the site a couple of days ago I was amazed at how strongly the site is now performing and it has encouraged me to continue with the work (I had been contemplating abandoning the project). All of those doubts that probably plague ‘webmasters’ were mine – is it worth the effort, is it at all useful and profitable to visitors, is it making a useful contribution, etc?

Anyhow, I have been encouraged to press on by the figures and have found that the statistics prove useful as that – encouragement. At times, that is very important – at least I think it is. So what are the latest figures?

Toward the end of September 2008 there had been 368 756 hits on the site, with a total of 35 979 visits and 233 571 pages viewed. All that in just over 2 years is simply amazing to me and above what I had expected by a long way. With the growth trend the site should have its 500 000^th hit and 50 000^th visit early in the new year and possibly a million hits by the end of 2009.

Isn’t the Internet incredible – so many visitors from all over the world?

I’ve started a statistics page on the site mainly for my own benefit (so I don’t have to wade through all of the figures over and over from the web host which is a bit complicated) and for supporters of the site at:

http://www.particularbaptist.com/stats.html

It’s all very simple on the statistics page at the moment and hopefully it will stay that way. I will be adding other bits of statistical trivia to the page over time, including a list of what countries the site has had visitors from. All very interesting.

The site’s homepage is pretty simple to find these days:

http://particularbaptist.com

I recently (August) visited the east (Ampara and Batticoloa), on a work assignment for four days. Since most people tend to say that “the east is very volatile and it’s not safe to travel”, etc, I thought I will write a short paragraph about the myth Vs reality on the east.

Speaking about Ampara, I would say it is a very calm and peaceful place to ever live in. for those who don’t know where Ampara is, it’s surrounded by Batticoloa, Monaragala and Hambanthota and does not have a link in the national railway line. The A11 main road runs across Ampara linking Monaragala, Ampara, Batticoloa and right up to Trincomalee. Ampara having a population of over 600, 000 (http://www.statistics.gov.lk/PopHouSat/index.asp) has a growth rate of 0.5% and the most amazing statistic is that the population density being 145 persons per square kilo meter. The administration is being looked after through twenty divisional secretariats in Ampara. More information can be obtained on the above link.

Ampara being a huge area has only two main check points along the A11 main road (the only check points visible at the time of the visit). Having an urban population of over 20% Ampara has a relatively large and busy town (as busy like fort). Except for the fact that Ampara doesn’t have a very strong ADSL network (which I guess is not very important) every thing in this large town is sufficient to live a peaceful life. The farming infrastructure is massive in here. They use machinery than any thing else to work on fields.

Shops tend to operate from 7 in the morning till around 9 in the night without any hindrance. Ampara also being a hub for certain bus routes, have its own area with huge service canters at one end of the town. Ampara also is the stop of most of the NGOs and INGOs travelling and working in Batticoloa as it has the facilities for most of their needs (lodging, food, shopping, etc.). Most of the UN regional offices are also housed in Ampara. Ampara is also equipped with a huge library facility and a huge ground right in the centre of the town.

You would actually find people moving very freely every where in Ampara with out any issue or being stopped at check points asking for the national id and etc.   

Speaking about Batticoloa is a little bit different from Ampara. Bordering Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa and Ampara is having a population over 500,000 with a growth rate of 1.7% and a population density of 198 persons per square kilo meter.

Batti is very much different from Ampara. Having check points at every entrance of the different divisions (mind you guys there are 14 divisional secretariats). Batticoloa having a urban population of 25% you will still never find people on the streets after 7 in the evening. Shops normally open around 10 in the morning and go on until a maximum of 7 in the evening. So basically the streets are empty after 7.

As I said yes, there are a lot of check points, but most of them are there for the sake of having them.  The police is very powerless in terms of civil engagements. So it’s the STF who does handle stuff in Batti. Having said that I recall seeing different types of uniformed people having had weapons with them. You would find the police in their regular uniforms, then the village security officers in maroon, then the STF (well there are two groups of them, serving two different parties. One is the government and I assume that you guys know the other party whom I referring to), the army, of cause the navy and then comes the civil forces with weapons (I assume that you guys know whom I referring to).

Having had all of them, they still do not have regular checks and all, but still you have the liberty of travelling from one end to the other even here. One thing I would say is to be cautious on the motor bike drivers. It’s like the mosquitoes in the evening. So many m/bikes riding at very high speeds levels without helmets (I honestly don’t know what will happen in case of an accident) is seriously you need to be very careful of.

There are different types of traditional and local food available here. You would actually love the food here. Well most of them are non-veg stuff, but you could actually find a lot of veg stuff as well. I also got the chance to visit few of the places of interest such as the Batti Light House (this was rebuilt after the tsunami by the USAID), some beach (I actually can’t recall its name) and some food joints.

Being in Ampara and Batti gave me a totally different experience, which I will never forget in my life. For those who have not been to these places, my advise is to go visit them before its too late.

Intrepid admissions counselor Kory Trautman is....

(cue dramatic music)

On The Road!!

Kory will be visiting a bunch of central Nebraska towns over the next few days, so for those of you from the Heart of the Heartland, let your friends and family back home know that The Man From Midland will be in their town. They can stop by and get all their Midland questions answered, pick up a copy of our new brochure, and get all the information they need to apply.

He kicks off his trip with a visit to the McCool Junction at Osceola football game Friday night.

Kory will be at:

Monday, 9/29

Loomis, NE @ 9 a.m.
Southern Valley, NE @ 11:30 a.m.
Axtell, NE @ 1:30 p.m.
Minden @ 2:45 p.m.

Tuesday, 9/30:

Overton @ 9.a.m
Elm Creek @ 11 a.m.
Bertrand @ 1:15 p.m.
Kearney Catholic @ 3 p.m.

Wednesday, 10/1:

Eustis-Farnam @ 9 a.m.
Elwood @ 11 a.m.
Kearney High  @ 1:45 p.m.

Thursday, 10/2:

Gibbon @ 9:15 a.m.
Kenesaw @ 11 a.m.
Wood River @ 1:40 p.m.

The single best way to decide if a school is right for you is to visit, but just like everything in life, there are right ways and wrong ways to go about it. Showing up on campus without setting up any events or meetings? Wrong way. Visiting campus on a weekend or during holiday breaks? Only attending a general admissions session without visiting the School of Music? Wrong way. Here are the steps to the perfect college visit:

1. Schedule a lesson with faculty - As you can imagine, faculty have the least flexibility in their schedule. Because of this, scheduling a lesson with faculty is the best place to start planning your visit. School websites will offer complete listings of faculty and their email addresses (Illinois faculty listing). I encourage you to use email and be persistent if you don't get a response.
2. Schedule an information session with the music admissions office - If the school you are visiting has a music admissions office (and most major schools do), they offer information sessions. This typically includes a tour of the School of Music as well as information about applying. It will also give you a chance to meet the admissions staff. These people will be your best resource during the application process. Come prepared with questions.
3. Ask if there are classes you can observe - Most faculty will welcome prospective students to their classrooms. The music admissions office should be able to provide you with a list of available classes. If one of the classes is particularly interesting to you, email the instructor and ask if you can meet for 10 minutes after class.

The most important thing to remember is that we want to get to know you as much as you want to get to know us. Come with a list of questions. Show that you have prepared for your visit and you'll be surprised how profitable your time will be. This will likely be your first meeting the faculty who will be hearing your audition and the staff who process your application. Don't be afraid to make an impression.