Power is out — this sucks! I’m at the mall in the Apple store updating this post. And the end.

Imagine what you believe the characteristics and personality of the oldest prison in America would be like. An enormous building created from massive amounts of stone and concrete; huge walls and dark corridors? How about a penology unit built more than 177 years ago that has half a mile of wall, eleven acres of ruin, and is currently crumbling at every corner.

After my journey through Dayton, Ohio; I was accompanied by Justin Clark and Blake Green for a wonderful drive to Philadelphia, PA. We began our journey around 11:00PM EST on Wednesday night and arrived in Philly around 8:00AM EST the next day. I drove throughout the night with the assistance of conversation from Justin and Blake. Once we arrived in Philly we were met by an extraordinary amount of traffic on the interstate and made it to Chap and Maura Ambroses’ home in the Italian district of Philadelphia about 9:30AM EST.

Over the past few weeks I have spent a large portion of my time studying, moving, and working on various projects; which have taken priority over my own. As much as I have found myself wanting to upgrade my Wordpress platform, work on thistulsa, or build new blogs in general; I just haven’t had the time.

I really need to:

1. Upgrade Wordpress
2. Upgrade Transmit3
3. Upgrade Unison
4. Clean-up my iTunes Library
5. Backup my MacBook to prepare for Leopard and Time-Machine
6. Kick this sinus infection
7. Pay my 37signals basecamp bill (new cc #)
8. Cancel my un-used services with misc companies
9. Catch up on “The Office” and “30 Rock”
10. Find Chapand Maura a wedding gift.

Needless to say, I’m really falling behind over here. I guess I could do other things too that are important: write on my blog more, check my email more often, and perhaps I should return phone calls. I’m really feeling lazy; being ill doesn’t help give me any energy to get anything done.

A dull, plain and extremely boring city; a typical statement made when an average individual inquires about Dayton, Ohio. Personally, Dayton does not even rank in my top 25 favorite cities on the planet. I believe I can state whether a city is deserving of a visit; based on the fact that I have been to almost every major city, alot of larger cities and small towns along our wonderful interstate transportation network. Dayton, Ohio is a city that I have frequently visited over the past few months because members of my family have recently moved here.

While driving amongst your average evening traffic on Dayton’s maze of horrible paved streets I stumbled upon Fifth and Wayne. Unknown to me at present time; this seemingly average intersection would soon modify my overall impression of Dayton. As I made an illegally performed left turn; neglecting to use my indicator lights, I found myself in Oregon District. The Oregon District is a four city block night life hot spot. I drove the Fifth street three or four times before deciding upon where to park and what my ambitions for the area would become.

After briefly analyzing the area I decided to visit The Neon Movies. This location caught my attention because of its small size and appearance of an extremely wonderful movie cinema. I walked into the theater with high expectations. Those expectations were instantly achieved when I saw a counter-top style coffee shop within the theater. The concessions area was not just limited to coffee, popcorn, tea and snacks. They actually served alcohol as well!

I ordered a hot cup of black tea and walked over to a small colorful table and sat down. At the time of my arrival there were only three individuals in sight. Two of these individuals were employees of the cinema and the other a passenger of the nationwide Greyhound bus line who was temporarily delayed in Dayton. The employees were very generous and polite; giving me detailed information about the district and where I should hang out and avoid. One of the employees actually equipped me with a great map that she outlined locations with notes of why they were fun for her.

The cinema felt small. Serving only two movies at a time. The two movies currently being showed were Into the Wild and The 11th Hour. I have not heard too many statements about 11th hour so I decided to watch Into the Wild. I was familiar with the story behind the soon to be viewed movie and I was excited to watch it. After a few minutes people began walking from the first Auditorium. To my surprise, there were more individuals than I expected to see leaving the movie of such a small cinema.

I joked a bit with an older couple sitting next to me in the lounge area outside the auditorium. At 9:50PM EST we were informed we could now take seats. I walked in and found a uniquely designed theater with a curtain over the main screen. The seats were extremely comfortable and designed well. They were slightly larger than most seats you find at cinemas. Everything about this cinema was different: seats, screen, exterior, interior and staff.

It pays to explore more. I now have found myself reading up about Dayton, Ohio and the various hidden spots of entertainment and leisure around the city. Hopefully I will be granted more time to spend driving the labrynth of roads, discovering new locations to surprise me and more polite people like those found at the Neon Movies.

A few months back I attended Neil Switzer’s wedding in Lake Tahoe, California. Actually, we were in both Nevada and California. I traveled with Nick and his girlfriend Kristen. The wedding was on the side of a mountain overlooking Lake Tahoe. The entire place was pretty gorgeous but I am not a huge fan of the wilderness — so I took some photos to prove I’ve been in the mountains!

You can check out all the photographs from Lake Tahoe in my Flickr.